Chalkhill

[Dad-1]

After one of the quietest weeks ever on the site I do have something
happening at Chalkhill.
The grass has grown !! A mixture of 4 different fibres, Javis 'Spring' &
'Summer' and Noch 'Spring' & 'Summer', all 4 offering slightly differing
colours and different lengths between Javis & Noch.

The one bare patch was done last evening.







p.s. The NRM shop has a good stock of Javis scatters and good price !!

Geoff T.

[Lofty]

It’s coming together well now Geoff

p.s. The NRM shop has a good stock of Javis scatters and good price !!

Generally speaking there is usually good stock levels and reasonable prices.

[Jaz]

I like your era, steam isso evocative, and like the suitably dirty track, and your new grass.

[Dad-1]

Thanks for the comments Dave-00 & Jaz.
I know both of you love getting things down & dirty !!

Well, a day out yesterday and then feeling rough today - moral don't go shopping (With the wife)

I decided to put Chalkhill up to have a little play and decide on next moves. Also decided to try and
operate using Kadees and setting them up is a nightmare. Some will say it's easy, 'recollections may
vary' is my reply to that. Why ? Well if you have kit built wagons with Alan Gibson wheels you'll have
to add brakes because the tyres are highly magnetic, enough to pull wagons along and upset the delicate
magnetic forces Kadees use to operate.

Today I was using diesels, just not certain what I'll use for a 1 day show. Sorry the video seems to be over
exposed, it was very bright and my camera can't cope. I may be using my wife's smart 'phone in future ?

https://youtu.be/dUSq4k48ZIM

Both 4 wheel locos were not reliable enough for my liking. Just 6 weeks to sort ???

Geoff T.

[Phred]

Dad-1 wrote:

moral don't go shopping (With the wife)

Sage advice...

Thanks for the very interesting video. I'm afraid of my wife's smart phone. Every time I pick it up I accidentally touch something that launches me into some mysterious app that I can't understand or get out of.

[Bigmet]

I will add my praise; in particular as one who lives on the lofty chalk uplands of the Chilterns, the turf on chalk looks so right, and the effect of a chalk cutting wall created to house the yard most realistic.

BTW, I see someone else working hard to keep the garden looking so well, a nod in that direction too.

...decided to try and operate using Kadees and setting them up is a nightmare. Some will say it's easy, 'recollections may vary' is my reply to that. Why ?Well if you have kit built wagons with Alan Gibson wheels you'll have to add brakes because the tyres are highly magnetic, enough to pull wagons along and upset the delicate magnetic forces Kadees use to operate...

I had to engage in an extensive wheel swap program to overcome the very same problem, mostly of MGW wheels which are steel tyred, in addition to more recent Gibsons. Almost all these steel tyred wheels are now in unfitted loose coupled stock which uses the Brian Kirby (BK)method of uncoupling Bachmann miniature tension locks. (On Kadee magnets, that's a win, one uncoupler type for two otherwise incompatible systems.) The BK system is not sensitive in the way that Kadees are, and the odd 'rough shunt' was not unknown on the real railway when it came to unfitted wagons.

The fitted freight stock is now almost all on non-magnetic wheels, almost all of them RTR, the only exceptions the lowmacs and bogie wagons which take 9/10/11 mm diameter wheels which are dominated by MGW wheels. But a potential solution is offering, the Oxford 'Pilchard' ( unfitted) has yet to be explored for wheelset swapability. Since happily this is a prototypically correct wagon for BR(ER) I don't even have to wait around in hope of spares becoming available, joy unbounded! So this only requires obtaining a getta round tuit for the swapping process...

... I'm afraid of my wife's smart phone. Every time I pick it up I accidentally touch something that launches me into some mysterious app that I can't understand or get out of...

That brings back the memories: half a lifetime ago I attended a tech 'think tank' led seminar in Berne concerning the miniature mobile phone which was then at the advanced development stage. There was some scepticism expressed towards the claim that this would be a game changer. One of the rebuttals was 'men look at this and say, yes could be useful, while women are really excited and want it NOW!: this will be the first major technology introduction in which the demands of women will lead development of the capability expansion'. I think they called that right.

And my pudgy digits are likewise useless on smart phones. I want's buttons that click...

[Dad-1]

Bigmet, you made me laugh,

"I want buttons that click" I also have difficulty with buttons that have different functions.
Press once, Press & hold, Press twice. No hope for me !!

That last video was a walk around, here is one of the 'Testing' videos.

https://youtu.be/k_6qJURlyo0

Lots more to come as without testing as many combinations as you can (All if you can remember
what's been attached to which end of whatever !!)
A never ending search for perfection that is probably beyond the mere mortal !!

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

After Bigmet's compliment regarding my chalk hill I gather he's probably quite
into British flora. There may be others here as well so here is a photo taken quite
close to where I live.



A great shot of a Bee Orchid in full flower, there is a small community on a green space
that is also covered in the somewhat more common Pyramid Orchid. No British orchids are
really common, just that when found there tends to be a larger local community.
Even now I look at our wonderful scenery, but have to slow down to actually SEE what's there.

While British flora may be a passion, I am currently nurturing 4 germinated Sweet Clementine
orange seeds. 100% was not what I was expecting in April when they were planted !!

Geoff T.

[Richard08]

Maybe sneak in a small white horse in on that bank - with a bunch of archaeologists (one in a stripey jumper ) Looking good!

Here's my entry for Wildlife On NRM

mouseflower.jpg (41.14 KiB) Viewed 752 times

[Phred]

Bigmet wrote:
I want's buttons that click...

I still mourn the passing of my old Nokia! I also noted the lady of the house working away in the background while Dad-1 played trains. Should we let her know that she has been viewed as far away as Australia?
Love the orchid photos. That mouse!

Here is a Cooktown Orchid that struggled for years in my care despite the best orchid mix,fertilising and watering. In the end I jammed it in the fork of a Rose Apple tree and told it to live or die as it pleased. It has thrived ever since and flowered regularly.

[Bufferstop]

"I want buttons that click" I also have difficulty with buttons that have different functions.
Press once, Press & hold, Press twice.

and just don't mention touchscreens, we've just changed our main car, we decided now was the time for us to go electric. What should have been our obvious first choice fell at the first hurdle, essential driving controls were on a touch screen! We settled for one where the most important controls to be on screen were the Aircon. I can live with that!
On the other hand, my 35mm DSLR has been languishing in a draw since I acquired my latest phone. I dare say a newer camera might have the same level of software, but the only advantage would be the lens/receptor combination, but it would still be something else to carry and I don't need the extra resolution.

[Dad-1]

A moment of laughter,
This time at the expense of Ratio(Peco). I'm making up a variant of a Diesel
storage tank using the Ratio kit 530. It's all being butchered by me so it'll
end up nothing like they supply, other than one tank.
They supply a decal sheet, nothing funny about that except that the sheet
has a couple of twin white star decals. These markings refer to a wagon's
maximum speed, twin star being 60 mph.
This however is with a static tank kit - Static tanks with a speed rating ???
They also include a couple of white number sets 0-9, O.K perhaps you might
number your tanks, but to me they are for use on wagons.

That aside the bund walls have now been constructed, with capping stones.
I will add a small drain pipe as these bunds do fill up with rain water and need
to be drained of their polluted contents from time to time.

Fixed a 2004 Hornby simple coaling stage by the shed so I have the necessary for
either steam, or diesel traction. Now it's too hot for me, next it's weathering,
mixes of paint will do better if a little cooler.

[Lofty]

They also include a couple of white number sets 0-9, O.K perhaps you might
number your tanks, but to me they are for use on wagons.

I am sure they will be useful for a wagon builder as prolific as yourself.

[Phred]

Dad-1 wrote:
Static tanks with a speed rating ???

Given the rotation of the Earth, your tank would be moving at a rate of about 1,035.625 miles per hour. You may need more stars.

[luckymucklebackit]

Dad-1 wrote:
Static tanks with a speed rating ???

Given the rotation of the Earth, your tank would be moving at a rate of about 1,035.625 miles per hour. You may need more stars.

...and that is just the rotation speed. To quote Mr Idle!

"Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned
A sun that is the source of all our power

The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the 'milky way'"

Jim