Peterborough North

[Oldddudders]

After having a Smartphone for several years - actually several of them sequentially - I am a bit better than I was. Sherry noted recently when we were together that I no longer use a stylus for composing WhatsApp messages, but my forefinger, with a fairly good success rate. At 71 my eyesight is not great, of course, but last year's exam found little deterioration over the previous two years, so no new prescription. But because I am home most of the time, I seldom need to use my phone for very much else, having various other devices with proper keyboards. The other day Sherry and I found our daily one-hour landline call wasn't working, so we WhatsApped using the iPhones, and it was quite successful, if a mite uncomfortable. Being over the wifi Internet, it was also free. That is an issue some might want to consider if they pay for calls - we may all be making more rather than fewer, so a Voice Over Internet Protocol app like WhatsApp could save some money. 

 

If I travel I take an iPad - fitted with a cheap keyboard to simplify things like posting on here when on a train, for example. OTOH, I have no wish to do what the younger techies enjoy, using my iPhone to run my DCC layout. Throttles with rotating knobs only, please.  

[great northern]

15 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I inherited an all dancing and singing phone from my eldest. It is useless, I too find the keyboard far far too small and with my dyslexia problem I find texting hard enough. No matter how often I tell my family ring me on my landline, "cos we 'ave no signal" I still get when I call them "Didn't you get my text?"

 

As for old gititis, you are not alone. I have retired I only want to learn what I want to not having to embrace the latest gadget. I still cannot turn on the new (three or four years old) telly. You have to first turn on the thing with the remote, and make sure you have it set to receive a signal from the black box under it, then you turn that on. Both remotes have buttons for the channels, can I find BBC1 to watch Dr Who? And which one turns up the volume. An on/off switch, four buttons for the channels and a twiddly knob for the volume worked wonderfully...technology for the sake of it.   As for the fing and jeffing Mrs M does when the remote's batteries go dead........ 

OK, I will now give a lot of people a laugh. I have never sent or received a text. What's more, there are 25 words in italics, and on eight of them I hit the key to the left or right of the one I needed.

 

I am beginning to wonder though if a lot of problems occur because I rush things. I slowed right down to type this bit, and hit no wrong keys at all. I'm finding that a lot of things like this are coming into my mind now. I have all the time in the world really, but I still hurry to get things done. I also remembered a question my father asked me when I took the family to visit nearly fifty years ago. It was something like this. "Gilbert, when you get somewhere, why do you always almost immediately want to be somewhere else?"  Worth thinking about.

[CUTLER2579]

I consider that I have now progressed to be something of an expert on Smart phones. For example if my phone isn't ringing when people call me ,I know there is a good chance I have moved (accidentally) the slider located on the top left hand corner when looking at the screen 

 Mind you I still haven't mastered turning the damn thing On or Off. for example if I forget to charge it up and the battery goes flat I am struggling. It took me 8 weeks to find out how to answer it. Son said it's the white button,which I pressed. No --it didn't work. After 8 weeks someone suggested sliding it. Smart arsed little 8 year old 

The biggest problem and your not going to believe this --- i couldn't find the Instruction Book and whats worst I still haven't.

In another ground breaking piece of help,my Son altered the settings on both my Sony DSLR Camera (and now I can't use it). he also improved my Photographic program on the computer so that it will download Full Frame pictures ???

I though mine were full frame,there are no spaces ???

So when I went to look at some photographs we had downloaded together,some won't open. He is no help because he went off home and they live near Liverpool.

Being a wrinkly old git of 73 has it's benefits,I am still alive,I think as I woke up this morning.I no longer have to rise at some ungodly hour of the day to go to work,I have a more or less guaranteed income that pays the bills.

Health, best not mentioned,I believe my body will go to medical science when I expire ,for them to find out how I survived so long.

I trust our comrade Peter has not got Sepsis,fingers crossed for him.

Keep safe Guys and Girls

Del Boy 

[tom shaw]

Gilbert,

A possible solution to your phone keyboard problem !

 

 

[bigwordsmith]

So first the good news, it’s not Sepsis, however it is pneumonia. They’re treating me with the kind of drugs that come with a health warning- to those that handle them- and are only available in hospital!

 

so I’m feeling almost my old self. Unfortunately the pain killers they gave me to help the rupture in my lung cavity, caused by the coughing from the pneumonia, have given me constipation!

 

they tried Senna which has had little  appreciable effect, and the ward sister  told me this morning if I’ve not been by the Six o’clock news, they’ll try something else . I’ve seen too many carry on films not to be just a rad hesitant about that!

 

re phones, I’ve had one since 1986, but drew a line under changing it five years ago. However Apple keeps updating the software which defeats the idea of sticking with what you know! 
 

I regularly find myself asking  Google ‘How do you...’ (and I’m supposed to be a Geek) 

 

The stylus is a really good idea. I’ve just spent a very frustrating 20 minutes trying to get SWMBO to find something on my laptop, and suggested that idea to her when she complained that it takes her three times as long to write anything with all the corrections 

 

sadly the exercise failed because the blinking app froze. This of course upset SWMBO who was worried I’d say it was her fault!

 

i told her it’s what computers do, to which she replied ‘well that’s pretty useless if they keep falling over. As an apple user computer hangs are a novel experience!

 

i don’t know about androids, but you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to iPhones and iPads. I do this if I’m minuting a meeting and the accuracy is massively better

 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by bigwordsmith

[thegreenhowards]

1 hour ago, bigwordsmith said:

So first the good news, it’s not Sepsis, however it is pneumonia. They’re treating me with the kind of drugs that come with a health warning- to those that handle them- and are only available in hospital!

 

so I’m feeling almost my old self. Unfortunately the pain killers they gave me to help the rupture in my lung cavity, caused by the coughing from the pneumonia, have given me constipation!

 

they tried Senna which has had little  appreciable effect, and the ward sister  told me this morning if I’ve not been by the Six o’clock news, they’ll try something else . I’ve seen too many carry on films not to be just a rad hesitant about that!

 

re phones, I’ve had one since 1986, but drew a line under changing it five years ago. However Apple keeps updating the software which defeats the idea of sticking with what you know! 
 

I regularly find myself asking  Google ‘How do you...’ (and I’m supposed to be a Geek) 

 

The stylus is a really good idea. I’ve just spent a very frustrating 20 minutes trying to get SWMBO to find something on my laptop, and suggested that idea to her when she complained that it takes her three times as long to write anything with all the corrections 

 

sadly the exercise failed because the blinking app froze. This of course upset SWMBO who was worried I’d say it was her fault!

 

i told her it’s what computers do, to which she replied ‘well that’s pretty useless if they keep falling over. As an apple user computer hangs are a novel experience!

 

i don’t know about androids, but you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to iPhones and iPads. I do this if I’m minuting a meeting and the accuracy is massively better

 

 

Peter,

 

All the best for as speedy a recovery as is possible.

 

Just thought I’d show my iPad with keyboard.

 

This is an excellent solution as the keyboard doubles up as the case and stand. I can take photos on my iPhone. They transfer almost instant doubly to my iPad without me doing anything. Then I can use the photos via the keyboard to put updates on RMWeb. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

 

Andy

 

 

[jazzer]

5 hours ago, great northern said:

 

Thank you gentlemen. I agree this site is now a very valuable resource. I'll keep posting the photos, and in return my request would be that we use this thread as a chat room. That will really help me to control my anxiety. It doesn't have to be railway related, but I suspect a lot of us have memories of the days of steam which we could share with others, and which would be of interest to all.

 

I may be asking some very basic questions about how to use a mobile phone as well!

 

I for one am happy to use it as a Railway related chat room. So many of the photos have made me realise there are many things I thought I knew about the steam era but didn’t know. One of them is the way A3’s seem to have been used almost interchangeably with A4’s on front line expresses. I knew that was more or less the case after the fitting of kylchap exhausts but not in their single chimney condition . Are all the trains you run strictly as per prototype or has a bit of A3 favoutism crept in ? 

As an aside ( and perhaps a point for discussion) it always struck me as odd that the A3’s, with a 7P power rating were used almost interchangeably with 8P rated A4’s , yet the 7P rated Britannia’s , when they were displaced from the GE section were consigned to Immingham and only used (as far as I am aware) on the KX - Cleethorpes route , pretty much keeping to. the old B1 timings .  Was this some kind of prejudice because they weren’t of the Gresley family, or were they seen as inferior to the A3’s despite the same 7P rating and almost identical tractive effort.

[landscapes]

1 hour ago, bigwordsmith said:

So first the good news, it’s not Sepsis, however it is pneumonia. They’re treating me with the kind of drugs that come with a health warning- to those that handle them- and are only available in hospital!

 

so I’m feeling almost my old self. Unfortunately the pain killers they gave me to help the rupture in my lung cavity, caused by the coughing from the pneumonia, have given me constipation!

 

they tried Senna which has had little  appreciable effect, and the ward sister  told me this morning if I’ve not been by the Six o’clock news, they’ll try something else . I’ve seen too many carry on films not to be just a rad hesitant about that!

 

re phones, I’ve had one since 1986, but drew a line under changing it five years ago. However Apple keeps updating the software which defeats the idea of sticking with what you know! 
 

I regularly find myself asking  Google ‘How do you...’ (and I’m supposed to be a Geek) 

 

The stylus is a really good idea. I’ve just spent a very frustrating 20 minutes trying to get SWMBO to find something on my laptop, and suggested that idea to her when she complained that it takes her three times as long to write anything with all the corrections 

 

sadly the exercise failed because the blinking app froze. This of course upset SWMBO who was worried I’d say it was her fault!

 

i told her it’s what computers do, to which she replied ‘well that’s pretty useless if they keep falling over. As an apple user computer hangs are a novel experience!

 

i don’t know about androids, but you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to iPhones and iPads. I do this if I’m minuting a meeting and the accuracy is massively better

 

 

Hi Peter

 

Stay safe and get well very soon.

 

Regards

 

David

[great northern]

37 minutes ago, jazzer said:

 

I for one am happy to use it as a Railway related chat room. So many of the photos have made me realise there are many things I thought I knew about the steam era but didn’t know. One of them is the way A3’s seem to have been used almost interchangeably with A4’s on front line expresses. I knew that was more or less the case after the fitting of kylchap exhausts but not in their single chimney condition . Are all the trains you run strictly as per prototype or has a bit of A3 favoutism crept in ? 

As an aside ( and perhaps a point for discussion) it always struck me as odd that the A3’s, with a 7P power rating were used almost interchangeably with 8P rated A4’s , yet the 7P rated Britannia’s , when they were displaced from the GE section were consigned to Immingham and only used (as far as I am aware) on the KX - Cleethorpes route , pretty much keeping to. the old B1 timings .  Was this some kind of prejudice because they weren’t of the Gresley family, or were they seen as inferior to the A3’s despite the same 7P rating and almost identical tractive effort.

I look at it this way. Grantham shed played a large part in the services between KX and there, and 34F had only A3s by this time, plus an occasional A2/3 for a short time. All of their A3s would be seen a lot, and I certainly saw them very often. 34A did use them regularly, even the single chimney ones, so again they are seen. I've said before that I should probably use more A1s, but that doesn't mean A3s appear too often. I do try to keep single chimney engines off the top and most heavy expresses, though there is a case for saying the nine car Talisman, for example, would be a relatively easy job for an engine in good nick. I hate to say this , but it is A4s that probably appear too much.

 

As to the Britannias, by 1960 there were so many EE 4s available that most of the KX stud had few booked duties, so more Pacifics really weren't needed on the ECML itself.

[jazzer]

10 minutes ago, great northern said:

I look at it this way. Grantham shed played a large part in the services between KX and there, and 34F had only A3s by this time, plus an occasional A2/3 for a short time. All of their A3s would be seen a lot, and I certainly saw them very often. 34A did use them regularly, even the single chimney ones, so again they are seen. I've said before that I should probably use more A1s, but that doesn't mean A3s appear too often. I do try to keep single chimney engines off the top and most heavy expresses, though there is a case for saying the nine car Talisman, for example, would be a relatively easy job for an engine in good nick. I hate to say this , but it is A4s that probably appear too much.

 

As to the Britannias, by 1960 there were so many EE 4s available that most of the KX stud had few booked duties, so more Pacifics really weren't needed on the ECML itself.

 

Strangely enough, I can remember EE4’s at Liverpool St, I can remember Brush 2’s, Brush,4’s, Deltics and those  class 26/27 things that went to Scotland , at KX but I can’t remember EE4’s there ever, not even in the blue era.

Incidentally, since you mention the Talisman,  did the EE 4’s ever work it ? I thought it was pretty much the preserve of the A4’s with odd. exceptions until the Deltics arrived.  As I said , this thread is teaching me a lot of things I though I knew but didn’t !

[Tony Wright]

12 minutes ago, great northern said:

I look at it this way. Grantham shed played a large part in the services between KX and there, and 34F had only A3s by this time, plus an occasional A2/3 for a short time. All of their A3s would be seen a lot, and I certainly saw them very often. 34A did use them regularly, even the single chimney ones, so again they are seen. I've said before that I should probably use more A1s, but that doesn't mean A3s appear too often. I do try to keep single chimney engines off the top and most heavy expresses, though there is a case for saying the nine car Talisman, for example, would be a relatively easy job for an engine in good nick. I hate to say this , but it is A4s that probably appear too much.

 

As to the Britannias, by 1960 there were so many EE 4s available that most of the KX stud had few booked duties, so more Pacifics really weren't needed on the ECML itself.

My recollections (and they're crumbling!) as a 'spotter at Retford from 1956-1962 (after '62 I became a 'railway enthusiast') is that, after all the A3s were fitted with double pots they were used indiscriminately as top-link locos, alongside the A1s and the A4s. 

 

Unfortunately, my mother chucked away my trainspotter's scribbled-in notebooks after I went away to teacher training college, assuming I'd grown up (some hope!), so my recollections are anecdotal. Most of the stoppers at Retford (which would be mainly Leeds trains) were in the hands of A1s. Some of the fastest trains were entrusted to the A3s (indeed, in a week's spotting in 1960, MERRY HAMPTON was on the Down 'Talisman' every day I saw it). 

 

One tatty piece of evidence still survives (scribbled in one of my rotting Ian Allan abcs), from a late-summer's evening in 1958, and the main line breakdown (over two hours in the order seen) is this..... 60821, 60820, 60006, 60853, 60144, 60504, 90003, 92172, 60141, 60018,, 60845, 60046 and (a brand new) D207.  I've not listed locos using the GC (which included several light-engine 2-8-0s heading back to shed). 

 

Two A4s, two A1s, a single A2/2 and just one A3. Mostly V2s (apart from an Austerity and a 9F), but the balance might well have been different earlier in the day. If this is typical, then the long-awaited Bachmann new one will be in great demand! 

[Oldddudders]

3 hours ago, bigwordsmith said:

So first the good news, it’s not Sepsis, however it is pneumonia.

I survived pneumonia 20 years ago. With the right meds it will happen. You are getting all the care that can be offered. Hang in there, please, Peter. 

[TrevorP1]

5 hours ago, great northern said:

I also remembered a question my father asked me when I took the family to visit nearly fifty years ago. It was something like this. "Gilbert, when you get somewhere, why do you always almost immediately want to be somewhere else?"  Worth thinking about.

 

That strikes a chord Gilbert. I'm very happy at home but it always gives me pleasure to be on the move, doing something, making something happen, going somewhere. I can still hear my poor Mother "Trevor John!" (That's what she called me when there was point to be made) "Give your brain a rest!" or "you've got ants in your pants!"

 

Anyway, when I read your post I thought of this: Wandrin' Star

 

 

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, jazzer said:

 

Strangely enough, I can remember EE4’s at Liverpool St, I can remember Brush 2’s, Brush,4’s, Deltics and those  class 26/27 things that went to Scotland , at KX but I can’t remember EE4’s there ever, not even in the blue era.

Incidentally, since you mention the Talisman,  did the EE 4’s ever work it ? I thought it was pretty much the preserve of the A4’s with odd. exceptions until the Deltics arrived.  As I said , this thread is teaching me a lot of things I though I knew but didn’t !

Hi Jazzer

 

Type 4s did get to Kings Cross. The nose of one would appear through then middle tunnel, pen would be shaking as I was so excited. Coming from Bedford the only place we saw them without long distance travel was the GNR line. Then disappointed, very disappointed as it would be D252 AGAIN.....there was even a photo of it in one edition of the combines circa 1970 at Kings Cross, just to rub the salt in the wound.   

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, bigwordsmith said:

they tried Senna which has had little  appreciable effect, and the ward sister  told me this morning if I’ve not been by the Six o’clock news, they’ll try something else . I’ve seen too many carry on films not to be just a rad hesitant about that!

Just keep watching the news. That's enough to give anybody the sh1ts at the moment.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

I can still hear my poor Mother "Trevor John!" (That's what she called me when there was point to be made)

Oh yes. Whenever my mum called me John Willie I knew there was trouble ahead...

[3rd Rail Exile]

42 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Oh yes. Whenever my mum called me John Willie I knew there was trouble ahead...

Similarly, "James Aloysius White" was a warning that I'd done something serious - my middle given names are actually "Charles Peter".  However, I was luckier than my brother, whose given names are "Richard William Peter", or as he puts it "Dick Willie Peter..."

[great northern]

3 hours ago, jazzer said:

 

Strangely enough, I can remember EE4’s at Liverpool St, I can remember Brush 2’s, Brush,4’s, Deltics and those  class 26/27 things that went to Scotland , at KX but I can’t remember EE4’s there ever, not even in the blue era.

Incidentally, since you mention the Talisman,  did the EE 4’s ever work it ? I thought it was pretty much the preserve of the A4’s with odd. exceptions until the Deltics arrived.  As I said , this thread is teaching me a lot of things I though I knew but didn’t !

Plenty about by 1960, I'm afraid. Down south it was just the original five, D201/6/7/8/9, but they appeared a lot. Gateshead York and Haymarket got a batch starting from D237 though, and they seemed to be around a lot as well.

[great northern]

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

My recollections (and they're crumbling!) as a 'spotter at Retford from 1956-1962 (after '62 I became a 'railway enthusiast') is that, after all the A3s were fitted with double pots they were used indiscriminately as top-link locos, alongside the A1s and the A4s. 

 

Unfortunately, my mother chucked away my trainspotter's scribbled-in notebooks after I went away to teacher training college, assuming I'd grown up (some hope!), so my recollections are anecdotal. Most of the stoppers at Retford (which would be mainly Leeds trains) were in the hands of A1s. Some of the fastest trains were entrusted to the A3s (indeed, in a week's spotting in 1960, MERRY HAMPTON was on the Down 'Talisman' every day I saw it). 

 

One tatty piece of evidence still survives (scribbled in one of my rotting Ian Allan abcs), from a late-summer's evening in 1958, and the main line breakdown (over two hours in the order seen) is this..... 60821, 60820, 60006, 60853, 60144, 60504, 90003, 92172, 60141, 60018,, 60845, 60046 and (a brand new) D207.  I've not listed locos using the GC (which included several light-engine 2-8-0s heading back to shed). 

 

Two A4s, two A1s, a single A2/2 and just one A3. Mostly V2s (apart from an Austerity and a 9F), but the balance might well have been different earlier in the day. If this is typical, then the long-awaited Bachmann new one will be in great demand! 

 More V2s as the evening progressed Tony, in my experience. Not so many in the daytime apart from Saturdays and Bank Holidays, when they seemed to be on every other train.

[great northern]

3 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

 

That strikes a chord Gilbert. I'm very happy at home but it always gives me pleasure to be on the move, doing something, making something happen, going somewhere. I can still hear my poor Mother "Trevor John!" (That's what she called me when there was point to be made) "Give your brain a rest!" or "you've got ants in your pants!"

 

Anyway, when I read your post I thought of this: Wandrin' Star

 

 

When I hear that all I can think of is him and the horse asleep against a wall.

[great northern]

Centenary is now waiting patiently to carry on to London.

 

 

A lot of light is needed to get the far background as crisp as this. However, we can get rid of that if necessary.

 

 

or get even closer.

 

 

That's not such a good idea though, as it hasn't been Timmed yet.

[jukebox]

A suggestion, Gilbert?

 

Some of your shots might benefit from cropping to a wider format than 4:3.

 

That first one above, for instance, takes on more oomph (at least I think that's the technical term) if you letterbox it:

 

 

Of course this sort of thing is totally subjective.  One mans' meat, another man's poison and all that...

 

Regards

 

Scott

 

edit:  I wonder if it may have something to do with the "rule of thirds" coming into play.  With the sky and rails cropped, the horizontal "thirds lines" touch the train rather than the sky and rails, and the eye runs along the train to the station...  Important disclosure: I don't always believe in that rule.

 

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by jukebox

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Gilbert

 

I have some Hornby Railroad coaches that need converting to something. Would you like, for your Cleethorpes train one of them there RKB with only 4 seats?

 

[manna]

20 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Gilbert

 

I have some Hornby Railroad coaches that need converting to something. Would you like, for your Cleethorpes train one of them there RKB with only 4 seats?

 

 

G'day Folks

 

Are you taking 'Order's'...........

 

manna

[bigwordsmith]

11 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I survived pneumonia 20 years ago. With the right meds it will happen. You are getting all the care that can be offered. Hang in there, please, Peter. 

thanks Ian

 

Ive had it once before and now have a long term interstitial lung disease which means I run out of gas quite easily

 

it turns out I tore the lung pleura and the lung itself, rupturing an artery along the way. This wound is quite sore, and feels like I’ve been knifed when I cough.

 

I’m feeling  a whole lot better but shattered from lousy nights in hospital and desperate to get home