SOS Junction. If anything happens would someone wake me up please..

[Stubby47]

You went out to a wet garden, wearing slippers? And you blame the dog???

[Clive Mortimore]

You went out to a wet garden, wearing slippers? And you blame the dog???

Stu mate, please have a bit of sympathy for me, had I not got Gus in and his barking woke Mrs M. I would have had more than cold wet feet. I am now going to wade through the lagoon again, with me wellies on, to tuck the horses in for the night.

[Stubby47]

Excellent response, point about not waking herself well made, absolute sympathy.

Edited November 29, 2017 by Stubby47

[St Enodoc]

Once down Pengam yard, I think it was, Saturday afternoon, class 08 off, mr smartass is called out, and thinks “let’s drive her on” so, loose bits of wood, fishplates, try that, driver, forward a bit, right, reset, now then bit more, and it started to become clear that the loco was gaining height to railtop level, but as she did, it was rotating sideways more at right angles to the track. ######, lets call out the vans.

But it was still worth the try!

[Budgie]

But Cheddar Valley is from Thatchers, at Sandford, just down the road from Yatton going via Congresbury. It's only 6%, that's nearly water by cider standards. Incidentally tours of Myrtle Farm (including the cider plant) start from the Railway Inn in Sandford.

 

Far better to buy direct from one of the many farmers in the area that press their own. I can speak well of Broadoak Cider Company at Clutton. A little further east, on the route, pretty much of the S&D (see, there's another railway connection). I commend Moonshine (highly drinkable and pretty potent even if it tastes innocuous) and have yet to sample Old Bristolian.

 

I could list a very large number of rather nice juice of the apple from that area but I'd probably bore everyone or, more likely, get shown the door.

 

 

Broadoak is one of the ciders that doesn't 'agree with me', I think it's because they use the Kingston Black apple, the flavour of which I love

Instead of buying commercial cider, why not brew your own? I have all three types of apple tree in my garden (eating, cooking and drinking), and the drinking apples (Dabinett and Kingston Black) cropped very well this year. All I need now is a cider press.

[The Blue Streak]

I didn't like working with cranes - bloomin' great expensive time wasting things (especially when doing lifts of a derailed dmu at Subway Jcn during the evening peak).  But alas not everything could be handled by jacks or somewhat less than official D-I-Y rerailing using old fishplates, timber packing and - big luxury if you happened to have some handy - a few bits of steel plate (and no buffer-locked Oleo buffers, please).

 

Before I moved over to loco (if you cant beat 'em join 'em), I was often part of the crew that went out attend to derailments and other "mishaps". For minor offs, Jacks and Traversing beams were often the answer.

But not in this case -

 

 

I will embellish this story further later with some more pics if anyone is interested.

 

 But I'm off to work now I'm afraid, so it will have to wait until later

 

quick edit to say no one was seriously hurt in that above prang, by some miracle.

Edited November 30, 2017 by The Blue Streak

[Tim Dubya]

 

 

Instead of buying commercial cider, why not brew your own? I have all three types of apple tree in my garden (eating, cooking and drinking), and the drinking apples (Dabinett and Kingston Black) cropped very well this year. All I need now is a cider press.

 

The brother-outta-law's village get together and make cider every year. I usually get a couple of gallons for Xmas from him. Maybe club together with your neighbours and get a press between you?

Edited November 30, 2017 by Tim Dubya

[Siberian Snooper]

 

 

 

Instead of buying commercial cider, why not brew your own? I have all three types of apple tree in my garden (eating, cooking and drinking), and the drinking apples (Dabinett and Kingston Black) cropped very well this year. All I need now is a cider press.

 

I have seen one that uses a car jack a couple of bits of thick timber and a goal post made from some odd bits of channel iron.

[Northroader]

They always reckon the farmers shove a dead rat in the bottom of the barrel to help the fermentation process.

[The Blue Streak]

They always reckon the farmers shove a dead rat in the bottom of the barrel to help the fermentation process.

 

Back from work early - unexpected short shift

 

When I were a lad, We moved from Oz to Somerset for a couple of years. The house where We lived was part of a dairy farm and there were cider apple orchards there too. The Old boy who lived next door (who worked on the farm) used to brew his Scrumpy up in the barn out the back. I don't think the rats were put in there on purpose but if one fell in there and drowned then "that werrrrre allllright then. Neverrrr you moind about that".

 

I Never really had the urge to grab a sip as a young bloke after seeing the barn process. I did develop a taste for decent scrumpy later on, but like Phil I wasn't a fan of the commercial fizzy stuff, especially the super sweet ones.

Edited November 30, 2017 by The Blue Streak

[The Blue Streak]

 A couple more shots of the prang I showed earlier, one from the stills of the TV footage taken from a chopper.

 

 

 

The train hit a low loader semi trailer (Artic) at a road crossing at a place called Mooliabeenie. The leading bogie jumped the track and the loco continued on for some distance until it went over onto it's side and slid. The Trailing loco stood up on one end and before crashing back to Earth narrowly missing the lead loco.

 

One of the crew who I knew quite well, told Me he was just looking out the side window seeing grass rocks grass etc until he caught a glimpse of the rear unit on it's end about to fall on them, but when it missed He was more concerned about his Mate,  who was hanging onto the side of the cab (now the top) for dear life, falling on him as He was a biggish chap. When he finally did drop, He landed on the Vigilance button and had a perfect purple bruise the exact mirror image of said button on one of his ar$e cheeks.

 

 After the prang finally stopped and the dust had settled and the boys climbed out of a window, the truck driver, also unhurt ran over to proudly state that He had a Million Dollars worth of Insurance. At which point one of the train crew looked back at the wreck and said " That'll cover the first 10 percent of it Mate"  and then sat down for a smoke.

 

Ironically a manager chastised them a short time later, for not phoning the incident through to Train management immediately and relying on the police to pass it on when a member of the public rang them. To which the crew pointed at the pile of rubble and said "if you can find the phone in that lot Mate, You're a better man than I, now #### off".

 

One loco returned to service a year or so later, but never felt quite right afterwards. I believe the second one was so badly bent that it may have been a write off.

 

 

 

 

 

[bigwordsmith]

 A couple more shots of the prang I showed earlier, one from the stills of the TV footage taken from a chopper.

 

Fred 3.jpg

 

Fred 2.jpg

 

The train hit a low loader semi trailer (Artic) at a road crossing at a place called Mooliabeenie. The leading bogie jumped the track and the loco continued on for some distance until it went over onto it's side and slid. The Trailing loco stood up on one end and before crashing back to Earth narrowly missing the lead loco.

 

One of the crew who I knew quite well, told Me he was just looking out the side window seeing grass rocks grass etc until he caught a glimpse of the rear unit on it's end about to fall on them, but when it missed He was more concerned about his Mate,  who was hanging onto the side of the cab (now the top) for dear life, falling on him as He was a biggish chap. When he finally did drop, He landed on the Vigilance button and had a perfect purple bruise the exact mirror image of said button on one of his ar$e cheeks.

 

 After the prang finally stopped and the dust had settled and the boys climbed out of a window, the truck driver, also unhurt ran over to proudly state that He had a Million Dollars worth of Insurance. At which point one of the train crew looked back at the wreck and said " That'll cover the first 10 percent of it Mate"  and then sat down for a smoke.

 

Ironically a manager chastised them a short time later, for not phoning the incident through to Train management immediately and relying on the police to pass it on when a member of the public rang them. To which the crew pointed at the pile of rubble and said "if you can find the phone in that lot Mate, You're a better man than I, now #### off".

 

One loco returned to service a year or so later, but never felt quite right afterwards. I believe the second one was so badly bent that it may have been a write off.

 

 

You gotta love the Ozzies' deep sense of respect for authority!

[St Enodoc]

You gotta love the Ozzies' deep sense of respect for authority!

Don't forget that's why the First Fleeters came here in the first place!

[The Stationmaster]

You gotta love the Ozzies' deep sense of respect for authority!

 

On my first trip to that fair country I had to address a room full of fairly senior, and one or two very senior, managers regarding the work I was engaged in and how it might affect them or involve areas they managed.  I duly introduced myself and they introduced themselves immediately following which a comment came from somewhere down the table 'and we don't want any bl**dy poms coming over here to tell us how to run our railway'.  I bit my tongue and replied fairly gently and without rubbing too much salt in the wounds that 'if you hadn't made such a mess of it yourselves there'd be no need for any poms to come and sort you out would there?'.  

 

Right with credentials duly established by both sides it was down to business and an excellently productive meeting followed, after which the gentleman who had welcomed me with those fulsome words invited me for a chat in his office and we sorted some very important principles to sort out the way he was being sold a dummy in respect of availability requirements to which he - as the Traction Engineer - had not previously been given the chance to make any sort of input even though he was responsible for delivering them.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with Aussies who were indeed, notable for both plain speaking and showing respect where it was due or earned, even the Chief executive of the concern i was doing a project for wasn't too put out when I told him that he was one of their biggest problems when it came to producing a reliable timetable (he can't have been, he later authorised a further month's work for me!).

[Captain Kernow]

Have we moved on from talking about cranes now?

[Clive Mortimore]

Don't forget that's why the First Fleeters came here in the first place!

Never heard Botany Bay Cons called that before.

[Tim Dubya]

Have we moved on from talking about cranes now?

 

Is This a Heron, Egret or Crane?

 

[Mallard60022]

Is This a Heron, Egret or Crane?

 

Is This a Heron Egret or Crane.jpg

That's a Great White Eagret but is sometimes called a Great White Heron. In Europe it is probably called a Crane. There you go,

T.Witcher.

Never heard Botany Bay Cons called that before.

Perhaps because the Prison Hulks were moored in the Fleet?

Phil

[Andrew P]

Don't know if you've seen this?

[Clive Mortimore]

That's a Great White Eagret but is sometimes called a Great White Heron. In Europe it is probably called a Crane. There you go,

T.Witcher.

Perhaps because the Prison Hulks were moored in the Fleet?

Phil

Years ago I was working on a ward and we had a lady patient from New Zealand. well one day we had a nurse from Oz working with us, she half heard the Kiwi lady's accent and said in that brash but friendly Aussie way, "Gee its great to meet someone else from Oz". To which our patient muttered "I'm no Botany Bay Con". The coward in me beat a hasty retreat to the sluice before anything happened.

 

Anyhow, the Fleet isn't suitable for prison hulks.

Sunset over the Fleet in Slatfleetby.

 

Edit. There are sometimes Little Eagrets fishing in the Fleet.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Clive Mortimore

[Andrew P]

Sorry, I keep coming back and re watching it and can't stop chuckling.        

[Andrew P]

Years ago I was working on a ward and we had a lady patient from New Zealand. well one day we had a nurse from Oz working with us, she half heard the Kiwi lady's accent and said in that brash but friendly Aussie way, "Gee its great to meet someone else from Oz". To which our patient muttered "I'm no Botany Bay Con". The coward in me beat a hasty retreat to the sluice before anything happened.

 

Anyhow, the Fleet isn't suitable for prison hulks.

007.jpg

Sunset over the Fleet in Slatfleetby.

Is that the rest of Blighty I see before me?

[Mallard60022]

Years ago I was working on a ward and we had a lady patient from New Zealand. well one day we had a nurse from Oz working with us, she half heard the Kiwi lady's accent and said in that brash but friendly Aussie way, "Gee its great to meet someone else from Oz". To which our patient muttered "I'm no Botany Bay Con". The coward in me beat a hasty retreat to the sluice before anything happened.

 

Anyhow, the Fleet isn't suitable for prison hulks.

007.jpg

Sunset over the Fleet in Slatfleetby.

 

Edit. There are sometimes Little Eagrets fishing in the Fleet.

OK I found this and it explains things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Fleet

I learn something new every day.

P

[Mallard60022]

That ............

 

Sorry, I keep coming back and re watching it and can't stop chuckling.        

Mallard is completely bonkers   

[St Enodoc]

Is This a Heron, Egret or Crane?

 

Is This a Heron Egret or Crane.jpg

Yes.