The Night Mail

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

My first year Geography teacher had have it pointed out that not all rivers were called the Afon.....  Well, all of them were, if you see what I mean, but not in the way she'd believed.

The Afon Afan doesn't help.

[The Johnster]

This is because, when the Saxons pitched up, they naturally wanted to know what everything was called, and of course asked the locals, who spoke Welsh (not that many current speakers would recognise it as such, same as most English can’t read Beowulf in the original written version).  The locals took one look at these big muscly blond blue-eyed Conan the Barbarian types, looked the part with them big axes, but a bit dim, and explained that we didn’t know what they called them back home, ‘but round yer we calls ‘em rivers, see, innit butty, chwarae teg nawr’. 
 

And if that’s not true, the world is a poorer place for it!

Edited April 17, 2023 by The Johnster

[SM42]

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

 

Wasn't that the place where at the end of covid lockdown the pub on the Welsh side was kept closed and the one on the English side was open?  Or was it the place where the border passed through the pub?

 

 

 

Chester's football ground

 

The pitch was in England, but the club house / stand / hospitality suite or whatever was in Wales. or something like that.

 

Andy

[Dave Hunt]

12 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

So from where do the those appreciating the Beacons, and spending money in local businesses, come? Are they all Welsh-speakers? I get fed up with references to Eryri, which I happen to know is Snowdon, because there is a loco of that name on the mountain railway. It's as if Wales dreams of a Hadrian-ish wall, to keep those vile English out, and regards the secrecy of its own unpronounceable language as a substitute.

 

Introspection and narrow-mindedness never helped a nation prosper, as Brexiteers are discovering! 

 

When we lived in Anglesey in the early '70s we went to the Eisteddfod one day. The Welsh Language Society had a marquee there with a notice outside saying, "If you would like to find out how to learn to speak Welsh, please come inside." Some moronic member of the Taffia had sprayed out much of the sign because it wasn't in Welsh!!!! FFS.

 

Dave 

[SM42]

10 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The Araf is an a endangered mammal that tends to live in hedges, especially where the hedge borders sharp bends of the road.

 

They are very small and timid, so seeing one is a rare treat.

 

The sign SLOW Araf is for their own protection, as well as that of the driver of a vehicle, as killing an Araf is a capital offence in Wales.

 

 

It's a similar story on the Underground down in that London.

 

Gappes.

 

Flying mammals that the French smuggled in during the Napoleonic wars to try and demoralise the travelling Londoner.

 

They have colonised the tunnels and stations and can be a bit of a hazard for the travelling public due to their haphazard flight characteristics.

 

That's why you often hear the warning to "Mind the Gappe" on the network.

 

Andy

[The Johnster]

That’s particularly revealing of the mentality; they don’t want people learning the language because it would diminish their perceived (and deluded) superiority, which they consider themselves ‘entitled’ to because they are natural speakers.  Clwb Ivor Bach, the Welsh speakers’ hangout in Cardiff and a crackin’ music venue, once had a fluent Welsh-speaking Ghanaian barman, and it was wonderful to watch the reactions of Taffiosa types from up-country when he out-Welshed them on their own terms, which, having a Doctorate in the language, he could do standing on his head; come tomy town and you’d better be more open minded than that, yer parochial b*ggers. 
 

First saw Cerys singing in the Ifor Bach; blew me away to hear a voice like that coming out of such a tiny girl. 

[Dave Hunt]

6 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Excellent suggestion that'll keep all the telfs from coming over the border.

 

The suggestion from the North Hipposhire Committee for Sanity and a Better Life* is to build a high fence around Telfland with a single track fenced road exit leading to the Holyhead Ferry.

 

*President Mr. H. Hippo

Vice President Mr. D. Hunt 

 

Dave

 

[The Johnster]

Thing you’ve got to wart h put for yn Parc Cenedeathol Bannau Brychieniog is grefflogs. Not much is known about these creatures except that they are carnivorous and very stealthy; nobody’s ever lived to tell the tale of any more detail about them.  They are known to prey on small children who wander off mountain paths despite their parents’ warnings; tell a kid about grefflogs and he’ll stay close by all day!

 

What’s the point of having kids if you can’t play with their heads…

 

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, Northmoor said:

My first year Geography teacher had have it pointed out that not all rivers were called the Afon.....  Well, all of them were, if you see what I mean, but not in the way she'd believed.

 

When driving through Wales my Dad once had my Mum searching the map for ages looking for a place called Croeso because, he said, there were a lot of signs to it.

 

Dave

[Mike Bellamy]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

  As we drove along I asked them where the boundary was between South Kirkby and South Elmsall. Elmsall Dyke boss, oh sh1t, came th reply. 

 

SWMBO was a Teaching Assistant at a local secondary school and a volunteer group leader for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. During one of the expeditions, one of the female teachers who was authorised to drive the school minibuses took her to one of the checkpoints to meet the groups. She was being driven down a narrow lane and said " Watch out, there's a dyke on the left" to which the teacher replied "And there's one on the right as well". SWMBO had no idea about the teacher and was full of apologies, saying that she had been brought up in Lincolnshire where all ditches were called dykes. They both had a great laugh when they met up with the other staff and repeated the story.

.

[SM42]

13 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

When driving through Wales my Dad once had my Mum searching the map for ages looking for a place called Croeso because, he said, there were a lot of signs to it.

 

Dave

 

Likewise the largest city in Germany is Ausfahrt.

 

And the largest in The Netherlands is Uit

 

Andy

Edited April 17, 2023 by SM42

[Dave Hunt]

I can't remember where it was but in the days when Welsh pubs were closed on a Sunday except to those who were bona fide travellers, there was apparently one pub where in theory at least one bar was in England and the other in Wales.

 

When I was at RAF Valley in the '60s there was an enterprising publican nearby who started a club called 'The Bona Fide Travellers' so that any member in his pub on a Sunday could prove he was just that. I don't know whether it worked.

 

Dave 

[PupCam]

On 16/04/2023 at 21:31, AndyID said:

I'm not exactly sure why but you don't see too many models of that one 😄

 

Hold on.  Yes, I think I can see the reason ....

 

17 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Yes, but the fixed wheelbase of Krugers and Aberdares is much longer and more conducive to reasonable stability at the kind of speeds these engines usually operated at, up to around 40mph.  An 08 has a wheelbase comparable to a Hunslet Austerity but a higher centre of gravity, a perfect storm of poor riding.

 

Is the CoG higher in an 08?    I don't know as I haven't got any information at all on the height of the CoG of any loco - I don't think I've ever seen it specified.  But I would have thought the main mass of the engine and generator is set relatively low under the bonnet with quite a bit of fresh air  towards the top (can't actually find a photo of the insides at the moment to confirm or contradict) whereas a high set boiler full of water and in the case of the the J94 a boiler full of water surmounted by a saddle tank full of water would just be adding insult to injury.   As I say I have no actual data to work on so couldn't say for certain but it's just a thought.     The assertion that a longer wheel base aids stability is undoubtedly true. 

 

10 hours ago, polybear said:

And I wonder just how much that bluddy stupid idea is going to cost - all the signs etc. will be "wrong" for a start.

 

But you are missing the point my dear Bear;   it's a job creation scheme aimed at reducing unemployment.   The beauty of it is of course once it's been done and its dubious benefits demonstrated it can all be undone again thereby creating even more jobs.   I'm reminded of Flanders and Swann.  I can't think why.

 

7 hours ago, PMP said:

The Uk ‘modeller’ doesn’t want to pay what it costs to make them. The southern EMU’s you mention were tooled in the days of much much cheaper Chinese production. If you look at prices for new DMU’s the OO Bachmann 117 and the Heljan 104, you can see the prices the new items are coming in at, 300-450 beer tokens. N gauge 3 car units around the £300 mark.

 

Mondeo man still thinks he’s entitled to cheap toy trains. Unsurprisingly manufacturers are increasingly reticent to put large sums of money into them particularly if they are era and region limited if mondeo man isn’t going to buy them in sufficient numbers. Much easier, and better business to release a newer better A3, 37, in many colours etc etc.

I know of an unannounced product that is underway, much froth and foam will be generated, probably about the price rather than is it any good …

 

I've got a Mondog and I can confirm I won't be buying any of them although probably not for the reasons implied 🤣

 

Alan

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

The suggestion from the North Hipposhire Committee for Sanity and a Better Life* is to build a high fence around Telfland with a single track fenced road exit leading to the Holyhead Ferry.

 

*President Mr. H. Hippo

Vice President Mr. D. Hunt 

 

Dave

 

 

Like the general idea however there is just one tiny problem in that if we let them out we might end up with another Australia and we've got enough 'issues' with that one so do we need another.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Winslow Boy

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

 

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

That’s particularly revealing of the mentality; they don’t want people learning the language because it would diminish their perceived (and deluded) superiority, which they consider themselves ‘entitled’ to because they are natural speakers.  Clwb Ivor Bach, the Welsh speakers’ hangout in Cardiff and a crackin’ music venue, once had a fluent Welsh-speaking Ghanaian barman, and it was wonderful to watch the reactions of Taffiosa types from up-country when he out-Welshed them on their own terms, which, having a Doctorate in the language, he could do standing on his head; come tomy town and you’d better be more open minded than that, yer parochial b*ggers. 
 

First saw Cerys singing in the Ifor Bach; blew me away to hear a voice like that coming out of such a tiny girl. 

English people rarely appreciate that North and South Walians are VERY different people.

 

Years ago my sister and BiL were on holiday in Snowdonia when they witnessed the incident that every English visitor seems to experience there, of walking into a shop where the staff speak English until they have to serve someone.  BiL overheard them make some very derisive comment about the Caesneg customers in front of him; unfortunately for them, BiL was brought up in Trimsaran and is First Language Welsh.  One of the politest people you could possibly meet, he was able to inform the shop staff with what he thought of such rudeness in their own language and in no uncertain terms.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Like the general idea however there is just one tiny problem in that if we let them out we might end up with another Australia and we've got enough 'issues' with that one so do we need another.

The RoI, was placed by God to act as a breakwater for the Welsh coastline along Cardigan Bay.

[PhilJ W]

12 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Moving on from the "contentious" steam era (GWR vs LMS, LMS vs LNER... well you get the drift). One particular region/era that I think gets very short shrift are the EMU workings out of Liverpool Street and Fenchurch St in the early to mid 60s.

 

I find both the class 305

and the class 308

most appealing (and I also have a soft spot for the Class 302 and the Class 306)

All of which are definitely appealing and - as far as public transport goes - a much better passenger experience than these:

 

And, of course, the best liveries would be either plain BR green or plain BR blue...

 

So why are they being neglected by the likes of Hornby, Bachmann and Heljan? They seem to manage to produce Southern Region DMUs and EMUs, so why no ER EMUs?  Could it be the whole pantograph business? Or it a socio-economic thing (lots of posh places served by SR and BR's Southern Region)?

 

I do believe that there are a few small companies that produce kits of some of the ER EMUs, but they seem to be both hard to get hold of and costly (e.g. Britannia Models does a 4 car 308 for a mere £895). I wish Hornby et al. would look into making models of these prototypes - I for one would love to have an opportunity to recreate Gidea Park Station as it was when I was a grubbee skoolboy in the early to mid-sixties...

A class 306 in both DC and AC versions would be my choice. They also operated the Sheffield-Wath services, still in DC mode and blue/grey livery. Another EMU that should be made is the Mersey class 502/503. They carried plenty of liveries from LMS crimson lake to BR blue/grey. 

 

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 I liked then as well, but as it was part and parcel of the old railways, slam doors had to go.

 

As a young teen, I witnessed a total brain donor opening the slam door of a Class 116 DMU to make a very quick exit, whilst the train was still running into Platform Six at Cardiff General (now Central).  He managed to lose control of the door and let it go, so it swung open smashing into a poor lady who was standing there waiting to get on.

 

Lots of first aid from platform staff whilst awaiting the ambulance.  The TBD disappeared between two burly members of the Transport  police. 

I was told of an incident at Barking station in steam days. A passenger arrived as the train was pulling out of the station. He ran after it and managed to open the door but the acceleration of the train made him loose his footing leaving him hanging onto the door. Both he and the door then collided with the bridge pier, they had to wipe him off of the bridge pier with a squeegee.

Edited April 17, 2023 by PhilJ W

[The Johnster]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I can't remember where it was but in the days when Welsh pubs were closed on a Sunday except to those who were bona fide travellers, there was apparently one pub where in theory at least one bar was in England and the other in Wales.

 

When I was at RAF Valley in the '60s there was an enterprising publican nearby who started a club called 'The Bona Fide Travellers' so that any member in his pub on a Sunday could prove he was just that. I don't know whether it worked.

 

Dave 

 

I can certainly remember the opposition from local drinkers in the vicinity of the Festiniog (as it was spelled then) Railway in the late 60s to any attempt to introduce Sunday opening. because despite the fact that you'd have thought they'd be all for it, they all had very effective arrangements of the 'bona fide traveller' or lock-ins for regulars (knock the door round the back) sort, which they knew would be interfered with if Wet Sundays were introduced.  The Festiniog did well out of Dry Sundays as well, as it had Buffet Cars which were allowed to serve alcohol so long as the train was in motion...

 

I was once in the New Inn in Ystradfellte, a legendary pub in those days, on a quiet weekday lunchtime and mentioned that I was peckish to Mrs Howells, the landlord's wife.  'I'll see what's in the fridge', she says; 'no, I don't want to put you to any bother Mrs H, I'll pop over the road to the Post Office and get some sweets or a pie or something', says I.  'No no' she says' this is an Inn, and the ancient laws are that I am obliged to provide refreshment on request to bona fide travellers, and water and hay for your horse'.  She then went into the back and made me some chicken sarnies out of her own fridge.  I have no idea if this was correct, but I was much impressed by it!

 

The landlord, Selwyn, always had a few lame and elderly sheep dogs about the place, which enjoyed being fussed over and given crisps.  This was because of the ruffytuffy macho culture of Welsh hill farmers; if the dog cannot cut the mustard with the sheeps any more, it must be got rid of as it is a working animal that must earn it's keep, duw it's 'ard on a hill farm, no place for sentiment...  So the farmer is supposed to shoot it, and that's an end to that, and all of them claimed to do so to prove how tough and heartless they were to their peers.  However, when you take the dog out to the yard and have the shotgun with you, it isn't stupid and knows what's coming, so it looks at you like that. 

 

There were, and probably still are, pubs dotted around rural Wales that take these dogs in when the farmers discover that the reality of offing faithful old shep with a shotgun when he's looking at you like that with those brown eyes is not as easy as they tell you it is, so you ring Selwyn, or someone like him who will keep schtum about the matter, up and he comes in the Land Rover to collect the old dog and give it an honourable and pleasant retirement...

 

The New Inn is still, I believe, in business but has been much gentrified and has a pretty good restaurant nowadays.  Nowt wrong with that, but it's not as good as the old days in the flagstone floor bar.

[polybear]

3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

The landlord, Selwyn........

 

That reminds me of a TV series in the mid 70's starring the late, great Bill Maynard:

"Oh No, it's Selwyn Froggit"

About time they replayed it on telly.

[monkeysarefun]

11 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

That reminds me of a TV series in the mid 70's starring the late, great Bill Maynard:

"Oh No, it's Selwyn Froggit"

About time they replayed it on telly.

 

Pilot and 28 episodes...

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4TtQ5WUqAm-MVtosG9IilSNOKmQMDwOS

 

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, Northmoor said:

English people rarely appreciate that North and South Walians are VERY different people.

 

Years ago my sister and BiL were on holiday in Snowdonia when they witnessed the incident that every English visitor seems to experience there, of walking into a shop where the staff speak English until they have to serve someone.  BiL overheard them make some very derisive comment about the Caesneg customers in front of him; unfortunately for them, BiL was brought up in Trimsaran and is First Language Welsh.  One of the politest people you could possibly meet, he was able to inform the shop staff with what he thought of such rudeness in their own language and in no uncertain terms.

We sometimes, here the phrase"les anglais"in conversations around us.  A quick bon journée usually produces a n embarrassed face. 

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

This morning will see a trip up to Telf central.

 

Nyda wants to visit Hobbycraft and the new Range.  I need to pick up some 18mm thick plywood.

 

I was a little disappointed when I discovered 'The Range' is not a place to shoot, but is some sort of shop.

 

The ply is needed for some parts of a cross cut sled I am making for my table saw.

 

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[Hroth]

10 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Another EMU that should be made is the Mersey class 502/503. They carried plenty of liveries from LMS crimson lake to BR blue/grey. 

 

And Hornby has the real thing to hand in the 1:1 store behind their offices...

 

 

It couldn't be easier for them to get it scanned, 3d printed and run up the flagpole...

 

[monkeysarefun]

14 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Like the general idea however there is just one tiny problem in that if we let them out we might end up with another Australia and we've got enough 'issues' with that one so do we need another.

Well maybe  just  pay your doctor's and nurses  a decent wage   and they won't all be rushing  down here, spending all the extra time they get off taking.up space  on Bondi Beach and you won't spend 2 days  waiting around in  A and E.

Edited April 18, 2023 by monkeysarefun