The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

51 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Just remember PB, grandchildren have quite a hold over grandparents. Mine  can even open my wallet.

 

Jamie

 

Open my wallet?? Mine have not only absconded with my wallet but have taken with it any other cash in the house and rifled my bank account.

 

Dave

[iL Dottore]

In between “downsizing” the house, I’ve managed to get some quality time in the kitchen. I am under strict instructions to produce a cake every week for Mrs iD’s excursions to her cousin. This week I made a rum and pineapple cake, using candied pineapple that had been soaked overnight in dark rum and some pineapple rings for topping/decoration. Although the pineapple was tinned, it was tinned in pineapple juice and not syrup (which nowadays usually means the not-good-for-you high fructose corn syrup). The pineapple juice, the leftover rum from the overnight soaking of the candied pineapple and a top up of dark rum was slowly cooked down to a caramelised syrup and then used to glaze the cake.

 

It was VERY well received.

 

The only problem with cooking with pineapple is that the enzymes in the pineapple slow down the cooking process - so it took twice the normal time to bake. But despite the lengthy baking, it was not dried out leat alone burnt in any way.

 

I will be having a slice, after my wild boar supper, and I will congratulate myself that I and the cake are here, whilst HH and PB are over there…

 

Even gettinga private jet with Dave Hunt at the joystick, they’d never get Schloss iD in time to find anything but a few crumbs left…

 

Isn’t life tragic!

[Chris Snowdon]

11 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

PS. apologies for hijacking the thread with boat stuff.

We're doing all manner of subjects, as far as I can tell.  Not at all what I expected when I found it, but it's anyway.  It's really good to learn from others.

The recipes/ culinary advice here are really interesting and the conversation rather less sweary than on mumsnet - Do not venture there:  I did so once and just about got away with it, but one of my younger colleagues needed some counselling after going in without preconditioning...

BTW - Is anyone from Portishead Radio here?  I know that some of them have strong interests in railway modelling (even if we only seem to mention which aspects of railway modelling we agree not to discuss).

 

regards

cs

Edited 3 hours ago by Chris Snowdon
Culinary comment and observation on etiquette.

[jjb1970]

I think Britain drew the short straw with pineapple. Our pineapples tend to be rather sharp, pineapples in southeast asia are really sweet, much nicer.

 

My favourite pineapple cake/pastry is kua nastar, an Indonesian speciality with is like a small pastry ball filled with pineapple jam, lovely lovely lovely👍

[Mike Bellamy]

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

If it had not been for the family visiting this weekend, I would have been there in person.

Signing autographs, eating cake etc.

 

Not only did we have cake, but there were also pizzas, paninis, posh coffee with chocolate sprinkles, assorted snacks, and a fully stocked bar. Many thanks to @JustinDean for providing the venue and I hope we put enough cash over the counter to cover his costs at   https://dubrek.co.uk/ 

.

[jjb1970]

10 hours ago, rockershovel said:

I was amazed by the sheer size of the container vessels I saw entering the Solent a few years ago

 

A lot of modern construction vessels have accomodation and bridge forwards.... and some not-so-modern ones like Seahorse and Saipem 3000 and Saipem Helix Express, converted from older vessels (SHE was built that way, being a former Soviet submarine tender )

 

The offshore segment was a leader in researching bow and stern contours to improve behaviour in heavy seas. The X-bow was basically developed for offshore support vessels. 

 

For container ships the challenges are a bit different as they operate at quite high speeds and older style flared bows were violent in heavy seas. Ship design houses have gone down the same path as those in the offshore segment in taking a more holistic view of bow and stern design to reduce hull stress and allow sufficient habitability for fwd accommodation as well as maintaining efficiency across a broader spread of operating conditions.

 

A key part of a container ship hull structure are longitudinal box girders on either side, usually called side passage ways by the crew as they provide a fully sheltered way to get to the bow or stern if necessary. They are key to hull strength and rigidity (providing a safe means of getting to the bow or stern is a happy side benefit), why I mention it is because of the length and perspective they highlight just how much movement there is in the hull in heavy weather. The bending is very visible to a naked eye.

[Chris Snowdon]

11 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

Not only did we have cake, but there were also pizzas, paninis, posh coffee with chocolate sprinkles, assorted snacks, and a fully stocked bar. Many thanks to @JustinDean for providing the venue and I hope we put enough cash over the counter to cover his costs at   https://dubrek.co.uk/ 

.

I just followed this link and what did I see?/

A Marshall stack, a Welmar and a Fender Tele!

 

To the tune of "Little Brown Jug".  Sorry, but the best I could do on the spur of the moment.

 

Hope it was a good party.

 

regards

cs

[Chris Snowdon]

2 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

They are key to hull strength and rigidity (providing a safe means of getting to the bow or stern is a happy side benefit), why I mention it is because of the length and perspective they highlight just how much movement there is in the hull in heavy weather. The bending is very visible to a naked eye.

Was that the happy accident, or was it the other way around: (No Keel + No Backbone) * (Sagging + Hogging) = Snap, which was one of the two predominant theories about Derbyshire.  It's not a world away from using wooden pit-props in a mine, so that you can see and hear changes.  Would it be far too cynical to say that side-tunnels were a relatively cheap way to get crew from one end to the other without the inconvenient risk of a MOB incident, and they just happened to provide extra strength and a simple means of monitoring?

For a similar effect in large aircraft, in the memoir "Skyfaring" the author describes watching similar flexing of the empty fuselage of a B747 in almost mystical terms, although I was once able to see it from one of the "boring seats", 'tween aisles and above the wings, on an A330...

To recall us to railways, the longitudinal strengths of tubes came up in the RAIB report on the Carmont crash, which involved Mk.IIIs (designed with experience gained from aviation).  I can't remember the Greyrigg report, but there must have been similarities.

 

regards

cs

[New Haven Neil]

Ahh railways, yes.

 

Last night we went to the Big City with friend Jayne fo posh curry nosh, on the way back the last late evening service of the season on the Manx electric was spotted, so we raced ahead (well Mrs NHN did, I was a bit pickled so not driving - first time I have drunk alcohol for absolutely ages) and waited to photograph it at Dhoon Glen.

 

 

 

 

not sure why that's on twice!

Edited 2 hours ago by New Haven Neil

[Chris Snowdon]

That first one with the lamp-light catching the rails is jolly good!  MER's railheads are cleaner than mine!

[Chris Snowdon]

If you went up to The Big City, did you catch the classic car show?  I saw something about it on the BBC News website, including a photo of thishybrid, onto which the owner appears to have grafted the headlamps of an AH Frogeye into the nose of an AH 3000, or the front wings, headlamps, bonnet and grille of an AH 3000 into a Sprite, instead of adding the classic four across a badge-bar.  That could even be a TR5 rear wing, and those Minilites are huge.  Looking at it, I fondly imagine that there's an FB60 under that bonnet rather than a C-Series...  Please, anyone know anything?

 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

We went chasing after them today but only saw a few - 270-odd entrants!  Didn't see that one for sure, but I'm bike-y not car-y so they all look much the same to me!  Like GWR 4-6-0's.........#cough

[Chris Snowdon]

I've been "bikey" ever since discovering what a Black Shadow was.  Parents would not allow, nor could afford it though, and I've never been successful enough to get one myself.

 

My friend and former colleague "bikerdom" goes to interesting places on interesting bikes from time to time and it's worth looking up his blog.  He once went overseas just to buy a new Enfield Bullet, before spending a couple of weeks taking it somewhere where there was no fresh water, shelter, or any food which he couldn't get from a hedgerow.  I'm shamefully behind on his current whereabouts though.  Hope he's OK.

 

regards

cs

[Chris Snowdon]

I don't think we're allowed to talk about GWR 4-6-0s here, but at least they aren't pannies or small-engines, so we might be just safe from Thor's Hammer.

 

AndyID's bit about weight transfer is good reading.  I have - somewhere - diagrams for a dark-green 4-6-2 machine which I also imagine is totally verboten here, but I also have some diagrams for something similar designed by a man called Vincent who not only preferred a lighter green, but electrification...

[Happy Hippo]

12 minutes ago, Chris Snowdon said:

 a man called Vincent who not only preferred a lighter green, but electrification...

Meet Vncent:

 

[Chris Snowdon]

Yep, that's our man...  As long as he stays the Tower will stand, and 13 will remain a lucky number.

[SM42]

Early start tomorrow so as usual I'm wide awake after 11pm. 

 

I'm expecting a soggy commute and a busy day to follow. 

 

Night all

 

Andy

[Chris Snowdon]

8 minutes ago, SM42 said:

I'm expecting a soggy commute and a busy day to follow. 

Tomorrow's likely to be wet:

https://wwmiws.wmo.int/index.php/metareas/display/bulletin/FPUK71_EGRR/20240922221211769609

 

And worse things happen at sea:

https://msi.admiralty.co.uk/RadioNavigationalWarnings

 

But as a nervous flyer, don't get me started on CAA or NATS...

 

Nighty-night.

 

regards

cs