The Night Mail

[jamie92208]

It's bright and sunny here in the Charente, but a tad chilly.  Clucki gham Palace is to be cleared out today as a new hen hut is being delivered tomorrow.  I will also start clearing the outdoor run.  We are planning  to get some new birds in June so ant Fouine (stonemartin) defences will be upgraded.  The old hut was ramshackle and nearly falling apart.  I assisted that process.  Most is heading to the tip but some  is going to be repurposed as drawer dividers for tool storage.   

 

Jamie

[Northroader]

 

Now just a listed building, formerly the “Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital” (as a kid I used to think it was “Ioneer”) used to do all that sort of stuff for what it is now Hipposhire and Telfland. I got my glasses from there, plus they extracted my tonsils and adenoids, which used to be a fashionable medical stunt. Sic transit and all that…

[Happy Hippo]

17 minutes ago, Northroader said:

 

 Sic transit

Very.....

 

[PhilJ W]

17 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Very.....

 

My last car was written off in an accident in January. It suffered similar damage to the windscreen, caused by the cover of the passenger air bag. My car was written off because of the cost (££££) of fitting new air bags.

[SM42]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

My last car was written off in an accident in January. It suffered similar damage to the windscreen, caused by the cover of the passenger air bag. My car was written off because of the cost (££££) of fitting new air bags.

 

The air bags were probably quite cheap to replace and a job that takes minutes ( mine were once replaced on a recall, on the drive at home  in about 20 minutes)

 

It's the big hole in the dashboard that the passenger one left that was probably the prohibitively expensive bit. 

 

Stealing an interior and then buying the write off cheaply ( or selling the interior back to the owner) was once quite a popular criminal wheeze. 

 

Andy

[SM42]

Oh my god!

 

He gets everywhere. 

 

Now he's appeared on my desktop

 

 

 

Andy

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

He gets everywhere. 

 

Driving into Derby last Saturday, from Ashby by way of the Swarkestone Bridge, I was perturbed by this rather disturbing sign:

 

 

[Embedded link to Wikimedia Commons.]

 

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allenton_hippopotamus.

[br2975]

17 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

There used to be a brilliant walk-in eye clinic at Shrewsbury hospital where I went one evening after getting a small glass splinter in my eye. I was seen within minutes and discharged after about an hour with the splinter removed, the eye washed out and antibiotic drops both prescribed and dispensed. That was about 20 years ago. Today there is no such service. Progress??

 

.

Recently, Mrs. br2975 experienced problems with the sight in her one eye.

.

On the off chance, she popped into the spectacle franchise at our local Tesco hypermarket.

.

The opthalmic chappie saw her there and then, and conducted numerous tests.

.

Such was his concern he made an appointment for my wife at the UHW 'Emergency eye clinic" - which was for 8.00am the following morning.

.

I must say that the staff were excellent at the UHW, carrying out countless tets, and a blood test.

.

By 4pm we were taken into see the 'head honcho on duty' who bluntly told my wife "you've lost the sight in the eye'

.

Mrs. br2975 asked "can you operate, what will it entail"

.

"No" was the terse reply "there is little or no blood supply to....... technical terms followed".

.

The wife has always had a 'lazy eye' that any responsible parent would have had corrected when their child was young; whereas my mother-in-law spent my wife's formative years enjoying herself.................

.

Apparently, had the eye been corrected (a simple procedure, ask my son) this issue may never have arisen.

.

The speed and efficiency with which the wife was seen was excellent, only to be let down a poor bedside manner,

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

The air bags were probably quite cheap to replace and a job that takes minutes ( mine were once replaced on a recall, on the drive at home  in about 20 minutes)

 

It's the big hole in the dashboard that the passenger one left that was probably the prohibitively expensive bit. 

 

Stealing an interior and then buying the write off cheaply ( or selling the interior back to the owner) was once quite a popular criminal wheeze. 

 

Andy

My car was more than 15 years old and there must have been other damage including distortion of the bodyshell as the front passenger door made a grinding noise when it was opened or shut. 

[DaveF]

Today I've been continuing to get things back to normal now I can start to do things again.  So the rug is back in the living room, the bins are back in the garage and so on.

 

In the late morning the postman brought me a parcel from Rails of Sheffield with 2 n gauge locos, one German, one Swiss.  The prices were very good, the German one, in mint condition cost me less than a third of the price of a new one, the Swiss one was about half the price of new.  They are both in mint condition, the wheels look as though they have hardly been run and they are spotless.

 

Now I really must get the rest of the buildings built and do some more scenic work on the layout.

 

As I've mentioned elsewhere I am sorting out the family photos, a lot are in the bin, a very few of sentimental value have been kept.  However the rest need more thought as they may be of use to some of my relatives who have an interest in family history so when I have made a space on my computer bench for the proper scanner I will scan them and send copies to interested reltives.  If I didn't have computer stuff I'd have another 7' of wall space for model railways!

 

David

[Winslow Boy]

4 hours ago, SM42 said:

Oh my god!

 

He gets everywhere. 

 

Now he's appeared on my desktop

 

 

 

Andy

You can't escape the Hippo!

[Winslow Boy]

3 hours ago, br2975 said:

.

Recently, Mrs. br2975 experienced problems with the sight in her one eye.

.

On the off chance, she popped into the spectacle franchise at our local Tesco hypermarket.

.

The opthalmic chappie saw her there and then, and conducted numerous tests.

.

Such was his concern he made an appointment for my wife at the UHW 'Emergency eye clinic" - which was for 8.00am the following morning.

.

I must say that the staff were excellent at the UHW, carrying out countless tets, and a blood test.

.

By 4pm we were taken into see the 'head honcho on duty' who bluntly told my wife "you've lost the sight in the eye'

.

Mrs. br2975 asked "can you operate, what will it entail"

.

"No" was the terse reply "there is little or no blood supply to....... technical terms followed".

.

The wife has always had a 'lazy eye' that any responsible parent would have had corrected when their child was young; whereas my mother-in-law spent my wife's formative years enjoying herself.................

.

Apparently, had the eye been corrected (a simple procedure, ask my son) this issue may never have arisen.

.

The speed and efficiency with which the wife was seen was excellent, only to be let down a poor bedside manner,

At least they didn't do what they did to my mother attempt to inject something into her artificial eye and this was at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital so you would sort of expected them to know the difference.

[polybear]

6 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

My last car was written off in an accident in January. It suffered similar damage to the windscreen, caused by the cover of the passenger air bag. My car was written off because of the cost (££££) of fitting new air bags.

 

One of the first questions an insurance company asks when you call to report an accident is "Have the airbags gone off" as it's often a very large step towards being written off.

[Tony_S]

19 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

At least they didn't do what they did to my mother attempt to inject something into her artificial eye and this was at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital so you would sort of expected them to know the difference.

I was being questioned prior to having my ankle and hips dexa scanned when the technician asked if I had artificial limbs or implants. I reassured her I hadn’t and asked if many people with artificial legs were sent for DEXA scans. She said yes and on her her first solo scan she had a man who said he hadn’t got one and had!

[Dave Hunt]

The father of a boyhood friend of mine had a glass eye, or should I say a couple of glass eyes. One was normal, the other had a union flag instead of an iris and pupil, He could take the glass eyes out and put them back in very easily and his party trick in the pub was to pretend to be wiping his eye with his handkerchief but in fact be replacing the normal eye with the union flag one. Some of the double takes and dropped jaws around the bar were hilarious.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

Not much to report today.

 

The right eye is much better and there is now only some residual soreness, although the vision is still a little blurred.

 

Gordon is over tomorrow for a work session on PN's rolling stock.  We are slowly plodding on with the weathering as well as planning the next work detail on the layout itself.

 

 

[Oldddudders]

Much against her expectations, when Sherry had another field of vision test at the hospital today she was pronounced fit to continue driving. Having had the threat of her licence being withdrawn hanging over her since November, and been told last week that she must desist until the result of today's test, you can imagine the relief is substantial!

 

Her optician had referred her to the hospital in November on the grounds that she suspected glaucoma. This happened some years ago, but the hospital said then that there was no sign. This time they said the same - but the field of vision was restricted on one side, perhaps indicating a slight stroke. A subsequent brain-scan confirmed this. Today the field of vision test was a better score - but they see signs of glaucoma, so she has been prescribed drops. 

 

How can the same hospital come up with such opposing sets of results? 

[Northmoor]

On 08/04/2024 at 21:58, jamie92208 said:

I wonder if this was mentioned today in the spirit of the Entente Cordiale. 

 

Corrected your typo.  Otherwise it sounds like our two countries have agreed that we both like Orange Squash.

[BSW01]

I’m 3 way point I’ve been working on for the last week or so. Although this was t a full kit, I’ve used pre-etched parts from DCC Concepts and some of there stainless steel rails. The actual plan was drawn up by myself using Templot and then printing out the plan. The lengthiest part of this was actually placing the sleepers in place, once that was done, cutting and bending the rails didn’t take long at all. Believe it or not, I’ve used just over 2m of rail in this point! I used a completed plastic truck kit (with no additional weight added yet) and gravity to check the operation of the point, I’m pleased to say it works very well, the truck passed through all the crossings with ease in both directions. For a first attempt at any sort of track building, I think I’ve done alright. 

 

The photo above was taken, just after I’d finishing and cleaning it of flux etc, but before the isolating gaps had all been cut. These have now all been cut and the point has also been electrically tested etc. The next stage will be to solder on some dropper wires so that I can switch the polarity of crossing  vees to suit the chosen route, this will hopefully get done tomorrow. 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

Much against her expectations, when Sherry had another field of vision test at the hospital today she was pronounced fit to continue driving. Having had the threat of her licence being withdrawn hanging over her since November, and been told last week that she must desist until the result of today's test, you can imagine the relief is substantial!

 

Her optician had referred her to the hospital in November on the grounds that she suspected glaucoma. This happened some years ago, but the hospital said then that there was no sign. This time they said the same - but the field of vision was restricted on one side, perhaps indicating a slight stroke. A subsequent brain-scan confirmed this. Today the field of vision test was a better score - but they see signs of glaucoma, so she has been prescribed drops. 

 

How can the same hospital come up with such opposing sets of results? 

When I was working with drivers with disabilities, I used to work with quite a few stroke victims.

 

The worst case was a gentleman who was stroke blind:  I don't know all the technicalities of how it works, but in a nutshell vision is lost from one side of the eye, as if the eye ball had been cut down it's vertical centre.  This poor chap was stroke blind on the right of both eyes and I found out when I had to dual control him as he tried to emerge into the path of a 44 tonner.  Didn't you see that wagon?  I asked....

 

What wagon? was his reply.

 

So I can understand why they stopped Ashers from driving until a full DVLA approved field test has been done.

 

The DVLA will not accept a hospital field test as evidence of peripheral vision, the test has to be carried out by one of their authorised providers who run a more comprehensive test than offered by the NHS ophthalmology departments.

 

The DVLA are looking for specific anomalies in the fields of vision rather than the more general peripheral vision covered by the hospital. 

 

I made up a mask to simulate stroke blindness, and you do not realise you are blind down one side until you start walking into door frames or tripping over tables.

 

It's quite unnerving.

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

Brian: for control of your point

I acquired a collection of switches that may have been for the phone company. They are toggle switches with open contacts. There is a DPDT switch on each side. With the toggle upright both contacts are set inwards. Pushing it to one side, one set of contacts goes outwards; the reverse for the other direction.

You could use this on your 3-way to control Tortoise or equivalent motors.

(I use mine as interlocking on a double junction.)

 

[jamie92208]

Brian, for things like that I either use a small relay matrix or a multi layer rotary switch with connections to each dropper.  I have a rotary switch that sorts out the polarity for the exits from my turntable.  So I just click the switch to the correct direction on the track diagram and the polarities are set.  Otherwise a couple of relays slaved to the point motors should do it.  I've sent you a PM. 

 

Jamie

Edited April 11 by jamie92208

[iL Dottore]

16 hours ago, br2975 said:

.The speed and efficiency with which the wife was seen was excellent, only to be let down a poor bedside manner,

I am glad to read that Mrs br2975 was seen with speed and efficiency.
 

However, I would like to comment that given a choice between a doctor with a curt and abrupt bedside manner with outstanding clinical skills and expertise and a doctor with a smooth and reassuring bedside manner and so-so clinical skills and expertise, I’d take Dr Grumpy any day.

 

Many decades ago, when I was working in the hospital, I noted that some of the very best clinicians were those with the poorest bedside manners. One neurosurgeon in particular had a hair trigger temper in the operating theatre (things had to be “just so” and he did NOT tolerate any sloppiness in technique) and was brutally blunt with the patients (along the lines of “I’ll remove the tumour but you’ll be permanently impaired”j and yet he was the neurosurgeon of choice for incredibly complex procedures.

 

Thinking about the above, I wonder how much was an act?

[iL Dottore]

THE CURSE OF 3MM

 

At Warley last year, I was “seduced” (which I think is the appropriate term in my case) into downsizing from 4mm to 3mm. Starting completely from scratch I’ll be adhering to fine-scale standards and this where “The Curse of 3mm” strikes (to be a tad melodramatic). Track, Turn-Outs/Points are very easily sourced; buildings? I’ve scratch built enough in 4mm and 7mm that 3mm holds no terrors, wagons? readily available from the 3mm society - but coaching stock and locomotives? That’s where I am truly curséd.

 

I really don’t have the expertise to build the motorised chassis for locomotives (although my intention is to have only a couple of tank engines) and finding coaching stock is a bit of a minefield (sides, chassis, bogies, ends, donor vehicles, etc.). Unfortunately, the relatively easily accessible Hornby TT is of no help (I think Hornby missed a trick by going to TT instead of 3mm).

 

Can anyone suggest an idiots guide to building tank engine locomotives (as in <you’ll need x, y, z and then it’s step 1, step 2, etc>).

 

Of course another curse of switching from 4mm to 3mm is getting rid of 4mm rolling stock and buildings (anyone interested in The Brunel Pub or The Georgian Terrace Houses? [amongst other things]).