The Night Mail

[J. S. Bach]

When the Kitty Hawk pulled into Sasebo for a "show-the-flag" visit back in 1970, all I saw was one three-axle switcher! I did visit the local passenger station but for some reason did not venture out to the platforms. And none of the shipmates that I ran with wanted to go anywhere! 🤢 So I never got to Tokyo, or anywhere else for that matter.

 

EDIT: The same thing happened when the Hawk made the same kind of visit to Hong Kong. We did make the Victoria Peak incline and the trolleys along the water front, though. The disappointment was not going to the mainland and the train to the border with China; I seem to recall that there was a viewing platform to look into Red China.

Edited June 24, 2023 by J. S. Bach

[Happy Hippo]

I have been mainly bimbling today.

 

First I tried some proper logistics and tried to stow Pantmawr North into the back of the BMW.

 

It fits, providing it is stored in what would be referred to a freight terminal configuration, where only  Passenger services continue off scene at one end into a small 'hutch'.

 

Then I went a tidying, although that is a bit like Andy and his painting...It never stops!

 

Finally, the neo magnets I bought arrived this morning, and I have just finished a bit of bodgery* to create a magnetic shunting pole.

 

Nothing new in this, but  having tried it on a selection of wagons, 7mm scale three link coupling and uncoupling is now a breeze.

 

 

*  With such small bits to work with I really do need to get myself a proper collett chuck for the lathe. (I have one for the milling machine and it's brilliant.)

 

 

 

 

[SM42]

Despite had dark clouds over SM42 Towers, it has remained dry. 

 

I'm currently waiting paint to dry before the second coat goes on and have started on a job I have put off since last year. Namely, to cover the ugly looking gas pipe that was installed on the outside of the house when the boiler was upgraded. 

 

This I am doing using a length of left over  guttering from the construction of the east wing, which I will screw to battens attached to the wall either side of the pipe. 

 

Now just as Mrs SM42 returned home I found that I had run out of 2 inch no 8 screws for attaching the battens. 

 

The plan was to head out for supplies, but Mrs  SM42 declared she needed to go shopping,

 

To save locking up the house I drilled and plugged  the last 6 holes in preparation and planned to head out on her return

 

Fortunately as I was tidying up my tools  I heard a rattling in my pocket and found 6 screws that had obviously fallen out of the pack I was using earlier. 

 

I had six holes and six screws. Result. 

 

Somebody is obviously watching over me. 

 

Andy

Edited June 24, 2023 by SM42

[SM42]

The gas pipe is now covered. 

 

I  now melting slowly in a shady spot in the back garden considering my next move. 

 

Meanwhile Mrs SM42 has announced we are off to the pictures tonight. 

 

That second coat of paint might be going on around midnight it seems

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

When the Kitty Hawk pulled into Sasebo for a "show-the-flag" visit back in 1970

Hello Kitty!

 

And that is probably how it all started!

[AndyID]

10 hours ago, rockershovel said:

My darling daughter informs me that Hunter boots are going into receivership with debts in excess of £100m. How is it even possible to run up such a deficit, making welly boots? 

 

I assume that loading a company with debt while downgrading the product by cost-driven out-sourcing has an in-built limitation? 

 

I'd be curious to know what wellies are favoured by RMWebbers? I currently have a pair of Rockfall work wellies (these, or Buckboots equivalents are pretty much standard for onshore drilling), a pair of those bright yellow Dutch gas company ones (anti-static for working in gas plants) and some cheapies from Arco for gardening

...

 

I looked at my wellies recently and it seems they were made in Portugal. They are holding up very well. I've had them for yonks and it's more than likely I brought them from the UK more than forty years ago 😄

[SM42]

Mrs SM42 has just reminded me we are dog sitting this week. 

 

That's all I need , an exited Yorkie GT round the house. 

 

I wonder if j can use him for painting. 

Like a big fluffy paint pad. 

 

Andy

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I wonder if Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose is still airworthy in LA?

 

Dave

 

They moved it some years ago. It's here now:

 

https://www.evergreenmuseum.org/exhibit/the-spruce-goose/

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have been mulling over the Titan tragedy.

 

The hull was made of carbon fibre, a very strong materiel.  But when it does go, think posh expensive cars and the damage to their carbon fibre bodies when things go wrong, it fragments easily.

 

Carbon fibre is used to make lightweight dive tanks:  We also use them for PCP air rifle re-charging.

 

But.....!

 

A steel dive tank has certificate and then a 5 year life (bit like a loco boiler) after which it cannot, and will not be refilled by a commercial company, until the tank has been inspected and re-certified for a further 5 years.

 

A carbon fibre tank has no such regime.  It has a date of manufacture and it is good for 10 years.

 

There is no extension to that time limit, after which it has to be scrapped.  

 

One presumes that the industry safety standards for these tanks are worked out on an average charge/discharge cycle.  Some tanks will go to scrap closer to the end of their safe life, whilst others will be well under, but still have get axed. 

 

Of course, these rules are only good if the user abides by them.  If you have your own compressor, (capable of pumping in excess of 300 bar) then you can ignore the time limits if you feel brave (or stupid) enough. 

 

Had Titan exceeded what might be deemed a safe number of compressions/decompressions?

 

I appreciate there are other factors, such as the acrylic viewing  plate only being certified to a certain depth, but without any independent certification, it is hard to justify building what is in effect, a passenger carrying deep water submersible.

 

From what I've read in the Media it's been suggested that very little appropriate testing was done to determine just how much pressure Titan was capable of reliably - and repeatably withstanding, along with how many dive cycles; I would've expected numerous prototypes to have undergone thorough tests to simulate such a lifecycle (including perhaps numerous real-life unmanned dives (with periodic NDT carried out if practical) until failure.  Only then can a safe working life be determined.

Of course, all this would depend on the manufacturing process being repeatable......

 

4 hours ago, Tony_S said:

 My cousin’s husband told me about how they put components for motor vehicles (not anything exotic like mini subs) through testing. They had climate control test environments where they could simulate years of for instance desert daily temperature changes. They could also test for defects caused by extreme sunlight or cold.  His last task before retirement was to manage the move to a new site. It had to be done so as not to interfere with any test in progress. 

 

The Great Empire had facilities for such testing - altitude, rain, salt spray, sand, temperature, sunlight etc.  ISTR Aston Martin (or Jag?) used to rent the facilities; there was a similar setup in Bristol that was once used on a very hush-hush basis by a certain F1 Team - with only a handful of people aware and sworn to secrecy.  And then on the first day a team of blokes in Red Overalls and all speaking Italian walked into the Restaurant at lunchtime....

[Hroth]

Its all a bit like "No Highway"...

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Highway

 

 

[AndyID]

12 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have been mulling over the Titan tragedy.

 

The hull was made of carbon fibre, a very strong materiel.  But when it does go, think posh expensive cars and the damage to their carbon fibre bodies when things go wrong, it fragments easily.

 

Carbon fibre is used to make lightweight dive tanks:  We also use them for PCP air rifle re-charging.

 

But.....!

 

A steel dive tank has certificate and then a 5 year life (bit like a loco boiler) after which it cannot, and will not be refilled by a commercial company, until the tank has been inspected and re-certified for a further 5 years.

 

A carbon fibre tank has no such regime.  It has a date of manufacture and it is good for 10 years.

 

There is no extension to that time limit, after which it has to be scrapped.  

 

One presumes that the industry safety standards for these tanks are worked out on an average charge/discharge cycle.  Some tanks will go to scrap closer to the end of their safe life, whilst others will be well under, but still have get axed. 

 

Of course, these rules are only good if the user abides by them.  If you have your own compressor, (capable of pumping in excess of 300 bar) then you can ignore the time limits if you feel brave (or stupid) enough. 

 

Had Titan exceeded what might be deemed a safe number of compressions/decompressions?

 

I appreciate there are other factors, such as the acrylic viewing  plate only being certified to a certain depth, but without any independent certification, it is hard to justify building what is in effect, a passenger carrying deep water submersible.

 

After all if Dave Hunt and I built a full size Gotha bomber out of balsa and string, and started offering flights around Shropshire, I'm sure we could, but only if we first met the rather stringent insurance and aviation regulations.  Failure to do so would get the operation shut down pdq, with crown court proceedings following in due course.

 

 

 

Young Hippos might not be old enough to remember but the whole sad episode is reminiscent of the Comet disasters. We thought we understood the science but we didn't quite know enough of it. That caused many new procedures to be put in place but it sounds like many of them were not applied in this case.

 

The hull was being subjected to a pressure change of almost three tons per square inch (5878 PSI). Not sure how many cycles of that pressure change carbon fiber could sustain.

[AndyID]

8 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Its all a bit like "No Highway"...

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Highway

 

 

 

You beat me to it!

[PhilJ W]

A lot of Boeing 747's are parked up out of use when older ones are still in service. The reason, the fuselages contain carbon fibre and after a certain number of pressurised flights (known as rotations) they can no longer carry passengers, only freight (but there is a glut of freight aircraft). Some are used as water bombers as they fly so low as not needing pressurisation.

[PhilJ W]

I have a pair of boots that I purchased over forty years ago. That was when I lived in Burnham-on-Crouch and in the winter of 1982 the town was snowed in for a week. Fortunately a boat chandler was open in the town and I was able to obtain a pair of sailing boots, half a size to big so that they could accommodate some thick woollen socks. I very soon found that I could walk on any icy surface while wearing them. I've still got them somewhere (and the woollen socks).

[newbryford]

22 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I once broke wind whilst sitting in the back seat of a Hawk.

 

The pilot looked distinctly green and was staggering around for some time 

 

And that was before it took off......

[newbryford]

16 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

A neighbor has had various ops on his back  with limited or no success. He has just had some sort of electrodes installed that are supposed to block the pain when he presses a button on a thing like a garage door remote control. Don't know if it's working for him.

 

Mrs NB had something similar before childbirth .

Judging by the noise, I think it didn't work.

[newbryford]

14 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

 

I have owned a two pairs of Hunter's but with limited movement in my left ankle, I find it very difficult to put on a smug fitting pull on boot. 

 

There FIFY

[AndyID]

In 2023 this is really inexcusable.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/train-derails-yellowstone-river-prompting-165417989.html

 

 

[newbryford]

10 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

 

 

However, I regard it as particularly poor show when, prior to the event, you fleece your guests of $1m total among them - and then vaporise them, too. A James Bond villain would approve!

 

But the fatal flaw in that plan is that the man doing the "fleecing" was also vaporised

[pH]

10 minutes ago, AndyID said:

In 2023 this is really inexcusable.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/train-derails-yellowstone-river-prompting-165417989.html

 

 

Various reports don’t make it clear if the train derailed and took the bridge down, or if the bridge collapsed, taking the train down with it.

 

And it’s now been officially acknowledged that the sequence of events isn’t yet clear:

 

“Columbus Fire Chief Rich Cowger said authorities don't know what caused the incident yet and they are unsure if the Montana Rail Link train derailed first or if the bridge collapsed first. Those scenarios are part of the investigation.”

[AndyID]

1 minute ago, pH said:

Various reports don’t make it clear if the train derailed and took the bridge down, or if the bridge collapsed, taking the train down with it.

 

And it’s now been officially acknowledged that the sequence of events isn’t yet clear:

 

“Columbus Fire Chief Rich Cowger said authorities don't know what caused the incident yet and they are unsure if the Montana Rail Link train derailed first or if the bridge collapsed first. Those scenarios are part of the investigation.”

 

Either way there is no excuse for it in this day and age. Somebody was cutting corners in the interest of $$$. Let the finger-pointing begin.

[newbryford]

iD invokes memories of a brilliant holiday that included a few days in and around Japan.

Various pics from Tokyo, a trip to Hokane, Aomari, Muroran and Kushiro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hroth]

7 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Either way there is no excuse for it in this day and age. Somebody was cutting corners in the interest of $$$. Let the finger-pointing begin.

 

Eventually, tthe investigation will find it expedient to blame it on driver error...

 

Edited June 25, 2023 by Hroth
Where did the extra "t" come from? :-)

[AndyID]

20 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

the man doing the "fleecing" was also vaporised

 

Incinerated is more likely. An almost instantaneous 400:1 compression ratio is quite extreme. The media has tended to stay away from that, probably out of respect for the families, but if the pressure vessel suddenly imploded that's the most likely consequence.

[Hroth]

11 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Incinerated is more likely. An almost instantaneous 400:1 compression ratio is quite extreme. The media has tended to stay away from that, probably out of respect for the families, but if the pressure vessel suddenly imploded that's the most likely consequence.

 

Its just as likely that the majority of the meeja haven't cottoned onto that yet.  Whatever it was, there must have been a brief frisson of panic aboard the submersible before the end, but no one on board would have registered the actual implosion.

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by Hroth
miner spelin errrrror....