webbcompound

20 minutes ago, Northroader said:

My daughter had a friend who started at Aberystwyth Uni, but the Welshness got to her in the end, and she transferred to Cardiff,

 

Well the South Walians barely count as Welsh

So now we've gone all Septic (rhyming slang alert) Does that mean anything pre-grouping, which in this case is realistically pretty well anything before 1976, is on message? Norfolk and Western anyone?

52 minutes ago, Northroader said:

There’s one of him as a Roman in Hull

Ah, yes, the elaborate lid to the underground public toilets

Is it this?

15 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Truth be told, I'm in a real funk about my Aged Ps; the isolation is literally killing them off by stages and I cannot get to them.  The NE lockdown prevents anyone from the "Protected Area" visiting a house outside it. I am suggesting meeting at a pub somewhere nearer their end - a long way for a short time together but the only way to see them legally. 

 

We are assuming we are considered to be in the "support bubble"  of the aged mother-in- law, so although she is not of our household we can interact indoors. This is the only way we can understand what to do as she is staying with us this week If this wasn't the case we would have had to turf her onto the street halfway through the week and wouldn't even be able to drive her home to North Yorkshire from Northumberland. You suffer from having more than one parent, but I'm sure the government is working hard to resolve that problem for lots of families through the "accidental cull"

16 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Perhaps it's a case of that old, old adage, "you can fool slightly more than half of the people all of the time".  

Or you can fool slightly more than half the people who bother to vote

On 19/09/2020 at 22:39, Steamport Southport said:

 

Urban myth about buildings being covered in soot I'm afraid.

 

It's one of those ideas trotted out by environmentalists even back in the day.

 

When they clean buildings such as the Palace of Westminster and ones such as the Liver Buildings in Liverpool it is the stone naturally darkening with age which turns them dark, not pollution and certainly not "soot".

 

They are just going back to their natural colour. It's only when they are freshly cut that they are bright colours, but people like them that way so they are constantly cleaning them to make them look new. Thereby causing more damage than if you left them to naturally go dark.

 

It's a geologist you need to talk to, not a chemist.

Well here is a photo of some black gritstone, just like I remember it from when I was a kid. The stone began to be sandblasted in the 60s and now 50-60 years later it is still pale in colour (throughout N Lancashire and W Yorkshire) as a result of massive industrial decline and Clean Air Acts.  Above Rochdale is Blackstone Edge. As a kid I thought (like everyone else) it was because the stone was black. In fact the name was originally Blakestone Edge, meaning Palestone Edge. So the stone was pale sandstone for a long time, till the industrial revolution turned it black.

The difference between this and earlier pandemics is that our society is less robust. Food is no longer produced locally, and all systems are much more complex and so fail much more easily.  This means that although the death toll might be much less its impact on our infrastructure could be much greater.  Lose a few loco drivers in the Edwardian period and the firemen can step up. Lose a few airline pilots, or indeed engine drivers now and it is far more difficult to replace them.  As a young man I could fix my four stroke motorbike at the side of the road, and not long before that pretty well every motor vehicle operator knew how to get their vehicle running if it broke down. Now you need a specially trained expert. 

In addition the really significant medical difference between Covid19 and flu is in the after effects on survivors. It is becoming increasingly clear that at the moment survivors, even of mild versions, can have serious knock on illness

The doors look to be identical in size, and I know that the size discrepancy from different classes of house could be quite large. The door opening (as opposed to size) suggests the bay window house has higher ceilings. As an example, without too much research, I just stepped outside my front door and saw this (the road is completely level, we are not on a slope):

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

The wowsers have hit the annual Bathurst car race here - this is the limits they've imposed..

 

Limit  each person is allowed to bring in each day:

1 x carton of full-strength beer (5 per cent alcohol or less) - 24 cans x 375mls or less, or

1 x carton of light / mid strength beer (3.5 per cent alcohol or less) - 30 cans x 375mls or less, or

1 x carton of pre-mixed spirits (6 per cent alcohol or less) - 24 cans x 375mls, or

1 x carton of cider (5 per cent alcohol or less) - 24 cans x 375mls, or

1 x cask of sealed wine (14.5 per cent alcohol or less) totalling 4 litres or less, or

2 x 375ml plastic bottles of spirits (38 per cent alcohol or less) - must be the original manufacturer's product with seal unopened, or

1 x 750ml bottle of spirits (plastic only)

 

DIY sampler packs aren’t allowed and you can't tick off all of these options; it's a carton of Tin Bailey's or a pillow-sized goon bag.

 

"If you arrive with all four days alcohol supply on or prior to Thursday, all but your single day supply will be confiscated and disposed of," Supercars said in a statement.

i guess it must be a trial arriving with your day allowance of four litres of wine each and then having to spread it across four days

William Morris was at one time a shareholder and director of the Duke of Bedford's Devon Great Consols which owned mines in the Tamar Valley. At Wheal Fanny mine, from about 1860 to 1901 arsenic was roasted until it turned into dense smoke. The smoke was sent along brick passageways where it condensed into crystals looking like caulilowers. Men wrapped in rags scraped this off by hand. Apart from poisoning them it gave them cancer and any scratches or wounds were likely to fail to heal and develop septicaemia.

We can probably restart this valuable industry when those stupid Elf and Safety laws get abolished in January

I'm worried that this latest Dapol offering might lead to a pre-grouping/post-grouping state of uncertainety in people's brains leading to meltdown or stasis, but given the proclivities of the local inhabitants here it is anyway.

Thanks for this excellent link in to Model Railroading Zigzag. Some excellent articles in there.

Here we go, posting an in progress workbench shot. Eventually should be part of a pre-war "Chicago" Grand Union Central Terminal running things I like the idea of.

best orcs on film so far are the ones in Bright. Pity the film isn't as good as it should be.

8 hours ago, CKPR said:

 Part 4

 

Most surviving 1950s technology can be readily updated using simple tools, basic skills and modern components - my hi-fi equipment includes a pair of rebuilt Quad II amplifiers, a Garrard 301 turntable and an SME 3009 tone arm, all essentially 1950s designs. I'm in the process of rebuilding the Quad 22 pre-amp and whilst I will be simplifying the circuitry to remove some obsolete input options from the 1950s and will be using modern components, the basic design is sound and extremely easy and satisfying to work on. When that's done, I might get my pair Decca ribbon horn speakers out and ponder building a cabinet for them.

 Yeh, but it will be difficult to fit all that into a body shell, even in O guage, no?

5 minutes ago, uax6 said:

 

Indeed, it was of course Elisha Gray that invented the telephone....

 

Andy G

Dash it all! And I was convinced it was Signor Ronaldo Telephone.

56 minutes ago, DonB said:

 

I wasn't here 'cos for 2 days when I tried to log into RMweb I got a message saying  "no connection  fault at host server"

Same here. just couldn't get access for a couple of days. Then it appeared, then disappeared again. Now it is back (obviously)

I'm looking for UK suggestions (sensible ones) for paints to match the light and dark grey used by the New York Central on their early lightweight streamline passenger stock,( but also later, and pullmans and overlander and others probably). Halfords rattle cans, vallejo colours, anything readily obtainable in the UK would be welcome suggestions.

Isn't it "Give me fishplates OR give me progress", with a flag showing a figure 8 of track on a carpet with the motto "Don't step on me"

And then there was Children's Hour with Uncle Mac, which leads of course to the books "In the Train with Uncle Mac".

And so back to railways!

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Twizzle; back to railways then .... 

 

Although you should point out, for those not living in the North East of England, that the TV one is tw-iz-zl and the loco is tw-eye-zl. Nevertheless, good attempt at getting the thread back on track.

Some of the pre-war ATSF B units had extra windows put infor use by a driver

Went for an eye test last week, a bit too exciting with all the masks, visors and sprays but I needed new glasses, and the first thing the optician said to me was "Have you been to Barnard Castle?"

Well it is true, people either only see the present, or they see the long duration. Half a century of peace in Europe, well up to a point. By 1830 the Dutch Belgians were at each others throats. Within France there were serious domestic conflicts at a scale above simple disorder in 1830, 1831, 1832, 1834 and 1838. Within the Germanic sphere there were military conflicts in 1848-51 and 1864  France was also involved in a military adventure in Spain in 1823, and in a major conflict with Austria in Italy in 1859. And of course there was the "year of revolutions" in 1848. Admittedly it was not until after 50 years that things started to accelerate with Prussia going to war against the South Germans in 1866, and subsequently the French German war of 1870.  No global wars, but an amount of serious discomfort for a variety of peasants and bourgeois in a variety of places. If we were to include all the allies of both sides then we have to accept even more warfare involving Russia, Poland and Galicia as well.