The Night Mail

[Steamport Southport]

The problem with board games is you need people to play them with. Computer games you don't. I could play that Railroad Tycoon for days.

 

Another downside of games like chess is you also need someone who is about your equal otherwise it can get very one sided. Always let the Wookie win!

 

 

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

True.

 

 

Could I be forgiven for suggesting that the front driver is about to derail? 😀

[rockershovel]

8 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Now, there is a term with multiple meanings!

IIRC the late George Orwell remarked that the secret of a good reputation fir food was sharp knives 

[Hroth]

Its night so I'll post these here.

 

I went to Birkenhead Woodside this evening to watch the fireworks and the cruise liner leaving the landing stage.

 

Cruise ship "Queen Anne"* with fireworks beyond the bow.  I was upset that they weren't launching white rockets off the ship**...

 

 

Some fireworks

 

 

They're rubbish pics, I should have taken a proper camera with me!

 

* In John Wyndhams "The Kraken Wakes" an ocean liner called the "Queen Anne" is sunk with all hands by a Kraken.

**  The Titanic, a White Star liner launched white rockets as distress signals, which were allegedly ignored by the SS Californian. The White Star and Cunard lines merged.  Queen Anne is a Cunard cruise ship....

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[AndyID]

6 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Could I be forgiven for suggesting that the front driver is about to derail? 😀

 

I know it's considered bad-form to quote your own posts but in this case I'm going to make an exception 😆

 

Why do model railway locomotives and rolling-stock have tapered wheel treads? There are good reasons for using them on full-scale trains but they only create problems on small models (7mm and smaller.)

[AndyID]

20 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear has just received a reply to my enquiry to the rather good Bakers (supposedly - though their scoff is admittedly yummy):

 

"Our bread process is based around the Chorleywood Bread Process. 

 

However, we do not use high speed mixers (Tweedy) so cannot be classed as the Chorleywood Process

 

A No Time Dough

 

Our standard tin breads are produced using improvers and dough relaxers.

 

These are mixed on fixed spiral mixers for 3 minutes (slow speed) and 8 minutes (fast speed), typically.

 

Once mixed, dough is put through a mechanical divider and scaled at the required weight.

 

Dough is then feed into an intermediate prover that allows the dough to rest for 15 minutes prior to going through a final moulder.

 

Once off the moulder dough is placed in the desired tin and into a prover.

 

After around 45 minutes in the prover tins are placed in the oven to be baked. This would be for around 35 minutes @ 245°C depending on the type of loaf being produced.

 

Total production time from start to finish is around 2 hours approx."

 

 

They conveniently dodged the question about ingredients.......

 

The "U" term in UPF is deliberately designed to create an emotional reaction. Humans have been processing food and adding preservatives since the beginning of civilization. The question then is when is it really "ultra" or just simply "processed food", and who should decide?

[polybear]

35 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

I know it's considered bad-form to quote your own posts but in this case I'm going to make an exception 😆

 

Why do model railway locomotives and rolling-stock have tapered wheel treads? There are good reasons for using them on full-scale trains but they only create problems on small models (7mm and smaller.)

 

Keyboard Warriors ripping shreds out of the Manufacturers if they did?

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I know it's considered bad-form to quote your own posts but in this case I'm going to make an exception 😆

 

Why do model railway locomotives and rolling-stock have tapered wheel treads? There are good reasons for using them on full-scale trains but they only create problems on small models (7mm and smaller.)

They would perform better in the smaller scales if the railheads both had the 1:20 inward inclination (Although I suspect that the mass of the vehicle in question would also have a say in it's success.

 

Even in 16 mm scale. the late Jack Wheldon built all his locos (and very successful they were too) with  a parallel tread to the wheels, with a very small radius into the flange.  I believe the flanges were not tapered either apart from a rounding off of the inner and outer faces at the edge.

[Happy Hippo]

We have a pre planned power outage today from 0900-1700 max (shades of rural France).

 

I can foresee a lot of manual labouring in the garden taking place as any domestic cleaning tasks involving powered appliances will be a non starter.

 

If the weather turns nasty, I can sort through some old boxes of 'stuff' in the workshop.

 

NHN knows what sort of stuff miraculously appears from such a foray.

[iL Dottore]

22 hours ago, polybear said:

"Our bread process is based around the Chorleywood Bread Process. 

 

However, we do not use high speed mixers (Tweedy) so cannot be classed as the Chorleywood Process

Hmm. A dissembling statement!
 

Changing one piece of machinery used in the Chorleywood process may technically result in that process being no longer considered the Chorleywood process, but to all intents and purposes it still remains the Chorleywood process.

 

To me that’s akin to painting a GWR Pannier MR red and then claiming that the pannier isn’t a GWR LOCO.

 

As we say in the medical biz “if it looks like a duck, looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it probably IS a duck and not a goose”.

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

The "U" term in UPF is deliberately designed to create an emotional reaction. Humans have been processing food and adding preservatives since the beginning of civilization. The question then is when is it really "ultra" or just simply "processed food", and who should decide?

Don’t agree, at all.

Ultra, in ultra processed food, refers to all those additional chemicals - unknown outside of a chemical factory.
 

Processed food - which includes cooked and preserved - is not the same as UPF.  There’s a big difference between preserving food with natural materials: oil, sugar, salt (and brines), vinegar and spices and using the chemical concoctions all too frequently used in factory processed food.

 

What is often overlooked is that a lot of the chemicals utilised in industrial food processing are used to compensate for cheaper ingredients used (e.g. substituting the much much cheaper hydrogenated plant oil margarine for butter in a recipe then adding “butter flavouring” to compensate)

[Hroth]

It just clicked that we're on page 1944, which coincides with the D-Day 80 commemorations.  Spooky.

 

[bbishop]

30 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Hmm. A dissembling statement!
 

Changing one piece of machinery used in the Chorleywood process may technically result in that process being no longer considered the Chorleywood process, but to all intents and purposes it still remains the Chorleywood process.

 

To me that’s akin to painting a GWR Pannier MR red and then claiming that the pannier isn’t a GWR LOCO.

 

As we say in the medical biz “if it looks like a duck, looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it probably IS a duck and not a goose”.

Isn't that what London Transport did?  Didn't make a silk purse out of a sow.

[Winslow Boy]

I can see both sides of the 'arguement/discussion' about UPF's, but and it is a big but I have is that everything is made from chemicals. It's a bit like saying that water is bad because it's H2O- can't get a small 2 so you'll just have to imagine it. One of reasons people are 'fearful' of chemicals is because they have very little knowledge of them and what they do. Is that a poor reflection on people's education/knowledge - yes but it has been ever thus. If you were to ask someone from the early nineteen century why salt was included in bread, they could probably tell you it was needed to make better bread but not what it did to do that.

[Dave Hunt]

17 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

I can see both sides of the 'arguement/discussion' about UPF's, but and it is a big but I have is that everything is made from chemicals.

The Doctor did address that point:

 

35 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Ultra, in ultra processed food, refers to all those additional chemicals - unknown outside of a chemical factory.
 

Processed food - which includes cooked and preserved - is not the same as UPF.  There’s a big difference between preserving food with natural materials: oil, sugar, salt (and brines), vinegar and spices and using the chemical concoctions all too frequently used in factory processed food.

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

For once I have a day in prospect that I don’t think will make much demand on my time apart from a couple of very minor tasks. Therefore I intend to indulge in several hours modelmaking. I nearly wrote modelling but then had a mental image of a post from HH wanting to know which fashion house I would be working for.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

Dave modelling  'Old Crusty' flying gear....

 

[Compound2632]

17 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Dave modelling  'Old Crusty' flying gear....

 

I've met Dave. All I will say, and I hope he will forgive me for doing so, is that that must be quite an old picture - he doesn't have the curly hair now. Maybe ten or a dozen years ago?

Edited June 4 by Compound2632

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I've met Dave. All I will say, and I hope he will forgive me for doing so, is that that must be quite an old picture - he doesn't have the curly hair now. Maybe ten or a dozen years ago?

You mean the flowing locks and the body a military pti can only dream about is a complete sham?

[Happy Hippo]

My cunning plan to get into the garage during the power cut and do some gratuitous railway modelling has hit a slight snag.

 

Yesterday I put a pile of heavy kit against the side access door.  This morning rhe power is out so I cannot open the electric roller doors.

 

This means I cannot access my battery operated tools.

 

Looks like I'm reduced to shovelling gravel and other general labouring duties, which only require brute force and ignorance. 

[Hroth]

44 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Dave modelling  'Old Crusty' flying gear....

 

 

I expect Dave is glad that he's never looked so fly....

 

Also, the musculature is entirely in the wrong place, there should be a very pronounced keel-like breast bone, anchoring some rather hefty flight muscles.

Artists? Pah!

 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Hmm. A dissembling statement!
 

Changing one piece of machinery used in the Chorleywood process may technically result in that process being no longer considered the Chorleywood process, but to all intents and purposes it still remains the Chorleywood process.

 

To me that’s akin to painting a GWR Pannier MR red and then claiming that the pannier isn’t a GWR LOCO.

 

As we say in the medical biz “if it looks like a duck, looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it probably IS a duck and not a goose”.

 

And from what Bear (and quite possibly Puppers @PupCam too) would regard as a "Traditional Bakers" as well (their prices for a loaf of bread would certainly suggest it).  It just shows what a minefield choosing "good" food is.

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Don’t agree, at all.

Ultra, in ultra processed food, refers to all those additional chemicals - unknown outside of a chemical factory.
 

Processed food - which includes cooked and preserved - is not the same as UPF.  There’s a big difference between preserving food with natural materials: oil, sugar, salt (and brines), vinegar and spices and using the chemical concoctions all too frequently used in factory processed food.

 

What is often overlooked is that a lot of the chemicals utilised in industrial food processing are used to compensate for cheaper ingredients used (e.g. substituting the much much cheaper hydrogenated plant oil margarine for butter in a recipe then adding “butter flavouring” to compensate)

 

The problem is that, for the average shopper you either need to be very clued up on such things or be prepared to stand there and read every ingredients label and understand what it all means.

Or cook it all yourself - which for many either just isn't an option (work, kids, family life etc.) or you simply hate the idea or spending the time & effort.

 

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

I can see both sides of the 'arguement/discussion' about UPF's, but and it is a big but I have is that everything is made from chemicals. It's a bit like saying that water is bad because it's H2O- can't get a small 2 so you'll just have to imagine it. 

 

Even tap water has chemicals in - namely Flouride.

 

33 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

My cunning plan to get into the garage during the power cut and do some gratuitous railway modelling has hit a slight snag.

 

Yesterday I put a pile of heavy kit against the side access door.  This morning rhe power is out so I cannot open the electric roller doors.

 

This means I cannot access my battery operated tools.

 

Looks like I'm reduced to shovelling gravel and other general labouring duties, which only require brute force and ignorance. 

 

This is where you discover the shovel is in the garage....

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

They would perform better in the smaller scales if the railheads both had the 1:20 inward inclination (Although I suspect that the mass of the vehicle in question would also have a say in it's success.

 

Even in 16 mm scale. the late Jack Wheldon built all his locos (and very successful they were too) with  a parallel tread to the wheels, with a very small radius into the flange.  I believe the flanges were not tapered either apart from a rounding off of the inner and outer faces at the edge.

When we researched wheels for the horse tram we discovered that most horse trams had a 'loose' wheel that was held to gauge by collars but free to rotate on the axle.  This was to make it easier for horses to restart the trams on the reverse curves in and out of passing loops.  They had parallel treads.  We ended up having ours tapered as a certain museum told us that the tram wouldn't stay on the rails without tapered treads.  The 'engineer' layi g down the law had recently installed loose wheels on the Great Orme tramway.

 

Jamie

[Compound2632]

12 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

When we researched wheels for the horse tram we discovered that most horse trams had a 'loose' wheel that was held to gauge by collars but free to rotate on the axle.  This was to make it easier for horses to restart the trams on the reverse curves in and out of passing loops.  They had parallel treads.

 

Tramway curves being so tight that one would need a very exaggerated taper to roll round without the wheels having to slip, if both were fixed rigidly to the axle. Obviously powered trams have to have the wheels fixed to the axles. I once stayed in a room in Prague overlooking a bend on an all-night tram route. I soon realised why the family were letting out that room rather than one looking out the back of the building!

Edited June 4 by Compound2632