Stuff

[arceye]

I think the biggest failure of the APT was not so much the technical glitches associated with the new technology even though they resulted in much bad press publicity which admittedly certainly didn't help matters. The end of the project I always thought was brought about by the bigger issue of the Kinematic Envelope being flawed in relation to the infrastructure.

Or, simply put, the damned thing was "too big for our railways" which created clearance and safety issues due to its ability to tilt. I believe that one of these issues was that two APTs with failed tilt mechanisms stuck so as to lean towards each other could collide when passing. This kinematic envelope may also have had consequences for the general network of platform edges, tunnels etc etc.

[rich.]

i was under the impression that the trains worked fine but the reporters who had been invited all got a bit drunk & were hungover for the test run

[arceye]

Rich, well it was BR so pretty much everybody was half cut at least half of the time, so you could be on to somet there , APT was before my time on the railway but after the official induction course when you were put with the gang the next item on the agenda was to take you round the area and show you the best pubs with carparks round the back so the van couldn't be seen

[GHT]

Does any1 else like buying older stuff for their man Cave?

My wife has the cave, it's actually a purpose built cabin for her to do her dressmaking in.
She makes me some wonderful Hawaiian shirts too.
Not in the cave but in the house, I still use the original, finger dial, telephone that, the then GPO supplied, back in the 60's.
Whilst my wife is in her cabin, I enjoy cooking. All ingredients are carefully measured by imperial weights,
on a counter balance scale, circa 1948. We don't listen to a radio, it was called a wireless when it was new.
It's a 1932 Ferguson, in a walnut case, and the reception is perfect, although the valves take a while to warm up.
My music centre is one of those dome top Wurlitzer Juke Boxes, called a 1015, also known as: One More Time.
Had that twenty years, no idea how old it is, but it isn't one of the early type that played 78's. It plays 45's.
We also have a massive, but inefficient, Hoover vacuum cleaner, from the 1950's. We don't use it though,
it's just for show. There's a Dyson hidden away in the cupboard for keeping the place clean. We also have
a TV that is getting on a bit, a black & white affair, no remote, it only works through an attached gizmo.
but of all the old stuff we have, the best is my first mobile phone. Not The Brick, but model that followed it,
about the size of the big bars of chocolate. Originally analogue, it would have been redundant but for the skill
of some young guy in a phone shop, he made a clever piece of wizardry, fitted it in the phone, and to this day
it still works. The stares that I get when it goes off and I whip out this, what looks like a mini I-pad, pull out the
aerial, and say: "Hello."

[JPB]

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Medal for this fella please, I suspect that he'll win the thread. Assuming of course that your mono TV is a 405 line, VHF one. Deduct 10 retro geek points if it's a UHF, 625 line one.



Yeah, I know; any excuse to post a photie of the TV22 but it's as cool as the coolest thing ever. Apart from the area of the cabinet immediately by the dropper, which was f'n hot or rather was f'n hot before I gave it a capacitive dropper for Christmas a few years ago. As for the recap, that took weeks and yielded more wax than you'd find in the ears of a whole herd of elephants. The kind with the biggest lugs.

[kevin]

That's a cool TV john.

Kev

[GHT]

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Medal for this fella please, I suspect that he'll win the thread.

Don't even ask about the wardrobe full of vintage clothes. Grumpy Northerner knows me.

you were right, the TV is 405 lines, that's why it needs a gizmo.

[kevin]

I love all the vintage clothes, Ive even threatened to get some 60s stuff for when im out in the Singer.

Kev

[tractorman]

I gather you get cold legs when you wear mini skirts Kevin

There again, I wear the same style of clothing that I wore in the 60s - jeans and T-shirt (and, as it happens, a pullover my mother made)! Having said that, I had to wear shorts at school until I was 15, when they changed the uniform to long trousers - and we were all disgusted at having to swap!!

[TerryG]

I have some cool looking old cameras which i'll take a snap of later. Nothing to do with my car related hobby but I like how they look.
When I was growing up my dad worked for Kodak and I trained as a photographic technician when I left school (doing it the analogue way so utterly useless now) so I quite like cameras.