Simon G

My first thought on reading this thread was whether your formations actually need multiple motors to run them?  If you are using the modern Hornby motor bogies, I have found that one of them will run my old Triang Blue Pullman 6 car set perfectly happily.  On occasions I run the set with power cars at each end using the original Triang motor bogies, but the motors do seem to fight against each other at times.  The single motor setup does give smoother running.  If I were you, I would try to disconnect 2 of the 4 motors in the 8 car set, noting that you will need to disconnect them both electrically and mechanically for the set to run OK.

Just back in from today’s constitutional.  There is a cold northerly wind today, so we wrapped up well.  The clouds gradually thickened up while we were out with a couple of spots of rain.  The rain then came on more heavily 2 minutes after we arrived home!

The morning was partly spent going through more baby things I unearthed from the loft.  Much to my surprise, I was allowed to put some of the items straight into the bin!

10 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

This sort of newspaper article bothers me, because it seems to be a simplistic summary of the science and written in such a way to scare the beJeesus out of people. And I also find that they play fast and loose with the data. For example, if you have a disease (let’s call it “iDeremia”) that infects 1000 people of whom 40 get sick, of whom15 get very ill and have to be hospitalised, and of those 15, three die, Newspapers are more likely to print the headline “iDeremia kills 20% of affected” than “iDeremia has an 0.3% mortality rate”. Both statements are true, however the first statement, as it is not placed in context (i.e. those patients dying are a subset of a subset of a subset), Is intentionally misleading and sensationalistic.

 

Many of the newspapers don’t care about the truth or the science behind it, as that does nothing for their circulation and profits!  Many years ago when I worked on air pollution from motor vehicles at the Transport and Road Research Lab, the Reading local paper got hold of some of our data and splashed a headline that Reading was more polluted than London.  They ignored the fact that the Reading sampling point was right on a main road in the centre of town, while the London sampling point was in a quietish side street 100 yards off the Cromwell Road, so comparison was meaningless.

This mornings rain appears to have abated, leaving it just cold and windy outside.  Nonetheless we will venture out for a walk at some point.  
 

During last nights power cut, we invented a new game entitled “count the number of visible lights on the Isle of Man”.  As it got slowly dark, it was surprising just how many lights on the island are visible on the mainland, considering that it is about 30 miles away.  Some were bright but momentary, presumably car headlights, while others were visible all the time.  There was even one bright red light right down at the south end of the island, possibly around the Castletown or Calf of Man area.  Perhaps NHN knows what it is?

Pressure washing completed, or at least as much as I want to do in a day.  There was enough water supply from the old oil tank, so no mains water used.  Since then, I have managed to pick a few beans, peas, beetroot and dug up a parsnip as apparently we need one for the dinner tonight.  As it is a nice afternoon, I will venture back outside shortly to apply some teak oil to our garden seat, which is in dire need of it.  I have already cleaned off all the accumulated detritus and lightly sanded it, so just the oil to be applied.

Our heating system is a gas boiler installed about 3 years ago, and it replaced a 40 year old oil boiler.  I now use the old oil tank for water storage in the summer for the garden.  When we moved into our house in the 1980s, it was a very cold place, so after one winter we had double glazing, cavity wall insulation and loft insulation fitted.  That made a huge improvement, so I was surprised more recently when the double glazing was replaced by the latest hi-tech glass with heat reflecting properties and argon filling in the gap.  That made another huge difference, and then when our leaky slate roof was replaced 2 years ago with a decent tiled roof, that made another significant improvement.  What that meant over the weekend was that one hour on the central heating in the morning would keep the house warm nearly all day, then another hour in the evening to maintain it.  Once it gets colder, the woodburner will be used in the living room from late afternoon onwards.

stiff shoulder from yesterday has thankfully eased a bit, so I am more mobile today, but still a bit stiff.  Various outside tasks have been completed, but I was rained off just after lunch.

Greetings all,

I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks, and for the last week or so have actually managed to escape West Cumbria for the first time since lockdown started in March.  We managed a week in a cottage in North Wales, and fantastic it was too.  The weather was generally fine, so we were out walking every day, sometimes in shorts and tee shirt, as it was warm enough on occasions.  On our few ventures into towns etc, it was clear why the CV-19 rates are climbing.  Llandudno was rammed with people and social distancing just wasn’t possible, so we avoided it and went for a long walk up and around the Great Orme.  While queuing at a bakery in Conwy, I was trying to maintain social distancing, but the woman behind me kept right up behind me until I just turned round and silently glared at her.  Even then it didn’t make any difference until her husband explained to her why I was giving her the evil eye.

On the positive side, we did manage to see a train, albeit a yellow Network Rail DMU, on the Conwy valley line to Blaenau Ffestiniog.  It was clearly some sort of test train, having come from Crewe and it also went to a Bangor and Llandudno.  During one of our walks, we had a good view of the newly reinforced track bed just south of LLanrwst, where the line was washed away last winter.  Apparently, passenger services will resume on Monday.

we returned home yesterday, via Kendal where I had a dental appointment to change the crown on my implant from being secured with adhesive to one secured by a screw.  The current one keeps coming off, and I am thoroughly fed up with it, so hopefully this will fix it for good.  I still need to go back to Kendal in a couple of weeks for the job to be finished.

Today is nice and bright, but cold outside, and we have already suffered a power cut this morning, but only for an hour or so.  It came back on while I was out getting a flu jab from the GP surgery.  I was surprised that they were doing them on a Saturday, but they had quite a ‘production line’ going, so I was only inside the surgery for 1 to 2 minutes.

Todays plan is now to do some grass cutting and then hopefully watch some European Cup rugby this afternoon.

Morning all,

After a single day’s respite from the last storm, Francis is with us.  It may not be as windy as it was over the weekend, but it sure is wet!  It has been a consistent downpour since I got up.  With yesterday being a nice calm sunny day, I decided to get a few outside jobs done, such as grass cutting and lifting some potatoes.  All these jobs were done Ok, but with the result that I overdid things rather, so I have a very stiff back this morning.  This is a regular occurrence for me and I know it will ease in a day or so.  Usually a decent walk helps it loosen up, but that isn’t likely for the next few hours!

Yesterday, I finished attaching legs to my layout, which is now sitting on its side, awaiting being lifted into position.  I am not sure if Mrs G will be able to help me do it, so it may have to wait for the weekend when no 1 son comes to stay for a few days.

Morning all (just!).  Blowing a hoolie here as you might expect.  I am looking out on a very angry looking Irish Sea today.  The heavy rain earlier has given way to a little sunshine.  My poor runner beans are now cocooned in some windbreak material, which is hopefully protecting them from the worst of the wind - time will tell.  Cooking apples have been blown off our tree, so I have used some of them this morning by making apple chutney.  It is currently “brewing” as I write this.  I haven’t made apple chutney before, so I hope it turns out well.

Another bad smell is my bucketful of nettle “soup”!  In order to get some liquid fertiliser, nettles can be put in a bucket of water and allowed to rot over a couple of weeks.  The result is very smelly indeed.  We are using it to feed the indoor tomatoes and cucumbers, which it seems to do very nicely, but does leave a very unpleasant odour in the porch where the plants are for a while.

3 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Another stinky location was the sewage farm at Naburn near York on the road from Sherburn in Elmet. When we were kids my grandad used to take us to York that way he used to fill his pipe up ready and light it at Stillingfleet the prior village so it would deaden the smell

 

One day we passed there was a car parked in the gateway's opposite having a picnic . It was unbelievable the smell would curl your sandwiches. The sewage farm is still there but doesnt smell as bad it is near the Macarthur Glen outlet to add a bit more context 

 

My daughter in law is a water treatment works manager with Anglian Water.  Her simple take on smells from the treatment works, aka sewage farms, is that if they smell at all, they are not functioning correctly.

A pleasant morning here so we were out shopping early.  I finally managed to buy some hair clippers in the local B&M store after weeks of trying online to get a particular type.  Unfortunately by the time we returned home, I had a headache which persisted for the rest of the morning and still hasn’t fully gone now.  Despite that, the grass has been cut, peas, beans and blackberries picked.  Given we are forecast yet another gale this week (we are overdue one as the last one must be at least 2/3 weeks ago!!), I have wrapped some windbreak round the runner beans to try to protect them.  They keep getting battered every time the gales come, and they keep surviving (just), but the forecast of three days of 40 to 60 mph winds could just finish them off, just as they are starting to crop.

Talking of bad smells reminds me of the old Cellophane factory at Bridgwater in Somerset.  While at school in Somerset, I was once in a game of rugby nearby that had to be abandoned as the smell was making all the players sick.  It was truly awful.