I’ve accumulated a fair bit of useless knowledge..

in my 50 years on the planet. Stuff that interests me & random bits that just stick in the old noggin. Minor ability for lateral thought & restrained observation. But apart from knowing how to hold a pencil & guitar the right way ‘round, & not break priceless museum objects, there’s not much in the way of expertise, nor applicable skills..
I’m buggered though, if I know owt about meteorological phenomenon in the skies over South Yorkshire & it’s effects on sporting horticulture.
Thank fck for the bottomless pit of expert knowledge that is the BBS, in any given subject. Because frankly, I wouldn’t know what day it is, otherwise.
If I was wearing a hat, I’d doff it...

 

If you're going to build a model railway make sure you build it to your initial design. Have feature boards but ffs factor in a fiddle yard for rakes of at least 30 grey NE mineral wagons.

Don't get illusions of grandeur and have a Class 47 pulling a lawn mower through Fitzwilliam.

 

Noted. Summat else I’ve learned today...

 

I'm an iron horse worshipper

 

It's the fiddle yard that's caught Mr C's attention

 

I occasionally listen to Classic FM.

 

I know loads of factual accuracies about the Zulu battles at Rorke's Drift and Islandhwana in 1879 and the many many inaccuracies depicted in the movies Zulu and Zulu Dawn.

 

It's an eclectic mix on here. I've gone from taking the ballast out of my Bissell to chilling out with a Magners listening to Syd Barrett. No intentional euphanisms lol.

 

And i do enjoy a fine malt. From the Speyside region..Not a fan of peaty whisky.

 

Is that because it will look daft, or because you don't want your next door neighbour asking for his lawnmower back?

 

The BBS is possibly the greatest untapped knowledge bank in the history of civilisation.

Any subject, any issue, we have experts who can provide a forthright view and are willing to argue for literally pages upon page.

If only this intelligence could be harnessed, Barnsley would be the fastest growing economy in the world.

 

Can’t argue with that.

 

Or we could just arm them with sharpened sticks and delete their search engines? Especially if we’re expecting more postponements at football...

 

Along similar lines, I've noticed that the more archaeological knowledge I've accumulated in my studies and practical work, the more there is to learn. But that simply adds to my love of the subject matter. Like you, old mate, I won't try and claim my knowledge in one area automatically transfers into another eg. football, meteorology, science, etc.

 

In World War 2, the only place with the expertise to produce the crankshaft for the Rolls Royce Merlin engine (that powered the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster among others) was a foundry in Sheffield. Have that.

 

After the Huskar Pit Disaster of 1838, a parliamentary report was finally published in 1842. It detailed the working conditions of children that shocked among others Charles Dickens.

He visited Barnsley and was so outraged after gooin’ darn pits he decided to write a pamphlet “that would strike a hammer blow for the poor man’s child.”

Dickens never wrote the pamphlet as he decided a novella would reach a wider audience. Published in 1843 this was titled “A Christmas Carol.”

 

When you see some of the fiddle yards on layouts I wonder how the operators manage to keep track of what's what and where it's going.
I'm more of a round and round person which to some may seem boring.
Are you N or OO?
Dc or Dcc?

 

When Charles the First was executed by decapitation outside of his palace at Whitehall he had his head sewn back onto his body by someone appointed for that very task. There ya go....

 

Ambrose Shardlow & Co....amazingly the Luftwaffe didn't get near it.

 

Used to have an N layout but sold it. Now just collect OO but no layout. DC.