Early Risers.

[Purley Oaks]

Congratulations Heeley Bridge Dave!

 

Good to see Jock back, too, hope things get sorted very soon.

 

To conflate measles and kids tv progs - when I had measles aged 4 or 5 I had some strong hallucinations but was unable convince my mum or the doc that all of The Woodentops were playing along the picture rail just by the door - they really were! - can still see it today!

 

Back to my morning pills!

 

Mal

[southern42]

Morning all from red dragon land.
Sunny with silvery pink clouds and a fair bit of blue sky.
 

Ah, a timely reminder of Southend pier. Funnily enough the other day I watched this promotional film, narrated by Johnie Morris. Possibly that was promoted by catching a program with Jamie Oliver et celebs cooking at the end of the pier. 
 
From the look of the holiday makers in this film global warming must be working in reverse. My early childhood memories are of catching the double decker down to Chalkwall and paddling on the beach. By my late teenage years we used to go sailing on Leigh creek and there was ice  formed right on the edge of the water.  Technically this might be explained by a phenomenon known as "summer" and "winter", rather than climate change.  
 
I note a lot of train-related photos appearing. Boy, you lot like to live dangerously!

 

Guilty, good sir,  Next time I'll scenic out all but the scenery. 

 

And on that little note, hope that all you out there who are living dangerously take extra care. 

[AndyB]

Morning all from red dragon land.

Sunny with silvery pink clouds and a fair bit of blue sky.

 

 

Guilty, good sir,  Next time I'll scenic out all but the scenery. 

 

And on that little note, hope that all you out there who are living dangerously take extra care. 

 

Heard a rumour that "she" is lurking; ever vigilant and ready to pounce.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I did remember my pill this morning and as the days are clearly marked on the strip I've really got no excuse. Last time I went to the end of Southend pier it was on the old electric pier railway that was like a cross between the Underground and a Blackpool tram. A few years ago there was a museum at the shore end of the pier that had one of the cars together with a toastrack car from a previous generation of cars. IIRC one or two of the older cars are now running on the Volks Electric Railway at Brighton.

[Coombe Barton]

Heard a rumour that "she" is lurking; ever vigilant and ready to pounce.

Maybe from California - or maybe back.

[Oldddudders]

Heard a rumour that "she" is lurking; ever vigilant and ready to pounce.

Ooh! Goody!

[BoD]

..........so we will need to contact the council for a special collection.

If you council is anything like ours I hope your credit card is well topped up.

[BoD]

Roundhouse.

Instead of retiring the loco try reversing the leads on the motor.

I don't know if it's exactly the same problem as yours (sounds very similar) but there's a possible CV based fix in the DCC Questions section.

[lightengine]

If you council is anything like ours I hope your credit card is well topped up.

Put a free ad in the local paper and get someone to buy it cheaply and take it away.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Nice bit of sunshine and a decent proper job frost which - according to the Exeter seaweed would have 'felt like' -5 at 09.00, I didn't apply any sort of test.  Bad news on the NHS front, Drac's daughter has gone sick and no relief - the good Count must be slipping in his recruitment drive or there's too much garlic about nowadays; I am duly reappointmented for Friday.  I had a nice sausage sandwich instead of going out in the cold to walk to the surgery.

 

Now to the days' amusement - from our front windows we can see the backs and rear roof areas of some houses in the adjacent road from which ours diverges.  Yesterday a team from either Poland or Dallas arrived and commenced demolishing, or in the event merely shortening, a chimney which was clearly in no mood to be demolished/shortened.  As ever with such exponents of the art of building their safety etc precautions were somewhat lacking - leaving considerable areas of broken tiles,  the worst of which can be seen below, plus staining and damage where rubble was slid down the roof.

 

They have inserted a new metal flue and now appear to be reconstructing the chimney and stripping the (badly soiled by old mortar) tiles from elsewhere on the roof to replace the largest patch of broken ones (seen below).  Quite how they'll replace the ones they've robbed to replace the broken ones will be interesting as I doubt they''ll easily be found in any builders' merchants.  Meanwhile they seem to have finished work on the revision of the chimney and provision of a new metal flue.  Actually I hope they haven't finished as apart from being totally out of keeping with a tall chimney elsewhere on the property their handiwork falls somewhat short of the requirements of the Building Regulations because a brick count suggests that instead of being the required 1 metre above the point of contact with the roof the revised chimney just about manages to to be 1 foot above it and that it probably also falls rather short of the required 2.3 metre horizontal separation as the roof is quite steeply pitched.  Dunno about Poland but Dallas would definitely appear to be short of a couple of cowboys.

 

Have a good day everybody

 

Edited January 19, 2016 by The Stationmaster

[Coombe Barton]

Put a free ad in the local paper and get someone to buy it cheaply and take it away.

Or Freecycle - https://www.freecycle.org

[edcayton]

Morning all,

 

Nice bit of sunshine and a decent proper job frost which - according to the Exeter seaweed would have 'felt like' -5 at 09.00, I didn't apply any sort of test.  Bad news on the NHS front, Drac's daughter has gone sick and no relief - the good Count must be slipping in his recruitment drive or there's too much garlic about nowadays; I am duly reappointmented for Friday.  I had a nice sausage sandwich instead of going out in the cold to walk to the surgery.

 

Now to the days' amusement - from our front windows we can see the backs and rear roof areas of some houses in the adjacent road from which ours diverges.  Yesterday a team from either Poland or Dallas arrived and commenced demolishing, or in the event merely shortening, a chimney which was clearly in no moo to be demolished/shortened.  As ever with such exponents of the art of building their safety etc precautions were somewhat lacking - leaving considerable areas of broken tiles,  the worst of which can be seen below, plus staining and damage where rubble was slid down the roof.

 

They have inserted a new metal flue and now appear to be reconstructing the chimney and stripping the (badly soiled by old mortar) tiles from elsewhere on the roof to replace the largest patch of broken ones (seen below).  Quite how they'll replace the ones they've robbed to replace the broken ones will be interesting as I doubt they''ll easily be found in any builders' merchants.  Meanwhile they seem to have finished work on the revision of the chimney and provision of a new metal flue.  Actually I hope they haven't finished as apart from being totally out of keeping with a tall chimney elsewhere on the property their handiwork falls somewhat short of the requirements of the Building Regulations because a brick count suggests that instead of being the required 1 metre above the point of contact with the roof the revised chimney just about manages to to be 1 foot above it and that it probably also falls rather short of the required 2.3 metre horizontal separation as the roof is quite steeply pitched.  Dunno about Poland but Dallas would definitely appear to be short of a couple of cowboys.

 

Have a good day everybody

 

IMGP0311cr.jpg

 

I hope you have been round to tell the householder Mike. It's perfectly possible that they are in ignorance of their builder's inadequacies. (OTH if it's a DIY job you may get a punch on the nose!).

 

Ed

[The Stationmaster]

I hope you have been round to tell the householder Mike. It's perfectly possible that they are in ignorance of their builder's inadequacies. (OTH if it's a DIY job you may get a punch on the nose!).

 

Ed

That's the problem Ed - we don't know whoever it is who loves there otherwise I would have been talking to them yesterday.  At present there is a large amount of building material stacked in their front garden so the place might even be empty and someone has bought it for 'investment purposes'.  Technically the 'builders' could be seen to have breached H&S Regulations but that's a moot point in some respects and not worth an Inspector coming out even if I reported it.  Once I get a clear view - as could any pedestrian in our road (handy) - it will be clear if they are in breach of the Building Regulations so that might be reportable.

[southern42]

Or Freecycle - https://www.freecycle.org

 

Also, for local area groups - http://www.ilovefreegle.org/

[Tony_S]

I have tried giving stuff away before. I don't know why but people in Essex don't like stuff that has been pre owned except for cars! The organisations that recycle stuff for charity don't want anything that isn't perfect , in addition it doesn't have an attached fire safety certificate. The local council will take it (and 2 other large items) away for £25 which is cheaper than John Lewis' disposal charge. When we had a single bed to dispose of I chopped it up and took it to the recycling tip myself. I won't bother doing that again.

I tried for ages to get rid of a couple of good bikes. One went via a colleague of Aditi's to a charity in Newham, the other one went to my nephew who had more modern brakes fitted to it and rides it round Cambridge and home to Enfield.

Tony

[NGT6 1315]

A bit of a hint re this quiz!

 

 

 

 

…do take note of the signal plates on the OHLE!

 

Bonus points will be awarded if you can also guess the purpose of this facing crossover!

[Donw]

Morning all,

 

Nice bit of sunshine and a decent proper job frost which - according to the Exeter seaweed would have 'felt like' -5 at 09.00, I didn't apply any sort of test.  Bad news on the NHS front, Drac's daughter has gone sick and no relief - the good Count must be slipping in his recruitment drive or there's too much garlic about nowadays; I am duly reappointmented for Friday.  I had a nice sausage sandwich instead of going out in the cold to walk to the surgery.

 

Now to the days' amusement - from our front windows we can see the backs and rear roof areas of some houses in the adjacent road from which ours diverges.  Yesterday a team from either Poland or Dallas arrived and commenced demolishing, or in the event merely shortening, a chimney which was clearly in no mood to be demolished/shortened.  As ever with such exponents of the art of building their safety etc precautions were somewhat lacking - leaving considerable areas of broken tiles,  the worst of which can be seen below, plus staining and damage where rubble was slid down the roof.

 

They have inserted a new metal flue and now appear to be reconstructing the chimney and stripping the (badly soiled by old mortar) tiles from elsewhere on the roof to replace the largest patch of broken ones (seen below).  Quite how they'll replace the ones they've robbed to replace the broken ones will be interesting as I doubt they''ll easily be found in any builders' merchants.  Meanwhile they seem to have finished work on the revision of the chimney and provision of a new metal flue.  Actually I hope they haven't finished as apart from being totally out of keeping with a tall chimney elsewhere on the property their handiwork falls somewhat short of the requirements of the Building Regulations because a brick count suggests that instead of being the required 1 metre above the point of contact with the roof the revised chimney just about manages to to be 1 foot above it and that it probably also falls rather short of the required 2.3 metre horizontal separation as the roof is quite steeply pitched.  Dunno about Poland but Dallas would definitely appear to be short of a couple of cowboys.

 

Have a good day everybody

 

IMGP0311cr.jpg

 

These days it depends a bit on the appliance using the chimney. A pressure jet Oil boiler, its 600mm for a fan assisted gas boiler just says to manufacturers specification. |otherwise as you say. Additionally you have to avoid roof lights and the like. It is a whole lot more complicated these days.

Don

[Donw]

A bit of a hint re this quiz!

 

 

 

 

…do take note of the signal plates on the OHLE!

 

Bonus points will be awarded if you can also guess the purpose of this facing crossover!

 

My first thoughts were those red Ws could mean a weighted turnout with the arrow showing the weighted direction. But it puzzled me as to why have a facing crossover a trailing one would suit reversing a tram. Could it be for wrong road running if there is a problem? 

Don

[NGT6 1315]

My first thoughts were those red Ws could mean a weighted turnout with the arrow showing the weighted direction. But it puzzled me as to why have a facing crossover a trailing one would suit reversing a tram. Could it be for wrong road running if there is a problem? 

Don

 

Perhaps we might be referring to the same thing using different words, Don: These are manual points with a default setting, straight in this case. Being manual points, this means that passing oncoming services through these points is prohibited, which in this example could – strictly speaking – lead to a situation that neither of the facing services could proceed. The consequence is that drivers must agree on who should drive first. Our common practice is that citybound services have priority over outbound ones whenever no explicit regulations to the contrary apply, though at Meusdorf, I personally would yield to outbound services if I could see them to be significantly delayed. It might just amount to ten or twenty seconds for them if I wait, but at times, you do find yourself being grateful for every fraction of a minute you regain!

 

The original purpose of this facing crossover, as I was told, was that the citybound track could be used for stabling extra trains when major events take place in the parkland near the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, in which case the outbound track could indeed be used for maintaining services to Meusdorf with single track operation. There is a matching crossover at Franzosenallee further up the line:

 

 

…so that here, you can change back to the inbound track after wrong line running.

[brianthesnail96]

Afternoon all.
 
Lovely morning here too, proper thick frost that took a considerable time to melt in the sun this morning, not that I've been staring out the office window . At the moment it's trees and fields, but several thousand houses are threatened at some point in the next few years. Better make the most of it. Did have to deice both sides of the windscreen, and my seatbelt was frozen solid and didn't want to pull through the top loop- worth that to see some sunshine.
 
Been absent without leave again, sorry. Laura has been feeling under the weather this weekend so- somewhat on topic- we've had a couple of evenings in front of the laptop watching either (rather on topic, as it transpires) "The Herbs" or, not quite in the same league, Roadkill. The latter is a youtube series about a couple of guys in the States working on illogical car projects and going on road trips and such. It's a bit like the Top Gear challenges but without all the fakery and staged silliness. Not everyone's cup of tea but we both love it. I'm a bit difficult to age from the cartoons I watched as I was generally plonked in front of The Herbs or Ivor, both far older than me. Ringo- era Thomas is more telling, although apparently it used to make me quite cross as it was clearly no way to run a railway. My parents had recorded a couple of TV series onto VHS- "The Train Now Departing" (starring an occasional RMWeb poster and friend of NHN!) and "The Great Little Trains of Wales" which were watched as much as any cartoon. Probably explains a lot. Magic Roundabout was encountered rather later and was a brief fad but Brian the Snail has stuck with me.
 
Was at a funeral yesterday (my Grandad's best friend- in all honesty I didn't know him that well as we hadn't seen much of him since my Grandparents moved over this way 15- odd years back but my Grandad asked us to come along), it went as well as these things can. I must come clean and admit I'm not in any way religious so tend to feel a bit of a fraud when the service is heavily biased in that direction but this was as much about celebrating his life as it was about any journeys he may be going on from here on; it was a nice reflection of a well loved man (if something of a character although he'd have had to have been to remain friends with my Grandad for the best part of 80 years!). Laura was out for the evening so tried to leave the internet alone and had an evening with the radio and a good book instead. 
 
General mood hearabouts seems to be improving, great to see Jock back to some form of normality (it's a relative term I feel in this particular corner of the internet...) and folks getting over various illnesses etc.
 
Dom's quizzes just serve to show me how little I know about railway (tramway!)infrastructure and procedure- enjoying learning though!

Boing! (Just for NHN... I found my GSM "billboard" again the other day, with the elephant and blue pill- it doesn't make any more sense now than it did then!)
 
Enjoy the rest of the day all

Edited January 19, 2016 by brianthesnail96

[28XX]

Build it and they will come!!

 

Or not.

 

A desultory dribble of customers for the table, on the coldest day of the winter (probably).

 

Stevo

Edited January 19, 2016 by 28XX

[BoD]

Haven't heard from DD for a couple of days.

Hope all is well up the hill and with the in laws.

[Donw]

Build it and they will come!!

 

Or not.

 

A desultory dribble of customers for the table, on the coldest day of the winter (probably).

 

Stevo

 

In the winter Birds don't want to explore for the fun of it so tend to go where they expect to get food where they have previously found some. Once one or two find your supplies others will see them feeding and think perhaps I should try there. So it tends to build up. Then the sparrow hawk notices birds feeding there and will sneak up on them. Sometimes it can be busy one day but if the sparrow hawk catches some others may stay away for a bit but they come back as soon as the sparrow hawk moves on. A table which is kept topped up will often be a favourite end of day visit birds like to be sure to get a feed before bedtime often quite early  3pmish at this time of year.

Don

[Ian Abel]

Good to see you at least feeling good enough to stop in Jock, hope the oncologist will provide some improvements...

 

Morning all.

 

After the "package arrival/celebration" yesterday, there wasn't much else to report save an additional update on the "land line drama".

Still broken but somehow, in one of the brief moments it appears to work I managed an inbound call from the ever annoying "Microsoft Windows support team, re: the errors you're seeing on your computer". How is it that the phone can be essentially completely broken but these cockwombles manage to get through!

Since that one call - which I left them talking to themselves for about 5 minutes - the line continues to not work! <sigh>

EDIT: Ah yes, I also remembered the reason to KEEP a land line, it's tied into our alarm system! Duh! No land line, no call out to the police/fire in an emergency!

 

After work I decided the evening was best spent relaxing, so no modeling on the two new arrivals, or putzing with the errant phone line. Did sit with the Mrs and catch up on Downton Abbey - the last series is now being run here Sunday evenings but we missed the episode as we were out at our concert.

 

-21 and sunny retrieving the newspaper, but no reportable wind chill as there is no breeze. Expected to get slightly more sensible today with a high reaching -13.

 

May the farce be with you this sunny Tuesday

Edited January 19, 2016 by Ian Abel

[The Stationmaster]

Peculiarer and peculiarer said The Stationmaster.  The building works over the way are it seems some sort of first floor extension and the chimney stack in theory - according to the plans - will come out inside the new roof space (if they build according to the plans) which seems even dafter because despite the appearance of a brand new looking aluminium flue it might in fact be capped - but above the existing roofline.  Rather odd but it might make more sense as work progresses beyond the present stage of ripping various things apart just in time for the rain later this week; time will tell.  They're also required to match the existing brick finish which could be interesting as the bricks are definitely neither a modern size nor the sort of finish which has been available for a long time.

 

In the meanwhile I was rather amiss in informing ERs that the good Doctor arrived in Warsaw yesterday on the tourist trail for a few days.  She rang to report her arrival at the hotel and advised that the entrance lobby of the hotel 'looks a bit like that part of AllyPally where we buy the tickets for the show';  apparently there isn't a layout in her room or anywhere else so presumably any resemblance begins and ends at the entrance lobby.  For those who happen to know or have visited Warsaw the bad news is that the hotel is almost opposite the Palace of Culture, the good news is that there is some sort of major dual carriageway between the two.