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Northmoor

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  1. Northmoor
    Fit a sundial to the bonnet.
  2. Northmoor
    Can I suggest that discussion of the suitability of Pacers for railtours on the WHL is a bit far off-topic? There is a whole thread elsewhere devoted to Pacers where if you go back far enough, you will find me accurately predicting that many of those donated to preservation would be unserviceable within about five years.
  3. Northmoor
    While I have a great deal of sympathy for this individual and others like them have been treated, it does seem like a lot of their complaints are about the railway doing things that just aren't to their personal taste, but which might earn the railway a great deal. Currently feeling (understandably) rejected, they might actually feel they want the railway to fail, so that they can be proved right. Two examples they use - diesel services, film themed events - are often good earners for preserved railways and while the world has changed, in the 1970s the NYMR was one of the first preserved railways to routinely operate DMUs off-peak for passengers who wanted the scenic ride. All the major railways are increasing the proportion of diesel services with the rising cost of coal; if you're running a steam service you want to be certain those trains will be full. In the other example, it's not as if what is proposed is a Star Wars theme, it's about the many films made on the railway, which could attract a whole new clientele; movie location tourism is a huge market. This does though, reinforce the views expressed on this thread that volunteers need to be nurtured, which requires Leaders, not Managers. The managers can help steer away the genuinely disruptive volunteers (almost every scheme has them) who have their own agendas and personal projects which do not align with the main aims of the railway. A leader is someone who you will follow even when you may not necessarily agree with them. One final point about paid staffing levels; there may be a correlation between affluence of the area, remoteness and levels of volunteering (c.f. the GWSR). Most volunteers at the NYMR are going to come a significant distance (and it's not an easy place to get to by public transport), so paying staff might be the only way to guarantee that roles vital for daily operation are filled. Which makes nurturing your volunteers even more important.
  4. Northmoor
    That was exactly my reaction to this news. Another sport to be ruined by billionaires who apparently still don't have enough money. I have followed 500GP/MotoGP for over 30 years and it is probably better now than it has ever been (the last years of the two-strokes, well the bikes were truly evil and the riders were gladiators to manhandle them, but most of the races were quite dull). No doubt we can look forward to contrived race results, new circuits with lots of 90deg corners in wealthy countries with no history of motorsport and lots more celebrities (with zero knowledge of motorcycles/bike racing but something to promote) parading in front of the cameras in the pit lane, asking how the bikes don't fall over. <Head in hands>
  5. Northmoor
    ISTR the latest statistics suggest Britain has the safest - in terms of KSIs per passenger journey - of any (significant) railway in Europe and one of the safest in the world. I would argue that it isn't that our railways are too safe, it is that the alternative (the road network) is not safe enough (and that is statistically very safe considering the number of vehicle journeys). Again, you are assuming that the odd accident "trains" us. With parenting, this might work ("Don't touch that it's hot!") but being hit on the head by an opening train door at 20mph, you may not get the chance to learn from. Take a good read back through this thread to learn why what is happening, is happening. No, the ORR has no concept of a business needing to make a profit, that isn't it's job. Should WCRC be allowed to pay stewards less than minimum wage? Should they be allowed to operate with fewer stewards than they agreed to do so in their operational safety case? Should they be allowed to go a bit faster than the line speed limit because the more exciting run attracts more passengers? Should they be allowed to delay brakeblock changes until they are down to the backing plates? Any one of those things impact on WCRC's need to make a profit, but they aren't allowed to do these things because of the law. If they don't like it they can go and make a living another way. When there is a serious but non-fatal RTA on a dangerous stretch of road, people always complain that "no-one ever does anything until someone is killed". Well the regulations on CDL are doing something before someone is seriously injured or killed. It is a known risk because several people used to be killed every year using slam doors and they weren't all drunk. I will ask the same two questions of all resistant to HSE legislation: 1. How many deaths on the railways would you think an acceptable number? 2. How many would be acceptable if they are relatives or friends of yours?
  6. Northmoor
    Being a registered tightwad, I've bought no-one any Easter eggs, our (young adults now) children can buy their own. I might be buying one or two tomorrow when the supermarkets start discounting them by at least 75%. It takes some gall to take two small bars of Dairy Milk, put them in a box with a chocolate egg amounting to one similar bar, then charging ten quid for it.
  7. Northmoor
    As the great comic Bill Hicks put it: "Why do aliens never land in populated cities but always in places like Fife, Alabama? Maybe these aren't hyper-intelligent beings, more like Hillbilly aliens - We've just had a long, trip! Gonna lie back and widdle some..... maybe enter the Mothership in the tractor pull!"
  8. Northmoor
    I remember seeing the Environmental Case for Typhoon Operations at Coningsby, showing how while noisier than the Tornados they replaced, the Typhoons were less "disruptive" as accelerating faster, they were out of earshot much more quickly. The local instructions still identified certain neighbours, overflying of whom was to be avoided; not local busybodies but rare pig breeders or stables etc.
  9. Northmoor
    Let's just say it's easier to cast humans to play aliens in some parts of the world, than in others.......
  10. Northmoor
    This is the myth that needs stamping out. They weren't perfectly safe; in the 1980s - when very few sliding door trains were in service on BR - about half a dozen or more people died every year from falling out of moving trains or being hit by an opening door while standing on the platform. British Rail were pretty reluctant to accept that not all these deaths were the result of drink or "mis-adventure"; eventually legislation was introduced to force them to (although not finally implemented until after privatisation). But to the enthusiasts resistant to the change this doesn't matter, because the victims weren't anyone they knew. Oh and as for stewarding, you don't need six per carriage, you probably need two and possibly only one. If the centre doors are permanently locked, you only need one person watching two doors at each end and by stepping between the two coaches, they may be able to keep a reasonable eye on (and manage) four doors; after all they're only going to be opening doors on one side of the train.
  11. Northmoor
    The loudest and most persistent complainers are usually, to a greater or lesser extent, bonkers. ISTR some years ago the Great Central Railway had a very vocal complainer about noise and smoke from trains "at all hours of the day and night". Since they hadn't been running on many of the days she claimed and had never run overnight in their history, the eventual conclusion was obvious. It must be something about the East Midlands area as I read of a motorcycle enthusiast who worked as a Noise Control Officer for Leicestershire Council. He described how he genuinely got complaints from people who had moved into Castle Donington, about the noise from Donington Park motor racing circuit. It was hard to understand how when checking out the property and seeking a quiet life, they'd missed the signs for this, the M1 and East Midlands Airport.
  12. Northmoor
    There was a University study of conspiracy theories not so long ago and concluded that the likelihood of them being plausible could be summarised with an equation: Probability of being true = 1 in [(No. of years since the event) x (No. of people who would have to been party to the truth)] Hence the moon landings, for which a few thousand people were directly involved, and fifty plus years have passed with none of them crying foul, have something less than one in hundreds of thousands of being faked.
  13. Northmoor
    I was most amused by point 4-2 "In fact it is WCR’s contention, as submitted in their application for an exemption continuation, and in the comprehensive risk assessment attached to the application (produced by an independent Health & Safety company), that the current method of having two door locks fitted to each door (one main lock, plus a secondary deadbolt), plus having a steward present in each carriage, is far safer than having to spend millions of pounds to fit CDL". That statement would have been true if they'd actually done that, but since the regulator found they weren't employing enough stewards, it isn't.
  14. Northmoor
    The same was rightly said of Les Dawson on piano. Hysterical and brilliant.
  15. Northmoor
    Another, "That can't be 4mm scale, surely?" shot.
  16. Northmoor
    I can still hear Jamie Whitham's Ducati 916 being warmed up in the Knockhill paddock from 1995 - Vroom-Baahh! Vroom-Baahh! - it just stopped you in your tracks. Just picked up a copy of Classic Bike celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the 916. Now I feel a little older.
  17. Northmoor
    I actually wouldn't describe the sound as nice, but boy does it sound evil! The acceleration when Guy first opens it up is phenomenal; it must have really impressed him because he's off talking at his ADHD-powered best once back in the paddock. Even unpainted that bike looks gorgeous. Pity it's about forty times the budget for my next bike......
  18. Northmoor
    My manager commutes into London from Reading and reliability in the last week has been abysmal. One day the power was off because of a trespasser - so not wholly the railway's fault - but then the next two days there were also power supply problems which affected his journey home. An impressive railway but not in the Network Rail sections.
  19. Northmoor
    A friend of mine used to say that Def Leppard were a band for people who thought they liked Rock Music but knew they didn't like Americans.
  20. Northmoor
    BBC4 has been repeating both series of "To the Manor Born" recently. I don't remember it fondly enough to watch all of them but did record and watch the one where Audrey Forbes-Hamilton fights the closure of the village railway station. Maiden Newton was used for "Marlbury" with a 3-car Met-Camm DMU in all blue used in several scenes. Part of the story was how run-down the station looked; this being BR in about 1980 very little set-dressing was required. I recall reading an article in one of the railway mags about an enthusiast ending up in a shouting match with the Maiden Newton signalman about photography on the station. It didn't excuse his behaviour towards a member of the public, but the author suggested that he was probably sick of the sight of anyone with a camera. He might have been on duty on the day of filming and had to deal with the constant shunting back and forth of the train and TV crew wandering across the tracks regardless of train movements.
  21. Northmoor
    Definitely an optical illusion, clearance above the carriages is only a couple of feet. Interestingly the three stations on the line all have different footbridges. Bagshot has this concrete version (although there is a lattice bridge spanning the whole station site behind the camera), Camberley still has the original(?) SR-style lattice while Frimley's has been replaced with a modern open, painted steel version, which needs a serious repaint thanks to a few years of salt being spread on it in the winter.
  22. Northmoor
    Wandering around Bagshot while waiting for a new tyre fitting, I snapped one of the regular Ascot-Aldershot stoppers on my phone. I still want to get a similar shot (using the proper camera) with one of the 8/10-car through Waterloo services at the change of gradient.
  23. Northmoor
    I can't see this already mentioned on this thread, but found this sign at Oakwood station on the Piccadilly Line this week: As Blake Hall is included I think this is pre-1981.
  24. Northmoor
    Considering the scale of what you are proposing (50km at perhaps £100M/km?), this seems like an eye-wateringly expensive way to save a small amount of money. A bit like saying your 15 year old Ford Focus needs some new tyres for the next MOT, so to avoid the expense you replace it with a new Bentley.
  25. Northmoor
    Until now I've been trying not to mention the 16'x10' erection that I have in my loft.
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