PupCam

Surely they wouldn't ........... As was suggested, one for every 500,000+ is hardly statistically significant when, if I recall, there are a number of other causes of blood clots that predate both Covid and its vaccines. One of which, if I maybe so bold, may include unusually high levels of ingestion of LDC. Of course, there's some fascinating research to be carried out to determine what the safe levels of LDC consumption really are. I don't suppose there are any volunteers around here that would willingly help such research? No, thought not

What a remarkable piece of work! Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Alan

Thanks that is good to know. Is there a handy, concise and definitive list (I'm sure there must be!) of all of the necessary actions in such cases? I will have to do this at some point during the next few years because of the relentless march of time ....

Ah, Bragbury End, I remember that. Could never understand why the Club house was so far away from the place of employment. Oh, come to think of it, remembering Hatfield, yes I can. Rocket Science Barry O? The hardest bit was always getting people to make a (the correct) decision ......

Ideal apocryphal fodder for the Darwin awards Cretingham so close to Cretinham although that may be how it's pronounced in Suffolk ... Talking of Suffolk, is it time for another episode of Brian from Melton yet?

I thought I was in a time warp! Having wasted far too much money replacing the thermostat and far too much time recently building an Arduino based fridge / freezer monitor to make the rubbish old Beko work properly in the cold garage. Plan A was to provide a little heat to the thermostat to trick it into thinking the ambient temperature was higher than it was and thus cause the Bxxxxx thing to work (some manufactures actual sell a "garage kit" which is precisely that, a little heating element that sits inside the thermostat housing and is wired across the supply) I have to say I'm favouring Plan B. Forget the thermostat and let the Arduino drive the compressor directly. Always best to cut out the middle man ....... Sorry Bear, no cake yet. I'll try harder next time Puppers

WHAT! What on earth is one of those! Good heavens Bear - you're retired and no longer need to wake up let alone get up just so that you can race in to "that place" to claim poll position in the car park. Now, let's have no more talk of such things. It's bad enough with all this talk of decorating ...... Puppers

Have you tried using a pin vice? Turned between thumb and forefinger much more controllable (but a slower job) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Starrett-162A-Vice-0-0-040-Range/dp/B001VY1R2Y/ref=sr_1_16?dchild=1&keywords=pin+vice&qid=1615242111&sr=8-16 Alan

Absolutely brilliant Laurie, PM sent. I have a confession to make - I've only just twigged that its 2mm not 4mm which makes it even more remarkable! Alan

That's excellent! I love devious solutions to problems and wasn't thinking along those lines. I've built a couple of very small R/C cars in the past, many years ago when the technology just wasn't there (we are very fortunate today) but they weren't 4mm/ft shunting tractor small by a long way! But now ...... I'm not so sure

Sorry! Late to the party on this, it's absolutely marvellous. Any chance of any technical details and/or photos; home brew R/C link, motors, battery etc? Disorientation when driving? You should try R/C model flying! Alan

The thing that sticks out the most (by a country mile) in this photograph in my, most humble, opinion is ....... .... the colour of Tornado, whoever thought that blue was a good colour for such a locomotive (whether originally or more recently)? TAKE COVER! Now where's my tin hat? Alan

I'm sure everybody is Tony. To not be would be to suggest some people are "normal" and I'm also fairly certain there is no such thing as that! Alan

Tony it's amazing how different people look at things in completely different ways! Do you know I was almost completely unaware of the trains (in those shots that have them) in fact I just had another quick flick through to reminded myself that there were actually some photographs with trains present. Clearly I haven't bothered studying the trains, they were just getting in the way of the subject of my interest in these books - the glorious GN architecture and of course the marvellous OS maps. With regard to the shots of trains out on the open main line but with no architecture/infrastructure interest; I do believe that I've given them only the most cursory of glances. Now in the shots of say, New Barnet under the platform canopies or of the covered entrances I can still smell those characteristic odours that lingered around such places and as for the old cars in the station car parks, well that's a different thing entirely! On reflection I could now be slightly critical of the books inasmuch as there are too many photographs where the non-train interest is obscured by those pesky trains to which you refer or there is no non-train interest at all which, given the purpose of the volumes, just seems to be a waste of valuable space. However, and as I mentioned previously, these are by far the best books available covering the subject matter unless of course others know better and in which case will you please spill the beans? Anyway, I find the different viewpoints quite fascinating! Alan

I thought as much! At the same exhibition and from the same stand I also bought a copy of "Deltics - A Personal Recollection". When I got home I found it went very well with the copy I already had - Doh!

I acquired Vols 1 & 2 of Peter Coster's "The Book of the Great Northern, The Mainline, An Engineering Commentary" shortly after they emerged. I seem to recall a lot of criticism (certainly within the GNRS of which I was a member) of the books short comings and inaccuracies but I think I must have been looking at different books! I find them to be a fascinating, informative and in the case of the north London / Hertfordshire entries nostalgic books. Yes I'm sure there are errors but they are certainly by far the best books on the subject that I have ever come across. What do you mean there are no other books on the subject? - Exactly! I often find myself plucking one of them from the bookshelf for a few minutes pondering, something which can't be said for the vast majority of books in my fairly extensive book collection that continue to gather dust. I'm also amused to see that in the photograph of Welwyn North's car park in Vol 2, the Austin Seven Mini's registration number is numerically less than ten from that of my first car, an Austin Seven Mini that I purchased from a private seller less than two miles from that very station! Whilst we are on about inaccuracies and Bloopers, I purchased a copy of "Diesel Dawn - 1 Deltics" at the Stevenage exhibition in January and I quote from the first page; "... and the petrol (Napier) 'Sabre' famously powered the Gloster 'Typhoon', built from 1941". It didn't, it powered the Hawker Typhoon albeit built at Gloster's Hucclecote works as a matter of wartime expediency, aided by the fact that Gloster were actually part of the ever-growing Hawker establishment by then. Many years later Gloster's produced the Gloster Javelin which entered service as Britain's first operational delta winged aircraft. It was never a Hawker Javelin ...... Nevertheless, some fabulous photographs of Deltics to which I'm very partial! Alan

I too have dabbled with the DCC++ project and apart from my Deek Robot motorshield not wanting to play at first (not sure how I actually fixed it!) it works very well. I have a suitable project box for it and just need to install the Arduino/motor shield boards and provide some suitable terminations. I haven't gone down the WiFi route yet but I have a couple of modules I got for a another Arduino project (a motorcycle GPS route tracker) but didn't use so I'll have a go at that at some point. The "Processing" environment for the user interface isn't that bad actually (the IDE is very similar to the Arduino "Scratch and Sniff") although the programming of the layout plan is rather clunky. I've replaced his layout with mine which, as the layout is a plank of wood with two lengths of 7mm Peco track on, is extremely simple! I've also configured the first loco interface to control a DigiTrains 08 decoder and it seems to work very well. For the price of an Arduino and a motor shield board the system is truly excellent and means that you'll never have to remember the code to get the 08 driver to scratch his right ear is Shift F23 on your NEC Powercab which has to be a bonus. Like Justin, I found the YouTube videos particularly useful and interesting. Anyway, see it works - do you like the complex track plan? Alan

Due to the lack of structural integrity in terms of the combination of the frame material and the geometry of the front sections of the frames I presume. The frames must have been very shallow at this point to clear the pony wheel but the important fact is that the buffer centres appear to be below or at least very close to the lower edge of the frame in these locos and thus the forces acting through the buffers are not acting directly "through" the frames but applying a bending moment in such cases. With repeated loading the frames and/or the beams themselves will bend if the design of the structure does not adequately take into account those bending loads. As the O4s seemed to be particularly prone to this one can only conclude that the mechanical design of this aspect in these locomotives was, how shall we put this, sub-optimal. Perhaps a somewhat contentious statement depending on one's allegiance but the evidence is clear to see! On the other hand, If the design had been adequately strong the frames/beams would not have bent when service loads were applied. Alan

"Fireflash lift port wing!" ....... So glad Thunderbirds had a revival when my son was young. In fact my grandson was introduced to a rather battered Thunderbird 2 only last week. Whatever happened to our (non-Blue Peter) Tracy Island, hand built so I'm sure Tony would approve, with ramp and door features operated by motor/gearboxes from old camcorders? Such fun! Alan

The same will still apply won't it? If there is a short across the track, the DCC output will be shorted and thus nothing will run. If there isn't a short then the other loco should operate as normal. An oscilloscope would prove it if you happened to have one hanging around, unfortunately not many have. Alan

Poor old Crepello failed at LB and had to be removed from the train. It will be towed to Doncaster for maintenance in due course although the word on the street is that's its beyond economical repair and has been condemned and put in the scrap drawer on the scrap line.

I don't know if ghost trains still run, maybe somebody close by could keep an ear open and let us know? Alan

I'm reminded of that excellent '80s TV series "The Train Now Departing" and its haunting theme tune and opening shot.

I suspect I know the application you refer to but, like you, if I let on I'd have to shoot you. Can't beat a bit of rocket science ... Alan

If I recall, the original instruction for Portescap motors were that you should use a pure DC controller to avoid damaging the motor because, being coreless (i.e. no heavy magnetic armature) there was very little mechanical inertia and thus the speed of rotation would attempt to follow the Full Speed / Off / Full Speed / Off .... high frequency sequence that is the output of pulse width controller. As motors generally have a specified number of start/stop cycles these get used up very quickly if you turn them on and off at 1kHz+ ! The armature in a cored motor is effectively a built-in flywheel and I suspect the brush gear is generally more substantial so the PW effect is not an issue. Alan