Zero Gravitas

One of my past lives was working for a large direct-selling beauty company (clue: ding d*ng - although they haven’t used that slogan since 1972). It used to be quite disconcerting to go into the marketing department in February and March and find it full of samples of Christmas merchandise, as they finalised the plans for the coming Christmas... Edited to add: the asterisk in “d*ng” is an “o”. Apparently the forum software objects to doorbell sounds that may also be slang for a part of the body...

Ah, Crossleys. In one of my past lives I worked for Metal Box Engineering in Shipley, and Crossleys was where all the machine shop swarf and other scrap metal went. Except on one occasion, when there had been a big clear out in the factory, and it was subsequently discovered that £25,000 of bodymaker tooling destined for a customer’s order had apparently been consigned to the skip and taken away by Crossleys. Several of us then spent a long day down at Crossleys sifting through piles of scrap trying to find it... But we never did.

Apologies for keeping you all in suspense It happened about 10 years ago, when I was working in Richmond, Virginia. Each day on the way to and from the office we used to drive past The Virginia Aviation Museum, which had on static display outside an SR71. In fact, here’s a picture of the very aircraft: By B. Dube - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11178963 However, by the time we’d finished work, the museum was never open. So late one evening, we stopped by the museum, hopped over the waist-high fence and wandered across to look at the SR-71. Close-up, it is a very impressive piece of engineering. Interestingly, it’s almost velvety to the touch. Two facts I remember from the information boards around the plane are (1) The cockpit windscreen could reach a temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit during high-speed flight and (2) SR-71s leak fuel when cold as the thermal stresses placed on the plane during each flight made it impossible to seal the fuel tanks at ordinary temperatures and have them remain sealed in flight. After about 5 minutes, we heard a police siren approaching, and didn’t think too much of it, as something that happened quite a lot in Richmond. However, the police car appeared, drove up to the perimeter fence, and two policemen with guns drawn emerged, took aim at us and shouted “put your hands in the air and step away from the aircraft”… Which we promptly did. We were then bundled into the back of the police car, were relieved of our passports and other identification and questioned for about 20 minutes about who we were, what we were doing there, and why had we set off the motion sensors surrounding the SR-71… Once it was established that we were who we said we were, and that we were engineers interested in the SR-71, they let us go with a firm ticking off and an instruction to only visit the museum during opening hours in future. And that’s how I was suspected of stealing an SR-71 Blackbird.

As implausible as it may sound, I was once detained by the police in the USA on suspicion of attempting to steal an SR-71...

IIRC, the losses are proportional to (current squared)x(resistance), so as you say, the lower the current, the lower the losses. Which is why the HV National Grid Transmission pylons are at something like 250 kV, with a very small current. Edited for predictive text...

To me, they look about the right diameter, but they seem to protrude a bit far from the front of the loco - the housing might be a touch long. However, that’s probably the best representation of buffer grease I’ve seen. Edited: just noticed that Cravensdmufan had already commented. I should learn to read the whole thread.

Captain, oh my Captain - according to the website http://www.lmsreview.co.uk/ it’s a Cygnet publication... I know. I was shocked. Something emanating from Hagbourne Road with an associated website. These are indeed strange times in which we live. Edited to add link to website

All colours present and correct in my subs copy, which arrived this morning. And what an excellent issue it is - as seems to be the norm (excuse the pun) when Mr. Norman is the editor. It was bit disturbing to recognise some of the Pendon great and good as their Modelu figures in Small Suppliers; and I really must also remonstrate gently with Gordon Gravett when he says that Arun Quay is “terribly contrived and unprototypical” - very rarely have I seen modelling that captures the essence and atmosphere of a location so well, and just looks so right. There are probably only half a dozen layouts in my lifetime that have captured the sense of place so perfectly (and the Gravetts have been responsible for half of those). It is a masterpiece, and thank you for sharing it with us.

Well, the 12 copies of 102 that were in WHS Didcot had gone yesterday, but no sign of 103 yet. I can only presume it’s a last spectacular X-Factor style anticipatory building of tension prior to publication. Even by GWRJ standards it’s very impressive. It will be much missed.

"An Ending (Ascent)" by Brian Eno - although the direction of travel is probably both presumptuous and inaccurate. "One of These Days I'll Get an Early Night" by Camel - simply because I've always loved it. Already on a cd in a folder in my filing cabinet under "death" - containing instructions for my family about who they need to contact and for what purpose. Edited for predicted text errors (as usual).

That's pretty much my annual itinerary as well, with one addition - Wycrail at the beginning of November. Quality one day show, good venue, great cakes. Apologies if too far off-topic...

Thanks for the correction - I'd actually got the information from Ryanair crew about 10 years ago and I had no reason to disbelieve them, and it stuck with me. Mind you - a type rating from Ryanair costs 30,000 euros: https://pilot.cae.com/Programs/Ryanair.aspx?prog=6 ...

I agree with this for many reasons, not least being their "pay to fly" policy whereby newly-qualified pilots pay Ryanair to fly their planes as a way of building up flying hours.

The WMSGD (world's most stupid Great Dane) here at Gravitas Towers is very partial to an ice cube. She tends to take it away and suck it for a bit before she finally crunches it up. However, I have no idea why she enjoys them...

Right, this is what I have - the lamp bracket was on the bottom edge of the small drop-down end door, offset to the left as you look end-on - there's a photo with a semi-end view in Slinn & Clarke on page 58 - credited to Jim Russell. I don't think I'm allowed to show any part of the photograph here - but it sounds like the same arrangement as on the GUVs Here's a very poor sketch of the shape of the bracket from the drawing of the Siphon H in Slinn and Clarke: It's that shape so can be bolted to the lower frame of the drop-down door. Does that help at all?

0.1 mm is 4 thou or 0.004 inches. So full size would be 0.004 x 76 = 0.304 inches...

Oh god, I hate myself for allowing myself to get dragged into this... Below is a side view of a peckett standing on MRJ standing on a lampshade against the window in my spare room. There's more light coming through under the cab floor than under the boiler... So my position is that unless your entire layout is set at eye level on a embankment against a bright sky, this is unlikely to be too much of a problem. And the Barclay is lovely, and I've ordered one.

I'm working away at the moment, but when I get home at the end of the week I'll have a look in the HMRS Siphons book and see what I can find. Is that all right?

In their defence, I think it's because for the "mass market" publications, the subs issues are bagged and dispatched direct from the printers, and so get to the subscribers before the magazine gets to the shops. With MRJ, the subs copies go back to Cygnet for packing and despatch and so tend to get posted a bit later. I know what you mean - but then I decided that in the overall scheme of things I probably had bigger things to worry about, and it always comes as a pleasant surprise when it drops through the letter box. And, of course, things could be worse - you could be a GWRJ subscriber... To more important matters - and at the risk of making somebody grumpy - my subs copy arrived this morning, together with my renewal notice. So it is time to write literally the only cheque I write each year....

As displayed on my iPad:

Two things: I've used the Warhammer "Green Stuff" in a bottle for this sort of thing. It's "Green Stuff" in a brushable format and is good for thin cracks like this. (It's also good for the corners of wagons when kitbuilding). Get it from Games Workshop: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Liquid-Green-Stuff-2015 Secondly - your curly font is spectacularly difficult to read. I almost gave up and if your post had been much longer I probably would have. Of course, this may just be me. (Edited for predicted text - again...)

If you've read this thread from the beginning you'll never ever ever complain about an MRJ thread ever again...

My twenty-year long-haul allegiance with Virgin Atlantic is over. I'm talking to our travel people first thing on Monday morning!

It's obvious- put it towards an Eccles Cake when you visit Pendon tomorrow :-)

Does that mean at V2 and above you avoid skid marks?