Adam88

You can all breathe again - Hank Was Framed - again from the internet so it must be true.

Something ursine popped into my in-box yesterday, some on here may enjoy the linked videos. It looks like Hank the Tank has developed a bit of a taste for LDC or similar comestibles.

Perhaps you were thinking of a backsplice (there are plenty of on-line illustrations and instructions) but this will only work if the cord has been made by twisting separate strands together, i.e. it cannot be done with braided cord which are commonly used for drawstrings and laces. I like the boat shoe knot, I've not seen it before but it is really a different use for simple whipping.

After two injections and a booster aren't you immune to coving yet?

I know little about the railways in this part of the world but much of what I do know came from this 2004 book: The Desert Railway:The NZ Railway Group in North Africa and the Middle East during the Second World War Author(s): Brendon Judd Non Fiction This is the untold war story of the railwaymen who built and ran the desert railway in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. In 1940 as the Second World War developed, the New Zealand government called for volunteers from the country's railwaymen to go to North Africa to build and operate a railway system in the Western Desert. Some 1300 Kiwi railwaymen answered the call. From the beginning they were unlikely military men. Although they were called 'sappers', they certainly weren't soldiers. They were also older than the usual young soldier - some had fought in the First World War, at least one at Gallipoli and several had sons serving as soldiers. In the desert, railway lines became the prime means of transporting men, equipment and supplies, sometimes to within a few thousand metres of the line of battle. Running the trains was just as dangerous as fighting on the front line as the Germans were determined to disable this strategic operation. Their adventure culminated in the Battle of Alamein. This is the untold story of railwaymen at war who made a significant contribution to the Allied victory in North Africa. There are very many interesting stories and it was written at a time when many of the survivors were still alive. The Kiwis were all volunteer railwaymen and their departure left the home railways in a bit of state. They were split into a construction group and an operating group and of course had to work closely with the local Egyptian railwaymen who were trying to keep their own systems going. I just looked this up again and found an interesting article on the same subject here: CHAPTER 9 — The Western Desert Railway

I've made my own for several years. It all started after I bought a bag of Sevilles by mistake and now I make it in a variety of gauges but never finescale.

I once went to a meeting he hosted at his house, "Claughton", where we were shown his exquisite EM West Cumberland lines layout in the loft. It was a most memorable day. He also had an LNWR signal which had been erected in the garden. I seem to recall that he'd had to shorten it somewhat as it had suffered some rot, and of course North-Western signals were noted for their extreme height, even among other pre-grouping signals. I once bought a set of his "Red Rose" etched zinc carriage sides, these were only etched on one side only so you had to open up the windows yourself. He related a story of someone probing him about some fact or other in one of his carriage books and he readily admitted that once he written it up he then had to read the book to find the answer. A true and very knowledgable gentleman who will be much missed,

Regarding graffiti, I once spent two days (2016) working in Rome immediately followed by two more in Madrid. The difference in the amount of graffiti I saw, albeit from rather limited samples, on the two metro systems was quite amazing. Rome's was at Parisian levels but I saw none in Madrid. The worst I saw though was the following year in Romania where I actually had to travel on this disgusting object.

Perhaps there is a window or door open. There is a discussion here: https://www.quora.com/Why-does-a-car-door-slam-louder-when-there-is-another-open-door-rolled-down-window

The axles look rather on the long side for some folk, will it even stay on the rails with those tiny flanges?

Is that a copper-capped chimney? What dividend was the railway paying that year?

What struck me was that this engine was cleaner underneath than virtually any of the locomotives which could be seen in mainline or colliery service in the post-nationalisation era. In fact the same almost applies to the various jacketed, capped, collared and tied onlookers and urchins.

Herbert Hoover, one time president of the USA, was in casual conversation with a lady who asked his profession to which he replied: "I am an engineer". "Oh", said she, "I thought you were a gentleman". Appearances can be deceptive.

I was taking advantage of the fact that my work took me to Koblenz so I tacked a bit of leave. I also crossed the Rhine to the big castle in Jamie's picture and took a train/boat trip up the Moselle valley. Nowadays many of these trips have been replaced by on-line meet-ups which are nowhere near such fun.

There's an outpost of the German railway museum in Koblenz which was worth visiting. One of my railway "bucket list" items is to visit the main one in Nuremberg when the travel situation eases.

We need one of these broad gauge cheer-ups to haul the good words around the empire. or perhaps Both from Prokudin-Gorskii Collection, I think that these were found after a lead by @Compound2632 in another thread.

Polar Bears move in Latest news from Costa Rica. Haven't read it all yet but I think that they're planning to do up the kitchen.

The only time I ever went into the boiler room at my primary school was when I was sent for a bucket of sand from the 'tarecaker' because someone had been sick (white-coloured, I suspect largely regurgitated school milk - TMI, I know!). The boiler was in the cellar underneath the main hall and the noise from the gym or dancing lesson above was incredible.

49?

Fear of Landing Did anyone see "Fear of Landing" on Saturday? It was an absolutely incredible story about a chap who sold his house to buy an aeroplane, effectively a kit-built job someone else had made and was seriously unairworthy. On a week's flight home he had a number of crash landings, various technical failures and eventually ran out of fuel over Lake Michigan where he ditched/crashed. He never insured it. Luckily one bit of kit which worked properly was the emergency transponder and he got scooped up in the nick of time by the coast guard.

Providing you survived tobacco then I would agree. My own parents lived for 82 and 91years of which six years were spent on wartime rations and a few more years on post-war rations. However they lost a significant number of their contemporaries through diseases which are nowadays associated with smoking.

Let's be PC - we have to refer to battering nowadays.

According to Laura Dawes in her book "Fighting Fit: the wartime battle for Britain's health" the government's policy was such that works canteens and such were able to compensate for the limitations of the rationing system. The rations themselves were enough to live on but supposing you worked in a physically demanding job then your extra calorie requirements would be met by off-ration canteen meals.

Where I was at school the boilers were coke-fired until the gas works closed down in the 1960s after North Sea gas was introduced. Before nationalisation the gas works would have been run by the corporation so it probably made sense to heat corporation-run facilities such as schools with coke.

Only just out of copyright it seems suitable to add this fine work to the Castle Aching public library WTP for the benefit of all parishioners.