damerell

I went to Leipzig for the Wave-Gotik-Treffen, the giant goth festival. Naturally I am going to write about trains.

I got up at 6am to go to the Eisenbahnmuseum, which is essentially an old steam shed; they'd told us they were sending an excursion train out at 0730 and they don't open the museum on a routine schedule.

When I got there I found someone who spoke English (ceb speaks much better German, but she was sensibly asleep); no high-viz, no forms, just "sure, take a look around, try not to fall in any inspection pits".

They were sending out a DRB Class 52 2-10-0, which is huge; it's like a 9F's mum (the 9F being the biggest unarticulated British freight locomotive). Here is my very bad photo of it:



Apparently my phone pre-Instagrams photos without using Instagram. Sigh.

After I wandered around for a bit, though, the driver - without us really having any language in common - asked me up on the footplate! They can't take J. Random Guy on Deutsche Bahn, but they could make their shunting movements beforehand with me up there grinning. Even given that it was over 90 in the afternoon that weekend, I was nowhere hotter than the footplate with the firedoor open.

I got the tram back to the Hauptbahnhof and met the train there. No turning the locomotive; the BR52 brings the train in, a Pacific backs on the other end, and six coaches zip away with two huge locomotives for an all-day excursion costing 53 euros. Coal must be cheap in Germany, I guess.

On Monday night I cracked a rib in a mosh pit then went into two more mosh pits so punks could hit me in the ribcage some more. In retrospect this may have been in error.

Here are some other photos of mysterious train bits, for the proper nerds. I think:
-1 is a damper. I never knew what a damper looked like because generally they are more between the wheels.
-2 must be the compressor for the air brake both from form and from the way it goes WHOMP unexpectedly every now and then.
-3 I think is one of the tanks for the air brake because unlike a vacuum brake they can go anywhere. Maybe?
-4 I have no idea about. There is another one atop the boiler, but not one on the other side. Asymmetrical locomotives, ugh.
-6 is presumably a steam-driven lubricator.
-7 another air brake tank?
-8 is a cab but I know what they are for. No steam chest pressure gauge, though.

Dear lazyweb,

I want a thing, and I'm not sure it exists.

I know a few people who use GNUcash and suchlike tools, but I don't want to keep track of how much money I have; that's easy to find out any time I go to an ATM or a computer I trust.

What I want to know is my net income and where my outgoings go, and _maybe_ to keep track of internal bistromathics like "I paid this hotel bill, you buy me dinner here and there".

So, say, I tell it my income and that it comes in monthly, that's easy. I tell it the gas bill comes quarterly, and once I've told it the amount of a few gas bills it can estimate likely gas outgoings. If I make a "one-off" purchase I can have a stab at classifying it, and then it'll guess my likely outgoing on techno-toys, bicycle bits, or beer. That sort of thing.

Does it exist?

ETA: should keep all data on a computer I own or trust, in a jurisdiction I... have to put up anyway with because I live there.