The Night Mail

[BR60103]

duplicate post

Edited October 31, 2022 by BR60103
duplicate

[zarniwhoop]

15 hours ago, rockershovel said:

The Sergeant-Instructor made us the following promises on Day One...

 

1) by the end of the course, we would be able to ski better than "any ponce on the tv" 

2) we would never want to see skis, ever again

 

I have no standard of comparison for the first, but the second prediction has borne up remarkably well....

I remember going on a weekend cross-country course somewhere in England (rollerskis, a tiny artificial track to practice team relays, probably mostly stressing how to train off-snow) ,  and one of the organisers was a guy who now comments  on Eurosport XC and Biathlon. He recounted a tale of taking the army XC skiers down an ungroomed alpine black run in Germany, so I think the first promise was probably also kept.

[AndyID]

I will attempt to make a video the next time I am schussing down the piste assuming of course I did not get too piste at the Schloss.

[rockershovel]

4 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

I remember going on a weekend cross-country course somewhere in England (rollerskis, a tiny artificial track to practice team relays, probably mostly stressing how to train off-snow) ,  and one of the organisers was a guy who now comments  on Eurosport XC and Biathlon. He recounted a tale of taking the army XC skiers down an ungroomed alpine black run in Germany, so I think the first promise was probably also kept.

You need to remember that the late 1960s/early 1970s Army was still manned and run by senior officers and NCOs who had served in Korea, Malaya and through the National Service / end of Empire period. It still had a culture of taking a fairly high turnover of at times, unwilling recruits and teaching them to do difficult, dangerous things as quickly as possible. 

 

I would also remark that this, and the RAF glider course required applicants to pass selection, which those courses generally didn't. At the time I was playing County Schoolboys rugby, had a recent history of National level U16 judo and had already done Arduous Training twice (now called Adventurous Training and probably much easier). All the candidates had similar backgrounds. 

 

The diving course asked if I could swim to Life Saving Bronze standard (not a very ambitious threshold!) ... but if you didn't pass the "mud run" on Day One, a fairly brutal physical training exercise involving running across mud flats in a dry suit, you weren't allowed to suit up or go in the Training lake. You could stay if you wished, do the classroom and assist, or be RTU (released, in context) at your discretion. 

 

Whether I could, or can ski has never been put to the test since! I will say that it was just about the most demanding week I can recall, and that includes being a roughneck and derrickman in the N Sea..

Edited October 30, 2022 by rockershovel

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

You train hard and then fight easy.

 

After watching "Kajaki - The True Story" I'm not so sure....

[Tony_S]

6 hours ago, AndyID said:

I will attempt to make a video the next time I am schussing down the piste assuming of course I did not get too piste at the Schloss.

We have been to quite a few ski resorts but not in the winter. Even in summer though there were people transporting their ski stuff up to the altitudes where snow survived. 

[Happy Hippo]

A bit of a surprise this morning.

 

The door bell rang and when the door was opened it revealed a post man.  Royal Mail doing deliveries on a Sunday?

 

Wonders will never cease.

 

The parcel contained the pack of kits from DJ Parkins.

 

These kits were from the late Adrian Swain's ABS/43Two1 Models range, and for those not in the know, he used old newspapers as stuffing inside the boxes.

 

I had to open one to find out the date: It was part of an old Radio Times for the week starting Sat 07 May 1988.

 

From what information I have gleaned over the years, he was a stickler for detail and the white metal castings are clean and crisp apart from a little bit of the inevitable flash.  I noted that there are steel drawing pins used as buffer heads.  These scale out as quite a bit bigger than the more normal 9 inch dia buffer heads on my other wagons.

 

Of course wagon kits have come along way since then so I think I'll have to replace the the buffer heads and the white metal draw hooks.  My mentor in such matters provided a drawing which suggests GWR self contained parallel shank buffers, which by coincidence are produced by Peco, as a combined sprung buffer/draw hook kit.  This would be a simple upgrade.  With the low mileage these wagons will be doing, do I fit brass bearings to the white metal axle box journals, or do I just build it/them as intended and give them a drop of graphite for lubrication?

 

One definite replacement will be the very thin embossed plastic floor.  Since the Roll wagons will need various timber securing blocks fitted, it would make sense and would be a lot easier to build the whole lot in timber away from the wagon kit and then fit it once completed. 

 

Here I go, making more work for myself!

 

Outside the weather is brightening up so I need to get outside once more.

 

I have cupboards to rearrange in the workshop after my demolition of one of their number yesterday afternoon.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[SM42]

I'm just topping up my tan, such is the weather here.

 

It's the BiL's birthday today, so this afternoon cake is a certainty. 

 

Andy

[Oldddudders]

By my standards, I have had a busy week. Weds the car had its second MOT, which in France means it's 6 years old. They start at 4 years, then every 2. Actually it wasn't registered new until March, but was made and in the system at the end of November. I needed to get it done early, as tomorrow I'm off to the UK for at least 6 weeks. 

 

Thursday I saw my GP, and she was very pleased with my blood pressure results, taken at home over the last 6 months. All the figures I gave her were genuine, too. She regards it as stabilised. What I haven't told her is that after a few weeks of the latest prescription in Feb, I found I was getting ridiculous swelling of the ankles. So I have been taking half the recommended dose ever since. The ankles are fine, the BP is fine, all is well. 

 

Friday I saw my rheumatologist, having first had an x-ray of the back, and lo, she was pleased too! No further deterioration of vertebrae, possibly a slight improvement. She is a lovely, warm person who enjoys practising her English, which is nearly as good as my French. She is also agitating for more doctors in Sarthe. She must be at least 60, skinny as a rake, but delightful. When I told her the reason for my imminent trip to UK she was very supportive. 

 

So, why am I going back to the UK? Tomorrow Sherry has heart surgery, repairing her mitral valve. She will be in dock in Plymouth for about a week, then need considerable running round after for another month at least. The heart, which is stopped while they do the repair, recovers quite quickly, evidently, but breaking the sternum to get on site needs a good deal of recovery. Upper chest muscles will be very reluctant, and even breathing may be painful. As we've just celebrated 7 years of marriage, it will test us a bit....

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

A bit of a surprise this morning. With the low mileage these wagons will be doing, do I fit brass bearings to the white metal axle box journals, or do I just build it/them as intended and give them a drop of graphite for lubrication?

 

Do it properly and fit brass bearings.  One day you'll be glad you did.

[Flying Fox 34F]

Got back from England last night to see reports Elon Musk and 200 other VIPs are in my neighbourhood?  

He’s hired Bran Castle, Romania, (home of Bram Stoker’s Dracula), for a Halloween party tonight!!!!!!  We live ten minutes up the road from the castle.  Might have to see if our names are on the Guest List?????? No chance.
This country’s news channels are reporting a party he held in Poiana Brasov last night.  Based on what I’ve seen on TV it might be a very late night?

 

Paul

[jjb1970]

19 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I think that the return flight for PB and I to visit a cake shop in Indonesia for just such a cake even more expensive!

 

Oh, go on, you can't take it with you🤣 

[jjb1970]

15 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Back in the sixties my late father was a controller at Kings Cross coach station. Part of his duties was organising coaches for various holiday companies. Shortly before one Christmas a director of one of the holiday companies turned up in his Rolls Royce and handed out a bottle of whisky each from a case in the boot of the roller to my dad and his colleagues. My dad thought it was ordinary whisky so he put it to one side and offered a nip to such as the insurance man and other callers. About three quarters of the bottle had gone when one of the callers remarked "This is good.", so my dad then read the label and discovered it was a twenty year old single malt. My dad was fond of his whisky and he was almost in tears. 

 

When I worked in electricity generation all of the contractors used to ask 'what bottle' I liked at Christmas. I used to decline and say if they wanted to make a gift stick a few quid in the local hospice box, but if they insisted I send the bottles down to the control room for those who liked the stuff to take home (obviously not to be opened on-site).

[jjb1970]

On flying to Indonesia, one of my most memorable flying experiences was on an Air France flight from Jakarta to Paris. An old dear squatted down in the aisle and squeezed out a curler, the poor old woman had probably been sat in agony trying to hold it in until Paris in ignorance of the fact that planes are fitted with bogs. The attendants dealt with it very well, it was obvious that the lady in question was not familiar with air travel and the amenities available.

[jjb1970]

Another golden memory of Indonesia was when the unpleasantness in East Timor heated up as Indonesia withdrew. I was on a ship in the area. We were sent to Singapore to load up with equipment to do a work package, bunker and various other things and the company said anyone who wanted to go home would be repatriated and they'd find other ships, but if anyone stayed on they'd get a war bonus which was...ahem...rather generous. However, it was made very clear that they were making the offer to repatriate anyone who wanted to leave, with no negative career consequences, if people took the war bonus then they were committing to remain onboard. I decided a war bonus wasn't worth much if I ended up dead and was flown home and redeployed on another ship by the company but I was the only one. To be honest I was pleased as I was the only British person and some of the jibes about poms etc were getting a bit tired and overdone. Jump forward a couple of weeks, here it is relevant that the company in question paints their ships a pale blue which is very similar to UN blue, the local ragamuffins decided the boat was a UN battleship come to subjugate them and opened up with small arms, machine guns and RPGs. The old man was on the bat phone apparently demanding that everyone be repatriated immediately and collapsed in tears when told that the company would accept his resignation and that of everyone else and they'd see what they could do. It might sound brutal but the company had made very clear they were making an offer to either go home or be handsomely rewarded but it was one or the other, not both.

[rockershovel]

5 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Another golden memory of Indonesia was when the unpleasantness in East Timor heated up as Indonesia withdrew. I was on a ship in the area. We were sent to Singapore to load up with equipment to do a work package, bunker and various other things and the company said anyone who wanted to go home would be repatriated and they'd find other ships, but if anyone stayed on they'd get a war bonus which was...ahem...rather generous. However, it was made very clear that they were making the offer to repatriate anyone who wanted to leave, with no negative career consequences, if people took the war bonus then they were committing to remain onboard. I decided a war bonus wasn't worth much if I ended up dead and was flown home and redeployed on another ship by the company but I was the only one. To be honest I was pleased as I was the only British person and some of the jibes about poms etc were getting a bit tired and overdone. Jump forward a couple of weeks, here it is relevant that the company in question paints their ships a pale blue which is very similar to UN blue, the local ragamuffins decided the boat was a UN battleship come to subjugate them and opened up with small arms, machine guns and RPGs. The old man was on the bat phone apparently demanding that everyone be repatriated immediately and collapsed in tears when told that the company would accept his resignation and that of everyone else and they'd see what they could do. It might sound brutal but the company had made very clear they were making an offer to either go home or be handsomely rewarded but it was one or the other, not both.

I always asked myself the following questions in such cases;

- what is the nature of the danger?

- how serious is it?

- does it affect me?

- if not, is there any useful reason I should involve myself?

- is it realistic that I can remain here / go there (delete as not applicable) and generally behave as though its not my problem?

 

I worked in the S China Sea at one time but started coming up with too many "red lights" to those sort of questions a long while ago. 

 

For quite a long time I also worked on the basis of "avoid anywhere with a z in its name, or ending in -stan" but the (relative) stabilisation of the Former Soviet countries, particularly around the Caspian moved those particular goalposts. 

 

Places claiming to be the "people's..." whatever are usually best avoided, too. 

[5 C]

41 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

For quite a long time I also worked on the basis of "avoid anywhere with a z in its name, ...".

I guess that meant Penzance was out of the question? 

Edited October 30, 2022 by 5 C

[Florence Locomotive Works]

A rare moment of peace was found today so I thought I could manage a post showing progress on the Iron Duke.

 

The smokebox is now complete bar the door and cylinder covers, it is hewn from one solid peice of steel. The driving wheels have also received an engraving. I was recently flown out to New York by the  Plumier Foundation for one of their events and took the Duke with me so I could do some work on it in their amazing Workshop. The driving wheels were engraved on the famed Holtzappfel no 1636 lathe using the Ibbetson geometric chuck, both made in 1838 and used by many famous people.

 

 

 

Some African Blackwood is in the process of being shipped to me to form the Duke’s cab.

 

Douglas

Edited October 30, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, 5 C said:

I guess that meant Penzance was out of the question? 

 

Well yes. The place is full of bleeping pirates.

 

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

A rare moment of peace was found today so I thought I could manage a post showing progress on the Iron Duke.

 

The smokebox is now complete bar the door and cylinder covers, it is hewn from one solid peice of steel. The driving wheels have also received an engraving. I was recently flown out to New York by the  Plumier Foundation for one of their events and took the Duke with me so I could do some work on it in their amazing Workshop. The driving wheels were engraved on the famed Holtzappfel no 1636 lathe using the Ibbetson geometric chuck, both made in 1838 and used by many famous people.

 

 

 

Some African Blackwood is in the process of being shipped to me to form the Duke’s cab.

 

Douglas

Nice to see you drop by Douglas

[newbryford]

3 hours ago, 5 C said:

I guess that meant Penzance was out of the question? 

 

And Zummerzet.................

[polybear]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I think it’s called “pricing up to the market” (or some such term). Basically, what it means is that you set your pricing to what the market will bear.

 

ISTR that BA asked their regulars on Concorde how much did they think their Ticket cost - most didn't have a clue because their Secretary etc. always made the travel arrangements; as a result they guessed what they thought the ticket price was.  It seems that so many guessed the tickets were far more expensive than they really were it caused BA to jack the prices right up to those levels in order to make Concorde much more profitable (or the losses a lot less?).

 

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On flying to Indonesia, one of my most memorable flying experiences was on an Air France flight from Jakarta to Paris. An old dear squatted down in the aisle and squeezed out a curler, the poor old woman had probably been sat in agony trying to hold it in until Paris in ignorance of the fact that planes are fitted with bogs. The attendants dealt with it very well, it was obvious that the lady in question was not familiar with air travel and the amenities available.

 

Bear was just munchin' on a slice of peanut butter on toast when he read that....it kinda took the edge off the enjoyment somehow....

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Well yes. The place is full of bleeping pirates.

 

Not as many as Hastings. 
 

The world record for the most pirates in one place was hotly contested but Hastings beat Penzance by a short yard-arm 

Penzance managed a few hundred fewer. 
 

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-gathering-of-pirates

[Happy Hippo]

Things are looking up somewhat on the port side of the garage.  The other side is not so pretty.

 

All this work is of a somewhat temporary nature as eventually the wooden cupboards at the end of the port side will be removed and the heavy duty shelves currently along the starboard side will be moved over to replace them.  So all my kit will just get comfortable and then get rudely moved on again.

 

However, due to all the other junk in the garage it's a case of musical chairs as stuff is moved around and placed in locations, whilst other stuff is being moved out of these locations knowing they have no home to go to except the local recycling centre.

 

The important thing is I am now starting to carry out a serious reduction in all my spare bits and pieces and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Next on the thinning out agenda is my surplus model railway collection(s).

[SM42]

That's it. 

 

Car is in position for the off. Last few things wait by the door to avoid being forgotten. 

 

Birthday cake has been consumed along with another chocolately  cake and what can only be described as black forest meringue. 

 

Goodbyes have been said and all that now remains is to get some sleep. 

 

I'm  sorry to be leaving what I consider to be home, but am looking forward to getting home.

 

A week of decorating  awaits.

 

Andy