Early Risers.

[roundhouse]

One company I worked for had a fire in the site accommodation in central London just under the tower crane. Luckily I wasn't Involved with that project at the time but had been there some time before hand. Whole area closed as they weren't sure if the fire had damaged the tower crane

Edited April 16, 2016 by roundhouse

[JohnDMJ]

Ian - (RH) - I am intrigued that the Gosport poster shows that Queen Victoria's funeral train went to Waterloo. If so, why would it have had to reverse at Fareham, and then be hauled by the LBSCR? Obviously twaddle, as it went to Victoria - where else would you direct such a train?

 

If the train had needed to reverse at Fareham to get to London, then the Portsmouth Direct would not have been completed.

 

Interweb suggests that Portsmouth Direct was completed in October 1876, some 15 years before Victoria died.

[roundhouse]

Sitting g in a fantastic looking pub surrounded by modern awfulness. Pub was really busy but suddenly it's emptied

I know I didn't fart

[roundhouse]

Oh there is some one else left in here. The bar maid has just said to the other person aboutanother bloke won't marry his other half as he understands women too well!!

 

Oddly my other half might well agree with that.

[roundhouse]

Waiting at Portsmouth Harbour. Guess which retrain is late in . We should have left on the Southern service by now.

 

However my biggest gripe is that whilst people are getting off the train, everyone near me barges on. I had a moan at them but they must just think I am a weirdo.

Mind you listening to a few of them sitting near me, they might just have one brain cell between them.

V

I do feel sorry for the guard on our Southern service on the way in this morning. The bloke in the scooter he had been helping was having a go at him for going on strike. When the guard said its because he is losing his job the bloke in the scooter basically said he didn't care.

 

Edit. Problems at East Croydon messing up Southern services as uusual

Edited April 16, 2016 by roundhouse

[Barry O]

haway the Lads!!

 

 

tried to do some modelling today but frustrated by my incompetence! Four thumbs and one finger per hand.

 

 

Baz

[NGT6 1315]

However my biggest gripe is that whilst people are getting off the train, everyone near me barges on. I had a moan at them but they must just think I am a weirdo.

 

 

I do sometimes make an announcement to waiting passengers asking them to use all doors, but OTOH, I am often left with an impression that any kind of public transport facility seems to have a cerebral attenuation function.

 

Wouldn't doing the thinking for passengers take customer service just a wee bit far? Just wondering…

[newbryford]

The remaining collapses occur when golf playing, model railway enthusiasts are underneath.

That makes at least two of us a likely target....

 

Cheers

Mick

[Andrew P]

Morning all, well still not a word from Jock or his family either by PM or E-Mail, so I can report no more than I did on the 1st April when he said in the Voicemail that he was back in Hospital.

 

I'm going away for a week as from today, so I wont be able to post on here, or check any PM's but if I get an E-Mail I will ring someone so they can do a post here.

 

All the best Guys and Gals.

Hi all, Contrary to the Post above, I have got Wi Fi in this Holiday Bungalow next to the Crich Tramway Entrance, (FANTASTIC views) so can keep in touch, read and Post.

[andyram]

A nice part of the world Andy, you have not had to travel far to get there. Enjoy the break, hope you get to enjoy the trams.

[Andrew P]

A nice part of the world Andy, you have not had to travel far to get there. Enjoy the break, hope you get to enjoy the trams.

Thanks Andy, I'm not a Tram person, nothing against them, but just can't get excited by them so at £12 for an Old Codger like me, its a lot for little reward, although I could be well wrong. Its the Jenson Owners Day there tomorrow so there are some Road Closures around I believe according to the Web site.

 

Need to be back for 13.30 anyway to watch the Chinese Grand Prix.

[edcayton]

Sitting g in a fantastic looking pub surrounded by modern awfulness. Pub was really busy but suddenly it's emptied

I know I didn't fart

 

If you put a model of that on a layout people wouldn't believe it.

 

Ed

[JohnDMJ]

Afternoon all!

 

I do sometimes make an announcement to waiting passengers asking them to use all doors, but OTOH, I am often left with an impression that any kind of public transport facility seems to have a cerebral attenuation function.

 

Wouldn't doing the thinking for passengers take customer service just a wee bit far? Just wondering…

 

I find it amazing the number of 'terminally hard of thinking' passengers want to press the door button from the outside when they can see people inside waiting to get off. In this case, the old class 313 is my friend as I can just lean on the button and the door opens when the driver releases them! Catches most of them out.

 

Waiting at Portsmouth Harbour. Guess which retrain is late in . We should have left on the Southern service by now.

However my biggest gripe is that whilst people are getting off the train, everyone near me barges on. I had a moan at them but they must just think I am a weirdo.
Mind you listening to a few of them sitting near me, they might just have one brain cell between them.
V
I do feel sorry for the guard on our Southern service on the way in this morning. The bloke in the scooter he had been helping was having a go at him for going on strike. When the guard said its because he is losing his job the bloke in the scooter basically said he didn't care.

Edit. Problems at East Croydon messing up Southern services as uusual

 

So how's the bloke in the scooter going to get on and off in the future when the train and station staff have lost their jobs? Maybe then he might give a thought?

 

Looking at the number of pubs you've checked into, I was wondering how you were wandering around! Quite a coverage!

 

I must admit that Southern Failways have an excellent cover-up mechanism built into their automated announcements:

 

The service to (insert any destination) is being delayed due to a  at (insert any intermediate station name).

 

No, this is not a typo, they far too often fail to program the automatic excuse generator to provide any sort of reason! (Either that or they'll think you won't believe them anyway, so why bother!)

Edited April 16, 2016 by JohnDMJ

[roundhouse]

Afternoon all!

 

 

 

I find it amazing the number of 'terminally hard of thinking' passengers want to press the door button from the outside when they can see people inside waiting to get off. In this case, the old class 313 is my friend as I can just lean on the button and the door opens when the driver releases them! Catches most of them out.

 

 

 

So how's the bloke in the scooter going to get on and off in the future when the train and station staff have lost their jobs? Maybe then he might give a thought?

 

Looking at the number of pubs you've checked into, I was wondering how you were wandering around! Quite a coverage!

 

I must admit that Southern Failways have an excellent cover-up mechanism built into their automated announcements:

 

The service to (insert any destination) is being delayed due to a at (insert any intermediate station name).

 

No, this is not a typo, they far too often fail to program the automatic excuse generator to provide any sort of reason! (Either that or they'll think you won't believe them anyway, so why bother!)

I don't have a pint in every pub (just a couple - no only joking). Quite often it's just a half. Half the interest is just visiting such wonderful places before they dissappear for good.

 

I have to admit that a lot of the TOCs problems are either signal failures ore people acting like lemmings which the TOC has limited influence over ( most being a political influence which we shouldnt talk about on here) but the one thing they do is how they treat their staff and timetable set up which does appear to be abysmal and the ones that I know who work for them keeps very quiet or defends them which you Can't blame them to enable them keep their job.

 

Even SWT and GWR seem to have improved a lot over our incumbent TOC which used to be very good but no doubt their franchise set up by Daft has a lot to do with the current problems, along with the whole of the Thameslink redevelopment which to me seems a complete disaster in the making. They can't run the current service through the central core let alone the proposed huge increase in frequency through this central core once the fly overs and redevelopment at LBG iare completed.

Edited April 17, 2016 by roundhouse

[The Stationmaster]

I don't have a pint in every pub (just a couple - no only joking). Quite often it's just a half. Half the interest is just visiting such wonderful places before they dissappear for good.

 

I have to admit that a lot of the TOCs problems are either signal failures ore people acting like lemmings which the TOC has limited influence over ( most being a political influence which we shouldnt talk about on here) but the one thing they do is how they treat their staff and timetable set up which does appear to be abysmal and the ones that I know who work for them keeps very quiet or defends them which you Can't blame them to enable them keep their job.

 

Even SWT and GWR seem to have improved a lot over our incumbent TOC which used to be very good but no doubt their franchise set up by Daft has a lot to do with the current problems, along with the whole of the Thameslink redevelopment which to me seems a complete disaster in the making. They can't run the current service through the central core let

Alone the proposed huge increase in frequency through this central core once fly overs and redevelopment at LBG is completed

 

Going back nearly 20 years I was involved in 'future thinking' on trainplans which had to take account of the timetable plans for Thameslink 2000.  What they (and we) were looking at then was in the light of commercial knowledge and business forecasts of the day.  If you skid Thameslink 2000 by 20 years, which is effectively what is going on - albeit with a few changes what you get when it is implemented will be 20 years out of date on the day it opens in terms of meeting traffic levels and so on.  The fault lies with the politicos and Civil Service turning investment off (and sometimes turning it on) and expecting that what was intended for yesterday will do tomorrow's job.

 

A similar situation will occur on Crossrail where things have been altered in a way which seriously consumes line capacity between Old Oak Common and Airport Jcn/West Drayton in way which was never envisaged in the original scheme of 20 years ago (in which I was also indirectly involved) with minimal additional infrastructure enhancement provided to cater for substantial increases in train numbers and frequency over the early 1990s trainplan.

[New Haven Neil]

Back.

 

Mrs NHN diagnosed with a fatty lump, not thought to be anything sinister, but it's got to come out, it's on the side of her hip so day surgery, hopefully.

 

Old bike feeling slightly better, found a duff advance and retard unit with a spring that had gone all flobber-dobber, timing miles out, tight exhaust tappets....and it's still not right.  Better, but not right.  Going to leave it in the back of the garage in disgust for while and use another one, that'll teach it.

 

Lovely sunny evening and it's still bloody freezing, there was snow on the mountain today, and the air feels like it.   There is a real wintery feel, but it looks spring like.  Odd.  The visibility is superb, Scotland looks close enough to kayak over in an hour, but it's 32 miles.

[NGT6 1315]

The fault lies with the politicos and Civil Service turning investment off (and sometimes turning it on) and expecting that what was intended for yesterday will do tomorrow's job.

Doesn't sound too unfamiliar to me, too. It does, of course, get even worse when there is myopic NIMBYism involved as well – which I'd like to emphasise I see as a distinctly different thing to reasoned and well-founded objections based on demonstrable facts, bringing forth which can, of course, be of value to actually improving a project and raising public acceptance for it.

[Happy Hippo]

http://www.handmadecharlotte.com/healthy-hungry-hippo-soup-recipe/

 

 

Hungry Hippo Rolls | Handmade Charlotte

www.handmadecharlotte.com

Soup will never be the same once you learn how to make super fun Hungry Hippo Rolls!

 

 

This is not a picture of me and the PH at rest today!

 

Much as we tried, we had to unload a trailer full of wood (New raised vegetable beds).

 

All the electrical conduits from the car (For the workshop).

 

Check off all the large scale loco project components.

 

Act as Commissionaires for the Horton Hussars (Two very nice young ladies who keep horses opposite the Muddy Hollow (Forward)).  We help them with the gates and mounting up.

 

Then the Obergrumpenfuhrer came home.

 

Fortunately we'd remembered to put the Dyson into the entrance hallway ensuring it was plugged in.

 

PH went out, I cooked tea.

 

All is bliss and harmony.

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Went into Tesco's today, they must have had a new lot of paperbacks in including one of my favourite authors latest novel. So I'm off to have a good read so goodnight all.

[southern42]

Awoke to an inch of snow everywhere (outside).

Was forecast but didn't seem likely.

 

We had planned to take the Polly to West Shore for its first outing of the season but a look out the window at the weather made us question the wisdom of doing so.  Thinking that if we left the loco at home we would have a glorious sunny afternoon, we decided to take it, anyway.  So, all ready to light up and...disaster...we had forgotten the electric blower...a phone call to a friend and an early lunch in the clubhouse whilst waiting for said friend to arrive with his blower and it wasn't long before steam was up and we were ready to run.

 

But blow me, after a 6 month break from driving, I was a bit wobbly on what to do, so it was a very cosy 5 laps with Ray, tucked up behind me on the drivers truck, reminding what to do! 

 

Knitted hats and winter clothing were the preferred attire down on the track and, despite the cold, we had a good turnout of passengers in the afternoon sun keeping club members busy running 'Tudno' the club electric loco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was left to a few daffs to remind us of warmer days ahead.

The inner track is making headway with cement base now completed and block wall under construction.

 

A good day.

[laurenceb]

Night all

[southern42]

Morning all,

 

Rick has clearly not been past West Drayton station in recent months or he would have noticed the footbridge now being erected - a whopping great thing as seems to be the case with most of the new ones going in on the GWML.  Details about various stations and what is happening to them can be found here - just click on the relevant station name.  BTW some of what is happening is nonsensical - at Maidenhead some very flimsy looking and very high new platform canopies have been erected and observed during rain they seem to be about as effective as a chocolate teapot while at Tilehurst the traditional GWR canopy edges have simply (and probably not cheaply) been setback by about 9 inches.

 

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/route/western-section/hayes-harlington-station

 

In the meanwhile the sour note is that I have found the damage the dumbcluck brainless a*sefaced cockwomble driving a Wickes lorry did to my car in Marlborough yesterday although fortunately the point of connection was the rubbing strip on the offside rear door and it isn't too noticeable from most angles.  Clearly I won't get anything towards repairs from that bunch of money grubbers but I might be able to leave it unless it shows up once the car has had a clean. and if I ever see one of their lorries in some handy location I'll repay the compliment - WD40 on the windscreen ought to do the trick.

 

But on a much brighter note a parcel - yet to be opened but seemingly well wrapped - has arrived this morning from an RMweb member in North Wales although I know the content has a DCC chip in place but hopefully it will run on old fashioned electrickery without surgery.

 

Have a good day one & all

 

PS Parcel - very well wrapped parcel - briefly checked and the 4-6-0 contained therein can be considered to have arrived safely, not yet played with tested.

 

I've been rather reluctant to comment but all I see is overgrown bus shelters...greenhouse sun traps in summer... 

 

But thanks for posting link (I book marked Southall a while back, but didn't think to check out H&H).

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[petethemole]

Nothing on TV, finished modelling, cat's got the best bit of the sofa, I'm going to read in bed, goodnight all.

 

Pete

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone. Sheila is now the proud owner of a new pair of trainers, and she is a happy bunny, as she will no longer be little slipping around on the church hall floor now whilst doing her Zumba routines.

 

We decided to have something different for our Indian meal tonight, having decided to have a chicken sali, and very nice it was too. A really nice mix of vegetables and chicken, followed as usual by some more red wine.

 

There was nowt on TV so we watched a couple of films instead.

 

Goodnight all.