The Night Mail

[Winslow Boy]

Just an idea. Contaminated blood from mad cows disease?

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Why would black pudding be banned?

 

Possibly because it's yucky. Every time we stay at hotels and have full English breakfasts I get Jill's sausage in exchange for my black pudding since I can't stand the stuff.

 

Once again North Hipposhire has turned white, apart from the bits that are a dull grey that is. Roll on spring says I.

 

In furtherance of my joys, it has been announced in daily routine orders that today is largely being devoted to house cleaning. My cup runneth over. There's still cake though...

 

A suggestion for Douglas - basswood strips would be better for the cow catcher I feel as they are much stronger than balsa and are readily available from hobby shops.

 

Have a good one people and stay safe.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

7 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

This evening I cooked dinner, which was black pudding hash, from James May’s book o’ cookery. Except I omitted the black pudding, as apparently it’s banned in the USA, meaning what I had at Kilkenny’s ye olde pub wasn’t black pudding... (sausage was used instead on our dinner)

 

I also mended the broken cowcatcher on my Hudson, with a decent amount of Balsa wood and a bit of styrene. 
 

Above: Before

Above: Still before. 

Above: The finished article, unfortunately with one less strut on each side due to my not being a cut Balsa that thin. 
 

Douglas

I found these are good for cutting  short thin strips:

 

 

I got mine from that well known US modeller's emporium, Micromark. 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

My planned work this morning was to take the saw table out onto the drive and cut some timber for the Torri Gwynt project.

 

It was a great plan until I opened the curtain and found that large thick snowflakes were falling from the sky, and they are managing to stick in the more exposed places in the garden.

 

I have a horrible feeling that the insides of the Hippodrome will be tidied and cleaned as per the dictum that has been passed at the local clutch airfield.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Tony_S]

47 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Possibly because it's yucky

There are many varieties. I like the Irish version which is a bit more oaty. The Full Irish Breakfast has black pudding and white pudding. Aditi isn’t that keen on black pudding but after a year of “forgetting” did order some last week. I think it was when I said I could make use of Amazon Prime’s same day service from Morrison’s and order £40 (minimum order size) of Clonakillty black and white pudding selection boxes that jogged her memory for the Waitrose order. 

[tomparryharry]

No snow today, but there's a sprinkling in exposed areas. Today is mirror hanging time. This mirror is blessed heavy., so no 'measure twice, bodge once' sort of thing. Instead, it's a very accurate square off for the mirror, with some neat little brackets that clip into each other vertically.  The problem is, Mrs Smith has seen how it's done, so now I've got a list... I've postponed any shed work, whilst I have a good look at this. 

 

Sprinkling in exposed areas?  Isn't that a public order offence? 

[Happy Hippo]

'Mirror Mirror on the wall,

 

Who has engineered it so you don't fall?'

 

Trumped by:

 

'Para Para from the sky,

 

Living proof that sh*t don't fly!'

[Dave Hunt]

32 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

There are many varieties. I like the Irish version which is a bit more oaty. The Full Irish Breakfast has black pudding and white pudding. Aditi isn’t that keen on black pudding but after a year of “forgetting” did order some last week. I think it was when I said I could make use of Amazon Prime’s same day service from Morrison’s and order £40 (minimum order size) of Clonakillty black and white pudding selection boxes that jogged her memory for the Waitrose order. 

 

I've tried English, Irish, Spanish, French and other makes of black pudding grilled, fried and casseroled but still find them revolting. I admit that I haven't tried white pudding but the mere sight of it causes internal upset. Sausages though - yum, yum to British bangers (except the pasty sort that you find in supermarkets), German Wurst of various types, Spanish butafera, chorizo and others, American good quality hotdog sausages, salami, pepperoni etc. Sausage and chips (the proper crispy, non-greasy kind) are food of the gods ranking with bacon butties and cake.

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

Grandpa was dispatched to do the shopping this morning.  Big mistake, they had toys at 50% off and a Brio train set fell into the trolley, all by itself. It's definitely  got Emily's name on it.

 

Jamie

[Winslow Boy]

42 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Grandpa was dispatched to do the shopping this morning.  Big mistake, they had toys at 50% off and a Brio train set fell into the trolley, all by itself. It's definitely  got Emily's name on it.

 

Jamie

Be very careful there. Otherwise the NSPCC that's the National Society for Preventing Choo's Choo's will be after you for the corruption of young citizens minds. 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Grandpa was dispatched to do the shopping this morning.  Big mistake, they had toys at 50% off and a Brio train set fell into the trolley, all by itself. It's definitely  got Emily's name on it.

 

Jamie

I mentioned on ER's that I bought my friends young son a radio controlled car for Christmas. There's method in my madness as its 1/76 00 scale. I also have a similar model in my stash, different manufacturer and prototype and 1/72 scale, I had forgotten completely that I had it. Next project is to paint roads on an old baseboard, add buildings and even possibly a bit of live trackwork. The lads pressie came to about £38, the one in my stash only £20, it was an 'end of line' promotional. I looked up radio controlled cars on E-bay and was surprised at how cheap they are, starting at under £10 for a basic model. 

[J. S. Bach]

"cow catcher"

PLEASE everyone, it is called a pilot!!!!! It does NOT "catch cows"!

[Happy Hippo]

The skies are blue once more, which around here at this time of the day is a sure way of saying it will be a cold night.

 

This afternoon has been spent trying to persuade HMRC that since I retired many years ago then I really don't need to keep sending them a self assessment tax return.  I should get a reply in the next fortnight or so.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

43 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

"cow catcher"

PLEASE everyone, it is called a pilot!!!!! It does NOT "catch cows"!

Ah so Wikipedia was correct...

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Ah so Wikipedia was correct...

Yes, in the USA you have a pilot beam to which the pilot is attached.

 

In the UK we don't have a pilot, but buffers, and they are attached to a.....  wait for it...................

 

Buffer plank!

 

Buffer beam being the incorrect terminology which is commonly used ( A bit like using the term frog instead of the correct crossing nose.) 

 

However, I suppose that you wouldn't really want a Pilot Plank, although I bet Dave knew a few in his time as an aviator.

[rockershovel]

56 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Yes, in the USA you have a pilot beam to which the pilot is attached.

 

In the UK we don't have a pilot, but buffers, and they are attached to a.....  wait for it...................

 

Buffer plank!

 

Buffer beam being the incorrect terminology which is commonly used ( A bit like using the term frog instead of the correct crossing nose.) 

 

However, I suppose that you wouldn't really want a Pilot Plank, although I bet Dave knew a few in his time as an aviator.

 

I’d always understood it to be termed the headstock https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headstock_(rolling_stock)

[Compound2632]

39 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

I’d always understood it to be termed the headstock

 

I think that's the term for carriages and wagons, whereas locomotives have buffer beams. Buffer beam is the term used on the first locomotive drawing that comes to hand - Derby LDO Drg. 91-3479 General Arrangement of 1833 Class non-condensing 0-4-4T, in F. James, D. Hunt and R. Essery, Midland Engines No. 1 (Wild Swan,1999)

Edited December 29, 2020 by Compound2632

[rockershovel]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I think that's the term for carriages and wagons, whereas locomotives have buffer beams. It's the term used on the first locomotive drawing that comes to hand - Derby LDO Drg. 91-3479 General Arrangement of 1833 Class non-condensing 0-4-4T, in F. James, D. Hunt and R. Essery, Midland Engines No. 1 (Wild Swan,1999)

 

Strictly speaking the headstock is the lateral assembly forming the brace and jointing plates between the frames https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2019/08/an-update-on-steam-locomotive-no-10-corris-update-july-2019.html 

[Compound2632]

8 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

Strictly speaking the headstock is the lateral assembly forming the brace and jointing plates between the frames https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2019/08/an-update-on-steam-locomotive-no-10-corris-update-july-2019.html 

 

I think the meaning depends on context. In carriage and wagon frames, it is generally a beam across the ends of the solebars - there are of course various brackets holding things together - unlike the middle bearers, which run between the solebars. (Dumb-buffered wagons, however, had headstocks the were between the solebars, the latter extending beyond the wagon body to form the buffers.) But the main longitudinal components of a locomotive are frames rather than solebars. Headstock sounds to me to be a term derived from road vehicle construction - Thomas Worsdell was a road carriage builder before he became the world's first railway carriage & wagon superintendent.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Compound2632

[Tony_S]

I am surprised that each separate railway company didn’t have their own names for bits of their equipment!
What did the LNER call the bits at the front of J70s that once upon a time I would have called a cowcatcher until I started modelling US prototypes?
 

 

[rockershovel]

6 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I am surprised that each separate railway company didn’t have their own names for bits of their equipment!
What did the LNER call the bits at the front of J70s that once upon a time I would have called a cowcatcher until I started modelling US prototypes?
 

 

 

LNER Encyclopedia doesn’t seem to have any particular opinion on the subject, using “pilot” and “cowcatcher” interchangeably https://www.lner.info/locos/Y/y6.php

[Happy Hippo]

I know that David LO Smith, an engineer of whom I have the greatest respect, uses the term Buffer Plank, and I have seen it used before in some loco building tomes.

 

The late great Henry Greenly in 'Model Steam Locomotives' refers to buffer planks on page 68.

 

The trouble is the incorrect phraseology sometimes takes over.  My earlier quoted replacement of crossing nose for frog being an example.  In the USA, I believe the term frog covers the whole assembly of crossing nose and wing rails.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[TheQ]

If Dave is a cowcatcher then he's got into a  GR4 not an F3..

[TheQ]

Just now, TheQ said:

If Dave is a cowcatcher then he's got into a  GR4 not an F3..

Oh anything crossways is a Transom..

[tomparryharry]

Massive brownie points were accumulated today. The mirror was finally attached in the hallway.  Following that, I managed to hang Kim's commission scroll as a bit of a bonus.  Tomorrow is back to shed day:- Whoopee!