Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dull start today and thumbles of runder in the distance. Sunshine & showers are forecast.

Aching all over after yesterday's safari to Didcot so today will be my "day of rest". I suspect someone else will have other ideas. Wallet slightly lighter today as my two companions dragged me into the secondhand shop and forced me to buy a couple of Collett coaches.   

Have a good one,

Bob.

[travelintrev]

Good Morning all, day "off" for me as today & tomorrow are public (religious) holidays - but of course its raining, dull and over cast and for here - chilly (24c) 

 

Managed to get quite a bit done on my de-Winton alike yesterday too. (photo Later)

My GF sent me link to video of the "Rocky Mountaineer"  which led to a couple of others (as you tube tends to.....including Toronto - Vancouver.......got a far as Winnipeg and the 'net went....... bu*^ertation!   Never mind something for another day? 

 

What ever you're up to today, try and make the most of it. 

 

Trev.

[Coombe Barton]

Occasional light rain showers here in the far south west. Still pleasantly warm, not the heat of the past week.

 

Dog to vet later on this morning - needed to go out several times during the night and has been sick - cold nose, though. But she's been off her food, including chicken, which is not like her. With a caravan it's not like just letting her into the back garden, it's a leads on, full walk procedure. And when the leads come out the other one insists on coming as well. 'Picking up' slurry by torchlight is fun. And so we both didn't get all that much sleep last night as our comings and goings disturbed Sandy.

 

Hope that Sherry's continuing invasion doesn't produce too many casualties, and that others with afflictions are able to recover. My own is behaving, it seems. Two weeks for the next consultant visit so then we'll know more.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Coombe Barton

[The Lurker]

Morning all. rain in Sidcup this morning and clouds over Borough Market Junction.

It's taken me an hour to read through the pages of ERs....and now I really ought to be working!

 

Went to Hastings on Saturday - I've never seen the beach so busy, but we were there early so got parked and din't have to queue for the crazy golf. Both boys very irritating to say the least. The Mrs tells me I might as well cancel the holidays I've booked and she'll find childcare for them. She said she'd rather clean the loos for 12 hours a day in MacDonalds than look after them for 6 weeks. A combination of tiredness, age gap, one of them approachig puberty and the other with all the obsessions that ASD can bring (in this case the numbers on the scorecard). And worst of all, they both beat me!

 

But later at home, she said she'd enjoyed the day!

 

 

Would like to comment on quite a few of the themes on here and may get back later; in the meanwhile, a bit of tax law case analysis beckons!

[PhilJ W]

Morning all, woken by some distant thunder this morning but drifted off to sleep again. Cloudy and overcast this morning but forecast to get better.

[Adams442T]

Just had (another) delivery from the Post Office.  First one woke me up at 7am with some kit for my changeover to BT internet connection on Wednesday.

 

I (gently) enquired as to why the 7am delivery couldn't have come with the 9 am one.  "Ah, well, the first one was a 'timed delivery'", he said.

 

Oh right, that's OK then.........................................

[Pete 75C]

Ah... Royal Mail. The well-known early morning alarm call. At least it would be if I wanted to get up at 8.40am, or 10am, or ten to 12, or not at all on some days...

[NGT6 1315]

Now speeding north from Halle to Magdeburg. Train will reverse there.

[Barry O]

Now speeding north from Halle to Magdeburg. Train will reverse there.

Hope the journey goes well!

[DDolfelin]

Now speeding north from Halle to Magdeburg. Train will reverse there.

 

Will you then be speeding south from Magdeburg to Halle?

[NGT6 1315]

Will you then be speeding south from Magdeburg to Halle?

No, west to Hanover, southwestish to Cologne, west to Brussels, further west to London. Not all on the same train, of course!

[Debs.]

Migraine! ..........My reward for a busy weekend spent MIG-welding and fabricating a sturdy stand for the newly arrived machine.....It appears that today will be a right-off in consequence.

 

Wishing E.R`s a nice day .................See you all tomorrow..

[NGT6 1315]

Be well soon, Debs! Awful how migraines can knock one out indeed...

 

Did I mention I love the smell of hot brake pads in the morning?

[Oldddudders]

When RSJs are made of lentils, the greenies really will have taken over the planet!

 

Windows open, and I heard a tractor decelerate, as if going into the field. Since the maize isn't fully ripened this was a surprise. being a nosey type, poked my head out and saw tractor - massive 4-wd thing - reversing gently up the hill, pushing a huge trailer of corn. The reason? A combine harvester just coming up the hill and the road isn't wide enough for both.

 

Hope John's dog quickly up and about again. Hope John's other problem remains zapped! ISTR 37 treatments was the prescription?

[southern42]

All to no avail as I wasn't able to make it.

Was it more or less the same as last year?

Hope you enjoyed it, Polly.

 

I'm sure we'll meet elsewhere but we'll be at Warrington 18-19 October.

 

There were a few layouts at Llandudno that have been there in recent years but also different ones.  They also had the use of an extra room.

We did enjoy our weekend and much appreciated the friendly and supportive people around us.

Layouts listed on the link below.

http://www.colwynmodelrailwayclub.co.uk/index.php/exhibitions

 

 

  Now, back to ER topics 

 

Morning all from a cloudy damp north west.Wales.

Pondering what we're going to do today.

So, with that bit of really fascinating news, I'll bid farewell till later.

Have a good day.

Polly

[iL Dottore]

Morning All,

...
Dog to vet later on this morning - needed to go out several times during the night and has been sick - cold nose, though. But she's been off her food, including chicken, which is not like her....

Sorry to hear that the dog is ill. I found out from our Vet friend (an old friend of Mrs iD) that it is a myth that the state of a dog's nose does indicate how healthy a dog may be (an answer, given to me with some exasperation, when I called her to ask about the HM's day-long dry nose). Vomiting, diarrhoea, anorexia (not eating) and lethargy are all more reliable indicators that all is not well, and even then, a single episode of diarrhoea or one day of not eating may not be diagnostic of anything (back in the spring and before Schotty received his contraceptive chip, he went periodically off his food when he "fell in love" a.k.a. after getting a noseful of the pheromones of a female in oestrus). Let's hope all is well in the end.

 

On the subject of dogs, Schotty and Mrs iD departed this morning for two weeks in the holiday hovel. So I can look forward to 2 weeks of peace and quiet - interspersed with working at home and rehearsals

 

Enjoy the day.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Hope things are improving chez Sherry - and in case anyone wonders the 'funny' on Ian's post was in respect of our mutual past colleague (as in 'funny peculiar' rather than 'funny ha-ha' although on one snowbound occasion at Paddington it was far from funny as Control were trying to run one train service which they were agreeing with me to make  sure there were traincrew resources while said 'funny peculiar' Chris was busily altering it to suit his idea of the HST set working - not a good way to spend the afternoon of New Year's Eve ).

 

Anyway be good you lot as once a Tesco trip is out of the way I shall be starting my trek northwards.  Stay clear of the frothing tomorrow and duck when the shrieks of anguish start as I'm sure there are going to be some - you'll understand why if/when you follow the news.

 

Have a good day, good journey, recovery etc whichever is appropriate for the day.

[bbishop]

Dominic,

 

Are you staying in London?  If you are interested in an ER meet, I'm coming up town on Wednesday afternoon - to collect trees!

 

Bill

[Motters]

Hi All,

 

Be Just over a week since my birthday ride on the Steamranger railway at Mount Barker... Had a great time and the weather was perfect... a better birhtday you cannot have!!

 

I am going to try to add a few photo's and some info about the loco for those of you that are interested.

 

Motters

 

So the top photo is the loco backing onto the coaches... the middle one proves that we even had 'Phil the Greek' travelling with us... and the last one is of the Baker valve gear.

 

 

 

 

And now a few details of the loco for those interested...

 

The 620 class

The completion of the South Australian Railways (SAR) broad gauge route between Adelaide and Port Pirie created a need for a fast, light passenger locomotive to haul this service, as well as other traffic on the lightly laid 60-lb (29.8 kg/m) rail branch lines of the SAR. The specification included the ability to haul a 200-long-ton (200 t) train up a 1-in-45 (2.2%) grade at 25 miles per hour (40 km/h).

Mr P.J. Shea, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the SAR designed a 140 ton Pacific type. A notable feature of the design, unique to South Australian Railways, was the use of Baker valve gear in lieu of the more common Walschaerts valve gear.^[2] The first locomotive (620) was completed at the SAR workshops at the Islington Workshops in 1936, with the tenth and final locomotive of the class (629) completed in 1938.

Class leader No. 620 was also notable for being Australia's first streamlined locomotive, the smokebox being covered with a chromed steel grille similar to those fitted to motor cars of the period, and painted Hawthorn green with yellow stripes.^[1] The press of the time described 620's appearance as 'a bit of fluff'. The remainder of the class were unstreamlined.

In service, the 620 class replaced the Q and S 4-4-0 types on branchline services, where they proved quite successful. With the introduction of the more powerful and modern 520 class from 1943, these locomotives were relegated to the Willunga, Bridgewater and Tailem Bend passenger services, as well as continued service on Mallee line services (the locomotives light axle loading providing good route ability plus the "get up and go" characteristics common to large wheeled Pacific type locomotives.

The 620 class was phased out in favour of Bluebird Railcars, although a spate of railcar failures in 1954–55 saw the 620 class return to service on the Port Pirie line.

In 1994, the 'Duke of Edinburgh' steam locomotive number 621 ran a one-off special steam hauled tour into Victoria just before the Melbourne to Adelaide mainline was converted from broad gauge rail line to a standard gauge track. This was the first ever time a South Australian Railways steam locomotive had ever worked east into Victoria and with the gauge conversion imminent the tour would also be the last. The train travelled as far east as Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, due to the locomotive being too wide for the stations situated along the Melbourne suburban railway system. The locomotive combined with Victorian Railways R Class Steam locomotive 761 for the majority of the tour from Wolseley in South Australia to Bacchus Marsh in Victoria.

All but two of the locomotives were scrapped by 1969. One is preserved in working condition by SteamRanger (621) with the second (624) held in the National Railway Museum (Port Adelaide).

 

 

Specifications

Power type

Steam

Designer

P. J. Shea

Builder

South Australian Railways, Islington Workshops

Build date

1936–1938

Total produced

10

Configuration

4-6-2

UIC classification

2′C1′h

Gauge

5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)

Driver diameter

5 ft 6 in (1.676 m)

Length

69 ft 8 in (21.23 m)

Axle load

15 tons 18 cwt (35,600 lb or 16.1 t)

Locomotive weight

81 tons 10 cwt (182,600 lb or 82.8 t)

Locomotive and tender
combined weight

140 tons 15 cwt (315,300 lb or 143.0 t)

Fuel type

Coal

Fuel capacity

9 tons 0 cwt (20,200 lb or 9.2 t)

Water capacity

5,200 imp gal (24,000 l)

Boiler pressure

200 psi (1.4 MPa)

Firegrate area

33.4 sq ft (3.10 m²)

Heating surface:
– Tubes

1,560 sq ft (145 m²)

– Firebox

175 sq ft (16.3 m²)

Superheater area

421 sq ft (39.1 m²)

Cylinders

Two

Cylinder size

18.5 in × 28 in (470 mm × 711 mm)

Valve gear

Baker

Tractive effort

25,239 lbf (112.27 kN)

 

Edited July 28, 2014 by Motters

[AndyB]

 Stay clear of the frothing tomorrow and duck when the shrieks of anguish start as I'm sure there are going to be some - you'll understand why if/when you follow the news.

 

So far no-one on the "Pie" thread has been too crusty or suggested hand raising a hand to anyone else, nor suggested that brawn is better than brain.

In fact most people are being totally un-shellfish.

Perhaps someone should mention "salad" and see how long peace reigns!!  

Edited July 28, 2014 by AndyB

[Ashcombe]

Thank you, everyone, for the concern and supportive responses re my family issues; your warmth has helped me through some downhearted moments. This morning, I took my son and daughter (the troublesome one) and two of the grandchildren to view the apartment on which I've had an offer accepted. It's in Babbacombe overlooking Cary Park (the block is called Carydale Court; if you're into Google steetview it'sat the junction of St. Alban's Road and St. Anne's Road. TQ1 3NF) so a good area and on level ground for when I drag Ian out for a walk or we stagger home from a local hostelry!

 

They were very impressed with its location and facilities and my son was even more impressed with the young, blonde female estate agent!!

 

Later today, as Ian mentioned, most of them will meet hubby's new lady but my son has declined to join them and wants us to hit the shops and bars in Torquay. Suits me!

 

Have a great week, you lovely folk!

[NGT6 1315]

Bucolics United:

 

[AndyB]

it'sat the junction of St. Alban's Road and St. Anne's Road. TQ1 3NF) so a good area and on level ground for when I drag Ian out for a walk or we stagger home from a local hostelry!

 

 

Nice view! Wot no wilderbeest?

Edited July 28, 2014 by AndyB

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, bit late, honey-do list.....

 

Sherry, hang in there.  Sounds as if your son is beginning to see clearly - maybe he could influence his sister!  Families,eh.  We've been through a bit of that in the past, let's just say we're glad Debs parents live in Kiwi!

 

Tidy-up day today as I have a few folk coming tomorrow to play trains run steamers on the large scale outdoor line.  One of them is a superb engineer (he has done OO live steam in the past, scratch built) so usually brings something clever to show me!  Another a highly skilled CAD draughtsman responsible for some new 15mm scale  IoM wagons about to hit the market, but as it would be advertising I won't say any more.

 

Keeps looking as if it might rain here, that'll be right, see above!

[BoD]

Did I mention I love the smell of hot brake pads in the morning?

I prefer hot bacon rolls myself.