THOSE PESKY COUPLING SPRINGS

David Asquith · December 29, 2013, 10:56:05 PM

Then there are the pesky brushes and retaining springs and brushes! Spent too much time looking for the brushes that wouldn't go into the hole. Whilst on all fours with the torch looking for the brushes found some two coupling springs. Funny couldn't find them when I was looking for them! You know how when you want to use the springs they have rolled themselves together in a heap in the corner of the bag? Whilst I had a few minutes spare I took them all out off the bags and placed them on the end of wooden toothpicks. Saves them rolling together again and you can slide them off the stick into where they need to be

Newportnobby · December 30, 2013, 10:42:54 AM

Quote from: ESPANTRAINFAN on December 29, 2013, 10:56:05 PM
Whilst I had a few minutes spare I took them all out off the bags and placed them on the end of wooden toothpicks. Saves them rolling together again and you can slide them off the stick into where they need to be

But they wreak havoc on your fillings

David Asquith · December 30, 2013, 12:19:25 PM

Bet they would too. What is really wreaking havoc on my fillings is the teeth gnashing and grinding whilst on my knees looking for the pesky things. Lost two fillings this month! I could get a nice loco for the price of two new fillings

David Asquith · January 05, 2014, 12:56:36 PM

Got around to start laying the tiles in my railway room yesterday. I've had them a year and out of sight under a table. I couldn't even remember what they looked like! Marvellous! A mottled sort of copper/bronze colour would you believe.

Now what can we think of that are that colour??!!! No prizes for guessing as the clues are in this thread.

umpteen times

Rob H · January 05, 2014, 01:01:27 PM

May I ask why you feel it necessary to use capital letters for your topic headings, you must have noticed that no one else does, and on forums using all capitals is looked upon as shouting or an expression of anger.
Just thought you may not be aware.

David Asquith · January 05, 2014, 03:00:06 PM

Robmag,

Yes simply because I was taught at school and later in my Army promotion exams that headings and titles were in capitals. If it offends anyone I will use lower case but I must admit that when I see some posts which don't have capitals when required, in names etc, it does stir me just a bit.

Dave

NeMo · January 05, 2014, 03:10:12 PM

Quote from: ESPANTRAINFAN on January 05, 2014, 03:00:06 PM
Yes simply because I was taught at school and later in my Army promotion exams that headings and titles were in capitals. If it offends anyone I will use lower case but I must admit that when I see some posts which don't have capitals when required, in names etc, it does stir me just a bit.

An interesting reply for sure!

On the internet writing in capitals has come to mean shouting. I'm not sure the history of this, but probably has something to do with the pre-WWW era, when text was not formatted in any way, so what you saw on your computer screen was just plain lower case and capital letters. No underlining, no italics and no colours. So if you wanted to stress something, you'd write in capitals.

The downside to capitals is they're harder to read even though they're easier to recognise (a seeming contradiction but true). Lower case letters can be read faster and more accurately, whereas sentences in just capitals need more processing before they can be understood. So where a single word is recognised instantly, like "STOP" or "DANGER", without processing, you will often see all capitals being used, but rarely in situations where the reader needs to process the sentence to extract meaning.

Using capital letters mid-sentence is a grey area. In my professional writing I have some publishers who insist on it for the names of animal names, while others insist as strongly you don't use them. Strictly speaking it's wrong, in English anyway, but putting key words with a capital letter in the front, such as Song Thrush instead of song thrush makes it easier to see what the sentence is about. I believe German does this anyway, but in English, only for a very few words, mostly proper nouns.

Cheers, NeMo

David Asquith · January 05, 2014, 06:19:40 PM

Hi Nemo,

Yours too is an interesting reply.

I am a dinosaur from the pre WWW era. Or should that be pre www era so that may also contribute to my take on the matter.

My understanding is that a document has a heading in upper case to make clear to the reader of the subject they are about to read whether it is on paper or on a screen.
I agree that the unnecessary use capitals in the main body of a document is wrong and has become recognised as shouting on the internet but I do not see anything wrong with their use in headings.

Anyway I capitulate! I'm from Yorkshire so what do I know about speaking or writing english.

Dave

EtchedPixels · January 06, 2014, 10:10:23 AM

If it came from army use it probably was shouting.

I'd prefer normal text but it's the content that matters!

David Asquith · January 06, 2014, 01:32:27 PM

Etched Pixels,

Of course the army still has a use for shouting but man management was part of the promotion exam even when I took it!

I agree the content of a post is what matters. I don't know why people need to comment on harmless things like this. For all people know I might have been shouting and angry.

If I was the sensitive sort I might have taken exception to Robmag's post but I'm not and I live and let live.

Happy posting.

Dave