Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

12 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

My years of technical drawing in high school would encourage me to draw one freehand (well with a ruler, compasses and splines) - even if it ended up a little rustic.

 

If you have Microsoft Office tools, the drawing capabilities of PowerPoint are more than adequate for a signal box diagram. Most of these features also exist in Word, but I find them dreadfully awkward in that context. Since the page size for PowerPoint is essentially fixed (it can be set to different page sizes) you can get exactly the size diagram you need without scaling.

 

 

Yes I do, thanks.  I have tried previously with Word but wasn't impressed with what I achieved, I'll look at Powerpoint.  I usually try to push that to the back of my mind since I left corporate-land 6 years ago!  Death by Powerpoint was popular.

[AndyID]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

Has it got an attachment for a wheelbarrow? I might have a couple going spare. 

 

Oh yes. It can pull the boat or the caravan around without any difficulty. Put then in a brown paper bag and send them over.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all!  Perhaps this thread should be called Elevenses ...

 

Chris

[Barry O]

"Post breakfast" ERs

 

Or " just in time for a mugadecaf"

 

Neither trip off the tongue..

Baz

Edited July 3, 2020 by Barry O

[PhilJ W]

Its still morning so good morning all from Estuary-Land. Now to catch up, Which won't take long as RMweb has only been back for 20 minutes.

[Chris116]

I don't understand all this talk of name changing! I am up before midday so I have risen early which makes "Early Risers" the ideal name for this thread. 

[BoD]

13 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Query.

 

Has anyone ever made a small signal box diagram?  Maybe 6 inches long or so, just to refer to point and signal numbers?  I don't have the artistic skills to draw one freehand (or any artistic skills of that sort TBH), has anyone used a computer programme to make one?  Any hints?

DCC Concepts have files of the all the common symbols, freely downloadable in word or publisher files.  I created mine in publisher but I suspect open source software would work too.  They are easily scaleable and there as an aid to their mimic panel hardware.

 

Edit - links to download the files are here 

 

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/alpha-mimic-panel-controller-redgreen-leds/

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by BoD

[TheQ]

Hmm yes where did it go..

 

Half Mooring awl, Inner Temple Hare, 884/552

 

 I fell asleep even earlier last night, but woke up first time a little later, so it was 4.5 + 2.25 hours sleep last night for me pretty good.

 

Our mowers a twin bladed ride on, you need that with the jungle we've got.. There's a mower with a knackered deck in the garage , I'll be turning that into a mini lorry for SWMBO to use round the garden.. the tipper bit weill be a... wheel barrow "bin".

I could really do with a digger though...

 

After hours of research on Vangs , priced up the costs..

Lever vang £120

Gnav £250,

L footed boom £ 900

My solution  <£20

What I'm worried about is the only normal way to do the vang is at a very shallow angle to the boom, therefore requiring huge tension to get the needed downward pull. 

So the vang route will be from the normal place at the bottom of the mast, up to as far back along the boom as it can go without hitting the boat, through a block, along the boom to the normal vang postion for that boom, through another block to the mast as low down as it can go without hitting the boat again. Therefore halving the load at each point on boat and boom.

 the two points on both boom and mast will be about 2 ft apart.. Somewhere enroute, will be a block and tackle for tensioning the system.

 I have most of the parts for this, hence the low cost, it's most in the boat box of "it will be useful some day"..

 

SWMBO pestered me about making the Plinth for Baron, that's the only excuse I need for tomorrow, the tools are next to the boat keel...

 

Time for more measurements tea break.

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Andy Y posted on Facebook that the website might be down all day so I think in time for second breakfast deserves congratulations.

 

I am off overseas, over estuarial waters to be more accurate, later this morning to our nearest “seaside” resort (Canvey Island) for a blood test. I checked that the car would start yesterday and ran the engine for 15 minutes as recommended by the AA (Automobile Association, for our American friends information). I had a pleasant chat at about 4 metres distance with the brother of a near neighbour. He had popped round to check his brother was ok but found he was on a business conference call so spoke to me instead. He is ex army, ex met police driver and now drives the school bus. I suspect there aren’t any naughty students on his bus. The arrangements for bussing in September sound interesting. 
Tony

[The Stationmaster]

12 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Yes I do, thanks.  I have tried previously with Word but wasn't impressed with what I achieved, I'll look at Powerpoint.  I usually try to push that to the back of my mind since I left corporate-land 6 years ago!  Death by Powerpoint was popular.

Have a word with 'Harlequin' (his RMweb screen name) - if you speak to him nicely he might do one for you.  He produces exquisite GWR & BR WR style box diagrams, real dog's danglies stuff. 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunny and breezy here with threats of rain to come this afternoon.

It's taken me a while to catch up from yesterday morning especially after the site being  down for a while.

Nicki and kids visited and a great time was had by all. The good news is that Abbie has been told that her job is "almost" certainly safe.  She should get final confirmation next week so fingers still being kept crossed. Steve should find out next week as well but he seems quite upbeat from conversations he's had with his director.

Our house is 94 years old and I'm sure still has the original hand made clay roof tiles.   (apart from a few replacements where I had a chimney stack removed last year.)  We get a little bit of moss on one side but no signs of any problems or spalling.  Every few years we have the ridge and hip tiles repointed but that's about it. 

Still not visited railway part of The Shed - serious lack of my muddling mojo continues.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by grandadbob

[PhilJ W]

12 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Hmm yes where did it go..

 

Half Mooring awl, Inner Temple Hare, 884/552

 

 I fell asleep even earlier last night, but woke up first time a little later, so it was 4.5 + 2.25 hours sleep last night for me pretty good.

 

Our mowers a twin bladed ride on, you need that with the jungle we've got.. There's a mower with a knackered deck in the garage , I'll be turning that into a mini lorry for SWMBO to use round the garden.. the tipper bit weill be a... wheel barrow "bin".

I could really do with a digger though...

 

 

 

 

 

I will probably  have a wheelbarrow "bin" available soon. (Its called a tray by the manufacturers ). You can have that if you wish. Its galvanised steel 60 litre (medium) size.  I will be keeping the wheel as a spare with the axle. The handles can still be attached to the tray but not to the rest of the frame. A competent metal worker could probably fix the fault anyway, The frame, which is galvanised steel tube, is shouldered with a couple of inches narrowed above the shoulder which the handle slides over. However the narrow part on one frame is about 2 mm shorter than the other. Whoever drilled the bolt holes in the frame instead of measuring from the shoulder measured from the top of the narrow part hence the hole being 2 mm out. If I had the necessary tools I would fix it by finding a short steel tube that fits tightly inside the narrow part of the frame then using the handle as a guide re-drill the hole in the correct place.

[Barry O]

In 1916 my grandfather got out of a trench and walked towrds some Germans. He was shot throughthe throat and ended up a prisoner. The barrage affected his hearing so he became deaf. He was marked as dead but a German Doctor saved him. He spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp. On his return he didn't eat cabbage soup ever again.

 

From his wounds it would appear he was shot from below as he arrived at a trench...

He died just after I was born....

 

Baz

[Simon G]

Morning all from the wild (again!) west.  We have had three days respite from the last gale, so the wind and rain were long overdue!  I will not be venturing far today.

 

Just finished making some strawberry jam with the produce picked yesterday.  That could be the end of this year’s strawberry crop as the next three days of wind and rain won’t leave much that is fit to use.

 

This afternoon should see more layout wiring getting done, if I can find my stock of diodes, as it is a three way point to be done, and I have a cunning plan on how best to control the point.

[TheQ]

13 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I will probably  have a wheelbarrow "bin" available soon. (Its called a tray by the manufacturers ). You can have that if you wish. Its galvanised steel 60 litre (medium) size.  I will be keeping the wheel as a spare with the axle. The handles can still be attached to the tray but not to the rest of the frame. A competent metal worker could probably fix the fault anyway, The frame, which is galvanised steel tube, is shouldered with a couple of inches narrowed above the shoulder which the handle slides over. However the narrow part on one frame is about 2 mm shorter than the other. Whoever drilled the bolt holes in the frame instead of measuring from the shoulder measured from the top of the narrow part hence the hole being 2 mm out. If I had the necessary tools I would fix it by finding a short steel tube that fits tightly inside the narrow part of the frame then using the handle as a guide re-drill the hole in the correct place.

Thanks for the offer But I fear the transport costs may make it prohibitive to the coast of norfolk..

[Coombe Barton]

13 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Has anyone ever made a small signal box diagram?  Maybe 6 inches long or so, just to refer to point and signal numbers?  I don't have the artistic skills to draw one freehand (or any artistic skills of that sort TBH), has anyone used a computer programme to make one?  Any hints?

Use shapes in Word? How I draw diagrams of many types.

[chrisf]

Greetings again!

 

I did look on Facebook for a message from Andy Y but it seems that Tony S is better at making it work than I am.  Of late it seems to have become more and more difficult to find what you are looking for among the ads and other piffle.  Doubtless there are those who look upon it as an improvement.

 

Now then, where were we?  Ah yes.  The centrepiece of yesterday was always going to be the visit of  the gas engineer  to service my boiler.  He tells me that instead of relying on the British Gas webshite to arrange appointments there is an app which I could use.  Cue fear of the unknown!  He also said in passing that he uses a mobile phone for many things where I would use the laptop.  Watching a video?  Oh yes, he said.  If you hold the phone at the right distance from your nose you get the same effect as viewing it on a 40 inch screen across the room.  I don't think I can cope with typing on a phone because my fingers are rather larger than what would be the keys if it were a proper keyboard.  I make enough typos on here using the laptop!  Unlike some people, I make little use of my mobile and I have seen for myself how such instruments can dominate ones life.  The woman that I saw on a train at St Albans with a phone on each ear and braying into each one alternately made quite an impression on me all those yesrs ago and it was not a good one.

 

This morning I went to the bank to print some statements with which to reconcile the bank account.  This time there is a discrepancy of £2 which I could spend all day looking for if life were long enough.  Arithmetical error is the prime suspect.  I will get another statement in a couple of weeks and try to forget all about it in the meantime.  There are better things to worry about, if, that is, it is ever a good idea to worry.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[southern42]

On 01/07/2020 at 19:18, Happy Hippo said:

Whilst my alter ego is trying to drown, unsuccessfully, in a skip full of cake mix, the serious me can finally get a word in.

 

Is it time that a new thread is created?

 

One where like minded folk can talk about non railway things but if it occasionally spills over into railway chat, then nobody will spring a hissy fit or make contributors feel threatened or put on the naughty step.

 

From a personal perspective, I enjoy the non railway chat, and, as one that does not have a blog, a layout thread, or any other specialised threads in my name,  I find that the occasional incursion into railways, both model and real, quite enjoyable.  After all, where else could I post my railway/model railway information, such as it is becasue it's rude to take over someone else's thread in an apparent ego trip, and I've not got the time nor the inclination to start one for what would only be very occasional updates.

 

My last two posts  with railway content were to answer Polly's request to 'Give me five', and then to add some historical 16 mm scale information to Dave's contribution about saddle tanks.  Certainly, if these had appeared anywhere else on RMweb, then I doubt I would have seen them.  Whether the respective threads would have benefited from my contribution is open to debate.

 

So the first question is: Where do I post my occasional stuff if I don't have my own thread? 

 

Second question is:   In the event of a new more inclusive thread being started, how many of the current ER fraternity would contribute to the new thread?

 

Third question:  Would it kill off the original ERs?

 

The slurping and belching indicates that you know who has nearly finished, so I'd better leg it before he starts demanding chocolate, whisky and a fry up..

 

 

 

 

 

As my...er...hum...name was mentioned...

 

I have a feeling, certainly, since I came on here, that sneaking in talk of m*d*l tr**ns [Help! I can't reduce the font size!], and the like, into one's post is but a game in which many try to hide [Help! I can't strikethrough to correct!] discuss their plot with change of font size (currently missing in the Editor); strike through (currently missing); and other devices, such as advance notice: "Warning...," "Beware....;" etc., much to the enjoyment of other like minded contributors.  It would be a shame to lose this aspect of ERs, discreet or otherwise, as well as that pointed out above. 

 

Do we want to extinguish tradition?

Do we really want to get rid of the thrill of shed-bashing, on here?

 

Having what may in essence be The Depot Supervisor/Overseer/Other appropriate name/term around also seemed to enhance the game, whether any mention of MR went "unnoticed," or was "caught out" or just ignored.  So, I am wondering if the man who loves weathering is seeking promotion to such high office.  Of course, there will have to be a regular Update on the Rules & Regs, fines, confinement., etc, etc, spelt out... Oh, dear! I think I may be touching on another issue, here...cough, cough...

 

I had better self-isolate before I catch it!

[PhilJ W]

18 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Thanks for the offer But I fear the transport costs may make it prohibitive to the coast of norfolk..

Not to worry, There's a few SEERS members who can build a live steam engine from scratch, they could probably do as I described in a few minutes. 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning (just) all.

 

I hope Andy manages to fix the outage problems before tomorrow's big event - could be good fun and the 'm new releases' might be of particular interest to one or two of us if what I'm  sort of expecting is announced.  So fingers crossed that all aY's hard work isn't disrupted,  The shopping has been shopped and duly quarantined/disinfected etc - great team work on this with the Good Doctor who has only had to go into work on two days this week plus one study day at home.  In the meanwhile after feeling a (brief)  'funny sort of pain' yesterday the lad is visiting the cardio unit at the RBH for a check up in view of his previous history - all seemed ok after the one incidence yesterday but the GP very sensibly wanted it checked out by the Cardio Unit so off he has gone - fingers are crossed.

 

No other news although the sounds of my concrete mixer from next door would seem to indicate progress with the pizza oven.  Enjoy the rest of your day one and all and stay safe.

[jamie92208]

21 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Well, obviously white is neutral. "Hot" should be black but I suppose that must the red one. Purple is a new one on me

 

OK, so you can press buttons at multiple locations to latch the relay to turn on the lights but how do you turn the bloomin things off?

 

The way it works is if you press any of the buttons again it switches off. It just toggles every time it gets a pulse of power.

22 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

"All hat, no cattle" as they say in Texas.

The quote I know is "All fur coat and no knickers"  which is how Harrogate was described to me by a colleague  who had worked there.

18 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Query.

 

Has anyone ever made a small signal box diagram?  Maybe 6 inches long or so, just to refer to point and signal numbers?  I don't have the artistic skills to draw one freehand (or any artistic skills of that sort TBH), has anyone used a computer programme to make one?  Any hints?

Send me a PM Neil.

 

Amyway good afternoon  all.  I have been out on my little tractor with trailer attached to collect a load of horse merde (sh1t in English).  The other news is that my Volvo failed it's MOT this morning.  The tyre fitter had still left me with 2 different  makes on the front. I also need to polish/clean the headlamp lenses. Nothing too expensive as I have a tyre of the correct make in the shed.  I also got the new relay fitted but the lights didn't come on. I hope to investigate further this afternoon.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

Edited July 3, 2020 by jamie92208

[The Stationmaster]

Polly, Does this help or are the changes in the wrong places?

 

I have a feeling, certainly, since I came on here, that sneaking in talk of m*d*l tr**ns [Help! I can't reduce the font size!], and the like, into one's post is but a game in which many try to hide [Help! I can't strikethrough to correct!] discuss their plot with change of font size (currently missing in the Editor); strike through (currently missing); and other devices,

[Chris116]

Breakfast was had around 12:10 after SWMBO had her cup of coffee reheated in the microwave as she fell asleep after it was served at 10am. Breakfast was bacon, egg and fried potato (the remains of the roast from last night).

[laurenceb]

On 02/07/2020 at 07:20, grandadbob said:

 

P.S. I'm thinking of organising a new union:- The Society Opposing Desecration Of Furry Friends or SODOFF for short!

Thinking of asking  Mr Polybear to act as President  and ChrisF as Secretary.

This from the bloke who put his dog in the oven! (Cant remember why!)

Edited July 3, 2020 by laurenceb

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Very early morning all,

 

 

As my ceiling fan decided to behave itself for a few days, I used it last night. Then at about 5 am, it began making loud popping and grinding noises, so I haven’t really slept since. So no more sleeping in peace until the fan is either fixed or a new one found. Materials were collected from hobby shop, and put to good use, but that’s enough of that. Now I’m thinking about what to eat for breakfast, beans or bacon, the age old question.

 

stay healthy,

 

from a very tired Douglas

Edited July 3, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works