Early Risers.

[AndyB]

I've just read that Happy Hippo's house it to become the centre of the UK. Well, nearly....  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-29206920

[Debs.]

I just had a close look at my pants (trousers to most of you) when I was putting them on. They’re “Made in Nicaragua”

 

They must be a pair of Contras ..........always look nice when worn with a Sandinista!  

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I just had a close look at my pants (trousers to most of you) when I was putting them on. They’re “Made in Nicaragua” - which is a first for me....very nice and comfortable they are too.

 

Best, Pete.

How long before Cuban clothing is available in the US, if the Nicaraguans have now been forgiven?

I've just checked the label on the trousers I'm just changing into that are deemed respectable to be worn in public (as opposed to the ones for sitting in the garage) and they are made in Bangladesh. The garage/gardening pair must be very old as they are UK made!

[beast66606]

Afternoon all - I've been absent for several days again due to the Ricoh RMWeb show and a couple of days leave. Nice to see Mike (SM) at the show although our chat was very brief !

 

Commiserations to Jock regarding the loss and Bon Voyage to DD - not got time to ready every thing since my last visit I'm afraid but I'm sure every one knows I would send commiserations / congratulations / etc. as appropriate.

 

The power of RMWeb was demonstrated today - I got a PM a couple of weeks back asking if I fancied a look at East Harling signal box, so this morning I headed out early and met the guy, along with several helpers from a preserved railway and several NR staff, we went through the safety briefing etc. and then I had a look around the cabin - and even assisted in removing some electric locks from the levers. It's a pity I couldn't spend longer but I wasn't allowed the time off (too short notice for the number of days) - I might be able to get back later to see how things are progressing but work is the problem - as usual.

 

Have a good day all.

[Oldddudders]

Afternoon all

 

Early start after a poor night - some sort of minor indigestion - is not a great basis for the day, but I've survived so far. My prostate scan went well, albeit rather later than I'd expected, so I was "holding" .75 litre of water for quite some time! I didn't know the word diverticulitis until this morning's learned discourse on ERs - but, hey! - I have one of my own in the bladder. Looks healthy so far, says my tame radiologue.

 

Jock : in fairness to Alison, turning up with Craig implied nothing between them - mea culpa for poor syntax. He was, with his mate Steve, very helpful in moving Alison out of her home some weeks back, and they will now do the same in reverse as Ben has left France pro-tem. Alison's gaze is firmly focussed on her French neighbour, Francois - a situation that suits me, too.

 

Loss of a pet does have a disproportionate effect on us very often. I recall a mate's mature mum nearly having a breakdown when the yappy Jack Russell reached the end of the road. "The bestest wow-wow that ever there was" she used to call little Sally. It seemed somehow out of character for a strong-minded Yorkshirewoman like Rhoda.

 

Shift work did my digestive tract no favours. Early, late and night turns in a 4-weekly cycle are quite hard work, and your system gets quite confused - even though our roster was a softer one than that of many railwaymen, especially signalmen. They would, every 3 weeks, work Saturday night, double back 8 hours later to Sunday afternoon, and double back again to Monday morning 06.00. Not recommended.

 

Hope you week feels as half-over as it is!

[Danemouth]

Well it's the end of an era at Chez Danemouth today. Like many on here we have a spare bedroom that has become something of a dumping ground.

 

This includes a seven foot high wardrobe containing all my photographic and electrical stuff. Out went mounds of odd cables, including mic leads not used in 20 years. 70 VCR tapes - no charity shop will touch them. Filled the car and went to the recycling centre.

 

I kept my expensive film cameras - I will try and sell them but will only get a pittance. Did throw out 15 rolls on unexposed slide film left over from my switch to digital in 2006.

 

End of an era?  Last 150 LPs went to the charity shop and the audio and VCR players recycled. This is the first time in 55 years I don't own an LP!

 

Next job - Scan the slides I want to keep and dump the rest - that will take weeks.

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[Ian Abel]

Yello... one needs to have a "different" greeting once in a while to see if the rest are awake - at least that's my excuse!!

 

HUMP day arrives in Minnesota with the all power of a fart in a thunderstorm, 11 overnight, clear and sunny this morning, becoming partly boring  cloudy later and up to 21 "maybe"!

 

The HUMP day drive in to work was delayed further today, even after a slightly earlier start, for the most obtuse reason I've ever encountered, but have dealt with since I moved to Minneapolis in '81.

See, the major commuter roads - pretty much ANY route I choose, involved a significant west-->east segment. Apparently, MInnesotans have limited memory capacity when it comes to where the sun rises, and twice a year (this time of year is ONE) it's rising right in front of you as you drive

(In answer to the usual FAQ - yes, the same thing happens on the afternoon commute at the appropriate points in the year too, a lack of remembering where the sun sets <sigh>).

 

Popular options are;

i) Wear shades

ii) Use sun visor

iii) Both of the above

iv) NONE OF THE ABOVE

As creatures of stupidity habit the last option is always the popular choice, resulting in freeway traffic slowing to about 5-10mph as it reaches the west->east section and all the drives are blinded by the light (ooo, THAT is a good idea for a song title/lyric      ), causing a complete slow-down on the entire system, and it never recovers for most of the rush-hour - net result, left 5 minutes earlier than usual, arrived 20 minutes LATER than usual <sigh>

 

Other headslapping topics - continued mapping out goods yard last night, thought "...hmm, those tracks look a little too close together to provide clearance for my Scalescenes goods shed...", placed said shed over track plan - "B**U**GG**ER, if I had a brain I'd be dangerous...". Abandoned track placement in favour of back to the XtrkCAD drawing board to revise plan. Bloody good job I lay the plan down first on paper instead of just trotting off and installing track/points/feeder holes!   

 

Happy HUMP day, brace yourselves for the "vote" tomorrow, time I get on in "my" morning either panic/relief will be the order-of-the-day I'm sure - depending on your viewpoint!

[Ian Abel]

...Next job - Scan the slides I want to keep and dump the rest - that will take weeks....

 

Regards,

 

Dave

Dave, "weeks"???? Good luck with that - having started to scan ours, I've concluded that how ever long I live, I'll need about 10 years LONGER to actually get enough time to scan them all!  That doesn't include getting the personal/family VCRs converted to digital, although we are probably going to have those done for us, at least the more important ones, before they degrade too much.

Edited September 17, 2014 by Ian Abel

[beast66606]

I made it back for more photos at Harling Road - the frame had gone (it was on the back of a wagon (lorry) to be precise) but I captured a shot of the name board coming down, couldn't stop long, just enough time to thank everyone for letting me have a look around and then back to work.

[Steve Williams]

Afternoon all

 

Early start after a poor night - some sort of minor indigestion - is not a great basis for the day, but I've survived so far. My prostate scan went well, albeit rather later than I'd expected, so I was "holding" .75 litre of water for quite some time! I didn't know the word diverticulitis until this morning's learned discourse on ERs - but, hey! - I have one of my own in the bladder. Looks healthy so far, says my tame radiologue.

 

 

I thought you only had diverticulitis in the colon. One lives and learns.

[trisonic]

Poor old Grace Slick has extreme diverticulitis as did my Mum. I guess that you can get it in any tube like membrane. In the colon a side effect is extremely euphonic farts. I don’t want to know about any side effects that Ian has....

 

Best, Pete.

Edited September 17, 2014 by trisonic

[Ian Abel]

Indeed diverticulitis was mention after the Mrs colonoscopy Monday - mostly as a "thing to watch" (not sure I am getting that sort of web-cam!!!      ), with simply suggestions of diet etc., even though they said there was no problem and her general health/diet are supposedly excellent.

 

So how does one "watch" in those circumstances?!?!?! While I have a lot of respect and faith in the medical profession (yeah, yeah, raising my idoit flag again) they do sometimes make some daft comments!

[trisonic]

Maybe he meant “thing to listen” for........

Hat, Coat etc.

 

Best, Pete.

Edited September 17, 2014 by trisonic

[Tony_S]

Indeed diverticulitis was mention after the Mrs colonoscopy Monday - mostly as a "thing to watch" (not sure I am getting that sort of web-cam!!!      ), with simply suggestions of diet etc., even though they said there was no problem and her general health/diet are supposedly excellent.

 

So how does one "watch" in those circumstances?!?!?! While I have a lot of respect and faith in the medical profession (yeah, yeah, raising my idoit flag again) they do sometimes make some daft comments!

The vet said we would need to "watch" and "keep an eye on" Robbie's prostate. No need now though as the emergency neutering a couple of years apparently meant a large prostate was no longer an issue.

Tony

[grandadbob]

Having suffered 3 fairly large bleeds that required hospital treatment (including one that required a transfusion) and other smaller episodes Diverticular disease is indeed something that needs monitoring and watching for the slightest sign of blood and getting prompt attention is essential. However on the three most serious occasions I had no prior warning at all.

Edited September 17, 2014 by grandadbob

[Oldddudders]

I guess that you can get it in any tube like membrane. In the colon a side effect is extremely euphonic farts. I don’t want to know about any side effects that Ian has....

 

 

I think you've hit the nail, Pete. The cavity in the bladder wall that was on-screen he has identified as a "diverticule" in his written synopsis. I am not aware that I have any particular side-effects as a result. But it needs watching, as this is where very nasty things can start, apparently

[The Stationmaster]

Jock the big advantage of shifts was that went you went home it was someone else's job but of course you left it as right as you could for them.  Far better in many respects than being On Call where one could, and in my case did, find yourself hanging on a 'phone at 03.00 or tramping off to 'something or other' at any time of the day or night or getting stuck at work for 16 hours at a time.  Great fun crawling round under derailed wagons late at night when it was precipitating down and you wanted to establish why they had derailed or spending a very cold New Year's Eve at work steam lancing points, or (ok this one was Boxing Night) dealing with several dozen signal lamps that were out 30 feet up in pitch dark and pouring rain - but at least following that I had the pleasure of getting the Lampie sacked the next day.

 

But in reality all part of the everyday life of front line railway operations and we could have a bit of fun sometimes as well and in retrospect I don't think I'd have missed most of it for the world, even the five weeks following the first fire in the Chunnel when I only got home for more than 12 hours once - and that was on the only day I had off in that period.  All part of the job.

[Pete 75C]

Jock, I don't recall any difficulties with varying shift patterns. We all seemed to get used to it pretty quickly. At my depot, a lot of the drivers would swap for permanent earlies or permanent lates and a couple would do whatever it took to get out of a night shift. Me, I just took it as it came. It was a pain being woken by the phone or doorbell whilst trying to sleep during the daytime after a night shift. I used to like the early shifts. Never any trouble ferrying commuters to work in London. The late shifts were a different story - quite often there was trouble on the train requiring police assistance or I'd get back to Horsham and find a couple of immovable drunks on the train when all I wanted to do was berth the train in the sidings and go home. I do recall physically throwing drunks out onto the platform but that's something you can't do nowadays. If I'm honest, my favourite shifts were depot shunter at Selhurst. You'd clock on at 00:01 for an 8 hour shift... you'd spend a few hours in the shunters mess room playing cards and drinking tea and then sneak off home at around 5am as the empty coaching stock started to head off out of the depot for the morning rush hour. The average was 5 or 6 moves from one yard road to another and a couple of unit splits. My main claim to fame at Selhurst was just after the New Shed opened and I'd qualified on Class 319s. I moved a 12 car formation out of the shed after maintenance and knocked off the pantographs on the first two units which had been left raised by a fitter. I got a detention and a couple of hundred lines for that... Happy days.

[skipepsi]

Evening all, waiting to talk to the DWP so while I wait I can tell you my shed has arrived a tool shed that is...... just 6x4 so room for mower and other garden tools. The idea is to build it on the decking which is fairly flat, fill it up with stuff from the condemed shed then demolish the old one. Part three of the plan is to establish a level base then pick up the new shed and place it on the base fasten it down securely and fill it again with the tools. Not my idea I would have left it on the decking.... Now been waiting for 32 mins to sort out DD1's income support which was supposedly sorted at the end of July... If you ever ring the godforsaken they have what they think is a funny little trick a part ring tone is played as greensleeves is played x massax performed on a penny whistle but it does not mean a humanoid is about to answer the phone, no you get the spiel about how they are less busy at the start of the day... My ambition to insert two neat 9mm holes in Ian Duncan Smiths forehead is only thwarted by a lack of relevant artillery to do the job how many suicides does a minister have to preside over before they commit any crime? Sorry 42 minutes wasted now, I am taking bets on the phone being lifted and dropped at a time between 5.55pm and 5.59 pm before officially closing for the day........  Lost that one they answered after 50 mins and managed to tell me they had lost the paperwork she signed and her jobseekers claim had not been closed properly.....I look to Andrew to give me the correct collection of words and phrases to sum up my feelings.

[Barry O]

Dear ERs

 

I am having a bit of a moment.. bit like Coachmann..... seems photoshopped photos are far more interesting than modelling information... so should I drop the weathering thread (and, in effect leave RMWeb) or should I stay and continue to try to give some modelling input?

 

grumpy Baz

[Tony_S]

Dear ERs

 

I am having a bit of a moment.. bit like Coachmann..... seems photoshopped photos are far more interesting than modelling information... so should I drop the weathering thread (and, in effect leave RMWeb) or should I stay and continue to try to give some modelling input?

 

grumpy Baz

I am happy to express my opinion. In a thread about models I like to see photos of the models. I can see a place for a photo of the full size original so we can see how well (or not) the model compares.  I think this all started on the Duke of Gloucester thread when the Railroad version came out. Many people were keen to see how good or bad the Design Clever approach was and an awful lot of computer enhanced artworks were posted which didn't help (in my opinion) in the slightest. Coachmann's model and a similar article in Hornby magazine were very useful. The artworks generated by computer are very clever (sort of faux Cuneo) but are not in my opinion helpful to modellers. However I'm probably in a minority thinking they should be in their own thread. Anyone who doesn't like the images seems to be rounded on quite strongly. I've taken the "advice" and don't bother looking at any big steam engine threads now, it is much more civilised on the 1F or Coal Tank threads!

So in a weathering thread guess what I would like to see, weathered models!

Take care

Tony

[Ohmisterporter]

Evening all. Been on holiday for two weeks and lost track somewhat, Too many pages to wade through but I hope everyone is well and if not, get well soon. Caught up with the Scottish election at last ( they've been keeping it quiet). Presenter on a tv news channel was talking about the latest "surveytion". What the hell is that? What was wrong with survey? Surveytion sounds like a cross between survey and guesstimation, quite appropriate in the circumstances.   

[Smiffy2]

Survation is an opinion-polling company.

[Danemouth]

I am happy to express my opinion. In a thread about models I like to see photos of the models. I can see a place for a photo of the full size original so we can see how well (or not) the model compares.  I think this all started on the Duke of Gloucester thread when the Railroad version came out. Many people were keen to see how good or bad the Design Clever approach was and an awful lot of computer enhanced artworks were posted which didn't help (in my opinion) in the slightest. Coachmann's model and a similar article in Hornby magazine were very useful. The artworks generated by computer are very clever (sort of faux Cuneo) but are not in my opinion helpful to modellers. However I'm probably in a minority thinking they should be in their own thread. Anyone who doesn't like the images seems to be rounded on quite strongly. I've taken the "advice" and don't bother looking at any big steam engine threads now, it is much more civilised on the 1F or Coal Tank threads!

So in a weathering thread guess what I would like to see, weathered models!

Take care

Tony

Tony,

 

All you say is right in my opinion!

 

When I look at a thread I want to see a picture of the model or layout without the addition of artefacts such as smoke and steam that were not present when the picture was taken - important for looking at how things were done or how a model actually looks.

 

Photoshopping though is extremely useful for removing extraneous detail and backgrounds!

 

My preference is the the "enhanced" images to be in separate threads and titled as such.

 

Sorry to be a grumpy old man!

 

Dave

[NGT6 1315]

Mick, I fully sympathise. Ain't bureaucratsiya sheer fun and joy to deal with?