Tankerman

This appears to be written from a particular political stance and contains a number of inaccuracies. I will restrict my comments to those made on the battle of Jutland as 19th and 20th century naval history is one of my interests. You are correct regarding the loss of the battlecruisers due to the lack of proper safety measures regarding the stowage of the shells and cordite. However this was mainly due to Admiral Beatty's sheer disinterest in the training of the men under his command and his belief that rate of fire was more important than accuracy. It is now known that he spent much of his time hunting, fishing and visiting his peers houses at weekends instead of taking his ships to sea to ensure that their crews were fully trained. The attitude of Admiral Jellicoe was the opposite of this as he ensured that every ship under his command was fully trained. I know this, not just from what has been written, but because one of my great uncles was a CPO on one of the Grand Fleet destroyers. Britain did not lose its command of the sea at the Battle of Jutland, in fact it secured it, because the German High Seas fleet retreated to their bases and only emerged to surrender at the end of WWI. As one US reporter said of the Battle of Jutland "The prisoners have assaulted their jailer, they have caused some injury, but they are still in jail." Britain was and is an island, in both WWI and WWII if we had lost command of the seas we would have had to capitulate and Germany would have been victorious.

The question is "How the h*ll am I going to build a railway to get over that?"

I think that's a container flat, if I remember correctly they are designed to carry weighty, irregularly shaped items which won't overhang the dimensions of the base. The item(s) are securely lashed to the strengthened base and covered with sheeting. The end stanchions are the same size as a standard container which allows it to be loaded into the guides on a container ship.

Hi Jim, Are the posts on the walkway in the second photo bollards for mooring the locos?

Happy Birthday Jim, keep up the good work with the cat rescue.

Some of this discussion reminds me of a saying of one of the older electricians, he had spent 22 years in the RN, including WWII and the rest in the dockyard, when I started my apprenticeship at 16 years old. "In theory, practice and theory are the same thing, in practice they are very different."

One of my fellow engineer surveyors was the same, although he had not had any accidents and his car was undamaged, he was wearing out the front tyres on his Astra in under 10,000 miles. The company arranged for a IAM instructor to ride with him to see if if was his driving or a fault with the car that was causing the tyre wear. On the allotted day his manager received a phone car from the IAM instructor who told him that within 15 minutes he had terminated the test, got out of the engineers car and hired a taxi get back to the surveyor's house where he collected his own car.

Tis Redruth my 'ansom, what else do 'ee expect?

The second photo n this set is not just of interest to the railway enthusiast. The vessel on the right is a C1-M-AV1 cargo ship, just over 200 of these were built in the USA between 1943 and 1945. They were quite rare in European waters, the only one I ever saw was the Egyptos of Hellenic Lines, who made their ownership easy to identify by painting their name on the ships hull, and this ship has their name on the hull. When this photo was taken she was already thirty years old and I believe that she and her two sister ships lasted until 1981.

Apologies for the delayed reply, as a later post says this isn't always an easy job, some of the carbon brush carriers seemed to be designed by people who thought that Leckys had three hands attached to arms with infinite flexibility. My experience of dc was marine rather than railway, but I would think that some of the larger locomotive generators and traction motors would be of a similar design.

That is quite likely as the brushes would still wear due to the rotation of the commutator and with no current flowing they would act like a very, very fine emery paper. The carbon dust would also be deposited in the slots between the commutator segments causing a short circuit between the commutator segments.

You ebben got worry about that my 'andsome, they up country people do actually ate um as fast as Ginsters mak um.

When will the Yanks learn that most of the rest of the world does not know of/speak their slang or perhaps realise that the good 'ole USA is not the centre of the World.

My elder son and his wife got two cats, now both deceased, from the local cat rescue about 20 years ago and named them Travis and Dorothy, our surname is Perkins.

Chris, Looking at the diagram in Miss Prism's post would the shunting move with the milk tank at the rear be as follows? Move ahead on the down line when the shunting arm is set to off until the milk tank clears the trailing crossover. Then when the points have been set for the crossing movement, reversing, with the single slip set as a diamond crossing, so that the milk tank is placed in the loop. After the milk tank is detached the auto set moves back on to the down line so that the single slip can be set to act as a crossover and then reverses onto the up line and moves forward until it clears the trailing point at the western end of the up platform. When that point is set for the siding it reverses into the loop, the milk tank is coupled and it moves forward again onto the up line, the loop point then being set for the milk siding and the milk tank placed in the siding. The auto set then moves forward to the up platform allowing the, probably very confused, passengers to board for the trip to North Road. As you say a very complicated shunting move.

On a miserable day of snow and cold I found this while deleting some old email files, it might raise a smile or two. THINGS TO PONDER - Can you cry under water? - How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered? - Why do you have to "put in your two cents worth", but it's only a "penny.for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going? - Why does a round pizza come in a square box? - What disease did cured ham actually have? - How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage? - Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up every two hours? - If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing? Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV? - Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground? - Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway. - Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural? - Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crispy black, which no human being will eat? Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane? - If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat? - Why do people point to their wrist when asking the time, but don't point to their crotch when asking where the bathroom is? - Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs! - If Wyle E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME rubbish, why didn't he just buy dinner? - If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from? - If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons? - Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune? - Why did you just try singing the two songs above? - Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a haemorrhoid when it's in your a**e? - Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride; he sticks his head out the window?

Just like the one I started driving at 14. Only just found your postings, really like the layout.

That's good as according to Jethro the train doesn't stop on Wednesdays. Being serious that means that mine should reach the wilds of Wokingham before the weekend.

I realise that now, although I've been a member here for quite a long time there's been a big gap where life got in the way and I'm still getting used to the banter. Rails holding your loco for you is a good example of how building up a regular relationship with a dealer can sometimes pay dividends. A question to which I'm sure you will know the answer, was there any noticeable difference between a 94XX and a 84XX? I've got a 94XX on order with my fellow Cornishmen down in Camborne which I'm going to renumber to 9434 and if there are any locos left over after the initial feeding frenzy I might be tempted by a second one which I'll renumber to 8421, which was also shedded at Truro.

Just had a look and I think you will find that the ones Captain Kernow is referring to are the brand new Bachmann 94XX models.

Hi Dave, I found it after a search. Time goes quicker as I age and I didn't realise it was so long ago, but it shows that the principle I commented on originally is factual. Helford Jetty Conflict has broken out in the village of Helford in Cornwall over a jetty that the fishermen wish to build to make landing their catch easier and more safely. The fishermen wish to build a jetty along the foreshore and a short access road to that they no longer have to struggle with driving along the shore in the cars. The jetty would be built out of local stone and would soon blend into the setting. Plans for the jetty and roadway were approved by Kerrier district council almost two years ago to the satisfaction of local conservation bodies. However A number of Helford property owners, mostly second home owners not from the area who formed the Helford Village Development Society Limited, brought the High Court case against Kerrier council. The limited company had argued on eight grounds that the council’s decision to grant planning permission was flawed and should be quashed. The judge rejected seven of these grounds, but allowed the other. This fight over the plans for a modern jetty and access road at Helford, near Helston, has been seen as a symbol of the conflict between wealthy second-home owners and locals trying to improve their prospects. The judgment is major blow to fishermen and a huge disappointment to their supporters. Chris Bean, a Helford fisherman who has been trying to get the jetty built for five years, was bitterly disappointed. However the council can withdraw the plans and re-summit them at a later date. For further information and some quotes on the conflict see : http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/news/HELFORD-RULING-AFFECTS/article-750238-detail/article.html

My post isn't in reference to this incident, which I didn't know about, and the creek wasn't Mylor creek. I've also realised that my origin post was a bit ambiguous, to clarify my post, the fishermen wanted the pontoon and the senior legal person who owned the house prevented them from having it.

It won't happen over here because the people moving in and/or buying second homes are those in charge at one level or another; middle or upper level civil servants local government officers, members of the legal profession or those who have enough money to buy the foregoing. A notable case in Cornwall a few years ago was when a senior member of the legal profession, who owns a large house overlooking a creek, which his family use very much as a second home, in which the local inshore fishermen wanted to install a floating pontoon to make landing their catch easier, got it refused.

Thanks Jason. Would she have been at Newton Abbott for repair/refurbishment? if so would she then changed to late crest? To answer the question posed under the first photo as to why there were so many heavy shunting engines at Truro, the answer is probably that they weren't used for shunting. It's a long time ago now but my memory isn't too bad for my age and I seem to remember that most of the shunting in Truro was done by at least one 57XX, one of which was 37(something). Again from memory the 84/94's were used for at least 50% of the Falmouth branch passenger and goods trains.