AndyID

2 hours ago, GMKAT7 said:

Good evening folks,

 

To me it was a real change seeing Gregor Fisher in the tv series The Tales of Para Handy, compared to his Rab C character.

 

Being joined by some of the other Rab C regulars made it an interesting watch, not knowing any of the history of the stories.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

 

Edit:  I even started using the phrase "more steam McPhail, more steam" when we needed to get a wriggle on when out drinking, etc.

Of course none of my friends had a scooby what I was on about 😆

I was spoiled watching this version with Duncan Macrae.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Para_Handy_-_Master_Mariner

And, of course, the BBC dumped them because they were in black and white 😢

(My mum knew Macrae from her time at Jordanhill teacher training college.)

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

If its going to be a string vest, the hat should be a baseball cap, worn back to front...

 

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I thought his name was Andy, not Onslow?

 

 

(Not a string vest day)

Rab came to mind.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00d0mhw

4 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

We had the same, but it was newts.  According to the wildlife people there are no newts on Fraggle Rock - pah, wrong!

Um, maybe they are all as p****d as newt?

3 hours ago, pH said:

West, surely? There’s not many of us about 3,000 miles west of you!

We tend to ignore that bit. It's a bit like anything North of Watford.

8 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Well we played out on motorbikes with a mate, which went well.  Then played with the trains in the garage/layout room, that went......less than well.  Put decals and nameplates on this.......my Ruby Wedding (welding, copyright Oldudders) Anniversary pressie.

 

 

Then as per destructions wafted on acrylic matt varnish.  Decals dissolved, lining dissolved, main paint reacted badly, (totally FUBAR in fact), but not as badly as I did.  Turdycurses does not even begin to cover my reaction to the reaction.  I thought acrylics were supposed to be benign?  NHN wonders if it has the wrong stuff in the can.  or the lids have been transposed in the shop?  I is NOT a happy bunny, not at all.

 

In recompense I see the 'B' hadn't adhered properly, but the varnish would have sorted that.....should....

Looks just fine from this side of the Atlantic.

3 hours ago, pH said:

This morning, I drove my wife to a hospital appointment. At that appointment, she got a requisition for blood work to be done. For hospital out-patients, that kind of thing is done in stand-alone labs. I had a recurring requisition due about now, so we went as drop-ins to the nearest lab. As my wife remarked, things are getting bad when going together for blood work counts as a date!

What's her point?

7 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

W S Gilbert got it right in the gaurdsmans song in Iolanthmore than a century ago. 

 

When all night long MP's divide, we hope with brain and cerebellum too.  They have to leave their brains outside, and vote just as their leaders tell Em too.  

 

For the prospect of a host of dull MP's alt thinking for themselves is more than mortal man can face with equanimity.

 

Sullivan got a knighthood for his music but Gilbert never got an honour.  He'd upset too many bigwigs.  

 

Jamie

Ah Ha!

You really struck a chord with that one Jamie!

I still have a very old Tri-Ang 3-TF named Iolanthe. It was presented to me after my appearances as the page-boy in that G&S production in the Kings in Glasgow quite a long time ago.

34 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Can you hear my shrieks of laughter?

Perhaps a more appropriate response would be "coat this" 😁

3 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

....and sit in Parliament.

 

Dave

Isn't that a requirement?

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

My son in Law,who insists on sorting out anything to do with the(his) families cars, has continually neglected to heed the advice of changing the cam belt every 5 years or 75k miles (whichever comes first).  It is now over 101K miles

 

At the beginning of last week their Ford Galaxy stopped after the brief sound of four gnomes hammering on little tin drums emanated from the engine bay. 

 

The belt had expired, and with it all the valves.  

 

I've not heard what's happened to the top of the cylinders, but it is not going to be a cheap repair.

 

I have no sympathy for him.

Now, if he'd bought a Ford Galaxie that would never have happened 😄

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

That was a common problem with VW flat four engines. It was always the same cylinder IIRC, something to do with it not receiving enough cooling air.

Possibly not enough oil too. Those engines were, to a great extent, oil cooled.

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

My son in Law,who insists on sorting out anything to do with the(his) families cars, has continually neglected to heed the advice of changing the cam belt every 5 years or 75k miles (whichever comes first).  It is now over 101K miles

 

At the beginning of last week their Ford Galaxy stopped after the brief sound of four gnomes hammering on little tin drums emanated from the engine bay. 

 

The belt had expired, and with it all the valves.  

 

I've not heard what's happened to the top of the cylinders, but it is not going to be a cheap repair.

 

I have no sympathy for him.

My first car was a '55 VW which cost me 35 quid. On one occasion a valve head separated from the valve stem on a motorway. The valve head punched a hole in the piston then proceeded to shot peen everything else inside the engine. The noise was quite impressive. I knew there was a serious problem when I removed the spark plugs and discovered one of them was smashed to bits. 🤣

8 hours ago, pH said:

The same nickname was sometimes applied to Glasgow Corporation trolleybuses.

aka "The Silent Death".

2 minutes ago, bbishop said:

Andy, I don't think it is a bullhead profile, but may be flat bottom pretending to be bullhead.

Yes, I believe you are correct Bill. I would print chairs that are compatible with it to match Peco track and turnouts.

A slightly odd request:

Would anyone happen to have a sketch of the dimensions of 7mm scale Bullhead rail available in the UK, possibly Peco? It's a wee bit unobtainable over here. I think I can 3-D print some rather convincing turnouts and I'm happy to share the models with anyone who wants to give it a shot.

I can make it work reasonably well down to 4mm/foot but I think at 7mm it would not be easy to tell the difference from injection molded parts.

14 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I had an outbreak of weak soldering iron disease a couple of years ago along with slow running trains on the layout.  I eventually traced this back to a faulty inverter that was supposed to be converting three phase current to single phase 230v AC.  This had been installed by a French Sparky.  I eventually found the problem.  The voltage it produced was only 140 volts.  My previous sparky has done a disappearing act so I got another in, a Brit. He sorted the problem and put a new consumer unit in for me.  I now use the old three phase wiring to distribute 230 and my soldeing irons actually solder.  I just need the motivation to use them. 

 

Jamie

If its a four wire system (three phases and one neutral) you should get 230/240 by connecting the load between any one of the phases and neutral. Or maybe I'm missing something.

The discussion on the UK landscape is interesting. Prior to leaving around forty years ago I considered myself a good bit right of center. But now in the US I find myself a good bit left of center.

I suppose it's all relative.

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

its actually a frog that was on my front porch!  ( Probably not venomous)

I wouldn't trust it anyway 😂

2 hours ago, pH said:

Perhaps, but the granting of a licence should be a formality. After all, the US constitution guarantees the right to arm bears.

I always thought it was the right to have bare arms.

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

As threatened!

 

The latest artillery piece of my collection.

 

In a break from my usual calibre, this one is in .177 as opposed to . 22.

 

Shouldn't they really be referred to as 4.5 and 5.6?

1 hour ago, Dave John said:

I no longer have any vinyl, but I have just refurbished my ancient technics M02 cassette deck. Strip, deep clean the lot. New rubber parts obtained. In the case of the idler wheel I spent a massive £2.38 to buy 5 O rings and then ground them to the correct section on the lathe. First two were scrap, but the third is perfect. I'll add that to the vaguely pointless skills list. Put back together and since the original tech specs are available I waded in with the oscilloscope and set the whole thing up. Ah, 70s nostalgia. 

 

While I was at it I built a new preamp, lets me switch in main and railway room amps. Also a very linear headphone amp, bought new pads for my old Beyer dynamic cans . I think I'll leave my original Tannoy Eaton speakers alone. 

 

I also managed to score a decent CD player off the bay of fleas for nothing. But thats a private funny story. A very old mac stripped of all else acts as an internet radio tuner . 

 

So thats me set up for music in my retirement. Keeps me happy while I go back to the serious business of building wagons ........ 

Dad bought a Grundig TK 830 two track tape-recorder (with AUTO-REVERSE!) in the late 50's. Allegedly portable but it was a heavy brute. I figured out how to connect it to the pre-amp of his Bush radiogram so I could record the Top Twenty from FM.

I was the the DJ for the DEN Disco in the scout hall run by my scout group. IIRC we had an amplifier that put out 15 watts of raw power. Happy days 😄

2 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Actually it is a platter mat, replacing the stock one.

Ah! Looks pretty convincing 😃

For our hi-fi aficionados:

Who made this circuit up for you, anyway? Bought it in a shop? Oooh, what a horrible shoddy job they fobbed you off with with.

 Surprised they let you have it in this room anyway, the acoustics are all wrong. If you raise the ceiling four feet... put the fireplace from that wall to that wall... you'll still only get the stereophonic effect if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard.

 I see... I see you've got your negative feedback coupled in with your push-pull-input-output. Take that across through your redded pickup to your tweeter, if you're modding more than eight, you're going to get wow on your top. Try to bring that down through your pre-amp rumble filter to your woofer, what'll you get? Flutter on your bottom!

(Borrowed from Flanders and Swann  "A Song Of Reproduction")

10 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

One of mine:

Erm, why is there a 1/4 inch tape spool on the turntable?

11 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Bear keeps his commercial quality Bread in the fridge - it takes a while to use a loaf and I never have issues with mould.

Hope you don't store your spuds there.