Castle Aching

[Regularity]

Yes, be careful if you leave a 13 amp socket switched on with nothing plugged into it, as what you will find is that a pool of electrons will form on the floor....

 

Andy G

Nothing compared to treading on it with bare feet...

[uax6]

Oh yes, much worse than treading on a lego block....

 

Andy G

Edited January 13, 2018 by uax6

[Edwardian]

 I hate having to say this next bit though... The toe of the catch blades ought to be sat on a slide chair,  as at the minute they are total unsupported. Probably will make s*d all difference in model terms, but on the real railway they would be 'crippled' in next to no time.

 

I think you are cracking on well with it all none the less.

 

Andy G

 

Thanks, Andy

 

Yes, I had that concern. 

 

Could I slip a slide chair in where marked with a green oval?

 

Not sure I can get any closer to the tip of the other one, though.

[uax6]

Yes.

 

The only way to cure the other one would be to slew that sleeper along so you could have a slide-chair right on the end of it...

 

Andy G

[Edwardian]

Yes.

 

The only way to cure the other one would be to slew that sleeper along so you could have a slide-chair right on the end of it...

 

Andy G

 

I think this is probably as near as I'll get:

[Regularity]

[positive_bullying]

I think you could get nearer.

 

Next time, make those blades a bit longer: a 9’ pre-grouping blade would do.

 

This time, try to get the rails as close as you can to the red lines, and remove your slide chairs, replacing them with new ones fitted outside the catch point’s stock rail, per purple.

[/positive_bullying]

Edited January 13, 2018 by Regularity

[Donw]

I hear that the demons can bite if they escape from the wire?

 

Only if through you is the best route. How determined they are to bite depends on the amount of whipping behind 240v worth and the bite can be fatal. 12 volts worth harmless 50v enough to make one jump. If it is described as AC the demons are being whipped one way then the other makes them rather frenzied.  Mind you get 75vac ringing current across your ears when climbing a pole with bare wires the bite isn't the problem it is the shock making you let go that kills. 

 

Don

[uax6]

That's the way to do it..

 

I knew it didn't look quite right, but couldn't put my finger on it!

 

Andy G

[webbcompound]

Can we have enough of this unscientific "demons" rubbish. A much bigger concern is how we are all being royally ripped off by the Electricity companies. You pay for the electricity. It arrives on a wire, but then it goes back to them on another wire, which they even sometimes have the gall to openly call a "return" wire, You pay for the electricity but if youtry to keep it by cutting the return wire they stop sending you any.

[uax6]

Only if through you is the best route. How determined they are to bite depends on the amount of whipping behind 240v worth and the bite can be fatal. 12 volts worth harmless 50v enough to make one jump. If it is described as AC the demons are being whipped one way then the other makes them rather frenzied.  Mind you get 75vac ringing current across your ears when climbing a pole with bare wires the bite isn't the problem it is the shock making you let go that kills. 

 

Don

Also don't forget that DC grabs hold of you, and AC throws you clear...

 

I don't know if I'm the only one that works in fuseboards (whether live or not) with one hand (on insulated tools) and the other in my back pocket....

 

My Power Plant 227 (50 v DC with 130A/hr batteries attached) potentially is lethal, although at least it doesn't matter if I turn my telephone exchange off, when I worked for BT I used to hold DC live working certificates, which allowed me to change batteries and rectifers, and add cables, all with the power plant churning away. Having seen others drop things and cause big bangs, and fires, you learn to treat it with real respect.

I wish I could find a copy of the old BT training film made by the Power Test Section, that was shown as part of the live working training. Three Power Plant 2020's (each one capable of 130 Amps off the mains, and another 300 Amps off the batteries!) were connected in parallel (that's 1300Amps!) and then various fault conditions were created (from internal wiring faults to direct shorts on the output busbars), the fireworks and bangs were something else.

Everyone on Exchange work has been told or seen the vanishing crowbar dropped across a busbar... the thing just vaporises!

 

Andy G

[Edwardian]

OK, so ...

[uax6]

That's looks much better, well done.

 

Andy G

[Regularity]

Much, much better.

[robmcg]

Electrikery is simple. The electrons are very small demons. In a battery there is a large demon whipping the electrons to push them out of the negative terminal but they will not go unless there is a path round to the positive terminal. 

Voltage is the measure of how strong the whipping is.

Amperage is the measure of the amount of the electron demons can be pushed down the wire

 

Resistance is the measure of the difficulty of getting through a bit of wire and how much friction the is from them pushing through which warms the wire up.

 

In our models the electron demons passing through the motor have to push the armature round making the loco move.

 

A short circuit is where there is a short cut enabling the demons to miss the motor out.

 

A Dis is where the wire is broken or missing so the path for the demons is blocked.

 

A bad joint is nearly a Dis the path is unreliable.

 

Don

 

Edwardian my dear and trusted friend, you told me that there were people of a type here at Castle Aching with which I might find comfort, and instead I get a serious lecture from the days we used to call 'additional mathematics' or 'mechanics', an antidote at best to Latin declensions and French double entendres. 

 

I can't find anything on my querty keyboard for p=ma, in proper writing that is, nor v2=u2+2as, but that would me my answer to the above treatise on the evils of electrical demons.

 

I do have one question however. Have electrical demons accepted imperial measure yet, are are they still stuck in the trap-points of metrics?.

 

(probably miles off-topic but what's new)

 

A second cup of tea is in order methinks.

 

edit; 4mm to the foot or one seventy-sixth, that is the question. I have kilograms of other questions too....    probably best to stick to creating pictures.

Edited January 13, 2018 by robmcg

[Nearholmer]

I don’t think that there have ever been separate ‘metric’ and ‘imperial’ units for electrical quantities, which are, of course, quite modern. They only got properly named and defined in the 1880s/90s, later even in some cases. I’ve got a couple of old textbooks which are quite hard to follow because the units all have unfamiliar, pre-definition, names. When I get a minute or three, i’ll double-check.

 

[Edit: well, to my surprise, there were imperial units of electrical resistance in the very early days, but, as I suspected, although the first formalisation of units was by the British Association, in the 1860s, those first formally defined units were based on the metric system from the outset. And, the tesla was adopted/defined as recently as 1960.]

Edited January 13, 2018 by Nearholmer

[robmcg]

I don’t think that there have ever been separate ‘metric’ and ‘imperial’ units for electrical quantities, which are, of course, quite modern. They only got properly named and defined in the 1880s/90s, later even in some cases. I’ve got a couple of old textbooks which are quite hard to follow because the units all have unfamiliar, pre-definition, names. When I get a minute or three, i’ll double-check.

 

It's all pounds-feet and newton-metres to me!    I do have a passing acquaintance with volts, amps, and ohms, but these measures I am told do not apply in the Welsh Valleys. 

 

edit sorry foot-pounds, it is a hemispherical thing.... like the way water goes down a plug-hole.

Edited January 13, 2018 by robmcg

[Tom Burnham]

Nice photo of the Wagon-Restaurant of the Peninsular and Oriental Express (Calais-Brindisi) with its crew, maybe around 1920 but looks older to me -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32253634@N05/4067500289

[Caley Jim]

Now, will this do?

 

Cosmetically, I mean.  Whereas they will benefit from further fettling, these trap points have actually passed the gravity shunting with an un-weighted plastic wagon test, so, therefore, I'd like not to change them again.

Now you've got the idea!!  :-)  The run-off of the stock rails is a bit on the sharp side, but then perhaps that was the way the WNR PW dept. would do things.

 

Jim ( who does not wear woad and did rather like the Claytons as they looked less like a motorised biscuit tin than most of their ilk!)

[Caley Jim]

Apologies James et al (who is this Al guy anyway?)  When I made the above response I didn't realise that it wouldn't appear until 2 pages later!  I should have know, such is the speed with which this thread moves.  Probably faster than the trains on the WNR!    I must pay more attention when I return from a meeting of our area group.

 

Jim

[Northroader]

[Regularity]

Ah yes.

The philibeg.

Invented by an Englishman, and popularised by a novelist to impress a German-descended English-born King, fewer than 200 years ago, along with the fabrication of clan tartan and, allegedly a large number of stories that are now taken as legend.

About as authentic a national dress as trousered pantaloons are for Englishmen, truth be told, but frankly a lot more fun.

 

Where’s Beau Brummell when you need him?

[Nearholmer]

Since a branch of the Orient Express just passed by, can I draw attention to ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’, an old episode of Dr Who, which my son insisted we watch earlier. The train interiors are pretty good, but I suspect that Maerklin may have provided the material for the exterior shots of the train (steaming through outer space).

 

And, I have a slight concern that Jenna Coleman, who plays the Doctor’s assistant, might be destined to become the JA of his generation.

[Andy Hayter]

Nice photo of the Wagon-Restaurant of the Peninsular and Oriental Express (Calais-Brindisi) with its crew, maybe around 1920 but looks older to me -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32253634@N05/4067500289

 

 

Could well be right Tom.  The change from varnished teak to Blue was IIRC in the 20s so teak coaches could probably have been found until the early 30s - even given CIWL penchant for overhauling their stock on a very regular basis

[Regularity]

Since a branch of the Orient Express just passed by, can I draw attention to ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’, an old episode of Dr Who, which my son insisted we watch earlier. The train interiors are pretty good, but I suspect that Maerklin may have provided the material for the exterior shots of the train (steaming through outer space).

And, I have a slight concern that Jenna Coleman, who plays the Doctor’s assistant, might be destined to become the JA of his generation.

I don’t think so: she can substitute for Jenny any day.

Or join her, for that matter.

[Northroader]

I disagree, it’s got to be Peri :