Broithe

A circuit breaker head, a development version of this sort of thing, mounted at a 45° angle - so, when one side of it came to bits, it disappeared out through the roof. It would (presumably) have landed wherever it did before we could get outside to see what had happened to it.

It was, like most British factories, a pretty Dickensian place, it was still covered in flaking camouflage paint from the war. We never actually killed anybody, more by luck (and personal awareness) than judgement. We once (accidentally) fired a thing about the size and weight of a car engine out through the roof, in the direction of the West Coast Main Line that runs past the factory. First thing was to make sure it wasn't on the tracks, which it wasn't (phew!)- but, we just never found it. It didn't seem to have come down in the works and I climbed over the fence of the factory across the tracks, to an area where new cars were stored at the time, expecting to find a flattened car. The ground was quite marshy and we presume that it just went in and buried itself somewhere - it's a 'retail park' now and I wondered if we might find the bomb squad called when the old place was knocked down and the new tin sheds built, but nothing turned up - I often wonder where it is...

I worked in a fairly heavy factory until the mid '90s. Quite a proportion of the older chaps had bits missing. I used to get criticised a bit for generally having my hands in my pockets, but it was a policy to avoid accidentally putting one down in the "wrong place". I had a few near misses, but emerged largely unscathed. An 80 tonne generator frame fell from a crane, seconds after my boss had walked under it. He was on record for criticising people for 'wasting time' by waiting for crane loads to pass. We had the added excitement of high voltage testing going on yards from the factory floor, with 'interlocked' doors that didn't even close properly, never mind the fact that the interlocks never worked in the whole time that I was there. On a fine day, there could be up to 750 kV flying about.

It was a very early tram, and it has rained here all night - adhesion has the potential to be a problem there - we'll see.

A tram has derailed in Croydon - on a tight bend approached via a steep, wooded slope - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-37919658 - no word on it being leaf-related, but we will see eventually.

I think this chap may have suffered on the rails... [video=youtube;d4n-amRJeyw]

I've seen the earlier system used, with Bird Dogs picking up inanimate canisters, not with human cargo - it's probably a lot more violent than the final Fulton arrangement and you needed a lot more space.

He must have had a fair grip of her......

It was a bit bonkers, but that's how it was then - everything was new. They used to recover film canisters from spy satellites in a similar manner - after re-entry, they would hang from a parachute on a long cord that would be snagged by the plane, the 'chute then being ripped off and the canister hauled inside. It meant that it was truly secure, nobody else could ever know what you had got on the film, there was no way of 'hacking' it, short of getting to the canister first. I suspect that the pilot recovery side developed from that application. For aircrew, it might have been preferable to being captured. It was used for some larger items than single/double people payloads....

Talk of mechanical tablet catchers at speed reminded me of the Fulton Recovery System - definitely not one for the faint-hearted. After you were shot down, you let up a balloon on a wire, that got picked up by a passing Hercules, hoicked you violently off the ground and they then winched you in - if all went well... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system

Rivets can have quite an effect on your eyesight - and your speech.... [video=youtube;9MAS-AvUOXw]

A Voyager came apart in Bristol a couple of days ago, although the reason has not been made clear.... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-37839189

Actual rivet-counting, actually going on as we watch, you don't normally actually see it happening in front of your actual eyes.

Izaak Walton / Isaac Asimov - it's an easy mistake to make....

It may be worth a bit of practise to see how well you can get the two types to match.

It was just a guess, really, Izaak lived not far from me - where it says Angling Museum here - - it's also worth a look at the railway bridge just north of his house - where the road bridge goes over the railway, the railway is actually on its own bridge, going over the stream - a very unusual arrangement. Edit - I notice that it actually says Angling Mesuem.....durrr...

Is that from Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler..?

Is that a clue...?

Or 'decal' strips - http://www.micromark.com/ho-scale-decals-with-raised-3d-rivets-and-other-surface-details,9968.html

I had some sesame seed in a box once, but I never found out how to open it.

To be fair, I've never felt safe on a London Underground platform, surrounded by objectionable people and with an unguarded drop to an exposed live rail.

Probably safe(?) for a bit. You can only really do it where you're confident that the door spacings of anything that stops there will be identical.

A whole gander? I thought it was just tea and sandwiches that they were doing?