Broithe

The reason for going all lightweight with the magnesium was so that they could be fitted to Land Rovers, as here in Yemen. The WOMBAT was 120mm calibre. Similar devices were made by other countries/manufacturers. This is a captured Argentine device from the Falklands that is a few hundred yards fron my house. I might just be safe from the back-blast.

I was talking to somebody last night and the conversation drifted onto Wombats, of the Australian variety - though, to me, it meant WOMBAT, Weapon Of Magnesium, Batallion, Anti-Tank. Essentially, a giant Bazooka. The rearward blast when one was fired was a serious "friendly" threat and it was often said that it did more damage where it was fired from than where it came down... In stony ground, the exhaust could excavate a trench big enough to hide in afterwards and fire the debris from it backwards for some considerable distance and at very high speed - like a giant shotgun. As you say, the quoted technical capacities are often a mix of ideal conditions and wishful thinking.

I understand that memes are regarded as being quite groovy by beatniks and the like.

If you take the evidence (finally and reluctantly) given to the recent enquiry at face value, then it would seem that they can't even detect when they have actually hit the fishing gear from a civilian vessel and dragged it for some distance, they can't really tell what sort of vessels are in the area and they can't hear trawls - it does make one wonder what success they have in detecting vessels that are actively trying to hide from them?

They will usually make an ex gratia payment from public funds - suing the Royal Navy / MOD is not for the faint-hearted, non-wealthy or impatient.

This big plus with vacuum systems, correctly arranged, is that you can make them fail-safe. You can do this with pressure systems, too, but you lose some of the extra advantages of pressure if you do that.

Indeed, you can suck all you like and never get more than one bar, but you can blow away and get as much as the mechanism and pipes will stand. Big cylinders is the only way to get bigger loads with a vacuum system, pressure systems give you a lot more choice about how things are arranged.

They'll review them next time, as well - if they're caught.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-37633330

I believe that there are still four in existence.

We've waited a hundred years, a few more weeks is no big issue.

There is a much more accurate technique for hitting the driver's window (which I don't want to reveal on a public forum) - the accuracy of that strike makes me wonder if that was the method they used. If it was, then it may become fashionable for a while.....

Rock thrown near Newbridge, I believe.

Yeah, everything scheduled on the branch is double ended now, so no more need for running round. It is a very sedate run, the back way..

The sidings to the north of the mainline, at the other end of the station, have gone now, too. Just the loop round the island platform left.

Exactly that. As far as I'm aware, the current track is as shown in the vertical view, but without the loop line on the inside of the branch curve.

I was last there in July, but it looked the same as in the photo above to me... I think the low perspective may be confusing you?

I don't think so - as far as I can see, you have to reverse in and out of the bay still - though, the loop on the bay platform is gone now.

This morning.

I used to do a bit of work for a chap who was a descendant of Admiral Hood - he had a plant hire firm and was as mad as a box of frogs. He had some machines on a road project that involved putting a bridge across a dual carriageway. It wasn't until the girders were hanging off the crane that anybody spotted that there was a still-live lamppost in the middle of the span. A huge site meeting went on with everybody trying to blame each other - whilst he disconnected the wires up the post (and left the others in, so that the remaining lamps would still work) and then sawed the top off with a hacksaw. The stump of the dead lamp was there under the bridge for many years, until the lighting system was renewed and it could be removed.

I'll do my best - but, it could be a while before it turns up.

I may have a (paper) picture somewhere of a case that I made for a wooden Cutty Sark model that a friend made. The model was over a metre long and nearly as high. I persuaded him that we could make it appear to 'float' in the case. I made a Perspex box, just higher than the draught of the boat, with a cut-out in the top that the boat 'sank' into, up (or down!) to its waterline, and a green marble Fablon covering to the base of the case. All this fitted just inside the main Perspex case and it did work very well. Marking out the shape of the necessary hole was delicate, but fairly easy once the boat had been mounted on blocks at the right height, and a vertically mounted pencil, cut to the waterline height was moved round the hull to mark the shape of the hull at the waterline - this was then cut out of the horizontal part of the internal box. I used Perspex for this case as it would have been seriously heavy with glass of a suitable thickness in it - and then realised that cutting a boat-shaped hole in it was quite feasible.

Every now and then I feel obliged to acknowledge how privileged we are to have this remarkable archive delivered straight to us, hot off the press. Thanks to all the contributors on here.

It might put some minds at rest. If it does look the business, and it doesn't add huge cost, then it seems worth pursuing. Individuality is important, particularly for the bubbles - a rake of (too) similar weathering rarely looks right.

My first thought was "Factory weathering = No". ..but, I'm definitely being won over as the debate goes on - it would be nice to see a representative example. Factory weathering has usually seemed too homogenous, but you seem to be addressing this and could bring the technique past even the dirty silver bullets.. The bubbles do need to be dirty.