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pH

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Everything posted by pH

  1. Growing up in the west of Scotland, my first sight of an “unrebuilt” Bulleid light pacific through Axminster on a holiday in August 1963 was notable (not to say vaguely disturbing! 😳)
  2. Visions of the Royal Norfolk Mounted Roofers! (Sorry - it’s been a rather long day.)
  3. If the Overground is extended to Wimbledon (where the Underground already reaches) there’s a ready-made name for that line! https://youtu.be/XWQMMPFtoG4?feature=shared
  4. About 35 years ago, we had a “live” Christmas tree in a tub, which we planted in the back yard after the holidays. It is now over 50 feet tall. We’re in a corner of a hill, sheltered from prevailing winds, but it’s really at the stage where we should get it down. If it fell, depending on direction, it could possibly reach our house or the one next door.
  5. Some pickups around Vancouver have gun racks in the back of the cab - to store the much-needed large umbrellas.
  6. I remember the garden railway on the front lawn of one of the houses in one version of the layout.
  7. I never use those. I do sometimes use the paddle shifters, and I would not like to get them confused. Once, when we changed cars, the new one had the indicator stalk and the washer/wiper stalk on the opposite sides of the column from the old car. Even after some weeks of driving the new car, I could still sometimes signal my intention to turn by squirting water on the windscreen.
  8. That type of brake usually has a quick release somewhere - mechanical toggle under the dash in the car I had. Put the car in gear, rev gently so the brake is holding the car back, toggle the brake off - away you go.
  9. Interesting that this discussion is now taking place on page 1746.
  10. Maybe not in the UK, but there were coaling towers over mainlines, allowing èn route recoaling, in the US: https://www.railpictures.net/photo/683154/ https://www.railpictures.net/photo/844477/ And it wasn’t unknown for engines having to be recoaled èn route in the UK. Just for example, David L. Smith tells of G&SWR ‘279’ class 0-6-0s in original condition (“Pumpers”) working Glasgow to Carlisle having to take a couple of tubs of coal at Dumfries shed. And a Corkerhill crew working through to Leeds with a compound in 1930 had a difficult trip and needed to take coal at Hellifield.
  11. That photo is in “Locomotives Illustrated #54 - LNWR 4-4-0s”. There’s also another broadside one of #7 “Titan” standing outside Brighton Station.
  12. You need one of these: https://youtu.be/qelpcgVvrzA?feature=shared Connor McDavid plays hockey for the Edmonton Oilers. Chicago is over 1600 miles from Edmonton.
  13. It is many, many years since I last had a hangover in Scotland!
  14. That did not apply to Scotland. There was definitely a service run on Christmas Day in the mid-1960s. I’ve seen statements that there was, at least, a local Christmas Day service around Glasgow until 1974. About Standard 5s - they could certainly do 85. I had a trip behind one of Polmadie’s allocation, just out from its final works visit in summer 1965. (All times and distances rounded off) - it managed Paisley Gilmour Street to Port Glasgow (13 miles) in 13 minutes start-to-stop, taking 6 minutes out of the schedule. Rough speeds were 85 plus before Bishopton, reduced to about 80 through the tunnels, then back up to around 85 again between Langbank and Woodhall. (Edit to explain - there had been delays on the Joint Line between Glasgow Central and Paisley, so the departure from Gilmour Street was 6 minutes late, and the arrival in Port Glasgow was on time.)
  15. More general than short lines: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Track-Planning-Realistic-Operation-Railroader/dp/0890242275/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2XT3MNXMAOFRK&keywords=track+planning+realistic+operation&qid=1707165081&sprefix=track+planning+realistic+operation%2Caps%2C412&sr=8-1 (“Track Planning for Realistic Operations” by John Armstrong)
  16. Dublin-brewed Guinness has been available in Britain, though not widely. My uncle and aunt owned a pub in Ayr up until the early 1970s. They got their draught Guinness from Dublin (by choice). And based on my own taste experience, and that of a work colleague, in the late 1960s at least, the bar in Manchester Central station served draught “Dublin-brewed” Guinness.
  17. I went through to Edinburgh on several international rugby days, but I only ever went to one game!
  18. If he decides to stay, and you call him by his middle name, will he be “Blue by you”?
  19. It’s called ‘face time’. I know a Brit in the oil industry who moved to work in that industry in the US. He was accused of not pulling his weight based on the time (the required hours) he was visible in the office. He replied that the person accusing him should look at the amount and quality of the work he was accomplishing, compared with what was being done by people spending 50% more time in the office. Nothing more was ever said about it.
  20. Happens in many organizations. Unless you’re lucky and manage to stay in a specialized technical hierarchy, most people top out in their technical area and, if they want promotion, have to move out into supervisory/management positions, as you describe.
  21. So, once you’ve sorted out all the complete kits, can we expect multiple future posts in the “Show us your Pugbashes, Nellieboshes, Desmondifications, Jintysteins” topic, using up the spare bits?
  22. As they say - sh1t flows downhill!
  23. I once worked in a part of the UK civil service where the organizational structure was very pyramidal. There was a tradition(?) or directive (?) that people being promoted were moved out of the section in which they were working. That made some sense, as it meant that they would not be supervising people with whom they had been working on the same level - there would be less chance of any resentment causing problems. However, this could be used, and was used, to move awkward/incompetent employees onwards. I knew of one person who managed to be promoted 4 grades in this structure in this way. (He did have to have promotions confirmed in interviews, but he was very proficient in BS, so that was no problem.) As an aside, he once applied for a job in a different organization. By pure coincidence, the person who interviewed him was a good friend of mine. My friend couldn’t understand how the interviewee had risen to the level he had in his current organization till I explained the mechanism involved.
  24. Class 17s would be easier - they self-immolate.
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