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Wright writes.....


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Wow, Tony I didn’t expect so much to happen so quickly...:)

 

I’m chuckling to myself on several fronts with beginner errors. I originally had the buffer beams inboard and butting up the the footplate raised step underneath, but thought it looked wrong so moved them out.....:D

 

Had no idea the bumps down the footplate were feed nibs. Doh!

 

Yes, I did use fluxite. My father gave it to me when I was a youngster, so I guess it must be 60 years old, but I did spend ages washing it clean to remove traces of flux......Must have missed some.....;)

 

Great to see how you’ve done the pickups, as the DJH instructions had them fitted above the wheels, which to me was asking for trouble with shorts.

 

Very happy to hear it runs smoothly as it was run in for hours once I’d changed to plain crankpins and fitted a new set of rods. Judging by the weight of it, I would hope it will pull really well.

 

Edit: I had soldered the body screws in and just fitted the nuts for safekeeping. I now realise the circular cut out in the back of the chassis is to accommodate a lock nut on the back of the screw and strengthen it.  I must have missed that in the instructions, but guess years of experience mean you can almost forget the instruction sheet and just do it. I guess I’m the same making turnouts......;)

Edited by gordon s
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Having dyslexia I found the 26 symbols use to represent sounds very confusing. Not helped by being shy as small lad so reading in class was a dreaded experience. In turn this put me off reading unless I had to. Reading non fiction became easier as I went through school, mainly because the subject matter was full of facts which I absorbed like a sponge. Reading fiction was a chore, especially when it was a book we had to read. I think the only one I enjoyed at school was Kes as I could relate to the theme of the story. Macbeth, what a bore and what was Shakespeare on when he wrote it , David Copperfield scared me, one the story line and two how hard it was to read, another work we had to study was Under Milk Wood, sounded great when the teacher played the record of Richard Burton reading it, made no sense to me when I tried to read it.

 

I don't have a book phobia, as a teenager after school I would cycle to the town library and sit in the reference books section with my note book copying down information on artillery guns, tanks etc  some I can still remember. I still do not read fiction, but I really enjoy a good story when I hear a book being read on radio 4. 

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It's odd (though entirely natural, I suppose - is this a paradox?) how we react to our school memories - what we were told to do (today's children are requested ), which books to read and so on and so on. I found Macbeth gripping; there's murder, betrayal, treachery, the supernatural, madness, revenge and great sadness. A true tragedy (a word often used today to describe things like road accidents). What more could one ask for in a plot? Whatever the great bard 'was on', good!

 

My 'zeal' over 'correct' English (though I wish I could get my writing right all the time - there are probably errors in this post) probably stems from a time when I was ten years old, in junior school. Every Friday morning we had to speak out ten new words we'd learned in the week. That is, stand out in front of the class and recite the correct spelling. I failed on 'immediately'. Like all the other class members who 'failed', I was 'put to shame', given a few minutes to learn the word, then recite it again. Not only that, mumbling and the omission of consonants at the ends of words were not tolerated. Proper pronunciation was insisted upon (this is 1956, remember). Though the methodology employed might have crushed some others (no allowance seemed to be made for any, yet to be discovered, 'conditions'), it made me resolve never to be shamed again, and ever since then I've made it my task to expand my vocabulary at every opportunity. 

 

Can you imagine a teacher teaching that way today? He'd/she'd be sacked, the children probably given 'expert' counselling, to eventually become journalists/presenters, happily mangling our wonderful mother tongue. What was it the other day, watching the cricket? 'I'm sat here with Ebony'. Groan. And that from a university-educated commentator. He could never have been in the class of Miss Williams! 

 

 

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My English Literature ‘O’ level study books were Shakespeare’s Henry IV (part two); Chaucer’s Prologue and Thomas Hardy’s Short Stories.   Which says something about the school I attended!

 

I don’t remember anything about them at all, apart from finding all of them so tediously boring, and taught without any enthusiasm.  I went on to get the lowest grade possible (9) in English Literature, despite achieving a grade 1 in English Language.  And I left school determined to never read another old classic for the rest of my life.

 

Imagine my dismay when I saw the other books available on the exam paper such as Animal Farm, which I had read on my own initiative about a year earlier.  I really should have answered those questions instead.

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10 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good evening Chas,

 

Kipps. I would have preferred The Time Machine or the The War of the Worlds, but it was an engaging book. 

 

Regarding the last-mentioned, have you been to Woking? There are some splendid War of the Worlds creations there. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Good morning Tony, yes, I'd have felt similarly.

:offtopic: I'm a very enthusiastic Wells fan - I've read almost everything he wrote (and between fiction and non-fiction he wrote a surprisingly large amount!) but there are one or two of best-known and most popular of his novels that I find a little over sentimental. I think they - Kipps and Mr Polly, for instance - were perhaps better suited to the age in which they were written.

 

If you want a really good read - without the slightly saccharine feel of those two - I'd recommend a slightly less famous pair of his novels, Tono-Bungay (about the rise and fall of a patent medecine tycoon, but it stands up equally well in today's business world) and The New Machiavelli, which charts the personal and professional career of a politician - again, surprisingly little dated: political double-dealing, extra-marital scandal, corruption in high places - real quality never goes out of fashion :D.

 

No, I haven't been to Woking or seen anything Wells-related there: once we're able to run about outside again I'll investigate. My favourite of his science fiction books is The First Men In The Moon: did you ever read that?

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10 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

I beg to disagree.

 

An inspector Calls is one of the best works I've ever read (I think it was written as a play). Have you seen the Alistair Sim film of it? If not, you should.

 

As for Macbeth, that was the play in my English Literature O Level. Gripping! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

The Alistair Sim film seems to be on TV a lot at the moment: it's certainly a fine piece of work but I find it quite creepy and very sad. My wife often teaches it to her pupils, so it's pretty much required viewing whenever it's broadcast... which means it's time to get out the modelling tray and work on a non-soldered project, in front of the TV:good:.

 

That tray is a great aid to household relations, as it means I can work on something without always disappearing into my work room. You can now get small but very effective LED backlit magnifier lamps on short goosenecks with a clamp at the end, that fit onto the corner of a tray and don't weigh so much that they over-balance it, which makes all the difference. I use quite a large magnifier lamp on my workbench and the lack of one on the tray was a problem for a while...

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20 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

I set myself the challenge of reading Tess of the D'urbervilles a few years ago. I could only get through a chapter at a time (if that) so it took rather a long time, during which time I read other books. I seem to recall that the L&SWR gets a mention. I also read The Old Curiosity Shop in the same fashion, taking it with me on business trips rather than reading it in one go. I don't think we read either at school. The ones we did read, from what i can remember, included Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male ( a good ripping yarn) and L P Hartley's The Go Between.

Hello Barry, they've just finished re-running 'Rogue Male' as read aloud by Michael Jayston on Radio 4 Extra (which means it's currently available on iPlayer or BBC Sounds). It was a fairly complete adaption - in 15 half-hour episodes - and I couldn't think of anyone else with a voice better suited to the book than Jayston: highly recommended! :good:

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4 minutes ago, Chas Levin said:

Good morning Tony, yes, I'd have felt similarly.

:offtopic: I'm a very enthusiastic Wells fan - I've read almost everything he wrote (and between fiction and non-fiction he wrote a surprisingly large amount!) but there are one or two of best-known and most popular of his novels that I find a little over sentimental. I think they - Kipps and Mr Polly, for instance - were perhaps better suited to the age in which they were written.

 

If you want a really good read - without the slightly saccharine feel of those two - I'd recommend a slightly less famous pair of his novels, Tono-Bungay (about the rise and fall of a patent medecine tycoon, but it stands up equally well in today's business world) and The New Machiavelli, which charts the personal and professional career of a politician - again, surprisingly little dated: political double-dealing, extra-marital scandal, corruption in high places - real quality never goes out of fashion :D.

 

No, I haven't been to Woking or seen anything Wells-related there: once we're able to run about outside again I'll investigate. My favourite of his science fiction books is The First Men In The Moon: did you ever read that?

Good morning Chas,

 

Yes, I read The First Men in the Moon, though I've never heard of the other two you mention. 

 

Going back to schooldays, my physics teacher was a fan of Wells, and one day we were discussing The Invisible Man. We postulated how he'd look after eating a meal, but then came to the conclusion he'd be totally blind. Why? Because (because light passed through him without being deflected) either his eyes would not be able to focus the light rays on to the retinas or his optic nerves would be completely destroyed. It interrupted the teaching of some principle from Nelkon's textbook, the like of which I can't remember.

 

Odd, isn't it, how certain memories stick? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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9 hours ago, gordon s said:

Wow, Tony I didn’t expect so much to happen so quickly...:)

 

I’m chuckling to myself on several fronts with beginner errors. I originally had the buffer beams inboard and butting up the the footplate raised step underneath, but thought it looked wrong so moved them out.....:D

 

Had no idea the bumps down the footplate were feed nibs. Doh!

 

Yes, I did use fluxite. My father gave it to me when I was a youngster, so I guess it must be 60 years old, but I did spend ages washing it clean to remove traces of flux......Must have missed some.....;)

 

Great to see how you’ve done the pickups, as the DJH instructions had them fitted above the wheels, which to me was asking for trouble with shorts.

 

Very happy to hear it runs smoothly as it was run in for hours once I’d changed to plain crankpins and fitted a new set of rods. Judging by the weight of it, I would hope it will pull really well.

 

Edit: I had soldered the body screws in and just fitted the nuts for safekeeping. I now realise the circular cut out in the back of the chassis is to accommodate a lock nut on the back of the screw and strengthen it.  I must have missed that in the instructions, but guess years of experience mean you can almost forget the instruction sheet and just do it. I guess I’m the same making turnouts......;)

Thanks Gordon,

 

Fluxite is pretty useless for soldering white metal in my experience. I only tried it once; and failed! After that, it was EAMES 40, and gasping for breath! 

 

Instructions? They're written on the perfect paper for assembling valve gear, acting as a clearance washer and a barrier to solder at the same time.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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7 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Chas,

 

Yes, I read The First Men in the Moon, though I've never heard of the other two you mention. 

 

Going back to schooldays, my physics teacher was a fan of Wells, and one day we were discussing The Invisible Man. We postulated how he'd look after eating a meal, but then came to the conclusion he'd be totally blind. Why? Because (because light passed through him without being deflected) either his eyes would not be able to focus the light rays on to the retinas or his optic nerves would be completely destroyed. It interrupted the teaching of some principle from Nelkon's textbook, the like of which I can't remember.

 

Odd, isn't it, how certain memories stick? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Yes, it is odd how certain memories stick. I see that with my own daughter - as I'm sure all parents do with their children: you can try to predict what she'll remember (a big outing or something) but it turns out it's the currant bun she had three days earlier that's recalled a decade later!

Yes, there are occasionally aspects of the 'science' in late nineteenth or early twentieth century science fiction that don't quite stand up to close scrutiny, though I'd suggest Wells is far better than many in keeping things fairly logical...

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I've never learned to cook, as a loving mother and wife who loves cooking have always looked after me. One year I thought I'd make a Christmas Cake just as a challenge. As an engineer, I thought I'd just read the recipe and job done.

 

First step was to "grease and line a 10" cake tin". With what? I guessed whatever substance was required would be found in the kitchen and not the garage, but that was the first of numerous questions from someone who had never had to cook.

 

Of course many more questions followed and I got there, but I soon realised instructions always assume you have some experience and understand the basics. Clearly kit building is no different.

Edited by gordon s
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Julius Caesar ('Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!), Great Expectations and 'Of mice and men' were the O-level works for me. I would say though that my 'B' grade in Eng. Lit. was very much in spite of rather than because of our English teacher. He was an odd character.

 

I have to confess a sneaking admiration for the words of the bard - many of our well-known turns of phrase originate from his pen (quill).

 

I once saw 'An inspector calls' as a play, put on by the (excellent) local Am. Dram. group. Very good.

 

However, a bit like Clive, ultimately I prefer to read faction rather than fiction. Give me a well-written account of a Duchess taking 16 up Shap (without banking assistance) any day!

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One of the books I studied for A-Level English was Dubliners by James Joyce. Our teacher was not only Irish, but from Dublin too. His enthusiasm for his subject, in-depth knowledge of the text and love of Joyce made his lessons a complete joy and the book remains, to this day, one of my absolute favourites.

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30 minutes ago, Chas Levin said:

No, I haven't been to Woking or seen anything Wells-related there: once we're able to run about outside again I'll investigate.

 

There's a Martian at Woking: 

 

450px-Woking_tripod.jpg.a5a3467fb11a149ca38ca927aa6de1a7.jpg

 

In the road behind the sculpture used to be a model shop (now closed) and at the bottom by the white van is a Maclaren's office building where I had my covid vaccine jab a couple of months back. Behind the photographers position is a replica of one of the cylinders (that landed at nearby Horsell Common) and in the paving is artwork of the bacteria that killed the martians. But I remember reading a guide that condemned Woking saying that the best place there was the station as it offered many other destinations to escape to.

 

And, like others, I found English literature a bore at school. The only two books I remember were William Golding's Lord of the Flies, probably as a result of a school trip to see the film, and Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. Unfortunately the film of that came out too late for the school work/study. 

 

 

 

 

 

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The recent excursion into the O-level/GCSE English Lit syllabus failed to stimulate any strong memories in me, so little of it could have made much of an impression. I vaguely recollect hating a Jane Austen, but couldn't say which one!

 

I dropped the subject, (or was more likely dropped from it after the mock) and didn't sit the O-level. My attitude to fiction and non-fiction is closely aligned to that expressed by Clive Mortimore.

 

I have since tried to get into what might be referred to as English classics, particularly Shakespeare and Dickens, with no success whatever.

 

I think I find their characters too "theatrical" (and not in a good way) but did get something of a yen for Hardy. Yes, much of his work is a bit "dark" but I think he gets under the skin of human motivation better than either. 

 

Perhaps we just share a slightly jaundiced view of the way so many of our fellows (outside this wonderful hobby!) conduct themselves.

 

I wonder, do nicer people become railway modellers, or does railway modelling make people nicer?

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
Spelling. Sorry, Clive.
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13 minutes ago, grahame said:

 

There's a Martian at Woking: 

 

450px-Woking_tripod.jpg.a5a3467fb11a149ca38ca927aa6de1a7.jpg

 

In the road behind the sculpture used to be a model shop (now closed) and at the bottom by the white van is a Maclaren's office building where I had my covid vaccine jab a couple of months back. Behind the photographers position is a replica of one of the cylinders (that landed at nearby Horsell Common) and in the paving is artwork of the bacteria that killed the martians. But I remember reading a guide that condemned Woking saying that the best place there was the station as it offered many other destinations to escape to.

 

And, like others, I found English literature a bore at school. The only two books I remember were William Golding's Lord of the Flies, probably as a result of a school trip to see the film, and Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. Unfortunately the film of that came out too late for the school work/study. 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow - thanks Grahame! Clearly a trip there is going to give me a lot of amusement... in spite of that guide book's less than enthusiastic assessment...:negative:

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5 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

The recent excursion into the O-level/GCSE English Lit syllabus failed to stimulate any strong memories in me, so little of it could have made much of an impression. I vaguely recollect hating a Jane Austen, but couldn't say which it was!

 

I dropped the subject, (or was more likely dropped from it after the mock) and didn't sit the O-level. My attitude to fiction and non-fiction is closely aligned to that expressed by Clive Mortimer.

 

I have since tried to get into what might be referred to as English classics, particularly Shakespeare and Dickens, with no success whatever.

 

I think I find their characters too "theatrical" (and not in a good way) but did get something of a yen for Hardy. Yes, much of his work is a bit "dark" but I think he gets under the skin of human motivation better than either. 

 

Perhaps we just share a slightly jaundiced view of the way so many of our fellows (outside this wonderful hobby!) conduct themselves.

 

I wonder, do nicer people become railway modellers, or does railway modelling make people nicer?

 

John

I've met some very nice people in this hobby, John,

 

Many, many indeed.

 

As for the hobby making people nicer, I'm not sure. On a personal level, after a set of valve gear has soldered itself together solid for the umpteenth time, some of the things I say are not very nice!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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4 minutes ago, Chas Levin said:

Wow - thanks Grahame! Clearly a trip there is going to give me a lot of amusement... in spite of that guide book's less than enthusiastic assessment...:negative:

Whatever that guidebook says, 60 years ago Woking (Station) was one of the most-exciting places one could ever wish for.

 

Bulleids going through full-pelt!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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4 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

 

As for the hobby making people nicer, I'm not sure. On a personal level, after a set of valve gear has soldered itself together solid for the umpteenth time, some of the things I say are not very nice!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

If there's nobody in earshot who might be offended, that's just the safety valve lifting!

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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12 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

An inspector Calls is one of the best works I've ever read (I think it was written as a play).

As a generalisation, I would say that it's hard to appreciate a play by reading it. I've seen a couple of very good productions of "An Inspector Calls" which were spellbinding, especially the coup de théâtre when...

 

No , I won't spoil it!

 

2 hours ago, Chas Levin said:

it's certainly a fine piece of work but I find it quite creepy

Definitely!

Edited by St Enodoc
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1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Whatever that guidebook says, 60 years ago Woking (Station) was one of the most-exciting places one could ever wish for.

 

Bulleids going through full-pelt!

 

 

Obviously to quickly pass through and get away from Woking fast.

;-)

 

 

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4 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Whatever that guidebook says, 60 years ago Woking (Station) was one of the most-exciting places one could ever wish for.

 

Bulleids going through full-pelt!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

The line speeds through Woking are 90mph on the down fast and 100mph on the up fast..... I'll bet that used to rattle the canopies somewhat!! 

 

Regards, 

 

Jim. 

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