The Night Mail

[AndyID]

32 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

That might not qualify as a shed!

 

Although it has an enviable selection of tools and quite magnificent clutter, there are no large cobwebs in sight.

 

It is this attention to detail that matters in what makes a true shed.

 

I hope you are not suggesting I'll be kicked out of 'Shed Of The Year' on account of a few cobwebs. Do ants count? There are a lot - at least there were. I might have bumped then off.

[ian@stenochs]

10 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Then there's the Midland Great Western.

 

And an interest in the G&SWR inevitably leads to accidentally discovering the delights of the GS&WR.

Yes, a real joy especially if you read the ‘Tales’ by David L Smith.  254 has that giant eel with ‘lugs like a horse’ in its tender tank!

[Dave Hunt]

13 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

I hope you are not suggesting I'll be kicked out of 'Shed Of The Year' on account of a few cobwebs. Do ants count? There are a lot - at least there were. I might have bumped then off.

 

One of the other signs of a classic shed (round here anyway) is hosts of wood lice. The little bu**ers breed like wildfire and die in similar numbers so every time something on the floor is moved there are drifts of them. When the shed is cleaned and tidied  (well, it was once) it amazes me how many of them are removed and I sometimes wonder how they still manage to appear. Their attrition rate is unbelievable.

 

Dave

Edited July 25, 2023 by Dave Hunt

[Hroth]

42 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

If it were quiet Welsh,  a lot of travellers would think the train was talking about them🤣

 

You were very lucky as most regular users of TfW's services appear to make do with either a 153 or a 150/2. That includes the majority of the current Cardiff to Holyhead services.

 

Brian, (br2975)  can probably give you chapter and verse on TfW's woes and service issues.

 

Do TfW turn the Welsh portion of the announcements off once they've crossed the border into England?  It would be polite to do so, though Welsh muttering when English are around is a national disgrace....

 

[Dave Hunt]

2 minutes ago, ian@stenochs said:

Yes, a real joy especially if you read the ‘Tales’ by David L Smith.  254 has that giant eel with ‘lugs like a horse’ in its tender tank!

 

Another example of a master modeller’s art. Morning Ian - thanks for the information on which books to buy on the Sou’West. 

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

9 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Just how many clubs do you have?

 

Enough to keep his executors happy?

[br2975]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

If it were quiet Welsh,  a lot of travellers would think the train was talking about them🤣

 

You were very lucky as most regular users of TfW's services appear to make do with either a 153 or a 150/2. That includes the majority of the current Cardiff to Holyhead services.

 

Brian, (br2975)  can probably give you chapter and verse on TfW's woes and service issues.

.

Anyway, TfW has far greater issues to confront at the moment.

.

This week sees Western Europe's largest agricultural show, The Royal Welsh Show, held at Llanelwedd, near Built Wells.

.

Every year since time immemorial, a special train has been run each day of the show, from Cardiff - Builth Road (stabling at Llandrindod Wells) before its' return to the capital.

.

This year was no exception, with TfW advertising an additional service in advance, and commencing yesterday.

.

However, the additional service was cancelled at (very) short notice "due to the unavailability of a crew"

.

Not well received by those intending passengers who had purchased their RWS advance tickets online.....................

.

The Central Wales Line has been badly effected of late - with a friend recently stranded at Salop after the last train of the day was caped; only for TfW to lay on a taxi, from Salop to Llandrindod Wells.

.

Yesterday evening, my daughter and son-in-law travelled by train ( TfW ), from Pontyclun into Cardiff for a Tom Jones concert at Cardiff Castle.

.

The last working back to Pontyclun was caped, and no replacement bus provided.

.

Which resulted in yours truly rescuing them from Cardiff's pouring rain , and making a 25 almost 30 mile round trip to get them home.

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Theses are almost daily issues across the TfW network.

.

Those lucky enough to find their train to be a brand new Cl.197 or Cl.231, and arriving on time, are  Lottery Winners compared to us mere mortals.

.

Edited July 25, 2023 by br2975

[br2975]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

Do TfW turn the Welsh portion of the announcements off once they've crossed the border into England?  It would be polite to do so, though Welsh muttering when English are around is a national disgrace....

 

.

A-ha the old 'saes' chestnuts about the Welsh speaking their own language.

.

I'm no Cymric polyglot, nor am I a rabid Welsh speaker, (in fact the exact opposite) but one never hears our 'saes' neighbours from across Offa's Dyke complaining about their new-found fellow countrymen who converse openly in Gudjarati, Bengali, Arabic, French, Italian, Urdu, or Farsi in their corner shops, takeaways, kebab houses etc...................... in the way the 'saes'  moan about the Welsh speaking Welsh.

.

Should the Welsh ask for GWR and Cross Country to turn their English only announcements off when their trains pass through the Severn Tunnel, or pass Chepstow ?

Asking for a friend...

.

Edited July 25, 2023 by br2975

[Hroth]

If they asked in Welsh, there might be problems...

 

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

One of the other signs of a classic shed (round here anyway) is hosts of wood lice. The little bu**ers breed like wildfire and die in similar numbers so every time something on the floor is moved there are drifts of them. When the shed is cleaned and tidied  (well, it was once) it amazes me how many of them are removed and I sometimes wonder how they still manage to appear. Their attrition rate is unbelievable.

 

Dave

Every shed should have resident Black Red starts who learn to fly indoors.  Lighting rigs seem to be favoured perches. 

 

Jamie

[polybear]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

A bit of shedporn for anyone who is into that sort of thing.

 

 

 

That's not a Shed.  It's a Factory 😵

[Happy Hippo]

15 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Every shed should have resident Black Red starts who learn to fly indoors.  Lighting rigs seem to be favoured perches. 

 

Jamie

Olddudders might have snakes in his!

[Hroth]

My shed is too new for spiders and insects to have colonised it yet, though I've hung a "Bug Hotel*" outside it to try and divert some...

 

* Do insctiverous birds regard Bug Hotels as a useful food source?  Perhaps I should attach a perch to the bottom of it to help them!

 

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Hroth
A couple of extra words

[Happy Hippo]

46 minutes ago, Hroth said:

My shed is too new for spiders and insects to have colonised it yet, though I've hung a "Bug Hotel*" outside it to try and divert some...

 

* Do insctiverous birds regard Bug Hotels as a useful food source?  Perhaps I should attach a perch to the bottom of it to help them!

 

 

Probably.

 

Last year we lost a complete Robin brood to a Jay who decided to treat their nest like a MacDonald's drive through.

[jamie92208]

5 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Probably.

 

Last year we lost a complete Robin brood to a Jay who decided to treat their nest like a MacDonald's drive through.

Should that be called a swoop through. 

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

no large cobwebs in sight.

We have some quite large cobwebs near our front door. I think the spiders may have travelled over from the colony  in the car mirrors. 

[Willie Whizz]

No problem at all with the Welsh speaking Welsh, nor any of the others; the issue is when one enters  pub or similar in some parts of Wales and the customers at once  stop speaking English and start using Welsh. That is deliberately unfriendly, and you can call it a “chestnut” if you like, but I can bear witness from personal experience that it happens. 

[Dave Hunt]

I think I may have posted this before but if so, apologies. When I lived in Anglesey in the early '70s a mate and I went into a pub in Holyhead where there were a few people at the bar all speaking English. As soon as we ordered drinks they pointedly switched to Welsh, whereupon we started talking in German. They got the message and everyone went back to English. After they had left the barman congratulated us, saying that such behaviour p!ssed him off as much as it did us.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

15 minutes ago, Willie Whizz said:

No problem at all with the Welsh speaking Welsh, nor any of the others; the issue is when one enters  pub or similar in some parts of Wales and the customers at once  stop speaking English and start using Welsh. That is deliberately unfriendly, and you can call it a “chestnut” if you like, but I can bear witness from personal experience that it happens. 

I don't give a monkey's bottom dribble what the customers are saying, as long as I get served.

[Happy Hippo]

4 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I think I may have posted this before but if so, apologies. When I lived in Anglesey in the early '70s a mate and I went into a pub in Holyhead where there were a few people at the bar all speaking English. As soon as we ordered drinks they pointedly switched to Welsh, whereupon we started talking in German. They got the message and everyone went back to English. After they had left the barman congratulated us, saying that such behaviour p!ssed him off as much as it did us.

 

Dave

Nyda and I have done the same in Flemish, whilst we were on holiday in Scotland and some local tried the same thing in Gaylick (sic).

 

Apparently when you do this and sometimes point in the offenders direction and occasionally laughing  creates a lot of worry. 

[Oldddudders]

13 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Just how many clubs do you have?

You can have too many. Do I not recall Ian Woosnam being disqualified from a competition when it was revealed his caddy had put one too many in the bag? 

 

As for TfW trains, this was en route Manchester while we waited at Crewe yesterday. Are those Mk4 coaches? Black with Welsh writing. Hauled by a German-owned, made in Spain loco, using a US prime mover and bits, on English rails. Cool, as they say....

 

[newbryford]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

You can have too many. Do I not recall Ian Woosnam being disqualified from a competition when it was revealed his caddy had put one too many in the bag? 

 

As for TfW trains, this was en route Manchester while we waited at Crewe yesterday. Are those Mk4 coaches? Black with Welsh writing. Hauled by a German-owned, made in Spain loco, using a US prime mover and bits, on English rails. Cool, as they say....

 

 

They are the Mk4s that were refurbished for Grand Central to use with 90s on the Euston-Blackpool service.

It never started due to covid delays.

TfW got the GC Mk4s to supplement the sets they were already getting from the ECML.

 

BTW - 14 is the maximum number of clubs allowed in competition.

Although we do have an annual "fun" 3-club competition where the limit is, errrr, three.

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by newbryford
ttypo

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Apparently when you do this and sometimes point in the offenders direction and occasionally laughing  creates a lot of worry. 

Years ago when she lived in Ilford, Aditi was in the corner shop when a Sikh chap was telling the shop assistant a joke in Punjabi. Aditi laughed at the punchline and the shop assistant asked why she was laughing. Aditi said the joke was funny. The assistant and man asked how she understood and said she was Indian, and more specifically Punjabi.  Then there was the usual ," are both your parents Indian?", " you are very pale". Then the final "we have seen you with  European man" . It was back in 1976 .

[newbryford]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

 

As for TfW trains, this was en route Manchester while we waited at Crewe yesterday. Are those Mk4 coaches? Black with Welsh writing. Hauled by a German-owned, made in Spain loco, using a US prime mover and bits, on English rails. Cool, as they say....

 

 

You forgot to mention that the coaches are British built (although some Mk4s are Italian made bodyshells) with Swiss made bogies.

[SM42]

Last day in Poznan for a few days  today and we are packing to start the grand tour part one. 

 

This will consist of visiting and tending the graves of Mrs SM42's grandparents, then onto her former hometown of Kluczbork for more grave tending and then meeting up with some of Mrs SM42's old school friends. 

 

Next of to Katowice area for a birthday party. ( there will be cake) and I may be able to swing a visit to the model shop on the station at Rybnik on the way. 

 

The model shop in  Chorzow might be pushing my luck a bit and it is one of those places where price goes up as stock level goes down. 

 

Fimally we will be dropping in on some more friends in Opole on the way back

 

I may therefore be an infrequent visitor depending on WiFi availability and quantity of alcohol consumed over the weekend. 

 

Andy

Dealing with sporadic WiFi access already