BR60103

1:60 is bigger than S scale (1:64) but less than any of the O scales. (43, 48, 50)

A note on the slide I posted. It's from a box that came with my father's stuff. There are slides of a lot of aircraft identified by air force. There are slides with one of the views shown plus the composite, and some with photographs. I passed it to one of my friends who was going to digitise it. After a couple of years I asked for it back. I think he was being a bit fussy and removing all the dust spots etc. So I only have images for about 72 of them. Some models have 4 slides; some have 6. I assume the slides were a teaching tool. The overall slide would be shown then the single views in random order. I donated the slides to the RCAF museum in Dunnville last summer, along with a booklet on recognition and some air force electrical books.

A speculation about toy train speeds. Assume you walk at 4 mph. If you walk beside an O gauge train at that speed, the train is going 200 scale mph. If you have to run to keep up ... If your OO train is going at that speed, the train is going at 304 scale mph. (metric conversion available on request)

My contribution to the aircraft photos for today.

The forecast was winter storm warning Friday evening, blizzard warning Saturday. Near 6:00 it started snowing. There's now a prediction for a bit of rain around midnight.

Political comment? I always thought that the privatisation process for BR was an anti-railway intention.

We were off the computer almost all day. Not sure why. Last night when I signed off, I had to do an update. It worked after that and SWMBO was on it this morning. Towards lunch, all I could get was the scenic picture. It sounded as if something was happening behind it. Various tries at turning it off didn't work. Finally I remembered the 3-finger salute* and which 3 fingers were involved. That seemed to get things moving. * ctrl-alt-del

Weather arrived today. We went to the mall for our walk (parked in the covered garage) then to the pharmacy for a cream for SWMBO. She's been having little spots or rashes on her body. The doctor feels it may be from plastics in her clothes -- especially sharp plastics. Snow changed in the afternoon to sleet then rain and maybe back to snow.

I have mostly OO and HO. I also have one train in HOnN which is just a display. I have some bits of OOO and N kept for sentimental reasons. And a TT3 Royal Scot. My wife has O (tinplate) with On30 and a big loop of G.

There was a debate on grammar at a US political convention some years ago. I think the gist of it was between Taxes which restrict business shall be rescinded. Taxes, which restrict business, shall be rescinded. restrictive vs non-restrictive clauses, which I don't remember from school.

There are two points in grammar that currently grate on me. One is in the "plink, plank, plunk" verbs where the pp is used as the past. With the current events in the Middle East, I keep reading "The ship sunk". Another is the disappearance of participles. A container with multiple DVDs in it is called a "box set" when it should be "boxed set" And a certain kitchen apparatus is being called a "fry pan".

I was asked to clean the top shelf in the laundry room cupboard today. It has some (former) liquid which had dripped from bottles on it. Hard part was taking all the containers out; the shelf lifted out easily. Cleaning it was little problem. Th gunk was some sort of soapy product and produced a very clean board when done. I touched a few bits up with model paint that happened to be on my workbench. Then I had the brilliant idea that it could be put back upside down. SWMBO vetoed my idea of putting a sheet of perspex on it -- no cutting that makes shards of plastic. I found some box lids that she's delighted with as they have rims. Today is the coldest day of winter so far. -7C.

There was a fire in a subway train in Toronto over the holiday. Source was an E-bike lithium battery. Fortunately, the fire happened at a station and everyone could evacuate. The train was a 6-unit articulated with no separating doors. The union is complaining as the trains are one-man operation and evacuation of the back part would have been tricky in the tunnel (fire was in the first car). No word on which train or extent of damage.

NMRA RP for axle length (HO) is 1.035". The couplers you asked about are called NMRA or X2f. Both names are inexact. They were developed by an NMRA committee in the 1950s, but never approved by the membership. The X is for experimental, 2f is a sequence. They were released into the world with no fees or licensing requirements. This meant that all the manufacturers jumped at the chance for a standard coupler. I heard that almost none of them match the original dimensions. The original springing method (integral plastic) was not always used. The Airfix version was noticeably larger and not compatible. The NMRA coupler can be made to work with Hornby Dublo couplers by trimming off the horn, but a lot of functionality is lost. The uncoupling ramps were an afterthought. Because of the sideways springing, wheels get forced against the rails and the oversized flanges pick at rail joints if the couplers are truck mounted.

There is a steam railroad that travels behind Mt Rushmore to give you that view.

Finally, a practical use for airyplanes.

For Donk: The Gentle Donkey a carol that was introduced to us at a small gathering we used to have. By David Ouchterloney, a well liked Canadian organist. (This is the best of 3 versions I found) We had a quiet day -- two walks outside. The tree I posted a picture of a few weeks ago that had been eaten by a beaver is still leaning on another tree and connected at the bottom. There's a story in my wife's family from many years ago. Before going to church, her mother had put the turkey in the oven and carefully banked the fire to cook it. When they returned, they found it was absolutely black. Dayle's father had looked at the fire in the stove and decided that it needed a good stirring up before they left. Worse, her (older) sister was having a boyfriend over for the meal.

We don't have any plans that I've been told about for Christmas. It's now 2 1/2 hours away. Today was quiet and all we managed was 2 walks and reading 2 newspapers. Plus listening to 9 Lessons and Carols, watching the Radio City Christmas show DVD. I have triple shelves all around under the train layout. Most of them have books, although one stretch has LPs and the sound system. And some have bits of railway non-reading matter on them. (all the space below the railway is concealed behind curtains.) Then there are loads of shelves in the next room and up on the main floor. Merry Christmas to all and to all a guid nicht.

As the solstice is due to happen* in less than half an hour, I need to find out what the celebration procedures are. * happen? when it just stands still?

I use (in OO) Woodland Scenics Accent Glue. This is a bit like rubber cement. It allows you to take the part off and re-mount it (for a while) so loco can be restored to original condition or re-assigned to a different class train.

On our old Ford Focus, when we needed a bulb replaced, the tech at the desk asked if we had cruise control. We hadn't. Hesaid that on his the cruise control box was mounted right behind where they had to work to replace the bulb. For my birthday SWMBO gave me a picture of a train with LED illumination. She was a bit disappointed when I couldn't identify it. A Germanic looking tank locomotive number 99 7241-5. The other problem is the battery box at the back has no cover and is too small for AA batteries but the AAA barely compress the spring and fall out if shaken the wrong way. I managed to put a bit of model railway supply in to hod them.

We did go to Stratford for the lights today. Starting mid afternoon, found that SWMBO didn't have her keys. Got farther the second attempt and her cell phone (with navigation app) couldn't be located. A long search and it finally turned up on the car floor in front of her seat, camouflaged in black. At one interchange I misjudged the lanes and found the one I wanted was full. Headed off the other way to turn at the first opportunity. There was the results of a collision at the top of the ramp, attended by assorted police cars and tow trucks. But I did manage the turn around. In Stratford, we found that the lights are on Thursday to Sunday. She bought a couple of books at the bookstore; it was open late while the coffee shops were closed by 4 or 5. No problems except heavy traffic on the way home.

I mostly use Woodland Scenics roadbed on my railway. My wife's line uses track with molded plastic roadbed -- Lionel O and Bachmann HO. I have 2 stations (Exeter St Dayle's and St Mary Ax) where the track goes down to the baseboard. The baseboard is Homasote and takes pins etc. quite easily.

Tomorrow (today in some parts of the RMWeb) I shall be 77. We expect to see a festival of lights in Stratford, if the weather behaves as forecast. Last week we had a parcel from wife's nephew. The postie rang the bell and handed it to me. We do not have door-to-door delivery. Today I had a book left on the front step.

I had a note Saturday from the book chain that the book I pre-ordered has had its release date changed from Dec 12 to Dec 26. I had a note yesterday that the book is shipping from their warehouse. The weather outside (as reported) has changed from sleet to partly cloudy in the last hour.