Loconuts

Why did you buy these items at full RRP when you knew you could buy it cheaper else where, you knew the price at the time as it was marked on the package.

It seems the washout plugs are accessible due to the use of the plastic non radial handrail knobs lowering the line slightly, but it beggars the question of whether the basic handrail line is correct or not.

 

This is one of the dead give aways that something is amiss on the whole model, there are not true datum points being used to cross check dimensions, and it comes from the use of CAD programs which appear to do the work for you as they compile the drawings for each view.

It comes  from relying on the corrections in the CAD code that allows for accumulative corrections as scaling happens.

 

Classically the design may have all the tolerances work on one side of the dimension block, and you find that although the CAD says everything is OK, the tolerances total gets added to the total and the model ends up too long.

 

CAD has got better and better, but it needs an experienced machinist to spot the problems before committing to using the CAD files to control CNC cutting out of moulds, where other tolerances also come into play.

 

Somewhere the boiler, smokebox and the fire box do not line up correctly spaced up wards from the footplate, or else , and more likely, the diameter of the smokebox is slightly wrong and places the line of the handrail in the wrong level as it runs down the boiler side. It could be as little as a fraction of a MM out, but it affects things further down the line.

 

I built masters for kits and if the various sums of dimensions from datum points did not tally with the accumulative  totals the alarm bells rang, and it was back to the drawings to re-check the work, There are no computer programs that can replace skill, what ever the computer programmers say.

 

The evidence is clear on the Deans, there are still minor mistakes that indicate reliance on the computer to do dimensioning and shape. The strengthening plates at the base of the firebox are still too thick, the knobs are hopeless, but they seem to have got the cab sorted out.

 

I cannot answer the rivets on the face of the splashers, they must be shown on one of the drawings they have, and the GWR despite being famous for standardisation, also suffered from rival works at Swindon and Wolverhampton, they delighted in altering details on servicing each others work. Also the locos were bought in from outside makers who used the outlines, but did details as they were used to doing.

 

Oxford must be getting more experienced now, surely things like the knobs can be sorted out? I know the reason, it is to save drilling the metal boiler, horizontal holes can be cast in place, radial holes must be a second machining operation.

 

It only cost pence to do, but let them save money in this way and the standards will slip backwards, when they should be moving forwards.

 

The photo also shows the slipshod attitude to showing a sample, in that the chimney is on the wrong way round, and the safety valve bonnet is ll wonky. This not "Honesty" in showing the raw product , it is pure lack of standards and cross checking

 

Nobody wants the sample picture photoshopped to death, but it should be made clear to the staff that the shots should contain no errors!

 

Stephen

I agree with the sentiment viewed in this post, but is it not the same with all the 'newbie' manufacturers. Errors abound with their new models because the people designing these models are inexperienced and lack knowledge of the chosen prototypes. They source information from the wrong sources, not very diligent with the information they have.

As an ex-designer in manufacturing the time to check things out is at the CAD stage basically as it does not cost much things right, not to do it at the EP stage when everyone is screaming it is wrong. One small supplier I know of got caught out by this, supplying photos of the first EP model which was wrong from top to bottom and did not represent the prototype. They had to go back to China and have it retooled at great cost. The second EP,s have now arrived and it still has errors, why as they had the correct information from the start of the project. The answer is they did not double check the CADS against the information they had, something engineers are trained to do.

In my final years of working for a living I came across the CAD Technician, these guys were wizards with CAD packages but were not Engineers, in other words they could draw you pretty pictures but could not engineer them so the item would work. They were also cheap to employ, are these the guys producing the CADS for these small manufacturers?

These small manufacturers should use experienced consultants who know their subject, Dapol are using Richard Webster which has resulted in a vast improvement of their newer models. There are plenty of guys around who have retired and are experts in the hobby who would no doubt like to earn a little bit of pin money advising. OK it will cost a little bit extra on the cost of the model but is much cheaper than the cost of retooling, even at Chinese rates.

Grey primer is usually used under red top coat as far as I know

A friend of mine used grey primer on a LMS loco followed by Crimson Lake, result a nice fetching shade of pink. Rule of thumb is red oxide under warm colours and grey under cold colours and always do a sample before hand.

Have finally arrived in Hatfield, after coming from Cornwall via Ledbury (no, I'd never heard of it either), Stow-on-the-Wold (I kept my eyes shut), Bicester, Aylesbury & Hemel Hempstead.

 

Still, baseboards have been collected, a building has been delivered and a burger has been eaten.

 

Roll on tomorrow (visiting the Stevenage & District MRC.)  After the course, of course.

You were obviously using a Cornish steam powered Sat-Nav.

Could be a whole lot worse....

 

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E.Cowarrior

I like that, very rustic.

Thanks guys, this has all been very interesting stuff. I must add that I served 4 years as a Town Councilor and during my 4 years I was on the planning committee. Plans were passed to us by the District Council with their recommendations on the plans and why, we on the Town Council made up our own minds on the applications and sent our recommendations back to District.

There were no bungs made to any Councilor in that 4 years I served. However all the Councilors were local Towns people who had pride in their town so every application was scrutinised in detail. Of course we had to watch out for any councilors who were members of the funny handshake lot.

One of the biggest problem we had to deal with was the purpose of the building mods, a lot were going to be used as business space although the plan would say domestic accommodation. Being locals we had a good idea as to what was going on and caught many of them out. The other ones that were worst were small builders say developing a small piece of land with housing, always trying to cram a quart into a pint pot, a lot of these plans were unworkable, the other one was to put in for a number of 2 or 3 bed small houses and then coming back for retrospective planning changing the build to 4 bed detached houses.

I can say that all the plans we passed were sympathetic to the surrounding area, however I believe that things have all changed in the last two decades. All I can say to people like Horse who are not happy with their councilors you can change them every 4 years.  

Neither. They've both got people living in them.

Then I suggest that you give your local Social services a ring and inform them of that fact. Unless they are registered as habitable property they are breaking the law. Also it would be interesting to see what use they got planning permission for and did they put in a change of use application.

If they are renting out these out these buildings may be a friendly call to your local HMRC office would be in order. I would bet they are not paying tax on the rental income.

You can acuse Hatfield of many things but having traffic lights is certainly not one of them. ;-)

The Lights over the ECML at the Red Lion were the only ones in town in my day.

You want traffic lights come to Poole, the home of the traffic light. We have Seimens traffic light division in the town and prototype lights spring up all over the place. If you can think of a place to put lights they will appear. 

That's a bit severe. I'll only be there 3 1/2 days.

One day of visiting is enough. Only one place worse is Basildon, Essex, Half a day is enough!

If you model Australian railways, those Twiggy like  models just will not  cut it:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLrvy4ejQuA#t=89.647437

 

PS: Its an  American news report, our sheeps DON'T  hang around in "herds" and we DON'T "shave" our sheep, WHICH..

 

begs a serious question  - do they even have sheep in the US? I've seen my fair share of old westerns and while theres plenty of cows and horses,I can't remember ANY sheep.

 

I'm thinking that if they did have them then they surely would have popped up in popular culture - movies, Country and Western songs and so on. But while I've seen way too many cowboy movies, I cannot recall a single sheepboy one...

 

Anyway, here's sheep in the main street of where I live, in a kind of lame "Running of the Sheep" event - get out of the way! .Its celebrating the fact that the Australian wool industry started in the early 1800's here at  Camden with John Macarthur importing Spanish Marinos, I don't know if these are Marinos, but they are at least sheep competing in a world class event, which means they got their faces on the internet,

 

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Plenty of sheep in the USA, they have one for President! Seriously though in Colorado they used to take the stock to the Mountain pastures in the spring and have a roundup in the fall. This is not only cattle but also sheep. The D&RGW railroad had standard stock cars for cattle and double deck cars for sheep.

Are our planning regs outdated or not. The example I quote is, if I purchase a semi-detached house and pay the premium for being a semi and not a end of terrace only to find that my neighbour puts in plans to build a separate property on the end of his property and thereby making my property a end of terrace property and causing a loss in value. His intention is to sell both properties and make a quick buck.

Before anyone asks, yes his plans were approved even though they did not comply to several building regs including over development of his land.

Commit suicide?

Horsetan is the legally qualified one here (there may be others), but  I understood the magistrates had to impose a ban as this is expected through the sentencing guidelines. The bench has to follow these when imposing a sentence.

 

In driving cases you will often find that where a charge of dangerous driving is disputed, the accused will plead guilty to the lesser charge of careless and inconsiderate driving. (Used to be driving without due care and attention.  Because they plead guilty, and save court time etc, they are 'rewarded' with a reduced penalty.  This is why some cases you read about what seems to be ridiculously light on the perpetrator of the offence.  There is nothing the magistrates or judge can do as they have to follow laid down guidelines.  The best they can do is impose the maximum allowed.

This is also due to current police policy (Informed by a member of the Police) to charge an offender with the more serious charge knowing they will plead guilty to the lesser charge. This is due to this bring in revenue for the Government. In the days when a person was charged with driving without due care and attention and the offender challenged the case in court resulting in the case being dismissed it cost the police and CPS money in costs. 

I like the static grass, who's brand is it?

I would be happy to give up driving if I could, too many idiots on the roads these days with a me first attitude. When I had my Landy I was treated with respect from other drivers, I wonder why?

Having spent many of a year sailing the Broads, shooting the Potter bridges and making it around the bend at Horning without losing the mast, you still cannot beat the South Dorset Coast and the New Forest.

on strike again

 

On the fox hunting thing I’m a bit conflicted. I tend to believe that provided a person doesn’t commit murder, rape or hurt people then what they do on their property should be largely their own affair and it is not the job of the government to tell us how to lead our lives. I recognise that pest control is necessary but I also object to wanton animal cruelty, and I’d consider chasing a fox with a pack of dogs who rip the fox apart to be animal cruelty. In this case my objection to animal cruelty would trump my objection to government interference in our lives.

That said, based on my own observations I do feel a lot of those opposed to fox hunting are as motivated by some sort of ideological class warfare disgruntlement at the idea of toffs in funny clothes on horseback as they are to animal cruelty which is hardly a commendable attitude. I people want to ride horses and get dressed up for the ride then provided they have permission to ride on whatever land it is they want to ride on then it is their business, not mine or anybody else’s.

 

Fox hunting is still going in much the way you say, on private land. How do I know, well my niece regularly rides to hounds and they are not drag hunting. 

Semley is very pretty, but where is all the dirt?

We have had that one in previous posts, there was not any at that time, it was not like BR in that period. Labour was cheap and the railways employed cleaners.

People took a pride in those days unlike our present throw away society of today.

I know a couple of former LD Councillors, and when I asked them what they thought of Tim Farron they were not very polite. Their view was that he was already out of touch and didn't listen to what the general public were saying.  

Tim Farron looks as though he would be more comfortable sitting on his tractor chewing a length of straw. (from a ex-LD councillor)

Trump got in because people rejected the Washington political bubble, 'Bexit' happened because people rejected the London political bubble, the French presidential election result was because the people of France rejected the Paris bubble.

There are a lot of people who live outside of the M25, something our politicians seem to forget until election time and they want your vote.

Loconuts

With all due respect, I'm not sure that's entirely true.

In the book 'The Meon Valley Railway' Part 1: Building the Line, there are far more trees there now than in the 1890's.

I have had in interest in the Neath & Brecon Railway and many Edwardian photographs show a bleak landscape, now plenty of trees, and I could go on - I seem to have books galore dealing with Victorian and Edwardian rural activities,  plus those rather strange 'Then & Now' books, and if the fields are not now supermarkets, estates and/or motorways, then in general, there's more trees now.

But I think to say there where more trees then than now, is to sweeping a statement.

I was basing my observation on old photos and also a report commissioned by the Forestry Commission which was the subject of a Country File program recently. The report stated that the number of broad leaf forests have shrunk over the years whereas commercial forestry had increased. As we know commercial forestry use pines not native to this country

Generally the report states we are not planting enough trees to replace those that have been lost including commercial forests. One picture I saw recently was a photo taken from Lodge Hill just outside Abingdon in 1912 which showed a town within a wooded landscape and it was compared to a present day photo from the same spot, 75% of the trees had gone.

The other thing is that in the early part of the 20th century farms were not mechanised and therefore fields were small and surrounded by hedgerows, these hedgerows had trees within them. As farms became more mechanised and the machines got bigger these hedgerows got  ripped out along with the trees. This action is the cause of some of the flooding we experience.

True new trees are springing up along the routes of old abandoned railway lines where they have been turned into cycle ways/footpaths. I could ramble on with countless examples of where woodland and trees have been removed and never replaced. All I was trying to state is that the countryside changes over time.

Loconuts   

Old people are always the target of younger people. They are blamed on the TV media for the state of the NHS even though they have paid in the most in NI over their lifetime and that getting old is a crime!. Now they are blamed for Brexit. They could of course be blamed for winning the war as well, but then if they hadn't,  half of RMweb's membership wouldn't be here today to spew thier insults about us being homophobic zenophobic people because we do not agree with their brand of politics. The Left-wingers on here, and there are obviously as many as there are box openers, would have us all living with no ambitions in a country we can no longer call our own. Our forefathers did not fight the war for this and we, the old people, did not join the common market for political union. So when we were given the opportunity to reverse the lies of 40 years ago, we took it. You may not like what I say, but not many right-wingers have had a say on these political threads because they know their posts will be reported by Brits who, in the main, have never suffered real hardship in their lives. Having this post removed will no doubt make you feel good about your achievement. Good luck to you!

Agree with this sentiment, the common market was a UK idea in the first place by Winston Churchill but the political union was backed by Germany and France. Anyway I think this topic has gone off track, local elections is the title of this topic and we should stick to that and forget Bexit, what is done is done and not keep having reruns of the referendum until the remainers get the result they want, it is a bit like the Scots keep wanting a Independence referendum every few years until the result falls in line with SNP policy. 

I am sure Martin and his crew have done a lot of research but one thing that does concern me is the lack of trees. At the turn of the century we had a lot more trees in this country compared to present day. Back in 1974 I spent an evening with Roye England looking through some old photos of the Vale area and the number of trees that were around was noticeable particularly along the lanes.

A lot have gone due to modern farming methods, building, road safety and desease. I myself witnessed the effects of Dutch Elm desease in Oxfordshire and the removal of stands of elms, they were never replaced.

Loconuts

In my reply regarding intellectual Property, I had forgotten that Kernow Models, as the commissioning agent, had the intellectual rights to any research or progress Dapol had done - if there was any. As such, these works would have transferred to DJM Dave. The rights, in this and some other commissioned models' cases remain with the people commissioning the work. 

 

It depends what was on the contracts to start with.

This is not quite true, from my days of doing commissioned work I made sure there was a legal and binding contract in place before starting work. There were two requirements that the commissioner had to supply. One being a deposit of 30% or a kit of choice and a legal contract. If a customer changed his mind during the construction period all he got back was either his deposit or a replacement kit. He had no right to any research or work that I had done for his commission unless he paid for it.