PatB

You can get some quite runny fillers which should sort the detail problem, and a polyester based filler (most of them) will set to a level of strength adequate for mould removal faster than plaster. Or should do anyway. I'm not sure how significant the difference would be though.

It should be OK if you use an appropriate release agent. You can buy the proper stuff from fibreglass supply specialists but a cheaper alternative is an aerosol silicone lubricant. I've used this option between wood and plaster and between epoxy resin and plaster and it's worked well for me. Silicone car polish would probably also work.

Bloke I went to uni with, during my first and unsuccessful attempt at a degree, became head of the National Physical Laboratory. I knew he was bright, and a nice guy too, but it was a bit of a surprise when I googled him in an idle moment.

I think it might be from a "Go Electric" set. I had several at one stage as the basis of a stillborn 0-16.5 project. The cheap can motor looks very familiar. If it's the case, it's designed for 6V operation as the set came with a terrible battery controller that held, IIRC, four C-cells.

Still available for those who want to put in the effort. However, based on my observations of a number of users, it is a lot of effort. Once you take into account the energy, detergents and bleaches involved in keeping them civilised, I'm not sure the benefit is as great as it appears at face value.

IMHO Duel was a brilliant film based on a rather ho-hum short story. However it's the only example I can immediately think of where the film is better than the written word.

I've generally found that people who create "stuff" tend to appreciate the efforts and interests of other people who create "stuff", even if said varieties of "stuff" are quite widely removed from each other. For (non-railway related) example, I've had lengthy conversations with greasy custom motorcycle builders regarding the finer points of materials science as it relates to porcelain glazes. Superficially incongruous, but with the underlying theme of doing something both technically quite difficult and artistically demanding. Helps that I'm a formerly greasy custom motorcycle builder, mind . I've also noticed, over the years, a strong tendency for artists and engineers to gravitate together, although that might also reflect a need by artists for a well paid professional partner to bankroll them .

It's all a matter of odds. You can adjust them a bit, maybe, but you can still end up throwing a seven thanks to some unknown factor. Males on both sides of my family aren't notable for their longevity, for example, but most have been smokers. I've been a smoker (but haven't for the last 20+ years) and am currently significantly overweight, though not particularly sedentary, so might go early from something else. I've also spent many years riding motorcycles in a manner that might be described as "not sensible" and got away with it (just), but my diet is fairly reasonable (not much junk, not a huge amount of sugar, limited meat; I do confess to cheese addiction though ). I'm now at an age where I find I'm fairly fatalistic about things, aided by watching various ostensibly "healthier" contemporaries suffer at least as high a rate of health problems as I seem to. I might last as well as my one surviving uncle, who's recently made it to the upper side of 80,or I might keel over tomorrow. No point worrying about it. Something I did notice, when I still worked in the corporate world, was the amount of time lost due to injuries sustained during supposedly "healthy" activities. Contact sports and various cycling disciplines were the main offenders. Indeed, in spite of having spent my adult life around motorcycles, I never came across so many people with bits of metal in them until I came to Australia and started working with significant numbers of people who'd played competitive sport. Not pros though, just Sunday league/recreational stuff. So, yes, coffee's probably bad for you in excess. So are most things. I'd be more worried about things I can't really control as an individual. Urban air quality, for example. Without the option of avoiding cities and/or stopping breathing, a huge proportion of the population are constantly exposed to a horrible cocktail of toxins. Most will get away with it. Enough, at least, that we continue to regard living in such an environment as "normal".

Most of my nominations are there already, but I'd put up a couple of more obscure (to some) figures. John Van Riemsdijk of the Gauge 1 Association, Stuart Browne of Archangel models and Jack Wheldon were, between them, largely responsible for the early development of the efficient and reliable r-t-r live-steam garden gauge models that we know today.

I really don't see that anything said on this forum, speculation or otherwise, will have any effect on any enquiry, positive or negative. Anyone who thinks it might has an exaggerated concept of the power of internet fora. As things stand, there's been an interesting discussion on the failure modes of steam locomotives, without any claims that the information offered is in any way definitive in Tornado's case. I really can't see any harm being done, and some of us may have learned a few things.

A very rough, rule of thumb type number would be possible by taking the motor stall torque (taking this to be the maximum torque exerted by the motor), dividing by the radius of the worm (to get the lateral force at the periphery of the worm) and multiplying by the worm and wheel reduction ratio (because you are effectively using this lateral force to drive a wedge with a slope determined by this ratio). Using the figures you give, and assuming a worm diameter of 6 mm, I get (9.44/6)*30 = 47.2 mN. Because this method is very approximate, I'd then add a factor of safety of at least 2, so in this case I'd assume 100 mN end-thrust to be taken care of as a result of the motor driving the worm. However, something that must also be taken into account is the potential effect of a heavy train and a falling gradient, which could easily put much greater forces into the drivetrain than the motor could manage on its own.

Could be. I just found it interesting because it looks like typical mid/late Victorian urban brick architecture but plonked out in what appears to be the middle of nowhere. I'm just reminded of all those Superquick (or Metcalfe these days) house kits that you see on layouts, placed in splendid isolation rather than as part of a coherent urban scene .

Not to mention an apparently isolated house and a dead flat, solid top baseboard .

I'd be quite surprised if a component made from a (I assume) not especially exotic steel would degrade to any measurable extent simply through ageing, without being subjected to its working loads. Non ferrous alloys are a different teapot of eels, but that doesn't seem relevant here.

Ooh! They'll be needing the big hammer and the b*stard file on that .

If there's no external signs of a leak (and the amount you've put in should be visible somewhere if it's coming out where it shouldn't) I'd be starting to wonder if it's finding its way into whatever passes for a bellhousing or, somehow, the engine sump. Or is it filling up its driveshaft boots, for example?

Looks like one of these.

Indeed, getting enough photons through a small enough fibre optic would be my concern too. I suspect that anything actually buildable would, at least, end up somewhat overscale.

Their crusher division didn't make many friends either, not least when Kawasaki, the originators of the Hyundai machines, found out that Hyundai were selling them into Australia in violation of their licensing agreement. There was a bit of a legal stink about that one .

Twenty years ago my then boss visited Hyundai (we were agents for their range of rock crushers). On a works tour of a seemingly infinitely sized shipyard he was told, IIRC, that something like 25% of the new tonnage under construction worldwide was in that particular yard. Presumably things have changed somewhat since.

The SGE might be possible (and I do stress "might") using very fine fibre optics feeding aspects carved from perspex. Not exactly a rtp solution though, even if it worked.

Back in ~2000 I had a 1979 Peugeot 504 wagon that had daul headlamps, rather than the usual trapeziodal ones; something I've not seen on any other Oz market 504. Another feature that I've also never seen elsewhere was the carb setup. It had twin downdraft Solexes, arranged to operate as a progressive twin-choke. All the other 504s I've seen under the bonnet of have had a reasonably conventional single carb. I never managed to work out where the car had come from. It seemed to be factory RHD so presumably wasn't from the US. Regardless, it was a decent motor car and I just wish I'd had a better example. I also wish it hadn't blown its head gasket when the thermostat seized .

Given that the youngest Mk1 is now 55+ years old, I don't think any problems with them can fairly be described as design weaknesses as such. That's really not a bad service life in anybody's book.

I was under the impression that The Lady Armstrong did have a brake pump or exhausted (can't remember which). However an earlier Armstrong Whitworth diesel that was trialled did not.

My father reckoned he'd seen snorkel equipped Austin Champs wading in water deep enough to require the driver to stand up, in military use in the late 1950s. Mind you, there's not much flotation in a Champ once the water gets over the sides .