The Night Mail

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

Sounds like several other similar stories I heard when I worked at that "certain establishment near Salisbury".  Were you there when the hole was created in the hangar roof?

 

If it was caused by a Tornado seat then yes - I was working in that very Hangar at the time, though not present on the day it happened.  The guy standing on the seat at the time was a very lucky boy....

[Happy Hippo]

This morning's exploit included ordering new tiles for the conservatory floor, and going to Horsehay to collect (foc) a load of plastic pots pans, kettles etc for the mud kitchen.

 

Telford Steam Railway had quite a few volunteer workers scurrying around tidying things up.  I presume they will be opening up to the public this coming Sunday.

[Dave Hunt]

Jill bought me a new shirt....

 

 

Is this a potentially tragic mistake?

 

Dave

[petethemole]

25 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Jill bought me a new shirt....

 

 

Is this a potentially tragic mistake?

 

Dave

 

Only if you doze off in your front garden while wearing it. A HIAB lorry might lift you away.

[Happy Hippo]

53 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Jill bought me a new shirt....

 

 

Is this a potentially tragic mistake?

 

Dave

No it is a sign of quality, if not adoration is some extreme cases.  I have had Hippo shirts in the past, and socks!.  Originally I believe they were aimed at the golfing fraternity.

27 minutes ago, petethemole said:

 

Only if you doze off in your front garden while wearing it. A HIAB lorry might lift you away.

Only if they are the yellow shirts!

[simontaylor484]

Is she trying to tell you something Dave?

[Happy Hippo]

6 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Is she trying to tell you something Dave?

Dave will never be a Hippo:

 

He's not short sighted, grey or bad tempered.

[Happy Hippo]

Here's the two minute workshop proof of concept for the router lift assist unit. The top wing nut allows you to get some leverage on the bolt without using a spanner. The bottom wing nut acts as a lock to supplement the lock on the plunge mechanism of the router.  

A new top wooden block will eventually be turned on the lathe and recessed to fit the router body and act as a centering device for the screw. Ditto the bottom block. 

 

Of course, because I know it works, I may be some time making the posh version. 

[Adam88]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

 

We were working at a certain establishment near Salisbury on Tornado; it was thought that the ground crew + others (including a young graduate) may have been accidentally irradiated during Trials (they weren't, as it later turned out).  As a consequence all those affected were to have unspeakable medical examinations (including internal rectal examination with an endoscope....).  Since the grad. wasn't at the site on the Friday (when all others supposedly had their examinations) then the grad would have his on the following Monday.  Well we ran the joke all the way thru' to Monday lunchtime, watching him getting more and more wound up.  At one point he screamed at the Trials Manager "But I am F. worried - I want to be able to have children!!"

Anyway, a couple of the Warton lads were going over to the tool stores so gave him a lift to the "medical centre" (who we tried to get in on the wind-up, but unsurprisingly were staying well away...).  They took him to the canteen, walked in and started buying packs of sarnies.

 

"What are we doing here?" He asked

"We're buying our lunch, what does it look like?"

"But I thought we were going to the medical centre?"

"The medical centre?  Why would we be going there?"

"Cos' I've got to have my tests!"

"Tests?  What tests?  Surely you didn't believe all that load of bollox - did you?"

 

When they brought him back to the work site we were all safely locked inside a Portakabin - and waited ten minutes whilst he tried to kick the door down to get at us.  He took it all in good part - once he'd calmed down - and was now well and truly initiated.  That all happened about 25 years ago - a similar stunt nowadays would no doubt get someone complaining to HR and a close encounter with a P45....

 

How can you get irradiated by a lump of concrete?

 

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, Adam88 said:

 

How can you get irradiated by a lump of concrete?

 

It depends how hard it hits you between the legs.

[New Haven Neil]

11 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

I had a quick look around that website - and saw a news link to a steam engine - this took me to a report on IOM Today about Caledonia being displayed at Knockaloe. It's obvious from the comments that not all of the locals are fans of the railway - although I don't understand the reference to Cabbage ??

 

Click Here for Link to IOM Today news report

.

 

Where to start!

 

Cale, the 'odd one out', was in steam yesterday actually for training before trains start at the end of the month.

 

Many locals here begrudge every penny spent 'of their money' ie tax, on anything that doesn't float their particular boat.  So trains, the TT, the ferries, busses, roads, local radio, and so on - moaning is a national trait.  They pick fault with anything and everything, that's how things are here, I presume because in actual fact there is very little to complain about!  Really, really low crime, low tax, fantastic quality of life....we love it.

 

The 'Cabbage' does need complaining about though.  It is the 'new' diesel, bought for 'Thunderbird' duties, and evening trains etc - the other little diesels here can't pull enough or run at passenger train speeds.  So they ordered a Bo-Bo diesel (its green....) using some second hand USA switcher bogies, and so on.  It has hardly turned a wheel in revenue, the first prime mover constantly overheated and was eventually replaced with a new new one.  Still overheats.  Radiators under specced, and the loading gauge won't allow for bigger ones. Oops.  The when it did run, the wheel tyres came loose, as they were too worn (remember they were second hand).  So off it's bogies for them to be sent away.  A person I know (no names...) pointed out that when looking in the electrical cabinet (its diesel-electric) upwards, you can see daylight - so the rain gets in the electrickery.  Oops again. So it's green and smells - cabbage.

 

Here's my 'Caledonia', 45mm gauge, in my railway's livery.  Not a BR crest - similar though ;-)

 

[New Haven Neil]

The Cabbage

 

 

Lovely....not.

 

 

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=39931&headline=Cost of the ‘Cabbage’ has topped £660,000 – and it is not fixed yet&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2018

 

 

[polybear]

54 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

They pick fault with anything and everything, that's how things are here, I presume because in actual fact there is very little to complain about!  Really, really low crime, low tax.....

 

Bear has just checked out the IoM tax rates...

NO IHT, and NO Capital Gains Tax.....

You've got it made....

[Mike Bellamy]

45 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Many locals here begrudge every penny spent 'of their money' ie tax, on anything that doesn't float their particular boat.  

 

The 'Cabbage' does need complaining about though.  It is the 'new' diesel, -)

 

Many thanks Neil for your comprehensive response - your 'Cabbage' reminds me of the Funkey 'Vale of Ffestiniog' - a friend of mine spent some time back in the 1990s with a gas axe and angle grinder making the chassis of the original South African loco narrow enough to fit on the FR.

.

[PhilJ W]

37 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

The Cabbage

 

 

Lovely....not.

 

 

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=39931&headline=Cost of the ‘Cabbage’ has topped £660,000 – and it is not fixed yet&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2018

 

 

Where did it come from?

[Northmoor]

27 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear has just checked out the IoM tax rates...

NO IHT, and NO Capital Gains Tax.....

You've got it made....

Such is human nature; those who pay the least tax, complain the loudest about taxes.

[Dave Hunt]

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Dave will never be a Hippo:

 

He's not short sighted, grey or bad tempered.

 

That's the nicest thing anyone's said about me in ages. Do you owe me money, Richard?

 

Dave 

[Dave Hunt]

4 hours ago, Adam88 said:

 

How can you get irradiated by a lump of concrete?

 

 

Just to set the record straight, the famous 'Blue Circle' ADV Tornadoes were only four in number and were delivered without the Foxhunter radars so that ground and aircrews could start getting used to the airframes. Actually, the whole aircraft was something of a non-starter as it (the F2) didn't have the uprated engines that were in the F3s, which were the actual operational version, and some other systems were sub-standard. The handful of F2s were very short-lived.

 

Dave

[polybear]

30 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Just to set the record straight, the famous 'Blue Circle' ADV Tornadoes were only four in number and were delivered without the Foxhunter radars so that ground and aircrews could start getting used to the airframes. Actually, the whole aircraft was something of a non-starter as it (the F2) didn't have the uprated engines that were in the F3s, which were the actual operational version, and some other systems were sub-standard. The handful of F2s were very short-lived.

 

Dave

 

I wonder how much HMG were charged for those blocks of concrete.....

[New Haven Neil]

44 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Such is human nature; those who pay the least tax, complain the loudest about taxes.

 

Its not the tax they whinge about, they know its a good deal here, it is what it is used for.  Anything its used for, in fact.  I get quite annoyed with them they simply don't understand how well off they are in that respect.

[simontaylor484]

Probably 10 times the price Joe Average would pay (If they could buy them)

[polybear]

13 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Probably 10 times the price Joe Average would pay (If they could buy them)

 

Not even remotely warm I'd say.  A certain Aerospace company was charging six quid for ordinary domestic 13A fuses - and that was for sold in bulk quantities (100) in the mid 90's.

No doubt the blocks of concrete were flight standard, stressed, tested, tight tolerances and lots of drawings and design work beforehand.  You don't want a lump of concrete bouncing around inside a radome at 6g - it'll spoil your day. 

[Northmoor]

19 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Not even remotely warm I'd say.  A certain Aerospace company was charging six quid for ordinary domestic 13A fuses - and that was for sold in bulk quantities (100) in the mid 90's.

No doubt the blocks of concrete were flight standard, stressed, tested, tight tolerances and lots of drawings and design work beforehand.  You don't want a lump of concrete bouncing around inside a radome at 6g - it'll spoil your day. 

That of course is the point.  The concrete block probably cost £50.  The rest was calculating exactly how the concrete block would be made so that it's mass and CofG exactly replicated that of the radar, while designed to be secure in position to survive, as you say, about 6g.   People do complain that these things aren't cheap, but writing off a Tornado and possibly killing a (qualified test) pilot, would cost considerably more.

 

I believe the concrete blocks added to the E3-D nose, to compensate for the reduced weight when the mission system computers were modernised, were considerably bigger.  At some point you have to compensate for the flippin' great disk on the roof trying to rotate the aircraft backwards.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Its not the tax they whinge about, they know its a good deal here, it is what it is used for.  Anything its used for, in fact.  I get quite annoyed with them they simply don't understand how well off they are in that respect.

They'd soon have something to complain about if the money wasn't spent. (On things like the police, roads etc.)

[Florence Locomotive Works]

5 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

The Cabbage

 

 

Lovely....not.

 

 

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=39931&headline=Cost of the ‘Cabbage’ has topped £660,000 – and it is not fixed yet&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2018

 

 

That has a very Darjeeling vibe to it me thinks...