Broithe

Delivery has occurred. I am now thoroughly spoiled.

Elsewhere, I have mentioned the Japanese chap that I worked with on the Big Island - our management had no idea what was going on, but did have the capacity to allow or deny funds for a project. He applied, with a hand-drawn graph as the main evidence for his proposal. They felt that it was all too vague. So, he got a printed version done - no new calculations, simply a print of his back-of-the-envelope sums - this became viewed as a 'computer prediction' and so it was true now - he got the money for the project.

There is a lot of words - it would be nice to think that something might actually happen as a result of writing all that... When I had a proper job, I developed a fairly accurate way of assessing the future reality compared to the flashy predictions promised. 2040 is a long way away and the last two years, in particular, have shown how plans can easily go awry. Time will tell, but the absence of the word 'Rosslare' makes you wonder how close to reality it all is.

Even more freight in the future - possibly. https://www.irishrail.ie/Admin/getmedia/685e9919-f012-4018-879b-06618bb536af/IE_Rail-Freight-2040-Strategy_Public_Final_20210715.pdf

Reindeer steak?

They must have left Alexa turned on and she's sent me a confirmation email. I'm always reminded of a friend who lived a couple of hundred yards from a supermarket. His wife wanted to get all the Christmas stuff in stock early. He demanded that it be left to the last minute, as they would sell off the last bits to shut up early and go home. She argued, but eventually gave in, when he said we would procure the whole list himself - at a great saving. He went across on Christmas Eve, confident in proving his point. The shop was shut and in total darkness - as was everywhere else. They had sardines on toast for Christmas dinner. He is regularly reminded of this...

Phew! I think I managed to 'spoil myself' at 17:59. And, my mobile hasn't had a text from the bank yet, with their traditional "Is this really you?' alert, as usually happens when i deal with IRM...

They will be more than adequate for anything likely to be required on a model rail set-up - and they have the advantage that the wire isn't subject to the turning end of a screw as it is tightened up.

That should be fine. It's probably the best compromise for model rail use.

A good soldered connection will generally be a better bet than a screwed one. It can even be worth tinning multi-strand wire, if you do want to have screwed connections for the occasional disconnection. With a soldered joint, you do still have the potential for breakage where the solder ends and the multi-strand wire emerges - reasonable support will largely prevent the stress concentration there becoming a real issue. When I had a proper job, our control cabinets were arranged with large banks of screwed connector blocks, but the connections were not directly to the wire - the ends of the wire had crimped blades attached, to avoid the crushing/cutting of the wire strands that can occur as the screw is tightened. This sort of thing - the 'hook' on this sort means that you can 'feel' that the full end of the screw is on the blade, not just a bit of it catching the very end of the blade.

Perhaps it will expand enough to be renamed Ath na Tel?

From 68 to 71, I lived within sight of the dust plume from this asbestos mine, although we were almost always upwind - https://www.amiandos.eu/en/ Amusingly(?), 'amphibole' essentially means 'double entendre' in Greek... Registered UK deaths mentioning asbestos seem to have subsided very slightly in the last couple of years, but other events may be masking the reality to some extent, of course.

That's exactly right - it's nice to put a coat of solder on each part, if you can, then melt those coatings together - but cleanliness is the key and a 'new' surface will always be easier to get a decent attachment of the coating to. With experience, you can almost 'see' when a joint is sound - it's hard to describe, but you will see it if you do enough joints. 'Structural' and 'electrical' soldering are similar, but rather separate subjects.

It will usually say so, if it has flux incorporated - terms like 'cored' or, more usually, 'multicore', will refer to the hollow part of the solder, filled with flux. They will look like this, although you can't usually see the cores on a melted end.

Although it has been taken reasonably seriously for over forty years, we are only just now (possibly) passing the peak of the annual deaths from it.

With the recent surge in sales, they've been able to buy @Garfielda new chain for his bike.

John Kelly has just played this on (appropriately) Mystery Train on Lyric FM.

I've use wire in plastic tubing, as intended for model aircraft - probably a bit more reliable if you need to bend things.

The Japanese chap I worked with had only ever driven Japanese cars, but 'work' insisted that he had a hire car for a job, no more 'expenses' - they really hated employees potentially 'winning', they preferred to give money to anybody else but us. Anyway, he came back after a fortnight, rather unenamoured by the Vauxhall that he had been forced to use - "It not go to reverse!" - he had spent the fortnight parking it uphill and pushing it out of tight spots. He could see from the 'map' on the gear knob where reverse should be, but just couldn't persuade it to go in. He had tried 'everything' - pulling it up, pushing it down, just ramming it in - all failed, so he just gave up. He still had the car outside, so I showed him the secret GM trick of pulling the gaiter shroud up, to allow reverse to be selected. He was apoplectic with rage - "Why they not tell you?!"

Yeah, ticking 'over' at 2/3 of a rev in each direction. A friend of mine lovingly rebuilt a Suzuki 750 'kettle'. We still laugh about how he took out the back wall of his shed when he first got it going...

Some of the two-stroke bubble cars didn't have a reverse gear, but they had adjustable timing - this allowed the engine to be stopped, the timing altered, then restarted, running in the other direction. This left you with the possibility of all the gears in reverse, not just one - 70mph backwards, for those that felt up to it...

^ Well, at least those three posts are the right way up...

Tipperary? Does it run a bit over the border to the Centre of the Universe*? *Ballybrophy.

Has anybody modelled this? Possibly a use for an old Lima..?

A bit of a missed opportunity? Whilst it was in there, they could have weathered it a bit...