Broithe

We had a forty foot straight on a layout once, in a carport with a polycarbonate roof and the ends closed in - we had considerable expansion/contraction issues, until we fitted Fleischmann joints with most of an inch of movement

I was reminded of it by this photo of the current heat expansion issue that the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway has.

They have run trains over that, apparently - gently, and with trackside personnel monitoring the progress to detect derailments...

As far as the layout was concerned, I remain convinced that the principal effect was actually the baseboard contracting, as the humidity was driven out, rather than the rails expanding in the high temperatures, although that would add a bit to the problem. The expansion of the metal was predictable to a fair degree of accuracy and was nowhere near enough to account for the total dimensional changes that we got.

Where I worked years ago, it was known that about half the people in the office, of around twenty five or so, were in a pools syndicate. We eventually had a win - the organiser got a large cheque from Littlewoods - when I say 'large', I mean that it was physically big, for theatrical advertising promotion purposes.

He showed it to the members and two of us took the opportunity to run into the boss's office with it, him being aware that we had had some sort of win, but not having the details.

Waving the giant cheque, with "Littlewoods" almost all that was legible from his viewpoint, we shouted "We've won the pools, you can shove your jobs up your arse - we're all off home now!"

I had my thumb carefully covering the end of the actual amount on the cheque.

The twelve of us had actually won £17.

We revealed that after he went all 'legal' about notice periods, etc....

This year's is confirmed now and I may well be around for it again - we'll se.

Before the upgrade to the carpark at Ballybrophy, this was the 'ersatz Armco barrier' that would stop you running off the edge.

Maybe someone who's prepared to believe it might buy something and let us know what happens?

I can see it - the IPs used come up as being in California and Canada.

There are several basic aspects to stopping noise from flat panels, as baseboards essentially are. Stopping the energy being transferred into the panel and stopping it coming back out as sound, in a form that causes annoying noise.

Reducing the input from trains running on the tracks would require fairly soft and 'dead' material - not easy to achieve in real life, whilst maintaining reliable running.

Much easier to do is changing the manner in which the energy is re-emitted. Lightness and stiffness of the panel are not helpful in this matter, and plywood is a great resonator - string instrument bodies are a good example of the opposite requirement.

You can change the re-emission characteristics fairly easily, though, by the addition of some weight to the central area of the panel - this is largely the effect that sticking cork tiles on actually has. It drops the frequency of the re-emitted sound. You will find this technique used all over car bodywork, although it is usually hidden by trim panels. A better technique is to add the weight, but have it attached to the panel via 'soft ' material - a heavy sheet, with an intervening 'soft' sheet stuck to the panel.

People tend to like competition when they are winning, but not when they are not - then, being better or cheaper is seen as cheating.

Where I worked, we had a cartoonist who would often sum up the reality of these sunset economies. One of his classics, in the late 1970s, was "The GEC Digital Watch".

This was a chap walking along, struggling to hold up a pallet with an array of 100 watt bulbs on it, whilst dragging a trolley carrying a stack of car batteries and a grandfather clock with wires running from the dial to the pallet display.

Later, after a ludicrous failed attempt to get into mobile phones, starting a decade too late and expecting to do it for almost zero expenditure, there was a similar one with the chap driving a fork truck with a phone box on the forks and a trolley of car batteries trailing behind, and an aerial being held aloft by a kite.

These were emblematic of the attitude - everybody else should stay in their rightful place and not cheat by doing things better and/or cheaper.

Lots of other UK industries were run by the same sort of deluded management - cars, motorbikes, aircraft, shipbuilding, electronics, etc. - they all stopped going forwards and expected the rest of the world to stop, too.

I am constantly reminded by the fact that I drive a Korean car - I am old enough to remember when, if told that that was the future, it would have seemed as unlikely as being told, today, that you will be driving a Nigerian* car in a few year's time...

* Other countries are available.

On 13/8/2016 at 11:36 AM, Broithe said:

 

I will confess to "hunting the cracks" when perusing an exhibition layout - the camouflaging of the joints on some layouts is almost perfect now.

 

I forget the name, but I do remember one where the joints were only traceable on the front boards - even when you could see where they started, they were not visible.

 

I am also often (internally) critical of the placement of farm animals - however, yesterday, I saw about eighty sheep in a largish field, scattered randomly, but all facing in exactly the same direction - it would have looked totally 'false' in a model context.

 

I was on the M40 at the time and, so, was unable to take a picture.....

I was reminded of this post when I saw all these cattle facing the same way on Wednesday.

Portlaoise Fitzmaurice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fitzmaurice

7 hours ago, Darrman said:

Derry Dana anyone?

Perfect!

Waterford Doonican?

Bono?

Arkle?

Daniel O'Donnell?

Ted Crilly?

MDF will be a bit 'quieter' than plywood.

The art of the deal....

The product remains the same price, the extra payment required for the privilege of purchasing a product from outside the country is a penalty imposed on the purchaser by their own elected government.

Few suppliers are going to drop their income sufficiently to subsidise a foreign customer to shield them from their own government's tax rises.

2 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

I was going to try out a few of the above puns myself but I was worried I could be pillar-ied for it. 

Just sit back and wait for the usual suspects to do it.

There'll be plenty mortar come yet.

2 hours ago, Tullygrainey said:

Glad to see you're coping Patrick

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

That’s quite arch of you Alan 

We all knew this was coming - bang on course!

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/freight-wagon-contract?

I was reminded of this picture that I took many years ago, it remains a favourite. Not actually along the railway, but from the bank of the Manifold, after the routes diverge southwards.

A rabbit's eye view...
 

If you do have a possibility of venturing up there on a decent day, then it is a pleasant area. The paths are really quite good and the farm community generally realise that making things reasonable for walkers greatly reduces that wandering about that happens in the more obstructed regions, and is then used to justify the obstruction, ad infinitum.

I did the Staffordshire Way once and it turned into an Escape and Evasion exercise.

I got talking to a bloke at a blood donation session - he turned out to be employed to negotiate with the more difficult farmers, who were not in short supply. He had been on a course that day - at the Police headquarters - it was essentially on how to deal with people threatening you with a firearm...

My usual practice is to park at Weag's Bridge. You are fairly central by doing that and it is the least popular parking along the line, as well as the most spacious.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0851664,-1.8526989,241m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQzMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

These are walks that I replicated this time.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1pSxyPvk8K2a9O1zxTlGkjnaz1y_PIB0&usp=sharing

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1W-CfOYU3OXNzIBEjpN0So7BQjLoXigo&usp=sharing

There is plenty to see there, including the disappearing/reappearing river phenomenon.

1 minute ago, leslie10646 said:

Thanks, @Broithe, for the piccies - you've reminded me that my Leek and Manifold history was £50 when I bought it - a beautiful volume.

It's on ABE at £200 plus these days. Time I sold it!

It HAS been read

Crikey! I have a few books on it - I must check them out - the time of not returning here again is approaching I fear, and hope...

I have walked almost every field around the Manifold and Hamps rivers - a much pleasanter area than the nearby, but much more popular Dovedale, in my estimation.

Currently on the Big Island, I made an attempt to replicate some walks around the Manifold Valley, that I used to frequent over many years. For logistical reasons, and despite my better judgement, I made an attempt to retrace a route from the past last Saturday. This resulted in me giving up, as a result of the standard of 'weekend people' that I could no longer endure. I made a second and much more successful, attempt on Thursday - around 10 - 15% of the number of people and no idiots, who seemed to be half the people on the Saturday attempt.

The railway ran from Waterhouses to Hulme End. I did the northern half, some of which is open to motor traffic, including the tunnel - be extremely careful with that on a nonworking day - in the week it's not a real problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leek_and_Manifold_Valley_Light_Railway

At the terminus at Hulme End, the buildings largely survive and have been repurposed sympathetically - the engine shed is a decent café, handy, as I forgot my food...

Thor's Cave Station, looking up at the cave itself. the foundations of the wooden structure still visible.

And looking down from above the cave.

Swainsley Tunnel - open to motor traffic, but with refuges, if necessary.

Ecton Station, for the mine.

And Hulme End terminus itself.

The food replacement from the café.

A few token sleepers remain.

In the old station building is a nice, but hard to photograph, model, illustrating the old days very well.

It's a nice walk on a nice day, with nice people. but there are behaviour issues, especially at the weekend, and seriously then, with motorist behaviour in the 'technically shared' tunnel. 

From Hulme End, I came back via a parallel route through the hills, last done forty years ago - despite fearing I was wrong a few times, I did follow it exactly.

Some nice, non-railway, bits along there.

Etc....

Many years ago, I started trying to recreate the current view against those past photographs from books about the railway, whilst it was still running, before WW2.

I did get about halfway through that project and I might find the pictures during my current domestic archaeology process in the 'forty years of stuff' in my house there...

55 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

But mixed to a precise formula and not simply made up of any old pastel shades they had at the back of the paint shop 

And the frames were never black.

2 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Rose tinted glasses!

@jhb171achillwill be along shortly, to point out that the glasses were really more of a peach tint.