The Night Mail

[iL Dottore]

6 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

 

 OK:

I see nothing anomalous about the above, except coloured shipping containers came in much later than the loco’s lifespan.

 

The correct container finish is, of course, polished teak….

[jamie92208]

As a cyclist I think we should construct a spider lane across the bridge that @polybear has to cross..

 

Jamie, who would stop at traffic lights if there were any near here. 

 

 

[SM42]

We have somee lovely, well maintained and sensible cycle routes round here. 

 

What do the majority prefer to use? 

 

The 70nph, single lane, dual carriageway rather than cycle way next to it. 

 

You do wonder sometimes.

 

However like most cycling provision in the UK just as it gets to the  hazardous  junctiony or roundabouty bit, it says " cyclists rejoin main carriageway "

 

Suppose the £50 budget ran out around about there.

 

Annoying really a there is often a simple, safe and obvious option.

 

Andy

Edited April 15 by SM42

[iL Dottore]

One of the delights of visiting Japan are their "Joyful Trains” (楽しい列車). These are special trains, variously themed, aimed at both the domestic and foreign market. If you include the luxury hotel trains and luxury limited expresses (such as Train Suite Shiki-shima [JR East], Twilight Express Mizukaze [JR West], Cruise Train Seven Stars in Kyushu [JR Kyushu], Saphir Odoriko [JR East], 36+3 [JR Kyushu] Gran Class [various] https://japanrailtimes.japanrailcafe.com.sg/web/article/rail-travel/luxury-trains), then there is something for all budgets.

 

I've traveled on both Gran Class on the Shinkansen and on the Saphir Odoriko and I hope, later this year, to travel on one of the hotel trains - although the tickets are pricey (up to £10,00 for the longest trip on the Seven Stars In Kyushu). However, getting a berth isn't simply a matter of forking over the cash: you have to make an application, which may or may not be accepted (first come, first served). Still, there are plenty of fun trains to ride in Japan (https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/joyful/, https://www.jrailpass.com/blog/joyful-character-trains, https://www.klook.com/en-GB/blog/joyful-trains-japan-guide/)

 

Japan is definitely a destination for those who want to have a unique traim-themed holiday.

[Happy Hippo]

9 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Well that's very generous of you Squadron Leader but I'd speak to your consultant about putting your back under such strain so soon after your operation. If your consultant is prepared to sign off on the insurance waiver I'm certain that we can arrange to have a pedant fitted once the Hippo has sorted out a method of attachment. So there you have it Britain's Armed Forces coming to the rescue of preserved railways wherever they are.

I could save the R&D budget a lot of time and money by allowing Dave to carry me around in a baby(ish) sling. 

 

One might say a pedant pendant.

[iL Dottore]

Rumour has it that JR West will be creating a unique British Railway themed Shinkansen (a bit like the "Hello Kitty" Shinkansen): The Shakespeare Monarch

 

To recreate the modern British Railway ambience The Shakespeare Monarch will feature:

• Seats that don't align with the windows.
• Legal minimum thickness seat padding.
• Out of order on-board toilets.
• Artfully placed piles of empty sandwich boxes, crisp packets and empty beer tins.
• Strict adherence to a WTWBL running schedule (Whatever The Time Table It Will Be Late)
• Overpriced tickets.
• Random last minute cancellations with "lucky draw" bus replacement service (i.e. you might get lucky and get a replacement bus service seat).

Unfortunately, given the Japanese culture and service ethos, The Shakespeare Monarch will not be able to feature strike action, work-to-rule or surly and rude employees.

 

p.s. although computer generated, I think a Union Flag painted Shinkansen actually looks pretty good!

[Winslow Boy]

9 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I could save the R&D budget a lot of time and money by allowing Dave to carry me around in a baby(ish) sling. 

 

One might say a pedant pendant.

So a Crab carrying Hippo then.

[Happy Hippo]

40 minutes ago, SM42 said:

We have somee lovely, well maintained and sensible cycle routes round here. 

 

What do the majority prefer to use? 

 

The 70nph, single lane, dual carriageway rather than cycle way next to it. 

 

You do wonder sometimes.

 

However like most cycling provision in the UK just as it gets to the  hazardous  junctiony or roundabouty bit, it says " cyclists rejoin main carriageway "

 

Suppose the £50 budget ran out around about there.

 

Annoying really a there is often a simple, safe and obvious option.

 

Andy

From personal experience, cycle tracks are great, until they become shared with hordes of pedestrians who spill over both their side and the cyclists side, and get totally brain frozen when required to move out of the way.  Ditto dog walkers with their damned extending leads.

 

As you so rightly point out, the biggest danger area are at poorly designed junctions where the cycle lane suddenly joins the carriageway. The genius who designed this, also forgets to put any access ramps off the carriageway onto the cycle track.

 

This is especially noticeable at roundabouts where roads without seperate cycle tracks have to join a road that does have.

 

This is especially difficult where the planners, as a cost saving, put the cycle track on one side of the road only.

 

No wonder a lot of cyclists just use the road, because it is quicker, and certainly at roundabouts, much safer.

 

[jamie92208]

49 minutes ago, SM42 said:

We have somee lovely, well maintained and sensible cycle routes round here. 

 

What do the majority prefer to use? 

 

The 70nph, single lane, dual carriageway rather than cycle way next to it. 

 

You do wonder sometimes.

 

However like most cycling provision in the UK just as it gets to the  hazardous  junctiony or roundabouty bit, it says " cyclists rejoin main carriageway "

 

Suppose the £50 budget ran out around about there.

 

Annoying really a there is often a simple, safe and obvious option.

 

Andy

On a more serious note, I rarely used the  cycle lanes in Leeds because use they were so full of rubbish and broken bottles etc.  Obviously a cleaning budget hadn't been allocated.  I did use one occasionally and often had to go out into the main carriageway to avoid parked cars.  As to traffic lights.  I ended up on the bonnet of a car that turned across me at some lights.  I had the right of way,she was turning right.  I didn't see you she said, I am fairly large and had a yellow jacket on.  I did ask her when she was going to get her eyes tested and she had a large dent in her bonnet to sort out.  Fortunately I was unharmed. 

 

Jamie

[bbishop]

Three reasons not to use cycle lanes:

• broken contents of bottle banks 
• redundant white goods
• used lorry tyres

When the great British public stop using cycle lanes as a free municipal dump, I'll start using them.

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Ditto dog walkers with their damned extending leads

 

Some dog walkers behave in just the same entitled way as some cyclists. The paths in our local nature reserve are clearly signed "dogs must be kept on a lead" (also "no cycling") but, setting aside the possibility of a high rate of illiteracy, it is evident that many of these people take it for granted that rules don't apply to them or their dogs. Would you offer employment to someone with such a mindset?

 

[In the interests of full disclosure, I'm a cat person not a dog person.]

[SM42]

At the roundabout near SM42 Towers, a lot of work went on to reduce congestion by installing traffic lights ( didn't work obviously)

 

Part of this project involved cycling provision. 

 

The last 100yds or so leading into the roundabout now have a cycle&  pedestrian path, turn left and it ends 20 yds later. 

The other side of the left turn is another shared use path that goes round the corner and then dumps thr cyclist onto the dual carriageway exit for about 400yds, where after a set of lights there is another shared path for left turners on the right hand side  

 

Going straight on you have to fight it out where the two lanes of the road become one. 

 

There is a cycle track on the right hand side but no provision to cross to it till you've passed to the far side of the traffic  lights. 

 

TGoing in the opposite direction that path again runs out at the roundabout should you wish to not turn left 

The path to the left ends after 200yds at a pedestrian crossing.

 

Meanwhile those who wish to catch one of the rare buses, have to walk the last 50 yards to the stop on the grass verge and stand in the mud, as extending the footpath was too hard. 

 

It really is a half hearted solution that could have been much better with some thought. 

 

Andy

[polybear]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Indeed.

 

Opioids are so, so much better. Keeps ‘em nice and quiet.

 

The Victorians knew a trick or two with their patent medicines for soothing troublesome tiny tots….

 

And then the do-gooders came along and screwed it all up....

[Dave Hunt]

There’s a children’s medicine called Calpol. I don’t know what’s in it but No. 1 son and DiL seemed to dose their two ankle snappers with the stuff at the slightest suggestion of a cough or sniffle and I’m sure it sedated them. Maybe it’s a left over from good queen Vicky’s days.

 

Dave

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

There’s a children’s medicine called Calpol. I don’t know what’s in it but No. 1 son and DiL seemed to dose their two ankle snappers with the stuff at the slightest suggestion of a cough or sniffle and I’m sure it sedated them. Maybe it’s a left over from good queen Vicky’s days.

 

Dave

It is paediatric paracetamol. Until Matthew was about four he had convulsions whenever anything caused his temperature to rise. So he had to (on medical advice) have Calpol at more than the “over the counter “ dose and to be taken at first sign of a temperature. What we did find was that after a couple of days the low sugar version seemed to make him a bit loopy so we bought the sugar sweetened version. I had never heard of Calpol until we had a child. 

[Dave Hunt]

Not far from here there used to be a cycle track through a town that has now been officially repurposed as a car park. There is also another one out in the country that suddenly stops without warning at an extremely busy roundabout then reappears on the other side. Since it is a two way track, negotiating the roundabout is somewhat tense. The other problem is that the hedge alongside has been allowed to encroach on the track to the extent that it is virtually impassable in places.

 

Dave

[bbishop]

Morning all.  Recovering from a weekend taking the FROS 3 requalification course.  Two written exams and a lot of practical work, and I lost my left leg to a chainsaw accident.  We were also expected to take aspirin for a cardiac event, except everyone on the course was allergic to aspirin.  Anyway done for another three years so I can tootle around south east London on a Friday evening, terrifying little old ladies out of their beds.

[bbishop]

38 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

And then the do-gooders came along and screwed it all up....

... except some of them contained lethal amounts of mercury, etc...

[skipepsi]

46 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

On a more serious note, I rarely used the  cycle lanes in Leeds because use they were so full of rubbish and broken bottles etc.  Obviously a cleaning budget hadn't been allocated.  I did use one occasionally and often had to go out into the main carriageway to avoid parked cars.  As to traffic lights.  I ended up on the bonnet of a car that turned across me at some lights.  I had the right of way,she was turning right.  I didn't see you she said, I am fairly large and had a yellow jacket on.  I did ask her when she was going to get her eyes tested and she had a large dent in her bonnet to sort out.  Fortunately I was unharmed. 

 

Jamie

I found cycling from Headingly in Leeds down to Gildersome each morning that wearing a black motorcycle jacket and steel toe capped work boots made me much easier to see, and also given a much greater clearance by passing vehicles. I don't recollect any cycle lanes at the time (1982) but I have forgotten a lot of things.

[Happy Hippo]

52 minutes ago, SM42 said:

At the roundabout near SM42 Towers, a lot of work went on to reduce congestion by installing traffic lights ( didn't work obviously)

 

Part of this project involved cycling provision. 

 

The last 100yds or so leading into the roundabout now have a cycle&  pedestrian path, turn left and it ends 20 yds later. 

The other side of the left turn is another shared use path that goes round the corner and then dumps thr cyclist onto the dual carriageway exit for about 400yds, where after a set of lights there is another shared path for left turners on the right hand side  

 

Going straight on you have to fight it out where the two lanes of the road become one. 

 

There is a cycle track on the right hand side but no provision to cross to it till you've passed to the far side of the traffic  lights. 

 

TGoing in the opposite direction that path again runs out at the roundabout should you wish to not turn left 

The path to the left ends after 200yds at a pedestrian crossing.

 

Meanwhile those who wish to catch one of the rare buses, have to walk the last 50 yards to the stop on the grass verge and stand in the mud, as extending the footpath was too hard. 

 

It really is a half hearted solution that could have been much better with some thought. 

 

Andy

This is what happens when you allow planners and designers to work from home with no requirement to attend site meetings!

[SM42]

Heavy snowfall is guaranteed across the country this week as I have just changed back onto my summer tyres. 

 

Andy

[skipepsi]

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

This is what happens when you allow planners and designers to work from home with no requirement to attend site meetings!

I think also linked to subsidy/incentive per metre of cycleway provided.

[Compound2632]

15 minutes ago, skipepsi said:

wearing a black motorcycle jacket and steel toe capped work boots [...] given a much greater clearance by passing vehicles.

 

No one wants to mess with a biker who has been reduced to a push-bike - knowing that he'd already be in a state of barely-suppressed frustration.

Edited April 15 by Compound2632

[Dave Hunt]

26 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

This is what happens when you allow planners and designers to work from home with no requirement to attend site meetings!

The chap across the road from Hunt Towers applied for planning permission to have a house built in his garden and to have an access driveway alongside. I had no problem with the house but the drive opened onto the road at the inside of the apex of a bend and I considered it dangerous, suggesting that a shared driveway would be safer. I went and stood where the proposed driveway would exit onto the road and timed how long it took from first seeing a car coming down the road to it being at the proposed exit point. The answer was two seconds compared with five seconds for the existing drive. I wrote to the planners with my findings and received a reply stating that the plan had been examined by the highways department and declared safe . Guess what happened within a few months of the house and drive being built?

 

Dave

[polybear]

11 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

The chap across the road from Hunt Towers applied for planning permission to have a house built in his garden and to have an access driveway alongside. I had no problem with the house but the drive opened onto the road at the inside of the apex of a bend and I considered it dangerous, suggesting that a shared driveway would be safer. I went and stood where the proposed driveway would exit onto the road and timed how long it took from first seeing a car coming down the road to it being at the proposed exit point. The answer was two seconds compared with five seconds for the existing drive. I wrote to the planners with my findings and received a reply stating that the plan had been examined by the highways department and declared safe . Guess what happened within a few months of the house and drive being built?

 

Dave

 

I'm guessing the Neighbour didn't go for the shared drive option because they are a potential PITA and cause of arguments - this can put buyers off.