The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

5 minutes ago, SM42 said:

The only odd thing is the device  for measuring the distance that the roof bars poke out either side are equal face downwards and hence unreadable when in place. 

 

Either that or it's on upside down

 

Maybe it's Australian?

 

Dave

[Darlington_Shed]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

And I didn't use the word shed once!

 

You need to shed these inhibitions, Dave. There's nothing shameful about the word... unless you don't have one, of course - no adult should be without a refuge from the trials of modern life.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont, land of three sheds.

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Darlington_Shed said:

 

You need to shed these inhibitions, Dave. There's nothing shameful about the word... unless you don't have one, of course - no adult should be without a refuge from the trials of modern life.

The word "shed" holds no terrors for me! For I am made of sterner stuff!
 

Like WB, I have no shed.....

 

..... but I do have a repurposed 50s Swiss Nuclear Bunker as my "refuge from the trials of modern life"*

 

Not only is it a well equipped model railway space and workshop - but it also has an emergency supply of 1 years worth of food and drink (including whisky and cake) in the case the balloon goes up.

 

So, No, I can't say I miss having a shed!

 

* as inspected by and approved by the late ChrisF and JohnDMJ of this parish!

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by iL Dottore
Typo

[jamie92208]

12 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Come to think of it I think it was number1 cylinder.  If I remember correctly it was when I removed the last spark plug I knew there was an "bit of an issue". Number 1 was the most difficult plug to get at.

 

I've had quite a few boxer VW's in the US and the UK but the old  '55 is the only one that failed that way. We had a water cooled Vanagon too. The air-cooled VWs rely a lot on the oil to remove heat. (There is an oil cooler in the fan housing.) Multi-grade oil was not recommended because the oil  can get so hot that the temperatures permanently alter its properties. Straight mineral seems to recover its properties when it cools down.

 

I wonder what would happen with synthetics. Is it used in motorbikes?

IIRC multi grade is a base oil thickened with what can only be described as a polymer goo.  When usage breaks down the polymer the oil reverts to whatever the properties of the base oil were.  How do I know this, simples, I spent part of a gap year testing oils for BP at Sunbury on Thames.  On the other hand my forgettery ( thanks ChrisF) may have triumphed after 50 years. 

 

Jamie from the acre with a real shed with a 70sq M hangar attached. 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by jamie92208

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

IIRC multi grade is a base oil thickened with what can only be described as a polymer goo.  When usage breaks down the polymer the oil reverts to whatever the properties of the base oil were.  How do I know this, simples, I spent part of a gap year testing oils for BP at Sunbury on Thames.  On the other hand my forgetter ( thanks ChrisF) may have triumphed after 50 years. 

Jamie you are correct in your description.  There is a Def.Stan. test for NATO multigrades which measures "Shear Stability", putting the oil through as much "churn" as possible.  In my early career I made a simple mathematical model for the various standard industry tests and we calculated that the existing military spec. test wasn't very vigorous because despite running for 20 hours, only about 4% of the oil volume actually got sheared.  The newer industry standard test only lasted 4hrs IIRC and sheared something like 100000% of the oil, i.e. every molecule would go through a roller bearing contact about 1000 times.  I think that's called accelerated testing....

[Flying Fox 34F]

7 hours ago, Darlington_Shed said:

 

You need to shed these inhibitions, Dave. There's nothing shameful about the word... unless you don't have one, of course - no adult should be without a refuge from the trials of modern life.

Looks like your name is going in WB’s Black book!

 

Paul

[Flying Fox 34F]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

Jamie you are correct in your description.  There is a Def.Stan. test for NATO multigrades which measures "Shear Stability", putting the oil through as much "churn" as possible.  In my early career I made a simple mathematical model for the various standard industry tests and we calculated that the existing military spec. test wasn't very vigorous because despite running for 20 hours, only about 4% of the oil volume actually got sheared.  The newer industry standard test only lasted 4hrs IIRC and sheared something like 100000% of the oil, i.e. every molecule would go through a roller bearing contact about 1000 times.  I think that's called accelerated testing....

Oh how I remember the term, ‘Def Stan’!

 

Many years ago, I spent many hours writing out packaging design sheets, quoting relevant Defence Standard codes for various items of military benefit.

 

It was interesting, because as expected despite one set of standards, each military service had its own ideas, which had to be accommodated!

 

As is the rule these days, most of the time the packaging and documentation was far greater, than the actual items.

 

Paul

[Happy Hippo]

Defstan and the other classic, UIN.

 

I believe the UIN, unique identification number, of 16 numbers, evolved into the BAR code now in use worldwide.

[New Haven Neil]

12 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I wonder what would happen with synthetics. Is it used in motorbikes?

 

Indeed it is, semi-synth in most 'average' bikes these days, and fully in top end sports bikes.  You do however, have to use one without 'friction modifiers' as it can make the wet clutches slip. (95% of bikes have wet clutches).  Using fully synthetic in older-ish (70's-80's) bikes was seen as a good thing when they came out, but they do find every nook and crannie to escape and embarrass the owners!  Good old 10-40 or 50 is fine in them, the high zinc versions if they have flat tappet cam followers - ie our BMW!

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Jamie you are correct in your description.  There is a Def.Stan. test for NATO multigrades which measures "Shear Stability", putting the oil through as much "churn" as possible.  In my early career I made a simple mathematical model for the various standard industry tests and we calculated that the existing military spec. test wasn't very vigorous because despite running for 20 hours, only about 4% of the oil volume actually got sheared.  The newer industry standard test only lasted 4hrs IIRC and sheared something like 100000% of the oil, i.e. every molecule would go through a roller bearing contact about 1000 times.  I think that's called accelerated testing....

That makes sense.  The test that BP used was to pass it through a diesel Inejector rig and we had to test it after every so many passes.  IIRC, 20, 50 & 100.  Then do at least three runs through a viscosity tester using a this g in a water bath at different temperatures. We timed how long it took for a set amount of oil to pass through a pipette type thing of a set diameter.  We used have up t10 runningooat any time usi g electric counters that we had to start and stop.  The results were then p, otted on a special graph with SAE's marked on and if the loop was uto spec you got a straight line through the three points.  How can I remember such stuff from 1971 but not the latest instruction from SWMBO. 

 

Jamie

[Northmoor]

42 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

That makes sense.  The test that BP used was to pass it through a diesel Inejector rig and we had to test it after every so many passes.  IIRC, 20, 50 & 100.  Then do at least three runs through a viscosity tester using a this g in a water bath at different temperatures. We timed how long it took for a set amount of oil to pass through a pipette type thing of a set diameter.  We used have up t10 runningooat any time usi g electric counters that we had to start and stop.  The results were then p, otted on a special graph with SAE's marked on and if the loop was uto spec you got a straight line through the three points.  How can I remember such stuff from 1971 but not the latest instruction from SWMBO. 

 

Jamie

Thanks, I was trying to remember #3 of the four tests I modelled; IIRC the injector tester was operated manually like a one-arm bandit to force the oil through the injector. 

 

#1 was the FZG gear test (that didn't shear the oil enough), #2 was the tapered roller bearing (installed in a standard four-ball machine) and #4 was the sonic horn which applied a specific frequency into a small bath of the oil.  It was so noisy - not that ours ever worked - that it had it's own sound-proofed cabinet the size of a phone box.  It was very hard to calculate how much energy was imparted to the oil and there was a suspicion it might only work for the natural frequency of a certain class of polymer molecule and not represent real equipment conditions.

 

Like you, I can remember this stuff in detail, despite that project being 25 years ago.  When I go back to work on Monday I am almost certain to have forgotten what I was doing on Friday.

[Happy Hippo]

No railway related activity today. In fact, not much activity at all.  Quite stormy this morning withe thunder, and I presume lightning, although I didn't see any.  I did see the rain.

 

It is bucking up now, although I have a feeling we will not be doing much today after yesterday's exciting trip to the garden centre.

[Canal Digger]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Defstan and the other classic, UIN.

 

I believe the UIN, unique identification number, of 16 numbers, evolved into the BAR code now in use worldwide.

AKA: NIN or NIIN or NSN (National Identity Number or NATO Stock Number [or if your in the US National Stock Number using the same 16 digits! - never understood that line of joined up thinking].

 

This post has too many TLAs .... wait for it ....

 

scroll down

 

 

Three Letter Acronyms

Edited July 8, 2023 by Canal Digger

[Dave Hunt]

I was once told that the name of the LISA programming language came about when the development team were discussing what to call it and one of them said, "Oh, let's invent some acronym," and that is precisely what they did, i.e., Let's Invent Some Acronym.

 

Dave,

[Happy Hippo]

I have misled the house. As Brian has pointed out what I should have written was NSN.  The UIN was a UK only combo of letters and numbers.

 

It was used as a quick replacement on paperwork when requesting/issuing equipment.

 

 So A1234B

 

Rather than 

 

First Battalion The Royal Scottish Foot and Mouth Regiment (Queen Mary's Own Mountain Goat Wallopers)

Edited July 8, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I was once told that the name of the LISA programming language came about when the development team were discussing what to call it and one of them said, "Oh, let's invent some acronym," and that is precisely what they did, i.e., Let's Invent Some Acronym.

 

Dave,

We of course had numbered forms for everything.  When the station at Huddersfield started to house remanded prisoners during an industrial dispute officers were asked to volunteer but to append a note as their availability.  There was chaos with everyone using their own format. My fellow Sgt and I put our heads together and cobbled a form together using an existing court calendar form and some typewritten notes.  Obviously it needed a number so we typed GRAB1 at the bottom right.  No one twigged and photocopies of the form were used for months.

 

Jamie

Edited July 8, 2023 by jamie92208

[AndyID]

34 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I was once told that the name of the LISA programming language came about when the development team were discussing what to call it and one of them said, "Oh, let's invent some acronym," and that is precisely what they did, i.e., Let's Invent Some Acronym.

 

Dave,

 

It's joke within a joke because it's actually a good example of how recursion is used in computer programming. It's not all that different from disappearing up one's own artsole.

 

[Doncaster Green]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

The UIN was a UK only combo of letters and numbers.

 

 

Or Unit Identification Number - an invention of the Finance Bean Counters to allocate cost within the Budget Hierarchy

 

John

 

[Flying Fox 34F]

The railway periodically try’s to reinvent the wheel so to speak.  Every once in a while, some highly qualified individual with no knowledge!, tries to insist on placing a combined team of the S&T, P. Way and an Operations Manager in one van for incident response.  The title for this merry band of misfits, Fast Action Response Team!!!!

 

Ironically, when the vehicles first had Response Unit labelled on the sides, it was along the lower panels of the doors.  If the Hilux had four doors, you could open one door to leave the word Ponse in full view.  Very appropriate for some folk I used to work with!!!!! 🤣

 

Paul

[polybear]

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

..... but I do have a repurposed 50s Swiss Nuclear Bunker as my "refuge from the trials of modern life"*

 

Not only is it a well equipped model railway space and workshop - but it also has an emergency supply of 1 years worth of food and drink (including whisky and cake) in the case the balloon goes up.

 

 

Purely out of interest, how about water?

[Darlington_Shed]

35 minutes ago, AndyID said:

It's joke within a joke

 

Also see the Unix-like operating system GNU, which stands for GNU's Not Unix.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have misled the house. As Brian has pointed out what I should have written was NSN.  The UIN was a UK only combo of letters and numbers.

 

 

Q.  Why do Nato Standard C0ndoms have an arrow on them?

A.  "This Way Up".

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Darlington_Shed said:

 

Also see the Unix-like operating system GNU, which stands for GNU's Not Unix.

 

Was there ever a fully working GNU kernel?  There are plenty of GNU shells and utilities...

 

It was called Hurd

A recursive name too, a bit too hardline for the average user.

 

55 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Q.  Why do Nato Standard C0ndoms have an arrow on them?

A.  "This Way Up".

 

And in emergencies they can be inflated and used as blimps...

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Hroth

[jamie92208]

And there were cryptic entries in PNB('s pocket note books). TJF & NCIwas one when no one was in.  The Jobs Fu*ked and No C**t in. 

 

Jamie

Edited July 9, 2023 by jamie92208