Adam88

Thomas Firbank in his book "I Bought a Mountain" refers to the brothers: Lloyd George Kitty Maud Jones, Vimy Ridge Kitty Maud Jones, Hill Sixty Kitty Maud Jones and Granville Cadwallader Kitty Maud Jones. Apparently their sister was quite something and all the brothers were proud to be known by her suffix. "This youth’s name is Lloyd George Kitty Maud Jones, Ffridd- y-Foel. He is tall, black-haired, with a hard, wiry body. He was christened Lloyd George Jones, and would ordinarily have been known as Lloyd George Ffridd-y- Foel in order to distinguish him from his namesake, the politician, who has a house at Criccieth. But in this case there is a famous sister, who quite outshines the politician. Rumour has it that she would have defeated Messalina in open competition, even as Messalina put Scylla to shame. There are three more brothers, proud to be known by the sister’s suffix. They are Vimy Ridge Kitty Maud Jones, Hill Sixty Kitty Maud Jones, and Granville Cadwallader Kitty Maud Jones."

What sort of drizzle?

That said, the Bushmills distillery is not in Eire but Northern Ireland!

You don't often get m*d*l r*l*ys in brand new kitchens.

They need some of these fully adjustable dog carriers in order to achieve maximum operational effectiveness.

I don't think that we have either but I could not make out whether your words were spoken in jest or represented an example of your normal behaviour. From your copious writings here I suspect that they described an incident so out of character that you recalled them as a warning to all. My own limited experiences of JW people is of one doorstep call ever. On that occasion we did not ruffle each other's feathers and I've never seen them since.

Regardless, on the face of it that just seems to be plain rude and ill-mannered. There must have been aggravating circumstances?

Well it was 1943 and Rosie the Rivetter wasn't based in Butterley. Upsetting - my friends Google and Wiki give upsetting as a recognised forging operation and offered to put me in touch with various manufacturers of electric upsetting machines. There are many different kinds of forging processes available; however, they can be grouped into three main classes: Drawn out: length increases, cross-section decreases Upset: length decreases, cross-section increases Squeezed in closed compression dies: produces multidirectional flow Common forging processes include: roll forging, swaging, cogging, open-die forging, impression-die forging(close die forging), press forging, cold forging automatic hot forging and upsetting.

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-butterley-1943-codnor-park-wagon-works-1943-online That sent me rummaging but I didn't find anything directly relevant. This film from Butterley in1943 shows some forging operations but not of V hangers or W irons and certainly no casting activities. As with most other things we can find plenty of film showing locomotives being built, one or two relating to carriages and scarcely any of wagon works.

Broccoli? https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/president-bush-bashes-broccoli-28278899 I'm with Barbara on this one.

Assuming that you are talking about UK systems then regarding books covering history, there are are very many publications some going back to the nineteenth century and still being added to although many of these recycle material which was published (and sometimes better written) in earlier times. These two fired my imagination when I was much younger but you can find much from the various links on lrta.org and the various museums. The various regional and national film archives also bear rich fruit, e.g. BFI, British Pathé, etc and of course there are numerous museums and relics. A promising project has recently been started on RMWeb. If you are modelling, then 7mm scale is usually considered to be the smallest sensible scale for serious models, although there have been rare exceptions.

That would have been Tommy Cooper then.

Regarding buffers, this is how the North Western was observed looking after them on their carriages in the nineteenth century as recorded in FB Head's classic work Stokers and Pokers. "We will now proceed to detail a few circumstances respecting the railway carriages, about which our readers have probably never cared to inquire.—And, firstly, as soon as an up-train arrives at the commencement of the Euston platform, while it is still in motion, and before its guard—distinguished by a silver- buckled black shiny patent-leather belt, hanging diagonally across the white buttons of his green uniform-coat—has ventured with practised skill to spring from the sideboard of the train to the platform, two greasy-faced men in canvas jackets, with an oil-can in each of their right hands and with something like a mophead of dirty cotton hugged under each of their left arms, are to be seen running on each side of the rails below in pursuit of the train; and while the porters, holding the handles of the carriage doors, to prevent any traveller from escaping, are still advancing at a brisk walk, these two oilmen, who have now overtaken the train, diligently wipe as they proceed the dust and perspiration from the buffer-rods of the last carriage. As soon as these irons are perfectly clean and dry rubbed, they oil them from their can; and then—crawling beneath the open doors of the carriages and beneath the feet and ankles of a crowd of exuding travellers of all ages, who care no more for oilmen than the oilmen of this world care for them—they hurry to the buffer-rods of the next carriage—and so rapidly do they proceed, that before the last omnibus has driven off, the buffer-rods of the whole train are as bright as when new. But, secondly, these two men have been closely followed by two others in green jackets—one on each side of the carriage—who deal solely in a yellow composition of tallow and palm-oil. Carrying a wooden box full of this ointnent in one hand and a sort of short flat salve-knife in the other, they open with the latter the small iron trap-doors which cover the receptacles for greasing the axles, restore whatever quantity has been exhausted, and then, closing with a dexterous snap the little unctuous chamber over which they preside, they proceed to the next tallow-box; and thus, while the buffer-rods of the whole train are being comfortably cleaned and greased, the glistening axles of the carriages are simultaneously fed with luxurious fat. Thirdly, while these two operations are proceeding in the lower region, at about the same rate two others are progressing, one inside the carriages and the other on their roofs; for on the arrival of every passenger-train, the carriage " searcher," also " beginning at the end," enters every carriage, lifts up first all the stuffed blue seats, next the carpet, which he drops in a heap in the middle of the carriage, and then, inquisitively peeping under the two seats, he leaves the carriage, laden with whatever article or articles may have been left in it, to continue his search throughout the train. The inconceivable number and variety of the articles which he collects we shall shortly have occasion to notice. Fourthly, above the searcher's head, on the roof, and following him very closely in his course, there " sits up aloft " a man called a " strapper" whose sole duty it is, on the arrival of every train, to inspect, clean, shampoo, and refresh with cold- drawn neat's-foot oil the luggage-straps, which, in consequence of several serious accidents that have occurred from their breaking, are now lined inside with strong iron wire. It is the especial duty of this inquisitor to condemn any straps that may be faulty, in order that they may be immediately replaced."

To coin a phrase, I feel that I'm in a minority of people who are not in any minority. I must be aggrieved.

It makes you want to cry, doesn't it?

I cannot imagine a car thief being worried about such matters as keeping the MOT up to date.

That reminded me of something. I used to know an old boy who'd been in the army and he always said that when he retired that he'd become a Chelsea Pensioner. I lost touch and thought little more of it for many years until I happened to be in London one day and decided to see if he had indeed become a CP. He had and didn't demur when I suggested a beer and he brought his friend along. I don't think Chelsea Pensioners ever buy their own beer. Now these chaps could reminisce for England and my friend's friend had been in an NCO in the RAMC. He said that they were trained to do exactly this, namely identify plants and roots, probably from the jungle, from which all sorts of medicines could be prepared - shades of Brother Cadfael - and calculate dosages, etc. The way he told it never made me doubt a word. Nothing to do with pharmacology, but he also told me about electing to go on a parachute course in 1947. It was his last chance, he'd missed the opportunity during the War and would have been too old the next year. He regretted it immensely; 1947 was one of the coldest winters ever and he said he had never ever been so cold in his life. Most others on the course had been recalled but he wasn't. These two are both long gone but their stories, like so many from their generation, made a lasting impression.

Thinking about it some more, even the very word carbon has sinister connotations nowadays.

It pleases me that Edwardian is one of the few people left who can spell mediaeval correctly. I can imagine where he stands on the AD/BC and the whatever they want to replace it with debate.

Growing up, nearly all the good projects needed carbon rods which Dad would extract with a pair of pliers from an old dry cell battery. Do modern batteries contain carbon rods? If so then how do you get them out? Do any projects for children need carbon rods nowadays?

This is a development which will annoy me immensely. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-56497454

Two or three weeks ago someone asked the team on GQT why clay was always described as 'heavy clay' and the answer was along the lines of: "Well, if it wasn't heavy then it wouldn't be clay" before dropping into greater detail. For any NMers who are interested in interesting things, i.e. most, then this little video on woodland soil is worth watching. Incidentally, the presenter's uncle was Sir Charles Evans who, amongst many achievements, was deputy leader on Sir John Hunt's successful 1953 Everest expedition.

I hope somebody's been looking into it.

Don't anyone tell Airnimal (S7).

There is a picture in Noel Coates and Martin Waters' Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Album (1971) of a fish train where one of the vans has the external frames in V formation at one end and as an upside down V at the other.