johnlambert

15 hours ago, Revolution Ben said:

 

Nice pic.  Is it pulling a CCT?

 

Incidentally, I've always been intrigued by photos of DMUs with mixed up liveries - either a combination of green/blue cars or, as in this image, a mix of blue/grey and plain blue. 

 

Nowadays diesel and electric units tend to run in fixed formation and are, largely, permanently coupled.  Were the various Class 120 vehicles swapped around between units?  Or did they just paint them piecemeal?

 

cheers

 

Ben

 

 

I think first generation DMU vehicles were treated a lot like locos and individual carriages, with maintenance schedules for each individual vehicle. And sets were assembled as required from whatever was available to try and meet the needs of the diagrammed services. As things got older and more decrepit the DMUs might not even be the same class within a two, three (or more) car set. Because the couplings, brakes and (where fitted) gangways were standard; there were no computers to say "no".

3 hours ago, melmerby said:

Indeed, a short distance away:

Off topic, but you've answered a question that's been bugging me for years. About 40 years ago, when I was around 7, my family visited some relatives in Harrogate. I remember, one day my dad and uncle took me to see a steam train that was passing through Harrogate (I can't remember what it was, but it might have been a LMS Pacific). However, we also caught a train for a day out. That was a DMU of some sort (1st gen slam-door as I recall), which departed from a different station that I recalled as having a level crossing at one end. Looking at the map view, I think it must have been Starbeck. Although I have no idea where we went...

The A46 as it bypasses Alcester is a wide, single carriageway road, with two marked lanes but easily enough space for three lanes of traffic. It works quite well when used sensibly but is trouble when you either get people who both think they're entitled to use the "middle lane"  or people who miss overtaking cars when pulling out of side roads. 

On 10/11/2023 at 16:51, Wheatley said:

Barnsley, 1990s, Mrs Richards out of Fawlty Towers approaches the window:

 

"I want to go to Scotland"

"Certainly madam, whereabouts  ?"

"Scotland"

"But where in Scotland madam"

"The railway station of course"

"Which station madam ? There are several"

"The main one"

"Glasgow or Edinburgh ?"

"Yes"

"Which ?"

"Which ever of those is in Scotland"

 

(Changes tack, colleague is ringing the hospital to see if they've mislaid anyone)

 

"Can I ask why you're going to Scotland madam?"

"None of your damn  business young man !"

"If I know why you're going I can sell you the right ticket"

"I'm going to see my sister although I don't see why that's any of your concern"

"And where does your sister live ?"

"Scotland."

"OK. Do you have your sister's phone number?"

"Of course"

"May I have it? So I can sell you the right ticket ?"

"Well I've never heard such nonsense" (reluctantly scribbles number down).

 

I rang the sister, who was somewhat  surprised but said her sister was  definitely 'a character' and could we sell her an open return to Pitlochry please. I did, and arranged disabled assistance at all the changes. I bet no-one's ever sent a TVM a box of biscuits and a thank you card. 

At least she wasn't complaining about the view from the train window.

On 10/11/2023 at 19:26, Michael Hodgson said:

"Can I have a return ticket please"

"Where to ?"

"Back here of course"

 

The old ones are the best 😁

I did once have a moment of brain failure with an automated ticket machine at Coventry station. This was about 23 years ago, if not a bit more. The machine started by asking if you wanted a single or return, then asked for your destination. Because I was thinking (or not) that I wanted to return to Coventry after my trip, I couldn't understand why the machine wouldn't accept this as an option. Eventually I twigged that I needed to choose where I was going (probably either London or Birmingham). So, it's not a new problem or limited to old people.

11 hours ago, Chris116 said:

The reason tills are put at the back of stores is because it means sell customers have to walk through the whole store and therefore according to the sales experts are more likely to make impulse purchases. Trouble is it makes shop lifting easier without security near the doors. If the tills are near the doors then the staff on the tills do the security job so the question has to be asked if security costs more than the extra impulse sales.

I guess it means that business analysts can have endless fun (I use the term loosely) calculating whether the revenue from impulse purchases will outweigh the money lost through shoplifting.

As for ticket machines and offices, I'm quite pragmatic. If there's a queue at the machine, I'll use the window if it's staffed. If there's a queue at the window and not at the machine I'll use that. I do the same in supermarkets with the checkouts (and I think there's a place in hell reserved for those who clog up the self-checkout area with their trolley). I had a minor moment of confusion at Gravesend station last Saturday. I was travelling to London, the ticket office was closed. I had no problem selecting the ticket I needed, but I was slightly thrown by the fact that the thing that I thought was the debit card reader wasn't in fact that card reader. I figured it out eventually.

On 24/04/2023 at 00:23, jpendle said:

Times change.

 

How many members of this forum who are under 60 have ever had to double de-clutch?

As I understood the article, it is the restored GWR stock that's the issue not so much the slam door stock.

 

There's no point ridiculing people who have never seen stuff before.

 

Regards,

 

John P

I'm under 60 and reasonably proficient at double declutching, but I probably spend more time driving 60+ year old cars than the average person.

On 24/04/2023 at 07:45, 009 micro modeller said:

Yes, I thought it might be a bit more specific. From memory the ones on modern slam door stock will simply slam shut, and even if not pushed all the way it’s very difficult to actually leave them in an unsafe position.

 

Presumably (even on heritage railways now) any doors that could originally be opened from the inside have now had the handles for this removed (given the incidents on the national network related to these)?

No, I was on the Bluebell Railway about four weeks ago and the LSWR Lavatory Brake 3rd had inside opening (but latching) doors. That said, the internal door release looked like ones seen on slam-door DMU and EMU stock, but I remember commenting to my mum (who was travelling with me) that the design of the catches made it very difficult to accidentally open the door.

We also travelled in one of the LCDR four-wheel (or, possibly, six-wheel) carriages, where there was no internal door catch. I think my mum (who could remember steam trains from her childhood, and visiting the Bluebell Railway when I was a child, but who uses heritage railways less often than I do), struggled more with the old-fashioned droplights. So it's probably as much a matter of how often you have to use these things as any innate lack of common sense.

Both vehicles were on the M25. Despite the motorway's reputation, speeds were well above 30mph.

I definitely think some people forget that they can turn on the lights themselves. I've made that mistake in vehicles where the dashboard is always illuminated. But leaving an area with street lights would usually jog my memory.

On Friday I took a long-distance journey after dark, the first I've done for several months. Most of the driving didn't warrant comment, but one Range Rover Evoque stood out (or didn't) because they were completely unlit from behind. As I passed them, I noticed that they were running on their daytime running lights. I was impressed at how bright these seemed. On a lit motorway they probably didn't need headlamps. However, I don't know what they must have thought once onto unlit sections. I did flash them quickly with my main beams before I passed them, to see if that would wake them up, but it didn't have any impact.

Later on I passed a 1959 (or close to that) Chevrolet Impala. That had tail lamps but appeared to be running only on sidelights (something dim and low at bumper level). I don't know if that was an electrical failure or the driver had forgotten to pull the switch. I'm amazed that people will go out in cars that don't have headlamps (unless they failed whilst driving, but surely you'd call for help rather than press on?).

On 18/10/2023 at 19:52, RANGERS said:

All VW air-cooled engines had oil coolers, they relied on them for a large part of the engine cooling. The finned barrels were only capable of dispersing some of the combustion heat, the remainder was dispersed through the oil via the oil cooler which was cooled by the same fan as the barrels, though via a separate airstream.

 

The lubricant is critical, though the slow revving reduced bearing, piston and cylinder wear, and to a degree heat generation, maintaining the oil integrity was critical to keep the temperature within tolerances. I learned that on the M6 on a July day in 1983 with my 1302S. The resulting strip down revealed one barrel that had welded itself to the head and a piston that had a chamfered edge to one side of the crown, the missing bit also being firmly attached to the head/ barrel.

Number 3 cylinder, by any chance? That was the usual problem one on VWs.

1 hour ago, Dunsignalling said:

True, but the bottom end will look more like that from (at least) a 2-litre car from 1960, and nowadays, we have turbochargers....

 

I'm quite impressed at getting 170bhp out of my 10-year-old 2-litre turbo diesel, plenty for me (I've never had it anywhere near flat out for more than a few seconds, honestly officer), but I gather there could be another 50 ponies to be had by remapping it! 

 

John

We also have way better fuel and lubrication, not to mention engine management that's way better than anything that could have been imagined in the 1940s.

47 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

Having had a Ford Pop and driven a few Beetles, I can testify that it would be very exceptional to actually get significantly above 30mpg out of either of them! 

 

Maybe the official figures might be attained on then-deserted roads in the flatlands of East Anglia, which probably replicated the test conditions, but certainly nowhere near those numbers in hilly East Devon.

 

Dad's 1500cc Hillman Minx (57bhp IIRC) did no worse, and he reckoned it was no thirstier than the 100E Squire it replaced. 

 

John 

Yes, I agree that the figures seemed implausible to me, but they all came from the same source of a reprint of a motor show catalogue. Therefore, I regard them as being measured to the same standard. That's probably a steady 30 or 40mph under ideal conditions, not really realistic driving conditions.

@alastairq

I suppose it depends upon the requirements of the design as to whether or not there is anything wrong with sidevalve engines. 

Just for fun I found the specs for various small, four-cylinder engines from the 1950s; the 803cc A-series, the 1172 Ford sidevalve, the 803cc Standard 8 and the 1192cc Volkswagen. The most interesting comparison is the Ford and VW, one a sidevalve, long-stroke and one an overhead valve, short stroke. One develops 30bhp at 4,000rpm and 46lb.ft at 2,400rpm on a 6.2:1 compression; the other develops 30bhp at 3,700rpm and 56lb.ft at 2,000rpm on a 6.0:1 compression. Oddly, given what conventional wisdom might have you believe, it's the VW that is the low-revving slogger. However, a crucial difference is unearthed when you look at the maximum recommended cruising speed for a Ford Popular vs the Volkswagen De Luxe saloon; the Ford is recommended to cruise at 45mph (just over 2/3 of its 60mph maximum) where the VW is claimed to be able to cruise at its 68mph maximum speed. Nor did the buyer of the German car lose out at the petrol pumps, fuel consumption being quoted as 38mpg for the Beetle, compared with 35 for the Anglia.

I've attached the data below (I hope it comes out OK).

1950s car specs.xlsx

Last year I had a brief drive in an Austin 1300GT. I've always admired the ADO16 but this was my first taste of the car. I was amazed how good, competent and modern it felt. Although the 1100/1300 range had plenty of faults, I can't help thinking that it was probably the best car to come out of BMC/BL and the corporation's failure to produce a worthy successor (although I'm sure the Allegro isn't as terrible as it's often portrayed) is a sad commentary on what happened to Britain's largest home-grown car manufacturer.

Further back in time, I have driven a MG Midget with the same 1275cc engine. By every measurable standard I think the 1300GT is absolutely the better car. However, for some reason, it isn't always possible to be strictly objective about these things. How do you quantify the joy of the wind in your hair (if you enjoy it)? What metric is appropriate to preferring a car that wraps itself around you, instead of leaving you to rattle around like a marble in a sweet tin? Sometimes, for reasons that only other car people will get, better isn't actually better.

I guess that's why we love old cars.

Yes, I've got two Castles (not to be confused with fork 'andles). I am very happy with their performance. If Farish did a stand alone one in post-war GWR livery, or some more British Railways liveries, my fleet would definitely increase.

On 03/10/2023 at 00:01, Flying Pig said:

 

Air accident investigators learnt years ago that this sort of confusion kills.  Operating the wrong control may not be so dangerous in a road vehicle but distraction still is.

One of the things I appreciate about my current car (2007 Ford Fiesta) is the three-dial heating and ventilation control system (no AC, sadly). I tend to keep the direction always on the demist setting with the fan blowing gently. It is easy to adjust either the fan speed or the temperature without looking. I would prefer if the grip on the dials was a slightly different shape, but their action (the fan in steps, the heat in a smooth rotation) and the fan volume makes it easy to tell if you turn the wrong one.

The only justification I can imagine for touch-screen HVAC controls would be if it is something that you can set and forget.

Sometimes it feels like people who design dashboards and controls are more concerned with appearance, symmetry and aesthetics; rather than function. In my view, instruments should be analogue with white (or yellow) on black calibrations. Speedometers should be marked in 10mph increments. Tachometers should be marked in integers. Minor gauges should be oriented so that the optimum/all OK position is vertical. In right-hand drive cars with a centre gear-change, or transmission control, the lights and indicators should be on the right-hand side. Switches for minor functions should be identifiable by touch, obviating the need to look for the desired control.

On the subject of changing gears.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of driving three old cars.  The oldest was designed in the 1930s, launched in 1945 and the particular example I drove dated from 1952.  In the middle was a car launched in 1957 and built in 1960.  The youngest of the trio dated from 1968 as a development of a basic design that was introduced in 1953.  By design, none of them had synchromesh on first gear and not much second gear synchro left either.  Changing up was a matter of taking your time and feeling when the next gear was ready to engage, going down was a pleasant opportunity to polish the double declutching skills that modern cars allow us to neglect.

Would I want a car with a "crash" gearbox as my daily transport?  I'm not sure, but I love the idea of a car with the benefits of modern brakes, tyres, engine management, heating and ventilation; yet furnished with such old-fashioned features as a close-ratio, un-synchronised gearbox, fly-off handbrake, maybe even a convertible top that allows for the fitting of a centre-zipped tonneu cover and fold-flat windscreen.

Does the ability to use an un-synchronised manual gearbox make me a better driver?  I very much doubt it.  For me, good road driving is about observation and consideration as much as any particular technique of car control.

As for automatic transmissions, I feel they are done a disservice by the name as it sets an expectation that they cannot match.  They cannot (as recently stated) anticipate, only react.  Where some fail is that they don't necessarily make it easy to inhibit changes when they are unwanted.  When I am driving a car with automatic transmission, I am happy to use whatever means are available to prevent it changing gear when I do not want it to.  But my experience of current automatics is that switching between automatic and manual control is not as intuitive as it should be.  The last automatic I drove was a Triumph Stag, with an ancient three-speed auto (probably the evergreen Borg Warner Type 35), which was perfectly adequate although I didn't fancy using the stiff lever to try and hold lower gears.  Earlier in the year I drove a Jaguar XJ (X300 type) with the 3.2-litre straight six and four-speed automatic.  With a sensitive ear and right foot (and prior experience of the type), I never once encountered an automatic shift that I didn't want, despite leaving the thing in drive on a test route that took in a reasonable variety of roads.  But I do remember some of my early experience of two-pedal cars, where things like kick-down could be somewhat disconcerting if you weren't used to it.

On 04/08/2023 at 02:55, BR60103 said:

Almost half a century ago, one of our club built a layout called Camelot, which was located west of Land's End.  He had a lot of documentation up about it. At least one person was heard saying that they didn't realise that England went on beyond Cornwall.

 

"It's only a model"

Also,

"Let's not go there, t'is a silly place"

All models will involve some sort of compromise somewhere.  There is, of course, a broad spectrum to "tweaks".  If you claim to be accurately modelling the Liverpool and Manchester railway in the 1800s, the presence of a Pendolino probably isn't justified on the grounds of entertainment.  But it probably does make sense to run more trains, plus a greater variety of locos and stock than might have been seen in real life (as long as it is broadly appropriate).  

Going back to the coupling question; I'd definitely prefer standard NEM pockets so that I can mix the 120 with my other 1st generation DMU vehicles.  And I would also buy a 119 if it was offered in the future.

1 hour ago, johnofwessex said:

To what extent does the state of charge affect the risk, would it be rather like an IC engined car, the less in it the better?

Is that true?

I thought that a nearly empty fuel tank contained more vapour, which is what ignites.

On 06/07/2023 at 14:53, Mallard60022 said:

I can assure certain posters on here that isolated and unstaffed  Stations in areas of large population, are a NO GO for a huge number of people and unstaffed smaller stations in built up areas are not places to be after dark or later in the say in Summer. They are just scary places. I know this because locally there have been informal surveys done. Retford Lower Platforms, despite the Staffing on the Main Station and Cameras and the newly installed and well lit walkway to the Platforms 3 and 4 are deemed unpleasant by women in particular. 

Then there are many people who will never choose to use Trains, because of the issues of being in crowds. It may seem irrational but that's how it is. 

The simple fact of having someone staffing a Station and visible during certain times, as with having someone on a Train that is there to 'watch out' for passengers at certain times, are the two main comments that come from huge numbers of folk that are involved enough to want to comment about what's proposed. 

Add to this what many have said about lack of travel knowledge and uncertainty about ticketing, is limiting the number of passengers already deciding that the Train is a last resort. 

Finally, the NHS and the Railways/Tramways/Metros, are probably the two largest organisations that serve the Public face to face. 

Look at what's happening in both those organisations! In my humble opinion they are both/all seen as being overstaffed by Government. Really? I'll leave that there! 

Phil

I'd love to show any minister, civil servant or Daily Mail reader, who think that the NHS is over-staffed, just what the reality is!

On 10/07/2023 at 10:29, Phil Parker said:

 

Considering the number of times discussions on model shops here, have contributions along the lines of "I don't want to go to a model shop. I want to do everything online!!!!", I think this is funny...

I'm glad to be an exception, I try to buy stuff in real model shops and only resort to online for stuff that I can't easily get in the shop.  With railway stations, I'll generally buy my ticket from whatever has the shortest queue.  Sometimes that's the ticket counter and sometimes that's the machine.  But generally my journeys are fairly simple single/return trips with minimal changes.

On 05/05/2023 at 14:39, jjb1970 said:

I think there'll always be shops (well, for my life time) but the question is how they compete with on-line retailing and when more and more people go on-line as a default.

 

An analogy might be physical music, advocates of vinyl point to increasing sales as proof that people want physical media yet as a percentage of total music revenue it is minor (most people stream and don't buy music anymore). That isn't to say records are dead, or buying music is dead, but both concepts are a niche. So physical shops have a place, the question is how many people really want to go to the shop vs. shopping on-line. Clothing has lagged behind other segments as people still like to try on clothes and see them in person, but even that segment seems to be seeing steadily increasing on-line sales.

 

And for a shop, the issue isn't so much footfall as sales. How many people wander around a model shop and then go off to order what they want from a box shifter? The box shifters generally have physical shops, do they share what percentage of their sales is physical retail vs. on-line? Genuine question, it might be interesting to see figures.

I can't say that this is something I've done as a customer, certainly not with any regularity or frequency.  Generally, if I'm in a shop and they have what I want/need and the price is reasonable (doesn't have to be the cheapest) I'll buy then and there because I get the pleasure and use of having the thing immediately.  It also helps me feel that the trip to the shop is worthwhile.  With model shops I'll seldom go unless I need something (e.g. paint, glue, styrene), or I know that they've got something I want in stock.  But I'll often come away buying more than I planned.

10 hours ago, melmoth said:

 

Indeed (my bold above). As both the proprietor of a small retail business and the part-owner of a school age child, a lot of thought has gone into how all my commitments have to fit together. Our current opening times are attached below. At first glance, opening for only around 30 hours a week might not seem a lot, but (for reasons I won't bore you with) it takes an hour to get the shop ready to open each morning, and I also have to allow an hour between about 3 and 4 to get our online sales processed and posted out.  Lunch and 'coffee breaks' happen at the till. Paperwork and anything else gets dealt with in the evening. Were it not for the fact that my flat is only 200 yards from my shop and that there's an excellent pub between the two, any possibility of a social life would be a vain and foolish hope. Still, it's better than working for somebody else.

 

 

One of the local model shops has similar opening hours (although not explicitly stated.  He's a one-man operation, and opens 11-4 Thursday to Sunday.  But his 11 o'clock opening can be later depending on family circumstances and the closing time is also flexible.  He does try and communicate any changes via the shop's Facebook page, which I usually check if I'm planning a visit.  He's also said that, as he doesn't live far from the shop, if I were buying something fairly big he'd consider making a special trip to open up.

It would be nice to see town centres revived with interesting, independent shops selling a variety of things.  But to get there we probably need to see some sanity on rents and rates and the provision of a decent mix of transport options that include public transport accessibility and reasonable parking.

On 05/06/2023 at 10:04, 30368 said:

The Lancia B19(?) looks lovely but I am much taken by the 128 - always thought that they were a well balanced design and this one in a now and then trendy green. If I recall, the 128 was a contemporary of the Allegro?

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

The Fiat 128 was launched in 1969, so it pre-dated the Allegro by about 4 years and ended production a year later in 1984.  So, yes, they were contemporaries.

Well, I can't moan that "there was nothing here for me" as I've just placed a substantial pre-order for a lot of the announced coaches.

I always feel a bit sorry for manufacturers because, whatever they do, someone will say "Why didn't you do this instead?".  However, with the LT-liveried Class 20s as well, there's a lot that appeals to me.  

6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Cardiff, and to an extent Newport, Barry, the Vale, Neath/Port Talbot and Swansea as well but particularly Cardiff, has an odd relationship with the idea of being Welsh, and this can be seen in the orientation of the city's rooftop tv ariels.  We are of course Welsh and proud of it, or at least very definitely certain that we are not English, but as soon as one considers Welsh identity or culture, the language rears it's ugly.  The 60s and early 70s saw strong campaigning for Welsh language tv content other than the quarter-hour given over to it by the BBC on the evening local news to 'save' the language.  This resulted in the Welsh Language tv channel, S4C (Sianel Pedwar Ec), which puts out mainstream programmes in Welsh in the evening but is Channel Four the rest of the time.  The people behind this are very powerful politically in Wales, of which Cardiff is the largest and Capital city.  The use of Welsh is increasing and the language is in much less trouble than it was half a century ago, with the majority of new speakers being incomers; what effect S4C has had on this outcome is debatable, but the language is the highest profile political issue in Wales and set to continue to be so.

 

But the huge majority of Cardiffians are opposed to any consideration at all for the Welsh language.  They don't speak it, have no interest in it, and resent it, because they are terrified that they will be called upon to learn it one day if the Welsh speakers get their way.  They regard Welsh as a dead language which only survives on remote farms and is used by a certain powerful politico-media population that is centred on a certain area of the city as a means of expressing their superiority over monoglot English-speaking Cardiffians and of accessing funding for their various projects and agendae.  There may be some credence to this; I was involved a few years ago in providing content for the S4C arts programme, Gelff.  When I asked what the audience viewing figures for this were, since I couldn't see it being particularly popular amongst the grass roots Welsh speaking community of farmers, who like C & W and barn dances, variety shows, or the popular Welsh soap, Pobl Y Cwm.  Nobody on the production team knew the answer, which in an industry obsessed with viewing figures was remarkable in itself, and when I commented that the viewing figures were probably mostly accounted for by people actually working on the programme, there seemed a general acceptance that this was probably true!  It is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government's share of the TV Licence money, as of course nobody is going to waste advertising revenue on such a show, but we sort of ought to be funding Welsh Language Arts, a vibrant arts and cultural life is essential to the national identity of the nation, isn't it, even when probably 95% of the population don't want a Welsh Language arts programme unless they don't have to pay for it, and as they can't exactly see how they are paying any extra for it because they've got to pay the License for the BBC anyway, that's all right then, isn't it?

 

These people are known as the Taffia, or Crachach; university educated comfortably off upper-middle class types who throw dinner parties and established a community within walking distance of the old S4C studios in Pontcanna (the Taffia are still there, but the studios have moved out to Culverhouse Cross on the western edge of the city, the site of the old ITV studios).  They are a self-replicating organism of Prius owners who used to own Volvo estates and live in Victorian or Edwardian villas with lovingly restored original features, the Welsh version of Agasaga types, and are highly skilled in the art of securing government funding for whatever meeja activity they are involved in, because they are in effect the government.  They would not last five minutes in a democratically-run nation, but you can't run Wales democratically whatever lip-service you pay to that concept, because of the language, a divisive issue which most of us don't want to bother with but don't want to be blamed for disposing of either.  The result is Quangos of course, and the sort of corruption that is less active illegal conspiracy with money changing hands in brown envelopes and deals done behind locked doors, and more a general unspoken-but-accepted commonality of interest.

 

Cardiffians refuse resolutely to have their tv experience polluted by Welsh, and a walk along any Cardiff street will show that about 90% of rooftop tv arials are pointed southwards, towards the Mendip transmitter in Somerset, a line of sight bearing which give good quality reception from about 25 miles away as the seagull flies.  Of the remaining 10%, half point to both Mendip and the local transmitters at Wenvoe and St Hilary, and the other half point to the local transmitters.  Cardiffians would rather waste their time watching local interest news and magazine programmes related to Bristol than to their own stuff, and watch Mendip Channel 4 transmissions rather than anything that might be in the dreaded Welsh.

 

Nobody ever talks about this, it's a classic elephant in the room and there are some issues that Wales and the Welsh would rather not face up to.  In a democratic society, a minority language (Welsh is spoken over about 80% of the area of the Nation, by about 20% of it's population, which is heavily concentrated in the southeast.  The balance is so skewed that there are more Welsh speakers living in Cardiff than in the rest of the nation collectively, but are only about 5% of Cardiff's population) needs positive re-inforcement to survive, assuming that you want it to survive, but a plebiscite in South Wales would instantly condemn it to history (which I think would be a pity, while not speaking it myself) by a massive majority.  People of my generation were taught it in primary and secondary schools, but the teaching standard was abysmal and the subject highly unpopular.  But don't call us English, cos we're not...

 

A family jolly at Minehead Butlins in the 80s revealed the opposite situation; tucked down behind the Quantocks reception from Mendip was a problem, but line-of-sight from Wenvoe and St.Hilary.  The locals seemed to accept this and resented the Welsh programming far more readily than the majority of monoglot English-speaking native Welsh people...

I was sure I'd heard some trivia about there being more Welsh speakers in Argentina than in Wales.  A quick Google search shows that to be untrue, there are about 70,000 Welsh-Patagonians but somewhere between 1,500 and 5,000 Welsh speakers.  I'm not sure if that could be related to model railways, the town of Trelew in Argentina is one of those places with strong links to Wales.  It doesn't appear to be on the rail network now, but the old railway station building survives.

On 21/04/2023 at 14:27, ejstubbs said:

I'd love to have heard what Hi-Viz Man said to her... 

I'm almost impressed by the ingenuity, as well as the sheer stupidity, selfishness and disregard of safety.

As someone who manages a small team, I accept that mistakes will happen.  If people know they've made a mistake, I try to encourage them to be open about it, so we can fix it as quickly as possible.  If people keep making the same mistake, that's when I get concerned.  But my first instinct is to check that things are OK with the person.  If providing help and support don't stop the mistakes, that's when things have to get less friendly.

I'm never trying to catch my team out for making mistakes.  If I do find that they've made a mistake (as happened today), I'll bring it to their attention and remind them what they should have done.  My style isn't to give them the Alex Ferguson-style hairdryer treatment, at least not for a first or fairly inconsequential mistake.

Something that my employer tries to do, as far as possible, is ensure that people find their roles engaging and fulfilling.  It's not always going to be possible, but it's better to have satisfied staff than dis-satisfied people.  We're certainly not an organisation that expects people to give 110% to the business 25 hours a day, 8 days a week.