AndyID

I'm not sure. It says "Through to the Continent by British Rail" and "Ferry Way" on the lower panel. Do you think it was used for importing spuds from North America on the North Atlantic Train Ferry, and re-exporting them as chips to France? Note the Fine Scale flanges.

For days when things are not quite going according to plan That thing came out of a battery operated OO trainset I bought for my son many years ago. It says "Made in Hong Kong" on the bottom, but it's actually not such a bad model. I might put decent wheels and buffers on it and run it.

Not totally off topic, but I see Gresley's grandsons won't allow the mallard to be included with his statue at Kings Cross. Bit of a shame as I understand Gresley was a keen orny hornyth thorni bird person.

You know, you might be right. Just in case you think I was joking about spuds in Idaho, here is conclusive proof. We even have it on our number plates! I'm surprised they don't try something similar in the UK. For example, in Yorkshire you might have "FAMOUS PUDDINGS" . .

Sir, This is IDAHO! We take our potatoes very seriously here, and I can assure you there are no posers among them!

It's actually a device for mass producing G-scale sleepers from balsa wood, but it also doubles as sleeper riveter for P48 track construction.

AndrewC, Hope you get better news soon. Bashed enough spuds for one day. Signing off from 47 30.3 N 116 52.6 W

If you mean wedge shapes, I think there is a cutter available for it that will do that. It's made in China (surprise!), so you can probably get the same thing in Europe. I was amazed at just how much force is required to ram a spud through it. There's obviously a lot of leverage there, but I still have to really lean on the handle. That's why I mounted it on the wall. Be warned - I think I've put on a few pounds since I got it!

Well, you might need something like this. This one only has a cutter that makes square section chips, but different cutters can be attached, although I don't think I've seen one that makes those concave chips you have there. Presumably the idea with them is no matter how much ketchup is applied, it won't fall off. Note that this cutter is conveniently attached to the wall of my railway room. You can see an actual bit of baseboard through the door on the right!

I'm pretty sure the banks in the UK have all been taken over by aliens from the planet Paranoid. My wife wanted to deposit a check into her mother's account, and the BofS (maybe FofS would be a better acronym) would not let her do that!

Yes, but do they offer "singing telegrams"?

We went to Moorea in French Polynesia. Very relaxing, and snorkeling in the lagoons was fantastic. It's a bit of a haul from Europe - bad enough from here!

Pretty advanced stuff, and here was me thinking the NHS was still using leaches. (OK, OK! There's no need to shove. I just about to leave anyway.)

I seem to remember that John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers did a gig at the Maryland in Glasgow. Their performance was somewhat marred by many in the audience shouting "Gi'e us Tamla!"

Two reasons: The SB does not have a power traverse, so the leadscrew threads are taking the full load. That tends to put a lot of wear on them which can be a problem when you want to cut threads. The micrometer provides a positive end stop. No need to look at anything. Mind you, I'm usually turning pretty small items. If I was doing a lot of heavy machining I would do it on another lathe that has a power traverse.

Agreed! I typically only use the lead-screw for cutting threads.

One highly recommended piece of equipment is a "micrometer end stop" (see the green thing on the photo I posted above.) I made myself one recently and I wish I had made one years ago! As you can probably tell from the pic, it's a modified 1" import micrometer that slides along and clamps on to the ways.

My ancient South Bend. Made in the 30's. Paid a guy $60 for it. Neither of us knew what it was! (It was covered in grime coated oil.)

You know, I think you are right! It could not have been "The Paddy", although I think it may have come from Stranraer, but I could be wrong about that too! I do know it left Paisley Canal heading for St Enoch at around 8:15 in the morning. My brother used to catch it to get into Glasgow. This was in the early sixties. It was hauled by some very exotic locomotives (by Canal line standards!). My pal from across the street and I would go down to see it before we went to school. We must have spent a lot of time hanging around at near the tracks. From my "Observer's Book of Railway Locomotives" it seems it was hauled by: Cities of Bradford, Bristol, Hereford, Liverpool, Salford, and Sheffield Duchesses of Atholl, Buccleuch, Gloucester, Montrose and Norfolk Clans Buchanan, Fraser, MacDonald, Mackintosh and Stewart Earl Haig, Firths of Clyde, Forth, Tay, Moray and Dornoch, Lightning, Mercury, Tornado, and even Morgan Le Fay It may also have been hauled by Jubilees and Scots, but I'm less confident about them. If you can tell me what train it actually was, I would be very interested to know. I've tried looking for the appropriate timetable on the web with no success. Cheers, Andy EDIT: Spelling!

Stewart, Continuing the Paisley theme, later we owned a house that backed on to the Canal Line a bit to the west of the station. Unfortunately, the track had been lifted by then. The house was built in 1869 at which time the canal was still a canal. Anyway, at the bottom of the garden there was a curious stone structure not unlike a bridge parapet projecting from the embankment. There was no evidence that it had been a bridge. I suspect it was a sort of "deck" where the owners of the house could sit and have afternoon tea while watching the goings-on at the canal, and, of course, be very visible to anyone on the canal. Cheers, Andy

Ah! Then you'll probably be able to understand my attempts at humour. Mother-in-law (now 94 and still in Paisley) was a librarian at Paisley Tech for quite a while. When we got married our first house was a wee flat in Mary Street, just off the Neilston Road, and conveniently situated for a bookies, chip shop, butcher, MacMillans the bakers, etc. If it wasn't raining, you could nip out in your slippers and get anything you wanted. I went to the new Glasgow Tech (these days sometime referred to as "The University of the Coocaddens"). I really miss Glasgow humour. The house I grew up in was conveniently situated close to the Canal Line. From about age five I would wander down to a bridge on Patrick Street (barely a street) and watch ex-Caledonian Jumbos shunting the Saucel sidings. One day I was amazed to find a beautiful green locomotive there, and it actually had a name on it! IIRC it was "Invincible". We used to see quite a lot of Clans and Coronations hauling "The Paddy" up to St Enochs. City of Salford put in many appearances. The curves were wicked there. You could hear the flanges squealing on the check-rails from a great distance.

Yes, but it's extremely erudite twaddle.

That's a bit after my mums time. Maybe she was referring the GWR's "flying bananas" although I'd be surprised if she had ever seen one.

Now there's an oxymoron for you

Immediately followed by a good belt around the lug hole, now doubt! (I bet your mum was really a lot nicer than you are making out.) My mum had a really strange expression. When she sensed that I was worrying/over-thinking too much about something, she would say, "Think about bananas."