Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Looks as if I've got the dreaded lurgi, I keep coming over in hot flushes but my feet feel like blocks of ice. I've notched up the central heating and consuming plenty of liquids, that seems to have eased the symptoms. Held the two minutes silence at the toy fair and no one interupted it.

[Barry O]

Neil do you mean "change ringing"?

 

Back from Blackburn. Very friendly show and people ..Thanks Mick and modellers!

 

Next week has been re-arranged. Will need to visit Barrow to sign off repairs/update works on Tuesday but will be back just after lunch.

 

Enjoy the rest of the day

 

Baz

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each.

Splendid day today. Arrived at Tolworth at 9.20 and was able to park easily. Ambled over to the mobile catering van (no cafe at venue this year) and enjoyed a very tasty bacon roll and chat with a couple of complete strangers. With reference to another thread on here tickets were being sold before the official opening, not that that bothers me one way or the other. I thought the show was great with some excellent layouts. The two minute silence was perfectly observed, even the many children present were quiet. I bought some footplate crew for my latest locos but that was all I spent. Chatted with various people including Graham Muz and all in all had a good time.

Got home about 1.30 and The Boss was just preparing lunch. Followed that with watching a very good rugby match between Wasps and Bristol with the latter victorious. After that the GP and I won't mention the result in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. A couple of beers were supped and thence to the kitchen where I spent about 4 minutes cooking a lovely piece of sirloin which was accompanied by a McGuigan Shiraz.

Yep, a splendid day so far and not yet finished. More Shiraz I think and I may then go and apply electricity to some small wheeled machines.

Cheers. 

Edited November 11, 2018 by grandadbob

[bbishop]

Bob,

 

If you were there on Saturday, then I was Muz - if that makes sense. Good day yesterday, then some pints with Chris in the Spoons then with HJ in the Royal Oak.

 

Keep well all, Bill

[BoD]

Remembering is good.

Learning is better

Living life by lessons learnt is best.

[pH]

Just back from the local Remembrance Day ceremony, complete with rooftop spotter/marksman and 21-gun salute. Apparently, our local Legion is the only one in Canada which gets the full 21 shots. Before the first shot, they announce over the PA that "... dogs will bark, babies will cry and car alarms will sound - be prepared ..." - all true! During the ceremony, a CP train passed and gave a "two shorts" horn signal.

[PeterBB]

Remembrance Day Service at Holy Trinity Windsor - seats 800 with many outside not able to get in.  Home Garrison Church of the Household Cavalry for the last time and the march back to barracks with so many members was inspiring.  Just a few hours earlier it was teeming with rain then cold just before the service but bright and sunny on the march back.  Spoke to/with a former Household Cavalry soldier who left the army in 1959 and at his age still drove 60 miles plus just to be present supporting his former regiment!

[Gwiwer]

Neil does, I am sure, refer to "change ringing".  The changes are rung by ringers, not campanologists.  There is fierce competition in some parts of the country among ringers for who is considered the best and there are organised visits to "away" venues to ring changes elsewhere.  Among ringers Devon is reputedly the most competitive area of the nation.

 

A campanologist is one who studies bells rather than rings them.

 

A clanger is something dropped; a Clanger is a small whistling creature usually in search of the Soup Dragon.

 

I have never rung.  But among Things I Quite Enjoy is listening to change ringing and noting the difference between peals (not peels as was posted somewhere above, possibly as a typo).  Not all have a full eight bells.  Some only have six.  A few just four.  It's not in the same bracket as Morris Dancing but is to my mind very much a part of our fabric, specially those of us who grew up or have lived in rural and regional areas where church bells are still commonly heard.

 

To each and all Goodnight.  This weekend has passed and Moan-day awaits the other side of the darkness.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Still feeling like death warmed up so its off to bed.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[newbryford]

Show done and dusted for the next 12 months.

Thanks to Barry for his impartiality.......

 

Friday evening was a bit mad.

Saturday was busy.

Sunday - an understandably quiet start - the halls fell silent at 11am for two minutes.

Not too bad packing up and getting the stuff home.

Never easy being exhibition manager and having one's own layout there. At least I knew I could rely on my layout and operating team whilst I was engaged elsewhere.

 

Now to get ready for Warley/NEC in less than two weeks with a different layout. (New Bryford on it's last outing in England before retirement)

There is some stock swapping/sorting to do.

 

In the meantime, I have a work project to get ready for the NEC as well.

 

I may be an infrequent visitor for the next couple of weeks.

Before that, I have to proof an article for a magazine by tomorrow morning...........

Have a good fortnight folks!

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Barry O]

As it happens my late BiL was a bell ringer. I tried it once. While it was good my more local churches used a keyboard to ring the bells. Not quite the same!

 

On this day I think about family I didn't meet. My grandfather's youngest brother. Stoker on HMS Queen Mary, missing presumed dead and my Grandad Jimmy. Died about 6 months after I was born. Shot through the throat/mouth, rescued by a German doctor, POW on day 3 of the Somme.

 

His first bombardment turned him prematurely deaf. But he came back, married my Grandma and went back to the pit to work. I still have his release papers, his invalidity document and his "thanks" medal and letter. What a man and I am sure I missed out a lot by not knowing him.

 

Sleep well All!

 

Thoughts are with our missing and ailing ERs.

 

Baz

[The Stationmaster]

Evening all,

 

Devon ringing (of church bells) is very different from ringing elsewhere as they ring up and keep on ringing up and then down without any changes - quite something to get the hang of if you don't know it as they ring very fast. On the last ringing tour we attended down that way s a number of the ladies from our local tower attended a Sunday morning ringing session in Okehampton and came away mightily impressed.   As for electronics one of the towers near here is used for training and all the bells are fully muffled to avoid upsetting the neighbours but they are all linked to various sets of contacts so you can ring them in the normal way but get the sound of the bell off a computer speaker in the ringing chamber (proper sound, not an electronic one) - very clever system and as it happens also very nicely balanced bells to ring, not that I was ever particularly accomplished at it although Mrs Stationmaster used to ring regularly as did laddo when he was at uni in Sheffield and learnt ringing in Sheffield Cathedral ( a very friendly bunch who like to take on trainees, unlike, say, York Minsters where they will only accept expert ringers into their band.  (the collective noun for a group of bell ringers ringing bells being 'a band').

 

And just right for Remembrance Sunday (NOT) some cockwomble in the next road over duly started letting off fireworks at 17.00 today, and kept on with the racket for almost an hour.

[lightengine]

Someone forgot to tell the bellringers here. At 12.30 when bells across the nation were supposed to ring in unison, Teignmouth had a silence.

They rang about 6 & half hours later. Maybe that was when the message had crept down the country bell by bell.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

The early morning rain, soon eased off and we ended up with quite a bit of sunshine, but it was still cool, but for a November day, it was probably warm!

 

I spent most of the day in the workshop trying to find out just what was up with that tender. I eventually found what the problem was with the DCC socket, but it wasn’t until I started to test the wiring out thoroughly. As it turned out, I’d inadvertently swapped the wiring on 2 of the socket pins (pins 4 and 5) therefore putting dc onto one of the motor terminals and ac onto one of the rails, doh! Anyway, once I’d identified and rectified it, I had it running ok on both dc and DCC!

 

Once I’d finished in the workshop I came in for a muggertea. Once that was finished, I made some good old winter comfort food tea, corned beef hash, it went down a storm with Sheila AND there’s some left over for later in the week too!

 

Goodnight all

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Gwiwer]

Goat Moaning.

 

Welcome to another day.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Those who leave seasonal greetings cards until the last minute will hate me, for mine are now done save for one where I await a new address for the recipient.  I will need to check the correct postage rate before despatch, given that Royal Mail make it oh so easy for us to get it wrong.  Why, you may ask, do I do the cards so early?   It harks back to when I had my wisdom teeth out in 1979 and was off sick from work for a week and a half with nothing much else to do.  I find it good discipline and it gets rid of one more task, important at times when I find it difficult to concentrate.  On a not entirely unrelated subject I should like to thank those who have tendered good wishes for the counselling.  I’m sure it will be beneficial, otherwise I would not be subjecting myself to it, but, as with so many things of late, we will see what happens.  

 

I ought to look at the week ahead.  Tomorrow I will be with Poorly Pal.  There is m*d*ll*ng to be done and it will be a good test of my low confidence level as to whether I can actually do it.   On Thursday I have my six monthly appointment with Professor Oncologist and hope that the results of the blood test will be kind to me.  Friday could be interesting.  I booked a hotel room at Tolworth Tower on the understanding that Trio Dhoore would be playing the Ram Club on Friday night.  Whether they do or whether they don’t I’ll use the room anyway since it is about half way between Bedford and Portsmouth, where I need to be bright and early on Saturday morning for one of my favourite one day shows.  On Saturday night I am due to dine with my friend Mary in Weybridge.  Last time we went to the Cafe Rouge I used my senior railcard to get us a discount.  Fortunately Mary saw the funny side of it.

 

Warm thoughts to all in distress and those who are missing. 

 

Chris

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is rather mild this morning - there is still an autumnal feel in the air, but the temperature is due to reach 18°C today, which is somewhat unseasonal.

 

There was an interesting article in E&T (the IET Magazine) this morning.  Apparently, over 7000 people still have a black and white only TV license.  The number has fallen since 2013, when there were 13000 but nevertheless it is interesting that so many people are still watching the old sets.  Of course, a B&W license only costs 50.50 as opposed to 150.50 so I can understand why.

 

Takes me back to my student days!  I shared a rented house with three other lads, and we had a black and white TV, a phone that only took incoming calls, no central heating and a gas meter that took 50p pieces.  Only the electric meter was "modern" in that you had to take it to a local shop or petrol station to get it filled up with credit. Amazing to think of it today!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[roundhouse]

Morning from a very Autumnal Surrey. Was partly overcast but still dark when I went outside as I could see the light through the clouds but then it did start to rain.

 

A little bit of modelling done already but plenty more to do today.

 

I have also found the spares in stock at Dapol spares stockist for my Dapol Britannia that has lost its tender to lcoo drive shaft. Not sure when it went missing but at least I have ordered a few spares just incase it happens again.

Edited November 12, 2018 by roundhouse

[Barry O]

Good Morning/evening/night (select as appropriate for your current time zone)!

 

I need to repack my weathering box ready for Warley today. It may contain a piece of paper a colleague who visited yesterday may have lost.

 

Apparently I am on preparations for visitors at the weekend day 1 today. Pah!

 

Have a good day

Baz

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Not raining yet but showers are forecast along with some sunny spells.

Another poor night's sleep thanks to my right hip. Getting fed up with it now.

Today will see a further assault on my body, particularly my knees, as I'm going round to Nicki's to help SiL Steve lay some laminate flooring. Not looking forward to that very much. We'll only be working until 14.00 as he then has to go to his proper job. Just as well as I don't think my knees will last any longer. I very much doubt that we'll get it all done today but you never know.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited November 12, 2018 by grandadbob

[Ozexpatriate]

... I discovered that they are going to bury some of the lines in this area next year. ...

Given what appears to be the "new normal" in California, one hopes that as many electrical distribution networks as possible will be buried and as quickly as possible. In your part of the world I think this would be a sensible precaution - and not just for continuity of electrical supply.

 

Last year's fires in Santa Rosa and the Butte County "Camp Fire" currently devastating Northern California were started by wind blowing strung electrical wires.

 

I was in the Bay Area last week. The air quality in the south bay on Friday was truly awful - as unhealthy as the worst smoky days in Oregon this summer. The devastation of the fires in California last year and the fires currently burning now is hard to comprehend. Santa Rosa demonstrated that it's not just wilderness but heavily developed areas that are now vulnerable. We are seeing that now in the Malibu hills. Without being political, it is stunning to see how much ignorance is displayed relative to wildfire danger in the western US.

[Barry O]

Forgot to mention that one of our "missing" ERs has a birthday today. Happy Birthday Oldddudders!

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Here,

Enough sleeping hours last night unfortunately broken by many wake ups and turn overs.

 

Talking of Knees mine is much better this morning, helpped no doubt by not sailing yesterday., My  sailing companion was, crook to, as a White van Man he delivers parcels, or in this case small packages through the letter box. This time a dog got him, and he has tooth marks / holes on a finger.. it's all heavily bandaged up. He would have had difficulty pulling on the mainsheet...

 

Coming in this Morning I observe the Cremated Swan, there is a night / Weekend Security guard, I've seen him several times patrolling, So they must be putting the expensive stuff inside now..

 

Further on I came up behind a long queue of traffic, at the head of which was a very big piece of Farm machinery, maybe 40ft long and very wide. I was glad when it eventually turned off, because by that time I had an even longer queue of traffic behind me.

There was so many that we were still all queued up when we reached the NDR...

 

 The strange thing with those Black and white TV's is they must all be running converters to watch Digital TV as 625 Line analogue is no longer Broadcast. I suspect that quite a few are actually watching Colour TV, but paying for black and white in an attempt to keep the TV man away.

 

 

The major equipment due this week, is being repaired, So I'm calling forward the little bits and pieces, to clear time in the future, as when the equipment comes back they will want it calibrated straight away..

 

With that in Mind..

 

Time to Measure a Shunt..