spikey

I currently have a set of three storage loops (those marked with red dots above), access to which is via a three-way point controlled by push buttons and a simple diode matrix. and all is well. Or rather it was until I realised that if I added a double slip as shown, I could squeeze in a fourth loop as above. The short siding to the left already exists and it's very handy, with access to it being off the uppermost of the three existing loops via a left-hand point, which the proposed double slip would replace. That LH point is currently switched via a SPDT momentary switch, and from an operational POV, that plus the push-button selection of the three loops all works very well operationally. However, if I replace that LH point with a double slip, how on earth do I organise the switching for it so that a route through it may be selected simply, and with the minimum complexity added to my control panel?

Ahah! Much obliged to you, sir. I could see that getting complicated, so am greatly relieved to know that it won't be.

Following the sad demise of my long-suffering £14 Nokia mobile with its multi-sectioned screen and added SpikeyMatic Non-Slip Grip System (the red Royal Mail rubber band wrapped twice round it), I have succumbed to persuasion and acquired My First Smartphone (a Motorola G7 Power, since you asked). All is well, considering, so far, but I am concerned about a potential operational problem. If whilst out and about I have a need to take a snap of something and wish to send it back to base, how might I do that when Mrs Spikey does not (yet) have a smartphone of her own? All I can think of is to attach it to an email and send that, then phone her and urge her to strike up the laptop. But is it even possible to attach a picture to an email sent from an Android phone? Is there another way of achieving the objective?

During my time as a wedding photographer, I once left my camera bag in the back of a black cab in London in late one night, the worst part being that half that day's wedding photos were on cards in that bag. The cabbie's next fare spotted it as soon as she got in, told the cabbie, he opened it and found some of my business cards, took his fare to her destination, phoned me and delivered the bag to me at the car park where I was quietly whimpering in a corner. For that, he got my heartfelt thanks and, despite his protests, all the cash I had in my wallet, which IIRC was £130.

I'm shaking my head in wonder that somebody could consider £1300-ish worth of bracelet to be "fairly valuable", and I'm amazed at your friend's attitude. Tell her to get over herself and do the decent thing.

Yes. Four different ones. All a complete waste of time and money. One further complication is that Mrs Spikey has been diagnosed with, and received treatment for, Functional Neurological Disorder, which in her case seems to have been a consequence of the reconstruction surgery. There may well be some connection between that and her shoulder tendinopathy.

My good lady has been there, done it and got the t-shirt with frozen shoulder years ago, but this is even less straightforward than that. Basically it's residual tendinopathy that originally arose 8 years ago after her radical mastectomy and the subsequent major rearrangement of her latissimus dorsi during the reconstruction. The initial improvement she was making was reversed by the incompetence of a physiotherapist a year later, and then made worse still by the next one, so for the last 5 years we've been trying to at least regain ground. We'll get there. She's still alive and in otherwise good working order, and that's all that really matters to me.

Mrs Spikey suffers from a long-standing affliction of the shoulders, upon which the attention of five different physiotherapists over two years has produced no noticeable improvement. However, things are looking up, for she has now been referred to an Advanced Practitioner, and today she got the appointment letter from the County Shoulder and Elbow Service. Woo hoo! To our considerable delight, under the heading "What can I expect to happen in my appointment?" it says ... You will see one of our specialist Shoulder and Elbow clinicians called an Advanced Practitioner (AP). Shoulder and Elbow APs are experts who have had specialist in-depth training in knees.

Just opened another pack of Wills building sheets in this new (and awfully naff) packaging, a day after I fitted a new bar-end mirror to my bicycle. That came in a simple unsealed printed cardboard box, containing all the parts (4 mount parts plus mirror, three stainless Allen screws, several stainless washers and an Allen key) neatly wrapped up in the sheet of instructions. Not even any sticky tape required. Brilliant, sensible, environment-hugging packaging ... all the way from California

Thank you, sir. I've seen pinch bars used, and a chain (on Grimsby docks), and even on one memorable occasion the coal merchant's old 'orse shifting a wagon, but never a pole.

Sorry, but I have to ask - in what sort of circumstances might that special authorisation have come into force? And am I right in assuming that pole-shunting involved shoving a wagon on an adjacent track via the pole?

My feelings about The Environment Agency stem from having once been involved on the fringes of a long-running stand-off between them, Natural England, English Heritage and a Great Crested Newt. Yes, one Great Crested Newt. The amount of time and money spent on that farce was beyond belief, when the whole matter could easily have been resolved by the application of common sense and a few sticklebacks (locally-sourced, of course ...).

The Environment Agency should get over itself at times.

Sorry, but you have to hang on until 0420 tomorrow, Sunday, for that ...

I've just now unpacked a secondhand wagon which I got from Ron Lines, with whom I'd never dealt before but will certainly buy from again. It's exactly as described on the phone by the very pleasant, helpful and knowledgeable Annmarie, was very well packed indeed, and the price was entirely reasonable. Couldn't wish for a better service.

and good wishes to anyone else who'll be celebrating tonight or tomorrow rather than Wednesday. Blessed be.

It's many years since I had anything to do with press tooling, but I'd bet a pound to a penny that ditching that little bent bit (to use the technical term) cut their reject rate, and saved them money too.

Whatever, there's certainly still confusion here ... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193263562809?ul_noapp=true That's just gone on Ebay - it's apparently 38-400, it has the white roof, but no large "SR"! ETA - Problem now solved, I hope. I am assured by the very helpful Annmarie at Ron Lines in Southampton that the exact item I'm after will be on its way to me today

Cheers mister. It now looks to me like 38-400 is in fact the correct number for the white roof/large letters one, and the information I got from a couple of model shops was wrong.

Cheers. That's what I thought, but apparently it isn't ! A Google search on 38-400 seems to bring up several variants, including one with the white roof and large letters, one example of which is identified as a 38-403. Then searching on 38-403 brings up both large and small lettering ...

Can somebody please tell me the part number(s) for the Bachmann brown Southern Railway pillbox brake vans with the large "SR" on the side?

And by way of a little light relief ... one of the very wonderful Mr Wilbur Sargunaraj's excellent educational videos

They're still around but they're by no means as widespread in Germany as they once were. Incidentally, the origin of the design lies in the Germanic predilection for all manner of pork sausages, the potentially dodgy curing of the pork therein, the consequent prevalence of intestinal worms, and the benefit of being able to keep an eye open, as it were ... Re squat toilets, any GP will tell you tales of Indian patients who grew up using them then moved here, took to using a Western-style toilet, and before long developed piles just like most of the locals. And in case it's useful to anybody to know, the way to mimic a squat toilet whilst perched upon a Western one and to gain at least some of the benefit thereof is to raise one's feet on something at least 6" high and/or bend forward at the waist. A public service announcement brought to you by spikey, courtesy of his friendly local GP

Indeed, and in my experience works well enough used dry. I have though found that if I add IPA, that seems to lubricate the roller/J-cloth assembly sufficiently for it to rotate freely i.e. it eliminates the drag required to produce an effective wiping action.

I take your point, but TBH if I ran a bricks-and-mortar model shop, I'd be delighted that most major suppliers don't want to know web-only traders. It's nothing new, btw. I met exactly the same problem 43 years ago, albeit in a different line of (retail) business.