The Night Mail

[jamie92208]

20 minutes ago, bbishop said:

A Sisyphean activity?

I just thought I was trying to keep the firebox of a Duchess full, going  up Grayrigg.

 

Jamie

[bbishop]

33 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I just thought I was trying to keep the firebox of a Duchess full, going  up Grayrigg.

 

Jamie

Was there a Duchess of Sussex?

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, DenysW said:

Really Mr. H, tsk, tsk. @SM42 did not say he was now self-identifying as a horse. He was merely being allegorical, which is still legal in most of the UK, but probably not Texas.

 

Do not over-react to passing poetry is my recommendation.

 

Allegory or not, HH could probably oblige legally in Texas. Andy would only have to trespass on HH's muddy hollow.

[AndyID]

47 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I just thought I was trying to keep the firebox of a Duchess full, going  up Grayrigg.

 

Jamie

 

I hope that's not allegorical.

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, bbishop said:

A Sisyphean activity?

 

Probably more thespian 😀

[The Johnster]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

but sanity prevailed.

 

 

 

I would love to know how this was achieved; it is a feat I have never quite managed in my 71 years so far!

 

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

This week I did a very rare thing and bought a new loco.  I can just about justify it for what will be about layout #3 on the to-do list but discounted to the level it was, resistance was futile.  The Peckett W4 is exquisitely tiny:

 

There are people on RMWeb who found a long list of things on this model to complain about.  My sympathies to them.

 

I am absolutely delighted with mine, the best thing Hornby have ever produced IMHO, superb runner, superb pickups (vital for this sort of model), and you will gain nothing but pleasure from owning and using this loco.  If I were to criticise, which would be carping in the extreme, some of the detail is very delicate; of course, it can be replaced with more robust brass items, and possibly should be rather than being a potential cause for complaint. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by The Johnster

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I just thought I was trying to keep the firebox of a Duchess full, going  up Grayrigg.

 

Jamie

 

It's nice to have something to aim for especially when your not exactly what you might call a spring chicken.

 

But on the positive it'll .......,. I'll have to get back to you on that.

 

Yes thought of a positive - the soil pile gets smaller.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Winslow Boy
Inspiration.

[Happy Hippo]

13 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

 

I would love to know how this was achieved; it is a feat I have never quite managed in my 71 years so far!

Late last year, I suddenly realised that striving to make everything perfect was not going to get me very far, so I opted for doing the best I could and making do with it.

 

Of course, I can improve on things with practice and determination, but instead of ripping up stuff because I thought I'd do better on the next version, I am now committed to carry on with the 'current standard' and will do better next time.

[skipepsi]

Learning by doing or kinetic learning. See Jazz topic building 0 gauge loco's for a living.

[Winslow Boy]

12 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Late last year, I suddenly realised that striving to make everything perfect was not going to get me very far, so I opted for doing the best I could and making do with it.

 

Of course, I can improve on things with practice and determination, but instead of ripping up stuff because I thought I'd do better on the next version, I am now committed to carry on with the 'current standard' and will do better next time.

 

Does that mean your remembering to always use your indicators before you turn now or is that better next time.

 

Ian No Sheds but not bitter about self righteous s&-£+&@s who don't use indicators.

[Happy Hippo]

7 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Does that mean your remembering to always use your indicators before you turn now or is that better next time.

 

Ian No Sheds but not bitter about self righteous s&-£+&@s who don't use indicators.

If I am driving a German car I have to remember to use the indicators, use the correct lane stick, to the speed limit and act in a courteous manner towards all other road users. (Even ar*ewinking bimdrubbling self tucking bungle twonks are afforded that attention).  If I'm driving any other make or model then I drive appropriately as taught by the Metropolitan Police  Driving School at Hendon.

[pH]

On 08/03/2023 at 21:29, jamie92208 said:

Any volunteers out there to come and shovel 4 tons of soil into the raised beds.....

 

Jamie

 

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I've just shovelled the first third of the earth for one raised bed. My shoulders told me when to stop.

Feel free to disbelieve this - I find it hard to believe when I think back.

 

A cousin and I worked as general labourers on a building site in Ontario over one summer in our youth and they worked us hard. One job we got was to pour the gravel onto the weeping tiles of a street of houses in the process of being built. 
 

https://conterrafoundation.ca/blog/what-are-weeping-tiles/

 

Gravel was delivered in dump trucks, with a small chute in the back door and was delivered through this chute into wheelbarrows, which we pushed to where the gravel was needed and dumped on the tile.

 

In one day, between just the two of us, we emptied five 15-ton dump trucks and a 10-tonner. All this in temperatures of about ‘feels like because of humidity’ 105F.

 

I have never been fitter or leaner than I was at the end of that summer.

[AndyID]

I have just been informed that I've been peeling bananas the wrong way for two thirds of a century. The correct way to do it is from the bottom rather than the stem end, at least that's the way our simian cousins do it and they should know best.

 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by AndyID
Can't count

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

It's nice to have something to aim for especially when your not exactly what you might call a spring chicken.

 

But on the positive it'll .......,. I'll have to get back to you on that.

 

Yes thought of a positive - the soil pile gets smaller.

 

42 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

If I am driving a German car I have to remember to use the indicators, use the correct lane stick, to the speed limit and act in a courteous manner towards all other road users. (Even ar*ewinking bimdrubbling self tucking bungle twonks are afforded that attention).  If I'm driving any other make or model then I drive appropriately as taught by the Metropolitan Police  Driving School at Hendon.

 

Oh dear Big H I would have expected more from you.

[AndyID]

"Idaho code 49-949 requires the entire width of the tire's tread to be covered from the 12 o'clock position (straight up, top center of the tire), around to the rear of the tire, to a point no more than 20" from the ground."

 

No sh*t Sherlock? Unfortunately the local constabulary are doing a lousy job of enforcing the law. Half the pickup trucks driving around here have had their wheels and tyres extended well outside the truck body by their redneck owners.

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I hope that's not allegorical.

It's keeping the back corners full that's the secret apparently

Edited March 10, 2023 by jamie92208

[polybear]

Out of interest, has anyone come across this book - or maybe even got a copy?

 

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Railway-Modelling-Masterclass-Vol-1-Locomotive-Construction-by-Tony-Reynalds/9781844252473

 

Bear has a sudden desire for a copy - but they seem few and far between....☹️

[Happy Hippo]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

It's keeping the back corners full that's the secret apparently

It's is more of an art form than just frantically shovelling from tender to firebox.

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

It's is more of an art form than just frantically shovelling from tender to firebox.

 

 

 

Absolutely.  Even the little ones need their own techniques,  ignore their individual peccadillos at your peril.

 

Little Bagnall marine fireboxes have to be fired 'just so' to get them to boil decently.

 

 

[Mike Bellamy]

11 hours ago, polybear said:

Out of interest, has anyone come across this book - or maybe even got a copy?

 

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Railway-Modelling-Masterclass-Vol-1-Locomotive-Construction-by-Tony-Reynalds/9781844252473

 

Bear has a sudden desire for a copy - but they seem few and far between....☹️

 

You never will find a copy as it wasn't published.

 

On the Gauge O Guild Facebook page, Malcolm Mitchell reported Tony's passing a couple of days ago and was asked about this book by someone who posted a photo of the 'front cover'. Malcom's reply is posted below

 

Quote

Unfortunately this book never existed - it was a weird setup by unscrupulous publishers. Tony knew nothing about it.

 

Sorry to disappoint you - but after your visit to Missenden, is there anything left to learn . . . . . . 

.

 

 

[polybear]

8 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

You never will find a copy as it wasn't published.

 

On the Gauge O Guild Facebook page, Malcolm Mitchell reported Tony's passing a couple of days ago and was asked about this book by someone who posted a photo of the 'front cover'. Malcom's reply is posted below

 

 

Sorry to disappoint you - but after your visit to Missenden, is there anything left to learn . . . . . . 

.

 

 

 

Thanks Mike - that's saved Bear a search.

After seeing the work of many of those at Missenden a certain Bear is most definitely a very young Cub indeed......

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Thanks Mike - that's saved Bear a search.

After seeing the work of many of those at Missenden a certain Bear is most definitely a very young Cub indeed......

It rolls back to my comments to giving up on procrastination caused by the need for perfection, and accept that you just have to do the best you can.

[polybear]

41 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

It rolls back to my comments to giving up on procrastination caused by the need for perfection, and accept that you just have to do the best you can.

 

It's very, very easy to look at the work of others and think "I'll never be able to do that" and end up not doing anything.

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

15 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

It's keeping the back corners full that's the secret apparently

It's is more of an art form than just frantically shovelling from tender to firebox.

Most definitely an acquired skill.  What ever one is firing.  Each design, and each locomotive within each design, has its own requirements for optimal performance.  

 

Knowing your locomotive, the quirks of its firebox and steaming and knowing your driver's techniques and needs are very much an art-form learned on the job.  No amount of classroom theory teaches you that.  

[Happy Hippo]

With my new policy in force, this is the state of the buttresses after two washes to weather then down.  I may apply another this afternoon, pre-match, but that about it. 

 

They can then be levelled and secured in place.  The next layer of capping being trial fitted in the photo.