The Night Mail

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

Whilst I'm out I'd better fuel the car up for tomorrow's trip to Hereford.

 

Where, hopefully, 'urricanes 'ardly ever 'appen.

 

[Hroth]

 

But don't use the derogatory "H" word that has earned the original "Mary Poppins" a regrading to PG from the original U.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68402362

 

[Happy Hippo]

Hoity Toity!

 

That'll get the woke brigade running for cover...

[SM42]

Well I've been busy today.

 

All phones calls made and then I've been in the loft to start filling the holes in the airing cupboard ceiling that were left after the heating was altered 18 months ago. 

 

While up there had a minor water escape issue whilst removing redundant pipe work and also found my chisels, sander and jigsaw.

 

This explains why I didn't find them in the shed back in November. 

 

 

Andy

Edited February 26 by SM42

[bbishop]

So yesterday was spent at Lord's - becoming an ER.  This doesn't mean a conversion to the dark side of RMWeb but a requirement to take four modules to become an Emergency Responder.  Two modules were patient handling in the Warner Stand, in the freezing cold with a brisk north wind.  

 

It would have been a blade of grass on the cricket square, with an electric heater trundling back and forth keeping them all above freezing.

[Tony_S]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

We have a half bottle of champagne style Cognac

I didn’t think Champagne Cognac was fizzy.

[jamie92208]

13 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I didn’t think Champagne Cognac was fizzy.

It's a special produced by one of our local Cognac producers though he can't call it Cognac.  It is fizzy Cognac.  He also does a fizzy pineau. 

 

Jamie

[Northmoor]

I've just uploaded forty-odd of my favourite black and white railway photos to my Flickr Photostream.

 

I just started to add captions (need to find dates for most of them) and noticed quite a few taken on days when I was meant to be working (none recently, honest), either, "I'm just nipping out for a bit", or "What took you so long, they said you left the office two hours ago?".

 

Ahem..... never mind.  Whatever work I was doing at the time is long forgotten, but plenty of those photographs are unrepeatable.  I blame my Dad, he was a bad influence taking me on work trips to Port Talbot or somewhere and instead of rushing back to the office, spending an hour in the afternoon between site meetings, photographing trains.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[AndyID]

9 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

It's a special produced by one of our local Cognac producers though he can't call it Cognac.  It is fizzy Cognac.  He also does a fizzy pineau. 

 

Jamie

 

Are you in the legit Cognac area?

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

Are you in the legit Cognac area?

Yes,we are in the official  Cognac region about 3 miles from the Northern boundary. Our local vineyard/distillery is about 3 miles WNW of us but if we drive south we go  through many acres of vines.  Most of the vineyards sell their production to the big three in Cognac, Martell,  Rémy Martin and Hennessy.  However there are several independents and their Cognac beats the big three's into a cocked hat.  We don't drink that much cognac

but do like the Independent's products. Their pineau is always very palatable. Any time is pineau time. 

 

Jamie

 

 

 

[polybear]

6 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I've just uploaded forty-odd of my favourite black and white railway photos to my Flickr Photostream.

 

I just started to add captions (need to find dates for most of them) and noticed quite a few taken on days when I was meant to be working (none recently, honest), either, "I'm just nipping out for a bit", or "What took you so long, they said you left the office two hours ago?".

 

Ahem..... never mind.  Whatever work I was doing at the time is long forgotten, but plenty of those photographs are unrepeatable.  I blame my Dad, he was a bad influence taking me on work trips to Port Talbot or somewhere and instead of rushing back to the office, spending an hour in the afternoon between site meetings, photographing trains.

 

Shocking, disgraceful behaviour...abusing the trust of your employer etc. etc.  You'll be saying next that the poor taxpayers were paying your wages as well, making it infinitely worse.

 

You would NEVER have caught Bear doing such things - and you'd be right.

I never was caught.

 

 

 

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Shocking, disgraceful behaviour...abusing the trust of your employer etc. etc.  You'll be saying next that the poor taxpayers were paying your wages as well, making it infinitely worse.

 

You would NEVER have caught Bear doing such things - and you'd be right.

I never was caught.

Well done.  If you're going to spend a third of your working day doing something you might as well try and enjoy it.  Actually while I may not have mentioned at work (except to a close colleague who was also a railway enthusiast) if I was, for example, "delayed" by half an hour to photograph a passing steam special, I was always honest enough to deduct that time from my timesheets.  

 

When in the public sector or private, the vast majority were honest about their time but there were a few individuals who really took the you-know-what and got away with it for years.  Not long before leaving I found that a colleague, innocently due to being wrongly advised by his manager, had been over-claiming on home-to-duty mileage by about 400% for nearly four years.

[SM42]

Sometimes I wonder about the complex ways employers organise their pay roll. 

 

Mrs SM42 has to fill in a monthly time sheet detailing extra hours over and above contract, in decimal time, allowing for breaks etc. 

 

Why she can't just fill in hours worked and they multiply by pay rate I don't know. ( OT  is flat fate at her place)

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

Why make things easy when you can make them complicated and annoy people. I believe this statement is the motto of most Payroll/Accounts/Tax offices/solicitors etc

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

5 hours sleep, medium awake 2 hours sleep a good night for me.

 

Ben asked for out but not urgently, so I had another 5 minutes repose before heading out.

Ben just had a good wander, not finding a scent to follow.

 

Dull over overcast, ground still drying out, I'm going to have to buy sand to fill in various hollows that have formed. Sand would help with the lack of drainage rather than soil from elsewhere in the garden.

 

 

Only during the 6 years of field service in the UK did I have any opportunity to divert, but even then it was limited, as often I was carrying stuff that had to go from secure room to secure room. Having the car broken into or stolen at anywhere but a legitimate stopping point, would definitely have been a sacking offence possibly even jailing.

 

Hmm struggling to keep the fire going with the "new eco coal" it's not self sustaining without the bottom air vent open, but then it at time burns out very quickly. It doesn't keep in well overnight either.

 

Just a hundred day till D-Day, I'd better get on with these radar models...

Time to get ready for the museum...

 

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

One morning in 1977 my shift Sergeant and I found that we had some urgent enquiries to conduct in the Hunslet area near the Midland Main Line. The enquiries were productive.

And another.

On it's way from Carnforth to somewhere in the southlands.

 

Jamie

 

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

The enquiries were productive.

 

That engine should have been charged with wasting police time....

[jamie92208]

8 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That engine should have been charged with wasting police time....

Agree as I'm a red engine fan and my Sgt was an apple green engine fan. 

 

Jamie

[Oldddudders]

I find myself on the 08.23 Exeter St D to Waterloo. It was not my First (!) choice for today's brief visit to London, but my chosen 05.05 from Penzance to Padlington, which should have started from St Austell for some reason, was first shown on RTT as cancelled, but subsequently ran 5 vice 9 cars a bit late. As I don't pay for my travel, it behoves me morally to avoid overcrowded trains if I can, so I caught a Paignton to Exmouth service from Newton Abbot and changed at St D. The up fast passed us at Dawlish Warren, and was indeed only 5 cars.

 

If you read the thread about the IEP units, they are, being on diesel, rather underpowered for the West Country banks and timekeeping suffers. Yet leaving St Austell 22 late, and being 5 vice 9, with all the added dwell time that implies as people find a seat - no reservations available - that Paddington train had picked up a good 10 mins by the time it passed us. The best was being done.  

 

The Exmouth service was only 2-cars, and was harry-packed from Teignmouth, many passengers being studente, who were en route Exeter Central where the college is across the road. But when this Waterloo train called at Pinhoe, a significant number of college-age kids alighted there, so some seat of learning must be close by.

 

A story I have reported before on RMweb, about  Pinhoe and Whimple, bears repeating here. In early 1984 control of Salisbury - Exeter passed back from Western Region to Southern. To survey their new charge the Region's Chief Officers had a special over the route - sadly a shadow of the one handed to Western more than 20 years before, with most of it singled. The Regional Planning Manager, a teetotal Scot and a very decent chap, was deputed to minute what they saw. His notes included stations called Wimpole and Pinhole...

 

 

[Northmoor]

47 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I find myself on the 08.23 Exeter St D to Waterloo. It was not my First (!) choice for today's brief visit to London,

Do give us a wave as you go under the Frimley aqueduct or the high Deepcut bridge just after it, the nearest points on the LSWR main line to Chateau Northmoor.  I won't be by the lineside, obviously I'll be pretending to work, but just imagine that I am returning your wave....

[Oldddudders]

I waved, honest!

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Why make things easy when you can make them complicated and annoy people. I believe this statement is the motto of most Payroll/Accounts/Tax offices/solicitors etc

Having spent most of my career in payroll I feel offended by that remark as would most of my former colleagues. Our general attitude was that weekly pay packet/monthly pay cheque was what people work for and are entitled too and we do our best to get it to them when due. Any queries it was in our own interest to deal with asap even if we were unable to settle the matter to their satisfaction. Often it would be something beyond our control such as a timesheet still sitting on a managers desk. I can't speak for solicitors or accountants but most Tax offices are equally very helpful.  

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Having spent most of my career in payroll I feel offended by that remark as would most of my former colleagues. Our general attitude was that weekly pay packet/monthly pay cheque was what people work for and are entitled too and we do our best to get it to them when due. Any queries it was in our own interest to deal with asap even if we were unable to settle the matter to their satisfaction. Often it would be something beyond our control such as a timesheet still sitting on a managers desk. I can't speak for solicitors or accountants but most Tax offices are equally very helpful.  

I'm sorry that you feel offended and I'm well aware that there people within such organisations who are diligent and conscientious, however there are also people who are not and who don't consider what impact there actions might have on others. Having had a number of such encounters, I have had cause to question why someone should be treated as a professional when they deal with others in an unprofessional way.

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Having spent most of my career in payroll I feel offended by that remark as would most of my former colleagues. Our general attitude was that weekly pay packet/monthly pay cheque was what people work for and are entitled too and we do our best to get it to them when due. Any queries it was in our own interest to deal with asap even if we were unable to settle the matter to their satisfaction. Often it would be something beyond our control such as a timesheet still sitting on a managers desk. I can't speak for solicitors or accountants but most Tax offices are equally very helpful.  

When I had a major unpleasantness at work, not long before I finished, the department that helped me most was Pay Section and I was very grateful for their sound advice. Pensions were also very helpful.  HR and one or two other departments I will not speak about. 

 

@NorthmoorI  I waved as I went under the Niort to Cognac line this morning, honest guv.  Just trying to be helpful. 

 

Jamie

Edited February 27 by jamie92208