SamThomas

I've gereally round that sewing machine oil is a bit "runny" wheras the oils sold by the likes of Roco/Flesichmann/Trix & the GM619 all seem to have the ability to cling where put provided provided it is used sparingly as it should.

Unless you are lubricating the likes of Miniature Wunderland the cost of the "specialist" oils in a handy syringe type dispenscer is hardly a deal breaker when compared to larger quantaties which will go gloopy over time if not used.

16 hours ago, ianLMS said:

Not sure what is available in Germany but this tells you what to use and what not to.

 

https://modelrailwayengineer.com/what-is-the-best-oil-to-lubricate-your-model-train-with-what-not-to-use/

 

That will be fine, also the equivelent from Trix/Marklin, Roco or Flesischmann.

On 15/07/2011 at 10:42, Oldddudders said:

And the roads. I do not see either being changed in my lifetime - 30 limits becoming 50 kph, 70 limits being re-signed as 120? You don't need to be much good at risk assessment to see where that might lead. It's stupid enough that UK official fuel economy figures include 56 mph - 90 kph, which is the usual out-of-town single carriageway road limit in Europe, but is not a speed anyone is required to drive at in the UK!

56mph/90k - it is for HGV's.

2 hours ago, Northmoor said:

And pretty much every vehicle in the LR range is now seriously F-ugly.

No more than the equivelent vehcils from other makes.

But, they have seriously lost their charector looks wise (the Evoque & Freelander excepted).

Without thinning down emulsion for spraying (& having to apply more coats) the only commercial method is "airless spray".

Think very hard about the amount of overspray in the air & where it will end up...................

It would take a very long time to do it with anything suitable for fine scale modelling.

2 hours ago, MJI said:

 

I think the orignal RR is the best looking product by them, it lloks right.

 

Indeed - the original.

The P38 that followed is a better car, but less of a RR.

The L322 is a better car, but less of a P38.

The L405 is a better car, but less of a L322

& so on until you have to look twice to see if it's a RR, Evoque, Defender or Discovery.

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

I do find it really rather disturbing just how much effort society is putting in to stamping out any sort of interaction with our fellow human beings. We seem hell-bent on making sure that people don't do anything and we have nothing to do with people. Whilst being as lazy as possible (sorry, loving "convenience"). I'm starting to think Wall-E is an accurate depiction of the future, well, aside from the spaceship.

Agreed, & to avoid futher thread drift on the subject I've started a new thread ;

Without wishing to "thread drift" too much on another thread I thought I'd start a new one.

Q : Are we becomming too Insular ?

A (well, mine anyway) : Yes, we are.

Companies go well out of their way to avoid human contact***. So many companies that make their telephone number diffecult to find & then when you do you have to wade through option after option & then when you get into the queue the only relief from the dreaded muzak is the 30 second "do you know, the answers to most questions can be found on our websife www.wasteoftime.com" - of course I know & that's why I am here, in an electronic abyss, bnecause the answer to my question is not there.

I find it sad that we are losing the simple pleasures of communication - even a simple "good morning" to the person who takes your money as the filling station - horror of horrors I'm even beginning to welcome that North American import ;

"Have a nice day"

"Thank you"

"You're welcome"

** Yes, I'm fully aware that employing real people to answer the phone/advice ect costs money.

12 minutes ago, 57xx said:

 

I'm trying to work out if that is a serious question?

TBH, I'm thinking about the older systems that you paid for after drawing your fuel. Shows how long I've managed to avoid using them !

My second comment still holds though.

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

 

Im the UK you would be waisting your time reporting Traffic Light failures to the police if you think they with rock up & start directing traffic. The best you could hope for would be for them to pass the information to the Local Highways which you can do yourself & cut out the middle man.

AFAIK, they don't even teach Police Officers how to direct traffic at junctions, let alone provide them with anything like luminus battens.

Also, with respect it would appear to me that a lot of things are different in Australia & we are to a larger extent discussing the situation in the UK.

FWIW I commented on the way some HGV drivers have had PCN's withdrawn because of how the automated sysyems work - in an ideal world a manual check by the LA would result in these erroneous PCN's not being issued but said LA's use the system as cash cows safe in the knowledge that most drivers will simply pay up thus swelling the LA's cofferes, but that's a whole additional can of worms.

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

In fact, it is important to report this (multiple lights out) to the police, as it urgently needs them to come out and manually control the junction, as potentially lethal.

26 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

So why dont we do what they do in most of the rest of the world and make 'pay at pump' mandatory?

& how will that stop "drive-offs" ?

FWIW I do not want to be opening my wallet on an exposed forecourt - I much prefer feeling more secure in the kiosk & horror of horrors, also nice to say "hi" to a real person behind the counter, especially on a long jouirney. We are becoming far tioo insular.

11 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

Meh. You've got 20 plus hours a day to charge while you're not using the thing. You don't have to stand there like a lemon watching it like you do a petrol car.

 

I'm sure future people will find car ownership a hilarious idea.

Please re-read my post - my comment was in regard to people who do not/will not ever be able to charge their EV's at home.

& before anyone comes back & says "they can charge their EV at work" I'm also referring to those that may have the same issue at work or be a mobile worker - such as a carer who will spoon feed people when they are not longer able to feed themselves.

Thanks for the link Nick - I knew I had seen it somewhere.

I think the "get out of jail free" card was played for the simple reason that all signage ect must be working ciorrectly or they are not 100% legal.

Which is why some facists (sorry, CEO's) also take images of signage when they take images of your car prior to issuing a PCN.

20 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

There are a few systems around that work quite well. One problem is picking a standard that everyone will use. It took a decade to choose between two plugs.

The other problem is placement. You need to park with the car positioned with its pad directly over the pad on the ground. For your terrace parking chaos that doesn't really work. At least with cables you get some leeway.

Looking at the amount of people that cannot get all four wheels withinn a parking box there is a way to go yet !

A lot of house's in my road are terrace, many of those modified twoups twodowns - almost all have two cars & some parts of the road have parking only on one side.

Some do have off road parking but there is not enough space for everyone at the same time.

I really don't know what the solution for charging EV's would be & I don't think there is anything out of the ordinary with my area.

Whilst admitting that those without acess to their own charger at or near their homes will be able to use public charging facilities EV charging technology needs to get charging times comparable to filling up a fossil fued car.

7 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Are you suggesting that if a particular lamp is out, then it is not possible to enforce red light offences? Sounds like madness to me.

I know a couple of HGV drivers that have had red-light PCN.s cancelled ofter they have asked for absolute proof that the primary stop light was actually working so there must be something in it.

The problem HGV drivers face is that there is a lot of vehicle after the front wheels that can trigger these cameras.

2 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Bits 'n' bobs from De Tomaso's interesting line up over the years....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That last one looked like something one of Ed Striker's underlings would drive.

4 hours ago, Nick C said:

The highway code merely states that "RED means ‘Stop’. Wait behind the stop line on the carriageway" - it doesn't specify that there is a particular set of lights that is the 'official' one.

I'm pretty certain that each junction will have a "primary traffic signal" & this one must be operational to enforce red light infringements.

I'm also pretty certain that the that the HC is just that - a code, not actually a code book, although it's recommendants are often used when deciding a point of law.

Am I looking at this from a too simplistic angle ?

How about making the grain bodies demountable in the same way that ISO containers are with twistloks.

16 hours ago, duncan said:

Also thought of Kingspan etc, but didn't want a silver foil shelf. 

You can peel it off - but peel off both sides otherwise it tends to warp as the manufacturing process puts on under tension when the foil is applied.

16 hours ago, doilum said:

A few years ago I was happily stretching the national speed limit on the top road from Pateley Bridge to Ripon when I had a sacrilegious thought: this old diesel Astra estate was probably quicker from A to B cross country than my much loved RS 2000. Back in the early 80s most cars could only test the national limit on motorways or good A roads. The RS was in another league. Today it is difficult to think of a car that isn't capable of 100mph+. Add in front wheel drive, power steering ,passive understeer and tyres wide enough to make Carlos Fandango weep, and you have a vehicle designed to feel safe right up to the limit of its road holding. Suddenly it all goes Pete Tong with inevitable consequences. Take away all the driver aids and you had a car that demanded respect and gave plenty of earning before the limit was reached. Of course young lads would ignore the warning often fueled by almost acceptable drink driving and then get caught out by a touch of frost or a bend that suddenly tightened as the brakes locked and the ditch beckoned. I lost count of how many boy racer chariots which ended up on Pontefract's 13th green. Today there is a 40mph speed limit so it is difficult to compare. One other difference: back then most of my friends had started out on two wheels. Just surviving two years on a bike gave us a sense of road craft that few current learners get. We understood that accidents hurt. I'm not sure that the current young drivers do.

Absolutly spot on.

My last van was a VW T5 Transporter - hybrid turbo, straight through stainless steel exhaust (pretend cat of course) & a pretty agressive re-map. It would have blwon the doors of quite a few of my early "fast" cars such a a MkI Mexico, MkII RS2000 & probably the XR3i & Astra GTE as well.

I too started on two wheels, gained a sense of roadcraft & a sense of self preservation.

The aforesaid "fast" cars were almost like a second skin & they would roadfeel back to you if you were starting to push it.

I lost the Transporter on the A57*** - no warning, it just went, scraping a wall on it's way into the scenary to come to a stop amongst the sheep by the verge - good job it was not the other side......

The A57 Snake Pass was a road I always enjoyed until they put a blanket 50mph speed limit on it.

*** Probably the last "modern" I drove with any form of charector & roadfeel. Even then there was lack of radfeel compared to the T4.

17 hours ago, rocor said:

 

I feel that a large proportion of the population would like neither to be, driver nor operator. They would rather be a passenger, where personal transportation is concerned. The arrival of fully autonomous cars  will be seen by them as a major advantage to their lives. 

I can see that & I would admit that there are times when faced with a long journey would still like to use my car but relax for the bulk of the journey - if only that could be achieved......

oh wait, just had an idea, you could drive to a railway terminus, put your car on a train, relay in a seat with a table & legroom, get something to eat, sleep, stretch your legs, de-stress & then, after a few hundred or more miles retrieve your car & finish your journey. Now that's sorted just need a name for it - how about "Autorail" ?

Much as many people look forward to fully autonomours vehicles I will never ever trust it 100% - & what happens when (not if) the tecnology that controls it all goes down ?

18 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I wonder if all of those cars 'stuffed in hedges' are recorded, especially the older cars whose scrap value is not much less than the vehicles worth? A young driver with an old Clio worth only a few hundred pounds might find it easier to have it picked up by the scrap man without informing the insurance company and getting a replacement and just telling the insurance company that the car was scrapped and transferring the insurance (assuming its insured in the first place). 

Many are not recorded & often for the reasons you stated.

A road junction near my house has a very high rate of "single vehicle accidents" in icy weather - these range from simple "no-damage ending up on the pavement/damaged wheels/relatively minor bodywork".

The County Council (responsible for gritting the roads) will not add the road to the gritting routes because "records show there are very few accidents cause by ungritted roads".

Many operators are probably unable to perform even simple checks such as checking fluid levels simply because many current vehicles will do that as soon as you turn the key.

They don't check tyre presuures because the TPMS does that. many don't even give the treads a cursory look - currently, I'm looking for another car & when a see a "possible" check the MOT history & the amount of failures due to tyre tread delth is amazing.

Another common one is "position light(s) not working &/or headlamp aim.

Another marked difference between a driver & an operator,

Anything that dos not have any form of solvent in it will do the job.

If speed is not impoertant then PVA will be fine, if speed is important then any of the cheap "instants" will do, again, make sure they do not contain any solvent.

Hot glue is mot a good idea either.