Sotto

What is this pendanticism of which you speak?

(I really couldn't let that go, although I am gairly sure you did it on purpose!) 

Laugh is obviously on me for being unable to navigate the system!

7 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Oh boy, what have I done?!  Apologies to go so OT, but I suppose I started it!

 

I should explain that I also survived school, college and university with nowhere near the depth of knowledge of grammar that my 10 year old demonstrated when she explained to me what a fronted adverbial sentence was... . Years later when it was suggested I should think about teaching English because I had an A level in English Literature, I pointed out that there was a difference between being literate and teaching language!

 

However, from an early age I absolutely devoured books of any description; that expanded my vocabulary and I suppose much of my understanding of grammar is simply through exposing myself to so much of it in printed form at a young age.  When there were only three TV channels, being able to lose yourself in a good book was a good way to keep yourself entertained!  Also, reading and rereading my father's large collection of Railway Modeller magazines not only got me used to reading articles written for adults (as opposed to simplified children's factual books) but also taught me DC wiring theory (enough to get me through Physics O level!!) plus the ability to size rooms in feet and inches, despite being a post-decimilisation child!

 

I mainly teach music and - for my sins - mathematics, but in a previous existence I also worked with people with dyslexia, so am generally quite laid back about grammatical and spelling errors - unless they are my own!  I agree with Sotto and JDW that RMWeb members do make allowances for errors and avoid pendanticism - except occasionally over loco class details! 

 

Prior to working in teaching, I worked for the Journal of Child Language, and was not only responsible for the day to day running of the academic journal but also occasionally proofreading (so like John JJGraphics I am familiar with the strange squiggles and marks used by proofreaders).  Which is why when I proofread before hitting SUBMIT and then spot an error afterwards I get quite annoyed at myself!  Even more annoying is when, as has been discussed, you type, proofread, read again, submit, and then as if simply to spite you autocorrect changes a word that you know you typed correctly!  Incidentally, it was also whilst doing that role that I came into quite frequent contact with Professor David Crystal, who was academically brilliant and had a very dry sense of humour!  Nice to see him quoted, thanks 34theletterbetweenB&D

 

I personally don't use autocorrect as a lazy excuse for errors (I own up to them!) although I do seem to suffer from the vagaries of predictive text - there was one instance when I texted someone to say that "I'm bring messed about by predictive text" and the bl@@dy thing changed to "I'm ringing about my predator sex" ... 

 

Finally, I learnt to touch type back in the day when one learnt to do so on a big manual typewriter, so that when you moved on to an electric typewriter you initially double printed most letters due to striking the keys too hard! Fast forward a few years, and I produced the electronic copy for a report published by the Rowntree Foundation; I stayed at work until 11:30pm the night before deadline with the authors, to make sure the copy was laid out correctly (no automatic widow and orphan detection in those days!) and departed the University happy that I had prepared the document with no mistakes and laid out perfectly.  Imagine my horror upon seeing it published to find widows and orphans in several places in the report; turned out the authors decided to nip back in  the day after and made "just a couple of changes" ... which happened to mess up all my careful work!!

 

It is true that langauge changes; new words are created, others drop out of use.  Similarly spellings can change, and even grammatical forms change over time.  So language is flexible - the main thing, IMHO, is having the vocabularly to express yourself, and hopefully in a way that makes sense.

 

Having said that, teaching in Bolton meant that it was guaranteed to see students writing things such as, "I could of used a different font" or, "I should of done it different" [sic] - but the day that a colleague brought in a clipping from The Bolton Evening News, where a professional journalist had written the sentence "The play was enjoyable but could of been half an hour shorter" ... that was the day the English teachers started drinking in earnest!

 

Normal RMWeb services will resume shortly!

 

Steve S

 

HOURS OF PHONETICS FUN

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

 

What is this pendanticism of which you speak?

 

(I really couldn't let that go, although I am gairly sure you did it on purpose!) 

"You have tasted two whole worms, hissed all my mystery lectures...."

One of things I like about this site, as opposed to for example Pistonheads, is that posters who make spelling or grammatical errors are not abused by those more educated, more careful, or just more pedantic than themselves.

And I say this as someone thought to be a bit of a pedant in my working life.

I think it's probably fair game in this thread though!!

It's not surprising really, far fewer people are doing their own minor car repairs nowadays, whether bodywork or mechanical. Shame is that Halfords do pay lip service to the idea that people buy their paints for other purposes but they don't bother to make it easy- for example they don't seem to publish a colour chart.

Someone may prove me wrong on that, but i couldn't find one recently.

Of course there are other sellers, but Halfords have been the handy high street source for a long time and it will be a pity to see that end. 

Looks like Halfords will mix any colour so perhaps you can order obsolete colours?

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/services/car-paint-matching-at-halfords.html#isSuggestion=true

A quick Google for foam rubber seems to come up with various options- just as an example:

https://www.efoam.co.uk/foam-sheets.php?gclid=CjwKCAjw5cL2BRASEiwAENqAPvPMHKrj-pkaBwN7llr87f5msUQpx6ueG-WE3TLya6gd8pK8MMzmIxoCPzIQAvD_BwE

(I am not recommending them in particular- I just found them by Google)

 I have found furniture restorers a source of off cuts- but that is probably in the distant past now. High street furniture restoration seems to be a thing long gone!

OP, of your options I would go with BR Green/yellow ends, but if it were mine I'd probably invent a really horrible private owner livery.

I'd seen these on the BMR site and wondered about them- perhaps you could put a picture up when yours is finished!

Well, I have experimented. Scraped some of the black paint off the post and off the arm and  holding either bare patch to one terminal of a 9v battery and the black wire to the other- hey presto, it lights up.

Therefore the circuit does indeed complete through the arm and post. The missing wire (it's green on mine) must be intended to attach to the inside of the post. Perhaps it's just some sort of interference fit so once pulled out, there is no trace of where it fitted. I am not going to try pulling it out of mine! 

I should have looked first.. Having found one, a lot more easily than I expected, yes there are two wires emerging at the bottom of the post as I remembered, but only one at the top in the groove to the arm, so I suspect you are right in thinking the circuit completes through the light body. The second wire on mine must be connected to the body inside somewhere, but without breaking it it appears impossible to see exactly how.

Mind you mine was treated to a thick coat of black paint many years ago which may be hiding the intended method of taking it to bits, or perhaps they were meant to be disposable once bulb blew?

I have a couple of these somewhere, dating back to early 80s or before. Mine have two wires and work in the normal way- I wonder whether yours have suffered some brutal treatment in their past?

That looks like a good find.  Have ordered some (small) anyway- may take a while of course (estimated delivery- 22/5 to 29/6!!) but I'll try to remember to report back when they arrive!

5 hours ago, Ryde-on-time said:

Rails are offering the Heljan 0 gauge 25 for £345 as its deal of the day

 

https://railsofsheffield.com/groups/3055/deal-of-the-day-o-gauge-class-25s

I REALLY should stop looking at this thread.

9 hours ago, Lantavian said:

 

It is possible to be both.

 

You might be a grumpy curmudgeon on the history of a certain railway, say, but a complete newbie on DCC.

 

 

Absolutely agree; and that is what makes it so difficult to decide what should be in a Newbies area. 

Hey, on a post count basis I am probably a newbie, but I am well on the way to being a grumpy curmudgeon as well. so I would want access to everywhere- there are large areas of the site that don't particularly interest me, but how can anyone else decide for me what they are?

In any case, it is often by looking at stuff that you were not that interested in that you discover new things to be interested in- that's one of the strengths of this place.

It is up to individual company' management, whether it's Royal Mail or any other, to provide safe systems of work. It really isn't for individual customers to police this except perhaps in the most blatant cases- slavery perhaps..  So until RM is officially restricted in what it can deliver, I will continue to order essentials. 

What is 'essential' will depend upon the individual's judgement, until such time as officially defined, which as yet it hasn't been.

13 hours ago, bridgiesimon said:

The garrett is 16.5mm gauge but scale wise based on 28mm wargaming so around 5.5mm scale - a little smaller than O scale for stuff. My next project is based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Thread here - 

 

Best wishes

Simon

 

The mini Garrett is a great idea and I hope you don't mind me borrowing it. Not sure when I will get to it though- too many other things on the go! I have been veering more in the direction of things you can make for £few especially in O:16.5 - it's fun!

I like Talacre-the smoking chimney adds so much to it- is it 'real' or added to the photograph?

On 16/03/2020 at 14:05, EddieB said:

I must confess to a soft spot for many of the nominees, from the Q1 to the Gölsdorf 2-6-4.

 

Here’s my bête noir (or its Spanish equivalent), a Crosti conversion of a Norte 2-8-0.  (Not my photo).

 

I understand this to be the only locomotive designed by Edvard Munch...

I was very lucky. When I was about 8 or 9, my parents had their house extended to create a reasonable sized kitchen. This left the old kitchen spare- I suppose it was about 10 ft by 11 ft. This space was entirely filled with a baseboard with operating well in the middle, double track at main level, and a high level track all round about 5 inches higher.

The track was all Graham Farish Formoway flexi track-this was exciting in itself, as my friends all had set track layouts.

The ramp between the levels was too steep for anything to get up, except a dock shunter, but you can't complain if someone else builds for you!

From that era I still have a Triang Blue Pullman (with replacement motor bogie) and a Triang Hymek, which I am rather fond of- it proves the value of maintenance as it is still the slowest runner I have- it will go so slowly that you can hear the motor turning but not see the wheels move.

Those two locos survived because they were non runners when I sold everything of value in my teens. Although I did have a Triang Flying Scotsman that failed to survive as a result of taking a leap from the layout onto the quarry tile floor. Ouch!!

Until I started to write this post I don't think I have ever really appreciated the effort my Dad went to in woodworking and track laying. It's not even as if railways, model or real, were his hobby.

Sorry if this seems obvious, but I think experiment is the key. Take strips of cardboard and construct trial scenery on them; you can move the strip about to see how it looks at various distances. Try different blends of static grass, or combinations with other materials.

This way, you can throw out the failures.

Tony

OP, thank you for this wonderfully simple idea! I have several old items of rolling stock to which it will be applied once I have got the right diameter tubing, including a half done conversion for use on 7mm narrow gauge.

The narrow gauge conversion was  a Triang bogie well wagon  which I previously rewheeled by putting new wheels on the old axles, but although it rolled well on plain track, it was prone to derailing on points due the amount of lateral movement between axle and frame.  Your tubing idea will make this adjustment much simpler.

And I am still thinking 'why didn't I think of that!'.

Could some colours be more prone to orange peel than others? I have just had the same experience spraying with Halfords VW Gambia Red, which is pretty close to Burgundy Red. Just seems a coincidence- three of us, similar colour, at much the same time.

Perhaps it's just spraying season!