Early Risers.

[monkeysarefun]

47 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Spurred by my earlier rant, I spent a little time in the garden today. This year's salad crop is not as nice looking as last year, but it hasn't rained in a week. Last Spring was wetter. Judging by the shape of the leaves, there are clearly a couple of different varieties and they embed in very difficult locations. The one in the middle is on a very steep slope (in the middle of ground cover), and only reachable by climbing up from the bottom. The one on the right is under a shrub hard against a valve box in the drip irrigation system.

They are all in the yard waste bin.

 

Can anyone identify these (below) for me? They too are very good colonizers and came in under the back fence though the drainage rubble. They look like bluebells, but I'm not botanist. I have magnified the middle image.

 

 

 

A bit hard to see but they look to me  like some kind of Agapanthus. Also known as African Lillies or Lillies of the Nile.

 

You'd probably remember them in Australia as tall balls of purple or white that line parks and so on that kids love knocking off with sticks, 

but there  are smaller cultivars.

[jamie92208]

Good morning from a sunny place.  Yes Baz, and others, I like mornings. Especially if there has been some rain in the night you seem to get a better kind of light then. Here the birds are singing away and the bird scarer is booming out every 4 minutes. 

 

Last night we had some entertainment. No not the broadcast  by El Presidente but a thunderstorm. With the first clap of thunder the lights went out and stayed out. Candles were found and I lit my old pit lamp. Much safer than candles. I must give it a polish. It dates from pre WW2 and was given to me, havily rusted by a retired pit deputy who I was lodging with back in 74. I cleaned it up and got it working. The remaining wick wasn't much good but I managed to get a new one from Prince of Wales Colliery, when I worked in Pontefract. I also got a coffee jar full of washed and graded Ponty Prince coal in 4 to 5mm size. That is now used to fill the tenders of brass assemblages.

 

I spent much of yesterday re organising our domestic filing system. I even discovered that the filing cabinet and the cupboard next to it, have flat tops! A bin liner full of waste paper has also been filled. As well as finding the aforesaid  tops I also discovered various bits of paperwork that I will need this spring.

 

Various tasks to do today. I will probably hang some lights in the workshop area of the shed and then tidy up that area. 

 

We now have another 4 weeks of house arrest to come so no doubt I will spend more time in the shed.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by jamie92208

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Could not find it. Made a new drawing.

 

 

The motor drives the pos and neg contact plates CW or ACW. When the selected wiper reaches the gap between the contact plates the motor stops. If it overshoots the motor reverses. The resolution depends on how accurate the wipers and the gap are.

 

It will require modification to apply it to a turntable.

 

The  turntable drive I saw made used  a relay that operated a latch which engaged into a slot on a circular disc beneath the baseboard.  The latch was sprung so that he latch dropped into the slot whilst a micro switch then cut the power, whilst the latch held the turntable firmly in place.  Pressing a button energised the relay which lifted, and powered up the drive motor on the turntable.

 

It was very simple because there was only a single entry and a corresponding single exit 180 degrees away.

 

The table was biased so that it only turned in one direction.

 

You just pressed the button and when the table started to turn you could leave it knowing it would stop automatically 180 degrees later.

 

I am now awaiting the Met Officer at Market Drayton to report on what sort of weather I should be experiencing today.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Tony_S]

Good morning all.

It is sunny but quite cold so far. 
There may be waffles for breakfast today. 
Tony

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunny but chilly start with a mainly blue sky and it should be a fine dry day but temperatures only likely to reach 11°C.

Tony, the only waffle here is what I type on a daily basis.

For some reason I slept solidly all night and didn't wake at my usual time and the first I knew The Boss was bringing me tea at 8.00am.  Shocking!

No plans made at the moment for today although there is a large shed in the garden containing things that need dealing with however breakfast is the first item on the agenda.

Have a good one,

W.A. Fflingditherer

 

[Coombe Barton]

Back to work. Commute OK, avoided the coffee table.

Remembering it's Tuesday is a little difficult.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is shining and the sky is blue with very few clouds to be seen. I do like mornings, but Sheila likes a bit of a lie-in so she’s still in bed at moment. Were as I’m up and breakfast has been consumed and shortly I’ll be heading off to the workshop to play around with a few ideas for the indexing method of the turntable. More sketches were made last night as the TV was on and I’ve decided to focus on a plunger and roller method which operates a micro switch for now. This should be relatively easy to build and set up. Hopefully by end of the afternoon I’ll be a lot see if the theory an the practical coincide. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

[Dave Hunt]

Today in North Hipposhire starts bright and sunny but not as warm as of late. Denizens of the Muddy Hollow region should note that the likelihood of squelchy conditions is remote and dust baths are more the order of the day. End of bulletin.

 

The turntable on my layout has an extremely hi-tech control system working on the KISS principle; it is driven by a Gaugemaster controller so I can adjust the speed and direction of rotation by a switch and rotary knob and the alignment of tracks is by eye. Possibly antediluvian and no doubt frowned on by the more knowledgeable of the wiggly amp brethren but it works. The only sop to automation, sort of, is that when power is selected to operate the table it is removed from the track so even I can't drive a locomotive into the boondocks whilst it is revolving.

 

The blossom on the cherry tree in the front garden is in full bloom and absolutely glorious. I'll try to remember to post a photograph of it in due course. Muggocoffee has been consumed and Jill  is currently manufacturing a large bowl of porridge so time to go.  Baz the day people but stay safe and well.

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

The turntable on my layout [... ]The only sop to automation, sort of, is that when power is selected to operate the table it is removed from the track so even I can't drive a locomotive into the boondocks whilst it is revolving.

 

Unprototypical. Means you cant replicate this:

 

 

NRM DY 1012,  released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence by the National Railway Museum.

 

I saw a beautiful bit of video recently of a fully automated, servo-controlled, P4 turntable. It had everything except the man pushing...

[Kingzance]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

On occassional forays down to Lulworth to check how my yank trials were doing early morning was a great time. You would often see Sika deer on the ranges.  The birds would be singing..ah, pleasant memories!

I was envisioning a 3-pipped man of military bearing watching squaddies attempting to pull out apple tree stakes (see recent posts) until I remembered there are few apple trees on Lulworth ranges so I then thought about why would our man be re-enacting something from Salem, amongst the singing pipits and skylarks prevalent on those heaths? Ah, the penny dropped, Y is adjacent to T on the keyboard .

 

Good morning, and it is decidedly cool here. Yesterday I returned to long trousers and wore more supportive footwear for my approved walk for the first time in a few months (footwear, not trousers) and consequently suffered a decent sized blister on the back of my heel. It will not result in a medical trip to a pharmacy even though we do not have a box of GDB requisites. That was a surprise as I have had these boots for years and walked at least a hundred miles in them before. I only swapped from the soft, feet-hugging Skechers as the terrain was a little more uneven, oh well.
 

Photography and unmentionable may take up some time, particularly as a reduction gearbox purchased to slowly rotate a small platform on inverted girders within a brick-lined pit is not meshing to my satisfaction and needs resolving before I can move on to the control matters being investigated by our correspondent from Manchester. 

 

Today is the fourth Tuesday of official lockdown and no fresh fish, nor is there cribbage in the pub. How routine my life had become when such things are now missed! I wish you and yours well and freedom from the virus .

[Dave Hunt]

5 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Unprototypical. Means you cant replicate this:

 

 

I'm sure I could if I tried hard enough Stephen. When I put my mind to it I can be the GDB of layout operation and can usually be counted on to overcome most failsafe systems. 

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

BTW Re. that Leeds TT accident, I've just noticed that the unknown engine in the pit - probably 1808 Class - has the full reverse curve splashers, whereas 1327 Class No. 1346, sitting pretty on the table, still has the early form of splashers with the flat section in the middle.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Compound2632

[Kingzance]

8 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Unprototypical. Means you cant replicate this:

 

 

NRM DY 1012,  released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence by the National Railway Museum.

 

I saw a beautiful bit of video recently of a fully automated, servo-controlled, P4 turntable. It had everything except the man pushing...

Need a decent sized sky hook to deal with that one! The ladder at the pit edge brought to mind a song from the late fifties I think - Big John - “with jacks and shovels they started back down, then came a rumble from deep in the ground....” 

[grandadbob]

Here you go KZ

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=KnnHprUGKF0

[eldavo]

10 hours ago, BSW01 said:

...The next thing to test was the accuracy of stopping position, for both clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation. After several tests with the Hall effect switch in different positions, the best results I could get was a 2mm difference in the final position when it turned either clockwise or anti-clockwise. It stopped in the same position time after time, but always with the 2mm difference between to 2 different rotations. Without the cone fitted this went to 6mm, so 2mm was a big improvement, but I still think this is too much of a difference and a loco would be liable to derail when entering or leaving the turntable. So I now have to find an alternative method for stopping the turntable.

 

 

I have had good results on an 00 turntable using a slotted optical sensor detecting brass wire pins mounted on a disc. Something along the lines of this 

 

http://www.vishay.com/optical-sensors/list/product-81147/

 

I used a microprocessor to control the various movements but simpler methods are available.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

29 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Unprototypical. Means you cant replicate this:

 

 

NRM DY 1012,  released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence by the National Railway Museum.

Bet that when it happened that, in the ensuing silence, the first words to be heard were something like "Oh sh1t!"

[AndyB]

Morning all. Sunny and chilly start to the day. 

Day 6 of the Easter break. Much progress on the scaled-down vignette of a vapour driven transport methodology. 

I suspect I may get dragged sideways today to do some consultancy for a company doing anti-virology work. 

So best head out to the garage and do some landscaping!

Warm wishes to all.

[Compound2632]

28 minutes ago, Kingzance said:

Need a decent sized sky hook to deal with that one! 

 

I believe Dave has an as yet unbuilt D&S kit for just such a thing. (As do I.)

[Tony_S]

7 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I believe Dave has an as yet unbuilt D&S kit for just such a thing. (As do I.)

Or you could both model a tower made out of planks and jack it up like the chaps in the photo.

[Compound2632]

Just now, Tony_S said:

Or you could both model a tower made out of planks and jack it up like the chaps in the photo.

 

That would be the answer to avoiding all the electronic faffery of building a working 'table.

[Tony_S]

I have two (other than record playing devices). One on the ON30 layout has Meccano gears and a handle. Works well. The other one is on my main layout and is a Heljan product. That works well too. 
Tony

[iL Dottore]

14 hours ago, brianusa said:

 

In spite of later criticism of American cars of the day, brakes, suspension, etc, their get up and go was admirable.  It wasn't a Tesla 3 sec to 60, but by the standards of the day moving a ton up vehicle to a ton or more was thrilling to say the least.  You could almost hear the petrol slurping through the carbs and see the gas needle slowly moving toward Empty!  Even at such speeds they were comfortable and quiet, plenty of room for three in front and  of leg room in the back which didn't require ones knees in the back of the front seat.  Every time I get in our Acura, I remember them with affection

   Brian.

When I was living in the US I acquired a Chrysler Station Wagon with a 440 "Big Block" engine (I think that was the correct term) with some sort of "super duper" automatic transmission. The car weighed a ton (probably literally) and went - as they used to say - like "sh1t off a shovel".

Once I was waiting at a traffic light on a 4 lane stretch of road near my house, when some flash g1t  pulled up next to me in some sort of Euro poser-mobile (a Porsche, IIRC), looked at me pointedly and revved his engine - repeatedly. I ignored him, but on the second the light turned green, I floored the accelerator and shot off at an amazing rate of knots, whereas poser-boy, trying to do the same, managed to crash the gearbox (and presumably also flooded the engine) as the poser-mobile juddered to halt a few feet further forward (something I observed in my rear view mirror)

13 hours ago, PeterBB said:

That was the day when we realised that our Hattie had gone deaf - loud bangs on firework night and she didn't even flinch.  She had fantastic expression eyes and normally responded well so we had not even guessed.

Oh, the poor lass. From the way you wrote about her, I assume that she is no longer with us.

13 hours ago, AndyID said:

...MrsID volunteered to cut it. My response - "Not on your Nellie!"

Oh, I don't know. It has its advantages. Apart from Mrs iD doing it "as and when needed" (much more convenient - and these days possible - than going to a barber shop), it is also dirt cheap - the traditional payment for a Mrs iD haircut being one takeaway pizza. Mind you, not having much of a luxurious mane at the best of times (I grew my hair for 6 months for a theatrical role - it just got curlier and thicker, not longer), I have - literally - little to loose. Go on, give your Mrs ID a chance..

 

Stay Safe, Stay Well, Stay Sane

 

iD

[southern42]

17 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

Can always make dandelion wine!

 

Dandelion cordial, perhaps?

Recipe, anyone?

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

 

Sunny and no wind.  hope it is warmer than yesterday when I cut my bike ride on the spot down to 15 mins!

One mugadecaftea and one mugadecafcoffee coming up!

Back later.

_____

Polly

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Talking of flowering plants, I have two clumps of daffodils in my front garden. Though they are within a couple of feet of each other one has already gone over whereas the other has just flowered. I presume the ones that have just flowered have done so due to there proximity to the north facing front of the house, the other clump is about three feet away. One thing I have noticed is a lack of poppies in my garden this year. I normally leave them to self seed but last year the spring crop of seeds sprouted but didn't flower when we had a warm spell later in the year. The only poppies I've seen are growing wild in the council shrubbery on the corner, probably arising after the council contractors cut it back a few weeks ago. Only problem that as they are on the edge of the footpath they might get damaged before they set seed. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by PhilJ W