Early Risers.

[Dave Hunt]

I knew it was too good to last. After spending an enjoyable day on Friday playing trains with Tony Wright and celebrating a close friend's birthday yesterday, it has been announced this morning that we are going to a garden centre shortly. I suppose it's better than having to watch tennis though.....

 

Enjoy Sunday folks.

 

Dave

[tigerburnie]

Morning all, proper autumnal out there, cool, damp and foggy, not exactly rain, but it's not dry either, oh well things to do, enjoy your day all.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

It's chuckinitdarn here in England's northwest, still its meant that I don't need to go out and water the plants. Which means that I'm staying in and finishing off the storage area floor. The storage area isn't huge, but I can sit up comfortably in it and it's a lot bigger than some of the crawl spaces I've been in! But it'll serve its purpose of storing half used paint cans, spare electrical sockets, switches and cable etc which used to be in the cellar. 

 

Oh well, I'd best get cracking. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian 

[leopardml2341]

3 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

But it'll serve its purpose of storing half used paint cans......

Forgive me if I'm teaching egg sucking, but it ain't a good idea to store oil based paints and solvents under a wooden floor, or stairs for that matter, just in case......

[Coombe Barton]

Decided that I have to do something in the kitchen when the potatoes were pleading for me to take them walkies.

[Pacific231G]

Morning all

Got up very late this morning (after going to bed very late last night) having finally been woken by rain lashing down the windows. It's paused now but ominous dark clouds are being... well,  ominous... and we're due showers all day today.

 

Just had my traditional Sunday French breakfast of mixed fruit with Greek yoghurt, half a small bake-it-yourself sourdough baguette and a croissant accompanied by a small omelette, Normandy butter,  cheese and St. Dalfour orange marmalade (made with the byproducts of wine making rather than sugar) and a café au lait. Rather high in carbs so generally a once a week treat.

 

Today I plan to finally sort out* my modelling tools....so I probably won't! 

 

This weekend I should be at the Baie de Somme enjoying their triennial (but delayed by a year) Fête de la Vapeur which is a magnificent event involving about twenty six kilometres of rolled steel rods a thousand millimetres apart bolted to wooden planks and about seven kilometres of them one thousand four hundred and thirty five millimetres apart .

A French friend who is there emailed me to say that on Friday he saw eight machines filled with very hot water and chained together making a lot of noise and water vapour as they went up a steep slope behind the town of St. Valery-sur-Somme.

 

I tried writing ..plan finally to sort out.... but the split infinitive scans far better in English, as it so often does, so yah boo sucks to the self appointed grammar police!

Edited July 4, 2021 by Pacific231G

[petethemole]

27 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Decided that I have to do something in the kitchen when the potatoes were pleading for me to take them walkies.

Had they grown little legs?

[Coombe Barton]

1 minute ago, petethemole said:

Had they grown little legs?

Not so little

[Coombe Barton]

37 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Not so little

Have you ever tried to get a lead on a potato?

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Well it's still morning on GMT. As you may have gathered I've overslept this morning and what with finding a very full e-mail inbox and perusing and rating ER's its taken me an hour to get here.

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

What channel? Do tell.

The Drama channel, not sure if you can get it in Switzerland. It is available on line however.

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Decided that I have to do something in the kitchen when the potatoes were pleading for me to take them walkies.

40 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Had they grown little legs?

 

39 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Not so little

I had the same and I threw them on a compost heap and buried them. Got a lovely crop, didn't have to buy any spuds for months. 

[PupCam]

Clear Prop!

 

Morning all well, technically afternoon I know but as I haven't had my lunch yet morning it is!

 

Mercury Arc Rectifiers - what marvellous if scary beasts and one of many favourites at the Science Museum all those years ago.   Personally, I think the  Museum went right off of the boil when the got shot of the "electrical equipment", "railway" and numerous other halls.   The last time I visited the aviation hall was still hanging on by the skin  of its teeth although the exhibits were looking very down at heal and the whole place could have done with a B G dust.   Still good to know most of the museums are keen and eager to "enhance the visitor experience" (pass the bucket will you I'm feeling queezy) for the little darlings and replace everything real with everything virtual.   I vowed not to rush back and I haven't ......

 

Puppers has spent a great deal of time over the last few days fiddling with Arduinos and WiFi modules trying to find out how to make magic pass from one little box to another via the ether.   Previously as strictly a user of WiFi rather than a "Practitioner" (if indeed one can be such a thing!), the learning curve has been very steep with numerous blind alleys but as ever, patience and persistence are useful characteristics to have when undertaking such endeavours and have been used to the full recently.   Fortunately Puppers is blessed with these in fairly large quantities when it comes to an interesting technical problem although that is not universally true.   Recall his complete lack of patience when dealing with GP's receptionists as but one example.      

 

Anyway, he has at last achieved his goal of sending commands from one little anonymous plastic box (which ultimately may well have an assortment of knobs and switches on it to be used in generating said commands) to another little anonymous plastic box, the purpose of which is to receive and process those instructions and encode them into the form of a variable pulse width data stream of approximately 15V amplitude which may (or may not be) transferred across a horizontal surface via two parallel and careful spaced metallic strips on which sit strange vehicles which roll along those strips by means of attached wheels.  Some of those vehicles may even draw energy for propulsive purposes as well as information from those said metallic strips.      If any of you should be "of that persuasion" there's a video clip, nudge nudge wink wink, of a little test.     All of the "action" to be observed (audibly and visually) is choreographed by the clever little grey box on the right, all Puppers did for the test was to power it up and then let it talk to its friend,  the little grey box on the left which is connected to those funny metallic strips.    

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr8iwFG67w8

 

I love it when a plan comes together

 

Alan

 

[45156]

4 hours ago, PupCam said:

Mercury Arc Rectifiers - what marvellous if scary beasts and one of many favourites at the Science Museum all those years ago.  

 

Memories of the Glasgow suburban AM3 units where it was finally proved that these were not a good idea in moving trains - though they were also used in some of the AC electric locos in classes AL1 - AL5 (yes I know these were otherwise classified under TOPS, but I'm not into newfangled ideas like that).

 

Afternoon All

 

AWOL for over a week, so sorry - have missed about 20 pages, and won't be able to catch up.  So it's just the now obligatory but sincerely meant generic greetings.

 

Totally fed up with the wall to wall sport on TV, and very grateful for the BT TV box with access to the various players, and two channels at once recording facility.

 

30747 now wants to do YET ANOTHER house search on RIghtmove - back sometome.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited July 4, 2021 by 45156
Typo - AL3 should be AM3 of course

[Winslow Boy]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Ouch.  Hopefully not a metallic colour?  Bear purchased a new Rover 214 back in '93 and it had a bl00dy great run in the paint down the passenger door  (missed during so-called PDI, for which they charged 300 notes...).

It took 3 goes to get the colour match (silver metallic) - they had to paint the entire left side of the car in the end....

 

In other news:

 

No jealousy now, but Bear has a working sink - with working Hot AND Cold Taps

Just like wot they've got on Downton Abbey....I can do posh things like fill the Kettle and get a cup of water.....

No LDC (Co-op are still in the doghouse), though a wedge of SCC will definitely feature during today's proceedings.

 

Does that mean you can clear the backlog of unwashed crockery from the bath now. Plus no standing naked in the sink to eat your avocado.

[iL Dottore]

2 minutes ago, PupCam said:

…Mercury Arc Rectifiers - what marvellous if scary beasts and one of many favourites at the Science Museum all those years ago.   Personally, I think the  Museum went right off of the boil when the got shot of the "electrical equipment", "railway" and numerous other halls.   The last time I visited the aviation hall was still hanging on by the skin  of its teeth although the exhibits were looking very down at heal and the whole place could have done with a B G dust.   Still good to know most of the museums are keen and eager to "enhance the visitor experience" (pass the bucket will you I'm feeling queezy) for the little darlings and replace everything real with everything virtual.   I vowed not to rush back and I haven't .....

I was having a really good day until I read that.  Totally relaxed, with nothing to rant about until... that!

 

How the curators (at least they call themselves that, I have another name for them) and the governing board get away with destroying beautiful museums by trying to attract the pig ignorant type that their “think thanks“ and “focus groups”  tell them should be visiting the museum, is beyond me. And it’s all pointless, given that the demographic they want to attract have absolutely no interest in going to any sort of museum. All they (curators, etc) do is ruin the museum experience for everybody else.

 

And as for adding the gloss and sheen of high technology to the various exhibitions, any such effort it is nearly always let down by Britain’s current propensity for doing everything as cheaply as possible. I’m sure many on ER have visited museums in the United States and wondered at how beautifully the exhibits are exhibited and curated. But we must never forget that when the Americans decide to do something, they generally do do it properly, to a high standard - spending what is necessary to get the job done. Britain can also put on marvellous museum exhibitions: I attended a fantastic exhibition on Pink Floyd at the V&A (Their Mortal Remains) a few years back. Very high-tech! (Such as individual Wi-Fi Koss headphones, set up so that you could only hear the relevant commentary and music only when you stood in front of the relevant display) Beautifully exhibited but, and this is a big but, it cost 30 LDC tokens to visit and it was a staggered and timed entry.

 

Fortunately, there still are many beautiful museums in the UK, however (and this may be me being a bit cynical here) they are nearly all small museums run by volunteers and curated by people who have a passion for the subject and who don’t follow the latest trendy academic thinking about this, that or the other. 
 

The difference between the curator who loves and knows his/her subject and the “professional curator“ who knows f***- all about the subject but knows everything about “Museum studies“ can be summed up as follows: the one who loves and knows his subject will put on an exhibition entitled “ Mercury: how quicksilver is beautiful, useful and deadly!“, Whereas the other type of curator would put on an exhibition in titled “Mercury: sexism and colonialism in bauxite mining“ (and before anyone says anything, I know Mercury is mostly obtained from cinnabar - I am making  point!). The former exhibition will contain relevant exhibits, neatly displayed and with labels that inform but don’t condescend; The latter exhibition will contain a high percentage of exhibits that have nothing to do with mercury and all the cheap video and touch display would have already broken four hours after the exhibition’s opening! And the labels? Well, let’s say that the script for a children’s TV presenter who says to the watching children “ Hello boys and girls. Today we are talking about mercury. Can you say mercury? It IS a big word, isn’t it?” is probably a huge intellectual step above the the labels from the museum trendies…
 

Cynical? Moi?

[PupCam]

9 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I was having a really good day until I read that.  Totally relaxed, with nothing to rant about until... that!

Whoops! 
 

I think I may have just struck a small nerve .... 

 

But a first class, excellent and 100% accurate rant.   That exactly sums up my views on the way so many once brilliant museums have gone. The RAF museum at Hendon is another one that was being “done over” last time I was there and again, I’ll not be rushing back. 
 

Now just don’t get me started on modern TV documentaries .... 

[Gwiwer]

Afternoon all,

 

The Hill of Strawberries is currently enjoying some rather humid sunshine after a wet night and morning.  Neighbour (Top Flat) has departed for a career elsewhere and was less than chuffed to have to remove her things in the pouring rain.  

 

G-ing has been engaged in between heavy downpours including spraying soap to remove nasty caterpillars which were becoming fatter-pillars on our roses.  The entire flat has been treated for moths after a few were discovered enjoying a scarf property of Dr. SWMBO.  

 

The shoplifters fitters are in at the pharmacy meaning there is drilling and grinding going on.  Maybe they are shoplifters after all   Or maybe all that drilling and grinding indicates we are going to receive another dentist!  

 

 

[JohnDMJ]

 

 

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

Morning all well, technically afternoon I know but as I haven't had my lunch yet morning it is!

 

Noon is DEFINED as 12:00:00 mid day. 12:00:01 is AFTERNOON!

 

 

[Gwiwer]

Just now, JohnDMJ said:

 

 

 

Noon is DEFINED as 12:00:00 mid day. 12:00:01 is AFTERNOON!

 

 

But on the railway each minute is defined as from 30 seconds before the exact minute to 30 seconds after.  A train due to leave at 12:00 may therefore do so at 11:59:30 or at 12:00:30 and be considered on time either way.  Arguments about "early" departures are one thing but those who choose to believe the train should be available for boarding until 12:00:59 fail to grasp that it then departs late - a point about which they might also complain!  

[PupCam]

9 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

 

 

Noon is DEFINED as 12:00:00 mid day. 12:00:01 is AFTERNOON!

 

 

The Space/Time continuum is flexible,  particularly in the Puppers household where, AFTERNOON is most definitely defined as AFTERMUNCH

[PhilJ W]

If you want to see why museums are not what they used to be look at the signage to where it says 'Sponsored by'.

[PhilJ W]

Rant time. The new weather report at the bottom of the page on Windows 10 is a right PITA. When writing my last post as I went to click on the submit button I brushed the cursor over it where it instantly popped up covering half the page, including the submit button. I didn't click on it I just brushed over it with the cursor.

[JohnDMJ]

Hello! (I make no reference to Noon deliberately for fear that some poor individual may reference Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits! No MIlk Today, then!)

 

47 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

But on the railway each minute is defined as from 30 seconds before the exact minute to 30 seconds after.  A train due to leave at 12:00 may therefore do so at 11:59:30 or at 12:00:30 and be considered on time either way.  Arguments about "early" departures are one thing but those who choose to believe the train should be available for boarding until 12:00:59 fail to grasp that it then departs late - a point about which they might also complain!  

 

That's a totally different goat! "Doors may close up to 30 seconds before departure." What a totally imbecilic notion!!!!

 

Outside of the UK, every other country seems to have adopted the sensible notion that the times given in their timetables are the DOOR CLOSURE times with departure being a few seconds later.

 

If only the numskulls in the UK TOCs could get their heads around this ...

 

Scenario: I had a taxi to the station for the 13:00 train; I arrived at the station at 12:59:45. My train had departed at 12:59:40. Polite words fail me!

 

Oh, and before anyone wants to shoot the timings down, this ONLY happens in the UK!! Abysmal is an understatement!

Edited July 4, 2021 by JohnDMJ

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, 45156 said:

Memories of the Glasgow suburban AL3 units where it was finally proved that these were not a good idea in moving trains - though they were also used in some of the AC electric locos in classes AL1 - AL5 (yes I know these were otherwise classified under TOPS, but I'm not into newfangled ideas like that).

 

 

 

 

Stewart

I believe that they were used much nearer to where you live. The 2nd generation of Lancaster Morecambe  and Heysham  Electrucs, AL1's I believe, had Mercury Arc rectifiers in big cast iron tanks hung from the underfrane. Apparently  they were sometimes reluctant to strike an arc after a wet night stored in the open at Morecambe. The story goes that the solution was to put a lighted paraffin rag into it, this supposedly ionised the air enough to make it work. One unit was eqipped with Silicon Germanium rectifiers towards the end.  

 

Jamie

Edited July 4, 2021 by jamie92208

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

But on the railway each minute is defined as from 30 seconds before the exact minute to 30 seconds after.  A train due to leave at 12:00 may therefore do so at 11:59:30 or at 12:00:30 and be considered on time either way.  Arguments about "early" departures are one thing but those who choose to believe the train should be available for boarding until 12:00:59 fail to grasp that it then departs late - a point about which they might also complain!  

Oh no it isn't.  The minute is the minute and shown as such in the WTT.   Half minutes are half minutes and also shown as such in the WTT and they are all exact times - not 'think about, I must be going time'.  How the merry heck do you think peiople could otherwise write a timetable especially when using things like 2 minute headways or junction margins or 30 second station dwell times?   and of course from time to time the railway has also used quarter minutes in timetables (not the public version thereof).

 

Signed a long experienced railway operator who at times actually wrote both freight and passenger timetables and who over the years managed four different train planning offices and for several years was a member of the BR Train Planning Standards Group and also a member of the (national) Train Planning Training Team.  

 

Are you suggesting that we didn't know how to do our jobs?  Are you uiggesting that for almost a decade when i was involved we didn't train people properly?

 

However when it comes to 'adjusting' (aka fiddling) station timekeeping records that rounding minutes in a positive was far from unknown and of course 1 minute later was usually officall;y counted as D Right Time for statistical purposes.

 

PS I was also a member of the European Passenger Timetable Conference for several years and I dealt reguLarly with various mainland European railway's timetabling staff. and had occasion at various times to lookat the train graphs  So I know what their published departure also meant.  

Edited July 4, 2021 by The Stationmaster

[TheQ]

Clear editor of something some time ago..like days..

Afternoon Awl,

Very stiff of body when work commenced on the boat, first haul the boat up as high as I can .

 

Then run a half round file round the edge of the hole in aft end of the boat, that's aft not arse..

 

Then push the rudder stock into said hole ..with difficulty.. much twisting around the axis while lifting rudder. After about half way up, pulled out,  cleaned end and inserted again. This time it eventually went through scraping clean the hole. . I think the old grease had collected dust and bits of detritusfrom other work. 

 

The T steering rod was inserted through the top of the rudder stock and the rudder allowed to drop that gave room to paint the top of the rudder with the sides. The bottom of the keel was also painted.

 

The rubber gunnel round the boat was trimmed at the aft end , I don't like the finish, but they don't make a cap like they do for the larger sizes. I think I'll have the raid the modelling supplies for something to finish the ends.

 

The "eyes " on the bow were sanded and painted..

 

Ben the I want a walk Collie took me for his long walk but I didn't allow him the full route, just as well, he was stopping and lying in the shade on the way back. Too hot.

 

After that I sat in the chair by the boat pondering what next while consuming a can of cider. I've come to the conclusion the boat won't be ready for regatta week, there are only 3 weekends left.

 

To do,

The seat needs final fitting, varnishing etc.

Fit steering gear, some parts I have from the previous installation, some will need to be made,

Two boat hatches that sail with the boat need to be repaired/ modified repainted .

Two boat hatches that just cover the boat cockpit when not in use need to be refinished,

One boat hatch has to be manufactured from the remains of a other as another non sailing cover.

 

Remove marquee, raise boat, put trailer beneath, lower boat onto trailer fit and adjust boat support arms.

Install mast, start fitting halyards, sheets , etc, various lead throughs, cleats jammers etc need fitting.

The jib club needs all its fittings attached.

Do a trial fit of the sails, I know I need to make some battens for the main.