Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Weather forecast is for a significant storm heading across the country in out direction

The weird thing is that it was pretty much a non-event here when it passed through - a spot of rain. There was some snow in the Cascades. We have dry weather with freezing overnight temperatures ahead.

 

There was a lot of snow in the Sierras - ABC news last night had a (sadly) short, but fabulous clip of a UP snowplow on Donner Pass*.

 

* I think this is the source. Looks like someone put their drone to good use - lots of great angles. The plow(s) still have a Southern Pacific livery. (SPMW 4034 - and 4032.) Looks like four plows in total.

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[polybear]

VHBBW's to @Two_sugars 🎂🎂🎂

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear's lower channel doesn't exist - it's a simple butt joint.  There's an upper channel but no blocks either side; the channel is only something like an inch wide as well - modern timber spindles appear to be something like 38mm wide.  Why is nothing straightforward in Bear Towers?

That sounds serious, is it painful? Perhaps @iL Dottore can advise.

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

That sounds serious, is it painful?

I thought it sounded uncomfortable too but I am not really too sure about ursine anatomy. I am sure Winnie the Pooh would have asked Piglet’s advice after bumping down the stairs. Probably some oinkment.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. According to the thingy at the bottom of the page its now -1C outside. Its certainly very icy as I can hear the frozen slush crunching under the tyres of passing cars. I followed the auction I mentioned yesterday on the net this lunchtime. No real surprises and the items I have placed commission bids on will not be auctioned until tomorrow. Time now for a hot drink.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, polybear said:

I see the Cryptocurrency ads have somehow snuck back in again

Different ones and this time you can't close them, though you can scroll away. If they appear as a floating player, at least they have a close button.

 

EDIT:

On the Wheeltappers contents page I had political/activist advertising today regarding a natural gas pipeline in the eastern US.

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[Erichill16]

Evening All 

Happy Birthday Two Sugars, I hope you did enjoy your day.

Long day here, eldest nephew unwell so dumped on us as 7:30am and didn’t leave until 7.00pm. Couldn’t do much as  ‘he must stay in the house were it’s warm’. Well that bu88ered everyone else’s day up, especially the dogs as they would have goon a long walk today. 
This evening it was Christmas pie night at the MRC and it went down very well.

I’ll bid you all a goodnight as I need an early night as not been sleeping well and I think nephew is coming round again,. Pah!

Robert

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The weird thing is that it was pretty much a non-event here when it passed through - a spot of rain. There was some snow in the Cascades. We have dry weather with freezing overnight temperatures ahead.

 

There was a lot of snow in the Sierras - ABC news last night had a (sadly) short, but fabulous clip of a UP snowplow on Donner Pass*.

 

* I think this is the source. Looks like someone put their drone to good use - lots of great angles. The plow(s) still have a Southern Pacific livery. (SPMW 4034 - and 4032.) Looks like four plows in total.

 

Yes, UP has kept ownership of those SPMW reporting marks. The fabled rotaries are also in that series.  Thevlicos are a sub fleetbof, IIRC GP38-2 'S that are based at Roseville and in the wi ter somecare at Truckee.  They are fitted with Ship style clear visipn devices on the windscreens and have cab mounted icicle deflectors that can be raised or lowered. Those spreaders look awfully narrow in real life but must be well ballasted.  I have some photoscof them in Roseville.  The Rotaries only get turnedcoutbif they get 'wet' snow onnthe hill.  

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Happy Birthday @Two_sugars. I hope you manage a lot more rotations around the sun!

 

Cricket indoor finals umpired.. no heating on at the Cricket school

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[Ozexpatriate]

59 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

They are fitted with Ship style clear vision devices on the windscreens

Which are clearly visible in some scenes in the video. Of many I liked, I noted the high angle shots where you could see all the ditch lights from each of the four vehicles (plow+loco+loco+plow) on the snow. (Very 'festive' - a bit like holiday lights.)

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I mentioned this morning that today was to be a day of unspecified pottering, well, that’s exactly what happened. I started by assembling the 2 drawer storage unit I collected on Saturday, which I’d ordered and paid for when I went to the Wigan show in October. I  then checked my loco list and made some amendments. After dinner I assembled the 1/2 scale signal arm I bought on Saturday, which will eventually adorn the wall above the layout. It went together very well and is currently sat, with a dozen small clamps on one of my portable work bench’s in the cellar. Once set, all that’ll need doing is a quick rub down of all the edges, then it’ll be ready for painting. But as the manufacturer’s recommend spraying it, I’ll wait until the weather warms up a wee bit. 

 

Happy birthday John (two sugars). 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[pH]

On 12/12/2022 at 08:41, Gwiwer said:

… any complaints about late running also went on your record. 

On intensive local services, our drivers used to say “A (disciplinary) ticket for running early and a medal for running late.” Being disciplined for genuinely running late was unheard of. Hanging back deliberately to pick up a ‘leader’ on another route in order to dodge work - that was a different case.

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl. There should be intravenous caffeine shots!

 

Boy, has it been cold recently! That means the snow we got last week has lasted, too. 

 

May be able to post more once I'm nearer wakefulness, so, ta for now...

[jamie92208]

It's wet outside but a tad warmer here. I suspect that the white stuff will have gone.  

 

Belated birthday greetings to @Two_sugars.  

 

The major excitement tiday will be wood chopping in the woodshed of all places.  If it does get as warm as forecast I may even spend some time in the shed.

 

Jamie

Edited December 14, 2022 by jamie92208

[monkeysarefun]

In a sparsely occupied country where Perth is further from Sydney than Moscow is from London finding the only Ebay seller in the country selling spares for a Unimat SL lathe is literally half an hour up the road is a miracle and something to be jumped on. So at lunch time I got in the car and drove up to Wentworth Falls before he had a chance to relocate to  outback Queensland or somewhere.  The lathe sellers place was close to Wentworth Falls National Park where I hadn't been to since a school excursion in 2nd grade and since views of the Falls are a short walk from the carpark, and it was a brilliant sunny day in the low 20's with no snow to be seen  I ducked in.

 

This view is across one of the valleys that make up the Blue Mountains ( they are a series of valleys and ridges rather than a real "Mountain" range) and  shows the kind of terrain that made them seem impassable in the early days of the colony.  Many of the valleys and gorges are really deep,  and the sides are usually sheer sandstone cliffs.  Several early attempts were made, including by escaped convicts that believed that China lay beyond them, but most of these parties just vanished into the bush.

 

It wasnt until the early 1800's when someone had the brilliant idea of following the ridgelines rather than trying to go up and down the valley sides that a successful attempt was made.

 

 

 

 

 

The Falls themselves comprise three drops for a total of 187m to the floor of the valley. Its not easy getting the entire falls in shot without a bit of a walk which I didn't have time for so this is just the first bit of it.

 

 

The 3rd drop is towards the bottom of the  following  picture. Just visible to the centre right of the picture is the staircase going diagonally down which forms part of the path going down  to the base of the cliffs. 

 

 

 

The  track to the base of the falls took 5 men 2 years to complete in 1908 using picks, shovels and dynamite and was cut into the side of the cliff. In places the men worked in bosuns chairs hanging out over the drop.

 

 

 

Its about a 250m drop to the floor from here . Fairly regularly (especially in this selfie age) visitors decide that a better shot can be got from the wrong side of the clifftop safely fences and plummet to their deaths. I'm not sure how long it takes to drop 250m but probably long enough to cycle through disbelief, regret , panic, then the forlorn  hope of  landing  on something soft like a wombat.

 

 

 

 

 

Most visitors to the Blue Mountains make straight for Katoomba to see  the Three Sisters, teh scenic railway and skyway  etc, but there are plenty of other places to stop and see on the way. 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[iL Dottore]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

That sounds serious, is it painful? Perhaps @iL Dottore can advise.

@iL Dottore doesn’t mind the occasional foray into veterinary medicine (he medicates and takes care of the Wolfpack) but draws the line at bears. For one thing, they need to be heavily sedated before you can examine and treat them. There’s probably not enough LDC in the world to fully sedate a grumpy, adult @polybear

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I thought it sounded uncomfortable too but I am not really too sure about ursine anatomy…

All mammalian anatomy follows a basic plan (and in some animals, very basic - tee hee). So @polybear @Happy Hippo and @Tony_S all have the same number of orifices (the mind boggles) but it’s the biology that’s different between species. For example: a nice tea of liver and onions made with human liver might attract the attention of @jamie92208 and his colleagues but it wouldn’t kill you, making that tea with polar bear liver would (the average Polar Bear liver contains enough Vitamin A [toxic in high doses] to kill 52 humans)

 

If The Bear is truly bedevilled by his euphemistically referred to “lower channel” @iL Dottore enthusiastically suggests the 1970s gastroenterologist’s standby* might be A solution:  the Triple H soap and water enema (High, Hot and Hell of a lot) 🤣 🤣 🤣

 

Finally, a belated Happy Birthday to @Two_sugars

 

* now obsolete (and something that required a prescription and couldn’t be self-administered) NOT to be done off the top of one’s bat…

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

6 hours near solid sleep plus some occasional dozing fairly good for me,

Ben I also had a good night's sleep Collie, was bright eyed again this morning and had a very good patrol venturing off into areas he normally doesn't go.  I was a couple of minutes later leaving because of that..

 

Right angle is playing up again this morning, still a bit swollen and rubbing on the boot...

 

One cockwomble this morning, went past me in effin clown town like I was standing still, only to get stuck behind 2 cars and an artic a few hundred yards further up. He got past them by being stupid after we left Wroxham, but several miles later he was just 100 yards ahead at the NDR...

 

Got here to find someone in MY parking space, well we don't have allocated spaces here, but because I'm early I have a nearly empty car park to park in, and always use the same space.. The driver was still in the 4x4 poking a phone, never seen him before.. If he's thinking he can park there for free while he goes and gets a flight as some have in the past.. He'll be in for a nasty shock when he finds the place all locked up and he can't get in when he comes back....

 

On the news, With the Failure of the crypto currency company FTX which was the second biggest currency exchange, Binance the biggest company had a billion Dollars withdrawn yesterday.. Me thinks the pyramids are collapsing.. Tulips anyone?

 

I see they are getting all excited about fusion again, they are calling it a green solution... Err no, if it works it will be greener than conventional nuclear, which is greener than gas, which is greener than coal. But if you produce energy it produces heat, if you produce heat, you are adding to global warming.

 

As at this moment 14.5 working Hours to go.

Time to... go actually and do some of them.

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Boy wasvit cold at cricket last night. I have now defrosted. For various reasons that's me done with indoor cricket.

 

Numbknuts has bought one of thecfamily an electronic keyboard. We now get lots of sawing, drilling and electric screw driver noises interspaced with odd sounds from the keyboard.. if ever he finishes the house and sells it, it won't be soon enough.

 

A bit of shark wielding, a trip to see a man about a sound fitting issue then club tonight (interspersed with more cricket admin) should keep me busy today.

 

Time for tea... 

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[AndyID]

24 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I see they are getting all excited about fusion again, they are calling it a green solution... Err no, if it works it will be greener than conventional nuclear, which is greener than gas, which is greener than coal. But if you produce energy it produces heat, if you produce heat, you are adding to global warming.

 

Depending on how efficiently you use it there will be some waste heat but it will be completely insignificant compared to the 173,000 Terawatts the Earth receives continuously from the Sun. The problem we have is that the stuff we have been pumping into Earth's atmosphere acts as a thermal insulator and slows the rate that the solar heat can be re-radiated into space. Earth's overall temperature has to increase to maintain thermal equilibrium.

[BoD]

Morning all and belated birthday greetings to John @Two_sugars

 

Not a great deal happening here. A light smattering of snow appeared overnight.  Today’s  main event will be the weekly shop padded out with a few non-perishables for Christmas. We prefer to stay away from the food shops if possible during Christmas week itself - they tend to be ridiculously busy.   Perhaps this year will be more subdued than usual. I somewhat doubt it.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dull and still a bit chilly and icy outside..  Variable cloud and sunny spells forecast.  Now -2°C,  might reach 2°C.

Another day of mainly staying in the warm is planned although I have been advised of a bread shortage which means "someone" will have to go and get some.  No prizes for guessing who.

Apart from that today's excitement will be waiting for a drug delivery (prescription of course) and it's time to read the meters.  Let's see if that will now actually generate a correct energy bill.

Also on the agenda are major domestic cleaning duties.  We have visitors on Friday and over the weekend and apparently "this house is a tip."  I think I've frequently mentioned on here that it's not, never has been and never will be. It just wouldn't dare, but who am I to go against the will of Senior Management.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by grandadbob

[polybear]

45 minutes ago, TheQ said:

One cockwomble this morning, went past me in effin clown town like I was standing still, only to get stuck behind 2 cars and an artic a few hundred yards further up. He got past them by being stupid after we left Wroxham, but several miles later he was just 100 yards ahead at the NDR...

 

Why is it that you never seem to get to see such numnutz (other words are available) bury themselves in a ditch or lamp post - ideally on dash cam?

 

Bear here......

First mission of the day will be a routine C-19 test, followed by an expedition to the Post Office to post cards & test off; I've somehow managed to secure a bank loan to cover the cost of a book of 2nd class stamps 😢

 

After that it'll be the unwrapping & scraping of the banister rail, no doubt followed by a second dose of PS and wrapping again; after that I'll do a bit of research on the 'net to see just what my options are regarding spindles before deciding if I'll strip n' sand, or replace.

 

Bear gone

[Grizz]

Morning All

 

Over the past week we have had a tiny bit of the white stuff land, on to already well frozen ground….result…..for some….total inability to cope. To be fair snow rarely comes to this part of the Deep South, so I guess there are quite a few drivers who’ve never experienced it. But that said it never ceases to amaze me how many people set out to drive with no preparation or more often.. totally unrealistic expectations of their ability to drive in abnormal conditions.
Saw a car sliding down a hill, with the driver then apparently using a line of park cars to stop….just wish I’d had some score cards to hold up! They managed to hit six cars before finally coming to rest. Quite impressive.

The best bit was that they got out and said “ I just couldn’t stop…..and I didn’t know what else to do…!!!!”……..classic.

 

My breathing has improved massively since the cold snap started. As such, between shifts at work, I’ve been continuing with the stable. It has been quite enjoyable doing some chippying, although I am not anything like as fast as I used to be, so I always seem to be disappointed with how little I actually manage to get done each day. 
 

Still all I have to do is get the stable finished before Christmas……mmmm might be a story in there somewhere. 
 

 

 

Better get a wiggle on as normal service is resuming on Sunday, with p1ssing rain and gales……all of that frozen mud will turn into unfrozen mud…....great! 
 

Have a great day all…..

 

ATB Grizz