TheQ

Other Land Rover owners call these Hippos.

If only... If I open the bath taps, the sink taps stop flowing, that's at 12ft above ground level

Thanks, It's taken A lot of time (nearing 10 years) due to waiting for available money and time it'self, as once I had built the original 20ft X10ft commercial shed I realised I could build myself something much more appropriate and more cheaply but taking much more time. Here's an old picture, the two brown Pillars at the front are now white and support an awning with valancing!! The jungle on the left of picture is now a raised concrete deck outside the mobile home. The Jungle on the right is now lowered ready for a barbeque area, and access where the railway will eventually escape the shed. You can just see the commercial shed poking out from behind the mobile home.

We have got well drowned with rain late evening / overnight, very big puddles on the way into work and a leaf slurry on the roads. SWMBO had someone reverse into the car while she was out at her weaving group last night but it appears there is only a small scratch on the bumper. I too have sent an Email of complaint to the BBC about their Excessive coverage of electing an Idiot. I've repaired most of the damage I caused to one of the layout boards when I dropped it, Hopefully I'll get some progess on this board when I get home tonight. When looking at the sad crash at Croydon, I at first thought it had come from the right of picture (south) and fallen over, but studying the latest pictures it came from the bottom of the pictures (Croydon), you can see broken rails on track as it was supposed to turn left (North) and went straight on. A question about the pond what caused the white foam? wouldn't what ever caused it be harmful to the fish? Your ten hour to fill the pond is worrying, I've a 32 ft X16ft above ground pool to fill next year when I eventually finish the ground works, that could take weeks to fill! I only just remembered that I'm going to the Spalding MRC Show late yesterday, that's thrown all my other plans out for the Weekend. I was going to drain the fresh water tanks on the motor boat I just hope we don't get a major frost forecast before the following weekend or I'll be paddleing back from the boat in the dark. More shunts to measure this morning...

I would have loved to put my layout in my loft, but two large chimney breasts either side of the central corridor would have meant a lot of crawling to get through and the layout at a very low level . So a shed was built, which has grown somewhat since planning permission was granted by SWMBO, in order to get permission, she's got one end where the track just takes a 1 foot wide strip round the edge. That end I built semi circular and with 7 windows (old sashes from the house) that's her art studio. So the shed ended up being 54ft by up to 16ft wide, or rather it did do, with SWMBO already moving in one end her end has grown well past the middle, a bit like our wardrobe where I now only have the last 3 ft of it's 15ft length . So leaving me no room to finish the other end and I'll have insufficient space even when finished so another 9ft by 10ft shed is being attached at 90degrees on my end. That will now be a dirty workshop(spraying etc) and my storage. Sorry for the interuption but I had to transfer from my Desk to the lab computer 100yards away... Insulation is being added everywhere to my shed as I go along working on lining the inside, And I double glazed the windows with a layer of 4mm plastic, which made a huge Difference. A complete plastic membrane below the floor was fitted when it was built, to reduce condensation coming up from below. We get a large proportion of Norfolks lazy wind, that blows right through you, since when I look out onto the coast, both side of the shed (120 degree angle running through north east) I did look at fitting a solid fuel stove but was worried about the fire hazzard and the dust from the ash. So heating will be local to the user, radiant heaters, plus the heat generated by the 3 fridges, one is for her volatile art substances, one for my glues and paints and the other for....my cider I think when the shed fully comes into use I will have to fit curtains cutting off her studio and the other end my model railway modelling area to keep the heat mostly in those areas just pulling them back for operating sessions. For the opposite conditions in the centre of the roof I've fitted a ventilator / clock tower like they have on the top of a stables, at the moment that is controlled by a manual door underneath but will eventually have an automatic green house window opener fitted to control excess heat when we're not there. I can remember Ice on the inside of the windows, till my parents moved to a night storage heatered house in 1971. Though it feels like my house will go that ways soon with our broken boiler.

I think I'll join you and have a Highland Park or two tonight.

It was somewhat warmer on my drive in than it was last night, but so far we haven't had the amount of rain forecast. but over here in the east we often get the weather later than everyone else. How does everyone fancy a 1920's depression? according to the "experts" on TV said that's what will happen if the Republican controlled House of representatives allows Trump to bring in his protectionist policies... I the like Alice Cooper view though.... Changed Three relays this morning on a calibrator, due to a failure of less than 0.5 parts per million. ( 100% of spec for me is 0.3 PPM), So its three more relays for the model railway, operated by 5V, can switch 10A or 1200V

yes but we don't have the very badly read second amendment.....

My Sympathies, to your situation over there, I hope there is a very clear decision one way or the other, because a very close vote could I fear, literally cause major problems with the attitude of many.

Not all MGB /C drivers are as careful as you, a couple of years ago I had cause to brake to slow for a cyclist just before a blind Hill summit ( OK slope summit we are in Norfolk). I saw in my rear view mirror, a MGC hammered down the hill behind obviously not looking ahead to the next rise, rounded the bend to see the back of my landrover going slowly. He hit the brakes, and spun 90 degrees stuffing the rear of his MGC into the grass bank on the other side of the road. This was on a dry sunny day!!! As for Snow driving, I've only slid off the road once, following a Snow Blower from Dunblane to Oban, therefore very slow, on an opposite camber bend, I slid slowly off sideways into the 6 foot snowdrift. I had a shovel in the back and dug myself out before the next car came through and was the first car through in 3 days. These days I take the Landrover out in the snowy weather, 4 wheel drive with a LSD on the back axle, narrow tyres, does make things easier. But you do have to respect 1,495KG wanting to go straight on on sharp corners. It's amusing seeing Softroaders with wide wheels, struggling as they slide around on the surface, expecting to drive like they do on a clear road.

My wife is from Yorkshire, she's likely to do that at any financial position.

M+S are losing out to companies like Primark as people buy cheap clothing rather than some quality, but not top quality , they are the squeezed middle. They have however found a market for " yuppie" sales of food in the big cities. Their only competition being Waitrose, they are not competing against Tesco, Sainsburys, Lidl or Aldi.

ER tie 02:50, and I didn't get much sleep after that . We had the first frost of the winter this was after and before rain. So the car was doing an Ice cube impression this morning. Nearly got involved in an accident on the way in, one of those "sporting" Mercedes decided to overtake our line of four cars ( which were doing the speed limit) unfortunately the front car decided to indicate and then turn right. Much braking as the Merc dived in front of me, lucky there wasn't any ice on the road at that point!!! Discovered the reason for one of the landscaping problems I've been having, the plaster has not been adhering well to the J cloth strips I've been encasing the polystyrene in. Took a Genuine J cloth home from work and compared it to the cloths I've been using. A genuine J cloth has small holes in it and has a more "matt" feel. the cheap cloths I was using feel shiny compared to the genuine Item and no hole at all. I think the holes allow the plaster to bond through the cloth..I fear some stripping off of the first layer.... Good news the American election is almost finished... Bad news we've still got years of Brexit to go Bad news we'll past half way to the next American election Can I have my UK news back?

Had some thing similar happen to me, though with only three bikes. They jumped the crossing actually by using the pedestrian crossing illegally. Causing me to brake, then the pedestrians set off as well only when I beeped at them did they look up and then panic that they were crossing against moving traffic!!

There's no point being a G®ooch, we'll all have to look at a Star.

Flat bottomed rail certainly, the MSWJR was Built with Krups FB rail in 1883 Alfreton and Sutton tramway used concrete sleepers in 1884. ( The patent for concrete sleepers 1877 French!)

Thats a great shame that your day out was somewhat short. I'd have loved to see pictures of Andover -Red Post-Weyhill and especially Ludgershall. Though there's not much I'll remember left.

Slept well last night even though the wind was howling around the house, probably something to do with a large whisky and two Ibprofen. I don't like taking too many pain killers but sometimes i really do need a good nights sleep. So no early rising today as I woke up only 10 minutes before the planned time of 05:00. Good news, I found a pair Of trousers I bought in Saudi arabia at least 15 years ago....... they still fit!!! I couldn't see the roads for layers of leaves and mud on the way to work, the sugar beet harvest is tying in with leaf fall this year. Boiler failures are catching on here, because our boiler won't give us heat, although we have hot water, I'm glad we still have coal / wood stoves as well. SWMBO is insisting on cleaning the house before visitors, (the boiler men) so they haven't been called yet. Off to get polyfilla for the layout after work, blocks for the shed foundations and dowelling for a loom SWMBO has me making. Now to measure more Ohms, I've already measured DCV and DCI on this Calibrator, OK so far...

My house here in North Norfolk, is almost certainly built with bricks fired at a brickworks that was on a canal within sight of the house. There is much Dutch influence In Norfolk in house styles http://www.waysidearteastanglia.me.uk/wpimages/wp0bc70033_0f.jpg Pre railway days it was easier to get to Holland and Belgium than London or Leicester. There is a village called Ostend near me. The was house built 1906, and like many others round here had red pantiles, I note there is local practices of them painting pantiles with bitumen to reduce water absorption, they also did that to north and East walls for the same reason.

Few wiz bangs last night and the second nearest neighbour didn't light their bonfire, probably due to the 50 mph winds the bucketing rain and the fact it would have blown toward our nearest neighbours thatched roof. Did rescue boat duty at the sailing club today, quite windy ( unfortunately with drizzle or heavy rain) so I put the buoys out long, but by the lunch time second race, I had to shorten the course as the wind dropped to a drift. The afternoon race the wind came up again but with a 90 degree wind shift from north west to north east. The outside temperature gauge registered a massive 8C so I'm now lying on the sofa after a hot bath, supping a Highland Park (whisky). Oh it's blowing 55mph according to the nearest weather station and the rain is hammering against the windows.

The model railway repairs didn't happen, but thats because yesterdays work hadn't set yet. I had to change the design of the foundations for the shed I just kept hitting too many roots. I got about 10 blocks down but I ran out just in time. As I was packing up the wind switched on shortly followed by horizontal rain. It's still blowing a hoolie out there now. So it was back to the house and time to earn some smarty points assisting in the house tidy up. Oh loo fixed.

ER time today at about 03:00, but only a few minutes of them wittering on about trumping Clinton and brexit it sent me off to sleep till 06:00. hmm the auto correct changed "brexit" to "need"! The work on my layout at the MRC went well, pity I slipped and dropped the board at home getting it out of the landrover. Luckily the board is in its early stages, so it's easy to repair. I must find a more safe way of loading and unloading the layout especially once I have more boards. We had a prospective new member visit and a member whos wife had been ill and then died returned for the first time in ages, so we were well attended. One old club layout being worked on (Minor ex show repair), one being rebuilt, one under construction, and the club test track being relaid. Plan for today, weather permitting, do initial repairs to board, dig more of the foundations for the new shed, clear up house as required by SWMBO for boiler repair men, fix the loo (the bits arrived yesterday.) Time for breakfast.

Oh, I've worked with many rotary converters over the years mostly to produce aircraft voltages from 240V mains. Yes it is a gert big transistor thing, 25KG (OK 54lbs) of metal box containing Integrated circuits and transistors and of course some fans to stop it overheating. A current amplifier will produce a known variable current while the voltage remains the same. Now in this case it's real name is a Transconductance amplifier and its a "Fluke 52120" http://us.flukecal.com/products/electrical-calibration/electrical-calibrators/52120a-transconductance-amplifier. Transconductance meaning, "the ratio of the change in current at the output terminal to the change in the voltage at the input terminal of an active device." The output the current from 0A to 120A on this unit. In this case with an approximately 8milliohm resistor being fed by 100A it generates a voltage of 0.8V across the resistor which is what is measured. All measurements on a DMM (Volts, amps and resistance) are actually a voltage measurement of a current being fed through a device and then converted into a meaningful value. The device could be outside of the measuring unit as in what I'm doing today or if you have a normal current meter, the resistance, the current is being measured across, is inside the DMM I need 2 of 52120s in parallel because if the measured resistance of the shunt, the current is fed through is high, then the output voltage would exceed it's limit. On the ranges I'm using today, 1V in = 100A out on a single 52120. However I could feed in a 1V fixed voltage input but with an adjustable current of up to 120ma and amplify that 1mA = 1 Amp out.

Don't worry I get serious brain fade at times doing the work, especially when I have to do the maths manually, it's one of the few times I like Microsoft, let Excel do the work.. The second to last line is the most important Long time since I was last at Bexley, sleeping in the TA hall during the first fireman's strike, running round Bexley and London in a Green Goddess. didn't get to find out if Bexley was boring or not I was too busy...

Sadly this is all manual, they don't trust Automatic Test Equipment at this level of accuracy, too many relays in the resistance / current scanners. I used to work with Atlas and Atal, when working ATE for testing radar. Can you come and fix my loo as well, I've got the parts on order for the "Dudley Turbo Flush 88" should arrive today.. (I'm not joking)