RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted 9 hours ago RMweb Gold Share Posted 9 hours ago Leaving Paris, we have just passed a disused signalbox, near Versailles Chantiers. Much graffitied, the most legible word is “SPAD”! My rucksack is full of contraband. Two Dia 2406 BCKs; two petrol tankers (identical - a click&collect error. But I had plenty of time to examine them in the shop, so mea culpa, too); an Accurascale Siphon G; two Rapido ex-LNWR vans; a Hornby M7 and a Peco Code 75 LH curved point. Should give some entertainment until my next trip, 7th November. 12 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Hroth Posted 9 hours ago RMweb Gold Share Posted 9 hours ago 13 minutes ago, Oldddudders said: Leaving Paris, we have just passed a disused signalbox, near Versailles Chantiers. Much graffitied, the most legible word is “SPAD”! My rucksack is full of contraband. Two Dia 2406 BCKs; two petrol tankers (identical - a click&collect error. But I had plenty of time to examine them in the shop, so mea culpa, too); an Accurascale Siphon G; two Rapido ex-LNWR vans; a Hornby M7 and a Peco Code 75 LH curved point. Should give some entertainment until my next trip, 7th November. Sounds like a very mixed bag.... 🙃 3 1 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium J. S. Bach Posted 8 hours ago RMweb Premium Share Posted 8 hours ago 1 hour ago, jjb1970 said: ...snip... It also highlights how we tend to be oblivious to tragedies elsewhere. Loss of life in the 'Estonia' tragedy was far higher than the Herald loss yet in the UK few remember the 'Estonia'. And virtually nobody in Europe has heard of the 'Dona Paz' disaster in 1987 in the Philippines which is estimated to have killed over 4000 people. Every time that I read figures like those, I think of MV Wilhelm Gustloff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff Over 9,000 people died but the true total will never be known! 2 2 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted 8 hours ago RMweb Premium Share Posted 8 hours ago 18 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said: Every time that I read figures like those, I think of MV Wilhelm Gustloff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff Over 9,000 people died but the true total will never be known! And the Lancastria, potentially similar numbers. On a smaller scale but probably just as impactive to it's community, The Iolair. Jamie 3 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium J. S. Bach Posted 7 hours ago RMweb Premium Share Posted 7 hours ago 53 minutes ago, jamie92208 said: And the Lancastria, potentially similar numbers. On a smaller scale but probably just as impactive to it's community, The Iolair. Jamie I have a book about the LANCASTRIA, I read just earlier this year. 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Happy Hippo Posted 6 hours ago Author RMweb Gold Share Posted 6 hours ago Today's Trayne Klubb excitement was finally getting started on the 00-9 layout. The Ibiza now has four new tyres. This afternoon was spent starting to get the garden ready for the winter. We have also been busy cutting and drying the monster apple crop from the Worcester Apple tree. One more blitz ought to create enough dried apple to last until next year. This year we have been giving apples away to anyone who showed even the slightest interest. In past years, the Worcester had been rather mean when it comes to cropping. Providing the weather remains ok, the garden will get similar treatment again: I do have to take the top off the other half of the hedge. In other news, I'm seriously considering buying a 40W laser cutter and a 3D printer now that I'm starting to get my head around creating proper 3 D drawings and the ability to finally be able to generate .stl files. (I blame Andy from the Potato state!) 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted 6 hours ago RMweb Gold Share Posted 6 hours ago I was mainly supposed to be making the house tidy enough for visitors tomorrow but it didn’t take long as once I cleared some computers I have been playing with away there wasn’t much to do. Later I carried on putting some model railway software on the MacBook I had the OS reinstalled on yesterday. Unlike the Windows version which just works, the Mac version doesn’t, until you start downloading folders, renaming them and saving them somewhere else. Anyway it all works now, and problem solving is good for the brain. I found a nice blue locomotive that I couldn’t remember if I had put a decoder in when I bought it some years ago. It seem that I had. The decoder number I gave it is 5501 which may or may not be a clue to what it is. It isn’t a sound fitted model . Tony 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted 5 hours ago RMweb Gold Share Posted 5 hours ago 13 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said: In past years, the Worcester had been rather mean when it comes to cropping. Our pear trees have been very poor over the last couple of years and are most unhealthy. Aditi took the last few pears off today and made a chocolate and pear cake. The trees are probably being replaced this year, not with pears though. A plum and a qage seem to be Aditi’s favoured option. Tony 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted 4 hours ago RMweb Premium Share Posted 4 hours ago Today I have been packing up some locomotives and my breakdown train for taking to the S7 Group meeting at Mark in Zummerzet on Saturday as there will be no time tomorrow due to visiting a friend and I want to be on the road by 0700 on Saturday. Mind you, I obviously had to check that the locos ran OK and the other vehicles negotiated the pointwork without trouble and such things take time; hence it was unnecessary of Jill to come and suggest that three hours resulting in just one engine being boxed was longer than expected and asking how often some things had to travel the length of the layout before they could be classed as successful. She also had one of those looks when I said that I'd have to finish off the job this evening. Ah, well, domestic harmony should be restored on Saturday when she comes with me and after dropping me at the S7 venue with my mate Crimson Rambler sets off for a day sampling the delights of the West Country with Mrs. Rambler. Dave 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted 4 hours ago RMweb Premium Share Posted 4 hours ago Also today I took delivery of a Hobby Holidays 7mm chassis jig after seeing one in action at the Warley at Statfold show. Turns out it was the last one in stock and in all probability there won't be any more so I was lucky. I was also lucky in that Jill didn't see it arrive and ask awkward questions such as, "How much???" Dave 1 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium polybear Posted 4 hours ago RMweb Premium Share Posted 4 hours ago 1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said: In other news, I'm seriously considering buying a 40W laser cutter and a 3D printer now that I'm starting to get my head around creating proper 3 D drawings and the ability to finally be able to generate .stl files. (I blame Andy from the Potato state!) That sounds like an excellent idea...I just happen to know of a Certain Bear that happens to have something called an ".stl file" (but no printer....) of a simple yet useful-looking object that could prove rather handy to muddlers when constructing things....... 😁 1 hour ago, Tony_S said: I found a nice blue locomotive that I couldn’t remember if I had put a decoder in when I bought it some years ago. It seem that I had. The decoder number I gave it is 5501 which may or may not be a clue to what it is. It isn’t a sound fitted model . Tony Bear found a 5501 choo choo - but may well be red.... Blue you say? Then a chug chug? 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium polybear Posted 4 hours ago RMweb Premium Share Posted 4 hours ago 1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said: Also today I took delivery of a Hobby Holidays 7mm chassis jig after seeing one in action at the Warley at Statfold show. Turns out it was the last one in stock and in all probability there won't be any more so I was lucky. I was also lucky in that Jill didn't see it arrive and ask awkward questions such as, "How much???" Dave Bear just happens to have a 4mm one - you won't be disappointed.... 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMKAT7 Posted 4 hours ago Share Posted 4 hours ago Good evening polybear, Your 5501 sounds patriotic if it's a red one. Otherwise it would be a small prairie if green. Cheers, Nigel. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Happy Hippo Posted 4 hours ago Author RMweb Gold Share Posted 4 hours ago 20 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said: Also today I took delivery of a Hobby Holidays 7mm chassis jig after seeing one in action at the Warley at Statfold show. Turns out it was the last one in stock and in all probability there won't be any more so I was lucky. I was also lucky in that Jill didn't see it arrive and ask awkward questions such as, "How much???" Dave You could have borrowed mine if you'd mentioned you needed one. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted 4 hours ago RMweb Gold Share Posted 4 hours ago (edited) 29 minutes ago, polybear said: Blue you say? Then a chug chug? 5501 was the number I allocated for the DCC chip. I have to have some method of remembering what the loco is if there isn’t a number visible on it. So if I had something that was a prototype for what became class 55 calling it 5501 seems to work. My Heljan model of DP2 has its decoder set to 5502 but it isn’t a pretty blue colour. 5501 on my DCC roster is the original Deltic as produced by Bachmann for the NRM. Edited 4 hours ago by Tony_S 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iL Dottore Posted 1 hour ago Share Posted 1 hour ago (edited) The Japanese Railway Museum in Saitama is worth travelling to Japan for (okay, that and the Shinkansen, the great food, the whole “Blade Runner meets Samurai“ environment). The railway museum is full of really beautiful exhibits very nicely presented and with some superb modelling as well. What was interesting was that for a number of the interactive exhibits you couldn’t just turn up, but you had to download a railway museum lottery app and apply for a time slot to win a time slot on your selected interactive exhibit. I downloaded the app and both times when I applied for an interactive exhibit, I got the slot I wanted. Presumably, this is to manage numbers during busy periods and given that there are quite a lot of interactive exhibits I would imagine that everyone using the lottery app will “win“ at least one exhibit interactive exhibit another thing, which presumably goes to fund maintenance and upkeep of the exhibits, is that a number of them require a small additional payment to use (having said that, the interactive exhibits are staffed by very knowledgeable young people who tell you what to do and how to do it– as in the case of the Shinkansen simulator or the steam locomotive simulator. Anyway, one of the fun things to do is ride drive one of their mini locomotives on a little track which comes complete with signalling, passing loops and stations. You are instructed to keep the speed at the highlighted speed on the speedometer, in practice the controls don’t actually do anything and everything is driven by a central computer; which is perhaps as well as I am sure that there would be absolute chaos if everybody on the track (and there are about four or five mini locomotives going around one time) did their own thing in terms of speed and braking. Definitely fun for all ages, and when I took my little trip on the track the number of adults outweighed the number of children by factor of 2 to 1, if not 3 to 1. Anyway, some pics. What was really fascinating was how seriously the children took to driving the simulators. More than a few children came wearing the white gloves that railway staff wear when on duty and they also went through the standard Japanese railwayman practice of pointing to things and repeating saying out loud what action was being done/what was observed (such as signal at green). Apparently this is a tried and true method of reducing error in performance and is also done by pilots as they go through their various checks. One of the simulators Edited 1 hour ago by iL Dottore Added text and phot 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Snowdon Posted 1 hour ago Share Posted 1 hour ago 17 hours ago, zarniwhoop said: 250 degrees Celsius Yes! DEGREES celsius not "(number) celsius"! The kelvin (an absolute unit) only uses degrees as a comparator and I wish, oh so wish, that the popular media would start using degrees again (whether celsius or fahrenheit, I frankly don't care, as long as they say which!). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Snowdon Posted 1 hour ago Share Posted 1 hour ago 8 hours ago, Oldddudders said: Leaving Paris, we have just passed a disused signalbox, near Versailles Chantiers. Much graffitied, the most legible word is “SPAD”! My rucksack is full of contraband. Two Dia 2406 BCKs; two petrol tankers (identical - a click&collect error. But I had plenty of time to examine them in the shop, so mea culpa, too); an Accurascale Siphon G; two Rapido ex-LNWR vans; a Hornby M7 and a Peco Code 75 LH curved point. Should give some entertainment until my next trip, 7th November. Any legible graffito is a bonus, the rest are just spray-paint scribbles from one bunch to another. Shame about yours - too ambiguous - a warning about the signalling, or a tribute to the WWI fighters? Otherwise, yours sounds like a splendid haul, whether contraband or otherwise, and I wish you well on your next excursion. My old T-H M7 is exceptional and I hope that yours is even half as good as mine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Snowdon Posted 1 hour ago Share Posted 1 hour ago 9 hours ago, jjb1970 said: it took years for IMO damage and stability standards to catch up with the Stockholm agreement Rather tactfully, no actual number of years appeared here... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyID Posted 23 minutes ago Share Posted 23 minutes ago 1 hour ago, Chris Snowdon said: Yes! DEGREES celsius not "(number) celsius"! The kelvin (an absolute unit) only uses degrees as a comparator and I wish, oh so wish, that the popular media would start using degrees again (whether celsius or fahrenheit, I frankly don't care, as long as they say which!). Kelvin would be best because it would tend reinforce the very narrow band in which we live. It's really quite easy for us to eff it up completely. I'm 75 so I probably don't care all that much now but future generations really need to get a handle on this PDQ. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbishop Posted 12 minutes ago Share Posted 12 minutes ago I was taught that units of temperature included Kelvin, Celsius, degrees Centigrade and degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, the middle two were effectively the same but Centigrade was not a scientific scale and degrees Celsius would attract a red underline with a suitable marginal comment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbishop Posted 10 minutes ago Share Posted 10 minutes ago 1 hour ago, iL Dottore said: The Japanese Railway Museum in Saitama is worth travelling to Japan for (okay, that and the Shinkansen, the great food, the whole “Blade Runner meets Samurai“ environment). The railway museum is full of really beautiful exhibits very nicely presented and with some superb modelling as well. What was interesting was that for a number of the interactive exhibits you couldn’t just turn up, but you had to download a railway museum lottery app and apply for a time slot to win a time slot on your selected interactive exhibit. I downloaded the app and both times when I applied for an interactive exhibit, I got the slot I wanted. Presumably, this is to manage numbers during busy periods and given that there are quite a lot of interactive exhibits I would imagine that everyone using the lottery app will “win“ at least one exhibit interactive exhibit another thing, which presumably goes to fund maintenance and upkeep of the exhibits, is that a number of them require a small additional payment to use (having said that, the interactive exhibits are staffed by very knowledgeable young people who tell you what to do and how to do it– as in the case of the Shinkansen simulator or the steam locomotive simulator. Anyway, one of the fun things to do is ride drive one of their mini locomotives on a little track which comes complete with signalling, passing loops and stations. You are instructed to keep the speed at the highlighted speed on the speedometer, in practice the controls don’t actually do anything and everything is driven by a central computer; which is perhaps as well as I am sure that there would be absolute chaos if everybody on the track (and there are about four or five mini locomotives going around one time) did their own thing in terms of speed and braking. Definitely fun for all ages, and when I took my little trip on the track the number of adults outweighed the number of children by factor of 2 to 1, if not 3 to 1. Anyway, some pics. What was really fascinating was how seriously the children took to driving the simulators. More than a few children came wearing the white gloves that railway staff wear when on duty and they also went through the standard Japanese railwayman practice of pointing to things and repeating saying out loud what action was being done/what was observed (such as signal at green). Apparently this is a tried and true method of reducing error in performance and is also done by pilots as they go through their various checks. One of the simulators well that's me bu99ered by technology - I don't do apps. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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