raymw

Hi Tony, although art training may not have helped in construction, either that and/or a good eye allowed you to judge the results. I tend to believe that many folk just do not see things as they are (including myself,sometimes). Some things are too dangerous to rely on being only self taught, although originally in any activity there are no mentors around, only the self taught.

I don't use 'one drive' much, but have been given a few extra Giga Bytes for some reason, when I checked a few weeks back. May be worth your while, too. http://www.winbeta.org/news/you-have-just-10-days-left-to-claim-your-free-bonus-onedrive-storage need to do it in the next week or so, or lose it.

If you have an OKI laser printer - it most likely not work with polyester material - (OKI's are/were misnamed as not actually a laser printer, but LED, and the toners are unusual, and do not require the separate fuser - they have their own oil.). Folex is a similar brand plastic, maybe readily available, not sure how thick the sheets are, I used it for pcb artwork a few years back. iirc it was difficult to tear from the edge, but if a small cut was started, it would rip easily. Most laser printers, except OKI work fine with Folex.

use cortana - type in 'audio', it will come up with a few things, settings to fiddle with. One of them will be the audio device type/make e.g. 'Realtek'- check the driver is OK and it is working. if not download new driver from audio card/mb web site. Make sure cable for speakers is plugged in, of course. Plenty of settings to get wrong if a newish audio system. If the whole system is a single manufacturer, check their web site.

Dunball again at five past four, yesterday - mobile phone - but you can't see much, even after over-sharpening, so I cropped and enlarged and shown as second pic. (Not the best workflow for jpegs) .

Not sure if it would be cheaper, but it would be more fuss, but I guess you could install a licensed w7 or w8 and upgrade. You would need to get the correct version, home/pro/32bit/64bit/whatever (or pay the difference).

Hi Phil, Here's the other views of the signal hth Ray

Hi Simon, I think you should make a little guy take the apples out of the basket, and stick 'em back on the tree.

Hi, I was going to make some of these, in 7mm scale, but don't know if I will. I have a few photos of the one that was Midsomer Norton in 2012, if that is any help. But it looks if you'll be using a rtr Westinghouse sort of semi circular variety, or did I get that wrong?

5th September 2004, Dunball. This view now obstructed by Morrison's warehouse... I've been going through some of my older snaps, as you may tell - Picasa is pretty useful

Back in October 2005, the sun was too much ... I did manage to fix it, more or less, after half an hour in photoshop.

2005 - my daughter had a flat near Clapham Junction, more like landscape in the lines. There's a bit of reflection since took through window.

The guy on t'other platform may have got it OK...

Some interesting links to w10 faq here http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-youve-got-questions-ive-got-answers/

I found the wsr went past here - I wasn't ready...

OT - near here is a company who make moulds for making rubbish, as they say. It's actually a cnc shop that makes the moulds for the transparent vacuum formed packaging for eggs, sandwiches and the like. A few years back they had to make moulds for clip together packaging for 'cream horns' for a so called pasty maker just in Cornwall. A rush job, so a few of the managers drove up to the factory one Friday to pick up a few hundred test packagings, went back, packed 'em with cream horns, loaded them in a lorry then sent out the lorry to drive around the countryside for 500 miles or so over the weekend to test out if the cream horns stayed in one piece. Worked OK afaik. Best wishes, Ray

Hi John, just for you I've conducted a chimney pot experiment, in keeping with card building construction. Make or find a suitable former - if tapered chimney, then maybe a paintbrush handle, if // then perhaps an appropriately sized drill shank. Chimney pots are much bigger than they look from the ground, so something about 6mm diam for 7mm scale would be about right. You will need a couple of lengths of copper wire, or those poly bag twisty ties would be nice, and some shellac varnish or as I use - knotting from Toolstation (handy for stiffening cardboard, anyway) - other varnish may work, but it may not soak in as well, and will take longer to dry. You then need a strip of some soft toilet paper/kitchen roll or newspaper strip (depending how cheap you really are!), about an inch or so wide. Simply wet (a bit of spit will do) the end of the paper so that you can wrap it around the former (the spit lets the first half turn or so partially stick to the former), and put on enough turns of the paper, to give, say half mm thick tube. Hold the turns more or less in place with the wire towards each end. Paint on plenty of the knotting, so it soaks right through the paper layers. After half an hour, you should be able to slide off the paper tube - easy on a tapered former, but even on a // former it will be OK, since the inside of the tube will not have dried, but the outside will be relatively stiff. Leave it to dry for an hour or two, say, then cut to length and if necessary sand off the edge of the paper. Paint however you like. If you want ornate patterns in the pot, the sort of twisty type, then that could be done by twisting a few spirals of wire around the length, to compress the paper under the wires, and remove wires when surface is hard. hth, Ray

Rather dangerously, I've had another thought. Your local Co-op store will have a 'bag for life', black with a load of white lettering on the outside (or green if you'd rather). I've just checked - it is a fine woven fabric, made from two plastic bottles - so you could recycle the recycling. I reckon it would do the job fine, the white printing doesn't print through on the inside, and I reckon with a bit of low heat from a soldering iron, you could iron in some nice creases. One bag, costing a quid, would most likely do enough bellows for 50 coaches, and you wouldn't need to colour it. I think it would be better than a Fedex envelope and it would be cheaper than plying your sailing club with enough booze to get them paralytic.

fwiw, I think Tyvek would do the job https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyvek I used it to make some concertina bellows for a cross-slide cover on a milling machine. It held the folds reasonably well (heat would help). I sourced it from an old Fedex envelope. Unlike paper, you can't tear it - also used for sails in 12inch to the foot sailing boats (but probably thicker than you need, but you could try calling one night to your local sailing club - take a pair of scissors )

I never made the point-work, I just machined and sold the set of jigs, (probably half dozen different angles) to C&L. I did however use the No 6, no problem with soldering, plenty of heat in the iron, and in and out quick, as usual. The red felt tip marks were the location of sleepers, so I could see where to get the two or three brass strips in the correct place (between sleepers for my pcb soldered track). The jigs need a couple of 6mm or so holes drilled through at the V, more or less, so the assembled rail can be pushed out from the slots by shoving a rod through said holes.

About 12 years ago, I machined the aluminium assembly jigs for C&L 0 gauge point-work. In use, the V rail was simply machined at half the angle, dropped upside down into the slots, and then the bits of wing rail added. Small strips of brass were then soldered across the bases of the track. Afaik, the assembled unit was then supplied in their point kits. Here's a photo of a couple of the prototypes. If you're only making a few points, then a simple jig made by screwing appropriately placed screws into a block of wood would be sufficient.

A couple of illustrations from said book the upper drawing is the Furness lubricator, the valve opens when steam pressure removed, and with the loco 'coasting', cylinder vacuum sucks in the oil. (note there are wicks in the passageways, to restrict oil flow, not much oil needed in lubrication.) Below is the Detroit lubricator - quite a bit more complicated. Three pages in book on how to operate it. Regulated oil feeds to individual cylinders. Nowadays would be made of plastic and microprocessor controlled... (Like inkjet cartridges) Best wishes, Ray

The copy of the book that I have was printed in 1921, and was the sixth edition. It was sold for the benefit of the L&SWR servant's orphanage. The first illustration is a portrait of the late Mr. Dugald Drummond, M.I.C.E.

I have a book of lectures, by Dugald Drummond (c 1920) he reckons the sight feed displacement lubricators were too complex, risk of glass breakage, dirt, etc. and I 'm guessing driver forgetfulness. He seemed to favour a steam chest lubricator (also a displacement type), coupled with a Furness lubricator which operates when the steam is cut off. Urie, in a later note, recommends a Detroit displacement lubricator for superheated steam.

in UK, Sainsburys's is after HRG, who own Argos and Homebase http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/business/more-400-argos-stores-could-7173101