FarrMan

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

though a cane wasn't on that list, even though (believe it or not) they were still in use at the time! 

I remember it well!

Lloyd

19 hours ago, wasabi said:

soon got used to the regular rains

Try living on Skye for regular rains!

Lloyd

I like the new buildings in Station Road, but have no memory of them at all. Whenever I was walking along that section, i must have been looking the other way for some reason, if only in hope! 

Lloyd

1 minute ago, LNER4479 said:

At least I didn't say: 'I'm sat on a whole assortment of LMS coach kits ...'

Its so much easier in Hebrew - they only have two tenses, past and future! They also have a word pronounced 'he' that means 'she', though.

Lloyd

Been away from this for a few days. Congratulations, Tony, on your first Decade. I calculated that it would be an average of 19.825 posts per day. No wonder it moves so fast. It is not just the quantity though, as the quality of most posts (my own being the main exception) is so high. What a wealth of wisdom is to be found here. I wonder if anyone has thought of cataloging it. I have, but the thought horrifies me.

Lloyd

Going back to the alcoholic stuff, I remember hearing of an old female teetotaler who had made homemade wine. "But I didn't put any alcohol in it" she said!

Lloyd

56 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I don't mind if it cracks but if a corner splits off or the sheet shatters I'll go to Plan B, which is 4mm MDF...

When using MDF, remember that the saw dust can be carcinogenic. Best done outside if possible, with suitable respiratory protection.

Lloyd

3 hours ago, FarrMan said:

I would suggest a bit of drafting tape (or masking tape) either side would reduce unwanted breakout and give a better grip to the point of the bit. Too fast a drill speed and you will melt the perspex, so a slower speed would be preferable. If it is a large hole that you need, start with a small bit and gradually work up to final size. 

Hope it works OK for you.

 

Lloyd

Not sure about acrylic, but perspex is best done with a sharp knife along the line of cut and then bend it over a rigid edge. It just snaps off along the line.  Use knife firmly, as you want to do a bit more than just score the surface. If you have a wee bit spare, you could try it and see. If you need to use a saw, then I would think as fine a tooth saw as you can get. Again to avoid getting it too hot, do it in short stages, or cool the blade frequently.

Talking of avoiding undue heat reminds me of a story I heard about a contractor cutting up an old underground petrol tank (i.e. BIG). He should have been using a hand saw, but chose to use a power saw instead. The Petroleum Officer was just around the corner when he heard the explosion. The contractor went up to an altitude of 15 feet - he went up white and came down black! His first words to the Petroleum Officer were 'Does this mean that I am taken off the list of approved contractors?'

Lloyd

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Another good session this afternoon. I fitted all the upper tappets, fettling as I went along. There was quite a lot of filing to be done but, in a break from Leeds MRS tradition, no hammers came into play. I found two errors as I went along. One of the locking pins protruded up instead of down, which was easy to fix by pressing it through to the other side using the vice. The other was slightly more tricky. I found that one of the notches on tappet 17 was in the wrong place. I'd marked and filed it in line with locking bar IJ instead of I, so I filed another notch in the right place. Fortunately, there was enough metal left between the two notches to hold the pin in place - otherwise I would have had to cannibalise one of the leftover tappets from Porthmellyn Road.

 

Anyway, once everything was in place I checked the locking against the table produced as part of the design. That was interesting, because it didn't quite match what I had expected. One or two levers could be moved when I don't think they should but, fortunately, all the signals could be pulled off for their correct routes. I'm not going to worry too much because, as we've said many times, if our trains crash nobody dies (as a general rule).

 

Some of the locking is a bit "sloppy" (technical term) and wouldn't satisfy an inspector but that's down to my lack of fitting skill, not the design.

 

To round off the afternoon I marked out the lock cover for cutting and drilling. Last time I worked with Perspex all did not go well so I will do a bit of research first (and would welcome any thoughts that you all might have).

 

Tomorrow I aim to file the locking pins and, with luck, make the locking cover.

 

Australia v England in Perth tonight. No predictions - there are too many variables this time round.

I would suggest a bit of drafting tape (or masking tape) either side would reduce unwanted breakout and give a better grip to the point of the bit. Too fast a drill speed and you will melt the perspex, so a slower speed would be preferable. If it is a large hole that you need, start with a small bit and gradually work up to final size. 

Hope it works OK for you.

Lloyd

14 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Steve,

 

I noticed those, especially in the photographs. 

 

I haven't investigated how to alter them - pull out and shorten the 'legs'? Or replace them? I don't know.

 

Having looked at the model further, and run it more, it really is astonishingly-good overall. Mine, of course, is not DCC-fitted, so there's no Deltic 'sound', though that doesn't worry me. As it speeds by, I'm back as a 16-year old (in 1962), seeing these magnificent locos for the first time.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Ah yes! The sound of these rushing UP Stoke Bank with a heavy train, then braking for the 90mph speed limit through Stoke Tunnel, or the sight and sound of them accelerating away from Peterborough North with a heavy train, and I'm back as a slightly less than 16 year old. I would have been 13 in 1962.

Lloyd

41 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

 

My apologies, Lloyd. I totally mis-read your user name and apologise unreservedly for the initial and juvenile snort/ titter that ensued. 

 

Rob. 😳

 

 

 

If you thought that the second 'R' was a 'T', then you were were probably quite accurate! However, Farr is where I live. I have never heard it called Far(t), though if you did, you might miss it!

Lloyd

13 hours ago, gwrrob said:

Talking of preserved engines and isn't 5239 Goliath looking splendid in the South Devon sunshine. Captions welcome.

 

A different way of hitch hiking. (for those who remember what hitch hiking was!)

Lloyd

On 18/06/2022 at 21:32, great northern said:

The Edinburgh is immediately replaced at Platform 6 by a Hunstanton excursion. It will run via March, and so a B17 can be rostered.

Meanwhile, a Darlington-KX rolls through. It will have had a Thornaby V2 to Grantham, but one of ours replaced it there.

 

 

If it is going via March, is  it not facing the wrong way? Would it go from March via the Ely junctions, or reverse at Wisbeach?

Lloyd

On 11/06/2022 at 11:23, gwrrob said:

More oil burning morning delight with 4855.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is there any other way of identifying what PO wagons would be used on a specific service or route other than studying photos?

Lloyd

21 hours ago, APOLLO said:

I used to go fishing here as a lad. Leeds & Liverpool canal at Ince, GC line to Darlington St goods and Wigan Central.

Ah memories. As my (now) wife lived at Worsley Hall Estate, our favourite walk used to be along this canal a bit further along. A lovely walk - past the sewage works, along the canal and back by the baked bean factory! I believe it has changed in the last 50 years, though!

Lloyd

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Kym. Like I said, I think it's different use of terminology, probably varying according to where you came from.

I was using the terminology used when I was (attempting to be) teaching the subject. Incidentally, I had been reprimanded for using the term Highway Engineering as it was an English term. In Scotland it should be Road Engineering. Australian english probably has a different term again!

Lloyd

11 minutes ago, great northern said:

I still can't post more than one image at a time, so here is your second morning offering. Too much of nothing in the background, I think.

 

 

But this is what was actually there. It may not have been photographed so often, but for those who were there at the time, this is what would have been seen. Similarly your plonk at twilight shot shows fine detail of something that was probably not often photographed, but was the sort of thing that those on the platform would probably be looking at between trains. There were gaps when there was no train in the station, after-all. Your plonks show us lesser mortals the fine detail that abounds on your model. It is not only the trains themselves that give your model such interest.

Lloyd

15 hours ago, great northern said:

I finally found a really good photo. The parapet over the Midland section appears to have been slightly lower, but not significantly so. After crossing those tracks, of course there is a fairly steep decline to ground level.

Many thanks, Gilbert. I do not remember that, but after 60 years and with out a good memory anyway, I must have been wrong on this one. I certainly remember the steep decline to ground level, especially in the eastern (i.e. GNR) side. That side had almost a standing start at the bottom as well. At least I could take a bit of a run on the Midland side on my push bike. There were very few hills  slopes in that area, and that and the eastern approach to Crescent Bridge were the worst other than from under the Oundle Road bridge up to that over the Midland line by East Station.

Re 'hills', I went to the opposite extreme when I was driving over the Bealach Na Ba 4 times a day - sea level up to 2000 feet and back down to sea level in 10 miles!

Memories!

Lloyd

Spital Bridge looks so much better now. I makes quite a difference at that end. One wee point that I am not clear about. I do not recall a change in height of the parapet between the Midland and GNR sections of the bridge, though I do not clearly recall that the was not one there. Do you have any photos to show that? I know that a parapet continued across the Midland section of the bridge, and changed at the end to a wire fence, both sides of the road. I could see over the wire fence, but being rather altitudinaly challenged, I could not see over the parapet!

18 hours ago, great northern said:

The next one is of the loading dock, which Peter had about half surfaced when Covid intervened. I tried to finish it off, but wasn't happy with what I did, so Peter has now done the job properly.

Looks good and as I remember it.

18 hours ago, great northern said:

That resulted in the building of a subway, which lasted till Crescent Bridge opened in 1913, when Cowgate became a dead end. I'm pretty sure it was Cowgate all the way down, but I'm sure Lloyd will tell me if I'm wrong.

I have no idea. I never knew just what that section was called, but I have a feeling that you are right, as usual. I have never heard of the subway before the bridge was opened, but from the level of River Lane on the other side of the tracks, that sounds not improbable.

Thanks for the information.

Lloyd

22 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Lloyd, I suspect that these are just different names for the same thing. In my vocabulary, for example, the why and where would be Transport Planning and the how would be [highway, rail, aviation, maritime, etc] engineering.

Perhaps I should add some clarification. Being an engineer, my english aint quite proper.

By 'how', I meant whether that individual would probably travel by car, bus, train, plane, ferry, etc., and what preferred route would be taken, to allow design of specific projects to be appropriate, e.g. where a new road, railway etc would go, and what capacity it would need to have. This would then guide the railway engineer, highway engineer, etc to design the specific project in the right place and at the right size. The only problem with this is that politicians  then change it!

Lloyd

20 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

That comment was around in my very early years of the 50s. Have you any idea what it came from? Wartime sort of thing about cleaning Brass? Rarely hear it as with "Daft as a Brush|" (not Class 47) or "Clot".

I know, I am of an age.

P

One of my favourites comes from a misprint in a newspaper in Ghana during my short stay in that country. The article referred to a politician noted for his sartorial elegance, and spoke of him being 'immaculately dressed, down to the rose in his bottom hole'. Therefore if someone is talking rubbish, we say that he is 'talking out of his rose'.

Lloyd

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Interesting, isn't it. The only thing that I can think of is that in this context Transport Studies refers to working out why people/things need to move from place to place, whereas we engineers come in later to work out how to move them. A bit empirical, though.

Forgive me for disagreeing but Traffic or Transportation Engineering, as opposed to Highway engineering, is about working out scientifically why, where and how people move about.

Lloyd

9 minutes ago, Bogie said:

 

Each to their own.  I happen to love the WD.

Where is the 'It takes all sorts' button when you want it!

Lloyd