Wright writes.....

Ian Rathbone · February 10

I have the story of the BR renumbering of steam and early diesel & electrics on my website. The GW did renumber some South Wales locos around the time of nationalisation.

Meanwhile, the Black 5 I showed earlier in this thread is now nearly complete and did some running in on Buck’s Hill. (BH has a website).

Ian R

gr.king · February 11

14 hours ago, rowanj said:

I totally agree, Graeme, as long as those who disagree are equally entitled to respond in the same vein. Of course the comments about shooting were in jest, though not, in my view in particularly good taste. I was more concerned about the blanket disparaging of a vital profession- love them or hate them.

I would be sorry if Lez were to leave- his modelling posts are worth reading.

I'm going to leave all this well alone.

The right of reply is, as you suggest, just as essential as the right to express an opinion or belief, even if others might have hurt feelings.

My experience of bean counters / accountants is that they are of course useful, as are many business tools, so long as those using the services of an accountant understand what is actually meant by the figures that the accountant produces, as well as understanding the data from which those figures were prepared, and the rules (sometimes arbitrary tax laws) that had to be followed in preparing the figures. Taking figures in accounts as "gospel" can be highly misleading if they are not really understood, and putting accountants effectively in full control of a business can be disastrous if the accountants do not understand fully, and cater for, the various subtle ways in which the business makes its money and attracts customers. Some activities that appear to cost money rather than make money may actually be to the overall benefit of the business.

Jol Wilkinson · February 11

As Graeme points out, much depends on how much influence accountants are given within an organisation. My experience in the companies I worked for was that they were relied upon to provide an accurate picture of the company's financial performance and situation, offering advice on action that could be taken. Ultimately it was down to the directors and operational management to decide what to do, given their knowledge of the business.

rowanj · February 11

42 minutes ago, gr.king said:

The right of reply is, as you suggest, just as essential as the right to express an opinion or belief, even if others might have hurt feelings.

My experience of bean counters / accountants is that they are of course useful, as are many business tools, so long as those using the services of an accountant understand what is actually meant by the figures that the accountant produces, as well as understanding the data from which those figures were prepared, and the rules (sometimes arbitrary tax laws) that had to be followed in preparing the figures. Taking figures in accounts as "gospel" can be highly misleading if they are not really understood, and putting accountants effectively in full control of a business can be disastrous if the accountants do not understand fully, and cater for, the various subtle ways in which the business makes its money and attracts customers. Some activities that appear to cost money rather than make money may actually be to the overall benefit of the business.

I'm going back to the much simpler task of working out which small bits of my North Eastern Kits D20 go where, and how I can make them fit without burning my fingers and unsoldering all the pteviously fitted small parts...........And any further posts on railway modelling shall remain. Why, at my age, I can get agitated about some of this other stuff is a mystery,... a bit like, how do all these parts fir together to make the inside valve gear.

Northmoor · February 11

So what we're saying is, we don't like people being in leadership positions and having too much control in an organisation, when they aren't very good at their job? Hardly a controversial view.... so please don't keep away, Lez.

John Tomlinson · February 11

47 minutes ago, gr.king said:

The right of reply is, as you suggest, just as essential as the right to express an opinion or belief, even if others might have hurt feelings.

My experience of bean counters / accountants is that they are of course useful, as are many business tools, so long as those using the services of an accountant understand what is actually meant by the figures that the accountant produces, as well as understanding the data from which those figures were prepared, and the rules (sometimes arbitrary tax laws) that had to be followed in preparing the figures. Taking figures in accounts as "gospel" can be highly misleading if they are not really understood, and putting accountants effectively in full control of a business can be disastrous if the accountants do not understand fully, and cater for, the various subtle ways in which the business makes its money and attracts customers. Some activities that appear to cost money rather than make money may actually be to the overall benefit of the business.

I wouldn't disagree with any of that, and I'd suggest that putting specialist professionals in charge of any business has its risks, you could for example say the same of lawyers.

What is important with accountants is to distinguish the "recorders and reporters" from the "analysts and forecasters". Whilst both are useful, it is in my view the latter where a finance training really comes into its own in a business context, in guiding decisions and hopefully preventing serious mistakes.

John.

Willie Whizz · February 11

As an ex-bank manager who was supposed to rely on businesses’ Audited Accounts and (sometimes, when you could get them) Management Accounts as an indicator of whether we should lend (or continue to lend) them money, I will simply add that I soon lost count of the number of Customers who told me, when I asked to see their figures: “Of course, you will remember that these were written for the benefit of the Tax Man, won’t you!”

The implication being that “reality” was more than somewhat rosier …

60027Merlin · February 11

Being in the same position as you I found that the norm was three sets of accounts. The real figures, then for the taxman and lastly for the Bank.

Fortunately the real situation was usually known to the branch by local intelligence as the staff were aware of goings on in the area and even customers, who knew the various business owners, could impart the real situation when asking them "innocent" questions about a local business during an interview!

St Enodoc · February 12

12 hours ago, 60027Merlin said:

Being in the same position as you I found that the norm was three sets of accounts. The real figures, then for the taxman and lastly for the Bank.

Fortunately the real situation was usually known to the branch by local intelligence as the staff were aware of goings on in the area and even customers, who knew the various business owners, could impart the real situation when asking them "innocent" questions about a local business during an interview!

Same as project plans. One for the client, one for the financiers, one that you actually worked to. Any resemblance between these was entirely coincidental.

Mark Laidlay · February 12

16 hours ago, 60027Merlin said:

Being in the same position as you I found that the norm was three sets of accounts. The real figures, then for the taxman and lastly for the Bank.

There's a snake oil salesman in New York getting into big trouble for such activities.

Tony Teague · February 12

I hate to disturb this stimulating discussion on accountancy, project management and the like 🥱, but may I ask a model railway related question?

My layout has a cassette system for extra storage and the cassettes are formed from a plywood strip with aluminium angle on either side which act as rails for trains stored on the cassettes; when installed for running, the cassettes are held in place and connected electrically by a brass strip to either side, and unfortunately, despite really very little usage one of these brass strips has snapped off.

This is a view of the arrangement pre-snapping, withe the cassette stretching to the left and the two brass strips curving out to the top & bottom of the image:

So my question is, how have other people located and connected their cassettes and should I be using something more flexible or springy than brass?

Apologies for this railway-related intrusion, but all suggestions appreciated!

Tony

Michael Edge · February 12

I used square brass tube for mine but they have actual track on them, not the aluminium angle. Two sizes of telescopic tube soldered to the sleeper ends (that's why I used square tube), big one at one side of the track, small one at the other side. We used these for years on Herculaneum Dock before i built the current fiddle yard for it, I still have e few in store somewhere for Cwmafon if it ever comes out of hibernation.

Bernard Lamb · February 12

10 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

I used square brass tube for mine but they have actual track on them, not the aluminium angle. Two sizes of telescopic tube soldered to the sleeper ends (that's why I used square tube), big one at one side of the track, small one at the other side. We used these for years on Herculaneum Dock before i built the current fiddle yard for it, I still have e few in store somewhere for Cwmafon if it ever comes out of hibernation.

As above. But round tube works just as well, but needs to be held in place before soldering. I use the tubes for location and electrical connection, but I also use a tapered piece of wood as a guide to slide the cassette into rougly the right position and the use the tubes to line up the last gnats of misalignment.

Bernard

cctransuk · February 12

1 hour ago, Tony Teague said:

I hate to disturb this stimulating discussion on accountancy, project management and the like 🥱, but may I ask a model railway related question?

My layout has a cassette system for extra storage and the cassettes are formed from a plywood strip with aluminium angle on either side which act as rails for trains stored on the cassettes; when installed for running, the cassettes are held in place and connected electrically by a brass strip to either side, and unfortunately, despite really very little usage one of these brass strips has snapped off.

This is a view of the arrangement pre-snapping, withe the cassette stretching to the left and the two brass strips curving out to the top & bottom of the image:

So my question is, how have other people located and connected their cassettes and should I be using something more flexible or springy than brass?

Apologies for this railway-related intrusion, but all suggestions appreciated!

Tony

I've heard of crocodile clips being used.

CJI.

bbishop · February 12

I use aluminium ears on the cassettes. These are on the "Shoe" cassette and the loco cassettes, but not on the stock cassettes. The ears are attached with bolt and nut, the latter extending a quarter of an inch and electrical connexion is achieved with crocodile clips.

Michael Edge · February 12

1 hour ago, Bernard Lamb said:

As above. But round tube works just as well, but needs to be held in place before soldering. I use the tubes for location and electrical connection, but I also use a tapered piece of wood as a guide to slide the cassette into rougly the right position and the use the tubes to line up the last gnats of misalignment.

Bernard

Round tube doesn't solder very reliably on to flat sleepers, that's why I used square tube. Location and electrical connection are both completely reliable with this.

ColinK · February 12

I’ve used round tube on the cassettes mating with round rod on the layout track. Worked well. Once the tube and rod had been soldered in place, I covered the non-mating parts with Devcon epoxy glue.

gr.king · February 12

2 hours ago, Tony Teague said:

I hate to disturb this stimulating discussion on accountancy, project management and the like 🥱, but may I ask a model railway related question?

My layout has a cassette system for extra storage and the cassettes are formed from a plywood strip with aluminium angle on either side which act as rails for trains stored on the cassettes; when installed for running, the cassettes are held in place and connected electrically by a brass strip to either side, and unfortunately, despite really very little usage one of these brass strips has snapped off.

This is a view of the arrangement pre-snapping, withe the cassette stretching to the left and the two brass strips curving out to the top & bottom of the image:

So my question is, how have other people located and connected their cassettes and should I be using something more flexible or springy than brass?

Apologies for this railway-related intrusion, but all suggestions appreciated!

Tony

Mode of alignment and electrical connection looks similar to something I've employed for about 20 years at home. Seems to have worked well enough.

Captain Kernow · February 12

I make up a brass clip, which holds the cassette in place and also provides electrical continuity.

Tony Teague · February 12

3 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

I make up a brass clip, which holds the cassette in place and also provides electrical continuity.

Thanks - how different is that to what I have used?

Tony Wright · February 12

I go away (to the Doncaster Show) and Wright writes in even more active than normal.

Thanks for all the comments, though I won't comment on accountancy (too many hard sums!). The BR Standard Five comments are very interesting, however.

I took the one I'd started to Doncaster as part of my display...................

Seen here in the foreground.

I then found out that, being a later build, the one I'd chosen to model should not have fluted rods. I was very cross with myself, because I knew this; having built one before (a long time ago, mind).

Not being able to live with this, this morning the rods were turned over................. Side to/from side. Dead easy using Markits standard soldered-on crankpin retaining washers.