Captain Cuttle

On 18/05/2019 at 12:16, Hobby said:

We paid 700 for the Metro which seems around the going rate for a decent one, it's an auto as well. Many cars of this era are indeed in the banger category, though I've seen many Morris Minors in the same condition! Having said that many of the 80s and 90's cars are getting very rare these days, especially the common-or-garden stuff. How many 405s, Montegos, Sierras, Mk2/3 Cavaliers have you seen around recently, the 405 especially... I have always chosen the "ordinary" classic over the exotic stuff as i feel they are too easily overlooked until it's too late, let's face it most of us have memories of our Dad driving not an E Type but more likely a Cambridge or Cortina, but you see far more of the former around that the latter two.. 

Thinking as to to when i have last seen a Sierra on the road. Remember when they first came out Y reg i think had to replace a body shell on one. Had those funny wheel covers. I painted it a pinky beige. Always preferred the Mk 5 Cortina and in those days nobody wanted a two door 1300 and now they are sought after.

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

I wasn't going to mention it for fear of it being seen as a  "Thats not a bridge disaster, THIS is a bridge disaster!" situation, but it's worth a mention if only to reflect on two of the luckiest motorists alive.

 

 

The bridge section collapsed at night time and   it was not apparent to those driving up to it that there was anything wrong - the driver in the Monaro only hit the brakes because his wife beside him screamed out when she saw the tail lights of a car ahead just vanish. The bloke driving the FB wagon  stopped in time but a few seconds later a car behind ran into him and almost knocked him over the edge.

 

Hint of a Ventora in that car design.

1 hour ago, Grizz said:

Morning All.

 

It has been a busy time recently. Track inspections, tunnel inspections, together with machine / crane controller and conductor duties have had me covering some mileage. 
Unfortunately it looks like I have managed to pop the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in my right knee, climbing on and off ‘rail mounted plant and tampers’. Fudging hell it hurts. Especially after having done it I had to carry out a two mile track inspection yesterday. 
Luckily I’m off shift today but I’m back in on a ballasting turn tomorrow, with more bleedin well climbing on and off. 
 

Despite my left knee being knee capped by a rail 15 years ago in a trip and fall incident at work, I’ve luckily never really suffered with knee pain, which is unusual for a carrer railwayman on Pway. 

With this new injury I actually felt it go pop as the bottom of my leg and knee bent in and sideways. 
 

Due to my lung disease I can’t take a lot of ibuprofen and due to my safety critical job I can’t take strong pain killers whilst on shift, so my options are limited. 
 

Does anyone have any advice or has anyone had this type of injury before. It does look like I’m going to get time to visit a doctor  and it’s too late and probs not serious enough for A&E. 

 

Some kind of knee brace? 

Have a great day all.

 

ATB Grizz

I can at least rest it on Friday - Tuesday as I’m on rest shifts. 

 

Yes, a knee brace might be worth looking at. I have pain in most joints now and i use a compression bandage on my left knee but i am affected by the weather. As my better half's gran used to say when it was raining "my bunions are giving me gip"! 

On 24/03/2024 at 07:08, St Enodoc said:

Today we went on an enjoyable one-hour harbour cruise from the National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour.

 

Our steed was one of the Sydney Heritage Fleet's vessels, MV Berrima from 1955.

 

https://shfmember.org.au/explore-the-fleet/our-operational-vessels/berrima-1955-motor-launch/

 

After passing under the Harbour Bridge, we saw this floating block of flats being bunkered by ICS Reliance.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Edge

 

https://www.incoships.com.au/ics-reliance

 

There's not much true commercial shipping left on Sydney Harbour, but on the north side Akuna was inbound although the sun was in the wrong place for a photo. I did catch her, from a distance as she was berthing at White Bay, close to Pioneer.

 

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9470806

 

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9111436

 

Back at Darling Harbour, we passed the replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour before berthing, just in time to walk up the road for Sunday roast at a pub overlooking the harbour.

 

https://www.sea.museum/whats-on/our-fleet/hmb-endeavour

 

 

Where does it go for maintenance and is there any video footage of that?

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

But a nice viaduct!

 

Looks like a lovely Karsi  there on the right built to the latest Elf and Safety regs by the Imperial Guards though?

20 hours ago, CameronL said:

I fell asleep with my eyes wide open watching the England vs Brazil football match last night, but I did notice that out of the Brazil squad, eight players had a single name ending in -o (Danilo, Beraldo etc). This habit seems to go back as far as I can remember Brazil in football (back to Rivellino and Jairzinho in the 60s). It made me wonder if users of this parish could adopt usernames ending in -o for a little bit of Brazilian cool.

 

So, you could show your love of a particular one of the Big Four - Elemesso, Eleniaro, Essaro or GeeDubwaro. Or if your modelling preference was before 1923 you could be Pregroupinho, Emarro, Aycharo, or even Elbyesseearo. 

 

You could make reference to your scale of preference: Aycho, Scaylo or Gaijnarro. 

 

You could even salute your favourite engines: Paniero, Jinteo, Foremtio or Ayteffo. (Maybe fans of Class 37s or 08s might balk at Tractorro or Gronko). 

 

It just occurred to me that this is far from a new idea. In fact, Hornby did it in 1938 (Dublo),

 

Best wishes all

 

Cam

 

(Brazilian name: Notymorcasho)

Jack Cohen did it in 1924 with err err Tesco!

6 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Not an expert, but ...

Don't over-water, though they do of course need water.

If you have to re-pot them, use special orchid compost, not the ordinary sort you'd use for other house plants.

And keep the cats off them!

Yes got some special orchid compost but the larger one seems to have one plant on top of the other. Does that have to be be potted separately? Both have been in flower since we rescued them from her bungalow where they had been in the cold for a couple of months. I think they want repotting and both are in clear plastic pots for some reason. Our cat has not shown any interest in them at all. Also given a mature Aloe Vera which is growing well after repotting and two either Xmas or Easter cactus.

Just recently acquired some succulents from a relation of a lady who lived opposite us and passed away just after Christmas. A couple are [i think] Moth Orchids. Not sure what to do with them, any experts on here?

On 21/03/2024 at 16:31, Invicta Informant said:

This weekend there is MotoGP from Portimão, Portugal, Australian Supercars from Albert Park, Melbourne, NASCAR from the Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, and a non-championship round of IndyCar - The $1Million Challenge at the Thermal Club in California.

Looking forward to COTA tonight on Viaplay, my driver Alex Bowman finished 3rd last year and 2nd the year before. Will be interesting to see how the Australian Shane Van Gisbergan gets on as he won Chicago last season at his first race!

4 hours ago, proton said:

Yes, but the roof details identify the First class car as a 1928 All-steel K car, whilst the third class is a standard K car with underframe trussing and wooden body.

John

Yes i see that, i built a lot of O gauge Westdale kits some twenty+ years ago and got really into them and all their detail differences. I remember that some the VSOE steel cars had a mock truss underframe for aesthetic reasons to mimic the older wooden bodies cars.

On 09/03/2024 at 16:49, uax6 said:

Look what I picked up this week:

 

Lets just look in the cab shall we?

What are these:

 

That'll do rubbery thank you!

 

Yeap rubber wings... its a 1954 rubber wing GPO engineers van. A bit of a Morris minor holy grail. Needs a lot of work, but theres no rush.

 

Andy G

I wish that the Morris Minor GPO van may mate hit in my minivan when i was was teaching him to drive on a country road in East Kent back in the late sixties had rubber wings. Instead we had to look for a replacement front panel, bonnet and an offside wing but couldnt find one and it ended up with this from a scrapyard!

On 16/03/2024 at 21:46, Wickham Green too said:

At first sight we've got two identical Kitchen Cars with the kitchen ends coupled ............ but the all-steel vehicle leading will be a Kitchen First and the wooden-bodied one a Kitchen Third so positioning is probably important.

Some Kitchen 3rds were all steel.

21 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

The main problem with recycling the ship is that by modern standards it's a toxic cocktail, asbestos and all sorts of nasties. Doing that safely costs ££££££££££s and ship breaking isn't the wild west it once was. Technologically any sensitivities will have lapsed decades ago, there's no mystery in installing a hideous amount of power in what by today's standards is not a particularly big ship.

Asbestos was removed back in the 1990s in Turkey and then Ukraine.

57 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Worked perfectly well for hundreds of years. Changed before I was born but always felt like change for the sake of change to me. Personally I like it when different parts of the world have their own idiosyncrasies, including our own. Only need just enough utilitarianism to make things practical, more than that and it gets lifeless.

 

I need to have that converted to stone to get any feel. I wouldn't buy a set of scales that only had kilograms on them.

I prefer feet and inches as when its mm and cm folk tend to get the noughts in the wrong places and that includes my better half, bless her!

On 16/03/2024 at 00:20, The Johnster said:

Because apparently there are features of her hull shape below the water line that are a military secret and are still present on some aircraft carriers still in service, including nuclear powered ones. United States was originally laid down as an aircraft carrier developed from the Forrestal class but Congress would not vote the funds to complete her in this form and she was completed as a passenger liner.  She can only be dry docked in a US Navy yard and cannot be scrapped by an outside contractor.  
 

It for this reason that she cannot be sold to any third party for restoration or preservation either.  

I am not doubting what you have said but i have been following info from various forums etc and never ever heard this mentioned before. With the continuing docking fees, i wonder why it hasnt it been sent to a US Navy yard then?

On 05/03/2024 at 06:25, Johann Marsbar said:

SS United States threatened, again........

 

 

That vessel is never going to be restored given the state it has ended up in today

 Why hasn't it been towed away and scrapped by now?

31 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

 

Colt was the branding used in the UK for Mitsubishi until about 1984.

 

Further details;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Car_Company

Yes thats a Solara, we hired one in the eighties and quite comfortable from what i remember. Also at one time hired a yellow Horizon and noisy tappets comes to mind.

Just now, Captain Cuttle said:

Isnt there something going on at present about Ford UK wriggling out of replacing these engines whilst in the USA its all been approved.

Mind you, the Mini's seem to be a bundle of trouble for all sorts of reasons.

1 minute ago, Dunsignalling said:

I gather they've gone over to a timing chain, but they are still prone to having debris from the remaining belt block or restrict the oil pick up.

 

That's what generally delivered the coup-de-grace when the belt didn't actually let go.

 

It presumably takes longer with only one belt losing bits, though.....

Isnt there something going on at present about Ford UK wriggling out of replacing these engines whilst in the USA its all been approved.

Nice colour that suits it, hopefully with that mileage pretty good underneath?

1 hour ago, 30801 said:

 

I missed out on Metros. They went from being too new to extinct seemingly without passing through a stage in between where I could afford one.

We had an immaculate metallic blue MG Metro in mid eighties, my wife drove it and liked it but i found the seat too narrow for my rear end! I think we had a water leak and on further investigation after lifting the carpets found the inner sills were rotting out so after a bit of disguising work got rid of it. Shame as it looked good and drove well.

On 02/03/2024 at 11:29, peanuts said:

Lovely old Commer van re purposed as a beer van in for  some remedial work at one of my drops yesterday. 

We hired one back in the 70s after leaving the RAF and moving all our stuff from Romford to Mullion. It had the handling capabilities of a rice pudding. Plus it was running a tad rich at about 20 mpg. Got it fixed before returning, it had split diaphragm in carb and. that woke it up!

On 22/02/2024 at 09:54, Sidecar Racer said:

Our ginger Teddy looked at your picture and said oh dear oh dear oh dear!

On 16/02/2024 at 11:55, PhilJ W said:

 

Being discussed on the Early Risers thread.

I would rather have had Dads 3.4 mk 2 Jaguar, it was probably the best car we ever had, quiet, fast and comfortable, note the yellow socks!  Sept 1970 Kynance Cornwall plus one of TKE 675 in our drive Leicester Ave Cliftonville 1968. In the garage out of sight  was my maroon1952 Jowett Javelin NXA 89!