johnarcher

11 hours ago, luckymucklebackit said:

 

I expect that this will have the GWR fans on confirming that it is Gods Wonderful Railway, as "the temple" can only refer to Temple Meads Station and they did have quite a few Saints, however I await confirmation from theologians regarding the gauge of track used, would God use P4 or EM?

Broad gauge surely (there apparently being three of Him), upon which wide track He would move in a mysterious way.

Hence the term "broad church".

(And Brunel is his prophet)

2 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

I am becoming more than a little dismayed by the need for some to justify their hobby on the basis of what it costs them per hour of enjoyment.

 

People who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

I see what you mean, but on the other hand if you've not got a lot of money it can maybe be agreeable to think you got a lot of hours of pleasurable modelling for not too much outlay.

18 hours ago, rob D2 said:

Surely it depends how many hours enjoyment you get out of each item to work out the actual cost ?

 

Yes, that is surely the point of a hobby?

Actually I suppose that equation is at its highest point in the case of how a lot of people modelled in the mid'60's (or, for instance, Jim Read's cardboard modelling now), where a fairly small outlay on bits and materials produced/produces many hours of, first, enjoyment through model-making and then enjoyment through use.

6 hours ago, Reorte said:

Parked vehicles... Reminds me of the time I was sat in a queue that didn't seem to be moving much, and I was wondering why the lane next to me was moving OK. Eventually I realised I'd stopped behind a row of parked cars...

I knew someone who failed their driving test doing that - the examiner had to point out the situation to them and suggest they pulled out and got going.

5 hours ago, ecgtheow said:

I am not a pedant because languages are living & so change over time but the Stationmaster may have got a bit mixed up. "Affect" is nearly always used as a verb whereas "effect" is used primarily as a noun though sometimes as a verb too. So writing that the affect of using a particular class of loco would be unusual (source Oxford English Dictionary).

 

In good humour,

 

William

All right, just for fun (and also in good humour), affect as a noun is indeed unusual, but quite possible. In aesthetic theory (especially in baroque music) it is a direct emotional response to a sound or sight. So maybe if the class of loco used was in a livery that clashed horribly with that of the stock it might cause a negative aesthetic/emotional affect?

3 hours ago, jcm@gwr said:

 

But might have picked up on the missing 's',

re(s)olve !

It might have got the missing 'e' in unfortunat(e)ly too.

A redundancy checker might have got rid of 'at this time' - they are not working, present tense, so when else would be meant?

Anyone got any more?

I agree with all that, I especially enjoyed his contributions to the News Quiz.

 

In the grand tradition of the BBC ....... for balance -

 

Great spot, but mind the bities

 

By ALAN LANDER

 

AUSTRALIA is known as the most lethal place on Earth when it comes to deadly animals and marine life.

And within our borders, the Sunshine Coast ranks in the top five dangerous places in the nation.

So dangerous that one of the nations top medical toxinologists, who is based in Melbourne, comes to Nambour Hospital as often as possible V to get experience.

Deputy director of the Australian Venom Research Unit Dr Bill Nimo organised a weekend Toxinology conference at Twin Waters Resort to help rural GPs and medical experts get more information about treatment for snake and spider bites.

The Sunshine Coast is the capital for a lot of bites and stings, he said.

But with more overseas doctors now here who dont know our creatures, and the shortening of medical tenures from six to five years, this area of knowledge is just not being taught anymore.

Dr Nimo said fables such as the white-tailed spiders so-called necrotising effect, where flesh supposedly falls off  grew because GPs just didn't know the truth.

It doesn't happen, he said. You see awful pictures, but when you look, it was something else, a drug reaction (perhaps).

On the other hand, dangerous funnel web spiders are plentiful around the Coast and there are plenty of snakes tigers, brown, rough-scaled  here.

As for marine life, the Steve Irwin tragedy underlines the need to being very careful with bites, stings and barbs.

It was not venom that killed Steve it was trauma, Dr Nimo said.

He was stabbed in the heart.

Even if someone gets just a cut, a doctor may send them home, saying its a superficial cut.

But if its in the torso, it can kill. If anyone gets one, they should go for help.

Dr Nimos advice for any bite or sting is to give first-aid and contact triple-0, or get to a hospital.

 

 

 

As Phil Tufnell put it on TMS, everything in Australia is trying to kill you, spiders, snakes ... and fast bowlers.

I've not been there, but I'd like to see it - if you could cool it down a bit, and move it a little closer.

Plastering is a big NO - can never get it smooth.  Hanging wallpaper is also a great big NO - so all our walls have a paint or tiled finish.  I can manage most other jobs although my arthritic knee nowadays makes concreting a very painful process at times most of the time and I'm not exactly high speed when it comes to bricklaying but I can manage a fair job.  The one thing I always have trouble with, whatever tools and aids I use, is cutting wood square.

Quite agree re plastering (I did a bit on a wall once that at least stayed up, so I tried a bit on a ceiling. Never again), and wallpaper.

Concrete, bricks, plumbing, any more than the most elementary electrics - all seem to be beyond my limited comprehension.

I can cut wood square though, used to be able to do good dovetails too, though I haven't tried that for a few years.

This classical = elite thing always rather puzzled me. OK opera or ballet tickets might be a bit dear, but many concerts are not ( compared with some pop ones, or some football tickets I believe), and as for recordings,while there are especially good value sets around now as noted on this thread,  there have been budget labels (like Naxos or Brilliant Classics) for a long time.

I have a number of series of recent recordings by fine performers on Naxos, like Nigel North's Dowland lute music (and Robert Barto's Weiss ditto), and Adrian Butterfield's Leclair sonatas (which I suppose gives some clue to my musical preferences).

Having read the article last night, I can't personally find anything in it that offends me, nor do I disagree with anything Tony has said.

 

I don't see his comments as condemning those who wish to follow a 'non-finescale' approach, surely we are all different and have an equal right in this world to pursue our hobby as we wish, without treading on anyone else's toes.

 

There are literally so many different ways of undertaking this hobby, so many 'nuances', so many potential possibilities and permutations with regards to the degree of scratchbuilding, kit-building, RTR-modification, pure RTR or collecting and displaying.

Yes, I once got involved in a similar argument (on another modelling forum), generating all the 'elitist' nonsense mentioned here, for daring to say that, for me, models made by someone's care and skill  are more interesting than those bought, which seemed to be read as a suggestion that anyone who used only rtr/rtp should be immediately executed.

Aggression is never justified but I am sure the article was written with the express intention of generating some emotion.

 

Unless I have completely misunderstood the situation and what is expected is a one sided approval of anything the author produces.

 

No, I expect the strategy was to get the juices going of everyone in the hobby and the expectation would have been to have responses from gushing approbation to downright hostility. That's Tony's MO.

I dare say the article was written with the intention of generating some debate, even argument, but that doesn't necessarily involve the sort of hostility that seems to have arisen (I haven't seen the discussions myself).

A fried of mine, maybe 50 years old or so, has some sort of nerve/muscle problem, and has self catheterized for a number of years, I think he said he slides the tube up three times a day. Also another friend, 98 years old does the same. That sounds not nice to me, but then I guess some guys enjoy  'sounding'. The finasteride tablets that I was taking for six months, are supposed to soften/shrink the prostate, to make the op easier, I guess. They reduce the testosterone levels, and over long term, for some,  breasts start developing. My prostate was not cancerous, but the op took them a bit longer than normal, I guess they needed to ream out more than they initially thought. I believe that there is a newer operation technique, suitable for some, and only at some hospitals, basically local anesthetic, a half day visit, using high pressure steam to remove/cauterise.

Now this is getting a bit personal, but (based on just my experience, I don't claim medical knowledge) I would say be wary of Finasteride. I was prescribed it about 6 or 7 years ago for this prostate thing (with no warnings), and only found out about one aspect of, presumably, this testosterone thing when I had been taking it for a year or so. No I haven't developed anything in the mammary line, but (how can I put this delicately), I found that while my equipment still only dribbled reluctantly it lost all enthusiasm for its other, more entertaining, function. Looking online I found that that is a known side-effect (though apparently unknown to my GP at the time). I haven't taken finasteride now for more than 5 years, but that effect seems to be permanent, it can no longer (one might say) rise to its old heights.

Not a great problem at my age, but if you're a bit younger than I am be wary of the stuff.

Sorry to go into such personal detail (even with the circumlocutions), but maybe worth mentioning if it is still being used.

I’ve had issues with Prostate and maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s natural to think the worst. Actually there can be a whole lot of conditions affecting the prostate that are not cancer, including simple infections . However even , if it was, its much better getting it checked out at first opportunity than waiting . I have my PSA checked every couple of years now . This is a blood test , doesn’t even need the digital check (just as well as I’m strictly analogue, continuing the joke from above)

Certainly. I had all the symptoms mentioned, to the extent that I had an operation to remove some of the enlarged prostate. Despite having had all that it was not cancerous, the operation restored quite normal processing in that area. So do get it checked if there's any problem at all, but don't worry about it too soon.

Tim, just thinking that 2* and 4* designations weren't around in the 1930s. My guess (and it is of course only a guess) is that the two prices referred to "Regular" and "Super" grades of fuel and that this would be shown below the prices rather than the word "Gallon".

 

Edit: this website might be of interest:

 

https://www.igg.org.uk/rail/00-app1/gar-pet.htm

Did 'regular' already mean 'normal' or 'standard' then, or still mainly mean 'at equal intervals'?  I know I'm getting old (all right, got), but the first meaning still sounds wrong to me. Am I that far out of date?

I reckon regular petrol is petrol you buy once a week, every week, same day, same time. Or, at most, the 'normal' petrol for you, because you buy it regularly - habitually.

Or for the less popular kits just sell the etches with advertising them as an aid to scratch building, where the modeller sources the castings themselves 

I agree, Worsley has been doing this for some time satisfactorily.

They did at one time list etches-only for (some of?) the locomotive kits, it would be nice if that could re-appear some time, though they do seem to have a lot on the family plate.

https://albionyard.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/hattons-djm-14xx-review-h1410/

More detail on the chassis issues here

https://albionyard.wordpress.com/2017/03/20/14xx-frustration/

 

https://albionyard.wordpress.com/2018/11/17/hattons-14xx-finale/

I hope that Hattons do revisit the chassis at some time in the future. With the P, and Barclay as examples of how good their in house steam models can run, a new chass shouldn’t be a technical challenge for them, and they could address the slightly oversize drivers too. I doubt currently the financial return is there, but perhaps a few years down the road there will be. I’m also doubting the market size for a body only release. The number of people these days prepared to dismantle and cut into new releases is small, those with the skills to build replacement chassis’ smaller still. To go that route the easiest option would be to contact DJM who had returned locos for sale at Warley.

You could well be right about the market size. It just seems to me that it would be better for a body-only in kit form rather than complete returns, considering the obstacles in dismantling the complete model that Captain Kernow has chronicled.

Well spotted, they are on the list of things to do, along with steps to the signal box, station building interior etc. I like to get a feel for the building and make sure it looks right before adding the extra detail. Currently I have 25 detailing items on the list still to do.

 

Today it was work on the station signs. Cast white metal from Springside Models, soldered up with low melt solder. The name is printed on photo paper in a GWR signs font. Painting still to do.

Hembourne is looking very good, progressing at impressive speed.

Could you just mention what font you used for the station signs?

Talking recently to Captain Kernow about his major surgery on one of these I expressed the view that once/if  Hattons stock is exhausted it might be a better idea to produce it as a set of moulded parts for body only plus some underframe details as that could well be the best way to start to get a really good running model.

The body is, I think, moulded in several parts so would it take much re-organising to produce some as a sort of basic body-only kit?

Some at least would presumably sell, to those who (like me probably) would be interested in putting the excellent body on an etched chassis, maybe some people might even replace the body of old Airfix/Hornby models?

Not likely to happen, but it does seem a shame that such good body mouldings are discontinued because of the chassis problems.

I had to look at this a couple of times,

Being dyslexic, I'm sure it said 'flush'.....

Some of the chaps in the picture seem to be doing some serious looking too.

Without being political,

 

In the opening of his previous political satire show, American comic (and/or his writing team) Stephen Colbert coined the word "truthiness" to mock the political discourse at the time. It was picked up as the "word of the year" in 2006 by the American dictionary Merriam-Webster. Colbert had defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books" which 'feels right' whether or not it is accurate.

 

In a truly ironic episode of life imitating art, in an interview with the Washington Post, the President of the United States said: “They’re making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

 

Somehow this is now our reality. People believe what feels good to them, rather than what is accurate. Perhaps this was always the case, but the idea of trusting no one but yourself (and others who already agree with you) seems to have more currency today than the world I remember. One wonders what Socrates, Plato and Aristotle would think of it.

I doubt he would listen to them either.

I suppose they would count as 'experts' to whom, we are told, one should no longer listen, presumably because going by ignorance instead keeps things nice and simple.

Could you post a link to that original blog, I've had a quick google to no avail.

Can anyone who has seen (or bought) both please tell me how much better the DJ body is compared with the current Hornby one (is that the same as the old Hornby/Airfix)?

I'm sure it's better detailed, but a bit or vastly better?
I'm not interested in the chassis, that would be replaced anyway, but it sounds a lot more hassle to get an etched chassis into the DJ one than the others, does the body make it worthwhile?

Just a quick question from one quite ignorant of these matters.

According to that link one of my 2 email accounts has been 'pwned'. What actually does pwned mean?

I've changed its password, is there anything else I should do?

Similar to announcements on trains that passengers should be in coaches 1 to 4 in order to alight at the next station. All of them at once?

And some road markings telling us to 'use both lanes' - so drive straddling the white line?