Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good morning all

 

It's a funny old day her so far, one minute it's persisting it down, the next you need sun glasses, it's currently persisting down.

 

Due to the rain I was asked as I was going out to put fuel in the car, was possible for a left, so I dropped Sheila of at her zumba class (brownie points in the bag). Whilst I was out I called at our small local DIY shop (their wood is better quality and cheaper than the big DIY shops) and got a sheet of plywood cut so that I can make a small railway layout for Max's birthday, I just need to get the wood for the frame work, so that should keep me out of mischief for the next few weeks!

 

Back later.

[AndyB]

Morning all, and a sunny / lashing it down sort of start to the week.

 

Unfortunately yesterday's visit to mum didn't go well and I now know the meaning of emotional blackmail.

A shame it was demonstrated in front of the kids; I'm less than impressed by that. 

 

We had an hour or so to ourselves late on Saturday afternoon which allowed us to go for a walk in a nearby forest. The weather held off until we were as far from the car as possible and then the heavens opened. The arboreal canopy did little to reduce the rain that turned us into humanoid drowned rats. But it was fun/funny and good to get a walk in. 

 

Onwards and upwards though. With autumn breezing in it may be time to switch attention to the portable layout and finish that off as time and funds allow.

 

I see in the newspaper DailyFail that Elon Musk has commissioned the design of a space suit and is keen to get the styling right. He's using a costumer desinger from Hollywood. 

This isn't a extra-vehicular suit so is intended for use at normal atmospheric pressure and modest G-forces associated with take off and landing. So, making something akin to a F1 drivers suit is not totally inappropriate. Nevertheless....

Some of the more practical problems that may be worth considering are the mass of the helmet and neck strain, loss of cabin pressure and instantaneous and fatal "bends", flamability layers and additional thermal strain. I admire their drive to get things moving and sometimes large organisations such as NASA can become hidebound in endless design iterations. But it does take time from zero experience to take on many decades of learning. 

 

Interestingly the extra vehicular suits used by astronauts do suffer wear, tear and lifing. For example the cooling suits leak and the coolant tends to float inside the suit rather than drain downwards. This has the potential to cause drowning. The suits themselves are very simple in construction technique and go back to the mid 1960s and these kinds of failures are to be expected. Perhaps a fresh set of eyes on the problems will bring new techniques to the fore. Gizza job, Elon!    

[Horsetan]

.....I see in the newspaper DailyFail that Elon Musk has commissioned the design of a space suit and is keen to get the styling right. He's using a costumer desinger from Hollywood. 

This isn't a extra-vehicular suit so is intended for use at normal atmospheric pressure and modest G-forces associated with take off and landing. So, making something akin to a F1 drivers suit is not totally inappropriate. Nevertheless....

Some of the more practical problems that may be worth considering are the mass of the helmet and neck strain, loss of cabin pressure and instantaneous and fatal "bends", flamability layers and additional thermal strain. I admire their drive to get things moving and sometimes large organisations such as NASA can become hidebound in endless design iterations. But it does take time from zero experience to take on many decades of learning. 

 

Interestingly the extra vehicular suits used by astronauts do suffer wear, tear and lifing. For example the cooling suits leak and the coolant tends to float inside the suit rather than drain downwards. This has the potential to cause drowning. The suits themselves are very simple in construction technique and go back to the mid 1960s and these kinds of failures are to be expected. Perhaps a fresh set of eyes on the problems will bring new techniques to the fore. Gizza job, Elon!    

 

Elon Musk was apparently the inspiration / model for Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Tony Stark in the Iron Man films.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Baz I (and my arthritic knee) don't like the walk from that far away especially when I'm likely to be carrying 'shopping' - anyway there's another year next year and maybe I'll make it to Wantage early enough this coming Saturday to get a space in the ever busy car park there (book Launch - the new Wantage Tramway book from Wild Swan).

 

Interesting, and not nice, to see another thatched pub go up in flames, there's one near Pangbourne which we used to visit very occasionally and that seemed to be just as well as almost every time we went there the roof was burnt off, along with much other damage, within a few months after our visit.

 

Trolleybuses in London were a regular part of one of my regular 'shed circuits' as they supplied the transport from Willesden to Neasden and then onwards to Cricklewood.   The Reading network was a sad loss as it was very efficiently run with some high capacity vehicles on what was known as 'the main line' from the Bear Inn in Tilehurst, thence along the Oxford Road and through the town centre to Cemetery Junction and the Wokingham Road. Despite having some relatively new vehicles various schemes to alter road layouts were allegedly responsible for its end, although odd remnants of road layout are still around which owe their original purpose to the trolleybus network and the need for turning circles.  The really fun bit was the frequently very fast descent of Norcot Road with occasional dewirements and the long bamboo pole being brought into use to re-wire the trolly heads.

 

Rain has stopped, hot dogs for lunch (once the bread rolls have been obtained).  Enjoy your day.

[TheQ]

Much thunder outside, either that or there is a hippo dancing on the roof... Ben will not be happy...

Edited September 11, 2017 by TheQ

[Gwiwer]

 there is a hippo dancing on the roof

 

Eating cake?

[TheQ]

only if someone has left a cake out in the rain,

 

 

 

 

Time for a tune I think

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wadrAU6baV0

[BSW01]

I have been rewarded with a couple of bottles of 'Old Hoppy Hen' as a thank you for the lift this morning, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

[Judge Dread]

Whilst trolleybuses are in vogue, here's a view of a Salzburg bendy example about to see off a two horsepower taxi. 

[81C]

'Noon 

Having spent the day with GDB and our SWMBO's at the Swindon Show we made a beeline for the Hornby shop on out exit where heavily discounted Castles were purchased

then we made our way to the Premier Inn and pub after a meal and drinks together we stayed over and returned today, below is a photo of one of the lamp shades in the pub just

below is GDB head, I'll leave it to you guess what happened next.

 

 

 

[Barry O]

we did have some first aid kit with us at Swindon just in case Grandad Bob had a problem..

[Ian Abel]

Morning, start of a short week for me as I'm taking off Thursday and Friday in anticipation of a lot of "stuff" to be done pre-wedding on Sunday!

 

Yesterday was SUPPOSED to be easy. Repair a small hole/rotted wood in a 4x4 bottom frame of our screened porch. Yeah, RIGHT!

Turned out the small hole, was actually a section about 2 inches long of rotten wood, that extended to the decking below the frame piece.

SIX HOURS later and a lot of removal of rotted wood, replacement of sections, filling and painting I was tired, aching and ready for a weekend - oh, missed it again

 

One bright spot on the weekend (Friday actually) was the email from Rails regarding their limited edition Q1 33001. Decided to order THAT and cancel the pre-order for the Hornby Q1 33032 due next January - who wouldn't prefer a limited edition, especially since I prefer the versions with the injector linkage, just looks more "complicated" and I like that

Only slight hiccup is that I ordered it before I realized it was due basically TODAY/NOW... will have to somehow explain THAT to SWMBO, instead of "...oh, that's been on order for ages - did it final arrive..." sometime next January   might still get away with that if I'm crafty

 

Warming trend somewhat here, already 16 and partly sunny first thing and  a high of 28 expected.

 

OK, back to work, enjoy the start of the week if you can.

Edited September 11, 2017 by Ian Abel

[81C]

duplicate post removed

Edited September 11, 2017 by 81C

[AndyID]

Maybe it was continuously variable, but the belts were a bit slack.

Invented, as I recall, by Professor Heinrich Klipenklop.

[andyram]

Evening all. The first day of the week has been completed. Quite an interesting experience again. The children are a challenge, certainly different to the ones I am used to at the previous school. I arrived home exhausted, nothing new there - but at least (for the time being) there is no feeling of stress. Whether that holds up remains to be seen. Staff at least seem friendly, although I am not sure whether some members of the management team have a clear idea about what they are doing.

 

 This morning was a bit of a throwback as I was asked to support in the class led by our ex student. Good to see that she seems to be getting on well.

 

 Have a restful evening all.

[jamie92208]

Trolleybuses...Middleborough had them when I visited once in about 1973.

 

Did try them in Wellington NZ and may try them again on our next visit.

 

Leeds tried to reintroduce them (the City had trolleybuses before trams) but the council and it weak technical consultants made a hash of the whole scheme...

 

Baz

 

PS Smiffy, get the cockle gathers together and have words..some of us haven't had any for weeks!

 

Memory plays tricks Baz.   The last trolleybuses in the UK were Bradford which went in 1972.  I'm not sure when Middlesborough went I'll have to look it up.

 

Leeds got it's first trams (Horse) in 1870 then steam and electric in 1891.   The trolley's came on two isolated routes, Aire Street to Farnley Moor Top and Guisley to Otley (IIRC).  The Farnley ones were introduced in 1911 on the same day as Bradford's first route.   The Leeds one's needed to two a skate in the rails to get back to Kirkstall depot.   Apparently this could produce a lot of sparks.   Birmingham had a similar isolated route in WW2 and it had to close in the blackout because of the sparks from the skate when returning to the depot.   

 

Jamie

[Horsetan]

My colleague went home early today, looking like death. Fortunately fairly quiet in the office this afternoon, but I had to turn back one of her clients who was part-way through her journey to get here!

[Ozexpatriate]

Time for a tune I think

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wadrAU6baV0

Sometimes voted 'the worst song of all time'.

[Horsetan]

Sometimes voted 'the worst song of all time'.

 

Bloody hell, that was actually quite bad....

[grandadbob]

'Noon 

Having spent the day with GDB and our SWMBO's at the Swindon Show we made a beeline for the Hornby shop on out exit where heavily discounted Castles were purchased

then we made our way to the Premier Inn and pub after a meal and drinks together we stayed over and returned today, below is a photo of one of the lamp shades in the pub just

below is GDB head, I'll leave it to you guess what happened next.

 WP_20170910_16_21_17_Pro (2).jpg

 

I think I connected with the bloody thing 3 times! Never mind,  a splendid time was had and as Bob said a great bargain was found in the Hornby shop. This will (eventually) be paid for by the Boss so after testing, chip fitting and running in it has been put away for C#######s. My purchase from Saturday has also been chipped and further play with that is imminent. 

[AndyB]

Sometimes voted 'the worst song of all time'.

 

It's certainly up there with Vogon poetry. 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I've found the Youtube film of the Wellington trolleybuses, well I think its the same one.

[newbryford]

You can always come out here and ride ours:

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/cms/binary/10812838.jpg?size=sw620x65

 

I did.....

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Barry O]

Memory plays tricks Baz.   The last trolleybuses in the UK were Bradford which went in 1972.  I'm not sure when Middlesborough went I'll have to look it up.

 

Leeds got it's first trams (Horse) in 1870 then steam and electric in 1891.   The trolley's came on two isolated routes, Aire Street to Farnley Moor Top and Guisley to Otley (IIRC).  The Farnley ones were introduced in 1911 on the same day as Bradford's first route.   The Leeds one's needed to two a skate in the rails to get back to Kirkstall depot.   Apparently this could produce a lot of sparks.   Birmingham had a similar isolated route in WW2 and it had to close in the blackout because of the sparks from the skate when returning to the depot.   

 

Jamie

went off my visits to the RAF Recruitment office at the time... it was abandoned on 18th April 1971...

[Tony_S]

Evening all.

I recall seeing trolleybuses somewhere in the Midlands when I was a small child and I am sure I saw some when we lived in Somerset. However that was on a journey that was somewhere in Wales when Dad was going for a job interview.