The Night Mail

[Doncaster Green]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Has he got a neck?

Definitely a big, brass one!

 

John

[Happy Hippo]

25 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Hookers?

 

 

Note that I now have twenty plus Hookers!

Unlike the Duke of York!

[Dave Hunt]

11 hours ago, bbishop said:

Whilst the present Rugby Union laws have turned the Hooker into a third Prop.  I'm sure HH will back me up on this.  Bill

 

Don't need hookers nowadays as the ball is invariably fed straight to the second row - or even to the No. 8.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

7 hours ago, polybear said:

When Bear was last involved in flight trials conducted by the RN they used the term "Terminate - Terminate - Terminate".  When I queried this I was told that it now replaces "Abort - Abort - Abort" because the word "Abort" has  unfortunate connotations.  Er, hang on a minute.....

I wonder what superstar dreamed that one up - and how much it cost.

 

It was my understanding that 'terminate' was introduced for stopping things such as trials, practice combat etc. because the word 'abort' was reserved for an instruction to terminate a takeoff.

 

Dave

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Afternoon all,

 

The weather has been interesting the past few days. Very cold with constant rain and a 30 mph gale blowing, so getting across campus was interesting! Thankfully we have roofed walkways to most areas, but they aren’t the quickest.

 

Update on the movement rebuild: I finished rebushing the back plate last night so on Monday I’ll try and do the back plate. After that one of the pivots on the escape wheel needs some serious attention, and the springs/barrels needs cleaning. I hope to have it finished in two weeks.

 

Douglas

Edited October 29, 2021 by Florence Locomotive Works

[polybear]

32 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

It was my understanding that 'terminate' was introduced for stopping things such as trials, practice combat etc. because the word 'abort' was reserved for an instruction to terminate a takeoff.

 

Dave

 

The RN have certainly used "abort" extensively in the past for stopping trials etc.

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Hookers?

 

 

Note that I now have twenty plus Hookers!

 

I think they were responsible for the Love Canal disaster.

 

(BTW, Those wheels are going to destroy the ties   )

[simontaylor484]

I have just been catching up with the last few days posts.

 

I went to a former Poly Sheffield Hallam University formerly Sheffield City Poly.

And yes @polybear I did end up working in a bank for 6 months.

 

going back to driving standards I have come across a number of numpties on the M62 mainly cars in the middle lane doing less than 60mph in good weather 

[AndyID]

Both lanes of the highway into town were blocked yesterday. An articulated lorry ran into an excavator! Exactly what the excavator was doing there is a mystery. It may have been trying to cross the highway.

 

The lorry was a wood-chip transporter. Many of them are driven by complete maniacs.

 

And in town another artic full of garbage tipped over on the same highway when it was coming off the freeway. He was probably trying to get through a traffic light before it changed.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

because the word 'abort' was reserved for an instruction to terminate a takeoff.

On the train we travelled on when on an excursion on Rugen the carriage door marked “Abort” was the lavatory. It was one of those where you could see the track below the loo.

[J. S. Bach]

47 minutes ago, AndyID said:

(BTW, Those wheels are going to destroy the ties   )

I am not sure about that particular car, but almost all of my "pizza-cutter/lobster-claw" equipped cars have been converted to scale wheels/couplers.

[polybear]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

On the train we travelled on when on an excursion on Rugen the carriage door marked “Abort” was the lavatory. It was one of those where you could see the track below the loo.

 

Bear used to attend meetings with the Boss in Edinburgh - a good little skive, and always an overnighter so with an early start gave the opportunity for a free afternoon wandering around Edinburgh.  We'd travel by train from St. Evenage - which meant a change en-route as some bozo decided that the KX - Edin. train would no longer stop there 

We'd use Peterborough going north, but somewhere further north on the way home as it gave the opportunity for a second pass on the free scoff trolley .  The track bed at this particular station (can't remember which one now) was literally covered in, er, well yes I'm sure you get the idea....

The last trip was perhaps 3 years ago now, and it was like that then.  Working on a PW Gang must be a real yummy job.....

[Happy Hippo]

There is a cut off date of 2023 for the removal of all passenger rolling stock without holding tanks.

 

A quick flick through other elements of the internet revealed that  retention tanks were first fitted in 1981, and this was mandatory for all new build passenger stock by 1996. 

 

Less than 10% of the fleet remain is service without holding tanks

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

 

The RN have certainly used "abort" extensively in the past for stopping trials etc.

 

In the RAF we used to use "Stop, stop, stop," but many years ago, at least 30 IIRC, it was decided that we should standardise codewords across all NATO forces in the interests of both commonality and, more importantly, interoperability so that misunderstandings were avoided, especially when operational or safety critical situations were involved. Since the Americans were by far the largest presence in NATO I guess it was inevitable that many of the codewords used by the USAF, USN and USMC would be adopted and so it was. There was also the intention for safety reasons to standardise wherever possible with civilian agencies in situations common to all types of aviation. It was about that time that terminate replaced stop or abort as a means of calling a halt to several airborne activities.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

22 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

In the RAF we used to use "Stop, stop, stop," but many years ago, at least 30 IIRC, it was decided that we should standardise codewords across all NATO forces in the interests of both commonality and, more importantly, interoperability so that misunderstandings were avoided, especially when operational or safety critical situations were involved. Since the Americans were by far the largest presence in NATO I guess it was inevitable that many of the codewords used by the USAF, USN and USMC would be adopted and so it was. There was also the intention for safety reasons to standardise wherever possible with civilian agencies in situations common to all types of aviation. It was about that time that terminate replaced stop or abort as a means of calling a halt to several airborne activities.

 

Dave

As driving instructors we were told never to use STOP, as that could be taken literally, but tell the student to come to a halt. 

 

This was particularly important during the first few hours of their training.

 

Dual controls were little more than duplicate clutch and brake pedals, but they are 'slotted', (to use a railway signalling term and not another military term) so that if you wish to apply brake and clutch you can do so, but if the student driver decides to do this, you cannot stop them.

 

When I was teaching those with disabilities to drive, the cars we used were fitted with a dual brake, but also a flip throttle so the accelerator(throttle) pedal could be moved to left of the brake pedal. Infra-red hand controls put lights/wipers/screenwash/indicators into a small box that fitted onto a ball mount on the steering wheel; then we had standard ball steering  attachments and a combined throttle and brake handle complete with indicator switch on top.

 

The combined brake and throttle was usually mounted on the left hand side of the steering wheel, which meant the instructor could use the throttle if required: A facility unavailable to manual transmission instructors.

 

Of course, currency in the use of the extra controls was essential, so I'd spend a lot of time on my transits between lessons, swapping which controls I'd use.

 

It took a lot of practice to really become conscious competent.

 

Dave would probably liken the footwork to switching from a Merlin powered Spitfire to a Griffon engined variant.

Edited October 29, 2021 by Happy Hippo

[Stubby47]

Speaking of 'Abort Abort, Abort', it transpires that today is my last at work.

 

Having negotiated to leave earlier than initially requested,  I just need to take the laptop back and basically that's it.

 

It would have been 12 years of service next Tuesday, but as the notice period is until 12th Jan I still get the credit for the unworked days.

 

Model Buildings, here I come !!

[PhilJ W]

Happy birthday Jamie and many more of them.

2 hours ago, polybear said:

The track bed at this particular station (can't remember which one now) was literally covered in, er, well yes I'm sure you get the idea....

The last trip was perhaps 3 years ago now, and it was like that then.  Working on a PW Gang must be a real yummy job.....

Just think of all those free tomatoes, or maybe its better not to think of them.

 

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

There is a cut off date of 2023 for the removal of all passenger rolling stock without holding tanks.

 

A quick flick through other elements of the internet revealed that  retention tanks were first fitted in 1981, and this was mandatory for all new build passenger stock by 1996. 

 

Less than 10% of the fleet remain is service without holding tanks

 

 

The LT&S had rolling stock fitted with retention tanks as long ago as 1910. This was for the Ealing Broadway to Southend service which traversed the Metropolitan District Railway from Ealing to Barking. This was to avoid fouling the tunnels of the MDR.

Edited October 29, 2021 by PhilJ W

[rockershovel]

16 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Hookers?

 

 

Note that I now have twenty plus Hookers!

Is that the Bachmann On30 Shay?

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

As driving instructors we were told never to use STOP, as that could be taken literally, but tell the student to come to a halt. 

 

This was particularly important during the first few hours of their training.

 

Rumour has it that a certain Hippo used to command an emergency stop whenever a cake shop was spotted....

 

3 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Speaking of 'Abort Abort, Abort', it transpires that today is my last at work.

 

Having negotiated to leave earlier than initially requested,  I just need to take the laptop back and basically that's it.

 

It would have been 12 years of service next Tuesday, but as the notice period is until 12th Jan I still get the credit for the unworked days.

 

Model Buildings, here I come !!

 

Did you leave any IED's fitted with time delay fuses behind? 

[SM42]

Another glorious autumn day here in the Motherland. 

Me and Mrs SM42 have been sat out on the balcony and to paraphrase an Oddball tank commander, have been "drinking some coffee, eating some doughnuts and catching some rays. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gratuitous doughnut pic

 

 

They only had 3 in the shop and I had to share 

 

Andy

PS it's good flying weather. The local airbase seems very busy today.

Edited October 29, 2021 by SM42
To add PS

[Happy Hippo]

32 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Another glorious autumn day here in the Motherland. 

Me and Mrs SM42 have been sat out on the balcony and to paraphrase an Oddball tank commander, have been "drinking some coffee, eating some doughnuts and catching some rays. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gratuitous doughnut pic

 

 

They only had 3 in the shop and I had to share 

 

Andy

PS it's good flying weather. The local airbase seems very busy today.

I would have been minded to visit more than one shop: Collected about a dozen, and then gone home and said I could only get three!

[SM42]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I would have been minded to visit more than one shop: Collected about a dozen, and then gone home and said I could only get three!

 

A mighty fine plan, but I was not alone in the shop.

 

I managed to negotiate the extra half. Not that it took much negotiation 

 

Andy

Edited October 29, 2021 by SM42

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Is that the Bachmann On30 Shay?

Yes, the "T-boiler" Shay. Somewhere I also have the On2½ Heisler. My favorite Bachmann On2½ steamer is the 4-6-0; that thing has a lot of heft.

[polybear]

 

 

4 hours ago, polybear said:

Did you leave any IED's fitted with time delay fuses behind? 

 

Which reminds me.....

A certain Bear had always hoped to very discretely set off a stink bomb (I still have a couple of those glass jobbies that you used to be able to buy forty-odd years ago - should be nicely matured by now.....) in the Human Remains Dept. on my last day, as a parting gift n' all that.  Sadly Covid went and spoilt the fun.  Turdycurses.

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, SM42 said:

Another glorious autumn day here in the Motherland. 

Me and Mrs SM42 have been sat out on the balcony and to paraphrase an Oddball tank commander, have been "drinking some coffee, eating some doughnuts and catching some rays. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gratuitous doughnut pic

 

 

They only had 3 in the shop and I had to share 

 

Andy

PS it's good flying weather. The local airbase seems very busy today.

 

Absolutely Hissing Sid here. And we might see some snow this weekend!