Canal Digger

Back to handbrakes if I may A few years ago I spent the day driving a Dumper Truck up and down the towpath of a local canal (Wilts& Berks Canal https://www.wbct.org.uk/), hence my name here. No problems, the handbrake being on the RH side, with a catch to release operated by the little finger. Went home in a Ford Ranger with an Umbrella Stick handbrake, again no problem. Went out that evening in an ordinary Ford Mondeo, had to put on the interior light at the traffic lights to find the handbrake release! Only been driving for 40 years (not non-stop before someone picks me up on that point). The strangest (to me) parking brake was on a Ford 350 based RV in the States, a left foot operated, pedal brake. Doing hill starts, trusting the Automatic Gearbox not to allow me role backwards took some getting used to.

I seem to remember a brief discussion in the first year of my degree by “Clever Trevor” (so named because he did music analysis with us) about some experiments done in the late 1960s/early ‘70s with non-music-reading children which showed that the human eye/brain could “chunk” graphic information presented on a five line stave but adding additional lines (as opposed to ledger lines) almost immediately reduced the efficiency. I don’t remember any real details, but do remember it came about due to a question from our year’s resident genius composer Matthew Hind (who had been writing music since the age of 6) along the same lines as yourself. He wrote music you could enjoy listening to, but could also do “experimental” stuff and his question arose I think from some ideas he had about notating the latter. He even wrote something using coloured music notes to represent dynamics (volume) to see if that worked better than traditional ways of notating (it didn’t, but was fun trying it out!) Matt should have won the Composition Prize in our final year, but his music was simply too melodic (he refused to write anything other than what he wanted to hear himself) and it was instead awarded to someone who wrote avant garde “stuff”* that had no melody, discernible aural structure or point (to most listeners) but her efforts “fitted” with the academic leanings of the composition department. (Myself and my best mate similarly wrote “tunes” instead of “plinky plonk bang crash” monstrosities, and were marked down for that!) Yes, there is a mathematical/physics basis to the “octave” which is a fascinating rabbit hole to dive into for a few hours, especially now that some very good YouTube videos explain it all in an entertaining and far less academically dusty manner! You are quite right about the old Joanna’s white keys being confusing starting on A but everything referencing middle C, but that is because “middle C” sits on the ledger line exactly half way between treble and bass clefs! Seen separately, middle C in the treble clef sits on the first ledger line below the stave. Middle C in the bass clef sits on the first ledger line above the stave. Place the treble stave above the bass stave (as for piano) and there is just one ledger line separating the two staves - write a note on that line and in treble clef it is the middle C and in bass clef it is also the middle C … hence the name “Middle C”. (In practice in order to show which hand is playing which notes, notes can be shown on more ledger lines above the bass or below the treble stave that could/should be easier to read written on the appropriate clef!) On a traditional piano, middle C was close to the centrally placed keyhole for locking the lid, so once the pattern of white/black keys was established, it was easy to direct anyone learning to the middle C key - “Look for the keyhole, now look for the closest pair of black keys, and middle C is the white key directly to the left of the lower of the two black keys” (plus, of course, being physically shown that whilst being explained and most people can find a middle C on a piano!) Of course, keyboards don’t have a keyhole … 🫢🤣 Steve S * Personally, I simply can’t call such assemblages of apparently random notes “music” even if it meets the philosophical criteria of “organised sounds” I know that this is English, I can recognise the individual words, but I have no idea, what you are talking about. Many years ago in a 'compulsory' Music lesson at school, I tried to learn how to learn t o play the Recorder, eventually I learnt that a 'symbol' meant the note 'C' and that meant that I had to position my fingers so, then the next symbol meant A, so fingers ...., by this time the rest of the class were on the next line!

I know it's not ebay (perhaps seller has also listed it there and I've missed the post here, in which case sorry!), but someone on the Fb Model Railway Trading Group is offering a Red & Cream Triang Coach for £20, just needs some TLC

lifted from another site, not ery sure what I can say ... l

turn is mounted on the wall. Expand Oh that came out odd - iD, they're great, at the best part of a grand perhaps a bit spendy for me. Canal Digger, yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for, did you make them or can you say where they came from please? Sorry, but they came from an auction locally. The glass cabinet did not have lights in until I fitted them, sourced from flea-bay. Glad that you like them

Please any thoughts on made what IMHO looks like a simple diecast representation of the 1930s Bugatti Railcar? Someone on another site tells me that I am quite wrong and that the model is of 3-car loco hauled train

Confession Time. Last week (or perhaps the week before) there was a series of posts about TNMs range of scales/ gauges/ prototypes etc. I was busy at the time so could not join in, so here goes ... My muddling has taken a 'back seat' recently in favour of me collecting diecast, cast iron, card, glass trains. I'm sure most of you will know Lone Star or the Dinky A4s, so apart from them Tootsietoy from the 30s Cast Iron Wallwork from the 1890s and a other curiosities like the Main Line fish like 'thing', green Bakalite body, 3rd rail pick up, driven by a coil pulling on plates in 'the 4ft', speed controlled by the mark-space ratio of insulation on 3rd rail! Scroll back to June 23 or search for Main Line in Collectable/ Vintage for more info. Anyway, some of this collection is in glass, wall-mounted cabinets in the Dining Room, I have to compete for space, SWMBO collects Teddy Bears, including 30+ Cookie Jars around the top of the Kitchen Cabinets. Confession over

I'm somewhere between CofE (0.01%), Atheist and Agnostic if that is possible! My main issue with religion is that while it is not always the cause of wars, it is very often what defines/ distinguishes the sides (including a lack of religion). A secondary issue is that The Bible has many passages that allows the user to make their case for anything they choose. eg: 'An eye for an eye' v 'Turn the other cheek'. Is this topic getting 'heavy'?

Please any thoughts on made what IMHO looks like a simple diecast representation of the 1930s Bugatti Railcar? 20240119 Bugatti Railcar.docx

A trifle unnecessary IMHO ... hat, coat, bye

Hope they taste nice!

I would fear that a commercially-run show would price out the society stands and specialist traders that have made the Warley show so distinctive - and worth attending - among the larger shows. I don't think there is anywhere else where you would find a similar number of line society stands under one roof. The Bristol/ Thornbury Show used to be run by the AMRCWWE (Association of Model Railway Clubs Wales and West of England [what a mouthful!]) until it was taken over by the Warner Group, not a tremendous difference INMHO

Cats here go out of our garden a might faster than they come in thanks to our hound

Surely ant-grease is there to help the ants climb the wall. Would not 'Ant-grease' be grease made from ants?

What we all need, well I do anyway https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67902966

What we all need, well I do anyway https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67902966

RN Tea, made in the urn complete with milk and sugar!

looks useful thanks

A few years ago I got asked to help out with the lighting of a local AmDram production, however the 'ask' came via a text message which I didn't get until 10 min after start of First Night, with the hall being 10 min away! So I found myself working a Follow Spot (a new experience!), part way through show, with the instruction 'Pick up on Mary as she .....', errr which one is Mary? err What lever does what? Too late

It's been a while since my last post, I have been scanning hundreds (thousands?) of photos from late MiL's house, then SWMBO has been trying to identify who they are ...... Then there are the slides .... New Zealand, Scotland and Ireland are all within 30 min drive of Chippenham

I would recommend that you don't glue the sides to the drawers

Clarification please, is the husband or the domicile 'scared'? Even worse, my brain read 'scared' - as in frightened or having a scar

Given the amount of recent interest re lathes, when I saw this I thought to give it a wider audience, I even edited the address to remove the crud. https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/873228177620783/?

I've probably told this story here before ... First day in Metalwork in Secondary School, me never seen a lathe before, we were all lined up alphabetical order and shown how to use a tailstock mounted centre drill to make a hole in a piece of round steel bar, what could go wrong? Teacher watched first few intently, however my surname starts with W so by the time it was my turn he had left us to it. So I duly loaded workpiece in to chuck, slid tailstock up, switched on and wound drill forward. However without cutting metal the drill turned a nice shade of blue and the tip broke off, I knew enough to switch off etc, by which time teacher reappeared. Previous boy (not my best friend !) had knocked the Reverse Lever. Of course this was my fault and my name was blackened from then on

Without wishing to insult your parents, I have a mental image of someone putting plates through the mangle ...