APOLLO

9 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Are they now working for contractors by any chance ?

I would imagine some are.

Brit15

Councils are just plain unskilled and to busy with "woke" agendas.

All the capable and skilled staff left years ago.

Brit15

On 17/11/2023 at 16:47, adb968008 said:

This summer our road was resurfaced.

Great, first time in at least 6 decades.

We are a cul de sac with a few houses.

The old surface was just fine, traffic movements is probably under 40 car movements a day, inc school runs.

odd patch here and there, no ones dug it up in at least a decade.

 

The main road just away from us has several very dangerous pot holes, its a 40mph road, some holes are over 6 inches deep and 18 inches wide (weve measured and complained), cars are swerving dangerously around them… 11 months on and at least one crash.. its still unfilled.

 

This week, less than 3 months since resurfacing the gas company is coming to replace out our apparently life expired 80 odd year old pipes to dig up our brand new road surface…

All this despite us being encouraged to give up gas for electric too.

Theres no way this was suddenly just planned in the last 3 months…

 

I suspect the water pipes are just as old as the gas pipes… who knows the age of the electric, internet, sewage etc…

 

 

especially if councils use the cash efficiently

 

I would love to see this, but ive no confidence.

We’ll see cycle lanes, green ways, flower beds, reduced parking spots, traffic calming, 20mph zones, all with neat little black squares of tarmac in the road and the millions dissapear in a council pork fest.

 

We should open a thread for the best use of pot hole funding… I bet we see at least one arts project, festival, cultural centre, human experience, outreach project, overseas investment oppourtunity, duck island, ipad roaming charge, second home allowance all funded by a pot hole one way or another.

 

its as if Hippy Rishi is related to the Marples construction company all over again.

 

Then winter will come and the cracks reappear…

 

Pot holes filled with tory butter.

In the later days of my lifelong career with the gas industry I was planning replacement gas mains in the NW. One of my duties was to attend, monthly, several local council "Street Works co-ordination" meetings where the statutory authorities (Water, Gas, Electric, Council etc) TRIED to co-ordinate renewals before council resurfacing amongst other things. Quite simply it was difficult sometimes bordering on impossible, but at least we tried. Occasionally we had success. Some councils were better than others also, as were the "Stats" - Water was ALLWAYS the worst in this respect, their rep was only interested in the tea and biscuits (and stole all the Jammy Dodgers)  !!

Brit15

This is very "enlightening"

Brit15

Just to say it's not all bad on the preserved scene.

Last year I had a superb and enjoyable day out to the East Lancs Railway diesel gala day. My GMPTE old farts pass got me there free via Train to Manchester Vic & Tram to Bury, arriving at 9.30am. I stayed till around 5pm constantly to-ing and fro-ing behind a selection of diesels. At first I thought the £34 ticket a little steep, but at the end of the day I realised it WAS value for money. The staff were wonderful, all of them, trains clean, virtually full and on time. Couldn't get there this year but will next.

THAT's how to run a railway. (well of course, it's in Lancashire !!).

Brit15

Oh dear !!

Try again Elon, try one of these, made in Huddersfield, only ninepence !!

Brit15

Apt music while we wait !!

Brit15

Is Elon on board ?

Brit15

1 hour ago, geoffers said:

"...I am in my mid 50s, and we never touched slide rules at school..."

 

Never used a slide rule at school but used log tables. However, in my professional career as a meteorologist, we used a meteorological slide rule to work out dewpoints and vapour pressures when doing weather observations.  I still have one. They were discarded when semi-automatic observation stations were introduced and all worked out automatically.

 

Interesting re the Met slide rule.

For me it was log tables at school, a Thirty Bob Faber Castell slide rule for my ONC Mech Eng (couldn't afford a posh British Thornton", they were a Fiver, a weeks wage back then !!) and one of the very first electronic calculators for HNC Gas Engineering - Progress !!

Part of my ONC was steam engines & turbines. The mechanical bit was easy, the computations utilising the dreaded steam tables did my head in !!   Steam is a VERY complicated substance.

Table 8. Properties for coexisting phases: viscosity, thermal, conductivity, Prandtl number, dielectric constant, surface tension

Table 9. Thermal expansion coefficient β = (1/ν)(∂ν/∂T)p of liquid water as a function of pressure and temperature. (β in 10−3/K.)

https://www.thermopedia.com/content/1150/

After that lot HNC Gas engineering was a doddle. (I'd never make a Nigel Gresley !!!!)

For sizing gas mains we used one of these, A mears calculator. Mears made many such calculators for lots of applications. A doddle to use. The one shown below is a liquid flow model.

Some bright spark at work got a small programmable calculator to do the calcs. A pain in the bum, I stuck with my Mears and still have it. Precision not required as we allways went up a pipe diameter or two to accomodate load growth !! (Such forward thinking not allowed these days !!).

Happy days. (most of 'em) !!

Brit15

Whatever it is I hope there are no circuit boards to fry for the non DCC modeller !!

Brit15

9 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I love old film cameras, there's a precision and wonderful tactile feel to both the bodies and lenses which is now unusual.

My late father was a press photographer for several local newspapers in the 60's to the early 80's. I still have his treasured cameras. Rolleiflex, Mamiya twin lens reflex, and quite a few other makes. He swore by Carl Zeiss Jena lenses, super high contor (shutter I think), and for personal reasons (WW2) tried not to buy Japanese, but did in the end. Most were either 8 on 120 or 12 on 120 (120 roll film, either 8 oblong or 12 square negatives). One was a 16 on 120 if I remember correctly. He did not really get on with 35mm. All are collector / museum pieces now.

He had his own darkroom at home and learned me the ropes. My camera was an Agfa flexilette, 35mm with gave decent results.

I'm sure Dad would have loved modern electronic cameras. Not even a dream when he sadly passed away in 1981. A friend of his made this image in memory.

Brit15

Planned obsolecence in our model trains also. I have two expensive locos with fried electronics (both Heljan), and I dont use DCC. I'll try to wire the motor direct to the pick ups, Tri-ang style !!!!!!!!!!

Brit15

11 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

I’ve collected together a bunch of our old, no longer used stuff from various cupboards, drawers and storage boxes, to be disposed of.

 

2 compact 35mm APS cameras

2 compact digital cameras

4 various electronic calculators

a handheld electronic recorder

a portable CD Walkman.

a portable Mini-Disc Walkman 

2 DAB radios ( one with DAB+ the other next to useless)

1 DAB / Internet radio ( dead electronics)

1 FM/AM portable radio

2 iPod’s

2 iPod Touch’s

4 old, non- smart mobile phones

2 slide rules !!!  not electronic, but

2 Bluetooth speakers - dumped on us by offspring.

a touch-tone remote control, for an old BT branded, tape based answerphone (used to access voice messages directly from the recorder in the device, rather than from the cloud)

 

The functions these discarded devices used to perform, are now all carried out by iPads, iPhones and Smart speakers.

When those devices eventually fail, or are no longer serviceable, the functions can simply be transferred onto something else.

Keep the slide rules - at least they will work if we are hit by an EMP from  a nuke !!!!!

Brit15

8 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Why not just state the dates when a model would run as represented by its appearance?

100% agree. 

Brit15

Tunnochbrae !!

Brit15

19 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Meanwhile, in China:

 

China opens 1813km heavy-haul railway

 

 

https://www.railjournal.com/freight/china-opens-1813km-heavy-haul-railway/

CHINA's 1813.5km Haoji Railway - a north-south heavy-haul coal line - was officially opened on September 28.

Just the job - did Greeta open it !!!!!!!

Brit15

Tri mode, battery power ?

What could possibly go wrong - This one was just an electric scooter battery fire.

Brit15

18 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Electricity is increasingly being generated by renewable sources (three  of which- wind, waves and tides Britain is well endowed with) and railways are far more adept at using it than any other form of transport.  

Real time generation by type. No waves and tides, some wind (variable), lots of gas etc (also variable).

https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/dashboard?&_k=cxuk68

The UK can't rely on Wind for rail use though. Nuke is part of baseload, currently at a constant 10 - 15 % or so. Were stuck with Gas as a variable base load generator for as long as I can see. Only one nuke plant being built. Many others are old and have closure dates, some are past their sell by date.

No wonder diesels thunder past my house alongside the electrified WCML !!

Brit15

I live next to an electrically powered line, the West Coast Main Line 4 miles north of Golborne (HS2 content !!).

Quite a lot of the long heavy freight trains are diesel powered (Daventry - Mossend so no excuse).

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:H31646/2023-11-06/detailed

Euston to Blackpool 10 car voyagers also. Electricity costs more than Diesel so I understand.

Serious question - What will the electricity demand / supply source be for the section being constructed ? And will it be GREEN ?

Bing Bong,  All HS2 trains are cancelled until the wind starts blowing !!!!

Brit15

Couple more photos.

Trix lighted signals.

Kitmaster Beyer Garrett (unpowered) and Hornby Pug in the scrapyard. 

Power Stations and "Coolies" courtesey of Google Images (Westwood power station Wigan)

Brit15

Perhaps my loft layout fits into the OP description.

I run everything, old, new, Lima (lots of it), Every make locos & stock, Peco code 100 track on foam ballast, Crescent, Hornby Dublo Trix (lighted) signals etc etc. Homemade, kit built, straight out of box, weathered (factory or self), Unweathered (most) All runs well.

The general theme is North Notts, GN / Midland -- LMS / LNER -- BR (E) & BR (M).

And yes, the old stuff will run for ever, the new stuff, like modern cars will electronically die in the not to distant future.

I think our hobby is getting far to techy" for me these days. 

Lots of fun the last 30 years !!

Brit15

4 minutes ago, Dagworth said:

Says someone who has no idea why rail staff strike

 

Andi

We Gas staffs NEVER went on strike, and on the very rare and short occasions that weekly paid workers went on strike we covered safety aspects (gas escapes mainly) without question, and without conflict with them.

I have NO TIME for the rail strikes, they are RUINING our rail system, doing the Governments dirty work for them in fact.

Shame on them all.

Brit15

On 02/11/2023 at 16:32, whart57 said:

I was told thirty years ago by my manager, who to be fair was merely passing a message from the Chief Exec down to the minions, that our job was not service to the customer but it was to increase shareholder value. If you want to know the reason why everything is so these days that's it in a sentence.

A subject in itself, industry dependant I think though a VERY prolific policy today.

In my 40 odd years in the Gas industry it was mostly the complete opposite. North Western Gas Board, British Gas both public and private (1986). The customer WAS king, and woe betide anyone who was the subject of a complaint to the Director. A Directors complaint had to be investigated and action, etc, reported to his secretary  the same day - however trivial.  Indeed EVERY complaint had to be investigated and acted upon accordingly immediatelly when received. It was part of my job to do so.

The split of British Gas into BG & Transco  and Contricka (sorry, Centrica who unfortunately kept the British Gas trademark !!) in 1996 was the start of the slow, but ever increasing, rot (as far as customer service went). The whole kit and caboodle started to go "Down the Grid" when National Grid took Transco over around 2002. 

Still, a wonderful place to work over the years, even back in 2002 National Grid (Gas) treated employees fairly, and pales into insignificance with the joke that is the Gas Industry today. I took VR in 2003 and worked a few years with a contractor, another world, though quite good customer service was still maintained.

I suppose the same is that of our Railways. Many on the ground do there best, some do not (Drivers striking etc) Management, all the way up is just, well, best not write that !!!!!! . I apologise to the (few) good ones left, there's bound to be a few, though a dying breed, and yes, alot is due to pathetic Government etc.

Service industries wither and die when the service they provide withers and dies. I see this in virtually EVERY sphere. Trouble is the transport and energy industries are vital to each and everyone. We have few alternatives, sometimes none.

Brit15

On 10/10/2023 at 02:57, david.hill64 said:

I was one of them. At the time - 20 years ago - my flights to and from Taiwan were mostly with EVA air. Pilots were inevitably western. China Air (the Taiwan national carrier) used ex military pilots and had a rather poor safety record. EVA management understood that they needed to instil a different culture in the cockpit crew and that would take time. These days most of the EVA flight crew are Taiwanese.

I flew EVA back in 1993/4 a few times, Gatwick to Bangkok. A new airline back then with new 747/400's. Very pleasant flights. One or two flights were on a 747 "Combi", half freight half passenger. To see the amount of freight containers being loaded at Gatwick was quite enlightening  !!!!

Brit15