The Night Mail

[SM42]

Mrs SM42 has left The Towers for most of the day to co.plete a peasiatric first aid course. 

 

Having spent 3 evenings getting through the on line test, today is the practical. 

 

I have a list of stuff to do and at some point I might start on it. 

 

Painting is first with outside jobs to do while it dries, but looking at the gathering clouds, I'm not so sure much outside will be done. 

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

Re the wellies, wearing thereof. Not often as I prefer boots. The pair I have must be in excess of thirty years old and as to whom they were purchased from has long been forgotten in the mists of time.

 

Sounds appealing that Hippo and Crab  flying a Gotha over Shropshire. I think it would be quite difficult to shoot down as well, what with being constructed from balsa and string. Could it be that we need a crack squadron of trained pigeons to land on the wings so that hippo has to wing walk to shoo them away.

[jamie92208]

A tip run was undertaken. There was a traffic jam of cars and trailers. This is the consequence of going from 4 mornings and one afternoon opening to one morning and one afternoon. Most of the people appear to be incapable of reversing a trailer so a lot of handballing goes on.  I waited a while outside having turned round., then did a reccy on foot.  There was a clear route to a skip so I seized the moment, pulled forward and managed to reverse, with the trailer right to the far skip.  That was a result.  It used to take me 10 goes.

 

Then back home where the G word was being mentioned.  That has now been abandoned as Beth got several wasp stngs whilst brushing spider webs off the pool supports. I have offered coffee biscuits and sympathy so the G word has  been abandoned. 

 

Jamie

Edited June 24, 2023 by jamie92208

[BoD]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

A tip run was undertaken. There was a traffic jam of cars and trailers. This is the consequence of going from 4 mornings and one afternoon opening to one morning and one afternoon. Most of the people appear to be incapable of reversing a trailer so a lot of handballing goes on.  I waited a while outside having turned round., then did a reccy on foot.  There was a clear route to a skip so I seized the moment, pulled forward and managed to reverse, with the trailer right to the far skip.  That was a result.  It used to take me 10 goes.

 

Then back home where the G word was being mentioned.  That has now been abandoned as Beth got several wasp stngs whilst brushing spider webs off the pool supports. I have offered coffee biscuits and sympathy so the G word has  been abandoned. 

 

Jamie

I hit the supportive button mostly for Beth, not necessarily for you.

Edited June 24, 2023 by BoD

[BoD]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

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.

It looks likely that this will end up being tested in court.  According to commentaries the waivers signed by the passengers could be null and void if the owner is shown in court to have been reckless or negligent.
 

Those e-mails must go a long way to helping make a case.

[jamie92208]

30 minutes ago, BoD said:

I hit the supportive button mostly for Beth, not necessarily for you.

Where's the gee thanks sarcastic button.   I thought that I'd pulled off a cunning plan to get out of gardening duties.   Anyway we've just been up and finished the tidying up of the pool surround.  Beth spent much of the time watching wasps from a safe distance and I now have to come up with a plan to seal up some access routes.  More G word was mentioned but I did a quick swerve and suggested that as it is rather warm we should abandon such efforts and use the pool s intended this afternoon.  The stings appear to be subsiding well and my suggestion was approved.   That's a positive result.

 

Jamie

[Oldddudders]

The submersible tragedy does make one think. Not least that flying in the face of scientific theory/ experience is fine, and if as in this case you pay the ultimate price, then maybe that's better than surviving with egg on your face. You decide!

 

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!

[Dave Hunt]

The Gotha bomber idea does have a certain appeal but it’s maximum load would prohibit HH plus passengers so to make a profit it would have to be limited to me and the passengers. And in order to ensure the maximum numbers per trip it would pay to prioritise on slim, scantily clad young ladies. Hmmmmm........

 

Dave

[Hroth]

A Gotha is a bit unpatriotic, why not a Vimy or a HP Type O? Much more sensible and even suited to balsa and string construction....

 

You could even paint RAF roundels on their wings so no one would be tempted to take pot shots at you!

Edited June 24, 2023 by Hroth
another thort

[jamie92208]

46 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

The Gotha bomber idea does have a certain appeal but it’s maximum load would prohibit HH plus passengers so to make a profit it would have to be limited to me and the passengers. And in order to ensure the maximum numbers per trip it would pay to prioritise on slim, scantily clad young ladies. Hmmmmm........

 

Dave

I suspect that there might be some sabotage by Jill if you put that into practice. 

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

47 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

The Gotha bomber idea does have a certain appeal but it’s maximum load would prohibit HH plus passengers so to make a profit it would have to be limited to me and the passengers. And in order to ensure the maximum numbers per trip it would pay to prioritise on slim, scantily clad young ladies. Hmmmmm........

 

Dave

I'm happy with that arrangement.  You fly them, I'll ensure they have a full physical to make sure they are up to the minimum fitness requirements prior to them boarding, and treat them to afternoon teas(e) when they land.

 

You can do all the heroic pilot stuff.

[Happy Hippo]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

A Gotha is a bit unpatriotic, why not a Vimy or a HP Type O? Much more sensible and even suited to balsa and string construction....

 

You could even paint RAF roundels on their wings so no one would be tempted to take pot shots at you!

The Gotha will appeal to Goth chicks, whilst a Vimy will tend to attract the Mrs Mopp type of cleaning lady.

[iL Dottore]

Today’s weird and wonderful bit of Japanese railway “stuff”

 

One of Kyoto’s many connections to Osaka is via a private railway with a rather unique format: it has a centre double-deck carriage and next to it a “premium” carriage - with a single entrance (decorated in gold no less) and a liveried attendant (the ones I saw were all attractive young women)

The seating is in a 1-2 configuration (even the non-premium cars only have 2-2 seating - no longitudinal bench seats, here) and the premium seating looks very lush. Even regular carriages are incredibly comfortable.

Not quite the 07:55 from Surbiton, is it?

(for more info go here: https://www.keihan.co.jp/travel/en/trains/premium-car/about-the-premium-car/)

 

p.s. Japanese railways have been privatised since the late 80s. Perhaps DfT could send some Whitehall Mandarins to Japan to learn how to do privatised railways properly….

[Dave Hunt]

What are the fares like?

 

Dave

[Hroth]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

The Gotha will appeal to Goth chicks, whilst a Vimy will tend to attract the Mrs Mopp type of cleaning lady.

 

But will you appeal to the Goth chicks?

 

Just askin'....

 

[iL Dottore]

@Hroth, @Happy Hippo, @Dave Hunt, @jamie92208 you are all thinking far, far too small!

What you need to do is to build a replica Short Sandringham Mk5 (using modern materials, technology, and modern state of the art avionics) and then offer leisurely air cruises from a convenient lake in Telfordshire to exotic locations in the Mediterranean, or the Balearics.

 

A relatively small and exclusive passenger manifest (not more than 20 very well heeled passengers*) would allow for plenty of cake and other good food and drink to be kept on board and there would be plenty of pretty popsies to provide the passengers with superb Blue Riband, first class service.

 

And on the lower deck, there would be small but luxurious and well appointed cabins with a turndown service provided for when the passenger wishes to retire for the night.

 

* no shell suits, trainers, jeans or t-shirts. “Black tie” for dinner mandatory….

[Dave Hunt]

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

 

Dave

[iL Dottore]

15 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

What are the fares like?

 

Dave

I think that prices are pretty much the same no matter what line/company you use - at least on the basic fare. For the premium car on this line the supplement is either 400¥ or 500¥ (£2.20 -or £2.75) depending where you begin and end your journey

[Dave Hunt]

I think that the term 'very reasonable' applies there Flavio.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

Just off to Chesterfield to see two of our grandchildren perform in a play. Up to the minute intelligence shows that the theater is very hot, sticky and uncomfortable. Deep joy.

 

Two water bottles Dave

[Northmoor]

4 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.

 

 

I started my post-grad career computer modelling futuristic submarine hull forms in carbon fibre.  Didn't do it for too long as being sat in front of a 'puter screen for the rest of my life didn't appeal, but I learned a fair bit about Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) in that short time.  It was nearly 30 years ago, so I don't know how much the tech has moved on, but..... settle in, chaps.

 

Unlike metals, it is very hard to detect sub-surface defects in CFRP.  Any void where the weave has not exactly set aligned to the adjacent fibres, could be invisible, but it's the equivalent to having a sub-surface crack in a metal casting or fabrication, which acts as a stress raiser or in the case of a pressure vessel, the initiation source of a fatigue crack.  This is all baked in under pressure in the autoclave.

 

The direction that a metal plate or bar has been rolled aligns the grain which affects the strength.  This is even more critical with CFRP as the strength is all in the fibre direction (hence why they are weaved at an angle), but while as with metals the component is designed/sized to cope with the forces on it using known maximum stress/strain limits of the material and based on decades of experience, the factors of safety which are necessary to allow for defects/variability of the material, were unknown for CFRP.  I once attended a conference with a chap who was probably the MoD's chief advisor on novel materials and he was of the view that until the same thoroughly tested stress/strain tables became available for CFRP, there would be little confidence in actually building anything that we might look very impressive on a computer screen.

 

Compare with how the Land Speed Record teams have operated (and the Squadron Leader will see the obvious analogy with flight testing); they only go about 10-20mph faster each time to see what changes, what faults start to appear (and sometimes what disappears) and behaviours that the driver/pilot may be able to control and/or compensate for, or not.  It's taken them hundreds of runs and thousands of hours to get to Mach 1 and then beyond, but look at their safety record.  It sounds a bit like Titan's owners, rather than slowly testing, learning and evolving their new technology and innovative design over progressively greater depths over many years, went almost straight to some of the deepest dives possible without doing anywhere near enough of the boring, monotonous but completely necessary preliminary stages. 

[Tony_S]

38 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

without doing anywhere near enough of the boring, monotonous but completely necessary preliminary stages. 

 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. 

Edited June 24, 2023 by Tony_S

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I think that prices are pretty much the same no matter what line/company you use - at least on the basic fare. For the premium car on this line the supplement is either 400¥ or 500¥ (£2.20 -or £2.75) depending where you begin and end your journey

I didn't see THAT one but I saw some pretty strange trains during our trip to Japan for RWC. 

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

But will you appeal to the Goth chicks?

 

Just askin'....

 

I could do Goth, or Steampunk:

 

 

 

 

 

[SM42]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

p.s. Japanese railways have been privatised since the late 80s. Perhaps DfT could send some Whitehall Mandarins to Japan to learn how to do privatised railways properly….

 

I was in Japan in 97, mainly around Osaka, and was mightily impressed with the railways and how far ahead they were with the use of technology  compared to the UK 

 

It was also noticeable how many more staff they had, jobs that the UK railways had or were trying to cut out, abounded. 

 

The Kintetsu lines  seemed to have a signalbox at every station  and maintenance machinery parked up every few miles. 

The stations and platforms ax well ax hhd trains wete immaculate. Passenger information was clear, up to minute and the fate structure simple.

 

 

The odd thing is, reps from JR did visit the UK to see how we ran a railway. 

I'm sure they were very polite, but probably fell about laughing back at their hotel. 

 

Andy