SM42

A rather productive day today All jobs done and all before 2. Just 2 jobs remain but these need Mrs SM42 to be present, being computer based they need her password and confirmation codes. I'm now onto Wednesdays list for the other stuff Andy

I found that if you pull out to lane 4 to overtake then that lane sliws down to 50. 🙄 Andy

Busy week ahead for me Sparky is expected tomorrow, but before he arrives I need to source a socket face to match the others in the kitchen. After he has done his thing, I need to order some engineering bricks, a bag of ballast and some sand for work to start on the new garden wall by our man who does. I'll need to move the ballast from drive to rear garden before more visitors arrive Saturday and need somewhere to park. Tuesday will see me trying to blast some tar ashtrays from the sky with buckshot. I've nor been out for 16 months so I need to get my eye in again. Tuesday afternoon will be spent sorting out the house ready for the next painting job Wednesday is a day of catching up with other stuff and tidying ready for our visitors at the weekend. Thursday and Friday will be wasted by going to work. Andy

Today's drive was excellent unitl we got this side of the channel. The variable speed limits were all over the place. A lit limit on a gzntry loomed ahead so I eased off and needed just a slight dab of the brake to get me down the last couple of mph to 60. This gantry had a camera and it went off at least twice as I approached and I saw at least 5 flashes in the mirror. Seems some can't predict that a lit gantry means slow down as there is something less than NSL showing. Worse still the next 3 gantries showed NSL and then we passed the burnt out car being recovered. Several other occasions of a 60 followed by NSL for no reason happened and at the M25/ M4 junction we had from left to right 40 blank 40 blank 40 blank 40. No wonder people get confused. Of course we then had the usual wombles who insisted on turning a 4 lane motorway into a two lane one by bumbling along in lane 3 at 65mph with nothing to their left. I was quite relaxed leaving the tunnel. Even saw my first new style Eurostar set. I think my blood pressure was at danger levels before Ashford. Andy

Another story told to me by a former and no sadly departed colleague was of a shift at a signal box in the Wednesbury area. A steel train went past with part of the load obviously not where it should be on the wagon. " well" he thought," it's only going a short distance and it'll be in the yard out of the way where it will be unloaded and it will just cause delay to stop it." And so on it went onwards unencumbered by being stopped and examined. This was OK till the wayward load hit an overbridge and not only removed a section of the brickwork also derailed the train. When asked if he had seen anything wrong with the train as it passed his box he replied, " it was alright when it passed me" Apparently the repair to the bridge can still be seen from the Midland Metro Andy

We are back from the motherland and best wishes @Dave Hunt to Jill from all at SM42 Towers 923 miles in 15hrs 49 mins. Second fastest time west bound. We managed to get onto a train 2 hours earlier than our booked and on driving onto the loading area I just followed the green arrows and ended up on a crossing half an hour earlier than the one we were given. @polybear I could suggest Poznan, (but I'm biased) Things to do include . The tank museum, commonwealth war graves of the great escapees, another museum nearby with various artefact and old war birds slowly rusting. A day trip to Wolsztyn ( one hour each way by train and about £14 return. Sitting outside a bar in the old square watching the world go by ( not this year though. Still a building site till autumn.) A task best suited to a summer's day. The views are better and it's warmer Visiting the Rogale museum where the making of the local delicacy of the St Martins Croissant is demonstrated. V tasty. I have one for breakfast tomorrow Visit to Lech brewery The cathedral and nearby museum of Poznan's history. Then there are cake shops. And If you get the chance watch some trains or buy a 24 hours tram ticket and see where the trams take you. Should keep you going for near enough a week. Finally it's about half an hour by bus from the airport to main railway station on the edge of the city centre Andy

Yes they are, but without a double back there will always be a rest day after a night turn. The other alternative is a late or early after nights the following day, but that leaves a rest day between booking off and only lates would give the 32 hrs rest, but there would still be a day without booking on. Most prefer it that way, as it is not compulsory to sleep all day and you get at least 32 hours between turns. More like 56 generally. I tend to get up around 10 and have the rest of day to use on anything that doesn't involve too much thinking. There is also a preference for 12s amongst the majority round our way and the minority mostly warm to them when they realise the benefits . Andy

What you really need is a shed to house the control room for all this. Oh! Andy

Tell em you're digging a fish pond and use the hole as a shaft from which to dig out in both directions. You can then create an entrance out of sight, in the loft for instance, and having completed excavations cap initial shaft with a fish pond. If you are feeling in a meglomanic mood you could make a fake pond that slides open to allow missiles to be launched. ( purely in a defensive mode you understand) Andy Who recently watched You Only Live Twice.

Not next month. After the summer trip. September . Andy

Sister of Mrs SM42 ( who has spent many a summer holiday on Italy) has suggested we fly to Verona and hire a small car as the roads are quite narrow and busy around the area Being out of main season will help with traffic but parking can be a nightmare she says. As she is fluent in Italian, she is on standby to translate parking signs if we send a picture. Of course I may not get the time off. Mrs SM42 may not either. There is some doubt over Mrs SM42's work arrangements at the time of the planned trip, as the nursery school she works at is closing at the end of the school year in July. She doesn't know yet if it will be taken over by the adjacent primary school and she'll be TUPEd across. It's all a bit of an unknown at present Andy

Our last day in the motherland has been one of a high calorific intake. Having done goodies shopping ( we took the in laws with us as they rarely get to the hypermarket) we returned to their flat for coffee and farewells. Coffee was accompanied by a large plate of doughnuts, chocolate covered ginger bread and assorted biscuits type delicacies. Well it would be rude to say no. It was then off to the Sil's to say our farewells there. More coffee and scone like buns with a sort of creamy filling. Cut in half, strawberry jam added to make a Polish cream tea. This was closely followed by chocolate brownie and ice cream. Needless to say the caffeine and sugar rush is just wearing off. Andy

The quart has been squeezed in, but for some reason it doesn't fit as well as last time. No doubt there will be another 2 quarts presented tomorrow just before departure. It is still trying to snow. For Shed Aid I have identified several spare plots of land, but the owners want too much to ship it. Meanwhile, Mrs SM42 has got it into her head that we should spend a week on Lake Gada in Italy ( I blame her friends who have just booked such a holiday. Holiday envy is what it is) and we should propel ourselves there by motor vehicle. Now I'm not against the idea, but 10 days after leaving the motherland? I'm not even sure I can get the leave. I do quite fancy driving through the Alps and had the thought of taking in the Mont Blanc tunnel with a rather less direct route. However on balance, flying may be a better option. Andy

In the operating department 12 hours rest could be reduced to 8 at weekends whilst changing turns. The double back off Sunday night to Monday lates was still being rostered in 2000. It was done away with around then by a roster change but some were still not happy about working nights into a rest day, but didn't want to double back either. Not sure what they expected to do as they were mutually exclusive. Andy

Today has dawned wet and chilly. The rain rains, but it has occasional white lumps in it. Final bit of shopping today before the quart into a pint pot routine commences again. Andy

I think Shed Aid will receive another boost when HH has another stock take. It seems he may have a tree stump and a hole going spare at the moment. The organising committee is also currently in discussion with HMRC about how to import a piece of France. There is some confusion as to what biometric clearance may be required for such an item . Export / import of pieces of country were not envisaged under the terms of the UK's withdrawal from the EU and hence there is some toing and froing going on about exactly what paperwork is needed. All of this of course will create a delay but it is important to get hhe details right, otherwise there will be the inevitable complaints in the modelling press and we'll all wonder why we even bothered. Andy

There was by all accounts a pub in the West Midlands that often had a phone call along the lines of: " Is the signalman there? " " tell him there's a train coming" Andy

The locals were probably well aware of what was going to happen. Andy

Mrs SM42 wondered why not at 4am. Hence the old saying that one job begats another. I normally find it takes 2 hours of prep, 10 minutes to do the job and 1 to 3 weeks to sort out the mess. Andy

Third party insurance is the minimum required for road vehicles. All self road traffic losses are covered by the company bank account, but there is still a 3rd party insurance policy in place to cover all external parties as required by the law. We once had freezer cover included as standard on our house policy. £80 was the excess. There was only about £30 worth in there and it was full. Back to the stories that I have been entertained with. A former signalman colleague once told of the day, whilst shunting a freightliner terminal, of getting a wagon down the bank and the container thereon depositing its contents about. In this case it was cans of Breakers. The load was written off by its owners and there it lay abandoned Every night shift thereafter the shunter would disappear down the bank in the early hours and reappear with two well loaded carrier bags, the contents of which were then consumed in the signalbox. The now empty cans, thrown out of the window onto the bank behind the box. He regularly went home off nights quite sozzled. Their nocturnal activity was eventually noticed by the management and they were called in and told to clear up the pile of empties as it was starting to look unprofessional. Andy

This is one of those situations where that O level trigonometry you never thought worth learning comes into its own All you need is to be able to get to the bottom of the pole, a tape measure how far away from it you are standing and a home made device to measure the angle ( a protractor with a plumber line) between the horizontal and a line form your position to the top of the pole and maybe an assistant to read off the angle You can then use the tan function on a calculator to work out the height. Andy

You could offer the site as a location for the next controlled detonation of some long lost WW2 ordnance for a small fee. That should move it and you could get paid for it too. Perhaps you could make a spare hollow from the crator Andy

Lech ran out winners 1-0 on aggregate. YAY! The pitch was very greasy though It's not often you see a player sliding upright on both feet when trying to stop. Even the ref nearly went over and he wasn't doing much. Andy

Of course when you venture into a large European city in late February the thing you most expect to see is A Christmas market. Andy

I suspect not, but under the cableway is quite clean It's around the quarry end that everything is white from quarry dust drawn out by lorries. Its isa little like it is around the peak district quarries but seems to spread further out here. I know someone who had such surgery and her life was transformed from one of constant pain to being pain free. The BSI hand could be defined as there is BSI person. Who knows when designing a handle, the standard size of a hand could come into play. Part B I suspect is not covered in the standard, but you never know there may be a BSI woman too. As you can tell we are back from town. The model shop was a cheap visit as they had sold out of what I was looking for. Maybe not such a bad thing after all. A very nice and quite large dinner was enjoyed with two beers each, all for less than £26. The city is full of Norwegians as Lech Poznan are playing a Norwegian team this evening. Rain has set in but luckily we dodged between the showers twixt restaurant, tram, bus and home. When it was raining we were inside so we couldn't have timed it better. Andy