Broithe

I believe they were large, non-native rodents that used to live wild in East Anglia until they were finally eradicated a few years ago. Hope this helps.

I wouldn't worry too much, just don't 'go there'. I'll look out for you and start declaring that all wagon chassis should be black.

Like any of the (anti)social media, Twitter can be dreadful, but it can also be very useful, if you 'target' your involvement correctly. There will be duplication, as on any other 'platform', but that can be ignored with the very tiniest of effort. 'Follow' the right people and stay away from the nutter-end of it, and you should be OK.

What is the "First Prize Length 1959" sign about at Ballinascarthy?

Lovely! There's still a good few wall-cranes around where I live when I'm on the Big Island - relics from when the town was full of shoe factories. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.8120382,-2.1200103,3a,29.3y,33.69h,99.48t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sDN5juoQw8kRKuc7QWEAK9A!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DDN5juoQw8kRKuc7QWEAK9A%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D34.98824%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

43?

Old wheel weights are often easily available, if you have a friendly tyre shop nearby. Off-cuts from lead sheeting used for flashing can be handy, too, particularly for sticking under empty wagons. Both of these can be easily cut to suit your spaces. There is often a space issue, making the denser, lead-based, materials a better bet, but do give consideration to the toxicity issues. Deluxe Materials produce a '"lead sand" type material (although not lead) this can be poured into any space and locked in place with glue.

He gets them done at Hexham Hospital.

That reminded me of this marvellous picture. The USS Connecticut tipped this bloke into the sea as they surfaced through the ice. He took offence and proceeded to give the sub a bit of a kicking. Despite their billions of dollars worth of weaponry, nobody felt able to pop outside and look at the damage.

A chap I worked with had been on minesweepers in the early part of the war. They were detailed to sweep a Scottish sea loch for 'friendly' mines. They were not privy to the number there and it was up to them to decide when they were confident that the place was 'swept'. The swept targets were to be contained in a net, towed behind the ship. There was an observing officer, intended to ensure that their procedures were correct, but he spent his day in the wardroom, bored with the whole process. Eventually, one of the crew was sent to declare "The area is swept, Sir" "Is it? How many have you found?" "Six, Sir" Sir sobered up instantly, as he knew there were only five. They managed to release them from the net and then took pot-shots at them until the real one announced its presence, and disappeared.

Abbeyleix has only been a place that I just 'go through', on the way to somewhere else - but, today, with the Sun out and having been confined to barracks for a fortnight, I decided to venture out and have a look at the Bog Project. https://www.abbeyleixbog.ie/ The main central route through the bog follows the track-bed of the old railway to Kilkenny. I never saw it in operation, but my mother was of Waterford stock and would pick up the train at Attanagh, via a pony and trap. You can park at the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel, the last place on the left as you exit the town southward. This is an 'official' arrangement, and they run a small coffee bar there for explorers. This would be the northernmost section of track, the bridge in the distance is the southernmost in the town and is on the far side of what was the old Cork Road, before the motorway. Turning round the other way, the track curves gently to the south. Turning off the 'railway', some of the paths are also gravelled. But the boardwalk sections do maintain a sort of 'railway vibe' It would be a reasonable place to break a journey, turning off at Port Laoise and re-joining the motorway to the south. I found no other vestiges of the railway, beyond the alignment of the track, but it has been gone for nearly seventy years. Northwards, the bridges all still seem to be there, but some sections of the track-bed have disappeared from view, altogether.

Yeah, that's it - I didn't want to inflict the maths aspect onto a (potentially?) innocent person. It's the basis of the 'orange peel' whole globe maps that we used to see a lot years ago - avoiding the shape/area distortions of the landmasses that Mercator would create much north of here... You only need to to be very approximate, in terms of surface shape - the smoothness is the main issue. I did a layout for an old boy years ago - it had a 'corner in the sky' at one end, but we bent a sheet of hardboard for a one-foot-radius at the other end and the effect was far superior. Just 2D, but well worth the slight effort.

This is the sort of thing I had in mind. You wouldn't have to achieve an accurate spherical shape, just a smooth transition between the three planes in each corner. I stuck them in there to dry them and keep them dry. They would almost light just by banging them together...

That seems a plausible approach - but, it might take a bit of 'development'. Or, you could remove "wedges" and form the spherical surface in the manner of a carvel-built boat?

There could well be other similar items which could be repurposed - blow-moulded spherical tanks, etc. You wouldn't require transparency. It's a matter of keeping your eyes open.

I got no emails for either of yours, but I don't really rely on on them, the site pop-ups were there for both, I'm sure. The most recent email PM alert that I can find in the bin is from Sven E on Dec 8th.

Someone gave me a large Perspex sphere years ago - about 700mm diameter - it's from an ornamental street lamp. It looked 'useful', but I've never really found a use for it - it gets used as a cloche, mostly, when it isn't blowing around the place. Something like that could be chopped up to form 3D corners?

The front one has the 'look' of a Ford Model 40 'Fordor'?

I had a couple of PMs over the last few days and am set up for email alerts and the pop-up window. I found them due to the 'window' alert, but there is no sign of any email - in mail, spam or bin. This isn't an issue for me really, to be honest, just info in relation to the above. I have definitely had email PM alerts in the past.

Some things just 'look wrong'. I think the real Manors look 'wrong'. Like biplanes with the top wing behind the bottom one. As wrong as going to a cinema in daylight. It does look correctly 'wrong', though.