Dave Hunt

Cabbage is good Pickled eggs better But beans on toast Makes you fart the most Dave

One SME I had dealings with made a significant part of the Tornado F3 weapons system and when I was part of the weapons & tactics standards and training unit we used to visit them fairly often to suggest modifications, look at their suggested updates etc. They were always ready and eager to listen to what we had to say and their responses were invariably sensible and co-operative as well as usually quick without being sketchy or ill considered. They did have the advantage of employing several ex-service engineers and front-line operators that contributed to the the essential wider experience and background knowledge that Puppers refers to but I would imagine that was more by judgement than luck. Dave

When I was living in the mess at RAF Valley in 1967, my room was next to a small sort of courtyard where during a thunderstorm one night a lightning strike hit. The bang was unbelievably loud, sounding like a bomb going off and it cracked a window in my room as well as breaking one next door. Dave

Hence tramway. Dave

Bit of a panic just after I had finished posting last night. We had the grandfather of all thunderstorms with the sort of rain I used to associate with living in Singapore in the wet season. Fortunately I had just popped down to the shed to get my phone, which I had left down there earlier on, when the deluge started so I decided to sit it out until I could get back into the house without drowning. It's a good job I did as the grid outside the shed door was partially blocked and the rain was so torrential that the well outside the door was filling up and the water was threatening to come over the door sill. Hence I had to go out and dredge the detritus out of the grid, whereupon the water level stopped rising and when the rain eased off to a mere downpour started receding. Result? Shed saved from flooding but DH soaked to the skin. Also lesson learned about monitoring the state of the grid more assiduously. Dave

Funnily enough I heard today that Mr. Kipling's are going on to short time working. Dave

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A better day today. After church I got a couple of 'when you've got a few minutes' jobs done*, which earned sufficient brownie points for another couple of hours in the supplemental house extension department in the afternoon then after dinner Jill suggested that as there was nothing on the haunted fishtank that was of interest why didn't I go down there again. Never one to look a gifthorse in the bum I disappeared at roughly the speed of heat and have just now finished. I have to admit, though, that the recent encouragement to go and do some modelling is beginning to worry me; is there something in the offing that I am not aware of and I'm being softened up for when the bomb finally drops? Should I be afraid? * Which only took about two hours Dave

How much did they get for you? Dave Just seen that I was beaten to it. Great minds etc.

The Telegoons? Dave

The aerodynamics aren't 'scaled down' so to speak as a thing called Reynold's number, which has a marked effect on them, changes with size but the general principles are fairly similar so that the handling aspects will be somewhat akin to the full size unless you go to the margins of the envelope. I once saw a quarter scale F4 at a meeting and the builder was complaining that it Dutch rolled like crazy on the approach if you weren't careful. I said that the full size one did that if you made an approach with the yaw stability augmentation turned off so he'd obviously got the model right, although it wasn't much help to him really. Dave

Thanks Alan. If only it had markings other than 19 Sqn. but then that is being picky. It's a Mk. 6 which were beautiful birds to fly. Dave

I didn't realise that at last you have switched to S7 HH. Well done. Dave

Our energy supplier keeps badgering me to get a so-called smart meter, which so far I have ignored but today they sent an email saying that they are obliged by the government to install them in their customers' homes. This is a lie as all they are obliged by the government to do is offer each of their customers a smart meter by 2024. Just in case I am in the habit of wearing a tinfoil hat they included a 'scientific' paper refuting claims that smart meters are injurious to health. Sheesh! Dave

There's a story, probably apocryphal but never mind, that at the height of the cold war Durex received an order from the Russian army for a large amount of condoms so they sent a consignment of the largest ones they made, all labelled 'small'. Dave

One of those mornings today when everything I tried to do turned to s**t so probably because I wormed my way into Jill's good books yesterday she suggested after lunch that I take myself off to the Supplementary House Extension Department and do something to the layout. So off I went. Before doing any more flooring to the loco shed I decided to check that what I had already done wasn't fouling the running rails in any way so on went the power and I tried to move a loco into the shed. Nothing except some groaning from about four of them and a bit of movement followed by the controller tripping out. Bu**er. I won't bore you with the number of things I tried in vain, nor with the naughty words that echoed around the place but I doubt that even HH could have bettered my cries of rage and frustration. Eventually the problem was found when I started trying each locomotive of the rolling road and lo and behold, the 0-4-4T had a piece of wire stuck underneath that was permanently shorting out. Where it came from Lord only knows but at least I was then able to check the shed flooring and all was OK. All this kerfuuffle had consumed much of my free time though and I was only able to achieve a fraction of the work I hoped. Still, at least my fears of a major wiring snag among the festoons underneath the baseboards were foundless and tomorrow is, after all, another day. Dave

We used to have condoms in survival packs - not in case we got lucky after banging out (although you could always dream) but because they take up little space but make good water carriers. Always used to generate sniggers during survival lectures though. Dave

I was once told that the name of the LISA programming language came about when the development team were discussing what to call it and one of them said, "Oh, let's invent some acronym," and that is precisely what they did, i.e., Let's Invent Some Acronym. Dave,

Maybe it's Australian? Dave

Especially as it is reputed that Clayton took with him to Ashford large numbers of Derby LDO drawings with the MR's consent. Dave

To paraphrase The Goons: Bloodnock (AKA DH) - "What makes you think that I would forego my implacable dislike of Panniers?" Neddy (AKA HH) - "Bara Brith?" Bloodnock - "What a lucky guess!" Dave

Sorry, what's not right? I wrote that it was never on the cards that Swindon could supply the LMS with locomotives as it would have been illegal. It was against the law for one railway company to build locomotives for another. How does that disagree with your statement that Railway companies building locos for other companies was unlawful? Dave

Hunt Towers has been the repository for a rather toothsome carrot cake laden with fruit that a friend brought round the other day when she came for a gabfest cup of coffee with Jill. Unfortunately I only managed to requisition one piece as when spotted I was reminded that I am currently supposed to be on a diet. My protestations that carrots are allowed on said diet cut no ice and the cake has now been distributed to the undeserving, i.e., not me. Bu**er Dave

A mixed day today that didn't start promisingly as my sciatica was playing up like h*ll then once I was mobile some of the dreaded 'when you've got a few minutes' jobs were mentioned. However, once a couple of the tasks had been completed (or rather one had been completed and one was started with completion promised for tomorrow) Jill decided to go for a walk with a pal of hers and I was left to my own devices. With but a moment's indecision (a moment being defined as the time taken for light to travel from the front door as it closed to my eyes) I set off to the brick building in the garden and spent the afternoon putting flooring into the model building that accommodates locomotives, achieving about 20% coverage. Upon the return of my nearest and dearest I detected that I was in relatively good books as I was presented with a mugg'ocoffee in the garden building so recognising an opportunity to bank some brownie points I suggested we went out this evening to one of herself's favourite restaurants. This went down very well so I'm hoping that once I have completed the part finished task tomorrow (about an hour's work) I will be able to get down to the outbuilding again and make some more progress with flooring the Locomotive house. Dave And I didn't use the word shed once!

Although I am heartily sick and fed up with the pig dribble that is still peddled concerning the Royal Scot design and don't propose to repeat in full what I wrote in LMS Locomotive Profile 15, there are a few points I will repeat. First of all, they were not simply Castles in drag nor were they based on the Lord Nelsons as the boilers, frames, cylinders and valve gear were all different from them (and yes, the valve gear was closely similar to the 2-6-4 tanks). About the only similarity with the Nelsons was the shape of the cab as even a cursory examination of the relevant drawings will show. They were, in fact, based on a Derby scheme that was possibly arrived at in rough outline during the dynamometer car trials of the Castle on the WCML but had little in common with the GWR engine and while the detailed design work was carried out by NBL it was under the supervision of Derby LDO personnel. It is probably true that someone from the LMS traffic department said that they would like 50 Castles as a stop-gap measure but it was never on the cards that Swindon could supply the LMS with locomotives as it would have been illegal. It was against the law for one railway company to build locomotives for another. There was an approach to Swindon for some Castle drawings but it was declined and, as I have just said, the design was principally to Derby LDO's scheme with NBL draughtsmen doing the detail work. I hope that this helps with the ongoing discussion. Dave