The Night Mail

[jamie92208]

I don't know what's gone wrong but I've spent quite a lot of time working on the layout over the past 3 weeks.  Not only are many fences looking better but I have actually been running trains and fettling track at. Baseboard joints. 

 

Jamie

[polybear]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

I better do something quite good for our upcoming 51st 😄

 

His n' Hers Deltics?

[AndyID]

24 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

 

😄

[SM42]

I'm close to His and Her's locos. 

 

I've bought Mrs SM42 a Nurek. aka CD class 753 Goggles

 

"Ahh sweet man" was the response when she saw one. 

 

I think Ihave got a result on that one 😁

 

Such locos can be seen running local services in the motherland on hire to PKP  IC  so it can be justfied and not be a diversion into Czezh railway modelling. 

 

I wonder if I can call it a Christmas present?

 

Andy

Edited August 5, 2023 by SM42

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

And Doctors make bloody awful patients (don’t ask how I know that I’m in that particular category…)

 

Lorna has a nasty habit of knowing a lot more about a particular condition than the physician treating her but she is also quite diplomatic. She has a wealth of knowledge that she just takes for granted but if she does not know she will say so. Not sure what the UK is like now but in the US I think the emphasis is on academic learning initially. Lorna was thrown in at the deep end as a student nurse in the UK. What she was taught was immediately translated into actual cases in the wards shortly thereafter.

 

I'm not sure to what extent education combined with practical experience still survives in the US or in the UK but I believe it's a great way to learn and it allows students to understand what they really want to do. I have a feeling there is too much emphasis on purely academic learning and because of that many people could find themselves left by the wayside.

 

I could be one example. I was a terrible academic. It took me a very long time to get any sort of academic qualifications at all but as I was working in industry and going to "day release" by the time I did get some qualifications I knew more about the subjects than my teachers 🙂

 

After that I took off. By the time I decided to chuck it I was a VP of Engineering at an electronics company in California. When I started out I never imagined anything like that could possibly ever happen 😄

 

 

 

 

[polybear]

50 minutes ago, Barry O said:

We used to have deposit returns on pop bottles and certain other drinks bottles.. apparently that's too difficult to organise here.. yeh right! It does help to keep places tidy. Perhaps the food emporium should have a noncleaningupofwastebytheidiotsbuyingfromyoutax?

 

 

About the naughtiest we'd get up to when we woz cubs would be to try & "recover" some of the empties at the back of the Offy so we could return them again....rarely with any success.

 

Nowadays kids have progressed to demanding money with menaces, dealing, robbery....

[monkeysarefun]

10 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Last October we were on the Spanish coastal autostrada near Nerja and a car had caught fire on the hard shoulder, which had set the tinder dry undergrowth alongside the road alight and the fire had spread quite a way into the hills. There were water bombing helicopters dipping their buckets into the sea then crossing the road at fairly low level to fight the fire but no traffic restrictions at all - just a couple of bored looking policemen with their patrol car standing by the burning (but nearly burned out) car. One of them was even smoking a cigarette. I think that in the UK both carriageways would have been closed for miles around.

 

Dave

 

 

Here they dont shut the road in case someone wants to use it at the last minute, such as the car that tears past at the 1:16 mark - the luckiest guy alive perhaps

 

This was during the 2019 bushfires, and occurred about 100km from here. A point to note, all the Rural Fire Service guys pictured are volunteers, and by this time had probably spent weeks away from home, travelling all over the country to fight fires when this was taken, all for no pay. Many are of "more senior" years since they have the volunteering time, and have associated aches and pains, as evidenced by the limpy guy. Pretty gutsy facing up to what they do, at temperatures of 60 deg C plus at the fire front fighting fires that come at 100km/hr.   Makes me feel lame when I think 40 is too hot to go out and cut the grass etc!

 

 

 

[SM42]

The car has decided to throw up a fault light indicating all is not well with emissions control. 

 

It has gone away again but the cooling fan runs on when the engine is turned off and the temp gauge is still in the normal range. 

 

I suspect a dodgy sensor somewhere.

 

It is a  mystery that needs solving, but of course it's Saturday and nobody ever has car problems at the weekend. 

 

Rather like all the other shops, most are closed or close early today.

 

The day when people are more likely to have time to go shopping. 

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

I am just about to visit the doctors for an appointment.

 

I feel a bit of a fraud as all I need is a referral back to the orthopaedic department as the two horns I had removed earlier in the year from 'Stumpy' are growing back again.  They warned me this would probably happen again and possibly multiple times until all the nail fragments have been removed.

 

It is a pity I cannot ring them up directly and arrange for another 'trim'.

 

I suppose it is to stop hospital departments getting flooded with spurious calls from the mentally challenged.

[SM42]

6 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I am just about to visit the doctors for an appointment.

 

I feel a bit of a fraud as all I need is a referral back to the orthopaedic department as the two horns I had removed earlier in the year from 'Stumpy' are growing back again.  They warned me this would probably happen again and possibly multiple times until all the nail fragments have been removed.

 

It is a pity I cannot ring them up directly and arrange for another 'trim'.

 

I suppose it is to stop hospital departments getting flooded with spurious calls from the mentally challenged.

 

Ask them if they can take another half inch off 

 

That should cure it

 

Andy

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Here they dont shut the road in case someone wants to use it at the last minute, such as the car that tears past at the 1:16 mark - the luckiest guy alive perhaps

 

This was during the 2019 bushfires, and occurred about 100km from here. A point to note, all the Rural Fire Service guys pictured are volunteers, and by this time had probably spent weeks away from home, travelling all over the country to fight fires when this was taken, all for no pay. Many are of "more senior" years since they have the volunteering time, and have associated aches and pains, as evidenced by the limpy guy. Pretty gutsy facing up to what they do, at temperatures of 60 deg C plus at the fire front fighting fires that come at 100km/hr.   Makes me feel lame when I think 40 is too hot to go out and cut the grass etc!

 

 

 

That is eerily reminiscent of the Bradford Stadium fire in May 85 IIRC. That was a wooden stand built onto rising ground ignited by a discarded cigarette that landed in the debris under the flooring. Once it got up to the roof structure it spread the length of the stand in no time. According to a report I read this was because the heat was intense enough to drive gases out of the wood in front of the fire front which the ignited.   Tragically over 50 people died as their only exit was the turnstiles at the top rear which of course only functioned as entrances.  Most of my shift were working the match as overtime and a whole hospital ward was filled with the ones that got burned. 

 

Jamie

Edited August 5, 2023 by jamie92208

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

 

Ask them if they can take another half inch off 

 

That should cure it

 

Andy

I need a bit more than that to get my accidental injuries insurance policy to kick in.

[Northmoor]

43 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

That is eerily reminiscent of the Bradford Stadium fire in May 85 IIRC. That was a wooden stand built onto risi g ground ignited by a discarded cigarette that landed in the debris under the flooring. Once it got up to the roof structure it spread the length of the stand in no time. According to a report I read this was because the heat was intense enough to drive gases out of the wood in front of the fire front which the ignited.   Tragically over people died a their only exit was the turnstiles at the top rear which of course only functioned as entrances.  Most of my shift were working the match as overtime and a whole hospital ward was filled witthe ones that got burned. 

 

Jamie

My sympathy to anyone who was there that day.  I remember for at least ten years afterwards, the TV footage of the Bradford City stadium fire was used in fire safety training at work.  It showed more clearly than anything that the fire service could contrive, just how fast fire could spread and how intense it could become.  Within 60 seconds of the first flames being spotted, people were running onto the pitch with their clothes burning.

[Dave Hunt]

14 hours ago, br2975 said:

So the march past took place today, to mark the end of the Royal Air Force presence at RAF St. Athan.

 

 

The only time I visited St. Athan was in 1989 when I had a catastrophic engine failure in a Tornado F3 at low level in south Wales and had to divert there. That evening I was supposed to be at an LMS Society meeting in Bolton but by the time I got home it was too late to set off that night so 'phoned the chairman to tender my apologies and went along the next day, Apparently when the chairman had passed on my apologies and the reason for them to the meeting, David Jenkinson had said, "That's a weak excuse, couldn't he have landed at Manchester instead?"  

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

57 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

My sympathy to anyone who was there that day.  I remember for at least ten years afterwards, the TV footage of the Bradford City stadium fire was used in fire safety training at work.  It showed more clearly than anything that the fire service could contrive, just how fast fire could spread and how intense it could become.  Within 60 seconds of the first flames being spotted, people were running onto the pitch with their clothes burning.

I was lucky not to be there as I finished at 2pm.   I was watching TV at home and saw the whole thing and recognised many of the officers involved.  One of our neighbours was killed.  Going into work the next morning was a very strange experience.  Several of my former colleagues that I'm in touch with stilhave issues arising from that day.   One very interesting thing happened the following Sunday. Maggie and Dennis came to visit the incident room and met members of all the emergency services plus relatives of the dead and injured.  Apart from nearly being responsible for tipping  a tray of bacon butties over the Lord Mayor, the thing that stuck in my memory is how Maggie insisted on no press being present and how obviously moved she was. She also onlhad one flunky with her.  Dennis had obviously enjoyed RAF hospitality on the flight north. 

 

Jamie

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

My sympathy to anyone who was there that day.  I remember for at least ten years afterwards, the TV footage of the Bradford City stadium fire was used in fire safety training at work.  It showed more clearly than anything that the fire service could contrive, just how fast fire could spread and how intense it could become.  Within 60 seconds of the first flames being spotted, people were running onto the pitch with their clothes burning.

 

I can still clearly recall a Police Officer coming onto the pitch frantically patting his head because his hair was on fire. 

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

20 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I can still clearly recall a Police Officer coming onto the pitch frantically patting his head because his hair was on fire. 

 

 

 

Yes, can't remember His name but did know him. He was one of those in the ward at the hospital. I went up there one morning to visit one of my former Sergeants who had burns on his hands. I took him bunch of grapes.  Several years later his wife, then my Superintendent told me that he still talked about me visiting him. It's a good thing that he wasn't in for piles as they were white grapes not black Ones. 

 

Jamie

[J. S. Bach]

10 hours ago, AndyID said:

I'm posting this for no other reason than to wind-up Polybear 😆

 

 

Which isn't easy to do 🤣

 

I like this one even more:

[Happy Hippo]

What is it about getting side tracked?

 

I went into the garage tis morning with the firm intention of clearing my workbench so I could lay out some stuff for general scenic work, including some painting.

 

Somewhere between the brush being applied to dust the clear surface of the bench, and getting the paint out, I decided that some metal work needed cleaning off prior to getting it welded.

 

So the hour I should have spend putting various coloured washes onto walling was spent cleaning up the metal for the welding operation.

 

I only realised what I'd done, after I came in for lunch.

 

This afternoon I am going out into the garage to do some painting.

 

Oh! Perhaps I'd better do some foam cutting as well, for the wall cappings.

 

Or will I get a further side track?

[br2975]

8 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

What is it about getting side tracked?

 

.

  "Proudly" explaining to a visiting Hippo, the concept of the embryonic Efflew Valley branch..........being a 'full frontal' layout a la Don Rowland, with no hidden sidings !

.

Well, as the old adage states "pride comes before a fall" and operationally, it didn't work.

.

As a result, I've spent the last few days installing three double ended hidden storage loops, and two short stubs suitable for locos, or a short freight.

.

Now, I should be able to operate in a (sort of) timetabled manner.

 

[Happy Hippo]

Don't give up yet Brian, you just need to extend the man cave by about 50% in width.

 

Nyda is cleaning (jetwash) the drive today as on Monday our shared driveway is being re surfaced, so we need to get all the crap out of the block paving before the new stuff goes down next to it.

 

It is her project, apart from me having to set up the washer, providing all the operational and logistic support and supervising from the safety of the garage.

 

The wall painting continues between all this.

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

It is her project, apart from me having to set up the washer, providing all the operational and logistic support and supervising from the safety of the garage.

 

Ah, it's one of those, "It's OK, I can do this myself," followed a while later by, "Erm,.....can you just come and look at this for me?" jobs that end up with you doing it is it? 

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

11 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Ah, it's one of those, "It's OK, I can do this myself," followed a while later by, "Erm,.....can you just come and look at this for me?" jobs that end up with you doing it is it? 

 

Dave

No, not really.

 

I only wish that Nyda would get stuck into the scenic side of railway modelling for me as she is very arty in many respects, and would thoroughly enjoy weathering and making some of my models look less like toys out of a showroom.

 

She admits such, but has so many other things to do that figure painting would feature well down her list.

[jamie92208]

Beth has said that she wouldn't mind a go at painting figures but has shown no sign of wanting to make a start. 

 

Jamie

[rockershovel]

I commuted through Kings X for a  number of years and had I finished work a bit earlier, could well have been involved in the fire. I passed through London last week and still get a tingle passing through the old Rotunda... I especially remember it being re-opened to traffic far too early, stinking of smoke and with black marks clearly visible.