The Night Mail

[bbishop]

On duty this evening.  It is Mary's first time out!  Bill

[SM42]

The layout planning is a bit of a hybrid of track plan and the surrounding all together as a whole.

 

It tends to start with the railway features  and how to develop the scenery around them, which then leads to changes to the railway to make it sit better, which then leads to an expansion of scenery to convey the location and the railway's place in it

 

Next thing you know the layout is 72ft long and 30 ft wide.

 

You then go back to what you can cut out, compress and still keep the original concept. 

 

Or just start again.

 

Andy

[jamie92208]

On 04/07/2022 at 20:24, SM42 said:

 

 

Next thing you know the layout is 72ft long and 30 ft wide.

 

Andy

Been there done that. I decided to build a 7mm Midland Clerestory because it would look nice.  3 weeks later all my 4mm stuff was sold and I bought a Slaters Compound kit, plus a 9F kit. I had a yard of track and a Marcway point kit and wanted somewhere to run the compound and coach.  That ended up as a 40 by 18 layout called Long Preston. The final dimension was decided by the size of our church where I could put it up for testing.  When LO went the size of the church was the main design constraint on Green Ayre. The other was that any piece had to be able to fit into the back of s Volvo estate.  I can neither confirm or deny the scurrilous rumour that the first Volvo was bought with the size of Long Preston's crates as a limiting factor.

 

Then of course we needed a home for the layout. Beth thinks she bought a house in France, I KNOW that I bought a large shed.

 

Jamie

Edited July 6, 2022 by jamie92208

[Happy Hippo]

I'd forgotten how much turbulence a helicopter puts out.

 

Fortunately the pilot of the Cessna survived.

 

 

 

[SM42]

8 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I'd forgotten how much turbulence a helicopter puts out.

 

Fortunately the pilot of the Cessna survived.

 

 

 

 

Having stood a few hundred yards from the end of the runway at Birmingham Airport and heard   the vortices off two wings chasing a plane in  I can imagine two to four or more wings travelling quite a bit faster would create quite a stir.

 

A  helicopter seems such a benign thing, no wings in the traditional sense,  luring the unsuspecting into a trap. 

 

As a general rule, for safe flight, the wings should never travel faster than the fuselage.

 

Meanwhile, plastering of the West Wing is complete. 

 

Andy

[BR60103]

Way back, early 60s I think, Model Trains magazine*  had a project layout series where they built the scenery first and added the track after. IIRC it was called Hither Thither and Yon. 

 

* Smaller brother of Model Railroader.

 

[Happy Hippo]

If one is building a ground level outdoor line, the scenery and the geographical features are there first.

 

If you want hands off manual control with a live steamer, then unless the loco is geared down (ie. Shay/Climax/Hielser) then a gradient of about 1 in 50 is about the steepest you can cope with.

 

A garden is never billiard table flat so once a datum point has been selected, it's all cuttings embankments, tunnels and bridges.

 

You can see why so many garden railwaymen opt for a raised trackbed and build up the surrounding ground profile to suit, although I've never met anyone who has plonked a load of soil down to create a tunnel such as this one by Noch:

 

[Dave Hunt]

I once witnessed an F4 get turned nearly upside down in the wake from a VC10 on the approach to land even though there was a 30 second interval between them. Fortunately he was about 30 knots above touchdown speed and still at something like 800 feet up and was able to recover and overshoot. It was the worst possible scenario with a very gentle <5 knot wind straight down the runway and in retrospect there should have been a greater spacing between them, which was a lesson learned and widely publicised. Bit of a brown trouser moment for the crew though.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

Further to my last post, I lost my F4 wingman in 1973 when he got into my wake when we were flying at low level down a valley in Germany. He was in what is called fighting wing position about 150 - 250 yards back and swept at about 60 degrees but had let himself get a bit stretched so when we got to a slight bend in the valley he crossed to the inside of the turn, which was a recognised way of closing up without speeding up and burning fuel. Sadly he got into my wake rather than passing above it and was flipped upside down with tragic results. The first I knew about it was when I saw the pillar of smoke in the rear view mirrors.

 

Dave

 

PS - The sequence of events I have quoted came from eye witnesses on the ground.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Dave Hunt

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Further to my last post,

Seeing the earlier posts of turbulent wake events and then seeing the Phantom video made me wonder how this affected flying in formation. Your post’s description of what could tragically happen answered my unasked question. 
But I have another one. 
Are the formations used by displays by for instance the Red Arrows determined by the effects of turbulence or some other factor?

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

… although I've never met anyone who has plonked a load of soil down to create a tunnel such as this one by Noch:

 

That has to be one of THE defining cliches of many a continental layout: the SOLE big rock on an otherwise flat floodplain - and one that the railway company absolutely, positively, had to go through instead of detour around….

[pH]

28 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

That has to be one of THE defining cliches of many a continental layout: the SOLE big rock on an otherwise flat floodplain - and one that the railway company absolutely, positively, had to go through instead of detour around….

There’s actually a (near-)prototype for that - Tunnel Mountain in Banff, Alberta. The original survey for the CPR transcontinental called for a 300 yard tunnel under the isolated mountain. The reaction of the  CPR General Manager when he saw the plan could be summed up as “WTF???”. An alternative route was found and built. See the ‘History’ section on this page:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_Mountain

[Oldddudders]

I am sitting in the departure lounge at Gare du Nord Eurostar terminal. The previous train left late because of a bomb-scare (abandoned luggage as usual) closing half of the main station. So lots of passengers were late checking in. Despite being on the next train, two hours behind theirs, I checked in alone, quickly and effortlessly - knowing where the lift to the terminal is, rather than the escalator and walkway which were out of bounds, is helpful!

 

A gorgeous black German shepherd dog is running round the terminal loose, although he is never far from Dad. He wears a harness that says “Douane”, which is why Dad has a gun in his holster…..

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Morning all,

 

Upstairs AC died on Sunday evening so sleep has been pretty nonexistent with it being about 90 degrees in my room. 
 

Mom left for France this morning, for a language trip to aid her in teaching.

 

 

Douglas

Who is very tired

Edited July 5, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Happy Hippo]

21 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Morning all,

 

Upstairs AC died a Sunday evening so sleep has been pretty nonexistent with it being about 90 degrees in my room. 
 

Mom left for France this morning,

 

Was this really as a result of the AC breakdown?

Edited July 5, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[TheQ]

My claim to fame is this thankfully small photo of me,

A Marconi publicity photo, about 1978, I'm the one in the middle.

 

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

33 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Was this really as a result of the AC breakdown?

Unless she secretly possesses the powers of seeing the future I don’t think so. Oddly convenient though….

[Oldddudders]

37 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Was this really as a result of the AC breakdown?

Mom will not find much of France very cool. Back into the 30s Celsius soon. 

[Happy Hippo]

Idling away a few moments I was looking through the UK serials website.  It records aviation losses of all MoD aircraft (including those  hired in or contracted to the MoD).

 

These days we might see a handful of incidents, but I looked at my birth year, 1956.

 

A count revealed 380 aircraft lost in the one year!

 

The list included some venerable types such as Spitfire, Mosquito, Beaufighter, York, Lincoln and Harvard.

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

1 minute ago, Oldddudders said:

Mom will not find much of France very cool. Back into the 30s Celsius soon. 

She will if she is dressed by Chanel, drinks Champagne and smokes Galoises using a cigarette holder.🤣

 

 

[bbishop]

A couple of job vacancies have just been announces.  CVs to 10 Downing Street, please.

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Mom will not find much of France very cool. Back into the 30s Celsius soon. 

Yes it's getting warm here. The pool is at 30 degrees.

 

Jamie

[Northmoor]

5 hours ago, TheQ said:

My claim to fame is this thankfully small photo of me,

A Marconi publicity photo, about 1978, I'm the one in the middle.

 

 

As a kid in Pembrokeshire in the 1980s, that's pretty much what you needed to pick up Channel 4 and not S4C.

 

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Idling away a few moments I was looking through the UK serials website.  It records aviation losses of all MoD aircraft (including those  hired in or contracted to the MoD).

 

These days we might see a handful of incidents, but I looked at my birth year, 1956.

 

A count revealed 380 aircraft lost in the one year!

 

The list included some venerable types such as Spitfire, Mosquito, Beaufighter, York, Lincoln and Harvard.

Different times, HH.  Have a look at railway accident statistics from the same era; most years there was one or more accidents with enough multiple fatalities that nowadays would lead to immediate ministerial resignations and public enquiries.  In the 1950s they just rebuilt the railway, reopened it a couple of days later and had an enquiry led by technical experts and not m'learned friends.

 

51 minutes ago, bbishop said:

A couple of job vacancies have just been announces.  CVs to 10 Downing Street, please.

I just heard it said that Boris Johnson would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to get him to leave No.10.  If they're looking for volunteers to do the dragging......

[simontaylor484]

I think he just wants to get his money's worth of the wallpaper Mrs Johnson picked allegedly 

[Happy Hippo]

26 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

26 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Different times, HH.  Have a look at railway accident statistics from the same era; most years there was one or more accidents with enough multiple fatalities that nowadays would lead to immediate ministerial resignations and public enquiries.  In the 1950s they just rebuilt the railway, reopened it a couple of days later and had an enquiry led by technical experts and not m'learned friends.

 

 

Dave and I were discussing aircraft mishaps on his last visit, and  especially those caused by pilots making the same basic errors that others before them have made.  We also have to appreciate that 'back in the day', aircraft were not as well maintained/were not as reliable.  All training was 'live', and pilots did not have the benefit of resetting a simulator when a mistake was made. Many did not live to learn by their mistakes.  Those that did quickly gained the wisdom to become old, not bold, pilots.

 

A more modern example is the high attrition rate of the Luftwaffe F 104 Starfighter.  Pilots trained in the USA at airbases renowned for their fantastic weather and with lots of space to fly around in.  Then the return to crowded airspace in Europe with low hours pilots going very fast into that wonderful rain and low cloud that parts of Europe are renowned for.  Couple that to keeping high tech airframes out in all weather, as at the time there was a restriction on the Luftwaffe having hangers, and it was all pointing in the right direction for losses.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by Happy Hippo