uax6

I'm quite surprised by the fact that they had never heard 'Dial Tone' before. But thinking about it, mobiles don't have it do they? And I suppose that land lines are becoming very rare these days. Of course with a dial, they are no tones when you actually dial, just the clicks of the loop being interrupted, it's only MF4 telephones that send tones to line. I'm looking forward to the end of June, when I'm going to finally get a land line phone that will allow me to not pick up the handset when I dial: https://www.britishtelephones.com/lst1.htm And just in case you think I'm a looney, you can buy Loop-disconnect to MF4 convertors to allow your old dial phone to work with Voip (and on ordinary lines), but until I'm forced to, I'm happy waring out BT's System X local unit.... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224769422065?hash=item34554d32f1:g:piQAAOSwpZ5iTCFi&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0GyNIdnrrkFBhm%2FW9CVY5N0ciRra2tNI66Y0biYplsPTcTTsVhLI4J2uAJJFFQdyRWGSC7dfMS%2BTigGSa8yYTVhIfEGKqCoEocuw1Kq1NOoYDJ1c7UVSn9U%2BA8zXlkcjM8mUm2t6U8Iie%2FVsP6c8BbMKUxk2hJEScg3WlZCz%2FnyHWfEgODABjF%2B5mNW7pT%2BlgIXdwc7p5X1OUzKjGYYWNWsp53iePamqWU2mx39i%2FEALOLVY6nId5BGLFEA8mp01G9F0FBF%2BOui2CaPVBldk8tw%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8jiwK39YQ Andy G

Have you put a meter across it? The 1000 could be the resistance of the windings. I take it that you have done the usual cleaning of the commutator and the slots.. I agree with Nearholmers advice with the neo-mags. Andy G

Not required. Andy G

I'm not arguing.... I was taking it all in jest, like most of this site! Andy G

Ah it gets more tricky.... Most UAX (Thats Unit Automatic eXchanges) that served rural communities accessed its 'parent' (ie the large exchange in the big urban centre (but not always!)) via junctions on level 9 or 0. Level 9 was the route for calls to the parent automatic exchange (which could be different to the parent Manual exchange which you reached by dialling 0). So emergency calls from these exchanges HAD to start with a 9 (Some exceptions here again, early UAXen could only call the parent manual board (on 01) there being no way that they could dial over the junctions), so it made sense to have the emergency code standardised starting with 9. For routing purposes, there needed to be another digit dialling to get away from the main auto equipment, and into what was called the 'service levels' (ie bits and bobs that needed to be provided for the engineers to be able to maintain the network). It again made sense to use the same digit 9, as your finger was already in the hole, so it would be easy to follow the dial back round. Three 9's allowed a sensible use of the equipment, with engineering facilities (and things like TIM ) on the remaining numbers. Andy G

You are right about why 999 was chosen. in the exchange is it quite easy for an open wire circuit (ie bare copper wires on insulators) to swing in the wind and tap into each other, causing the exchange equipment to 'dial'. Also certain other line faults can cause equipment to be seized, and the digit 1 to be dialled. If the emergency number was on the same 'level' (ie started with 1), then there could be a serious degradation in the amount of equipment left to deal with the traffic, if there were a number of faults (likely to happen in storms or damage to wiring in fires etc), thereby reducing the effectiveness of the emergency service. Andy G (owner of the old equipment from 'Tongue End' exchange)

I wouldn't recommend putting your finger in an electric pie...... let alone eat it. Andy G

Because its sensible and proven? ;-) Andy G

Did you not see my post on the last page then? Andy G

Looks more like the modern e-clip rather than the original pandrol clip. Whats the fixing on the original peco concrete sleepers? Andy G

We Moggy owners that drive their Minors a lot (for me daily) have a very interesting, noticeable habit. There being no syncro on 1st, just before we pull away, we always drop into second and then straight up into first..... I do it in every car I drive, minor or not.... My daughter knows about dial telephones, we have them in daily use around the house ... Andy G

The easiest way would be to provide a single lever ground frame at the site, and a couple of lengths of rodding and some cranks. A pin sticking out of the bottom of a bracket on the gates engages in a slot on the rodding. The rodding goes back to the ground frame. When the yodels start, the attendant puts the lever back into the frame, shortening the rodding and pulling the gates shut at the same time. Simples. No third rail, so it should be a quick and easy solution.... Andy G

Do we know where any of this stock actually went, and if it still survives to this day? Andy G

Be careful here... The prints from this source are not known to be very dimensionally accurate... And the creator on having this pointed out to him, becomes very evasive and claims they are scratchbuilding aids. Sadly some have profiles that are way out and would be no use even for that! Andy G

Yes it certainly will be! But not impossible. I plucked up the courage to start a Jidenco (the earlier incarnation of Falcon) and taking it slowly I'm making a good fist of it, but you need to have experience of scratchbuilding to get the most out of them.. Andy G

They are all nicely built, but that HR Yankee is stunning. I hope my pair come out as nicely as that! Andy G

If its anything like most Falcons kits it probably won't shed much light on what to do! I'd suggest getting some good clear pictures of the real thing and then making to them.... Andy G

I'm a bit biased, but I do like the ruggedness of the Clan, but I think for pure beauty you can't beat a Strath in full LMS red: https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/locomotives-of-the-highland-railway-david-jones-strath-class.1068786/ Andy G

Agreed they all seem to have been made by someone with some skill, it would be lovely to see more of them... Andy G

One of the reasons that there has been an increase in signallers 'messing up' and running trains into line blockages is again the age old problem of the split between the engineering and operation side of the business. The engineering side was given various improvement notices to comply with, so what they did was the obvious: Stop red zone (that is working under look-out protection) working over night, and move the risk from the COSS to the signaller. What they didn't do was to consult with us on the operations side, as we would have pointed out that by removing red zone working will lead to a vast increase in Line Blocks, which will increase the risk of the siggy messing up, and therefore causing a death. We ended up being swamped with requests that we just couldn't give, but then you got pressure from managers to grant as many as you could, until you pointed out that there was actually a prescribed amount of blocks that could be given, worked out on our work load (and you can only grant them if the train service allows). There was a collective 'ohh'. Long sections are a real nightmare out in the sticks (we have one section of single line that is in effect one ten mile stretch, which even at 90mph take 8 mins to clear. We managed to get an exemption from the section having to be clear, but all other lines don't have this, and it can take ages for trains to clear if they are waiting for the road at the junction.... Not conducive to getting work done. Andy G

I fail to agree, the Clan and the Skye Bogie are by far the best locos in that collection of photos. Both come the Jidenco stable and are therefore little more than scratchbuilding aids. The maker has made a very good job of getting them together so well. I'm <still> building my Jidenco Jones tankie, I'm having a bit of rest from it to let the twitching calm down! Andy G

Humm, your local 'lads' said that they could over come the short coupling issue you said? The end of the drawbar of the quad art is a fork with a bolt through it. Do we know what the dimensions of the fork is? There is every chance that it was so designed to allow a normal screw-coupling to fit inside the fork, with the bolt dropping in to secure it (it might not be the locos screw coupling though, it might have been a short coupling designed for this sort of thing). * I wouldn't rule it out just yet Dave! Andy G Edit: * Did the brake vans of the quads carry two emergency couplings? One normal and one for fitting into the fork?

Of course not all searchlights could actually show three different aspects..... If used as a distant signal in semaphore areas (like the approach lit one at Littleport) the vane would carry yellow-red-yellow lenses. If used as a normal signal in non MAS areas the vane would carry green-red-green lenses. Why? Well being electro-magnetic, and working over just two wires, the aspect shown depended on which way round the control wires were terminated on the mechanism. With the positive connection on one side, the vane would move in one direction, with the same connection on the other side, the vane would swing the other way. Therefore for safety in a two aspect signal, only the two aspects to be shown would be provided, so if the wires were reversed it wouldn't matter. BUT the wires shouldn't be miss-connected, as they should go back in the same place as they came off, and the signal would be tested to prove it showed the correct aspect after mechanism exchange (Think about the issues that could arise on three aspect ones if this wasn't the case!). Heres some videos of the 'normal' three aspect DC Westinghouse mech from my signal. The operation of which just needed a voltage of 6v to make the vane move. I wired it to a normal controller and swung it by changing the direction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQiL-mcvQtk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Qf424IiGU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jEvnfGelG0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_89clrWEZuw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tie-TPqEEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aVlLdDbBIY Then of course you got AC operated mechanisms (these were provided in DC electrified areas to prevent interference). These had a permanent 110v AC on the mechanism (I used a normal 110v site transformer to provide this) and then you swing the vane with another low voltage AC supply, in this case I used the aux supply off a Hornby controller. Again reversing this lower voltage supply swung the vane over the other direction (you can see me changing the wires over in the reflection from the lens): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZP4UNGvrjM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMrCkOG8cLw Notice how you will get a flash of red as the signal steps up, perfectly normal with these beasts! Andy G

Neither seem to do the original style, only the later top feed sadly. Andy G

Real searchlights are electro-mechanical with a single lamp and a moving vane inside. Infact they have a highly sophisticated optical arrangement. A single lamp sits in a parabolic reflector (about 3" in diameter), that focuses the light into a beam that passes through the vane (the lenses in which are approx 1" in diameter) and then out to the 5" or so outer lens of the mechanism. The beam then passes through the outer 8" lens of the casing in a straight parallel beam. The modern LED heads with a single lens are single aperture heads, and not a searchlight in any way, as the optical arrangement is completely different. The last Searchlights were the SGE ones at Clacton. I'm luck enough to have a Westinghouse one in my garden (which I re-lamped today as it had gone out!) Andy G