Narses2's Blog - or what I'm slowly making progress on

[PR19_Kit]

British Rail was once described to me as being a raft of paper afloat on a sea of tea.

Very true.

When the Advanced Projects Division effectively closed down in mid-1976 all the paperwork was sent to the Tech Centre registry for microfilming and eventual destruction. The late Mrs._PR19 was in charge of the registry at the time and decided, off her own bat, that the drawings and paperwork should go to the York Museum where the APT-E train went. She filled TEN boxes with the stuff, each one about a 4-5 ft cube!

They had to be loaded onto the truck with a fork lift! 

[Rheged]

As a historian who hates to hear of any documents being discarded/destroyed, all I can say is Hurrah for Mrs PR_19.  Rail researchers in years to come will be delighted with her actions.  If all ten boxes were carefully packed, that's up to two tons per box (I've worked for a book wholesaler and I know only too well what paper in bulk weighs)  A total of up to 20 tons of material for historians and engineers in the future.

[PR19_Kit]

Bizarrely, until the APT-E Support Group was formed in 2000, no-one at the NRM had even looked at the ten boxes, they just filed them away in their VAST archive Dept!

When we were de-skinning one Power Car in 2003 I suggested that we looked up the rivet sizes on the drawings, and the NRM guys said 'What drawings?' 

I was pleased to point them in the right direction and they were suitably BOGGLED at the amount stuff they had, but didn't really know about. 

[NARSES2]

Fingers crossed for 2021, then, Chris.

Very much so Dave, thanks.

British Rail was once described to me as being a raft of paper afloat on a sea of tea.

My dad would recognise that statement, mind you I doubt if you'd have seen the paper or tea mug on his desk through the cloud of cigarette smoke. How times change 

[NARSES2]

I was a good boy today. Made some good progress against today's plan and was sorely tempted to press on, but didn't Hopefully I've learnt my lesson this time.

Started on the Christmas cards instead 

[NARSES2]

Some slow gentle progress and then stopped as I was getting clumsy and I could see the tin of French interior blue I was using going flying, and being enamel it would of made rather a mess  .

I managed to get the Raiden canopy masked though. I'd parked this for a while as the frames were very fine/indistinct depending on your point of view, so I ordered a set of masks from Dead Design. First of their products I've used and apart from an obvious miss-numbering on the instructions they are on a par with the Eduard and Peewit sets I've used before. Like Eduard they included wheel masks, which I never seem to use and that's why I like Peewit as they don't and are thus cheaper. Still it's nice to have another string to the bow and they seem to do a lot of Japanese types 

[NARSES2]

No real progress this past week as I've been "nursing" something. No idea what it was, but it made me feel worn out and very "heavy".

Still touching all the wood going it seems to have passed now  . So hopefully in between a couple of trips out I need to make next week I can hopefully get down to working on the Fokker, the Ms 406 and Raiden this coming week.

[Old Wombat]

Did you get COVID tested, Chris?

[NARSES2]

Did you get COVID tested, Chris?

Yes I did mate and I was clear. 

[Old Wombat]

Very good! Carry on, that man!

[Radish]

Good to hear!!

By the way, did you know that the "authentic" colour scheme for the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb, "The Enola Gay", has finally been revealed??
It was painted BRIGHT PINK and a picture will be emailed to you soon, but needs "processing" first.

[Mossie]

Glad to hear it!

[NARSES2]

No progress, but that's mainly because I've been getting a couple of Xmas things organised. I'm hoping to at the very least sort the 3 current projects out so that I know where I am with each of them and where I need to resume this weekend. If I can get that done I'll regards that as some good progress.

[DogfighterZen]

Good to know you're feeling better and that it wasn't that stupid virus or any other serious condition.

[NARSES2]

Good to know you're feeling better and that it wasn't that stupid virus or any other serious condition.

Thanks mate