Early Risers.

[brianusa]

16 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Evening all,

 

No progress was made on the powerhouse today. However most of the morning was spent going around on Spanish google looking at Fowler Ploughing engines, as I’m trying to find one made for direct ploughing in the Pampas, down in Argentina. I didn’t find it, but I did find the closest possibly surviving Fowler engines to me, the one seen below that was still working on Puerto Rico in 1954, evidence suggests. I also found some great photos of a set of B6 “Big Lion” engines made for the Tsar, said photos are of the engines trundling through the winter snow, or maybe getting stuck...
 

Tomorrow morning I go to the school for a two and a half hour orientation presentation in the PAC, which will either be “absolutely riveting” (), or very interesting. After which I go and rechlorinate the grandmothers various fountains. The other photo below is of the rather nice sunset, taken tonight looking west towards the Arkansas river. 
 

stay healthy,

 

Douglas

 

Who mows your lawn?  Looks good!

     Brian.

 

[BoD]

Today saw the funeral of my brother in law and great friend after he lost his long, long battle against cancer.  It was a strange subdued affair in these constrained times but as the cortège drove past the GP surgery he started and where he practised  there were scores and scores of people by the roadside paying their respects.  A most emotional moment. 
 

I sit now with a particular single malt in my hand, in memory of the times we have shared one together over the years.

 

 

[brianusa]

Too many Brians on here.  It certainly isn't my birthday, so I'll say Happy Birthday Brian, and hope its for the right one!

 

 Here in GH, the temp has returned to normal 70F or so and we can turn off the A/C for a while and save a penny or two.   The new cleaning lady arrived yesterday and did a good job which pleased my wife.  We bought a new Shark vacuum cleaner for the occasion; never heard of the brand but did an exemplary job and put years of Hoovers to shame.  The CL was most impressed!

     On to lunch.....................

     Brian.

[simontaylor484]

Swmbo has a shark vacuum cleaner and swears by them (and at me and the boys and the dog) she recently got a new one with anti hair wrap and it certainly seems to do what it says on the tin. Part of it lifts off which helps on the stairs 

Now if I was to spend that sort of money on muddling items i could imagine WW3

Starting.

 

[Gwiwer]

22 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

had to call fire service to a fire near us 300 yards across the allotments is a short row of terraced houses facing the railwsy line.  At the end of the row something was on fire. Just had a call from the fire serviceasking if i knew whos car it was 30 mins later. 

Ooooh.  Toasted Toyota?  Or Flambée Ford?  Hot Hyundai or Broiled Beamer?  

 

Had a moment myself at the House of Fun this morning.  If you know who Inspector Sands is you will always pay attention when his attendance is requested over the PA.  Without warning and on a day when no fire alarm drill was due the automated announcement suddenly started.  Cue immediate response from the station fire warden via the two-way radio as it was established that the alarm was raised automatically from within the building ...... right next to where I was standing.

 

My reaction?  Immediate call to the fire warden to confirm I was investigating and again two minutes later to advise no persons were present and no sign of fire.  IT had to be fully checked out of course.  Two fire officers and two of our duty management team strode swiftly to the location, agreed with me that nothing was amiss and thanked me for the prompt response.  

 

It's been quite a while since I did my (then BR) firefighting course at Waterloo.  We were taught the basics of prevention and protection plus use of extinguishers.  Anything larger required the people in shiny red trucks to attend.  At the time it was still OK to use BCF (Firesnow) extinguishers - the little green ones - which have long since been withdrawn because the chemical inside can be a bit nasty.  We practised in one of the large rooms in the vaults beneath Waterloo station but it wasn't as well ventilated as it could have been and three of us, myself included, ended the day with mild BCF poisoning.  That would be cause for the Elfin Safety people to suck their lips today but not in 1983.  One never forgets the basics.  Never open a door until you have tested its temperature - it must be cool and with no smoke or fire visible.  Never take risks.  Never leave anyone behind on a fireground.  It's good to know the old stuff is still alive in the grey cells.  

 

Other than that Chews Day has been a quiet one and slightly more Autumnal than its predecessor.  The breeze was quite nippy earlier on and remained refreshing.  Thor strolled around bot only troubled us briefly once - at precisely the time SWMBO and I set out for a lunchtime walk-around-the-block.  It was a very quick walk.  

 

G'night all.  Hump Day in the morning.  

[Gwiwer]

1 minute ago, Gwiwer said:

Inspector Sands

For those unfamiliar with this person "Inspector Sands" is summoned by PA call in the event of a fire alarm anywhere on the railway network including the London Underground.  It is thought that this will be widely understood by staff but not cause panic or alarm among passengers as would a sudden wailing of the alarm itself.  

 

"Will Inspector Sands please contact control" is a generic message while in some places "Will Inspector Sands please go to Platform six" indicates precisely where the alarm has been triggered.  

 

I have, incidentally, had to use my fire-fighting training in anger once on the railway.  Whilst on duty at Charing Cross the alarms suddenly went off (no Inspector Sands in those days) and I could see thick smoke rising from the foot of the Villiers Street exit stairs.  Having detailed my duty manager to call the brigade I grabbed both of the extinguishers to hand and found a large amount of waste paper had been piled against the wall by a street-dweller and had caught (or been set on) fire.  It was swiftly brought under control by yours truly and the pair of extinguishers.  Despite the MFB arriving within three minutes they had nothing left to do except check the scene and declare it safe to re-enter the station.  

[jamie92208]

Happy birthday Brian.

 

I'm now ready for bed. Having wielded a 7lb hammer in anger this afternoon for the first time in a while, I suspect that my shoulders may ache in the morning. However  all the fenceposts are in and in a straight line.  The wire will be added Thursday.  After tea I had a pleasant  half hour in the pool hoovering bits from the bottom. It was a slightly cool 26 degrees in the water but felt OK.

 

A libation of some amber medicine from Glenlivet has gone down very nicely so I will bid you all goodnight.

 

Jamie

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Havent had chance to read all the posts today, but congratulations to Brian on his birthday and Q, the craft is looking good. 

There used to be a Coalite plant near where I lived in Barnsley and boy did it stink. There was also a maggot ‘factory’ (or should that be farm) nearby as well and that also whiffed terrible. I seem to remember when I was a kid someone fell into the ‘vat’ and drowned. Don’t know if it’s possible or true but boy what a way to go.

On a personal note, my balance is not getting any better and by tea time (dinner time to some) the tank is empty.

Early night to give the batteries an extra charge so goodnight.

Robert

[Coombe Barton]

... change in the weather ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/08/18/detail-and-complexity/

[J. S. Bach]

47 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Inspector Sands

Hmmm, I seem to remember from some Navy firefighting training that sand can be used in some situations as a fire suppressant; magnesium (?) fires come to mind.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Barry O]

Belated Happy Birthday  Brian.

 

No cricket today..too much rain.

 

BoD ..always hard to say goodbye to someone so liked.

 

Found out that one of my team has died due to the Big C. Paul, aka Sausages due to the size of his fingers, was a great mechanical fitter. Had to stop hime smashing a computer screen once when his time sheet wouldn't tally correctly. He could fix anything me hanical.

 

Baz

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Talking of smelly industrial processes I recall when I was a nipper we lived downwind of both May & Bakers chemical plant and the local sewerage works, sometimes the whiff could be a bit strong. Later when I lived in Romford everyone knew when the brewery was cleaning out the vats, the smell pervaded the whole town centre. Some people hated it but I didn't mind. Thats it for now, be back later.

Edited August 18, 2020 by PhilJ W

[tigerburnie]

Off fishing early tomorrow, so...........................G'night all

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

For those unfamiliar with this person "Inspector Sands" is summoned by PA call in the event of a fire alarm anywhere on the railway network including the London Underground.  It is thought that this will be widely understood by staff but not cause panic or alarm among passengers as would a sudden wailing of the alarm itself.  

 

"Will Inspector Sands please contact control" is a generic message while in some places "Will Inspector Sands please go to Platform six" indicates precisely where the alarm has been triggered.  

 

I used to commute between Reading and Teddington via Twickenham. One afternoon there was a long delay at Teddington. Eventually someone turned up to explain that there had been a fi' on a train at some dodgy south-of-the-river station - Kingston, I believe. This caused great consternation among the good burghers of TW11 - a fight? Had the Police been called? No, said our unfortunate railwayman, no'a fi', a fi'. Only when he explained that the fire service was in attendance did enlightenment come - a fire!

[Dave Hunt]

Happy birthday Brian, at least what is left of it; hope you enjoyed it anyway.

 

Time for me to wish everyone goodnight and get some eyelid inspection time in.

 

Dave

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Thank you for all the birthday wishes, they are very much appreciated. 

 

Despite this morning’s grey and dull start weather changed mid morning and we ended up with wall-to-wall sunshine from late morning until the sun set. 

 

I’ve spoken to all the kids today, Mike dropped a card (with some modelling tokens inside) round last weekend. Just before dinner Vickie and Ian called round with cards (which again contained modelling tokens) and some chocolate, they know what I like. We chatted for about 30 minutes, socially distancing of course, we’ve not seen the grandkids now since March, apparently Ava is now taller than Sheila, which isn’t difficult, as Sheila is only 5ft tall! James will be dropping round on Saturday to drop off his birthday card and gifts, as he’s working at the moment and lives several miles away. I also received a generous amount of modelling tokens and a card from Sheila this morning. It’s just a pity that there are no shows that can be attended where I could spend them, I think a trip to Walton’s of Altrincham may be on the cards shortly.

 

This evening I poured myself a bottle of Old Speckled Hen before we settled down to watch a couple of old Timewatch programs, the first about Bletchley Park and the second about the ‘Dams Raid’ both were very interesting.

 

Goodnight all 

 

Brian

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, Erichill16 said:

Evening All,

Havent had chance to read all the posts today, but congratulations to Brian on his birthday and Q, the craft is looking good. 

There used to be a Coalite plant near where I lived in Barnsley and boy did it stink. There was also a maggot ‘factory’ (or should that be farm) nearby as well and that also whiffed terrible. I seem to remember when I was a kid someone fell into the ‘vat’ and drowned. Don’t know if it’s possible or true but boy what a way to go.

On a personal note, my balance is not getting any better and by tea time (dinner time to some) the tank is empty.

Early night to give the batteries an extra charge so goodnight.

Robert

Monckton hall coke works? Yes it did stink 

There was a maggot farm on the way out of Knottingley too that stunk too although Synthetic Chemicals/Croda outstank it on the road towards Kellingley

[The Stationmaster]

Belated Happy Birthday Brian

 

Incidentally my BR fire fighting course sounds to have been much more fun the Rick's - the test took place outdoors we all had an individual go at extinguishing some burning diesel fuel (not a lot of it of course, fortunately).  'Inspector Sands' seems to be a fairly recent invention - a child of the 21st century it would seem or maybe the Western just did things differently.

Edited August 18, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[newbryford]

5 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

As the duty Inspector for the division my biggest nightmare was Hickson and Welch having a f*rt at their plant opposite the rugby league ground. The plant contained a considerable quantity of phosgene at all times as an intermediary  in the production of some sort of timber treatment. If that had happened  with a northerly  wind things could have got interesting.

 

Jamie

 

HB Brian,

 

I spent 7 (mostly happy) years covering the process systems across two chemical sites.

One used sulphur as the main ingredient - either brought in as liquid as a by-product from the likes of Ellesmere Port/Stanlow refinery, or as solid mined sulphur.

The solid was tipped into a steam heated pit to be melted - or the liquid - kept in a heated tank until used. Then either was injected into the works boilers as fuel to create steam for the various processes and the resultant sulphur dioxide ducted around the works to make various sulphates and sulphides.

 

It didn't take long to get used to the constant odour around the site.

 

The other plant made a lot of "intermediate" chemicals, which were then shipped out to other works for further processing.

We usually had somewhere between 5 and 10 tonnes of liquid chlorine stored on site before hooking them up to the plant.

It has an expansion ratio of 457 when turning from liquid to gas, and it is considered dangerous when the concentration of chlorine gas raises above about 10ppm.

If my maths is correct,  one cc of liquid chlorine has to disperse to approximately 50 cubic metres of air before levels drop below toxic. So you can imagine what one tonne of the stuff needs to disperse.

If there was a breach in that pipework and the chlorine sniffer alarms went off, the first thing to do was look at the various windsocks around the site and work out which direction to run.......

 

The main compound made using Cl was stannic chloride - by dissolving tin within chlorine. It was a 24/7 process with constant addition of the two ingredients, tapping off the SnCl at a certain level withing the vessel.

It was strange stuff - it would attack stainless steel piping, but was quite happy with mild steel. I believe it reacted with the iron to form a protective layer on the lining of the pipe. Ferric/ferrous chloride?

When mixed with water, it would react violently, giving off large clouds of hydrochloric acid fumes. Yet another reason to look at the windsock.

 

The tin arrived in ingot form and they were then melted and poured into water to form "flakes". The purpose of this was to increase the surface area of the tin flakes so it reacted quicker with the chlorine. 

The flakes were then placed on wooden trays in a heated room to dry out.

But: if the flakes hadn't been dried for long enough, the resulting water went into the reactor with predictable results.

One day (before I worked there), a 10kg tub of wet tin was tipped into the reaction vessel, the resulting acid cloud damaged the paint finish on most of the works personnel cars that were in the car park downwind of the plant - as well as a few insurance claims from the surrounding streets!

 

Halfway through the week for me.

 

[J. S. Bach]

7 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Monckton hall coke works? Yes it did stink 

There was a maggot farm on the way out of Knottingley too that stunk too although Synthetic Chemicals/Croda outstank it on the road towards Kellingley

Now there is a word that I do not believe that I have ever heard (read?) before; I love it and will remember it for future use!

[simontaylor484]

Kids halon/bcf  extinguisher s like Co2 had the added risk of freezing on the outside of the cylinders when discharging. If handled wrongly they attached to your hand.

 

When I worked in transport we had a large storage warehouse we had all details of stuff stored in there including Olive oil in industrial quantities,.sealants ,adhesives  various other chemicals. One day the fire inspector came on their tour you couldn't guess what they said was more dangerous. Pallets of glass beer/sauce bottles because the necks form chimneys in fires

[simontaylor484]

2 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Now there is a word that I do not believe that I have ever heard (read?) before; I love it and will remember it for future use!

The smell.was rather unique. If traffic was slow behind a truck or slow moving vehicle it made your head spin

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.