Joseph_Pestell

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Only to share it here. Phil will put you on the naughty step.

 

For people who care about such things, I find medals per capita to be much more relevant as a measure of national sporting achievement.

The medals table really means very little given that some sports get a disproportionate number of medals.

2 minutes ago, Torper said:

An incredible comeback in today's Scottish Championship clash in Kirkcaldy between Raith Rovers and Hamilton Accies.  Home side Raith were 4-0 up with 22 minutes left to play.  Final score?  4-4.

 

DT

They won't be dancing in the streets tonight then.

2 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

Not hard to guess the accommodation.I’m strictly beyond roughing it anyway. It’s my version of moment from The Thirty  Nine Steps hopefully without being shot at.. I’m doing it for the hell of it and the experience of a sleeper which will be new to me.Hotel looks the business and will meet me with breakfast at 8:40 on morning of arrival and will provide dinner before I board the southbound service at 21:10. …which means one night actually in a hotel room bed . No mobile & no internet signal. Hugely expensive and I’ve yet to find reasonable secure parking at Crewe for 

 three days/nights. Must be mad But something to do before I fall off the tree.

 

 

Perhaps you should start a thread about the parking. Sure there must be an RMWeb member living in Crewe.

There are some streets a little way east of the station where I think that you would be safe parking on-street.

1) Sorry, but you won't find any live frog points to Setrack geometry.

2) Are you really sure that you could not use points/turnouts of another geometry? They probably take up less space than you think. If you can post a plan of your layout, we could take a look. Or you could use one of the track-planning softwares to check it out.

3) Techically possible, but fiddly, to make up your own crossings from Code 100 rail to replace the plastic crossing on your Setrack turnouts.

RMWeb a bit slow this morning. But working, so I know that my internet connection and WiFi are good.

And yet, when I want to go onto other sites, my computer tells me that I am not connected. How can this be, and what do I need to do to sort it? Inconvenient not to be able to do e-mails.

8 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Now how was I supposed to know that. In my day a Derby/Rolls Royce suburban unit was a passenger carrying train.

 

"Dad, Dad can we sit behind the driver?" my brother and I would ask.

Before Dad could answer Mum would say " Where is the coach with the toilet? Just in case one of you need to go."

Even on a all stations to St Pancras from Bedford neither of us would use the loo.

 

My last ride on a 127 was while they were in their Indian summer, the crews were still blacking the new 317s. I was taking my last photos of a 127 in service at St Ps going home to see my olds in Bedford when the driver said, "Would you like the blinds up so you can see out the front?" Magic.

 

Another time when I was about 12 or so me and my mates turned up to do our normal Saturday trainspot and there were all these grown ups with tripods etc on our plot on the platform waiting for 4472 to come through. So were bought tickets to Flitwick to do our spotting. Again the driver was kind and pulled up the blinds. South of Bedford the track is straightish, we had a great view of the Scotsman as it and our train approached each other, better than the blokes on the platform at Bedford would have had. As we were about to get off the train the driver opened the internal door and asked "Was that alright lads?" "YES" answered four excited 12 year olds.

That brings back many memories. Dad and I would travel from St Pancras to Bedford to visit his aunt a few times a year. At that time (late 60s / early 70s), drivers mostly left the blinds up.

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

  I may end up umpiring at school, in older age group cricket and Eomens and Girls cricket next year.. it would be better for my blood pressure.

 

 

Not sure that umpiring womens' cricket is likely to be any more restful.

38 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

 

 The film that I put in my OM1 didn't engage properly so the next 3 days of photos got lost.

 

 

I've got that T-shirt. Always checked carefully after that.

It even happened to our wedding photographer so we ended up having to rely on someone else's photos for part of the big day.

The Tank Museum is indeed impressive. And I can testify also to the great work that the team there do in helping other Dorset tourism businesses.

I do wonder though about putting too much on YouTube (and other social media). Is there not a risk of losing potential visitors as they can see everything from the comfort of their own home?

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

 

Slightly better condition than Odstock hospital (Now Salisbury District Hospital) was when I last visited in the late 1960's still using the below  buildings..

The pictures about 1942 when it was an American ww2 hospital.

 

Odstock is still a bit like that round the back of the nice new bit. Think that all the Nissen huts have now gone (there were still some into the 2000s) but still a lot of WW2 era brick built buildings.

2 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Apropos nothing in particular, but the idea of film sets brought this to mind, No.2 Son & I passed this building in Salisbury last weekend.

 

 

It's been like that for some time.

3 hours ago, pH said:

The correct time to pick fruit, taking all factors into consideration, can be a pretty precise art.

 

The Okanagan is an area about 250 miles east of Vancouver which used to be a big fruit growing area. (Most of the orchards have now been ripped out and the ground given over to growing grapes for wine.) Peaches were a big crop, and a properly ripe Okanagan peach is still something special. But they have to be picked just before properly ripe to allow for the time needed to pack them and ship them to stores in the Vancouver area.

 

 

Depending what you mean by "ripe", it is very precise indeed.

The purpose of fruit is to protect the pip/stone until it is ready to procreate. That takes a fixed number of days (varying between varieties) from pollenation/fruit set. So, so long as you make a daily check, you can forecast the date at which they will be ripe. If you have poor weather, the fruit will not be so good at harvest date. But you don't gain much by leaving the fruit on the vine/tree any longer. It will tend to rot so that the pips can fall to the ground and fulfil their natural purpose.

By the same token, harvesting early can never work. The fruit will never attain ripeness and thus not taste right. It's a big problem now in Southern France (not this year) where if they leave grapes on the vine until properly ripe, there is too much sugar and wines at 15% and more. So they are picking early and that phenolic unripeness will result in some quite unpleasant flavours in the wine.

I was invited as Wessex Vineyards rep to join a group of Canadian winery owners when they visited Hattingley Valley a couple of years back. Very enjoyable, as indeed all my trips to HV. Some of them were from these new vineyards in The Okanagan which I had not known of.

54 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Chuckinitdarn again, 16mm so far, garden is watered anyway.

 

I seem to have emptied my piggy bank on a new Royal Enfield (bike, not gun).   Just a little 350 Meteor (inappropriate name, it is certainly not fast!) cruiser that makes riding with the various broken bits of my skeleton easier.  Cheap as chips for what it is, their quality has taken a leap into the 21st century, it's nothing like the old Indian Enfield Bullets, which could be, er, of dubious quality.

 

I'm not a biker but I think that looks rather nice. Retro but not excessively so.

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Something one could hardly fail to notice. The operating conditions endemic on British railways were not such as to enable the best to be got out of compound engines, by and large. In France, with very long-distance runs (by British standards) at a steady rate of work (up hill and down at no more than the legal maximum of 75 mph) compounding came into its own. Webb was able to build compounds for 150-mile runs on the WCML but they could not be used to advantage when displaced onto secondary work as train weights increased. Had Gresley not died in office and had the war not intervened, perhaps the next step in development of ECML express locomotives might have been a Chapelon-inspired compound pacific.

Were there many long runs in France?

Long-distance trains, yes. But they all seemed to have multiple locomotive changes.

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Whereas a degree in PPE following an education at public school is exactly the  broad background for running the country. 
I am one of those people who did go from school to university and then another one for teacher training and then on to my first teaching job. In my first job the headteacher did say he didn’t like employing graduates as he preferred people from teacher training colleges but he had no choice about employing me and a colleague as he desperately needed a couple of science teachers. The third new member of staff joining the science department that year failed his probation and became a milkman. 

Science is probably the hardest subject for a rookie teacher or even an experienced one. So much scope for misbehaviour on the pupils' part.

6 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

Do you have a link to such maps for France?

Sorry, no. Just seen the maps in the newspapers this morning when having a cafe in the village bar.

15 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

The daily map on the Government website has an easily-understood colour key. This time last week much of the UK was red - bad. Today much of Southern England is back to mere blue, and Scotland, which had been pure red in the lowland areas, is now also back to blue. This may only be a temporary respite, but the change is significantly widespread. 

Whereas here in France only a few areas were in the red last week. This week, it's the whole country.

5 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

If that had been mine, the garage that tested it would have lost their permit to do so PDQ. I hope you reported the incident.

 

IIRC, unless they can prove the owner has refitted a defective part or the fault has arisen afterwards, the testing station can be held responsible for any missed defects for a minimum of two weeks from the date on the certificate.

 

Clearly, the level of corrosion must already have been critical at the time of the test and they either didn't look or looked the other way.... 

 

John

I did indeed put in a complaint but nothing came of it. Garage closed since and site redeveloped.

27 minutes ago, MacDuff999 said:

Just started work on the DJH Model Loco Ivatt variant of the Stanier 'Coronation', and noticed the instructions mention use of 26mm drivers. Surely the class driving wheel diameter was 6'9"? Or was the kit designed for slightly smaller wheels?  

Classic kit designers' conundrum. Given that the wheels will have over-sized flanges (exc P4 possibly), what measurement should one use? Anything oversized will probably cause problems somewhere.

In service, wheels could reduce in size by as much as 3" diameter due to wear before being replaced.

21 minutes ago, alastairq said:

 Equally, having a current [even a fresh] MoT doesn't mean the vehicle is roadworthy.

 

 

Too right! I had the sub-frame of a Triumph 1300 fall off of the car due to corrosion less than 48 hours after a passed MOT.

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

At this juncture [still on tyres] I'd like to present an observation which is not intended to be racist or anything-ist [mods please note, but kindly inform me before banning  my presence, to save me messing with my computer, and complaining to BT?}

Recently, [in York, as it happens] the Police [and doubtless the DVSA as well as the York City Council]...discovered, in checks, that an awfully large number of taxis [private hire, probably, or minicabs?]....had tyres which not only were illegal, but actually right down to the canvass, and beyond...some even running around on flat tyres.

 

Now, normally a UK driver would at least try to do something about the situation on their vehicle before it got  as bad.....or would at least consider the safety aspect, one would hope?

However, I feel one has to look at the national origins of  these minicab & PH drivers, to see how different  attitudes might prevail?

Looking to see what is considered 'normal' as far as tyres were concerned, in places like, Bulgaria/Roumania, Afghanistan, etc, where a lot of the 'taxi' drivers hail from?

They are simply applying 'standards,' which in countries such as i've mentioned, and others, are considered to be 'normal'..especially outside of the glossy cities? If the car still works, in other words, why worry about a bit of canvass showing?

These folk are only applying standards they have always considered 'normal'....Perhaps they cannot 'see' our own points of view on the matter? After all, they haven't actually crashed, or hurt customers, have they?  [Which has to be the criteria when considering 'safety'.....not what 'might' have happened if circumstances had been different?    After all, we all consider ourselves as 'safe' drivers if we manage to get from A to B in one piece, don't we?}

 

The attitudes towards driving, and vehicle standards is more & more being dictated by what is deemed acceptable in other parts of the world. Where sheer economics dictate vehicle & driving standards?

Which ought to be a worrying aspect to those of us who frequently inhabit our crowded public highways?

 

The recent case of a VW Golf being stopped, locally, sporting no tyre at all, and severe overcrowding inside [kids, adults, all crammed in]...the driver possibly not concerned, as that was 'normal' behaviour when getting from A to B, ''back home?''  Possibly wondering why the Police were taking such a  high handed attitude here, when such things would be ignored  in other parts of the world?

It must be difficult to adapt one's culture in regard to vehicles and driving, when confronted with the UK's somewhat strict, and possibly over-bearing Laws concerning safety and road use?  

The Police doubtless have  difficult problem when confronted by someone who has been made to realise they have broken the Law, but yet, doesn't fully understand what all the fuss is about? 

 

Differing ideas of  'normality,' perhaps?

 

I'm sorry but I don't really buy this. Many of these drivers have been here for many years and have had plenty of time to adapt.

19 hours ago, alastairq said:

 Such as?

It shows that there are all sorts of ways of fitting incompatible tyres and yet still passing the MOT. For example, the asymettric tread on the wrong way round which, if mounted such that the examiner can not see an indication of which way the wheel should turn, gets a pass with advisory.

3 minutes ago, ScRSG said:

Send me a PM. I might have some good news for you!

 

Chas

Can you send me one too, please?

You are not joking when you say that it is expensive.

I have reached a stage both through health and age that I need to get up in the night. Don't think that this would suit me.

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

Bear opened his big gob too soon

I forgot that the wall units being "corniced" include a corner unit, with an adjacent cupboard at 90 degrees to it - but not actually attached to it.  Only it isn't.  At 90 degrees I mean, cos' houses are very rarely truly square.  A check proved the cupboards weren't at 90 degrees to each other.....they were at 88 degrees.....

Does 2 degrees make a difference?  Well it screws up the cornice overhang at one end to the tune of a centimeter or so, so yes.

And then Bear had to get his head round cutting the required angles - do I want two pieces at 44 degrees, or two at 46 degrees (i.e. the "other side" of the right-angle).  A few sketches and some pondering later and I settled on 44 degrees, which seems to work well.  Happy Bear now.  More to do....

You have broken the First Rule of Kitchen & Bathroom Fitting. Always make sure that you have (or create) a 90 degree angle.