Early Risers.

[tetsudofan]

Received my train tickets on Friday for Manchester on December 7th and have been told that the tickets for the Manchester Show (already paid for) will be distributed on the train. The train leaves Kings Cross at 08:15 and is due to arrive in Manchester at 13:12 via Rutland, Leicestershire and Derbyshire before crossing the Pennines via the Hope Valley Line. The original plan was to arrive and leave from Manchester Piccadilly but this has now been changed to Manchester Victoria (due to the non-availability of a full-length platform at Piccadilly at the required times) which means a longer walk (or tram ride) to get to the show venue. Departure from Manchester Victoria is timed for 17:35 arriving back at Kings Cross at 22:09.

 

DB is the TOC so be interesting to see what the motive power will be. Last trip up the east coast was behind a Cl.90 but that was all under the wires to Durham. Not sure if all the journey across to Manchester is under the wires.

 

Its going to be a long day leaving home on the 05:59 Highspeed to St. Pancras. Could catch the next Highspeed an hour later but that would be pushing it a bit just in case something happens enroute so taking the earlier train will give me plenty of time to relax and amble across the road to the Golden Arches for a coffee and muffin before heading to Kings Cross and a proper Great British Breakfast on the train as it makes its way north.

 

Should be a good day!!

 

Keith

[Stubby47]

On ‎23‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 22:30, Stubby47 said:

So having spent my lunch hour last Thursday trying 5 local hardware emporiums to find a replacement 550mm mitre saw blade, when we came to cut the first piece of laminate flooring it proved too wide to fit in the saw's frame...

 

So we used the jigsaw instead.

 

About 60% of the kitchen/dining room is done, so 40% to do plus the hall and downstairs toilet.

 

I took my long handsaw yesterday, so my 'fit bit' arm did the best part of 5k steps...

 

We moved the B&D Workmate out of the hall into the open porch, so the membrane & underlay could be laid. At about 5:30 I deemed it too dark to saw anything safely (the porch light is not working and is also on my list to fix).  No1.D & SiL will carry on to day, now they've got the hang of what to do.

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all,

 

Oh dear what an effin' day.  First of all the TH office was besieged by 'phone calls and it took me 15 minutes to get through - seems the world and his wife has latched onto my trick of getting in early.  And the b*gg*rs have also latched on to going for the middle week of the watch with the better captain - hence first choice week had been fully booked within 15 minutes of booking opening, grr.  The following week was also nearly full and only the wrong cabins left so I had to settle for the previous week which includes the last weekend in May, hope that doesn't clash with something else in mind around here.  The other middle week later in the season still had the right (yes, it is on the starboard side) cabin vacant so that was nice and straightforward.  

 

Then all set to leave for Brum and duly checked the times only to find the blinkin' train had been cancelled due to a shortage of donkey tenders Drivers so I decided to call off my trip and hopefully get some more positive news about arrangements etc for tomorrow's visit to another site of railway interest - my fingers remain crossed on that one.  Telephonic communication from Birmingham indicated that my stand-by plan had worked correctly in respect of those I was meant to meet there and i was able to draw attention to certain technical details that needed to be examined so total disaster was avoided.  However lookingon the bright side it also meant that I'd avoided being caught out in the rain.

 

Things definitely improved with the mushrooms and bacon on toast for lunch but Mrs Stationmaster is so enamoured of the way that I cook mushrooms she couldn't help but keep popping into the kitchen to pinch one off my plate.  DShe had of course turned down the offer of me doing some for her.   Next time I'll do more for me if she says she doesn't want any and she can then pinch them off my plate without harming my meal.

 

Good to hear that Beth is making progress and presumably that will enable Jamie to make a dash for freedom England with a clear conscience.  Not such good news about Mrs Gwiwer so I hope we'll soon be hearing something more positive in that respect from the hill of strawberries.  Have a good day everyone. 

 

 

 

[Ian Abel]

Monday moaning

 

Weekend was productive and enjoyable, for the most part!

On a personal basis;

Saturday set up the newly arrived bookshelf speakers, sound extremely good and will allow the den/family room to have both the big TV, stereo AND Alexa all run through them, so endless options. Had a great dinner and games evening with Trevor and Meagan.

Sunday  started adorning the exterior with seasonal lights, so far looks good

The bad news was one of my mass storage devices (hard drive) has started planning up and some items unretrievable, so off this AM to get a new NAS device as both backup AND replacement for what can be salvaged.

 

On the work front, as predicted, some issues with the stuff I deal with. BIGGER ISSUE, the VPN I use refused to allow me to get to the new server.

I was then duly informed the VPN I'm using was decommissioned in April (OK, so how the F!@$!@$!@$!@$ have I been using it successfully for the last 7 months ?!?!?) and I should be using a different one. Tried to use said "different one" and can't connect. So far since late Saturday no-one has bothered to respond to the email stating I'm up sh!t creek without the proverbial paddle as I can't even get the VPN to work.

I expect they'll eventually decide to help me out, given;

i) I can't do sh!t unless I can connect

ii) I know things aren't working

iii) They're still PAYING US for me to sit here and stare out onto my back yard watching the birds and squirrels

 

Once again, I refer readers to my favourite - "poor planning on their part does NOT constitute an emergency on my part!"

 

Enjoy the day, I know I am so far

 

[81C]

Afternoon All

 

Got an odd email from the slapped #rse "my phone and text don't work" , do I care nope.

 

As she is here tomorrow I went round and rustled up all the plastic shoe boxes I keep rolling stock in that she had removed from the man cave I tipped what was in them into a

cardboard box taped it up and placed it neatly in her pile.

 

The move date should be announced this week subject to a roof repair at the flat the bloke arranging it is dragging his #rse, he has a boot up his so things are moving.

Don't you love days like this I wished I'd have stayed in bed.

Welland Truli-Peedoff 

[PeterBB]

17 hours ago, Kingzance said:

kinky boots

Just reminded me - seen in a Walsall car 'showroom' some time ago - a pink car with the registration plate K1NKY

[Happy Hippo]

29 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Just reminded me - seen in a Walsall car 'showroom' some time ago - a pink car with the registration plate K1NKY

I'm still in the vain hope that H1 PPO will one day turn up.

 

It will, probably on the day that my toes turn up for the last time.

 

 

[Andrew P]

56 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Just reminded me - seen in a Walsall car 'showroom' some time ago - a pink car with the registration plate K1NKY

NOPE,  Just checked, it ain't mine Peter.

[Andrew P]

5 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I'm still in the vain hope that H1 PPO will one day turn up.

 

It will, probably on the day that my toes turn up for the last time.

 

 

You want H4PPY

[AndyID]

11 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I'm still in the vain hope that H1 PPO will one day turn up.

 

It will, probably on the day that my toes turn up for the last time.

 

 

 

You can buy it for $21 here.

 

https://www.accessidaho.org/secure/itd/personalized/plates.html?ScriptForm.startstep=request

[Stubby47]

14 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I'm still in the vain hope that H1 PPO will one day turn up.

 

It will, probably on the day that my toes turn up for the last time.

 

 

 

Currently on a grey merc.

[AndyID]

I used to see a Lotus with UPU 2

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I missed a lot more at Warley than I thought going by the vids that have been posted on the relevent thread. All is not lost however, I just Googled Youtube Warley 2019 and theres a couple of dozen to choose from. I must have avoided the cameras though but my friends young lad can be seen in one shot watching a layout.

18 hours ago, AndyID said:

I used to see a Lotus with UPU 2

It was originally on a Land Rover.

Edited November 26, 2019 by PhilJ W
Fat finger syndrome.

[AndyID]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

It was origially on a Land Rover.

 

Not so different from a Lotus then

[Coombe Barton]

There was the Lotus(?) featured on That's Life - and I saw it later - OBO110X

[leopardml2341]

A guy who used to run the company I worked for in the mid '90s had a Ferrari something or other with the registration EGO 130X with some 'illegal' spacing between the 1&3  (EGO BOX).

 

Never got all that stuff miself, I just have what's given to me.

Edited November 25, 2019 by leopardml2341
Effin' predictive text.

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.

 

I have never been one to go in for personalised number plates but did once or twice enquire as to the availability and cost of GWIWER whilst in Australia.  In the State of Victoria one may have any six-character combination not already in use, not considered offensive and not on a reserved list which includes those series available only to military, government, emergency service vehicles and buses / coaches.  

 

GWIWER was not available.  GW1WER was.  I never found out who had GWIWER but someone has used it as an email address in the past as it wan't available to me without some form of modification.  I suffixed it with a number though now own the domain gwiwer.com giving me all sorts of options.

 

Tradespersons were quite happy to let you know their profession or calling.  SPARKY, PLMBER, PLUMMA, BILDER and variants were quite common.  DRIVER was once seen not on a taxi (which have their own reserved series) but on a Metro railways employee's vehicle.  Tram drivers, commonly called trammies, had variations on TRAMMY, TRAM1E and so on for their private cars.  The police even joined in until someone in an expensive suit decreed they should revert to their government reserved series.  COPCAR, FASTA1 (faster one), GOTCHA and BEHAVE were all seen on highway patrol cars.  "Booze buses", the large vans used for random breath / drug testing, retain their series starting BBUS01.

 

And in other news what a waste of energy today has been.  A "training course" which turned out to be more of a "This is the latest idea from Head Office and this is what we expect from you".  Get ready for a subtle change in my employer's brand colours (again?  they haven't got anywhere near rolling out the last version yet) and a new strap line to be launched soon.  

 

I sat in a room with two other station staff and various rolling stock engineers who had no idea why they were there.  The reason and expectations were never discussed, the learning outcome was unclear and we left wondering what the point of the exercise was, exactly.  

 

It's back to the House of Fun tomorrow.  I'd rather be at the coal face.

 

For now it's off to the kitchen in search of sacrifice.  See you later.  

[TheSignalEngineer]

6 hours ago, tetsudofan said:

The original plan was to arrive and leave from Manchester Piccadilly but this has now been changed to Manchester Victoria (due to the non-availability of a full-length platform at Piccadilly at the required times) which means a longer walk (or tram ride) to get to the show venue.

There is a free bus between Victoria and Piccadilly but it is usually quicker to walk due to traffic. On some trams you would need to get off at Piccadilly Gardens and walk from there.

Trains from the north east to the airport also run from Victoria to Oxford Road and Piccadilly via the Ordsall Chord twice per hour.

[Ozexpatriate]

This morning I am seeing a third AdChoices advertising panel. I respect the need for RMweb to seek advertising revenue and accept panels at the top and bottom of each page but to now see a third panel after the first topic on a topic list page or the first post in a topic thread page is too much.

 

I thought this had settled down and posted a reply to a relevant topic here. 

 

And none of them were for tall ladies boots.

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by Ozexpatriate

[tigerburnie]

I used to go fishing in West Bay in Dorset in the mid/late 1970's, there was an E type with the plate FU2, the lass that drove it was something to do with a top shelf lads mag.

[BoD]

3 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

A guy who used to run the company I worked for in the mid '90s had a Ferrari something or other with the registration EGO 130X with some 'illegal' spacing between the 1&3  (EGO BOX).

 

Never got all that stuff miself, I just have what's given to me.

 

If you really want a personalised number plate it’s cheaper just to change your name by deed poll.

 

Yours

 

ND15 RTL

[newbryford]

Plates

I used to see OXO1 on a frequent basis in the Accrington area on my commute at that time. It used to be on a battered transit that was staff transport for food company that was part of the same group that produces cubes of the same name.

 

Best one I ever saw was A113 ERT, with a change of spacing and one black bolt head was very recognisable as ALBERT.

 

Warley show stand has been set up, worked and taken down. We had an exceedingly efficient break down routine and were waiting for the van to arrive from the parking area. 10 minutes later - we're on the road.

Apologies for not making contact with many ERs. It was a bit daft busy on our stand. ChrisF was noted having a snooze.............

 

I did manage to sneak out before the show opened on Saturday to make a purchase of a sound fitted loco with a prancing horse logo on the side at a very good price.

Later on Sunday, I found a few minutes to purchase the parts necessary to extend the storage yard on my layout.

 

Home via the M6 and Sunday evening meal courtesy of Colonel Sanders.

 

Sore feet - knackered. Slept well.

 

10 days of work down, 4 to go. 

Feet are recovering slowly, but now my knees ache. Slightly less knackered.

 

Have a good Tuesday folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by newbryford

[jamie92208]

Evening all from  Ouisterham as we set sail for Pompey.  The first part of the escape plan has worked well.  As to conscience,  it has often been alleged that I don't possess one.  You might very well  think that but I couldn't possibly comment.  A very nice glass of The Mcallan is beside me and being consumed.  All being well I will be holding young Emily in about 15 hours time. Beth will be very jealous.

2 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

I used to go fishing in West Bay in Dorset in the mid/late 1970's, there was an E type with the plate FU2, the lass that drove it was something to do with a top shelf lads mag.

 

As to personalized plates. We had a venal and greedy police surgeon when I worked in Bradford. He went to extraordinary lengths to maximise his income. One night he turned up in a Ferrari with a cherished plate. I casually suggested to him that the number ought to be FIN 47 which was the Dr's expenses claim form. He had a sense of humour failure. The night staff thought it was hilarious.

 

Bon nuit 

 

Jamie

Edited November 25, 2019 by jamie92208

[Gwiwer]

G'night all.

 

Or for those in need Good Nytol.

[tigerburnie]

Evening all, a proper dreich day up here, SWMBO announced get those scruffy trousers off I'm taking you out for lunch. I drove because she doesn't, had a nice enough lunch which then left me standing at the till on my own when the bill needed paying. I'm glad she took me out for lunch...…………………………..I won't be falling for that one again...………………..