Early Risers.

[Horsetan]

Good result from France tonight.

At least until they all get disillusioned again.

 

...On Saturday and Sunday I will be at ExpoEM, so expect some rude comments next week about Bracknell town centre or what is left of it.

See you there on Saturday, maybe.

 

I'm half-considering whether to indulge in a Finney T3 kit given that there probably won't be any more produced, but the problem is that the expected £180 cost will cut into the Citroën CX Fund.....

Edited May 8, 2017 by Horsetan

[Happy Hippo]

Traverser construction restarts this morning.  the least said about the last effort the better, but my advice is not to try and span two boards with one traverser.  On a portable layout, you do not get consistent repeatability as moving the boards to a differing location sets up minute but noticeable changes in  angles and how the boards sit.

 

It was interesting to see Don's comments both on Rob Bennett's Busybody figures and radio control v manual control of steam locos.

 

To deal with the latter first:  I started off with live steam in 1980 with one of the then new Mamod train sets.  There were two speeds, stop and go, so rather discouraged by that, the next loco was bought in fitted with r/c.

 

Excellent control, but as Don points out, once you are hugging the transmitter, you tend to wander after the engine, a bit like a lamb following a ewe.

 

Over the subsequent years, refinements in loco design have made manual engines far more controllable, and although I still have a couple of radio engines, they are both stripped down awaiting rebuilds back to manual control. One, a Merlin Maestro, also requires a new boiler as the  original brass one is showing signs of de-zincification around the boiler fitting bushes. 

 

Rob Bennett's Busybody business was a natural extension of the work he did with our first 7'8th exhibition layout venture, Dhoom and Horton Quarry.  This was a  rather large dual gauge (32 & 45 mm ) 24' x 12' creation.  It required a large van and plenty of operators, and after the operating team began to drift off to other projects, it was broken up.

 

Rob and I then went on to make Wrekin Havock, which employed the quarry figures but also required a military theme so Rob started sculpting various caricatures.  These were to represent the type of person seen in the Ealing  comedies of the time, who were indeed caricatures of people themselves.

 

 They were quite basic, but after about 30 or so the quality was definitely improving, and Rob then started getting requests for further figures from other modellers.

 

One lady, who is a well known blonde in the G scale society, asked for one of herself and Rob, ever willing, obliged.

 

The resulting model certainly turned heads, as the finished model lady stood there  with only her hands to ensure she was modestly clad!

Edited May 8, 2017 by Happy Hippo

[roundhouse]

Good morning.

 

A great weekend at the Freemo meet in Devon and good evenings out.

 

We left the venue at 3pm in Christow and were home before 7pm despite problems on the M3 and A3.

 

I took quote a lot of items to sell but so did quite a few others so came back with all but three freight cars. At least that's three spaces free for other things now.

 

That's the last outing with a layoit now till mid August.

 

Currently sitting in doctors for a few check ups then off to work worse luck.

[lightengine]

Thinking about turning the TV into a photo frame.

I have little interest in other folk's houses, cooking, advertisements seemingly produced by 9 year olds, talent(less) shows, Antiques programmes presented by a chap who died four years ago, constant repeats, the same programme on several channels, smutty innuendo at every opportunity, humourless comedy, poor production standards and on and on.

Even the News seems doomed to meaningless jabber between the presenters.

There are a few diamond chips among the plastic bling but they are so rare that it's hardly worth the effort of organising a life around them.

Just my opinion.

My thoughts entirely. Just yesterday Flop It featured the re-incarnated antique expert.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Got to be out a bit sharpish this morning to get the tyre sorted, then to Tesco's to change an LED lightbulb that I purchased yesterday, somehow I picked up one with a screw fitting instead of a bayonet fitting. All I can say is that I took them out of the same box. Not a lot else to report, be back later.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.

 

Interesting to read about the r/c vs manual live steam control.  I started with a Beck Anna in 1980 I think, which had two speeds - slow and stopped for a blow-up.  Useless thing.  I didn't venture into steam again (being involved with much larger locos on a passenger carrying line) for years, as I didn't really have space for an outdoor layout.  when we moved here I sold some railwayana to purchase a Roundhouse loco (only one dear - 8 steamers later!), and having built a garden railway soon found other folk running on it!

 

I found two schools of R/C running - I sit down in a chair, and drive from there.  Wine to hand. Several others do something similar.  Others follow their locos around like dogs on a lead, presumably as they want to see the works whizzing around or something.  Never saw the point myself.  My line has severe gradients so manual locos are a handful to say the least, only the occasional visitor runs manual, and they are generally younger and fitter than most of us!

 

One thing I hate though, and which seems to common, is narrow gauge live steam locos being driven much too fast.  Seems very prevalent, drives me mad. If you want that, buy a G1 A4 or something.  My trackwork is sufficiently bad to be fairly self policing, although a visitor did once scare the hell out of me running a big NG loco with several large and heavy scratch built coaches at warp factor ten - they stayed on, but my heart was in my mouth, my line is raised!

 

All that ended up with me working in the trade when I 'retired', through a friendship forged running garden railways.

 

Wrekin Havoc, as mentioned by Richard, was a tremendous influence, so it's partially his fault I have no money but several locos!

[trisonic]

At least until they all get disillusioned again.

 

 

 

 

Yep, predictably when things like this get shown on TV - again. I’m not sure what to make of it except it’s frightening to the “regular French Jo”:

 

 

I had an uncomfortable thought about CRS involvement....

 

Oh, well...

 

Best, Pete.

[The Lurker]

Morning all from a cold Sidcup. The double glazing work started this morning so the house is open to the cold. We are having the whole house re-glazed so they will be here a few days. I hope I can at least work from home tomorrow, but I need to be in the office on Wednesday, so I am hoping they are reasonably trustworthy! I wil be testing this by going up the road in a while as we need more sugar for their cups of tea!

I have not had a chance to catch up fully so best wishes to all

[tetsudofan]

Thinking about turning the TV into a photo frame.

I have little interest in other folk's houses, cooking, advertisements seemingly produced by 9 year olds, talent(less) shows, Antiques programmes presented by a chap who died four years ago, constant repeats, the same programme on several channels, smutty innuendo at every opportunity, humourless comedy, poor production standards and on and on.

Even the News seems doomed to meaningless jabber between the presenters.

There are a few diamond chips among the plastic bling but they are so rare that it's hardly worth the effort of organising a life around them.

Just my opinion.

 

Agree with you completely. The television here followed my late Mum when she went into care about six years ago. Mum was missed but the television certainly wasn't!!

 

Keith

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I overslept somewhat this morning. I didn't respond to radio alarm, newspaper delivery or any other morning noises. Even Robbie remained asleep.

Aditi has delivered her mother to her Monday morning bridge club and will collect her from the club and deliver her to the swimming pool for her exercise class at lunchtime. Aditi may swim too.

MiL told me she is really enjoying Aditi's company. Aditi is looking forward to returning home tomorrow.

I think breakfast will be late enough to count as lunch. I have the ingredients for full English so I may as well indulge.

Tony

[Tony_S]

We have televisions but seem to mainly use them for watching films or weather forecasts.

My Mum used to love the daytime TV programmes and watched them on her visits here. However Matthew did ask her if she ever watched anything cheerful. There was one Australian soap that if anyone appeared cheerful they were definitely destined for some medical or emotional tragedy.

Tony

[Horsetan]

....I presume that the sort of construction you are thinking about is:

 

Er muss der Kuchen gegessen haben - He must have eaten the cake.

 

Er muss schneller geworden sein - He must have become faster.

 

In which case, past participle comes first, followed by the auxillary verb.....

 

There are bits of the sentence construction that seem almost like Latin grammar....

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Somewhat cloudy and no rain forecast but the occasional breezes tend to suggest that it might rain a bit - Head Gardener will be happy if it does.

 

TV programmes sem to have reached the pits with only occasional brighter spots (I rather enjoyed the Battle of Benfleet last week on 'The Last Kingdom' for example) but most of my watching is films and in a lot of cases they're the stuff on Talking Pictures and although some of them are dire (and frequently repeated) they are interesting in showing how the country really looked back in the 1950s rather than the chocolate box way shown on model railways.

 

Today I shall be off to the nail bar to have a pedicure - definitely better than the chiropodist and considerably cheaper - in readiness for much walking tomorrow as we will be off to sunny (I hope) Ealing to see a friend and visit the Musical Museum at Brentford and no doubt at some stage partaking of fish & chips at Kerbisher & Malt on the New Broadway.

 

Have a good day everyone

[Tony_S]

There are bits of the sentence construction that seem almost like Latin grammar....

When I was at school the problem with German was that studying it seemed to require some knowledge of grammar. Only very basic English grammar was taught in English and the school was exceptionally proud of not teaching Latin.

I went to a grammar school. Matthew went to a neighbourhood comprehensive. I am sure he has a greater technical knowledge of grammar than I do. Aditi loves grammar.

[grandadbob]

I've mentioned previously that I've been having problems with cats using my garden as a toilet and am trying various methods to deter them. Several people have suggested water pistols so today I bought a pump action version in Sainsbury's.

Just spotted one of the culprits jumping off my shed onto garden, took aim and fired. I've never seen a cat move so fast.   

There is a new sheriff in town!

Edited May 8, 2017 by grandadbob

[BSW01]

We only have one TV set in the house and that is in the living room. As far as I'm concerned, the bedroom is for two things and one of those is sleep! Its rarely ever on during the day, usually getting switched on for the first time as we sit down with a cuppa to catch the 6 o'clock news.

I'm very lucky in that Sheila doesn't watch any soaps, reality, or talent(less) shows. Like a few, we tend to watch films or selected programmes, usually recorded, so we can fast forward through all the banal advertisements.

[Horsetan]

.....As far as I'm concerned, the bedroom is for two things and one of those is sleep!....

 

Please don't say what the other one is.....

[Mike Bellamy]

then to Tesco's to change an LED lightbulb that I purchased yesterday, somehow I picked up one with a screw fitting instead of a bayonet fitting.

 

 

You obviously need to take some expert advice - I recommend you look at this topic - it should tell you all you need to know about Light Bulbs - and it's almost as mad as Early Risers . . .

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/122458-forum-trolls/?p=2709176

 

 

.

[grandadbob]

My TV viewing is mainly news, films and sport with the odd historical drama thrown in. I record lots of things for a rainy day but after 3 or 4 months if I haven't got round to watching them they get deleted.

The Boss hogs the main TV up until 9.00 most nights watching various soap type things. (apart from Friday night if there's rugby on.)

Edited May 8, 2017 by grandadbob

[DDolfelin]

Further on TV subject:

 

I have every sympathy with those that have a speech impediment.

BUT - why employ them in various roles which require them to impart information to viewers?

Commentating with what sounds to me like a mouthful of snail shells cannot be desirable.

 

Regional accents are appropriate for regional programmes but I have great difficulty understanding a number of familiar faces, to the extent that I won't bother.

I may write the cheque for my next TV License in Mandarin.

[BSW01]

Please don't say what the other one is.....

Spoil sport!

[bbishop]

I've mentioned previously that I've been having problems with cats using my garden as a toilet and am trying various methods to deter them. Several people have suggested water pistols so today I bought a pump action version in Sainsbury's.

Just spotted one of the culprits jumping off my shed onto garden, took aim and fired. I've never seen a cat move so fast.   

There is a new sheriff in town!

I would suggest a catapult.  You can buy them from fishing shops (used for launching maggots) and I'm sure one of our resident spaniels can provide golf balls for ammunition.  However, this is GDB and surely the risk of a misfire and resultant contusion is too great.

 

Bill

[Happy Hippo]

Please don't say what the other one is.....

I thought it was getting up......................................in the morning of course!

[Happy Hippo]

This works against cats:

 

 

I've just realised that one of these was the last tracked vehicle I drove whilst in the Army.

Edited May 8, 2017 by Happy Hippo

[Purley Oaks]

Please don't say what the other one is.....

Surely it's for having breakfast in bed. Since the kids are all either away some or all of the time, we have breakfast in bed most days - we take it in turns btw!

 

And then there's the other thing

 

Mal