The Night Mail

[br2975]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

How was the Kaaadiff match this afternoon Brian?

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Now look here 

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I've suffered one enforced absence from this forum during 2023, and questions like that will only lead to another.

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For the first time that I recall, we were subjected to a female referee.

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She was abysmal - and must have been coloured blind to yellow and green.

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Cue cries of misogyny, and another Night Mailer subject to cancel culture.  

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Cardiff City squandered a 2-1 half-time lead, by failing to come out for the second half.

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Following a mass substitution that changed winning formula, our defence decided to take a siesta and two goals within 90 seconds, during the last 5 minutes saw The Canaries deservedly going home happy, clutching three points.

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However woeful the female referee was, she was not responsible for Norwich's win, or our loss.

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[Adam88]

Bring Me the Shed of Alfredo Garcia 

[Winslow Boy]

44 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Well, when things go pear-shaped and the blood starts spurting all over the place and appendages & digits go flying through the air you're going to regret not getting iL Dottore and bbishop on board.

 

Still not to worry, prosthetics are getting quite realistic and sophisticated nowadays....

 

So HH tells me. He says it almost impossible to tell where his real finger ends and the prosthetic one begins.

 

Happy to have you both on board as medicinal support. Filming on my next project is due to start shortly so you'll need to make sure your passports in order. I believe the working title is Sheds over the World - a sci-fi thriller noir about robots who have to paint sheds. I play the downtrodden but plucky hero who discovers that it's really a secret plot to make everything the colour of fresh flour. Can't tell you the ending as there's a bit of plot twist involved.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Winslow Boy

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, figworthy said:

 

Is there a corresponding one on the other platform (ideally outside the cafe) labelled :

 

"Settle Up"

 

Adrian

 

There is. Not the greatest photo but…

[Porkscratching]

1 hour ago, Adam88 said:

Bring Me the Shed of Alfredo Garcia 

Nah, you want the Shed of Light Entertainment 

[Happy Hippo]

Br2975 and I were communicating about various matters Efflew, when the subject of St Fagans Signal Box, on the S Wales main line, cropped up.

 

I had noticed that it rather unusually had an offset nameboard, when most are positioned centrally.

 

Brian has also seen a picture of the box at St Fagans with a centrally placed name board, so it was a bit of a mystery.

 

Well, I have now solved this mystery.

 

At one point St Fagans was a junction with the Barry Railway line to Treforest, and the single line that linked the two lines joined the GW main line just to the west of St Fagans signal box.

 

The single line token catch net for trains coming off the branch and the token pick up post, for trains travelling onto the Barry line were mounted on the front face of the signal box, displacing the nameboard from it's normally central position.

 

When the single line was removed the nameboard was moved into the central position on the front wall of the box.

 

I can sleep happy tonight!

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

I'll shed no tears when this silly repartee ends.

[J. S. Bach]

And, having ruined my reputation with the above; Night Owl from the Shed Piedmont!

[SM42]

How about some musicals

 

Seven sheds for seven brothers 

The phantom of the shed

Joseph and his amazing technicolour shed

Shedcago

Shed pacific

The shed of Mormon 

Paint your shed

Annie get your shed

 

Andy

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by SM42

[BR60103]

17 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Well he is a very versatile actor you know.

 

Don't worry I won't forget my mates on TNM. I'm thinking Chimps on SX, HH for stunts, Bear for associate producer, Gwiner for transport, DH for aerial photography, SM42 for scene painting and Q for electronics. Have I forgotten anybody?

Do you need a choreographer for the musical numbers?

 

[BR60103]

I was up a half-hour early this morning so that we could go to the Remembrance Day service at McCrae house. (John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields.) It was pretty well attended for a residential plot. We passed up the big service in the hockey arena.
We did go out to the airport to see the Warbirds take off. They did a flypast over a couple of cenotaphs in the area, but we saw them up close. Later we saw them fly over Guelph, but so far away that they looked like a collection of mosquitoes.

(Birds reported as T-33, L29, Vampire, Harvard.)

 

[pH]

A bit disconcerting at our Remembrance ceremony this morning was the presence of people armed with long guns.  Several of the local police force on the ground, plus a couple of military spotters/marksmen on the roof of the apartments round the cenotaph.

 

We have had a single marksman in the past, but never this number of armed personnel before (excluding police with regular sidearms). 

[jamie92208]

We had our usual village ceremony, which for some reason is held at noon.  Altogether  about 30 people turned up which isn't bad for a village of 60.   After we had walked back to the town hall the usual drinks and nibbles were consumed.  Alvery well done. 

 

Jamie

Edited November 12, 2023 by jamie92208

[br2975]

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Br2975 and I were communicating about various matters Efflew, when the subject of St Fagans Signal Box, on the S Wales main line, cropped up.

 

I had noticed that it rather unusually had an offset nameboard, when most are positioned centrally.

 

Brian has also seen a picture of the box at St Fagans with a centrally placed name board, so it was a bit of a mystery.

 

Well, I have now solved this mystery.

 

At one point St Fagans was a junction with the Barry Railway line to Treforest, and the single line that linked the two lines joined the GW main line just to the west of St Fagans signal box.

 

The single line token catch net for trains coming off the branch and the token pick up post, for trains travelling onto the Barry line were mounted on the front face of the signal box, displacing the nameboard from it's normally central position.

 

When the single line was removed the nameboard was moved into the central position on the front wall of the box.

 

I can sleep happy tonight!

 

 

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I append below, a cropped version of the photograph of which our illustrious leader doth spake.

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The original scan woukld not upload (too large a file ?)

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The original photographer remains unknown, but from the presence of the motor cycle, I suspect it may be the late Alan Jarvis who lived locally.

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The 'box was eventually replaced by a ground frame, directly opposite on the 'down' side, which in turn was replaced by another ground frame on the site of this box.

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That final 'box monitored two further level crossings at St. George's and Pontsarn.

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Now, the crossings are all monitored remotely from the Wales ROC, opposite Canton depot.

[NHY 581]

1 minute ago, br2975 said:

 

The original photographer remains unknown, but from the presence of the motor cycle, I suspect it may be the late Alan Jarvis who lived locally.

 

 

Morning Brian, 

 

That looks like a pre-unit BSA Twin. I'd say an A10 650 with Craven panniers to the rear and given the shape of the BSA badges on the tank, a 1959-62 model. 

 

Now, where's my anorak.....? 

 

Rob. 

[iL Dottore]

50 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

We had our usual village ceremony, which for some reason is held at noon.  Altogether  about 3 people turned up which isn't bad for a village of 60.   After we had walked back to the town hall the usual drinks and nibbles were consumed.  Alvery well done. 

 

Jamie

I assume you mean 30 and not 3?

We don't have anything like Armistice Day or Remembrance Sunday in Switzerland, obviously.
 

But Swiss Neutrality was not a Swiss  concept, it was imposed on Switzerland by the "Major European Powers" at the end of the Napoleonic era - as the Major European Powers wanted a buffer in the middle of Europe. Having said that, for centuries Switzerland was renowned for providing various European Powers with mercenaries (even the British army at one time had Swiss mercenaries [a curious tale in itself]).

 

Another thing, unlike most modem democracies, Switzerland has never done away with National Service (mandatory for men, voluntary for women) - so Switzerland is the army and the army is Switzerland. One of the advantages of this is that Swiss politicians have either done military service, are doing military service (as reservists with a number of weeks/year on active service) or have children doing military service. So any decisions affecting the armed services will impact the decision makers one way or another. 
 

Without getting too political, I think that having decision makers be affected themselves by the decisions they make would make for better decisions.

[Porkscratching]

7 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

Morning Brian, 

 

That looks like a pre-unit BSA Twin. I'd say an A10 650 with Craven panniers to the rear and given the shape of the BSA badges on the tank, a 1959-62 model. 

 

Now, where's my anorak.....? 

 

Rob. 

You beat me to it..

I'll just go and put mine on too.. 😁

[Porkscratching]

9 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I assume you mean 30 and not 3?

We don't have anything like Armistice Day or Remembrance Sunday in Switzerland, obviously.
 

But Swiss Neutrality was not a Swiss  concept, it was imposed on Switzerland by the "Major European Powers" at the end of the Napoleonic era - as the Major European Powers wanted a buffer in the middle of Europe. Having said that, for centuries Switzerland was renowned for providing various European Powers with mercenaries (even the British army at one time had Swiss mercenaries [a curious tale in itself]).

 

Another thing, unlike most modem democracies, Switzerland has never done away with National Service (mandatory for men, voluntary for women) - so Switzerland is the army and the army is Switzerland. One of the advantages of this is that Swiss politicians have either done military service, are doing military service (as reservists with a number of weeks/year on active service) or have children doing military service. So any decisions affecting the armed services will impact the decision makers one way or another. 
 

Without getting too political, I think that having decision makers be affected themselves by the decisions they make would make for better decisions.

Didn't the RAF/USAF bomb Switzerland "by mistake" a few times?..

Possibly not helped by the fact Switzerland operated ME109s as I recall. 

[SM42]

Swiss neutrality I always found a bit odd. 

 

Not the concept itself, just that some of the more radical elements of that part if the world respected it. 

 

I suppose it served a useful purpose for everyone in some way. 

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

Jammie do you mind me asking about your French lessons? Is it something you have to pay for or are they provided by the 'council' - or whatever the French equivalent is?I ask because you said on numerous occasions that there are a number of ex-pats who either live in the area or who have holiday homes so I just wondered if they were well attended. Apologies if you've mentioned it all before and my forgetery is alive and well.

 

Sent from a rehearsal room far, far away.

 

Ian Nosheds.

[Happy Hippo]

 

Look what just dropped into my mailbox:

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[PhilJ W]

I've only just found a program on BBC2 called Weatherman Walking. Intrigued by the title I switched it on to find the host was visiting the Penderyn distillery for a whisky tasting.  The program can be watched on I-player.

[Winslow Boy]

2 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Look what just dropped into my mailbox:

 

 

And you couldn't even get it to post the right way up. Some Master Tinker you are.

[Winslow Boy]

Just now, PhilJ W said:

I've only just found a program on BBC2 called Weatherman Walking. Intrigued by the title I switched it on to find the host was visiting the Penderyn distillery for a whisky tasting.  The program can be watched on I-player.

Seen that. He was doing a Dillon Thomas themed one.

[Joseph_Pestell]

In our French village, the11 November ceremony took place late afternoon. I think that the timing is based round the aperitif at the Mairie afterwards.

 

Attendance was always good. This is mainly because of a large number of veterans of the war in Algeria (ended 1962) who have a very well- organised  association (FNACA). But they must be declining in numbers now.

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