Bath Tec School

Hi Steve Chatfield

10/9/2009 12:07:26 AM

Hi Steve and welcome I hope you enjoy the site and read some of the old posts, you can look at old photos and notes by clicking on skydrive on the left hand menu, by the way feel free to add any old photos that you may have to any of the folders there, you also have your own online storage space again called skydrive but this is accessed from the top menu bar under the dropdown menu "MORE" in there you can create and store up to 25 gigs of files, these can be private or public or both depending on how you set your preferences, anyway enjoy the site and I hope you contact someone you knew at the Tech.

Please add a headshot to your profile, this is easy to do and can be a recent one or you can download the school photo from your year, make sure you remember where you save it on your hard-drive then click on the blank headshot in your profile and when prompted upload to windows live where you can resize it to just your headshot, this could also be a recent photo on your PC, any problems please ask and any of us will help

Comments

- 10/9/2009 12:22:31 AM
Hi Anthony
 
Thanks for the welcome. I was browsing the 'PubPals' site and then came across a reference to your site, so thought I would join up.
 
Haven't seen any names I recognise yet - but it's early days. I'll look for a suitable photo in the meantime.
 
Cheers!
- 10/9/2009 9:27:13 AM
Hello All,
Sorry I haven`t been around lately . as Tony has said ..I`ve been a bit busy, to say the least.
 
Hello to you Steve and welcome to this varied collection of old boys. We yend to waffle all day long, about anything and everything. I hope  you will find much in common to talk about. Trains, Boats, Planes come to mind ..oh, nearly forgot .. just for the other Steve (coffin) .. we also talk about busses ...Ha Ha.
 
John, thanks very mich for your information on the railway aspect of the Coal Canal. Yes the North Somerset Light Railway branch from Temple Cloud end did vandalise much of what is being  surveyed, and it`s making life very difficult .. until now .. the "Eureka" moment arrived at 3.30 a.m., thnks to some old photos I received yesterday of "Steam Navvies", many photos of the land before the railway arrived, and the dawning that the aircraft that took the "Google Earth" low level imagery was flying south of the site under investigation. Result :- Caisoon remains (hopefully) a long way south downhill from any recent activity  !!!! .. simples ..in`it?. ( only when you work out how...)
 
Thanks to Tonys friendship and willingness to put up with my un-diplomatic character, and help from Stu about mineral railways, between us all we have (hopefully) done something that a group of acedemics have been trying to solve for the last 17 years.
 
I have the communications from English Heritage in London to be able to list and finally reveal locations of these monuments (c1794-99) which include Caissoon(s) and a spillway control used to maintain canal levels when the Caisoon(s) were undergoing emptying for maintenance. You are the first to know this, not even the landowner has received anything yet.
 
Catch you all later today, off to talk with landowner now ... hopefully with more good news.    
- 10/9/2009 11:11:47 PM
Hi Bill and all.
Hey, I didnt realise that Anth was one of the trowel and dirty finger nail brigade as well. See my last entry on 'Round and round'.
Your investigations getting really exciting now Bill, can't wait for the next episode. I can understand fully now why you've been rather quiet these last few days.
Keep thinking of Stu on his way to the Orient, the best I've been able to manage today is Oxford, but then I s'pose someone has to do it!
By the way Bill I know that you are a bit of a technophile, do you by chance ever etch your own PCBs, if so I learned a method today that does not involve photo resist and ultra violet or etch resist pens (Never been much good in my view). A real home spun method that works! You may already know this, but I didn't. It came from Dave in Ireland. (The Irish scouser).
First you need to generate the artwork by computer, using AutoCAD, or one of the proprietary PCB design packages, failing this draw it and scan it in (plenty of contrast needed).
Next find yourself an old glossy magazine, the glossier the paper the better. Tear out a sheet and use a laser printer to print your artwork on top of the print already on he page. Place the paper artwork down on to the copper side of your copper clad board and hold in place for a few mins with a hot domestic iron, then start to move the iron as though ironing for a few mins more. Alow to cool for a short time and then peel off the paper, this leaves an image of the artworks on the board. Now etch in  the usual way with ferric chloride and rinse with water, Bingo! To quote Alesander Meerkat and you Bill, 'Simples!'
Bit of info that may be of use to someone one day.
Finally I'd like to add a welcome to Steve also, looking forward to his contributions, lets face it the other new boy, Chris has been a lively and entertaining contributor lately.
Bi to all for now.
John.  
- 10/10/2009 9:21:07 AM
Hi John,
What a beutifully simple but effective idea .. transfer printing for electronics .. the man is a genius !.
 
I have a major problem in trying to untangle who owned what , what went where .. what line crossed over what .. what order the railways were built in Midford...etc ..it`s a real can of worms that Anth opened today by sending me a link to a site which told me evrything, but all the technical jargon about upliness, banks, blocks, push signals etc has boggled me for the moment in my quest to solve this transport system from 1794 to 1908, and the 60`s when it appears that Midford station eventually closed.
 
I say "appears", because there is a lot of conflicting info about when different parts were closed. I don`t know if you have ever visited Midford and seen the "spaghetti junction" of lines and signals at three, yes three overlapping levels. I have records of The North Somerset Railway (now cycle track 24) which appears to go to Radstock via Wellow. I also have the North Somerset Light Mineral (and occasionally passenger service) that went due west from Wellow to Temple Cloud where it joined a Railway to Bristol (via pensford Viaduct). I have the S&D / Midland Joint railway that ran from Wellow to Bath via Claverton Tunnel. I have country side that rises steeply from 128ft a.s.l to 800ft a.s.l (at Bath Uni site above Brassknocker).
 
You can`t walk around without finding Railway lines all over the place, with no height references you get lost completely as to what you are looking at! .. I have now taken to carrying a camera, an alitimeter, compass, food and drink wherever I go..even on roads!!. Having a break this weekend, I think I`m losing it with all the "brain work" that`s been going on for the last 4 weeks.
 
The mystery of the Canal, cast iron plateways, the wrought iron railways and the connection with Brunels later ysytem will be solved completely one day, but probably not by me regarding the Railway part. My focus is on the Canal system in a period of the Prince Regent (later to become a Georgian King, Gerorge IV.) That`s enough to be solving this year.
 
Providing I can convince myself (with physical evidence) what actually happened when the Canal from Timsbury/Paulton to Dundas K & A Canal was designed and built. If enough emminent people who have been associated for 17 years (with the same riddle to solve) can be convinced with the evidence, then my part in solving the riddle may be over.
 
Until that takes place I may be away from the School Website for many days at a time.