pH

I was ‘spotting’ on Axminster station on a day in 1963 when the air was saturated as you describe. Bulleids were heading trains westbound through the station at 80mph plus. Behind the last coach on these trains trailed a long cone shape of water droplets. The reduced air pressure in that area was causing the water in the air to drop out. (Edit - my camera at that time was nowhere near up to photographing that phenomenon, so no pictures!)

I’m not disagreeing with anything that’s been written in the two posts immediately above. I’m just not sure what the arrangement was between the railways involved in the Forth Bridge Railway Company. Here are the sites from which I got the information I used in my previous post: https://www.railscot.co.uk/Forth_Bridge_Railway/index.php https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history/iconic-infrastructure/the-history-of-the-forth-bridge-fife/

We’re getting into semantics here, but I think a better description would be “set aside for possible future preservation”. I never saw HR no. 2. I did see 54398 in a couple of Glasgow area sheds, though.

Yes, in sections: - Locomotives preserved by the railway companies before 1948 - Locomotives preserved by the British Transport Commission - Locomotives donated since 1953 - Locomotives scheduled for preservation 1960 (From the Summer 1962 Combine) There are inaccuracies. For example, in “Locomotives preserved by the British Transport Commission” (note the past tense) ‘Ben Alder’ is listed. (That is the Highland Railway ‘Small Ben’ class No. 2, not the esteemed member of this parish.)

Except for the alcoholic drink, which isn’t Scottish.

The G&SWR was not involved in the Forth Bridge Railway Company. In addition to the NBR, the NER, GNR and MR were partners in the company.

There are areas here in BC that used to grow a lot of fruit. Not nearly so much now - a lot of the farmers have gone over to grapes for wine. In the depression in the 1930s, the prices being offered to them for apples and pears were so low, there was a movement with the slogan “Two cents a pound (!!) or on the ground.”

It’s quite disturbing to realize that I actually experienced quite a few of the things that people are saying they wished they had been around to see or do. I must be getting old!

Today, the city has been running a plow regularly up and down the short street just west of us, keeping the street to the local high school clear. The problem with that is that the school has not been in session, a ‘snow day’ having been declared. Meanwhile, our street, off the street to the high school, hasn’t seen a plow all day. With the snow continuing to fall, we now have about 25cm on the street.

Posted in wrong topic.

That would be nice! Here’s the view off the deck this morning: and a humming bird regretting bitterly (😁) it didn’t migrate:

In Winnipeg, it’s 9 months of winter and 3 months of mosquitoes.

A forecast 10 to 20 cm of white stuff is in the process of falling. Drive-shovelling awaits.

IMO, this is one of Mike Danneman’s best for some time. (Look at the name of the beer.) https://www.railpictures.net/photo/849255/

I had a minor problem in the car this morning. I had left a soft drink can in one of the cup holders. With temperatures overnight of about minus 12C, the can had frozen and then burst. Fortunately the overflow had frozen in the cup holder and it was pretty easy to clean up. A real ‘pop’ can!

Humans here have changed the natural behaviour of hummingbirds. These tiny birds migrate each year between the Pacific Northwest of Canada and the US in the north, and Central America and Mexico in the south. In summer here, people hang up hummingbird feeders, filled with sugar solution, which attract the birds - the birds hovering as they feed from these is intriguing to watch. With the availability of feeders, the birds can feed here for longer than would be natural, since they can stay on after flowers have withered in the fall. Over time, they have gradually stayed later and later in the year. There are some that now do not migrate, but stay here over winter. They absolutely depend on people leaving feeders out year round. So we now have two feeders which we swap in and out in this weather (minus 8C at the moment), thawing one while the other is outside.

The runway was originally extended over the railway line during WW2, to enable Coastal Command Liberators to operate from there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Ballykelly Here’s a not very good picture of a Liberator and train: https://www.facebook.com/556745367857030/posts/raf-ballykellyliberator-fl930-lining-up-on-the-runway-ballykelly-when-a-train-pa/1165904100274484/ One of my uncles was a flight engineer on Liberators flying from there.

Well, winter has definitely arrived. Snow started about noon and stopped about seven hours later. First shovelling of the drive for the year has been accomplished. We went out in the car this afternoon with a list of five shops to visit. After doing the first one, and seeing the state of the roads, and of the driving, we thought “Enough, we’re going back home.” Aaaand - we’ve just had a power interruption. Only for 30 seconds, but enough to set all the mains electric clocks and appliances to flashing 12:00. Bah humbug!

Or before people get angry about it all and it becomes a tirade war?

My sister-in-law and her husband don’t have a cat. It doesn’t sleep in their back porch.

A squish? (Or squiche in French cooking?)

In a place I worked at in the UK, the resident electrical and electronic ‘wizard’ was Bert, a Lithuanian DP (displaced person - someone from a European country which had come under Russian occupation after WW2 and who had left in a hurry). A brilliant technician, but a very difficult personality. In a previous job, he had been assigned an assistant to ‘learn what Bert was doing for the company”. Bert immediately realized this person was intended to be his replacement, especially after he found him reading his (Bert’s) work notebook. So he started keeping all his entries in the notebook in Lithuanian, quickly found another job (the one I knew him in) and waved goodbye.

Agree about the plans and diagrams, and also the pictures of locations and buildings. However … IMO the captions on some of the locomotive pictures, especially of G&SWR ones are (shall we say) open to discussion.

Don’t try to be a brave Bob! Get out in front of the possible pain and take “pain relief” before there’s pain to relieve. It’s easier to prevent it than to suppress it once it’s started. I was sent home from a hernia op with those instructions and separate anti-inflammatories and painkillers (on different timetables).

Added emphasis can be given by splitting one swear word to insert another - each of the three parts to be pronounced distinctly. Commonest example: Bas-*******-tard. (I worked on a few Scottish building sites one year.)