The Night Mail

[J. S. Bach]

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

 

 

 

 

3D printing is so lightweight. To fully appreciate myself, I had a bronze sculpture instead :

I want one!!

 

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by J. S. Bach
to finish a post.

[Winslow Boy]

I thought you were trying to keep the layout lightweight. If you put that on your going to need a stronger bridge and reinforced girders to support it.

[simontaylor484]

How about a safari park on a layout you could have a whole hippo family in a scale version muddy hollow 

[Winslow Boy]

9 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

How about a safari park on a layout you could have a whole hippo family in a scale version muddy hollow 

 

And an elephant just for diversity.

[Happy Hippo]

53 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

I want one!!

It's very useful, it doubles as a bottle opener!

[Dave Hunt]

47 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

It's very useful, it doubles as a bottle opener!

 

Just like its owner.

 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

2 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Just like its owner.

 

Dave

 

But does it drink the contents though.

[Dave Hunt]

This afternoon I decided that I was overdue for some me time so off I went to the shed. Before doing any modelling I decided to have a play with  check the operation of my layout. The first locomotive I tried behaved like a three legged drunken donkey, stuttering and stalling all over the place. Turdycurses. After much testing and observation it appeared definitely to be a short somewhere but where exactly? First suspects were the sanding pipes so I spent a while making sure they were clear of wheels and track but no good. Next suspicion fell on the guard irons but before I had a chance to examine further Jill and our friend who is staying with us returned from wherever women go in multiples and it was announced by the management that it was G&T time. And who am I to disagree? Hence the rogue locomotive is still in the naughty corner awaiting further examination and treatment with the either the tweezers or possibly the hammer. Ah, well, that'll teach me. Not sure what but it must teach me something.

 

Dave   

Edited July 7, 2022 by Dave Hunt

[newbryford]

13 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

But we do know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall and that's just in Blackburn, Lancashire.

 

Jamie

 

Being pedantic, Blackburn is no longer really part of Lancashire.

It is now the "Unitary Authority of Blackburn with Darwen", but hang onto the coattails of Lancs for "ceremonial" purposes - whatever that means.

 

BTW - there's at least two (pot)holes in Blackburn as my car insurance company have had the pleasure of inspecting!

[Happy Hippo]

Now this is a pothole!

 

[BR60103]

I was out of the house early this morning -- drinking coffee on the run at 8:00.  Reason was a forum at 10:00 in Stratford on King Richard III.  This featured two members of the Riccardian Society and one English professor.  It was also supposed to have the director of the play but he had been called out for something else.

 

 

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Now this is a pothole!

 

 

Speaking of which I hit a serious hole on the main state highway here driving the Fiat Spider and the front tire is losing pressure now. The sidewall is probably banjaxed. I'm going to go after the state for the cost of replacing the tire although it is quite unlikely they will actually cough up.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

….I'm going to go after the state for the cost of replacing the tire although it is quite unlikely they will actually cough up.

Good luck on that, Andy!

 

If there is anything that I have learnt from living in diverse countries around the world is that, no matter where you are, government – whether local, kanton/county/state or national/federal - will always make life easy for themselves.

 

As in: easy to take money off the populace and easy to refuse to give money back to the populous!
 

Terry Pratchett, amongst many different writers, has humorously observed that every government (no matter where and at what level) is running the sort of protection racket that would make a Mafia don hang his head in shame. As TP put it: what is taxation but demanding money with menaces?

 

[AndyID]

5 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Good luck on that, Andy!

 

If there is anything that I have learnt from living in diverse countries around the world is that, no matter where you are, government – whether local, kanton/county/state or national/federal - will always make life easy for themselves.

 

As in: easy to take money off the populace and easy to refuse to give money back to the populous!
 

Terry Pratchett, amongst many different writers, has humorously observed that every government (no matter where and at what level) is running the sort of protection racket that would make a Mafia don hang his head in shame. As TP put it: what is taxation but demanding money with menaces?

 

 

You're more than likely right but I think I've got a shot. They can't use the usual excuses about weather, and there was no warning posted at all. I'll also lay it on thick that I'm doing them a favor as they could find themselves on a "wrongful death" lawsuit if they don't get if sorted PDQ.

😀

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Being pedantic, Blackburn is no longer really part of Lancashire.

It is now the "Unitary Authority of Blackburn with Darwen", but hang onto the coattails of Lancs for "ceremonial" purposes - whatever that means.

 

BTW - there's at least two (pot)holes in Blackburn as my car insurance company have had the pleasure of inspecting!

I suspect that whem messers Lennon and McCartney wrote that line itvwas in Lancashire (1967).

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Good luck on that, Andy!

 

If there is anything that I have learnt from living in diverse countries around the world is that, no matter where you are, government – whether local, kanton/county/state or national/federal - will always make life easy for themselves.

 

As in: easy to take money off the populace and easy to refuse to give money back to the populous!
 

Terry Pratchett, amongst many different writers, has humorously observed that every government (no matter where and at what level) is running the sort of protection racket that would make a Mafia don hang his head in shame. As TP put it: what is taxation but demanding money with menaces?

 

I once saw a bumper sticker in the US, satying, ' Fight organised crine, disband the IRS.'

 

Jamie

 

[AndyID]

3 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I once saw a bumper sticker in the US, satying, ' Fight organised crine, disband the IRS.'

 

 Not an unusual sentiment 😀

 

Obviously the vehicle's owner had never lived in Europe (including the UK).  People do like to whine about tax here but it's really peanuts compared with many other places. When we sold our house in CA there was no tax due despite a half million gain.

[Oldddudders]

13 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 Not an unusual sentiment 😀

 

Obviously the vehicle's owner had never lived in Europe (including the UK).  People do like to whine about tax here but it's really peanuts compared with many other places. When we sold our house in CA there was no tax due despite a half million gain.

Was it Walthers who had a plastic kit of "IRS on fire"?

[Happy Hippo]

Although I have never generally objected to paying tax, I really hated paying the Royal Mail 'handling charge' which RM introduced once the inspection of parcels was contracted out to them from whatever branch of HMRC had dealt with it previously.

 

On a number of occasions the 'handling charge' got very close to the cost of the item being imported.  The final straw was a Leatherman multi tool sent as a gift.  The sender's mistake was to send it out from the mail room in his company offices rather than his local post office.

 

Despite pleading my case, the thieving scrotes this end were not having any of it, so I told them to send it back!

 

That showed them!

 

I hope they incurred a slight but educationally enlightening cost to their bloated system. 

 

The Leatherman?  That flew over as hand luggage about 3 weeks later🤣.

 

These days I use the likes of Banggood whose despatch via various warehouses around the globe means there are no import duties or inspection fees to pay. 

[Dave Hunt]

When we moved back to UK from Singapore I was charged a ridiculous amount of duty on a camera I'd bought just a few days short of twelve months earlier and had to pay up there and then. When we moved to Germany six months later I was entitled to claim back the duty, which I did. It was, however, like trying to remove a limpet from a rock with all sorts of form filling, copying documents etc. and took me something like six months to prise out the refund.

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

5 hours ago, BR60103 said:

Reason was a forum at 10:00 in Stratford on King Richard III. 

 

I was wondering why Great Eastern enthusiasts were interested in a Great Western locomotive. But then I read on...

[newbryford]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I suspect that whem messers Lennon and McCartney wrote that line itvwas in Lancashire (1967).

 

 

 

It was, as also was much of the northern side of Manchester.

 

Even now, there are residents of the likes of Oldham, Rochdale and Wigan that still use Lancashire on their addresses, even though it's been many, many years, (1974) since Greater Manchester was formed and swallowed them up.

Similarly for some of the towns now in Merseyside - e.g. Southport. 

[Winslow Boy]

2 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

It was, as also was much of the northern side of Manchester.

 

Even now, there are residents of the likes of Oldham, Rochdale and Wigan that still use Lancashire on their addresses, even though it's been many, many years, (1974) since Greater Manchester was formed and swallowed them up.

Similarly for some of the towns now in Merseyside - e.g. Southport. 

 

Arhm. Greater Manchester unitary authority r no longer exists. It was abolished some forty years ago along with all the other Greatest. There are the elected offices of mayors for Salford and Greater Manchester s but as an authority no. There are several cities such as Salford, Bolton, Oldham, Rochdale and I think Wigan.

[Dave Hunt]

Some friends of ours who lived in Oakham joined the protest that erupted when Rutland was subsumed into Leicestershire and as far as bureaucracy was concerned Rutland ceased to exist. Some years later they were successful and Rutland was restored as a county.

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Rutland was subsumed into Leicestershire

 

I understood that Rutland was always an anomaly, having been ripped from the Mercian Leicestershire to satisfy the ego of some Norman baron.

[Happy Hippo]

King Richard III: 6015.

 

Allegedly one of the faster Kings, recorded I believe, by OS Nock, at 112 mph.

 

Withdrawn in Sep 62 from Stafford Road shed in Wolverhampton, and the following year went to a final meet up with Gertie the gas axe at Cox and Danks's yard in Langley Green.

 

For those with an interest in loco disposals from the steam era, try here (But get a box of tissues first):

 

https://www.whathappenedtosteam.com/

 

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Happy Hippo
Addition of website details