The Night Mail

[polybear]

4 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Sounds like @Happy Hippo is building his own canal, a couple of narrowboats pootling up and down. Makes a change to a garden railway 

 

Actually that would make a rather good garden railway - live steam into a canal wharf, loading & unloading, powered narrow boats chuggin' up and down, a lock draining & filling, gates opening and closing.......

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Actually that would make a rather good garden railway - live steam into a canal wharf, loading & unloading, powered narrow boats chuggin' up and down, a lock draining & filling, gates opening and closing.......

Or just replace the railway like the Panama Canal did. 

[simontaylor484]

1 minute ago, Tony_S said:

Or just replace the railway like the Panama Canal did. 

Or you could have an locomotive on each side pulling a ship along the canal.

[Canal Digger]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Sounds like @Happy Hippo is building his own canal, a couple of narrowboats pootling up and down. Makes a change to a garden railway 

 

Actually that would make a rather good garden railway - live steam into a canal wharf, loading & unloading, powered narrow boats chuggin' up and down, a lock draining & filling, gates opening and closing.......

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

Modelling this would be more fun! Loco hauled canal barge, it was trialed on the Shropshire Union

[jamie92208]

10 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

You do know how to enjoy yourself don't you Big H.

As a former pongo it comes naturally to him. He thinks he's getting ready for bed.

 

Jamie

Edited September 26, 2022 by jamie92208

[J. S. Bach]

14 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

 ...snip...

 ...snip...

 ...snip...

Jamie

I have one of those in the first photo above that is in decrepit shape missing a lot of stuff; the second photo just gave me an idea of something to do with the carcass. Thank you (and the owner of the sawmill) for the idea.

[jamie92208]

6 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

I have one of those in the first photo above that is in decrepit shape missing a lot of stuff; the second photo just gave me an idea of something to do with the carcass. Thank you (and the owner of the sawmill) for the idea.

It is appare Sevastopol mill somewhere in California.  The layout owner worked there for a few years.

 

Jamie

[newbryford]

5 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Like our new soakaway is doing at the moment.

 

 

Are you saying that your soakaway isn't soaking away?

[AndyID]

Ouchy! I had my updated COVID vaccination yesterday and while I was at it I got a flu shot. I was a bit under the weather for a few hours but I'm fine now. Sure as heck beats the alternative 😀

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Are you saying that your soakaway isn't soaking away?

I'm sure that the waste water from the fosse will soak away through all the gravel and sand  in the 2m deep hole that it was built in but the 2 feet of soil on top of it is a different matter.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I'm sure that the waste water from the fosse will soak away through all the gravel and sand  in the 2m deep hole that it was built in but the 2 feet of soil on top of it is a different matter.

 

Jamie

The top soil needs to be free draining and not clay.

 

Don't ask me how I know this.

 

We had two lads on the Brecon Beacons who found the site of a previous trench, and decided this would be easier to dig.  (Sennybridge area is very hard digging).  However they suddenly found that the previously excavated and then filled in trench had been a latrine!

 

Our Colour Sergeant was reluctant to let them start a new one until they had dug down right to the bottom of the one they'd started.

 

Character building I called it. (But there again, it wasn't my trench.🤣)

[Dave Hunt]

Good morning from the northern reaches of Hipposhire. My recent absence has been due to several things, not least of which was a three day trip to a friend's remembrance service where I did one of the eulogies. It wasn't exactly a funeral as there was no body; he had donated it for medical research and it currently resides frozen in Cardiff but when it has served its purpose (which can be up to three years) can be either buried or cremated and interred in the garden of remembrance where the memorial service was held.

 

On a lighter note, I went to the Stafford show on Saturday with a pal where we met up with HH and pal, as been reported earlier. Much wagging of chins was indulged in, much coffee was consumed and I had a very good bacon butty. Oh, yes, there were some model railways there too. Actually it was a good show and the overall standard of modelling was quite high.

 

I've now got Dad's house on the market and have had an offer but the intended buyers have yet to put their present house on the market so I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

 

That's about all of note from North Hipposhire at present so tatty bye and have a good week.

 

Dave 

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

The top soil needs to be free draining and not clay.

 

Don't ask me how I know this.

 

We had two lads on the Brecon Beacons who found the site of a previous trench, and decided this would be easier to dig.  (Sennybridge area is very hard digging).  However they suddenly found that the previously excavated and then filled in trench had been a latrine!

 

Our Colour Sergeant was reluctant to let them start a new one until they had dug down right to the bottom of the one they'd started.

 

Character building I called it. (But there again, it wasn't my trench.🤣)

 

Using there initiative is I believe a better phrase or making use of the areas features.

[Compound2632]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

As a former pongo it comes naturally to him. He thinks he's getting ready for bed.

 

Elucidation requested. I cannot relate this to any sense of the word "pongo" either previously known to me or just looked up! Or is it one of your smartphone typos?

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Elucidation requested. I cannot relate this to any sense of the word "pongo" either previously known to me or just looked up! Or is it one of your smartphone typos?

I think it is what the navy call soldiers. My knowledge is very secondhand from reading historical novels not any martial experience. 

[TheQ]

Where the Army  goes the Pong goes.. Hence Pongos..

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Tony_S said:

I think it is what the navy call soldiers. My knowledge is very secondhand from reading historical novels not any martial experience. 

 

Aha, yes, thanks:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_British_military_slang_and_expressions#P

pongo

(RN/RM) army soldier. "Everywhere the army goes, the pong (stink) goes."; derived from the supposed inferior washing facilities in the field compared to those on a navy vessel.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Using there initiative is I believe a better phrase or making use of the areas features.

A neighbour’s brother was chatting to me and told a tale of a course he was sent on on Salisbury plain about advanced infantry techniques. Anyway they were supposed to make some sort of clay oven to cook a chicken (supplied with feathers, head, feet and intestines). Anyway just before this Patrick was sent off to refuel their vehicle. On the way back he bought a cooked chicken from a shop and put it in his clay oven. The instructor was “not amused “ and ate it in front of him while he did it properly.  Patrick said his mistake was leaving his in the foil bag. 

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The top soil needs to be free draining and not clay.

 

Don't ask me how I know this.

 

We had two lads on the Brecon Beacons who found the site of a previous trench, and decided this would be easier to dig.  (Sennybridge area is very hard digging).  However they suddenly found that the previously excavated and then filled in trench had been a latrine!

 

Our Colour Sergeant was reluctant to let them start a new one until they had dug down right to the bottom of the one they'd started.

 

Character building I called it. (But there again, it wasn't my trench.🤣)

I did hear a tale that when new recruits at the beginning  of WW2 were put in temporary camps.  The camps were obviously laid out from the standard army manuals where there had been similar camps in WW1.  The spot for the latrines was located and guess what the discovered when they started digging, merde as the French would say though now caca seems to be the new word.

 

As to the word pongos, when I did my basic training I was in a dorm wiith ex forces peopke from all the main branches including The Gaurds and one that @TheQ should recognise, an ex QCS man.  The various insults flew thick and fast. As a former long haired student dropout I got away scot free.

 

Jamie

Edited September 26, 2022 by jamie92208

[Happy Hippo]

I seemed to have done a lot of nothing today, and consequently I'm worn out.

 

I went and collected some stuff from Screwfix and then managed to clear the Bramley Apples from the trees, and picked another load of the Worcester Apples.  There are still plenty left on the tree for when I run out.

 

Apart from that a little bit of wood filling, but that was after I'd used Nyda's hairdryer (with permission) to melt out some resin in a pine plank, the hole that was left being scraped out and given a coat of sanding sealer. 

 

I did a little bit of visulisation work in the ex-conservatory using the floor tiles as a ruler/template, then putting down  various carboard boxes as buildings  and some Peco turnout templates:  Pantmawr North's successor is already to move off the drawing board.

[simontaylor484]

9Ex conservatory? Have you taken it over as railway room territory? Did you hold a dodgy referendum to gain control?

Just asking because need to make a similar land grab.

A bit of Libensraum if you will (without any connection to the Third Reich of course)

 

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

9Ex conservatory? Have you taken it over as railway room territory? Did you hold a dodgy referendum to gain control?

Just asking because need to make a similar land grab.

A bit of Libensraum if you will (without any connection to the Third Reich of course)

 

Just be careful.  I have a carefully agreed contract for thecusevof The Shed but there are mutterings going on about not enough space for gardening equipment.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

9Ex conservatory? Have you taken it over as railway room territory? Did you hold a dodgy referendum to gain control?

Just asking because need to make a similar land grab.

A bit of Libensraum if you will (without any connection to the Third Reich of course)

 

It is an ex conservatory because the polycarbonate roof was replaced with a solid one. This allows it to be used throughout the year. Railways have equal standing with using it as a swimming pool or an aerodrome.

[SM42]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Just be careful.  I have a carefully agreed contract for thecusevof The Shed but there are mutterings going on about not enough space for gardening equipment.

 

Jamie

 

Hang on

 

As your shed is the size of Lichenstein, I dread to think what equipment you use for gardening .

 

Andy

[newbryford]

6 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

Hang on

 

As your shed is the size of Lichenstein, I dread to think what equipment you use for gardening .

 

Andy

 

One of these?