Early Risers.

[bbishop]

Sir Tomas Picton is an interesting case.  Was he a sadistic governor of Trinidad or a hero of the Napoleonic Wars, or both?  Bill

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, bbishop said:

isn't he off playing golf?  Or have I got my anatomy wrong?

Had the "not discoverer of America" sailed to Los Indes Des Escocia (instead of the Bahamas, Cuba and pranging La Santa María on Hispaniola), he might have encountered golf, though I think that when he sailed the ocean blue, James II (of Scotland) had banned the game for getting in the way of archery.

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Somewhat dull here but not raining - yet. Showers, possibly heavy and thundery are expected later.

Bins are out, only one lorry due today but they're running late.

We managed to get a walk in yesterday just before the rain started.  Only about a mile and half again but that seems to be enough for The Hip.  It's protesting this morning.  Quite a lot.  Today's main exercise will be my veto against any walking today!

More parcels due, it's almost become a daily event.  Like Mrs Roundhouse, visiting the shops is not really being missed here.

I assisted with domestic stuff yesterday.  This involved a deep clean of the kitchen which meant that yours truly was required to climb up on steps to do all the stuff beyond somebody else's reach.  I managed this without falling down.

I'm informed that today it's the turn of the bathroom.  I can't wait to see if I can manage not falling down two days in a row. 

Time for some breakfast.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

[bbishop]

5 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Had the "not discoverer of America" sailed to Los Indes Des Escocia (instead of the Bahamas, Cuba and pranging La Santa María on Hispaniola), he might have encountered golf, though I think that when he sailed the ocean blue, James II (of Scotland) had banned the game for getting in the way of archery.

 

I should have referred to Phil's "Professor Higgins" post from yesterday.  Bill

[Dave Hunt]

Good morning from a grey and windy Shropshire borderlands, but enough about me and on to other things.

 

Some interesting matters in the ER discussions of late including the odd Belgian locomotive, about which both explanations for the arrangement between the leading and second axle are correct. The upper triangular device is an equalising or compensating beam for the two leading axles, which was a bit of a fashionable arrangement at one time but was found to be both troublesome for maintenance and could lead to what enginemen called 'galloping' or pitching at speed (not that the latter would probably have been of concern on such as the Belgian beast, of course). Below that the other triangular-ish thing is indeed a rail brake.

 

Regarding manual gear shifts, the car on which I learned to drive (and later got from my Dad when I was doing my flying training) was a Mk. 2 Ford Zephyr with a three speed column mounted gear change. It also had a 'hockey stick' handbrake that pulled up from alongside the clutch pedal and a bench front seat that was ideal for a young man with territorial ambitions on the girl (s) in his life. The other advantage was that at the time the constabularies of various regions had Zephyr patrol cars and the type featured on the TV programme 'Z Cars'. Mine being a very pale yellow, under sodium street lamps looked closely similar to the white of a police car and it was amazing how much deference a young driver of such a car, when wearing his peaked cap and driving at night under sodium lighting, was given . Since those halcyon days, of course, the number of gears on my cars has progressed to the six that both Jill's and my VWs have but apart from a BMW 525i automatic that I had for nearly fourteen years and an Oldsmobile Cutlass I had in America, all have been manuals. 

 

As far as the banning of history and the current pandemic are concerned I will avoid comment, except to say that both are bringing to the fore some of what I consider the more stupid in society, and now that several muggsocoffee have been consumed will get on with Bazing the day. I hope you can all enjoy yours.

 

Dave

Edited June 11, 2020 by Dave Hunt

[grandadbob]

Dave, part of my early driving was in my Dad's brand new 3.3L Vauxhall Cresta (White with red roof and whitewall tyres) with three speed column change and front bench seat.  I was absolutely gobsmacked when he let me borrow it after passing my test just saying "Be careful." I was, both with the car and its bench seat!  

Edited June 11, 2020 by grandadbob

[jamie92208]

26 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

 

I assisted with domestic stuff yesterday.  This involved a deep clean of the kitchen which meant that yours truly was required to climb up on steps to do all the stuff beyond somebody else's reach.  I managed this without falling down.

I'm informed that today it's the turn of the bathroom.  I can't wait to see if I can manage not falling down two days in a row. 

Time for some breakfast.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

At my first police station, in early 74 our cleaner was a hort and rather rotund lady called Mrs Dungey.  There was a tide mark round all the walls at about my shoulder height. Below the walls were government light green. Above they were a rather dark colour of combined coal and tobacco smoke.  

 

Good luck GDB and I hope that you don't need to attend A & E.  Meantime I have returned from the builders merchant €126 to the good and some cheese scones are due out of the oven shortly. I have also had words with the decorator and his demands for cash have moderated.

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by jamie92208

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A dull, but so far dry day, but we appear to have had some rain overnight. I’ll shortly head off to the butchers to collect the weekly meat rations and a pastie for my dinner. Once home and the rations have been put away, I’ll make a second muggertea before heading to the Trafford Centre for a few items that we can’t get at our local Sainsbury’s. After dinner I will visit the dental hygienist for my 6 monthly check up. Not top of my things to do, but the fair Anna (tall, slim blonde) does make the experience tolerable. 

 

I learned to drive in a Morris Marina, but my first car was a Ford Cortina, which like Dave’s Zephyr, had a column change, bench seat at the front and a hockey stick type hand brake under the dash. At a push, I could just about squeeze 6 in that car, but that bench seat was hand with the girls!

 

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

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by BSW01

[TheQ]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

I wouldn’t know, but given the differences in quality of accommodation, uniform, food etc. provided to officers and to “other ranks” of the period, I wouldn’t be surprised.

 

iD

My dear Chap, an officer would not have been seen driving, that would be totally lower class. Driving was for the lower ranks.

An officer would normally have had his head through the turret, having a Commanding view..

 

I spent enough time driving officers around in the 1980s let alone the 1920s

 

[Northroader]

I concur with GDB, those bench seats are useful for social purposes. Previously I was running around on a 250cc scooter, and decided this would never “pull”, so traded it in for four wheels. “New” car was an Austin Westminster, six previous careful owners, ten times bigger engine on six cylinders, very nice well worn leather seats, pull-up handbrake, and column change. The salesman didn’t really want a scooter, but he didn’t really want the car either. Engine was rubber mounted, and had sunk sufficiently that the gearchanges could go anywhere, normally I would start in first, then it would go right through the gate to top, but the engine would just walk away quite happily. I gave up looking at the dipstick, and just rationed it to two pints of oil per month. It fulfilled its imtended purpose very well, though I had a comedown to my ego when I got stuck on soft ground up past the Forest Glen (twixt Wrekin and Ercall) late one Saturday night, and farm tractor had to tow me out. (I think the farmer made more out of this than farming) Still, present Mrs. NR was with me that night, so it must have been a good investment.

[Coombe Barton]

Cold enough today to wear a sweater.

 

Windy too.

 

Must have been the onions.

[TheQ]

There can Only Be one choice of car.. That of James Bond, from the books that is, not the films..

 

His was in Battleship grey..

Edited June 11, 2020 by TheQ

[Happy Hippo]

9 hours ago, southern42 said:

' night all and nos da

For those under the mistaken idea that Nos da means 'good night' in Welsh, recent research has revealed that it actually means 'it's cloudy'.

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

This has just appeared in an ad for a T-shirt on FB

 

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

..Wimp!...

No, not a wimp! I am just supremely lazy. If the car can do it for me, I’ll let the car get on with it (of course, when push comes to shove, I can manually shift gears with the best of them)

1 hour ago, roundhouse said:

My other half hates shopping nowadays so not just men....

Would you care to rephrase that sentence? As written, it indicates that your wife hates both shopping and men. Which may or may not have a downside to it, I wouldn’t know.

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

...As far as the banning of history and the current pandemic are concerned I will avoid comment, except to say that both are bringing to the fore some of what I consider the more stupid in society,

As I see it, there are a number of very serious problems in “banning history“; first of all who does the banning and what will be banned?  As George Orwell pointed out in “1984”, rewriting history changes the present: if you re-write history to say that (to provide a trivial example) P4 modelling has always been banned and everyone modelled EM, no-one objects to P4 being banned now, even though the reality was that - before rewriting history - it was EM that was banned and P4 modelled.
Secondly, it is both stupid and wrong to judge what people did in, for example, Imperial Rome by the standards of today. Many of those things which we now consider abhorrent, were then hallmarks of a civilised society.  By all means put such history “In context” if you have to, but erasing such history from the books does not change history (as ane fule kno).

Thirdly, and finally, by getting worked up about past injustices risks people becoming complacent about present injustices. Take for example slavery: it’s all very well and good to decry historical slavery, but what about present day slavery?  I wonder if many of those who are agitating to rewrite history, would agitate for stiffer laws and state action to prevent modern day slavery? I doubt it, as to do so would bring these people to the attention of the various modern day slave runners who, by any account, are very nasty individuals indeed.

28 minutes ago, TheQ said:

My dear Chap, an officer would not have been seen driving, that would be totally lower class. Driving was for the lower ranks.

An officer would normally have had his head through the turret, having a Commanding view..

 

I spent enough time driving officers around in the 1980s let alone the 1920s

 

Well of course, my dear fellow, that should be implicitly understood in my post. However, even if a gentleman doesn’t drive his own vehicle, the vehicle in question should be built to the highest possible standards a gentleman can insist upon (including walnut burl for the dashboard)

15 minutes ago, TheQ said:

There can Only Be one choice of car.. That of James Bond, from the books that is, not the films..

 

His was in Battleship grey..

And not only in battleship grey, but matt battleship grey – as Bond didn’t want to faff around washing his car. Presumably you are also aware that that other gentleman of action, a certain Mr Steed, also drove such a Bentley (if I recall correctly; whilst Mrs Peel, on the other hand, drove a succession of nice little sporty runarounds).

I would accept a 1950s Bentley S1 as a reasonable substitute.

[newbryford]

54 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 Presumably you are also aware that that other gentleman of action, a certain Mr Steed, also drove such a Bentley (if I recall correctly; whilst Mrs Peel, on the other hand, drove a succession of nice little sporty runarounds).

I would accept a 1950s Bentley S1 as a reasonable substitute.

 

I would be quite happy with Mrs Peel as a substitute.....

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Northroader said:

I got stuck on soft ground up past the Forest Glen (twixt Wrekin and Ercall) late one Saturday night,

No longer a problem as the Forest Glen has been relocated and now lives in the Blist's Hill museum as part of the Ironbridge gorge attractions.

 

A statue and plaque have been erected to commemorate where you got stuck, but under the current circumstances,  Dave Hunt and I might have to go and pull it down. 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land before its too late.

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

golf, ..., James II (of Scotland) had banned the game for getting in the way of archery.

 

 

Now there's the seed of an idea...

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

This has just appeared in an ad for a T-shirt on FB

 

Typical!

 

It's totally the wrong gun.

 

The 'Easy 8' Sherman which had a much superior ride due to the HVSS  (Horizontal Volute Spring system); was fitted with either a short fat 105 mm howitzer for close support or a 76 mm long barreled a/t gun with a muzzle brake.

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Typical!

 

It's totally the wrong gun.

 

The 'Easy 8' Sherman which had a much superior ride due to the HVSS  (Horizontal Volute Spring system); was fitted with either a short fat 105 mm howitzer for close support or a 76 mm long barreled a/t gun with a muzzle brake.

You sound just like my Dad when he was watching war films when tanks appeared. 
He said he was filmed once fora news clip “somewhere in Germany”. He suspects it never reached the cinema though. Their Lieutenant didn’t want to be filmed (it was supposed to be during a battle but was actually a long way back) so my Dad got to borrow his jacket and be filmed pointing forwards. The cameraman said he was more handsome than the officer!

Tony

[The Stationmaster]

9 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

What's going on under the rail? Is it some sort of point rodding?

It's most likely an outside facing point lock (or locking) bar but it might possibly be a fouling bar.  I'm inclined to go for the former that close to a signal.

[PhilJ W]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land before its too late.

Yes I did oversleep this morning, the exertions of Tuesday finally caught up with me. I hand balled over 100 large and heavy ceramic floor tiles back into the storage box. The box survived the move with only a little distortion and nothing was broken. I have always had a manual gearbox car with one exception that was a Suzuki Vitara with the V6 engine, there was no manual option. 

 

9 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

There's a walnut tree on our other lot. We don't get many of the walnuts because the flipping squirrels pinch them before they are ripe. The tree could do with a bit of a trim. Would the wood (see what I did there) have any value?

Not unless it is of the 'burred' variety which comes from the root of the tree. A burr is caused by a parasite that causes the tree to create a 'burr', a large ball at the base of the trunk. The burr is a mass of twigs that grow into each other to form a solid mass which when cut into has the swirled effect that is so desirable.

 https://graftedwalnuts.co.uk/burr.html 

As for Rolls-Royce Armoured cars having walnut dashes no they did not neither did many luxury cars until the 1930's when more owners started driving themselves. Before then 'luxury' woods would have been confined to the rear passenger compartment. Walnuts rarely ripen fully in the UK climate, though that may change due to global warming so generally the unripe fruit is picked and pickled. If you've never tried pickled walnuts you should do, they're delicious.

[Happy Hippo]

I have just had a very long and interesting conversation on the telephone with a lady who wanted to replace my boiler for free.

 

I told her how delighted I was with this and told her my boiler did indeed need replacing and it was required so that I could continue to run my 56xx loco on track owned by Network Rail.

 

I then outlined the basics of the Swindon no 2 boiler to help her source a suitable replacement

 

I think she was more interested on whether I was of pensionable age, but is going to get back to me on when they can supply and fit.

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

This has just appeared in an ad for a T-shirt on FB

 

Meanwhile in Camborne ....

 

.... only in Camborne!