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1216

Omega General Help / Re: Rear wheel bearings?

« on: 19 October 2018, 16:47:22 »

Which pads have you cleaned up? The pads in the rear calipers, or the handbrake shoes inside the drums?

I'd be replacing the handbrake shoes before attacking the bearings. The bearings make a rumbling sound IME. And yes, the bearings are a git to change.

1217

General Discussion Area / Re: White Goods Thread!!

« on: 19 October 2018, 11:34:08 »

Our tumble dryer trips out after 30 minutes......every time.

What trips? The RCD or the circuit breaker/fuse?

RCD tripping = earth leakage = risk of electric shock.
Circuit Breaker tripping = too much power being consumed = risk of fire.

AIUI most newer wiring has just one RCD protecting the whole house. So any earth leakage anywhere in the house causes the RCD to trip and you loose electricity to everything - plugs, lights, cookers, central heating, emersion heaters the lot.

There can/will be many circuit breakers though. Typically upstairs plugs (ring main), downstairs plugs (ring main), lights, electric cooker, garage, boiler, immersion heater etc. Each of these have their own fuse/circuit breaker. Each of these fuses/circuit breakers will have their own current ratings. If the fuse/circuit breaker trips then it's something wrong with that particular circuit, and not an earth leakage issue.

Ring mains can be problematic. They're typically fused at 30/32A. If you plug 3 devices capable of drawing 13A each and run them at the same time then you probably will trip the CB. So Say you turn the kettle and toaster on, and then someone else puts the tumble dryer on, and all 3 are plugged into the same ring main, then the CB may well trip.

1218

General Discussion Area / Re: White Goods Thread!!

« on: 19 October 2018, 11:15:52 »

RCD's trip because of a circuit leak to earth, not because the plug is getting hot or the appliance is drawing too much current/power.

The RCD basically measures the current in the live (brown) and neutral (blue) wires. These must be equal at all times. If they aren't equal then some electricity is escaping from the wires, which means there is a leak to somewhere else. This leak only needs to be a few milli-amps to trip the RCD (typically 30mA). The fuse won't blow till/unless the leak exceeds the fuse rating - probably 3A or 5A.

If replacing the plug allows you to reset the RCD, then the plug or wire is the likely cause of the fault. Give the FF a good shake, and rattle the motor/compressor. If the RCD trips again then I'd replace the FF - you risk getting an electric shock if you don't.

It has 2 x 13amp fuses, one in the plug which plugs into a blank socket and the other at the fused switch it's connected to.  Neither had blown. 

The fuses are there to limit the amount of power that the unit can consume in the event of a fault. I doubt a FF should have a 13A plug - Things like kettles and toasters yes - they consume a LOT of power. 13A = 3KW continuous. I'd expect a FF to be either 3A or 5A, so suspect that the plug fuse has already been replaced once. Why?

The RCD is there to protect YOU from electric shocks. If you were to touch the live (brown) wire in a plug, then current would flow from the brown wire, through you and out of you feet to earth. You'd get a throbbing belt (aka electric shock) and either know all about it, or worst case not know anything at all about it  .  The amount of current that flows through you is only a few mA, but that can be enough to kill you. The fuses won't blow because a few mA isn't enough to blow a 3A/5A/13A fuse.  However, the RCD will trip because the current in the brown wire is now greater than the current in the blue wire ; some of the brown current is passing through you.

The same applies to any shorts internal to the cables or the FF. The FF case and any exposed metalwork is almost certainly connected to earth (the green/yellow striped wire). If the wiring insulation starts to fail then live (brown) current can find it's way to the metal earth (green/yellow). This earth current then isn't flowing in the neutral(blue) wire so the brown/blue currents are different and the RCD trips.

1219

General Discussion Area / Re: White Goods Thread!!

« on: 19 October 2018, 10:34:09 »

Get a new appliance for peace of mind , out of curiosity what make is it lot of trouble with Beko appliances I'm led to believe.

It's a Hotpoint Iced Diamond and probably about 15 years old.

I think that it had all corroded in the plug breaking the circuit, prompting the RCD to trip.  With the new plug and fuse it's been fine overnight. 

It's good to know that my consumer unit works OK though! 

RCD's trip because of a circuit leak to earth, not because the plug is getting hot or the appliance is drawing too much current/power.

The RCD basically measures the current in the live (brown) and neutral (blue) wires. These must be equal at all times. If they aren't equal then some electricity is escaping from the wires, which means there is a leak to somewhere else. This leak only needs to be a few milli-amps to trip the RCD (typically 30mA). The fuse won't blow till/unless the leak exceeds the fuse rating - probably 3A or 5A.

If replacing the plug allows you to reset the RCD, then the plug or wire is the likely cause of the fault. Give the FF a good shake, and rattle the motor/compressor. If the RCD trips again then I'd replace the FF - you risk getting an electric shock if you don't.

1220

Omega General Help / Re: Front Springs Length Difference

« on: 19 October 2018, 09:44:54 »

Your driver side presumably due to the combined weight of the battery and driver. Uk cars front springs are equal length

Agreed. Something to do with distribution of major components under the bonnet which are more left side focused on a LHD car and more equally spread on RHD.

And the camber of the road is different because they're driving on the wrong side.

1221

General Car Chat / Re: Free look up of Euro Emissions Standard of your car against Reg Plate

« on: 18 October 2018, 15:55:56 »

Extending the zone to include the north circ will have unintended consequences. I don't often do it, but at the moment instead of ploughing through the middle of the smoke I'll use the north circular to go round the current ULEZ to get from Neasden to Kent. If they include the north circ then I may as well just plough through the middle like we used to do. Same cost, except I won't have to pay the congestion charge on the Dartford crossing.

1222

General Discussion Area / Re: Paddington 24

« on: 18 October 2018, 14:35:00 »

I don't take what you stated as disputing it at all.  You are just stating fact as of now, and what I said was  a (big) hope for the future when the situation (must) be better.

There are two type of hope - Bob Hope and No Hope. Bob died in 2003.

To draw a comparison with rail and road transport.  In the 1960's and 70's you were lucky if your car didn't break down at some time.  Even brand new cars did.  People relied a lot more on other road services, or a complete collection of tools in the boot, to rescue them.  Now cars are so much more reliable, and if maintained correctly, are rarely broken down.  Of course cars do still break down for all kinds of reasons, but my run of Omegas over the last 20 years have never once let me down due to me looking after them.  That is different to two separate brand new Ford Cortinas that broke down in the 1970's due to manufacturing faults.

But what you are saying demonstrates what I'm saying. Tyres are now very reliable, and many new cars don't even have a spare. Get a puncture that the can of superglue won't fix and you're stuffed - marooned for hours. And sod's law says it'll be a Bank holiday Friday night, pi55ing down with rain, in the middle of nowhere. Whereas in the 'old' days you'd whip the duff wheel off, put the spare on, and be on your way 20 minutes late, but still on your way.

Making things more reliable tends to make the consequences when things do go wrong much much worse.

Therefore, what I am suggesting, is that in the future trains will become so ultra reliable in the mechanical and electrical sense that they will brake down "rarely".  As a train operator you do not then need to factor in an emergency fleet of rescue units. Indeed, even with the previously broken train mentioned by Varche, that I pointed out was a victim of "Beast from the East", had it's passengers taken off (eventually) by another EMU train that pulled up alongside and had ramps to let people cross from one to another.

And you won't get me on a train like that until rarely=never. You'll ALLWAYS need a fleet of rescue units, or at least a rescue plan. 15 hours in sub zero temps is not a suitable rescue plan.

The days, as in the steam and early diesel era , when trains frequently broke down to to poor maintenance in the case of the former, and poor design / build in the instance of the latter, are over. Electrification and superior, advancing technology, will finally consign it all to history with a railway system fit for the late 21st century.  It's just a pity I will not see it in the lifetime I have left, but there again if I return in a new life I will be able to enjoy the benefits!!

We'll all be teleporting from A to B before that happens. Complete pie in the sky management twaddle to this engineer. If something can fail it will, and at the worst possible time for the stupidest of unforeseen reasons. If you don't have a backup plan in place ready to go then you shouldn't be allowed to run a railway.

1223

General Discussion Area / Re: Paddington 24

« on: 18 October 2018, 12:31:54 »

I'd also like to dispute this...

No, the answer is to build and maintain the latest EMU's to a far higher standard so the chances of them breaking down is relagated to "rare".

If a train is (say) 10% likely to break down, then management will put in place "processes" (I hate that word) to recover the situation for when it does go wrong. Things like relief locos/trains etc. It's not very efficient but it means that even with the breakdown, passengers are likely to get to their destination within a reasonable timeframe - perhaps an hour or two late but no biggie.

If a train is (say) 0.01% likely to break down, management will decide that the cost of providing the "process" is not justified. Far more passengers will get to their destination on time every time. But when that 0.01% chance comes up (and it will), there is then no process in place to do anything about it, and you end up being delayed for many, many hours. If you're on that train then I suspect you'd prefer less reliable trains with a backup plan rather than ultra reliable trains with no backup.

There won't be a time when rare=never, so you either accept low reliability with a backup plan, or high reliability and no backup plan. I used the trains an awful lot in the 70's & 80's. I've probably only been on then half a dozen times this century - 3 times to go pick up Omegas I'd bought on eBay :-)

1224

General Discussion Area / Re: Paddington 24

« on: 18 October 2018, 12:13:32 »

Trains are generally a very London centric view of things. If you live anywhere near a main-ish line to London and your destination is either London or somewhere else with a direct London line, then the train is a viable option.

I can get from Yeovil to London (Waterloo or Paddington) in not much more than 2 hours. However, if I want to get to Birmingham naah. It's barely 40 miles to Bristol, but the train takes over 2 hours. Bristol to Birmingham is another 1h30, so with the change/connection it's about 4 hours. Yes I could drive to Taunton (25 miles) and get a direct train Taunton-Birmingham, but even that would take 2+ hours, plus 30 minutes driving to Taunton. If I'm getting in my car then I might as well drive to Birmingham (takes 2 hours). 

I used to travel frequently to a factory site between Preston and Blackpool (Warton). I could drive it in 3.5-4 hours if I left at 4am. Coming home would take 6 hours. The other viable options were the train, but you can't do that anymore in a day, or the plane. I could fly cheaper from Bristol to Dublin, then Dublin to Blackpool on Ryanair cheaper and quicker than the train. And if it wen't belly up on Ryanair there are worse places to be stuck overnight than Dublin 

1225

General Discussion Area / Re: Paddington 24

« on: 17 October 2018, 10:27:45 »

Well the back up loco could have been brought out today for its first airing. Overhead powerlines dragged down by a class 802 Hitachi on test.

Most of the Western Region stock is still diesel, and those that aren't are bi-mode. Sounds like a case of Network Rail looking after their interests rather than the needs of the travelling public.

1226

General Discussion Area / Re: Paddington 24

« on: 16 October 2018, 20:35:16 »

I agree with Lizzie. For an 'rescue' loco system to be any use, it would probably have to be run by Network rail, as a kind of AA/RAC for the railways. It's just as likely that a freight train would break down and block the line as a passenger train. They would need to position locos around the network, with probably 50 or so miles between QRA sites. Given the size of the network, you'd need dozens if not hundreds of locos.  Add that to the 24 hour crewing requirements and the costs quickly balloon out of control. So instead of that, Network Rail just fine the operating company if their trains break down causing delays.

Another thing you'll often notice with the steam loco excursions is that there is often a diesel loco in the set either directly behind the steam loco, or on the other end. That's so that if the steam loco breaks down the diesel can continue push the whole lot out of the way. I doubt using steam locos as Thunderbirds would work - the steam loco would probably break down too making the situation worse.

Eurotunnel do have a number of diesel "Thunderbirds" to pull dead electric trains out of the channel tunnel. However, they only have to worry about 30 odd miles of track.

1227

General Car Chat / Re: Pikeys

« on: 16 October 2018, 15:54:16 »

But there again everyone over 70 gets a licence review now every three years anyway, so it just proves that does not guarantee everyone's fitness to drive.

But it's not enforced. Both my mum (89) and dad (86) still have their driving licenses, and neither have ever been assessed. It seems you just apply to renew your license, and 99.99% of the time DVLA just re-issue it. None of my elderly relatives (and I've got about 20) have ever been asked to do anything to retain their licenses past 70. So providing your doctor doesn't stick his/her oar in, and you don't have too many prangs.....

1228

General Discussion Area / Re: Paddington 24

« on: 16 October 2018, 15:17:17 »

It was but to a none expert on trains like myself, could they not have taken a diesel loco and pushed/pulled it to safety?

They did exactly that when a train I was on broke down between Sailsbury and Yeovil Junction. However, that was back in about 1986 in the days of good old BR, or Network Southeast.

AIUI these rescue locos, often called "Thunderbirds", don't exist anymore - or at least they aren't owned/run by the same company that owns/runs the passenger services, which are all private companies. The idea of a locomotive has gone - they are nearly all diesel or electric multiple units arranged in sets of 3/4 carrages. They aren't a loco with a 'rake' of  8/10/12 (unpowered) passenger coaches where you detach the loco and move it to the other end of the train and set off in the other direction at a terminus.

Thomas the tank engine is dead. There aren't spare locos available dotted all over the network that can be press-ganged into being used as Thunderbirds.

1229

General Discussion Area / Re: Royal Observer core posts

« on: 16 October 2018, 15:07:09 »

I've a friend who was in the ROC. He was (and still is) a teacher in Exeter. We are both keen military aircraft spotters, and with him being in the ROC he got a military ID card, which was handy for getting into bases all over Europe on "private" open days - typically the day before or after a public air-show. We were at Ramstein on the day before the last proper air show there.

They were all demobbed in 1995. The sites of the bunkers in the Yeovil area were all known by the locals, and sold off in the early 2000's for redevelopment.

The equipment that civilians like me used for spotting was generally better than the stuff the ROC had at the end - their stuff was a bit like Dads Army.

1230

General Car Chat / Re: Company car advice

« on: 16 October 2018, 11:25:05 »

I'd wait until the end of the month, after the Budget, before making any decisions. There is no way of knowing what Hammond will tax next, and Benefit's in Kind could be on the radar.