steve1

The Derwent has been flooded out the back of our house* for several months. When this happens, waterfowl of various sorts appear from, seemingly, nowhere. (Perhaps they hear about it on Twitter…)

This flock of Pochards have been around since before Xmas and don’t seem to be in a hurry to move.

steve

*Fair play, it is a floodplain!

At Mansfield, for an experiment, I ran the layout backdated by about 5 years by running all steam, bar the Model 40 switcher.

It all worked really well, switching with big tender locos and running 0-6-0 tanks on PW and ore jennies. May well go 50:50 mix of propulsion next time!

steve

Rat Race, Hartlepool Station. Tiny pub with excellent beers. Seats are old bus ones.

steve

9 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I absolutely agree, and the trouble we are storing up for the not-to-distant future is probably now unavoidable as the rot has set in too deep.  There are ways out of the mess, but they need a lot of effort put into them, and we don't like making effort, and the co-operation of the minority who are benefitting from the current setup at our direct expense and for whom we are footing the bills, which is unlikely to materialise.  I don't care, turned 72 on Wednesday and won't be here when it hits the fan, and the world has had at least six decades of my warnings and ignored me, so it knows what it can do...

 

Way out of the mess 1; the establishment of a world currency backed by the World Bank and the UN, along with globalised minimum wages and work conditions, probably requiring monitoring by global trade unions.  This should remove the searing inequality between nations, and eliminate the need to define a third world.  It probably can't be done with the current international monetery setup, controlled as it is by the capitalist profit motive and agenda. 

 

This is why we also need WOOTM 2; the abandonment of capitalism and the competitve business environment, and the need for 'wealth' to be created as a reward for selling your labour or exploiting others by paying for it.  All this does is concentrate the wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people while impoverishing more and more other people.  The Victorian work ethic and the insistence on everybody paying their way is not sustainable and in any case cannot be maintained in the face of global warming and sea level rise.  Capitalism is dying and Socialism is dead. What is needed is something else, a social and economic system in which wealth can be created, that's easy, we have the technology, and then fairly and equably distributed, which is much harder.  Note that equably not mean equally.  I have absolutely not a clue as to what this system will be, but humans are good at adapting to changed circumstances. it's what gave us the evolutionary edge.

 

But it might start off with equably (again, not the same as equally) shared and enforceable responsibility for, well, everything as a requirement for participation in 'the scheme'.  This would mean the acceptance of the thing that Margaret said didn't exist, society, and that each individual is a member of society and contributes to it as well as benefitting from it.  It will be hard to swallow for many in the present world of get-rich-quick ratrace competition, the very thing that is held to ensure efficiency but which actually only does that for the winners, while creating a wasteland in their wake.  A race between ten people has one winner and nine losers, how is that not wastefull and an inefficient use of resources.  The algorithms for administering it would be fearsome, but that's what AI is for, isn't it (presumably AI will improve a bit before it can be trusted with this task)?

You are correct and, being the same age, it’s more than likely I won’t be around either.

However, I have grandchildren who WILL be around then and my concern is for them.

steve

6 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

I know we’re all having a good laugh at these posts, but assuming they are real, I seriously worry about the level of education shown by the participants.

steve

21 hours ago, jwealleans said:

I don't do Reddit, this came up on another site.   Made me laugh out loud, never mind smile.

 

https://www.thepoke.com/2024/02/28/this-tale-of-a-man-asking-for-help-with-his-stuck-cylinder-is-the-greatest-reddit-story-ever/

I found it almost impossible to extract the ‘story’ from all the advertising, thus leading me not to bother.

Local newspaper sites are usually just as bad. This, again, means I don’t even bother trying.

Their loss.

steve

2 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 

 

Can’t even get that right. Nikolai Tesla was a Serbian- American who died in 1943!

steve

19 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Isn’t education a wonderful thing…

steve

Reliving one of the best 1980s albums on original vinyl.

steve

3 hours ago, railsquid said:

Nice little Woodhead diorama, probably N-gauge.

 

https://flic.kr/p/2py8nyu

2mm finescale maybe?

steve

Have discovered two of these Smooth Newts inside the house in the last week. First was sadly deceased but this chap(?) was rescued and put in a safe place in the garden.

steve 

I find the words a the very top right somewhat disturbing…

steve

16 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

If I were modernising a Minor as a daily driver, I'd want to obtain as much as possible from a single, easily found source. Therefore, my pick for a parts donor would be a first or second series Mazda MX5.

 

The mechanicals are pretty bullet proof but the structure isn't, and they were produced in big numbers, so are readily obtainable at reasonable cost.

 

Lively but not over-tuned, and economical 1600 motor, 5-speed box, with, perhaps, an adaptable aircon unit and power steering.

 

I reckon it might even be possible to design a custom subframe to marry the Mazda's rear suspension and axle to the Minor's spring mounts.

 

John

You’re into hot rod territory with that amount of work…

steve

Why no pork cat food?

steve

When Ollie needed liquid medicine, rather than pills, we put it in cat milk. She drank that quite happily.

It makes one wonder why the maker of cat (& I suppose dog) pills don’t make them flavoured with something palatable to the animal.

steve

On 11/02/2024 at 23:48, The Lurker said:

Too Many Colours - Red Lorry Yellow Lorry is currently playing Spotify

 

Mondlicht by X Mal Deutschland is cued up next. The list must think I am in an 80’s goth mood whereas what I really need to do is go to bed!!

Nowt wrong with a bit of Goth now and then.

steve

On 11/02/2024 at 14:37, Neil said:

 

Yes, spot on. They also do a beefier six coupled version. I suppose this demonstrates that there should be a healthy market for a UK fireless loco.

And very nice they are too.

steve

Blimey! That’s quick. I only suggested it on 26th January…

steve

59 minutes ago, Nick C said:

Basically slavery in all but name...

And there are bosses/companies still who would introduce it again like a shot, given half a chance.

steve

Many of the cars in that shot would now qualify to be inside the museum!

steve

Busy fiddleyard operators!

steve

4 hours ago, saxokid said:

Any new updates on layout Steve.

Sorting stock suitable for the 1950s period and weathering the rest but concentrating mainly on a Scottish EM project.

The layout is booked for Bridlington show on September, running as BR Blue.

steve