Ian Simpson

Interesting to see young men in the UK bucking the trend by becoming more (if more weakly) liberal as well.  I hope the Conservative Party are proud of themselves.

Ah, it wasn't U-shaped after all!  It was a 7.9 mm square styrene tube. 

A wonderfully inspired idea from Mike Flemming in his "Simply Victorian" article (Railway Modeller, July 2014), designed for tender drive Singles:

Thanks, Matt, that's a very useful update! I'll have to explore the new J72.

On 25/09/2023 at 13:57, Pete the Elaner said:

 

I have been told by 2 separate people that they cause derailments.

When I asked how they could be worse than the alternative of just leaving a gap? Both refused to give me an answer (1 was online & another simply changed topic). I wonder why? 😂

 

It might be because the spur of plastic material between the rail ends is fairly soft (at least on PECO insulated fishplates). If the layout gets rough handling / gets moved a lot, the plastic can get knocked inside the rail, rather than staying within it, hence the derailments. It's easily corrected with a Stanley knife.

7 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

Fellow parishioners.  In order to raise the spirits of our esteemed Chairman and Promoter and President of the WNR, who is at present in a somewhat morose mental state, I propose that we furnish him with his own train, one befitting his high office.  It has come to my attention that the Chairman of a council to the East of the Urals has already commissioned such a conveyance.  I further propose, therefore, that we instruct the Clerk to the Council to communicate with this gentleman, who I understand goes by the name V Putin, to respectfully request a copy of the drawings of his in order that we might emulate it.  I will, of course, require a seconder for this motion.

 

Jim 

Seconded as long as it doesn't mean re-gauging the entire WNR! 

20 hours ago, Buhar said:

Mr Pie's opinions have been previously noted by the Parish Council. I think his thoughts today are useful.

 

Also, if you can get BBC Sounds, it's worth checking out his new "Call Jonathan Pie" podcasts. 

Very good value for your licence fee, even if they are based on the now-tired conceit of a comedian hosting a radio phone-in.

To be fair, Sunak was only following convention, which obviously includes the time-honoured tradition of holding one's nose and accepting some of the more dodgy names.  After all, I'm old enough to remember Harold Wilson's final honours list. 

Fully understand the PM's reluctance to have by-elections at the moment, but I think I would have risked it to send Mad Nad Dorries to Another Place.

On 15/05/2023 at 11:02, Matloughe said:

I am after a Corrall wagon in 00 though!
 

Robbie's Wagons has four Corrall variants, three 5-plank wagons (which I personally think look better on pre-Grouping branch layouts) and a 7-plank: http://www.robbiesrollingstock.co.uk/S_East.htm  

Really enjoying the blog, the layout is coming on nicely!

I think it's the usual problem that wargamers use taller 28 mm figures: see e.g. the Harlequin Minatures range at https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Harlequin-Miniatures-in-Collectable-Doctor-Who-Models/112481/bn_7022878270

So here's the First Doctor if you're modelling British Railways days: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145062112963?hash=item21c6602ec3:g:ERYAAOSwCwhjZ63d

15 hours ago, CKPR said:

The former can't make the trains run on time ?

I'm beginning to think that no one can make the trains run on time.

10 hours ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

You are possibly thinking of November 1986, where there was a GWR 2-2-2 with a brass channel chassis. 

Many thanks, that doesn't look like my memory of the article I had in mind, but it is very interesting. At the very least, it does suggest that U channel can work!

I firmly believe I saw a short article in Railway Modeller a few years ago (okay, since they started using colour, anyway) where someone made a 2-2-2 locomotive chassis by cutting suitable holes for the axles in a U-channel plastic moulding from a DIY store. (In case you're wondering how it was motorised, I'm pretty sure it was  tender-driven.)  

If I'm right about this, please can anyone offer any info or suggestions that might help me track the article down?

I'm afraid the Australian customs have now added a new question to the test:

    "Do you have a criminal record?"

This is a trick question. You really don't need one to get into the country any more.

The UK Government knows it will probably fail in its attempts to criminalise small boat travel, but I think that suits it fine. They can tell their supporters that they tried their best (because of course toughest and nastiest is always best), and they can tell the rest of us it's not their fault that they didn't achieve anything, it's the mighty wokerati and assorted other enemies of the people. It looks like genuine gesture politics to me; pointless signalling rather than hands-on activity. So much better than clearing the application backlog and engaging with other countries: the Tory votes are in creating a fear of uncontrolled immigration, not in creating perceptions that the problem is on the mend.

.

I definitely prefer Saturdays for out-of-town or rural shows as public transport is generally easier then. 

On 26/02/2023 at 18:54, monkeysarefun said:

Just found this in the bottom of the fridge, I was going to put it in the compost unless someone wants it?

 

On the other hand, we're still okay for Nose Candy here:

 https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/0304/1360231-us-australia-drugs

6 hours ago, BR60103 said:

Ian:

I'm using the NEM couplers because the height is usually good and they also have a good upward offset.

The coupler head is also a bit low (half a mm or so).

I see; unfortunately Kadee don't seem to offer the different heights in their NEM range :-)

It is possible to bend the uncoupling stem up gently with a pair of pliers, so that it clears the railheads. Since the end of the adjusted arm is now at the normal operating height above the magnet, uncoupling will work fine. 

BTW, if the coupling heads aren't meeting up properly, you can buy coupling arms where the head is set a bit higher (overshank) or lower (undershank) than the standard height.

If I had to pick a decade, I'd say the 1950s.  It's probably no coincidence that Tri-ang launched commercial TT in 1957.

Having said that, I'm not sure it was just the size of the motors that made OO more attractive to manufacturers. I think the width of outside cylinders might also have been an issue - "narrow gauge"  4 mm gave more room outside the wheelbase for oversized cylinders.

Thanks, John, it's really good to give such a decent amount of time to prepare!

Would something on shareholder revolts during the Railway Mania be of any interest? It might concentrate on southern lines, I'm afraid.

Completely agree that the alignment seems okay.

But i don't think this lathe is designed to work with metals. I think "metal lathe" in the title refers to it being made out of metal instead than plastic! The description says: "Suitable for engraving and grinding of wood, stone, peach kernel, eggs, handicrafts, glass, ceramics and other materials" - so it might be okay for soft metals but I suspect it won't work well with harder ones.

Brilliant job, thanks so much for all your hard work!

Richard's article on the S160 was great as well!

Following Suella Braverman's rapid return to the Cabinet, I can't help wondering if it's fair to judge people (say a shiny new Prime Minister) by the company they keep?

If it is reasonable, I guess we have to put this one in Rishi's credit column:

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Ideally, the best thing to do would be to deprive them of the oxygen of publicity by ignoring them - to entering into dialogue is fall straight into their trap. 

I imagine the swivel-eyed ones would see this as "Cancel Culture". (And accurately so, for once.)

The Thatcher government's plan to deprive the IRA of "the oxygen of publicity" didn't work out any too well (except for NI's voiceover actors). The problem is that there's always someone somewhere willing to listen:

Well, I just hope Jacob did give his poor nanny some paid leave in the end 😡

I know Monkeys would have spotted that no comedy scriptwriter would try to get away with such a shallow and one-dimensional character. It's as if R-M realised at age 12 he'd never achieve anything impressive, so he decided to chase money instead.

Perhaps his nanny fixation is a result of his parents never telling him they loved him. As Al Murray once pointed out, that wasn't likely to be because they were bottling it up.

Just to clarify, if I did anything wrong it was definitely the Chancellor's fault.