Early Risers.

[BR60103]

20 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Does the panel lift upwards and then off?  Or, if glued on, it may be possible to use very thin, high breaking strain fishing line as a saw; a short length tied between a couple of "handles" (screwdrivers would do) may do the trick, though it's a large area.  I've used this technique for removing car badges from cars before (my car!) without marking the paintwork.  A fridge door is a bit bigger area though.......

It's recessed and looks tucked in behind a lip on the side member. It might slide up but I can't remove the top piece. I will make a visit to the dealer this week.

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

2 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

When I was your age, even much younger, I never missed a meal if I could help it. By the time I was around eight or nine , when we went out to a restaurant, I would get the regular portion, not the "child's" portion; and I would eat it all. I do remember one time at the Candlelight Lodge that I could not eat it all (I was not feeling well) and asked the waiter for a container to take the rest of the meal home. I do not think that he had ever had that kind of request before and sort of sputtered and stammered something; I told him (quite politely, mind you) that we paid for it and and I want to take it home to finish it later as I just could not finish it now. I do not now remember what kind of container he brought but I filled it and took it home. Later in the car on the ride home Mother said something about it but I told her the same thing. Not long after that one could get a "doggie bag" to do the same thing.

A side note, the Candlelight Lodge building is still there but is now a funeral home.

I find most kids these days are eating less. Some might have eating disorders, do to all the stuff they see on social media etc, but at the old school we only had 22 minutes for lunch on a good day, so some people didn’t even bother. And if you were buying lunch, and you had the misfortune to be far back in the line, you could have as little as 8 minutes. Out of the two lunch paying machines there, only one was operated, by a very elderly lady who was fairly out of her depth operating a complicated modern machine designed for trendy coffee shops. Why the school bought it I’ll never know. Moan finished.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Goodnight all, from Greencountry.

 

Douglas

[AndyID]

23 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

It's recessed and looks tucked in behind a lip on the side member. It might slide up but I can't remove the top piece. I will make a visit to the dealer this week.

 

 

Is it a Dometic?

[BR60103]

9 hours ago, Chris116 said:

We did two weeks of wafers only and then a week or two of the congregation not receiving. It is very hard to do the wine in a small enough amount when only one person is receiving!

A family story:

When my father was young one of his great-uncles had acquired the task of finishing off the consecrated wine at the end of the service.  Dad was sitting beside his uncle Harry (who was a large man) and said "Watch the big swig Uncle Deacon takes." Uncle Harry came down with barely suppressed laughter and the whole pew shook. He thought that Aunt Edna (Harry's wife) had never forgiven him. She confirmed it.

(Story of why he was Deacon next week) Date of story probably 1920s.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

48 minutes ago, pH said:

 

Most, but not all:

 

https://youtu.be/uk7YCjluA7o

 

That’s a genuinely exceptional piece of  flying, even for an animal IMHO.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,  inner Temple Hare, 

Still lying on a sofa,  having had a good nights sleep of 6 3/4 hours almost solid.  The bedroom temperature in the bed room having dropped to 23C.

Ben the gaseous Collie stayed in the bed room last and is still up there,  one wake up and turn over was caused by a waft of Ben what xxxxxxx have you been eating.. 

 

No barbers I've every been in ever had any " mens" magazine,  if you were lucky? It was the Sun or the Mirror and that was it.  Haven't been in one for 14 years though.. And that was a one off for a job interview.  The last time regular haircuts were needed was 2001.

 

I met SWMBO in the NAAFI in November 1985 having been posted in to RAF Boulmer. We were wandering off to better surroundings on the days our off shift time coincided, within a couple of months.. 

 

Ben's just arrived and got in his bed ready for alarm clock duty. 

 

Time I think to get up and get ready for work.. 

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

Morning all,

A rather rainy night (and early morning), which has taken the edge of the rather unpleasant heat we have been having lately.

 

A lot of interesting posts since I last had a look and perhaps far too many to comment upon. However, there are one or two points which are, I think, worthy of further discussion. One of which was the knowledge (or lack thereof) of people commentating at tankfest and of the people at the NRM. Sometime ago, there was an interesting thread about what they had done to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, which could be summed up as: <the so-called “museum professionals“ had taken over>. The term “museum professionals“ is deliberately put into quote marks as these are people who have taken degrees in something like “Museum studies“ and thus are completely up-to-date with all the latest trendy “educational“ memes and can quickly whip up a 20 slide PowerPoint presentation of the relevance and impact of the museum on this identity group or that identity group, but have only minimal (or even no knowledge) about the topic of the museum they are curating (with few exceptions). And, so I am told, the museum volunteers who really are knowledgeable about the content of said museums are shunted into the background, treated like second-class citizens and tolerated as a “necessary evil”. Far too often, nowadays, museums have been turned into “educational learning experiences“, void of content,  involving multimedia presentations (for which the machinery is frequently “out of order“), oh and before I forget, we mustn’t forget the importance of selling tat to semi disinterested museum goers in the museum shop. A perfect example of this evisceration of a formerly glorious museum is what they have done to the Science Museum in Kensington, London. Once an absolute gem with fascinating displays and exhibits to keep any scientifically minded child (or adult) fascinated for hours on end, it is now a shabby shell of what it once was. Many of the displays and exhibits have disappeared (whatever happened to the coal mine exhibition in the basement?) and many of the “hands on” electronic “experiences” manage to be both already obsolete and non-working at the same time. Best stop here methinks, as I otherwise will get terribly politically incorrect, non-woke and my blood pressure will soar 

 

The other point is Douglas’ (Florence Locomotive Works) seeming disinterest in food, only because it is so radically and totally different to the way my peers and I were at the same age. Skipping lunch would have been unthinkable (nor would a toasted cheese sandwich sufficed) and the term “human locusts” would have described us well. Presumably because we were growing youngsters with a definitively non-sedentary life style, we could lunch, grab a couple of snacks in the afternoon before heading home for dinner with the family (mandatory AND we had to “eat at the table”, nor did we have a menu choice: what mother cooked, we ate), then out again with maybe a late night snack before heading home to bed and we would still remain stick thin... Mind you, this was 70s Italy - so no junk food (a strawberry milkshake was considered a treat), we walked or cycled everywhere (or took the bus), no mobile phones or videogames to keep us on the sofa and good food was (and still is) an integral and important part of socialisation in Italy. Remembering such times, I must sadly now conclude my metabolism has changed so much with age that were I to eat now even a fraction of what I (or my chums) ate then, I would very rapidly become Billy Bunterish - if not completely spherical.... Ah, tempi passati

 

Now off for a definitively non-sedentary “walk the dog”

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by iL Dottore

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

I forgot the parallel universe diary yesterday.  It makes no odds because I would have been in Dublin for the first half of the week and caring precious little about events at home.  Apart from looking on the Dublin Pride website to see what a virtual pride parade was all about – not much, unsurprisingly - I did very little other than enjoy a piece of rump steak for late lunch.  In another day or two it should not hurt quite so much when I bend down.  This I must do to gather up the remains of the project box which I either landed on or stood on.  I fear for the contents.

 

Today will see a less than purposeful stride into town, to buy my lottery tickets, collect a prescription and buy some more painkillers with the benefit of advice from the pharmacist.  In the week ahead there is little to anticipate apart from the visit of the gas engineer on Thursday to service the boiler.  Life, however, is full of surprises.  Let them be pleasant ones.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Quite right. It is type of radial engine.

Is it by any chance some form of swash plate. One of those was used as a form of hydraulic transmission on one of the Ravenglass and Eskdalevlocos in the 70's, but I never knew what one looked like.

 

Good moaning to all.  I's sunny here, unlike yesterday but the hunt for the relay will continue this morning.  I don't want to get too far into the loft, which isn't boarded, unless there is someone else in the house. As a result I will investigate a piece of ceiling above the light.  If all else fails I should be able to fut a pull switch on the ceiling.  However a shopping expedition to The Danglies, will take place.  Then this evening I'll be spending the evening on the station at Ruffec with my mate Andy, putting the world to rights and watching freight trains.  Life is hard.  As to food, I'm with iD on that one, in my teens I ate anything that I could and for many years aftetwards when I was cycling to and from work or even round my beat. It was only when I got promoted, aged 32 and the daily cycling stopped that I started to round out.

 

As to communion services, one summer in the late 80's we were camping in France and attended a C of E service held in the local catholic church.  Just at the high point of the communion, where the priest holds the host up, a little bent old lady dressed in black walked slowly across the chancel behind him. We presumed that she was coming in to set up for Mass.  However both Beth and I were reminded of the immortal scene in 10, where Mrs Crump breaks wind.  Both of us descended into fits of silent giggles, much to the amusement of the kids and the annoyance of those around us. However much to my regret, Bo Derek wasn't nearby.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

Edited June 29, 2020 by jamie92208

[AndyID]

25 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Is it by any chance some form of swash plate. One of those was used as a form of hydraulic transmission on one of the Ravenglass and Eskdalevlocos in the 70's, but I never knew what one looked like.

 

 

Hi Jamie,

 

That would be like the transmission in my tractor. The amount of tilt in the swashplate determines the amount of fluid displaced and hence the mechanical advantage or effective gear ratio. The forward and reverse pedals on the tractor control the swashplate tilt.

 

This thing is simpler than that. The pistons are forced outwards by a simple eccentric. The eccentric drives a seven sided cam through a needle bearing. The fluid displaced by the other pistons pushes the piston onto the cam.

 

When the clutch is disengaged or slipping it's acting like a hydraulic pump except the fluid never leaves the clutch. It's only being redistributed between the cylinders. The trick is to ensure that the total displaced volume is constant. If not it would suffer from hydraulic lock.

 

Andy

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Slept in.

Been chuckinitdarn here now just mizzling. 

Hope everyone is ok. 

Have as good a day as you can make it!

Baz

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, chrisf said:

 Apart from looking on the Dublin Pride website to see what a virtual pride parade was all about – not much, unsurprisingly - I did very little other than enjoy a piece of rump steak for late lunch. 

Was that a virtual steak for lunch or did you actually eat one?

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Its been raining ova here and has just stopped, but it’s far too wet to be doing any sort of work outside. So work will either be done in the cellar or workshop, as I have a dozen slats to prepare for the second bench I’m refurbishing, this one will eventually sit on the decking below the workshop window. Whilst I’m in the workshop, I’ll drop a few things off there and I’ll cut some very board ready to start building them for the photo interrupter boards.

 

Like Flavio, when I was a kid I NEVER skipped a meal, you ALWYS ate at the table and whatever was put on the table was eaten! However, if you DIDN’T eat all your main meal, you DIDN’T get a dessert, no argument!

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

 

 

Like Flavio, when I was a kid I NEVER skipped a meal, you ALWYS ate at the table and whatever was put on the table was eaten! However, if you DIDN’T eat all your main meal, you DIDN’T get a dessert, no argument!

Our children always had clean plates, although in hindsight we now think that the Staffie that suddenly appeared, and then quietly loitered under the table, might have been instrumental in this phenomena.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It isn’t sunny. It is quite breezy and not that warm out. 
I have no idea at all what we are going to do today. 
Tony

[Dave Hunt]

I agree with iD regarding museum 'professionals'. A goodly number of years ago Bob Essery, Fred James and I spent a lot of time at the NRM cataloguing the Derby Locomotive Office drawings collection with the help and co-operation of Dieter Hopkin and his staff. We listed each drawing, the material (linen, paper, coloured etc.) the drawing number and title and a note concerning the class of locomotive to which it referred plus any other information we thought relevant or helpful. A while later, after the 'old' staff had been replaced we noticed that when the list had been incorporated into the NRM search engine catalogue the notes had been omitted and we asked why. One of the new breed museum professionals told us that it was not considered good practice to add such notes when listing original material so they had been removed. This was but one step in turning what had been an excellent museum into Noddy goes to Trainland.

 

Swash plates were widely used in aircraft fuel pumps in my day. Not sure about the new stuff.

 

A wet and windy North Hipposhire this AM. I have a deep suspicion that the hous***rk word is about to be introduced into the post muggocoffee conversation so I'll have to do some quick thinking to get out of it.

 

TTFN

 

Dave

Edited June 29, 2020 by Dave Hunt
Pore speling

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Got to wait in until Parcelforce arrive to collect the dodgy wheelbarrow. The dealer informed to late that they didn't want it back but its got to go as its blocking half the hallway. Alternate sun and cloud this morning but it seems that the wind is getting up which leads into this:-

4 hours ago, TheQ said:

Mooring Awl,  inner Temple Hare, 

Still lying on a sofa,  having had a good nights sleep of 6 3/4 hours almost solid.  The bedroom temperature in the bed room having dropped to 23C.

Ben the gaseous Collie stayed in the bed room last and is still up there,  one wake up and turn over was caused by a waft of Ben what xxxxxxx have you been eating.. 

 

Many years ago we had a boxer bitch who like most dogs commandeered a place in front of the fire. Whilst doing so she released a 'silent but deadly' My mum caught the whiff and blamed my dad, the dog sat up and quietly left the room. Dogs are usually silent, humans can be silent or noisy but as for Hippos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQkATGaVZt8

 

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Our children always had clean plates, although in hindsight we now think that the Staffie that suddenly appeared, and then quietly loitered under the table, might have been instrumental in this phenomena.

The same applied to the above mentioned boxer, she wouldn't touch greens though, much to my sisters annoyance. When it comes to eating habits, teenage boy = eating machine. 

[New Haven Neil]

MOrning.

 

Wet n windy here - outside.

 

Andy's innovative clutch/drive he and I have discussed before, an interesting concept.

 

As for 'experts' - As a teenager and into my 20's I drove at a passenger carrying miniature railway, in a public park.  Our larger loco is a 9 1/2" gauge Santa Fe pacific, rather scale bodged as she is a big engine, larger than many 10 1/4" jobs.  She is a piston valve, Walschaerts valve gear loco, 150 psi and superheated.  Bit of a beast.  Anyway, this 'expert' comes along and describes to his son how it is a Vauclain Compound.  So I inform him politely he is mistaken, and point out how the 'high pressure' cylinder is actually a piston valve and that it is not connected to the crosshead, but to the valve gear.  He then proceeded to invent ways of describing how I was wrong...the look on his son's face revealed this was probably not a one off experience.....

 

As you can see in this photo stolen off the interweb she is about to eat her driver.  Told you she is a beast, but it is a good shot to see how big the cylinders are and the piston valves that caused the grief.

 

 

 

[Simon G]

Morning from the Wild West.  The wind has been hammering in for 2 days now at around 50mph or more, usually accompanied by loads of rain, although the rain appears to have stopped for now.  The wind is due to ease off today, but my poor garden doesn’t look too good!  My promising row of French beans has been battered, but there is a chance they will recover.  The runner beans were protected by a ring of old roof slates, which seem to have done a good job as the beans still look OK.

 

This morning, the toilet wouldn’t flush properly as the siphon diaphragm was knackered.  Fortunately I had similarly repaired our other toilet a few years back and had had to buy a pack of 5 new diaphragms.  The cistern has been dismantled and the new diaphragm fitted.  I am now letting the cistern dry out so I can clean it properly.  This was a job I could happily have done without!

[PhilJ W]

Just looked out to my back garden and I espied a white carrier bag sitting on the lawn. So I went out to investigate, it turned out to be a complete uneaten Chinese take away meal (cold)! I sometimes get bottles and cans thrown over the wall but there's a first time for everything. I have placed it where the local foxes can help themselves. 

[jamie92208]

Interesting comments about museum professionals.  I watched the same happen at the Tramway Museum at Crich.  Set up and built by volunteers. It now appears to be run by and for the benefit of the permanent staff.  I better not say much more but there is definitely a corporate arrogance.

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Windy and cloudy here although the sun was shining at 7.00am.  Showers and sunny spells forecast.

Went for a drive up to Box Hill earlier to give the car a run as it hasn't been used for a couple of weeks.  After that pottered about in the garden for a while and now here reporting for duty.

Still not visited The Shed, it's been a few days now but my mojo has disappeared again.  Never mind, I expect it'll re-surface.

Tonight I'm due to Zoom with old school pals.  That should be good for a laugh or several.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by grandadbob

[Coombe Barton]

Sweater weather. Cold for the season and windy, although meteorologically it's described as a moderate breeze.

However I know wind when I sense it.

[Coombe Barton]

Sometimes product descriptions go a little OTT. This as an offer to me from Amazon:

 

"The Most Beautiful Composter in the World in Pink, Produces Both Solid and Liquid Compost, Food Safe, BPA and Rust Free, No Assembly Required, Composting Tumbler Bin and Compost Tea Maker"