SM42

In the operating department 12 hours rest could be reduced to 8 at weekends whilst changing turns. The double back off Sunday night to Monday lates was still being rostered in 2000. It was done away with around then by a roster change but some were still not happy about working nights into a rest day, but didn't want to double back either. Not sure what they expected to do as they were mutually exclusive. Andy

Today has dawned wet and chilly. The rain rains, but it has occasional white lumps in it. Final bit of shopping today before the quart into a pint pot routine commences again. Andy

I think Shed Aid will receive another boost when HH has another stock take. It seems he may have a tree stump and a hole going spare at the moment. The organising committee is also currently in discussion with HMRC about how to import a piece of France. There is some confusion as to what biometric clearance may be required for such an item . Export / import of pieces of country were not envisaged under the terms of the UK's withdrawal from the EU and hence there is some toing and froing going on about exactly what paperwork is needed. All of this of course will create a delay but it is important to get hhe details right, otherwise there will be the inevitable complaints in the modelling press and we'll all wonder why we even bothered. Andy

There was by all accounts a pub in the West Midlands that often had a phone call along the lines of: " Is the signalman there? " " tell him there's a train coming" Andy

The locals were probably well aware of what was going to happen. Andy

Mrs SM42 wondered why not at 4am. Hence the old saying that one job begats another. I normally find it takes 2 hours of prep, 10 minutes to do the job and 1 to 3 weeks to sort out the mess. Andy

Third party insurance is the minimum required for road vehicles. All self road traffic losses are covered by the company bank account, but there is still a 3rd party insurance policy in place to cover all external parties as required by the law. We once had freezer cover included as standard on our house policy. £80 was the excess. There was only about £30 worth in there and it was full. Back to the stories that I have been entertained with. A former signalman colleague once told of the day, whilst shunting a freightliner terminal, of getting a wagon down the bank and the container thereon depositing its contents about. In this case it was cans of Breakers. The load was written off by its owners and there it lay abandoned Every night shift thereafter the shunter would disappear down the bank in the early hours and reappear with two well loaded carrier bags, the contents of which were then consumed in the signalbox. The now empty cans, thrown out of the window onto the bank behind the box. He regularly went home off nights quite sozzled. Their nocturnal activity was eventually noticed by the management and they were called in and told to clear up the pile of empties as it was starting to look unprofessional. Andy

This is one of those situations where that O level trigonometry you never thought worth learning comes into its own All you need is to be able to get to the bottom of the pole, a tape measure how far away from it you are standing and a home made device to measure the angle ( a protractor with a plumber line) between the horizontal and a line form your position to the top of the pole and maybe an assistant to read off the angle You can then use the tan function on a calculator to work out the height. Andy

You could offer the site as a location for the next controlled detonation of some long lost WW2 ordnance for a small fee. That should move it and you could get paid for it too. Perhaps you could make a spare hollow from the crator Andy

Lech ran out winners 1-0 on aggregate. YAY! The pitch was very greasy though It's not often you see a player sliding upright on both feet when trying to stop. Even the ref nearly went over and he wasn't doing much. Andy

Of course when you venture into a large European city in late February the thing you most expect to see is A Christmas market. Andy

I suspect not, but under the cableway is quite clean It's around the quarry end that everything is white from quarry dust drawn out by lorries. Its isa little like it is around the peak district quarries but seems to spread further out here. I know someone who had such surgery and her life was transformed from one of constant pain to being pain free. The BSI hand could be defined as there is BSI person. Who knows when designing a handle, the standard size of a hand could come into play. Part B I suspect is not covered in the standard, but you never know there may be a BSI woman too. As you can tell we are back from town. The model shop was a cheap visit as they had sold out of what I was looking for. Maybe not such a bad thing after all. A very nice and quite large dinner was enjoyed with two beers each, all for less than £26. The city is full of Norwegians as Lech Poznan are playing a Norwegian team this evening. Rain has set in but luckily we dodged between the showers twixt restaurant, tram, bus and home. When it was raining we were inside so we couldn't have timed it better. Andy

Today is breakfast at the in laws followed by a day in town. This will mean Mrs SM42 spending hours in C&A. ( they're still going out here) Luckily there is a model shop not too far away and the cake shop is across the road. Dinner will then follow at a place that does traditional Polish food, just off the bomb site that is the old Market place. ( currently all dug up for drainage works that are due to last till autumn) It's going to be a long day, but a good one. The weather is a crisp, sunny winter's day. Hopefully it stays that way. Till later Andy

A bit of internet searching has revealed the ropeway is in fact the only one in Poland and links a limestone quarry with a soda ash works 7 km away. It seems limestone and salt are needed to make soda ash and now it has all become clear. Andy

I have been perusing satellite maps trying to work out what the ropeway I saw earlier was carrying. It starts from near a big hole in the ground which happens to be behind the Lafarge cement works. It ends at a salt works. If it was salt (it was very white) at least one train load of rather large lumps in open wagons was seen on the railway that runs from the cement works / quarry leaving the area. ( another train I just missed) I'm also pretty sure the white dust everywhere was not salt related purely due to the vegetation still growing under and through it. More enquiries needed methinks Andy

Custom and practice. Work is an implied term. It has always been expected and accepted that work is done to some extent or other and thus it is implied in the contract. Such things kept us free work place parking when they threatened to remove it as a cost cutting exercise. It wasn't in the contract, but had been going on for so long it was a given and thus an unwritten term. Andy

It never ceases to amaze me how many companies think an employment contract only has one contracting party; them. They often forget the other party in the contract might have something to say about any changes. Andy

I did try that on a trainee during an NX panel course I was a fellow student and was assisting the instructor in the control room by playing various parts on the phone. He set up a SPAD during a propelling shunt move. They spotted it and did the right thing. I then came on the phone as the driver with some story about the shunter controlling the propelling move being distracted by chatting to a nice young lady on the platform and as we had only slipped past by a couple of wagons, couldn't we just square the job up. No one would know and I really didn't need the hassle. I did my best to get out of it but to no avail. The crowning moment was when the guy on the panel ( and someone I worked with daily) looked round and mouthed " you ***sterd through the glass to the control room. That was it. Our instructor, who had been gently bouncing from stifled laughter just couldn't hold it in any longer. End of simulation and lunch declared early. Andy

Had a good day our on my travels today. One thing I didn't expect to find was this It appears to be delivering what appeared to be limestone from what appeared to be a Lafarge cement works to another works that it was hard to tell what it did. There was mention of aggregates distribution at the gate though. Train wise it was one of those frustrating days when you just miss something as you arrive. Once I'd found a likely spot, I decided to try the nearby footbridge to see if it was a better option. On arriving on the bridge an oil train arrived and the loco stopped next to where I had just been and then proceeded to run round. Grrrr! Luckily it then shunted its train under the bridge so all was not lost All in all a pleasant sunny day watching trains and mooching about various railway locations. I did get quite close to the Lafarge works so the car looks like it's been fingerprinted. Everything was white, even the grass Andy

Many years ago, I spent a couple of weeks on Jersey with thd family. Getting around by bus was very easy with the local bus company providing a hop one hop off circular route around the towns and tourist sites for a very reasonable daily fee. The contract for bus services had not long been put out to tender by the government and Arriva were awarded the contract over the local company, effectively taking over the staff as well as the routes. As a farewell bonus and a welcome for Arriva, the outgoing boss doubled everyone's wages. Andy

Not even the joys of TUPE? Andy

It's never a good sign when the driver asks " er, what time is your flight" I got that somewhere round Kettering en route to Stansted. We made it in reasonable time, but a fellow traveller in our party who made his own way was last on the plane. He walked in and the door was closed behind him. We were on our way to a wedding. Mine. Andy

Ahh I see it now It's all about string theory and thus above my pay grade. Andy

Indeed one I was told by a former now departed colleague, was as a young secondman, being handed the controls of the loaded oil train whilst the driver took a break in the secondman's seat. Approaching the outskirts of Birmingham running under cautionary aspects and full of bravado and knowing better than more experienced crew, he put the brake in only for the wheels to pick up. The red aspect loomed ahead, with the reason for it crossing their path. As the signal got nearer he wished that other train clear of the junction whilst he did all he could to regain control of his train. As it seemed almost enivtable that he would pass the signal, the other train cleared and the signal came off. His driver, looked up from the newspaper he had been reading and said " you won't do that again, will you? " How much of this is true? Who knows? All of it is plausible, even down to the rather unphased old hand. I've certainly met a few in my time who didn't stress about anything. Andy

I am one hour ahead of the UK. Fortunately everyone has gone home now. It is a school night after all. 303 Bitwa o Anglie ( or Hurricane as it is known in the UK) is on the TV. How odd that I mentioned that particular squadron a couple of pages back. Andy