The Night Mail

[pH]

One of my uncles was born in Canada and the family went back to Scotland when he was 2 years old. After WW2, Canada was offering assisted passages for immigrants. My uncle applied but was told he didn’t qualify, since he was not an immigrant but a Canadian national going home! He went anyway, paying fares for five.

 

There was another complication. One of his sons had been born in England and had lived about 9 years in Scotland before he went to Canada. When he applied for his Canadian government pensions at age 65 (there are at least three possibilities), he was told that he didn’t qualify for one of them because he wasn’t a Canadian citizen. He’d always assumed that since his dad was a Canadian citizen, he automatically was as well. The rules keep changing, but up until then, people in that situation had to actually apply for citizenship from within Canada. 
 

I helped him with the application, since I had been in the same situation, my mother having also been born in Canada while the family was living there. I had gathered information needed to support my citizenship claim and passed it on to him.  (He didn’t offer me a percentage of the pension, though!)

 

[PhilJ W]

48 minutes ago, coastalview said:

Always quite fancied the idea of living in Malta, as spent quite a while working in the country

It can get very hot there in the summer. I was toying with buying a small apartment in Malta to use for my own holidays and to let out when I wasn't using it. The British influence is still very strong and sometimes its like a piece of England transplanted to the Med.

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Here's a question for followers of the current British railway scene.   As I have mentioned before, due to earlier career and training I listen to the sounds of machinery very closely.

 

Whilst in wales recently, on a campsite listening to the nearby railway at night (Swansea - Llanelli line) I identified the sounds of two different types of DMU, but one night in the wee hours a very loud, heavy diesel engine was heard working hard for its living. It wasn't a 66 (ning-ning EMD sound) but a slower revving four stroke, sounded quite big and powerful - would anyone care to speculate what class it may have been please?  I am 'somewhat' out of date with UK railway matters!

Class 60.

 

They use them on the Robeston oil trains.

 

Which is what Northmoor has already said

Edited October 6, 2021 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Latest news - a previously unknown type of dinosaur has been found in South Wales.

 

Not yet common knowledge is that a detailed examination has shown that it was wearing a red rugby shirt, ate cake, drank Penderyn and was carrying an O gauge pannier tank . 

 

Dave

The mighty Hipposaur.  My late father claimed to have seen them when he was a small boy.

 

He also told me about the Pteropotamus.  This was what the Americans used much, much later to develop the concept of the B52 Stratofortress.

 

You certainly didn't want to be under a flight of these blighters!

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

15 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Since Douglas is building in 2" gauge, I don't think the Slaters wheels(which would be my go-to) are physically big enough.  I suspect that he's looking at Walsall's Gauge 1 collection to get something of sufficient diameter.

Yes, I'm currently looking at the Walsall 6'6 LNER pattern driving wheels, as this will be a North Eastern Railway liveried engine.*

 

*The GWR had a De Glehn so I don't see why Worsdell couldn't have a Coupe Vent.

[AndyID]

Assuming there hasn't been some recent legislation that I don't know about it should still be possible for my wife and I and our three children to renew our UK passports. With the way things have been going here in recent times we probably should.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

19 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Assuming there hasn't been some recent legislation that I don't know about it should still be possible for my wife and I and our three children to renew our UK passports. With the way things have been going here in recent times we probably should.

We’re thinking of applying for my sister and I’s passports for both England and NZ, partially because of global affairs but more because of college and the price of tuition. Currently none have been selected for me as it’s quite early but we are looking at Newcastle University, along with Liverpool.

[BR60103]

My father at one point was encouraging us (mildly) to get British repatriation papers. I think he was worried about political unrest in Canada. He was annoyed that he was the only peron in his immediate family that wouldn't qualify -- something about having to have a grandparent born in the UK.

 

Our UK friends took us to a church where we could see the marks that were made by soldiers sharpening their swords on the way to Hastings.

 

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

We’re thinking of applying for my sister and I’s passports for both England and NZ, partially because of global affairs but more because of college and the price of tuition. Currently none have been selected for me as it’s quite early but we are looking at Newcastle University, along with Liverpool.

 

I believe the situation is that the US does not recognize "dual-citizenship". Even if you leave the US you are still liable for US income tax unless you formally renounce your US citizenship.

 

At one time you had to surrender your foreign passport when you became a US citizen but the US had to return that passport to the country  that issued it. In the case of the UK the UK sent it back to you 

 

The US doesn't bother asking for them anymore.

[polybear]

8 hours ago, coastalview said:

Always quite fancied the idea of living in Malta, as spent quite a while working in the country

 

Bear has never been there - but must sometime.  Only not in summer.

 

2 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

We’re thinking of applying for my sister and I’s passports for both England and NZ, partially because of global affairs but more because of college and the price of tuition. Currently none have been selected for me as it’s quite early but we are looking at Newcastle University, along with Liverpool.

 

You'll need the latest version of Google Translate

[Oldddudders]

Late first wife Deb had lived in Malta (Sliema) for three years from the late '60s - mum had taken a job as a physio for the RN. Schooling (RN-led) was excellent, and about 40 years later Deb attended a reunion week there. 

 

A colleague was Project Director for the Class 60s. They had a number of birth-pains, ISTR, culminating in a decision point whether BR would formally 'accept' them or not, over a Bank Holiday weekend. On the Friday, I think John was told by the Joint MD, BRB, that he, John, must decide on the Board's behalf. It was known that if he decided not to accept them, the manufacturer's share price would tumble when markets re-opened on the Tuesday. Decisions you would not want to be saddled with, No 1! I think he decided to accept, but think there were remedial works on cylinder-head bolts carried out for some time afterwards. Big cylinders presumably experience big pressures!

 

John is a modeller, and has the nameplate for a Grange Class loco in the family surname over his hearth..... 

[New Haven Neil]

24 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

 

You'll need the latest version of Google Translate

 

Divvent knaa wot ya mean? 

[coastalview]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

It can get very hot there in the summer. I was toying with buying a small apartment in Malta to use for my own holidays and to let out when I wasn't using it. The British influence is still very strong and sometimes its like a piece of England transplanted to the Med.

First time I visited was in 2000 and I certainly felt the British influence, however, we have been going back every couple of years or so and Malta is becoming much more Mediterranean Europe. Gozo is certainly still more British in feel.

 

Its fascinating to wonder what it would be like now if it had become part of UK.

[coastalview]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear has never been there - but must sometime.  Only not in summer.

We were there in October one year and it was in the low 30's and incredibly humid. Easter is a good time to visit in our experience if you don't like the heat plus the Easter celebrations are very interesting. 

[Dave Hunt]

Once more I have been staggered by bureaucratic nonsense. I received a phone call yesterday afternoon telling me that I will have to have a Covid PCR test next Monday in preparation for my nose operation three days later and will have to go to the other side of Telford for it. I queried why I couldn't go to the testing centre half a mile down the road from here, only to be told, "That's not NHS, that's government." I pointed out that all the personnel uniforms and signage at the site were emblazoned with the lettering NHS but that cut no ice - "No, that's only for people who are showing symptoms or have been in contact with Covid. You need to go to a site that checks prior to hospital or clinic visits." When I said that travelling 25 miles rather than half a mile was somewhat inconvenient the response was, "Well, we can inform the clinic that you are refusing to have a test then." I of course gave in and agreed to their demand. What a cockamamy system!

 

Dave

 

PS - when the caller gave me the postcode for the testing centre I pointed out that I had been there before and the code she gave me was incorrect. This was met with, "Oh, yes, we know that it isn't correct but it's the one we were given and it gets you quite close." Unreal.....

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a Charente where it is actually sunny.  I've never been to Malta though one of my former colleagues had a conviction at Valetta Magistrates Court on his record, for Section 47 assault.  It appears that the former Royal Marine boxing champion took exception to a Maltese thrashing a donkey rather badly. Tony had a thing about cruelty to animals and laid him out.

 

Anyway as has been said Douglas will definitely need an interpreter for either of those universities.  My father went to Liverpool Uni to study chemistry as he came from New Brighton.

 

As to class 60's there certainly were some problems with them but when they were working they could pull.

Here is on on the aforementioned Robeston tanks passing through Cardiff in 2014.

Next a close up of one from the cab of a failed 59/2. Neil should recognise the location.

The 59 had sat down, with a sticking relay, on the down main outside Tyne Yard so we got a tow round via the station to get back into the yard. here is our rescuer still coupled up after we got back to the yard to await another 59 to take us back to Ferrybridge.

Jamie

 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by jamie92208

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

When I said that travelling 25 miles rather than half a mile was somewhat inconvenient t

I needed a PCR test 3 days before my recent colonoscopy. The hospital told me I didn’t need to go up the hospital in Whitechapel for the PCR just to make an appointment online for a local drive or walk in centre using the option on the website ‘I have been asked by a medical practitioner to get a test’.  I took my negative result printout and the phone text with me but the hospital knew the result somehow, probably from my NHS number. So it would appear that the system is more “joined up” and perhaps the Telford admin don’t know this. Aditi’s sister is having a hospital procedure next week (in London). She was just told arrange a PCR test at a nearby centre too. 
Tony

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear has never been there - but must sometime.  Only not in summer.

Spring is the best time of year to visit Malta.

1 hour ago, coastalview said:

First time I visited was in 2000 and I certainly felt the British influence, however, we have been going back every couple of years or so and Malta is becoming much more Mediterranean Europe. Gozo is certainly still more British in feel.

 

Its fascinating to wonder what it would be like now if it had become part of UK.

Back in the 60's Dom Mintoff when he was Maltese leader pressed the British government to make Malta part of the UK. That was because the dockyard workers would then get British rates of pay. The Royal Navy dockyards were at the time the biggest employer on the Island. Since then oil was discovered in Maltese territorial waters and now they are a net exporter of oil. 

1 hour ago, coastalview said:

We were there in October one year and it was in the low 30's and incredibly humid. Easter is a good time to visit in our experience if you don't like the heat plus the Easter celebrations are very interesting. 

Summers are very hot and dry and winters can be very wet with flash floods. Last time I was there it was in March and in the news there were reports on the inquest of an elderly lady drowned when the car she was in was swept away in a flash flood.

[Happy Hippo]

44 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

perhaps the Telford admin don’t know this. 

Telf, Telf, Telf, Telf!

Telf, Telf, Telf, Telf!

 

Teeeelf, gormless Telf!

 

Says it all really.

[Oldddudders]

52 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I took my negative result printout and the phone text with me but the hospital knew the result somehow, probably from my NHS number. So it would appear that the system is more “joined up” 

I have been impressed with the degree of 'joined-uppedness'. Leaving here a week ago, Sherry was required to have taken a test within the previous 72 hrs, and she had ordered and brought with her a suitable paid-for test, as distinct from the free lateral flow ones she does regularly, which are inadmissible for such circs. It had shown negative, so she entered the result online and had a certificate by return. This and a ref number had to be entered on her Passenger Locator form online, as had the serial number of the second-day-home test she had ordered. Following last year, when I suggested we print the Locator forms, and we got cleared at Portsmouth far more quickly than all those using their clever smartphone to show their details, Sherry had printed everything needed. Handed it in at Portsmouth, and the girl almost immediately said that's fine - your online details all comply, off you go. So Sherry was less than an hour between getting in her car onboard ship, and being in her room at Travelodge for overnight.

 

It helped that Portsmouth had six lanes open for disembarking cars, in strong contrast to Sherry's arrival in France a few weeks before, when only two booths were open and she was over two hours in the queue. 

 

Less cheerful is the fact that our AmDram group in Torquay had finally got a play fully rehearsed, the first proper run since Feb 2020, and managed the charity performance last Saturday, only for the leading lady to test positive on Monday, followed by the director and now at least one other cast member. So that's that, and the several £000 we might have banked (as a registered charity) for a week's perfs will now all have to be refunded. Sherry had been at the theatre for the charity perf, but did not mingle closely with cast or crew. She has tested negative a couple of times since. But of those now positive, at least one has a husband with poor health - terrifying for them. Covid has not gone away.

 

Here in France it shows signs of doing so, though. While the UK average per 100k population is well over 300, nowhere in France is it over 100, except in Bouches du Rhône where it was over 600 a few weeks ago, but is now about 120. Here in Sarthe it is less than 40, and two neighbouring departements have figures below 20. Still wearing a mask is really making a difference. 

[jamie92208]

France does seem to be doing well and the checks for vaccine certs have definitely  boosted vaccination rates.  

 

Here the ironing has been done with goodcaural anaesthetic  in the form ofvSide 1 of Pink Fkoyd's Relics and side one of Whose Next with the volume cranked up.  Beth is at the hairdressers.

 

Jamie

[Oldddudders]

5 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

France does seem to be doing well and the checks for vaccine certs have definitely  boosted vaccination rates.  

I see you are down at 27, Jamie - keep it up! 

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Once more I have been staggered by bureaucratic nonsense. I received a phone call yesterday afternoon telling me that I will have to have a Covid PCR test next Monday in preparation for my nose operation three days later and will have to go to the other side of Telford for it. I queried why I couldn't go to the testing centre half a mile down the road from here, only to be told, "That's not NHS, that's government." I pointed out that all the personnel uniforms and signage at the site were emblazoned with the lettering NHS but that cut no ice - "No, that's only for people who are showing symptoms or have been in contact with Covid. You need to go to a site that checks prior to hospital or clinic visits." When I said that travelling 25 miles rather than half a mile was somewhat inconvenient the response was, "Well, we can inform the clinic that you are refusing to have a test then." I of course gave in and agreed to their demand. What a cockamamy system!

 

Dave

 

PS - when the caller gave me the postcode for the testing centre I pointed out that I had been there before and the code she gave me was incorrect. This was met with, "Oh, yes, we know that it isn't correct but it's the one we were given and it gets you quite close." Unreal.....

 

Pingin' off a few letters to relevant people may be an idea.  As to whether or not they'll do any good though....

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Once more I have been staggered by bureaucratic nonsense. I received a phone call yesterday afternoon telling me that I will have to have a Covid PCR test next Monday in preparation for my nose operation three days later and will have to go to the other side of Telford for it. I queried why I couldn't go to the testing centre half a mile down the road from here, only to be told, "That's not NHS, that's government." I pointed out that all the personnel uniforms and signage at the site were emblazoned with the lettering NHS but that cut no ice - "No, that's only for people who are showing symptoms or have been in contact with Covid. You need to go to a site that checks prior to hospital or clinic visits." When I said that travelling 25 miles rather than half a mile was somewhat inconvenient the response was, "Well, we can inform the clinic that you are refusing to have a test then." I of course gave in and agreed to their demand. What a cockamamy system!

 

Dave

 

PS - when the caller gave me the postcode for the testing centre I pointed out that I had been there before and the code she gave me was incorrect. This was met with, "Oh, yes, we know that it isn't correct but it's the one we were given and it gets you quite close." Unreal.....

Should have recorded that conversation and have it put out on the local radio. Then wait for the brown stuff to hit the fan.

[New Haven Neil]

NHN does indeed recognise the location Jamie, and the hump at Tyne Yard. 

 

I only very occasionally visited there in 'recent' times, as in between 20 and 30 years ago, oops.  The road overbridge that provides the viewing point is awfully bouncy when road traffic passes, not something I have ever noticed on bridges elsewhere!  Last time I went would have been something like 23-4 years ago, all I could see were EWS class 66's and the odd 350 (08 to the young).  Crumbs, I remember the line of Claytons that lived behind the hump for ages and ages, en-route to scrapping. 'Feeling old moment'.