Hmm, push button starters on outdoor BBQ's. Reminds me of a tale...
There's this guy who decides to take up skydiving. On his first jump out of the plane he pulls the parachute ripcord, and nothing happens! He pulls and pulls and pulls and still nothing happens! He happens to look down, and sees another guy coming up!
"HEY!" he yells to him, "YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PARACHUTES?"
"NO!" the other guy yells back, "YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT GAS GRILLS?"
Which is why I've stuck with charcoal. Besides, I just love that imitation "Olympic Flame" I get when I put the match to it.
MiningmanHeres a question for anyone... why do they bother putting those silly push button igniters on BBQs... none ever last past one season... if that.
Because they are one of the most significant innovations in outdoor cooking in any century. ALL of mine still work, including the one in the grill I 'inherited' from a previous owner; both the piezo and 'battery' types. Likewise, I can't imagine having either a piezo or hot-wire igniter on my gas furnace, even though periodically the circuitry on them goes bad and I have to break out the multimeter and the Parylene or go on eBay for a cheap substitute.
Sure, I periodically have to check the gap and the alignment with the burner. Sure, sometimes I have to fix things when they break unexpectedly, and sometimes the things that break take out other things when they go. Surely you're not saying that just because a convenience was built to a price, you should leave it off completely because when it breaks that's like a kind of mechanical karmatic fate that can't be questioned?
People tend to forget that cars in older eras didn't run 100,000 miles without adjustment to ignition or fuel supply, or needed regular greasing at a whole bunch of little unlabeled points (expensive cars had a pedal you could press every few thousand miles to grease 'em all at once, like the principle of the mechanical lubricator on a steam locomotive). Italians apparently accepted the need to spend time every weekend to keep their little overtuned cars running; we were spoiled by those early '70s GM cars that you could leave at the summer house all year and just turn the key to start and drive.
Meanwhile, I have a Honda push mower that I bought used in ... well, it was before 1998, don't remember how much before ... that I pull out periodically, run a little ether through, and then run without incident. Lost count of the number of times I sharpened and rebalanced the blade ... or stopped to dig out the mulched grass that jammed in the little door that closes when not using the side discharge or the bag. Perhaps you are buying the wrong mowers in the first place.
Miningman Heres a question for anyone... why do they bother putting those silly push button igniters on BBQs... none ever last past one season... if that.
Heres a question for anyone... why do they bother putting those silly push button igniters on BBQs... none ever last past one season... if that.
It's probably a safety factor. It allows you to keep your face and hands away from the gas jet, especially if you would otherwise need two or three matches to light the burner.
No more worries with mowers... a great kid does it, keeps his own in my garage.
Mowers in the 80's and 90's were terrible.
If it had a reliable motor then the wheels would fall off.. if it was built for the ages then it would never start...junk, all of it.
Have not heard from NDG... send private email to me using this website via Kalmbach... Trust all is well.
Every business and persons have their "Hanger Queens " Have a mower that often will not start and the next day is fine. A Hair dryer sometimes helps but ??? NUTS !
NDG--- Check this out!!!
Reposting from Forum contributor rdamon.
Not a Tim Horton's ...
https://news.starbucks.com/news/all-aboard-the-first-starbucks-on-a-train-with-sbb
I've had a number of lawn mowers like that.
Had one that even NASA could not start up.
I Hated that machine. Have physiological scars from that thing.
Overmod Firelock76 I see your point CSS, but I was talking about people, not machinery ... It’s true both for people and locomotives. I have found it wise not to deduce absence of soul from the looks of the ‘cover’.
Firelock76 I see your point CSS, but I was talking about people, not machinery ...
It’s true both for people and locomotives. I have found it wise not to deduce absence of soul from the looks of the ‘cover’.
You're probably right. I think it's a given that there's machinery out there, cars, airplanes, ships, locomotives (steam or diesel), trucks, what have you, that will do anything you ask them to do and more.
Then there's others that you just know never wanted to be built at all.
Makes you wonder.
Firelock76I see your point CSS, but I was talking about people, not machinery ...
I see your point CSS, but I was talking about people, not machinery, but hey, Linn Moedinger of the Strasburg Railroad once said "I could make life easier here for all concerned if I stopped running steam and just ran diesels, but a diesel has no soul."
You've got to realize throwbacks like Miningman and myself, and quite a few others, are more in love with the "zen" of railroading (If there is such a thing) than we are with the "nuts and bolts." Railroads aren't just businesses to guys like us, they're national icons, with all the romance, and yes, responsibility that comes with being an icon. When you're up on a pedestal, whether you planned to be there or not, people expect more of you.
Anyway, did you see how 2816 looked? That machine positively glowed! Talk about the pride of the crew in their locomotive! I hope that young man we saw sanding the flues gets a chance to get his hand on the throttle one day.
No souls?? Highly unlikely, consider "The Case for the Soulless Diesel" in the November 1966 issue of TRAINS. What shows on the outside isn't everything.
Ah, we haven't gone mad. Some of us just have no souls.
Beautiful machine, 2816. Don't worry, she'll be back one day, and those wine-red cars as well. They're too good to be allowed to sleep forever.
Thanks for that little video Firelock.
Brought a tear to my eye.
The shots of the Royal Hudson were magnificient.
To think those beautiful maroon cars, grey jacketed Hudsons and Pacifics, coast to coast heavyweight sleepers, linens and silver and so many trains as an everyday occurance is gone just makes wonder what the heck is wrong with all of us.
Have we gone mad!
Miningman
Now doesn't THAT look like the perfect party vehicle! A big open end for coolers full of food and liquid refreshments, space for some musical equipment, a glassed in area if you need to sit down for a while and get out of the wind, it's got everything!
Good old Canadian Pacific! Now why didn't we have anything like that down here?
"Stand fast, Craigellachie!"
Speaking of "Stand fast..." how's about a little CP folk music?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czeoVVdIlE
Even has a little steam action.
Yes, and that was on a regularly scheduled train.
They built six of them like that but eventually put a roof on them.
Open sightseeing observation car used only in the Rockies behind the normal open platform observation car. Six of these cars (7900-7905) were built but a roof was added a few years later.
Note: Large building in far right background is the ice house in Revelstoke.
Oh boy, that open observation car, once common on railfan excursions.
You'll never see one nowadays, those times are gone, the railroad's lawyers would have an attack of the vapors!
Oh well, they're professonal worriers, the're paid to be.
Tremendous....how on earth do you find this stuff?
Thanks Wanswheel/Mike aka Batman- Superman!
Although I prefer Marvel so Captain America/Dr, Strange
https://archive.org/stream/railwaylocomotiv16newy#page/102/mode/2up/
https://archive.org/stream/railwaymastermec26newy#page/332/mode/2up
Were these the first Dome Cars ever?
Mountain Observation Cars
These unique double dome open platform wooden cars were part of a second order (1906) for three cars following Observation Car 86 the very first such observation car built in 1902. They were all short-lived. Digital restoration: Gordon Kennedy
The only way to see the Rockies.
Suppose you cannot do this today.
Open observation car on Trans-Canada Limited near Field. Digital restoration: Gordon Kennedy
Agent Kid-- Have a very good lady friend who moved to Rockyford Alberta in July. Looked it up when she announced she was moving there and now I see that Sheerness is not all that far, not next door or anything like that but drivable. Plan to go for a visit at some point, maybe during our "Library Week" and when I do I will surely take a trip out to see the nothingness.
Drumheller and Dinosaur Park too of course.
Maybe next summer if I'm still kicking will go see SD70M-2 and all the great work they have done.
NDG How about the 3 stories of a panel office ? Thank goodness for cross bar.
NDGI told him about working in a 60,000 number Step by Step Central Office
Remember, "It's up and over, not over and up," for the Stroger switches.
Thank You.
Wait a moment ... rewind a couple of days ...
( The Kat just Guffawed, remembering the time I cleaned the Waltham and it thereafter ran backwards for a couple of days and stopped. )
How'd you actually do that? (Yes, I suspect it's hyperbole, but on the off chance it isn't ... how'd you actually do that???)
Reminds me of an interview with Bobby Clarke of the Philadelphia Flyers back in the glory days of that team. Bobby Clarke's hometown was Flin Flon.
He stated that Saskatchewan was so flat that if you climbed up a ladder in Flin Flon, Manitoba, you could see clear across to Alberta.
Of course he was just having some fun but everyone ate that up.
MiningmanAgent Kid---Thanks for that information on Sheerness ...amazing ...have you been there?
I've passed through Hanna many times on the way to Saskatoon, and have been to Steveville, at the north end of Dinosaur Provincial Park, once. My Grandparents lived down near Brooks so I have been in that region many times. If you are on the north side of Duchess you could just about see Hanna if it weren't 70 some miles away. It is not like there are many trees or buildings to obstruct your view.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
I have never worked in Petroleum. Strictly hard rock, drill, blast and muck out, all Canadian Shield and underground, except for a brief stint in an open pit up in Schefferville.
Half of my 37 years was spent in Engineering, but one eye was always on Geology so that is where I spent the 2nd half....half of that underground "on the beat" the other half in field exploration.
Yes many Engineers can be condescending and brush off the common man and Geologists can be very geeky and deliberately speak a language consisting of a long string of words known only to them, sometimes I think to deliberatly derail the great unwashed and prove how smart they are. Fine at a convention, not good underground.
I have both designations, however have the highest and greatest respect for all Miners. Never ever had a problem with the blue collar guys. We all need to go home alive at the end of the day and everyone is totally dependant on everyone else to accomplish that. No room for a class system. Never talked down to them, or held my nose in the air.
Of course now I teach these things, 9 years now, to mostly Native students along the frontier.
.....and I love trains. Remember well the steam days and the importance of railroads in every town. Saw all the ugly days, decline and trauma. Still trying to warm up to Diesels but I'm too much of an old softie.
Agent Kid---Thanks for that information on Sheerness ...amazing ...have you been there?
MiningmanToiling away tirelessly in obscurity since 1951, in a very remote area,
I thought about adding this after I posted about Sheerness on The "Mother in Law" locomotive thread over on the Classic Trains forum.
Sheerness is located in what we in Alberta classify as a Special Area. The rankings go; Cities, Towns, Villages, Summer Villages, Hamlets, Localities, and Special Areas.
Sheerness is located in Special Area 2. For the benefit of our US readers the land area of Special Area 2 is larger than either RI or DE. Its' population, however, as of 2016 is only 1,905 living is 648 of 750 total dwellings.
Sheerness itself is classified as a Locality.
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