Simon G

The control panel and a separate panels of switches is now all complete, and everything works as it should, which is nice.  By using diodes, I can set the three way point correctly when setting the points for any of the 4 yard roads on the right on the layout.  Likewise the track feed to the double slip is controlled by the points on the outer track leading into the yard, ie the double slip is powered by the inner controller most of the time, except when the road is set for a train to enter or leave the yard to/from the outer loop.  I am pleased with how it works.

I am less pleased with some of my track work.  Most of my locos can go round both loops OK, but some have problems.  In particular, I have 2 Bachmann class 37s, and both struggle to get round the curves.  My Bachmann 44 and 57 have no such problems!  On careful checking, the curve radius isn’t consistent all way round on one quadrant which is where the main problem is.  I think I will have to try and lift the track and make the curve radius consistent.  As the track is held in place with PVA, a little warm water will allow me to lift as much or as little as I need, as Peter suggests.

Peter, I was lucky to retire at 60 and 6 months, so have just reached state pension age, not the big 70!

Morning all,

The early morning rain has given way to a breezy cloudy day.  We will probably venture out soon for today's constitutional.  It will be shorter than yesterdays 6 miles I expect.

This afternoon I plan to do some checks on the alignment of the track on my layout, as there are a couple of areas which some locos dont seem to like.  I am also adding some extra lead weight to some small Hornby locos to improve their traction.

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Good morning all, first off, Happy Birthday Simon. I hop that you have a lovelly view of those glorious fells today in my native county.

 

We got quite a bit done yesterday. A nice walk round the fields to start with. Beth is starting to feel the benefits of CPAP, then after coffee, a couple of hours demolishing parts of the bathroom. That hasn't revealed any nasties yet and the first few floor tiles came up easily. The afternoon was gardening time and the jungle is now startibg to look neater.  Fish and chips for tea and an episode of the Queens Gambit on netflix.  Today it's off to the Dr's forvprescriptions this morning then to the garage to part with muddling tokens for repairs to the front brakes on the Volvo.  

 

Mis Q was definitely rather nice and I also appreciated Ms Kendal and Ms Rice. I would like to add to the list, Sonja Kristina from Curved Air and off course a certain Agnetha, though Annafried had the better voice.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

 

Sadly no view of the fells from our house, as we look out to sea, with a small hill behind us.  This morning's planned walk has been postponed as we currently have rain, which wasnt forecast by the BBC.  Annoyingly it looks quite nice about 2 miles out at sea!

I have recently listened to some Curved Air, after it came up as some random music on my Echo Dot recently.  I dont think I had listened to them since my school days.  They produced the first coloured vinyl LP that I ever saw, as all the others were still black on those days.

Thanks for all my birthday greetings!

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

My car has stop start and if the battery is low you do get a visible and audible warning of low battery. The warning is something like “battery low, start engine”. I hadn’t been doing my weekly start recently after being in hospital and did get the warning. A 30 minute engine run has meant the battery doesn’t now generate a warning. The original battery in my car failed when it was about 2 years old producing only a couple of volts. It was replaced under warranty by Land Rover. I don’t know whether your car is similar but because mine has stop start the instructions about jump starting are very specific about not connecting the negative lead to the battery. Of course the bolt you are supposed to use isn’t fitted in my car as it isn’t the Diesel engine in the illustration. I just found one that looked similar that looked earthy!

My car also has a stop start, and when the battery packed up last year, the new one was about twice the price of a normal battery.  Any savings I had managed from the use of the stop start facility were more than wiped out by the extra cost of the battery.  I don’t see stop start as being worth having now.

I have duly paid for my gluttony last night when I ate the reduced chocolate eclairs, tea cake etc.  Today turned out to be a nice calm sunny day, so we went out for a walk this morning, which by the time we had finished also included part of the afternoon.  Three and a half hours in total, so probably at least 10 miles, taking the back roads up to St Bees lighthouse, and then back by a slightly different route.  I am now rather weary!

The later part of the afternoon has been spent closing an account with National Savings and Investments after their interest rate on the account was slashed from 1.15% to 0.01% in one go.  Once the money is cleared into our bank account, we will find a new savings account.  It certainly pays to keep a close eye on these things.

Morning all

Lovely sunny day here but cold.  I have spent an hour outside cutting and splitting some logs, and when I came in my hands were freezing, although the rest of me was warm from the work.  Later I plan some gardening and then a walk, so as to make use of the rare nice day.

As NHN says, it is bracing in these parts today.  For the third morning in a row, we were woken up by the rain hammering on the windows.  We have actually managed a walk out this afternoon, so we wrapped up in full waterproofs, so of course it didn’t really rain on us while we were out.  It has made up for it since though!

This morning saw my three monthly visit to Sister Drac in advance of my next meeting with consultant.  The woman I got is normally pretty brutal with a needle, but today was quite miraculous as I hardly felt a thing.  I did have to wait over 20 minutes past my appointment time in the waiting room, which was filling up quite quickly at the time, but social distancing was being observed.  In fact, for about 25 minutes, not one person was called from the waiting room, so I can only guess that all the staff were having a mid morning coffee break or similar.

Morning all, it has been very wet and windy overnight, and while the rain has given way to brightness, it is still very windy.  Half an hour was spent outside this morning, and that was enough!

There is great relief in our lane this morning, as a small puppy has been found after he went missing on Friday evening after apparently being frightened by fireworks.  A lot of time and effort was spent yesterday with people looking for him, and the owners even got someone with a drone to search.  The news has just come through on our WhatsApp group that he is home safely, but no mention yet of where he was found.

I was into every sport I could possibly try at school, but mostly rugby and cricket.  My size helped at rugby and I was quite good at it, but nowhere near as good as no 2 son who played for Cumbria at Under 16 level.  Our best coach was actually the chemistry teacher, who was also Welsh and very much into “total rugby “, so we were coached in a most innovative way which helped us beat sides from many schools with a much larger pool of players to choose from.  Despite not having large forwards, I recall that we were never pushed backwards in a scrum and were invariably fitter than most sides.  Cricket coaching was nonexistent, so my abilities as an opening bowler were only developed after I left school.  All I did at school was to try to hurl the ball down as fast as possible, with no thought as to variation, swing and seam etc.

2 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

I would be tempted to say "Well, what'd you expect?"

Believe me, it is very tempting!

Morning all,

Absolutely foul here so far today with incessant wind and rain, although the rain is showing some signs of abating.  Like others on here, I shall be watching rugby for a good part of the afternoon/evening.

The morning has been spent balancing the books from the MRC account in advance of a possible Zoom AGM next month.  Books are now balanced, but a narrative is required to go with them to help explain what has been a turbulent year financially as well as in other ways!

Morning all,

Yesterday's lawn mowing took rather longer than planned, as my venerable lawn mower decided to fall to bits half way through!  A couple of bolts had worked loose, then came out, so the fuel tank/airfilter/carburettor assembly almost fell off.  The bolts werent located despite a good search, so other bolts were found to secure the assembly back again, and the job was finished.  As the metal deck is also rusted through is a couple of places, I think that a new mower is called for.  The old one has done pretty well as I reckon it is over 30 years old.

Calm cold and dull here so far today.  Despite this, some outside tasks may be attempted.

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

And this morning, from several sources:

• How to clear earwax.

If you Google the earwax method removal technique in the adverts (as I did!), you will steer well clear!

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

I'll swear that most domestic kit is designed by a bunch of inbred twats whose primary mission is "to make it nigh on impossible to take this thing to bits, and if you do so there'll be so many broken plastic clips the thing will never go back together again properly, and will need to be held together with superglue and/or insulating tape".  And that's assuming you have a set of bits to suit the vast array of security screws now in use.  My last fix involved such screws - "no problem", says I....until I realised that the screws were so deeply recessed the holder for the security screw bit was too fat to fit down the recess.  B'stards.  The designers still failed though, as Bear did get in quite happily as it turned out - but it took practically my entire toolbox to do it.

My bread maker is like that.  After many years service, the drive belt failed, so I called the manufacturers (Morphy Richards), who could only offer to sell me a new machine, and when I didnt want that, they tried to sell me a bread cook book for my non-working machine!  A spare belt was procured online, then I tried to fit it.  Taking the machine apart was just about impossible, and as the belt drive system was underneath and protected by a plastic surround, I just took a small grinder to the plastic.  Old belt duly removed and new one fitted.  As the belt is underneath and hidden from view, I now just run it without the plastic surround in place.

Early start this morning, so we had completed the Morrisons and Aldi Grand Prix by 8.30, so it was home for a late breakfast.  Since then, the lawn egdes have been strimmed in advance of hopefully the last lawnmower cut of the year.

19 hours ago, southern42 said:

 

 

...By bus...

Uxbridge service to Hayes Railway Arms  (replaced by The Tumbler in the Swingin' '60s) on the 204

Hayes Railway Arms to Heathrow on the 140.

 

 

https://www.londonbuses.co.uk/_routes/current/140.html

https://www.londonbuses.co.uk/_routes/withdrawn/204-1.html

 

 

Station area of Hayes almost unrecognisable now surrounded by all those high rise buildings.

 

 

Mention of the 204 bus takes me back a bit.  It’s route took at past the Brunel University campus, so I used it frequently in the mid 1970s.  Another bus from Uxbridge towards central London was the 207, which was known locally as the banana bus, as you waited ages for one, then they came in bunches!

Nice sunny day here today, so an afternoon walk has been completed.  I was almost too warm in my coat.

I contacted Electricity North West today about the complaint I raised on Sunday following our latest power cut.  They had closed my complaint without either resolving the issues I raised, or telling me.  I was not pleased!  It has now supposedly been reopened and escalated to the next level.  Others in the lane have raised complaints as well, so hopefully they actually do something to improve our supply long term.