The Night Mail

[Stubby47]

2 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

It is not my intention to cross the Tamar...

 

That's what they all say...  but the lure of clotted cream on scones is far too tempting for some...

[New Haven Neil]

2 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

 

That's what they all say...  but the lure of clotted cream on scones is far too tempting for some...

 

Ah, the Third Scone Wars started that way - cream on first, or jam.

[SM42]

5 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

I never 'drop in' unannounced, except on my enemies. (Of which I have plenty!!)

 

But shouting "Ahoy ahoy!" as you float (?) down to earth, is arriving announced but isn't really that helpful for the visitee, as they will not be able to get their cakes to the safe houses in time.

 

Ohhhhhhhhhh! I see. 

 

 

Andy

[Dave Hunt]

What an eclectic mix of topics posted recently - teachers, explosives and sky-borne hippos. I suppose they could be combined into a tutorial on making booby traps to deter invading pachyderms?

 

I think that I've mentioned before my own experiences with the teaching staff of my grammar school that ranged from a sadistic bully of a PE teacher and a totally non-empathetic, incompetent maths master to the best teacher I ever had named Bill Jones or commonly Bilge. He was notionally head of physics but also my form master who made up for the others and virtually single handedly got me through A level double maths as well as physics. He was also in charge of the photography club that many of us joined simply because of the trips out that membership included. I remember one such trip to Fountains Abbey and adjacent spots when I was about seventeen and when the lunch stop was made Bill announced, " Everyone back on board at two o'clock. I'll be in the Red Lion." Loosely interpreted as, "Wherever you lot go, don't make it the Red Lion." A great guy.

 

The manufacture of nitrogen tri iodide was a not infrequent activity among the, shall we say, more rebellious elements at my school (who, me? Perish the thought) and one famous incident occurred when a boy a couple of years ahead of me sneaked into the secretary's office one evening after a club meeting of some sort and painted her typewriter keys with the stuff. I leave the result to the imagination.

 

Coincidentally, I'm still in regular contact with a group of six ex-school friends and partners and prior to the WuFlu we used to meet up at least once a year for long weekends but in the last eighteen months have resorted to Zoom meetings every three or four months. Our next one is tomorrow evening for a quiz night and gin tasting where each couple have recommended brands of gin that everyone has to try on the night and rate during the quiz rounds that each couple prepare. As can be imagined, as the meeting goes it gets slightly more rowdy and the quizzing less rigorous. Good fun though.

 

As for sky-borne hippos, there were specially modified Lancasters used in WW2 that dropped ten ton Grand Slam bombs and since grand slams feature in HH's choice of preferred libations, maybe there is a link somewhere. I can well imagine that the sudden arrival of an HH in the vicinity of the Bielefeld Viaduct would have a severely detrimental effect on it.

 

Have a good POETS day everyone.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

28 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Ah, the Third Scone Wars started that way - cream on first, or jam.

 

Jam, always jam - too messy to apply the cream first. Anyone thinking logically will spread the jam first. 

 

Dave

 

(Retires to bunker to await fallout)

[SM42]

25 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Jam, always jam - too messy to apply the cream first. Anyone thinking logically will spread the jam first. 

 

Dave

 

(Retires to bunker to await fallout)

 

Indeed the jam sticks the cream on, and jam up your nose is unpleasantly sticky. Cream is easily wiped away 

 

However my understanding of the peace treaty that ended the Third Scone War is that side by side is the only internationally recognised method. 

 

Andy

 

PS, Dave, can I share your bunker?

[Oldddudders]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

We have the ability to catapult launch so a runway is not really a problem.

The catapult must need quite a lot of knickerlastic!

[jamie92208]

16 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

The catapult must need quite a lot of knickerlastic!

As far as I know it's an ex German V1 catapult complete with concrete launch ramp. The launch loads are appriximately the same weight.  Hippis are fitted with their personal ram jets of course.  There are however rumours that a steam catapult was saved from one of the aircraft carriers. Perhaps that was for the cake.  

 

Jamie

Edited September 3, 2021 by jamie92208

[Tony_S]

I really think the Hippo migration to the south really deserves a Sir David Attenborough documentary. 

[Compound2632]

On 01/09/2021 at 03:43, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I made a new piano box for the engine this evening, after a bit more fine grit sanding it should be done and ready for fitting. I’m not sure what wood it is, but I would say it’s a hardwood of some sort. 

 

Just catching up here. You're not modelling the lid to open, revealing the keyboard?

[bbishop]

5 hours ago, pH said:

 

Nitrogen tri-iodide? Could also be painted (wet) inside a locked keyhole (allegedly!)

Ah yes .....  After an incident at Speech Day one year, the school iodine supply was kept in a locked cupboard.  However the perpetrator had had the wit to stash a supply (in the Railway Society library, which just happened to be outside the chemistry lab.).  The "incidences" occurred for a couple of years, but for some reason ceased after I left.  The chemistry tutor (Dr Carter from Monday to Saturday lunchtime, Phil in the Swan & Mitre Saturday evenings) had his suspicions, but never investigated - just as long as the crystals were well scattered, the chemistry lab wasn't infested and the headmaster wasn't involved - so the Physics lab was targetted rather than the Great Hall.  Phil was a great guy - other than a preference for Paddington over Waterloo.

 

In other news, I was tested yesterday for a PPE3 mask so I can now attend aerosel generating procedures.  However the knee is still bu99ered.  On Wednesday, I collected the x-ray form from the GP surgery, drove to a bus stop  on  a route to the hospital (no free parking within a coupe of miles), bus to the hospital using my grumpy pass, straight into the department, x-rayed within ten minutes and on a bus within another five minutes.  Sometimes the NHS does work.

 

Bill

[Winslow Boy]

One assumes that you are going South to counter act the uplift of the sarf due to the melting of the glaciers up north.

[Dave Hunt]

I thought that the sarf was sinking because the reduction in weight of the melting glaciers was causing the norf to rise and tipping the sarf down? In which case, the additional arrival of an HH in the sarf could have disastrous consequences - anyone for a day at the seaside in Reading?

 

Dave

[Florence Locomotive Works]

On the subject of less than good teachers, I had a particularly miserable old math teacher last year, one of the ones who is only still working so they can get a big retirement bonus. The thing that really made me angry was one time I answered a question with "I think" on the end of the sentence and she proceeded to waste both mine and the rests of the classes time on lecturing me on the subject of "WE DIDN'T GET TO THE MOON BY I SAYING I THINK!" In a very unfriendly and generally rude way. I tried to protest against this verbal battering by using reason and my knowledge of the Apollo program which isn't exactly small, but of course the moment she recognised that I knew more than her on the subject and that she would loose the argument she invented some sort of thing she just had to do.

 

That is the single most annoying thing I see teachers do, get into arguments on there own account with students and then waste everybody's time.

 

 

Douglas

Edited September 3, 2021 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Compound2632]

We've been away for a few days in a very quiet corner of the world - Great Western territory, naturally, though bounded on the east by the LNWR (jointly), on the south by the Midland, and on the west by the Cambrian. Anyway, knowing that some here are interested in green engines, here are a few, at least nominally:

 

3021 / 5022:

 

 

7029:

 

 

5040:

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

We've been away for a few days in a very quiet corner of the world - Great Western territory, naturally, though bounded on the east by the LNWR (jointly), on the south by the Midland, and on the west by the Cambrian. Anyway, knowing that some here are interested in green engines, here are a few, at least nominally:

 

3021 / 5022:

 

 

7029:

 

 

5040:

 

I seem to remember reading a book about GWR branchlines in Wales several years ago, and on of the photos in it was quite old (Edwardian era) and showed a station with a very large abandoned abbey or cathedral atop a hill behind it. Could it be one of these?

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I seem to remember reading a book about GWR branchlines in Wales several years ago, and on of the photos in it was quite old (Edwardian era) and showed a station with a very large abandoned abbey or cathedral atop a hill behind it. Could it be one of these?

 

None of the above are in Wales, nor are they (now) particularly large. We did stray briefly over the border, far enough to be reminded that the Welsh for "slow" is araf. I'm not sure where the place you are thinking of would be, if it was in Wales.

[Northroader]

You’ll be wanting to ditch the Midland stuff now, then?

 

(5053, of course)

Edited September 3, 2021 by Northroader

[Happy Hippo]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

As for sky-borne hippos, there were specially modified Lancasters used in WW2 that dropped ten ton Grand Slam bombs and since grand slams feature in HH's choice of preferred libations, maybe there is a link somewhere. I can well imagine that the sudden arrival of an HH in the vicinity of the Bielefeld Viaduct would have a severely detrimental effect on it.

 

Have a good POETS day everyone.

 

Dave

I have to admit that when I was posted to 'Bilefield' I did visit the viaduct and when I touched it, there was a visible shiver through the structure.  Soon afterwards DB was forced to put a speed restriction in place for about 6 months, so the  good old Grand Slam had not lost his touch.

 

The trip down was not too bad if you discount the road works at each end of the Kidderminster ring road and the large carpark on the M5 between Gloucester and Weston super Mare.

 

Now anticipating a fish pie with veg whilst murdering a bottle of wine.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

You’ll be wanting to ditch the Midland stuff now, then?

 

(5053, of course)

 

No, nearly but not quite - we didn't get north of 7029.

[Winslow Boy]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I thought that the sarf was sinking because the reduction in weight of the melting glaciers was causing the norf to rise and tipping the sarf down? In which case, the additional arrival of an HH in the sarf could have disastrous consequences - anyone for a day at the seaside in Reading?

 

Dave

 

South , Noorth never could tell which was which. Does that mean the north is going up in the world.

[Happy Hippo]

Hippos are well known for going down.

[Tony_S]

48 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Hippos are well known for going down.

It is possible to spend ages  researching “can hippos swim?” 

[Dave Hunt]

I believe the answer to that is no. Same for hang gliding.

 

Dave 

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

We've been away for a few days in a very quiet corner of the world - Great Western territory, naturally, though bounded on the east by the LNWR (jointly), on the south by the Midland, and on the west by the Cambrian. Anyway, knowing that some here are interested in green engines, here are a few, at least nominally:

 

3021 / 5022:

 

 

7029:

 

 

5040:

 

I've no idea what these places are, can someone put names to them please.