Bernard Lamb

I went to London by train yesterday. On reaching Hemel coming home there was a long queue at the exit barrier. Very unusual for the barriers to be closed. There were five staff on duty and all tickets were checked. Quite a few people were stopped and questioned about their journey and in some cases were asked to buy the correct ticket. Now comes the punch line............................................ They were directed to go to the ticket office window to pay. Bernard

I am deadly seerious, Excuse the pun. You may have worked in the industry for over 35 years , but that does not mean that puting your trust in systems is correct. See the curent alarm about AI. I was brought up to always have a human back up. At least where the lives of others is concerned. I will own up to solo climbing, but that concerns my safety and not that of others. The plating reference is to there being two locks on a door to access where cyanide is kept. One person cannot open the door. Would you get rid of the safety man? An extreme case but it is how I was used to working for over 35 years in a manufacturing environment. I would describe your action as cavalier management. You are happy to leave the poor driver in the cab if he has a heart attack and wait for help to arrive rather than have help on hand? We wander. I have just bought a ticket on line to collect at the station. Just how does a person not used to the descriptions of various tickets know that to buy a travel card you ask the computer for certain Zones, rather than asking the person in the ticket office for London? Bernard

Working on power presses and in a chrome plating plant required the presence of a back up second man back in my day. While either might have some degree of danger for the operator driving a train involves a risk to far more people. Bernard

Most local stations have coffee shops, so unless they are closed and offered to the chains that won't happen. More likely handed over to Amazon or Vinted as collection points. A novel idea. A pacel service just like the railway had at one time.😃 Bernard

It depends on the date. Back in the early 1960s there was a move to close a great deal of the railway system and cut back on other forms of public transport. This resulted in a massive expansion of private car ownership. The government could of course have slowed this expansion by controlling costs. But as it involved the growth of manufacturing industries they decded not to. When a congestion charging scheme was proposed it was rapidly jumped on by the pro private car lobby. Private car ownership seems to have been very much a political move, led ny Marples and co, rather than a consumer led change. As for shops, large or small, we only had a converted bus twice a week in the early 1950s to provide groceries. The good old Coop. Bernard

Or a case of not wanting to live in what I consider to be an overcrowded slum. I would suggest that the New Towns of the late 1940s and early 1950s established the highest desirable density for housing. A country fit for heroes to live in, as some people called it. If wanting that standard for everybody makes me a Nimby, then I am proud to be called a Nimby. Bernard

1198 As true today as it was then. As the song goes;- When will they ever learn. Hansard of course only covers what is said in the chamber. If you read some of the committee deliberations you will really want to tear your hair out. Bernard

It's London North Western these days, and it no longer has a 1st option. At Euston there are barrier gates for what are the usual platforms for local services. Overground to Watford plus LNW for further north. Avanti use different platforms and have on board staff, so presumably uner the new system you could tap in with them on a hand held terminal that could cover the class options. With a general tap in you only need the terminal stations to have barriers. You tap in and it is in your interest to tap out at an open station to avoid paying the maximum fare. I do not see any major problems. Now that security staff are at many stations I do not see the ticket office staff being deployed in the public areas. That gives me far more cause for concern than the practicality of the technical issues. Bernard

Paddington. Go through an unmarked door and down some stairs and you reach an area unseen by the general public. I was taken down there to visit the archive of the Paddington Station Military Band. It's a long story.😃 Bernard A poster A general view The archive and store room The band in action

Signals? What's them? My local station managed without any.😃 Bernard

Quite so. But they are a lot esier to fit if there is 10mm sticking out to get a grip on when aligning. Having just recovered and fitted four used solenoids with cut down pins in a new location, I was very tempted to replace them with new as they took an age to fit. Of course the first just fell into place but after that I struggled. I favour using a cutting disk and do a second cut to level off the top. The drill is always on the bsebord for other jobs so laziness tends to make me use it rather than find a better cutter. Bernard

I suggest as a newcomer you just paint it mid grey and concentrate your energy on more important details. After you have placed a few scenic items in position, these will break up the bare area and from a normal viewing distance you will hardly notice the lack of texture. It should actually help to make the detail on the modeled items stand out. Bernard

Plus a fair number of other companies. I was involved in a four year fight to get PPF and FAS set up after I had my pension pot stolen, three weeks before I was due to retire at sixty when Dexion collapsed. I had a friend who did rather well out of the Maxwell episode. He worked for him in HR and lost his job when it all went wrong. However as one of the few people who knew how the system worked he was asked by the people tasked with sorting out the mess to join them. He found himself in a very secure job. Bernard

Paddy's Wigwam. The RC Cathedral by Frederick Gibberd. Bernard

That is what I do. Except that the other week all three machines were out of order. Luckily there was only a short queue at the ticket window and the woman there was able to input my number and manually issue my ticket. There is often a long queue for tickets for the first off peak train. Especially so at school holday times. I hope there will be an educational programme for these punters. Personally I would like to see all tickets abolished and contactless introduced. It seems to work well in the London area. Bernard

Alternatively, instead of making obtuse remarks about SWMBO's homeland, take a look at Farrow and Ball. They know a bit about paint and history. This is their No 80 saxon Green. Radioactive vomit indeed. Very droll. If I were painting a model myself I would look no further than the cover of the NER Record.😃 Bernard

Last Thursday on the southern part of the WCML. New trains blocking the exit from the sidings at Bletchley. 09.30 cancelled. The 09.34 turns up. A 4 car 319. Imagine what it was like at Watford Junction with this replacing 2 8 car 350 sets. A young boy to his mother. Look mum the train has opening windows. Bernard

Good morning Tony. My gut feeling is that the people who inhabit this thread are not the sort of people who buy things for silly money on ebay. Lower prices., or a change of marketing strategy might help. But neither of those would be desirable options. On balance you would probably make better use of your time and talent by sticking to what you know best - steam locomotives. Bernard

Straying? The OP was about the definition and relevance of an emotive term. By the very nature of the source it was going to be political with a small p. I thought we were rocking along and all was sweetness and light, even though people had very different experiences. I feel it is shame you feel the need to add that comment. Personally I have found all posts interesting and it has opened my eyes to some aspects of the modern world that are knew to me. Bernard

Just Hitler? The UK was lucky. My mother in law would say that she put up with, and saw the end of, The Kaiser, Hitler and Erich Honecker and his bosses in Moscow. None of them, or anything that could come after them, was going to change her way of life. Very much a case of two fingers up to the lot of them. Head down and carry on. Bernard

Thanks for the information. I wasn't aware that they had produced it. I better try and find one.😃 The updated list of class numbers was issued on August 15th 1969 after discussions lasting a year or so. See attached scan. An article that I have seen quotes that new plates were to be fitted at the locomotive's own depot between Jan 1st and May 31st 1970. Looking at dated photographs this time slot seems to have been very much adhered to. Some machines were not changed. A few Leipzig P8s that were due for withdrawall remained in service until April 1972 with the old numbers for example. There was a 24 that should have become a 37 but did not, but that was an oddity. Some narrow gauge machines received a painted version of the last digit. I have no idea how long this style lasted. Probably not long as quite a few lines closed around that time. Bernard

That seems to be faily common. SWMBO has to write to the German pension people annually with a declaration from her GP saying that she is still alive. Bernard

SWMBO had to visit the bank yesterday. She had had two card payments over the phone turned down so wanted to check the situatiom. She explained to the counter staff and was then taken into a private room with the manager, to speak on the phone to the head office. She did not have a driving license or passport with her, so they went through a long identification proces. When the man at head office asked for her NI number she was beaten. However the branch manager saved the day, by pointing out to the man at head office, that if he looked at her statement he would see a payment from the state pension people and this identified her by her NI number. Bernard

Quite right. If I need to grovel to get more money then I will grovel to an olympic standard. When I had a spot of bother in respect of finances I was given the chance to apply to a special hardship fund. When I asked about the conditions I was told to do a good sob story and was also told that I should not have any difficulty in doing that. I laid it on thick and received a very nice lump sum, tax free of course, much to the annoyance of Gordon Brown who was very much against me and others in the same situation (loss of pension) getting any extra. Bernard

Having packed up work 20 years ago in April I am now going through that experience. Front room and living room finished. But I have now been ordered to re-upholster the dining chairs.😃 Bernard