The Night Mail

[Oldddudders]

Alison has a fairly serious John Deere tractor, about £6k, I think, as well as a secondhand mini-tractor that her ex bought. She also has a fearsome 3-wheeled brushcutter called a Pubert. Not sure which model but it's heavy and hard work! She does have 17 acres. 

 

My own ride-on is now 14 years old and still does pretty well, although for years the cutting deck has been inclined to slip down from level 4 to 3 - of 7 -  without asking. I am used to listening for the clonk and correcting as we go.

[MrWolf]

7 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

If you didn't start with wrists made from steel cable you soon got them. Plus you got shins covered in cuts.

 

Where's your sense of adventure? 😆

[Winslow Boy]

3 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

Where's your sense of adventure? 😆

Down the A & E if I remember correctly waiting for the nurse to finish applying the antiseptic to above shins.

[newbryford]

We used to have one of these on the golf course inventory.

Still needed a firm hand to keep it in the correct direction.

I'm sure I probably dispatched a few small mammals whilst using it.

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by newbryford

[Tony_S]

I was pleased one day that FiL asked me to start his Merry Tiller for him. I assumed I had been forgiven for the unfortunate peony plot pruning. After I started it he said it was because he had ruptured himself starting one of his garden machines and he didn’t want a repeat. Aditi’s Mum made him buy the lawn tractor with an electric starter. For the orchard they employed a local chap called Robert to cut the long grass.  He did gardening jobs but wasn’t really a gardener. Robert became more erratic as he aged and most people in the village dispensed with his services. MiL complained to FiL that Robert didn’t seem to do much while there. FiL said he didn’t mind. It was like something out of the Archers. 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I like it! 😁👍🏻

They even have the option of a dog box.

[Tony_S]

29 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Down the A & E if I remember correctly waiting for the nurse to finish applying the antiseptic to above shins.

My friend came off his motorcycle and had various gravel rashes and scrapes. Unfortunately for him it was just outside the hospital where his wife worked as an A&E nurse. She really didn’t like the him riding a motorbike. He was convinced she used a really stingy antiseptic. 

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

They even have the option of a dog box.

I had a Freelander specific dog box for driving Robbie about. It was possible to,get one with gun storage under the dog box floor too,  Though Robbie was often  still wet when returned to the car after some of his amphibious outings. 

[Happy Hippo]

I have to say that the Gatwick Express, although it did run to time, was not a patch on the Italian or Norwegian equivilents.

 

Prior to this the last rail trip we had was in Japan, which was comfortable, fast, definitely on time, immaculately clean, with loads of space for your luggage.

 

A three car DMU with only overhead luggage racks and seats like ironing boards, doesn't really cut the mustard.

 

We tail twirled going through Blackwater  and are now being punished for this by a 30 minute (at present) delay on our departure.

 

Bordeaux here we hope to come🤣

[Tony_S]

31 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Italian or Norwegian equivilents.

 

The only Norwegian train I have been on was to Flåm. That was rather interesting. Our local trains are Trenitalia and I have no complaints. Nether are airport trains though. I delivered Aditi’s uncle to Stansted last Saturday without difficulty. I did suggest on his return the week,after next it would be easier to get the Stansted Express to Tottenham Hale and either get a cab to Enfield or get  one of the Enfield family to collect him as he will be staying with them. I hope the Stansted Express isn’t too bad. 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Tony_S

[Flying Fox 34F]

2 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

That's an Allen scythe attachment. 

 

Another piece of murderous garden machinery I have rescued several of is the original motor scythe made by Allen of Oxford:

 

Here's one mowing its way to the earth's core, they could be a bit of a handful:

 

https://youtu.be/NQSgp_dg77Y?si=Fmb2Ij_hrQ1rsd-o

That’s only a little one.  This summer our neighbours used a larger version, with wheels that seemed to have once been on a Fordson tractor!!!  Big unwieldy thing, but did the job.

 

Paul

[J. S. Bach]

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 ...snip... I thought that one of the advantages of having a very large property in the US is being able to have really cool garden equipment, like mini John Deere Tractors with a mowing attachment (and a snowplough for winter). ...snip...

 

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

THIS is what I mean

I mean, how cool is that?

I had one of those, a Sears Craftsman for a couple of years; oddly, the only photo that I have of it is this one::

sitting outside waiting for Spring and back to work.

[MrWolf]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

My friend came off his motorcycle and had various gravel rashes and scrapes. Unfortunately for him it was just outside the hospital where his wife worked as an A&E nurse. She really didn’t like the him riding a motorbike. He was convinced she used a really stingy antiseptic. 

 

When the Memsahib first started going out on the back of my motorcycle, one of her university friends gave her a big grown up lecture about how dangerous riding motorcycles is. She pointed out to no avail that riding motorcycles isn't dangerous, crashing them is.

Bored with the monotonous circularity of the conversation, she said: "If I'm going to die young and senselessly, I want to do it with him, on that bike." 

It's probably the most romantic thing anyone has ever said of me and we'd only known each other a couple of weeks.

As for me, I'd rather go out with a bang than fade away in a cancer ward like my father.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[Canal Digger]

2 hours ago, newbryford said:

We used to have one of these on the golf course inventory.

Still needed a firm hand to keep it in the correct direction.

I'm sure I probably dispatched a few small mammals whilst using it.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by newbryford

If it was as noisey as the one that I have used on the towpath verges alongside the Wilts & Berks Canal, don't worry, there won't a small mammal within miles! Yes a handful to steer

[PupCam]

 

On 02/09/2023 at 21:40, pH said:

Georges Remi (Herge) may be real and dead, but Tintin is fictional.

 

Please don't say Snowy is fictional too!

 

On 04/09/2023 at 14:28, newbryford said:

New windows a few months back.

Now we've just signed up for a new central heating boiler (not that the old one has perished, but it is very old and inefficient)

And the reason that prompted the new boiler - a new bathroom.

 

That's many d*lt*cs worth of modelling tokens, but Mrs NB is a *mostly* happy bunny.

On 04/09/2023 at 19:28, newbryford said:

The guy quoting said current boilers have stainless steel heat exchangers which don't last as long ascthe cast iron one we currently have.  But they are more efficient and in this day of daft gas prices, that's what swayed our decision

 

What is the "Breakeven" point I wonder?    

Me thinks it is likely to be many, many years by which time I suspect the nice shiny new boiler will be approaching if not beyond End -of-Life.   Sorry.

 

On 04/09/2023 at 15:55, TheQ said:

New boilers maybe more efficient but they're nowhere near as reliable.. I wonder sometimes if we'd have been better off with our old boiler having spent over £1000 in repairs in ten years. ( We'd have spent more on a annual contract). Note we're not on mains gas.....

 

Quite where we go when it needs to be changed I don't know, the house isn't efficient enough for a heat pump...

 

Absolutely.

 

On 05/09/2023 at 17:44, Happy Hippo said:

I didn't  organise it.

 

Our neighbour who is a Chinese Liverpudlian sorted it out.

 

I think she hired a gang more used to resurfacing motorways with the amount and quality of the kit they turned up with.

 

Could they come round to Puppershire and dig up and resurface all of the roads here please?      I use the term roads in the loosest possible fashion.

 

22 hours ago, Hroth said:

I thought Hustler was one of those dodgy 70s top shelf mags...

 

(It's content would be classed as "tame" compared with that available on the internet nowadays!)

 

Do tell us more.    Being "vertically challanged"  I could never reach the top shelf in the '70s ......

 

5 hours ago, polybear said:

ISTR a story about Vincent Motorcycles looking at diversifying into various similar machinery, one of which had a rotary blade on the front (like a hover mower).  They invited various people along to a demo and by all accounts it worked rather well until the blade came off and went zingin' thru' the undergrowth, chopping everything in it's path - fortunately this didn't include any people.  I don't think much came of it after that.

Not sure if the story is true (or accurate) - perhaps @MrWolf knows?

 

I don't recall that particular diversification but they did have a go at engines for aerial target drones.  I don't believe they were entirely successful and I think the guidance system by ML (I think) was even worse.     Probably why Jindiviks, Banshees et al didn't have Vincent engines.

 

https://thekneeslider.com/vincent-picador-drone-engine/

 

They also diversified into mopeds as well.    In fact I was offered one only last week but I thought the price of almost half an RD (equivalent to ~25 Deltics) was way too high for something I have no interest in.

 

On the subject of sheds.  

 

I suspect the formula for the correct number of shed to have follows the form of the similar equation for the correct number of motorcycles to have namely:

 

        X = N + 1      where N is the number you currently have.      The numeric constant may change its value but must ALWAYS be non-zero and positive

 

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Please don't say Snowy is fictional too

Snowy has a different name in other languages, Milou in French. Just found out Snowy is Barfy in Farsi!

[SM42]

Ah the Merry Tiller. 

 

Such fun for a 12 year old SM42 manhandling one round the allotment. 

Driving it from the shed to the site of tilling with it bouncing along on the tiller blades, trying to hold it back so it dug the plot rather than go bouncing off into the sunset dragging you with it.

Bouncing and twisting it it to get it out of the hole it was trying to dig and all while breathing in that slightly hazy exhaust 

 

Wonderful times. 

 

Andy

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

I don't recall that particular diversification but they did have a go at engines for aerial target drones.  I don't believe they were entirely successful and I think the guidance system by ML (I think) was even worse.     Probably why Jindiviks, Banshees et al didn't have Vincent engines.

The Jindi doesn't but I can't remember if it's the Banshee or the next model (whose name I can't remember) that used a Norton rotary.  ISTR the current target drone on the marine ranges uses a Triumph triple.

 

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have to say that the Gatwick Express, although it did run to time, was not a patch on the Italian or Norwegian equivilents.

 

Prior to this the last rail trip we had was in Japan, which was comfortable, fast, definitely on time, immaculately clean, with loads of space for your luggage.

 

A three car DMU with only overhead luggage racks and seats like ironing boards, doesn't really cut the mustard.

 

We tail twirled going through Blackwater  and are now being punished for this by a 30 minute (at present) delay on our departure.

 

Bordeaux here we hope to come🤣

Of course that isn't actually the Gatwick Express but you knew that.  The North Downs line says much that is wrong about transport investment in the UK.  The Gatwick services are never more than 3-car and believe me that in the morning rush hour going into Reading, people are sometimes turned away at Wokingham (although usually a SWR service from Waterloo won't be far behind) while there are many thriving local traffics such as into Guildford and students to Farnborough Sixth Form College) one of the biggest in Southern England).  There should be a station adjacent to the University and Technology Park at Guildford, but there isn't.

 

The Class 769s were trialed but have now been abandoned which is a shame as the extra coach would be very useful.  Of course these Diesel/Electric hybrids were a bodge, because in any normal country, such a route would have been electrified long ago, thus removing diesel traction altogether.  But apparently, new 3rd rail is lethal and overhead wiring the gaps impossibly expensive........  Meanwhile the 30 year old DMUs will continue to struggle up the gradients and lose a battle with adhesion every autumn.

[AndyID]

Traded our Volvo XC70 for this about 15 years ago. (The Volvo was hardly ever used after I bought a pickup truck.) It's a TYM from Korea. 23HP 3 cylinder diesel. 2 or 4 wheel drive. Power steering. Automatic with forward and reverse two pedals control. High and low range.

 

The 3-point hitch takes all sorts of agricultural attachments. That's a three blade rotary finish mower. It's sitting on the sub-frame for the back hoe which slides into those hook things behind the tractor's front wheels and another at the rear.

 

I also have a 3-point snow-blower attachment but it was cheap and it's pretty useless. The snow tends to be a bit too wet at this altitude. For clearing snow I made a dozer blade for the front and a grader blade to attach to the 3-point. The grader blade swivels for directing snow to either side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by AndyID

[Doncaster Green]

9 hours ago, TheQ said:

Grandad had the use of a Ministry of Public Buildings and Works scythe mower of a fairly large size for mowing Ludgershall Castle. I wasn't allowed to play with it..

MoPBaW  is now called English Heritage / Historic Scotland/ Cadw and the equivalent on Fraggle rock is Manx National Heritage.

 

At the time an Uncle was a senior engineer with that organisation it was known within the family as the Ministry of Plunder,  Blunder and Wonder.

 

John

[PupCam]

7 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

The Jindi doesn't but I can't remember if it's the Banshee or the next model (whose name I can't remember) that used a Norton rotary.  ISTR the current target drone on the marine ranges uses a Triumph triple.

 

Latest versions of the Banshee have gas turbines(s).      It is an amazing bit of kit, developed originally by Target Technologies Ltd and evovled over many, many years from a relatively crude, hand-built "R/C plane" to a far more refined and competent production "aircraft".   A good friend was TTL's Banshee pilot for many years in the early days when they were flown remotely by R/C and some captured high magnification, WW2 German  binoculars!     He gave up when miniature programmable autopilots started to be used to fly them autonomously instead of remotely.    Of course, a good old Arduino and a handful of MEMS sensors can and have provided the basis for a very competent programmable minature autopilot since then 😀  

 

Target Technologies was started and run for many years by Rob  Davies who used to own the P51 Big Beautiful Doll.   The new owner of BBD had asked him to display it at one of the Duxford air displays.  I bumped into Rob at TTL the week before his unfortunate accident at Duxford in BBD when it was struck by a Skyraider that took a short cut.   Although he stayed with the aeroplane initially it was clear to him that it wasn't going to last and fortunately at minimum altitude he managed to get out and land safely if not totally devoid of injury.      Analysis revealed significant damage to the P51's lower rear fuselage - just where the control runs to the tail are located.    Anyway, thank heavens  he made it OK.     The wounded Skyraider with a shortened wing managed to complete the circuit and land safely.

 

 

[Northmoor]

All this talk of ride-on mowers prompts an observation of life's changing priorities.

 

In my childhood, we had a lot of caravan holidays.  Many Caravan Club sites had a ride-on mower with a trailer for the warden to go round collecting the bins as well as the mowers' main purpose.  At the time, I thought a job where I got to drive a small tractor seemed like a dream (and I grew up in rural Wales with tractors going back and forth every day) and I'm sure many little boys thought similar.  Who didn't want to drive a JCB when they were a kid?  Of course as we get older, you get encouraged to aspire to more, perhaps a "profession" and to improve your status.

 

I wonder how many men, after years of the 9 to 5, advancing as far as they can in their career and seeing others much younger catching them on the career ladder, dream again of driving a small tractor for a living as a preferable and much lower stress existence.

[Happy Hippo]

23 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Latest versions of the Banshee have gas turbines(s).      It is an amazing bit of kit, developed originally by Target Technologies Ltd and evovled over many, many years from a relatively crude, hand-built "R/C plane" to a far more refined and competent production "aircraft".   A good friend was TTL's Banshee pilot for many years in the early days when they were flown remotely by R/C and some captured high magnification, WW2 German  binoculars!     He gave up when miniature programmable autopilots started to be used to fly them autonomously instead of remotely.    Of course, a good old Arduino and a handful of MEMS sensors can and have provided the basis for a very competent programmable minature autopilot since then 😀  

 

Target Technologies was started and run for many years by Rob  Davies who used to own the P51 Big Beautiful Doll.   The new owner of BBD had asked him to display it at one of the Duxford air displays.  I bumped into Rob at TTL the week before his unfortunate accident at Duxford in BBD when it was struck by a Skyraider that took a short cut.   Although he stayed with the aeroplane initially it was clear to him that it wasn't going to last and fortunately at minimum altitude he managed to get out and land safely if not totally devoid of injury.      Analysis revealed significant damage to the P51's lower rear fuselage - just where the control runs to the tail are located.    Anyway, thank heavens  he made it OK.     The wounded Skyraider with a shortened wing managed to complete the circuit and land safely.

 

 

Apparently, from a video interview he did later, the pilot of the Skyraider  never spoke to him afterwards, not even to ask if he was ok or to apologise. 

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

Ah the Merry Tiller. 

 

Such fun for a 12 year old SM42 manhandling one round the allotment. 

Driving it from the shed to the site of tilling with it bouncing along on the tiller blades, trying to hold it back so it dug the plot rather than go bouncing off into the sunset dragging you with it.

Bouncing and twisting it it to get it out of the hole it was trying to dig and all while breathing in that slightly hazy exhaust 

 

Wonderful times. 

 

Andy

 

Misspent  youth obviously. It explains a lot.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Winslow Boy

[PupCam]

18 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I wonder how many men, after years of the 9 to 5, advancing as far as they can in their career and seeing others much younger catching them on the career ladder, dream again of driving a small tractor for a living as a preferable and much lower stress existence.

 

Funny enough I went to see one of my old bosses last week.   He's always fancied himself as a farmer type and when he retired a few years back he sort of put that into practice.  However even flogging off some of the Land Rover collection he couldn't stretch to a farm and had to content himself with a small holding funnily enough not that far away from a certain Mr Clarkson.    In his back garden we were shown a couple of John Deere mini tractors; a 3033(?) and I'm not certain now what the other one was, a Gaitor in one of the sheds (whoops, I mentioned sheds but I think I got away with it) and apparently he's got a bigger tractor stashed away on one of his fields.

 

I think it is safe to say that he isn't a fit or well man (he has never been fit in the 30+ years I've known him) and why you would ever want to take on such a physical and demanding activity particularly if you are not 100% fit and active as your retirement interest I don't know.    I suspect just to justify the toys!         Buxxer that for a game of soldiers is my view but each to their own.