The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I continued to overhaul various wagons.  this included the refitting of 3 link/instanter and screw couplings to various locos and wagons that had previously been fitted with Dinghams.  The creation of the magnetic shunting poles have made these very 'so yesterday'. 

 

A pal of mine a few years ago found a box full of 3 link and screw couplings already assembled and blackened going for peanuts at a swapmeet and immediately snapped them up, using them on quite a few locomotives and other stock. It wasn't until he recently acquired a magnetic shunting pole with high hopes for it making life easier that he discovered that many of them are made of brass. 🤥

 

Dave

[SM42]

7 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Make a new underframe?

 

Dave

 

I was hoping to start from a kit  I have rather than from scratch to save a lot of faffing about. 

 

I don't trust myself to get a scratch build square

 

A new V hanger at least is accepted as required. 

 

Maybe a 10 ft wheelbase version  will be a better option or  just cut 1mm out either side of the V hanger and hope no-one notices the wheelbase is actually 8' 6". 

 

Andy

[AndyID]

13 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

On a serious note, I think that because Switzerland abutted both German controlled France and Vichy controlled France. The POWs - having arrived from Nazi occupied Europe - transited through Vichy controlled France and thence to Spain and Gibraltar and then back to the UK.

 

I know little about the various escape routes through Vichy France, but a clandestine boat trip from a southern French port to the closest Spanish port might have been one way. Pickup by Lysander in rural Vichy France might have been another.

 

Courtesy of people like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Caskie

 

He was a friend of my mum and dad and I met him at The Scots Kirk Paris in the early 60's.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by AndyID
gramer

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[newbryford]

On 11/11/2023 at 20:23, Flying Fox 34F said:

Fifty Sheds of Grey!!!!!!

 

Paul

 

 I have the book....

 

With lines such as 

"Take me to your shed and hurt me"

So I bent her over the workbench and said "your ankles are fat"..................

 

[iL Dottore]

Reading accounts of struggles with 3 link and screw-link couplings (wot! No instanters?) and all the associated stress, I have but one question:

 

Why?

 

If Hornby or Triang tension-lock couplings were good enough for our Dads, they should be good enough for us?

 

And if you insist on having prototypical distances between rolling stock - go modern image - and a handful of kadee #17 will give you a reasonable Scharfenberg Coupling experience!

 

Sheesh, talk about first world problems....

[PhilJ W]

4 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Reading accounts of struggles with 3 link and screw-link couplings (wot! No instanters?) and all the associated stress, I have but one question:

 

Why?

 

If Hornby or Triang tension-lock couplings were good enough for our Dads, they should be good enough for us?

 

And if you insist on having prototypical distances between rolling stock - go modern image - and a handful of kadee #17 will give you a reasonable Scharfenberg Coupling experience!

 

Sheesh, talk about first world problems....

I'm going for magnetic couplings. With ageing eyesight and arthritic fingers even tension locks are difficult now. 

[SM42]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Reading accounts of struggles with 3 link and screw-link couplings (wot! No instanters?) and all the associated stress, I have but one question:

 

Why?

 

If Hornby or Triang tension-lock couplings were good enough for our Dads, they should be good enough for us?

 

And if you insist on having prototypical distances between rolling stock - go modern image - and a handful of kadee #17 will give you a reasonable Scharfenberg Coupling experience!

 

Sheesh, talk about first world problems....

 

I don't like the  tension lock in general as there is no standardisation 

All over the place. 

 

Happy to stick to another coupling  where any shunting is required, and indeed use the Bachmann style  tension lock ( still a bit of a mess but better than some) to attach a loco, to the train but kadees leave me unimpressed, especially the delayed action feature 

 

It's not about  the distance between stock, for that I'd use something better, not an over scale version.

 

I just think they look better on wagons  and can be used as a coupling as a bonus.  

 

For coaching stock I'm not going to be using 3 links. That way madness lies. 

 

As for what was good enough for dad, leaded petrol and coal fired heating were too but I ain't using them. 

 

Andy

[J. S. Bach]

On 11/11/2023 at 20:40, SM42 said:

How about some musicals

 

Seven sheds for seven brothers 

The phantom of the shed

Joseph and his amazing technicolour shed

Shedcago

Shed pacific

The shed of Mormon 

Paint your shed

Annie get your shed

 

Andy

 

 

You forgot what was/is the best of all the musicals/Broadway plays:

My Fair Shed

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

You forgot what was/is the best of all the musicals/Broadway plays:

My Fair Shed

 

I prefer "The Sound of Shed"....

 

[TheQ]

I notice there's also,

And

[Hroth]

I still prefer

 

 

Its much more practical!

 

[Happy Hippo]

42 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I still prefer

 

 

Its much more practical!

 

That looks a bit like New Bryford.

 

I think it must be the hat.

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

That looks a bit like New Bryford.

 

I think it must be the hat.

 

If you want to get ahead, get a hat!

 

It was a popular advertising slogan from the late 30s...

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Hroth

[jamie92208]

38 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

If you want to get ahead, get a hat!

 

And in my former profession the saying was, if you can't fight wear a big hat. 

 

Jamie

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

You forgot what was/is the best of all the musicals/Broadway plays:

My Fair Shed

 

Fiddler On The Shed?

[Dave Hunt]

I recently received a letter from the travel insurers changing the list of medical conditions that were deemed not to require screening before the policy was issued and a requirement to advise them of any visits to a hospital, either as an inpatient or out patient, since the last renewal. I rang to say that Jill had seen a heart consultant as a follow up to her fainting last February in order to rule out any heart issues and was cleared. This resulted in them wanting to raise the premium by £116 simply because she had a consultation, even though I told them repeatedly that there was no abnormality detected. The term thieving barstewards came to mind and I told them I'd think about it. Half an hour later I had the pleasure of ringing them back to tell them to stick their policy where it may act as a suppository as I had found someone who had a more realistic outlook on the matter.

 

Tw*ts

 

Dave 

[iL Dottore]

Mustn't forget the Enid Blyton classic: Shed of Adventure

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

If you want to get ahead, get a hat!

 

 

Wrong way round Old Bean. It's:

 

"If you want to get a hat, get a head."

[iL Dottore]

Nor should we forget W.E John's thrilling adventure of Biggles In The Shed!

[Dave Hunt]

In contrast to my previous post, I received two messages of appreciation today; one was from a model railway club thanking me for a talk I gave earlier this month and the other from our priest thanking me for reading the opening prayer and names of the fallen of the Parish at the Remembrance Sunday service. Eight of the fallen were Polish and it took me a fair amount of research and practice to get the pronunciation correct. 

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

8 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Nor should we forget W.E John's thrilling adventure of Biggles In The Shed!

 

I think I feature in that.

 

Dave

[J. S. Bach]

Just how did you land that F-4 in the shed?

[Hroth]

36 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Nor should we forget W.E John's thrilling adventure of Biggles In The Shed!

 

Was that the prequel to Biggles Flies Undone?

[Northmoor]

3 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Just how did you land that F-4 in the shed?

I'm going for vertically.  Dave had exited it with a great sense of urgency, very shortly beforehand.