The Night Mail

[Hroth]

11 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

 

Similar reaction for my idea for a T shirt /hat stall outside the White Rose shopping centre with the logo "I hate f-ing shopping'.  

 

Jamie

 

You missed out the hyphen, but I've fixed it...  🤪

 

[SM42]

Fiddle!

 

I've run out of fence paint. 

 

Two panels to go. 

 

 

Andy

 

[Hroth]

1 minute ago, SM42 said:

Fiddle!

 

I've run out of fence paint. 

 

Two panels to go. 

 

 

Andy

 

 

 

You'll have to get dressed and pop down to b&q...

 

[Oldddudders]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Similar reaction for my idea for a T shirt /hat stall outside the White Rose shopping centre with the logo "I hate fing shopping'.  

I'm still hoping to find some men's lower undergarments that proclaim "May contain nuts". 

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Which posters are those Q?

Now I’m not au fait with all the minutiae of WWII British posters, but I’m pretty sure the various ministries of the time didn’t issue posters that read along the lines of

 

< Girls, do YOUR bit for Military Morale: get your **** out for the troops >
or

< Ladies, help feed Britain: Bonk a GI for spam and chocolate (and nylons for yourselves) >

 

Is someone at your museum perhaps a tad oversensitive???

Women's Land Army? They had recruitment posters saying 'Backs to the land'. Some of those women worked as lumberjacks (lumberjills?) who I'm sure could look after themselves.

[Dave Hunt]

Maybe it's the "Keep mum, she's not so dumb,"ones showing a voluptuous blonde with men from the three services mooning over her? 

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I'm still hoping to find some men's lower undergarments that proclaim "May contain nuts". 

 

Or "Danger - skid risk" ?

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Women's Land Army? They had recruitment posters saying 'Backs to the land'. Some of those women worked as lumberjacks (lumberjills?) who I'm sure could look after themselves.

 

Or like my wife's aunt, marry the farmers eldest son. 

 

33 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Or "Danger - skid risk" ?

 

Dave

Or ladies undergarments with "No entry except for access" 

 

Jamie 

[Hroth]

10 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

 

Or ladies undergarments with "No entry except for access" 

 

Jamie 

 

Sharp intake of breath...

 

[Steamport Southport]

11 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Are there any original bits?

 

I suspect that people would still come to see it was a piece of clever stage-craft with a smoke/steam and sound generator in the tender and propulsion was provided by the diesel at the rear of the train.

 

Why when it's actually now a decent engine? Had some fantastic runs behind it when at the ELR.

 

I still maintain it's overrated and should be in private hands though.

 

 

 

Jason

[Winslow Boy]

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

In other news I seem tobe looking forward to having an an action packed day.

 

First off is to get my dive cylinder, which I use for recharging my air rifles, up to the local company that re-fills and tests cylinders.  The 5 year pressure test certification expires this month, so it has to be inspected and then hydraulically tested.  I shudder to think what the test pressure is, as the cylinder is rated at 300bar.

 

Then it's off west down the A5 to Llandrinio for the Borders MRC workshop day.

 

Since it is a nice day, I may extend my journey down the A5 to Chirk and drop into the Dapol factory and see if they have any  7 mm scale bargains in the NQP bin.

 

Then this evening I am off on a recce to Newport (Salop) for a Girlguiding event that Nyda is organising.

 

The days of saying 'It's a nice evening, we'll just go for a walk around town and play some games in the park, rather than use the meeting hall' have long gone.

 

Now it's a full recce, risk assessments, permission slips, responsible person as point of contact.

 

Not because they will be scaling the Eigerwand, but they are going outside the designated meeting place by about 50-100 yards!

You have to love bureaucracy. 

[Happy Hippo]

5 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I'm still hoping to find some men's lower undergarments that proclaim "May contain nuts". 

Best I can come up with:

 

 

 

Or a slight change of tone

[PhilJ W]

[br2975]

23 hours ago, br2975 said:

WARNING – RANT ALERT

 

Below is a copy of an e.mail I have 'fired off'  today, in the direction of the local "Electoral Services"

.

.

I have cast my vote in every General Election since I came of age, in 1974.

 

Many months ago, my wife and I booked a foreign holiday.

 

We depart Cardiff Airport at 06:20hrs on Thursday, 27th. June, 2024, which means we will need to arrive at the airport sometime after 04:00hrs.

 

We return to the U.K. on Thursday, 4th. July, 2024.

 

Some months after we had booked the holiday, the Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon. Rishi Sunak M.P. made the decision to call a General Election.

 

The date set for the General Election is Thursday, 4th. July, 2024.

 

The date my wife and I are due to return to the U.K.

 

It is highly likely that we will return too late to cast our vote at our allotted Polling Station.

 

To this end, we took the decision to vote by post.

 

The relevant websites, namely “The Electoral Commission” and “GOV.UK” both stated that the closing date for applications to vote by post for the 2024

General Election was 17:00hrs (5pm), Wednesday, 19th. June 2024.

 

My wife and I submitted our applications on line, on 6th. June, 2024 almost two weeks before the 19th. June closing date for applications.

 

We both received e.mail confirmation of our applications, and were allocated unique reference numbers.

 

My wife was allocated the Ref. REDACTED

Whilst I was allocated the Ref. REDACTED

 

By Sunday, 23rd. June 2024 neither of us had received a postal vote pack.

 

I sent an e.mail to the Electoral Services, and also contacted the same office by telephone.

 

I have now been advised that postal vote packs are only sent out in two batches;

 

Postal vote packs for existing postal voters, and those whose applications were submitted before 5th. June 2024 were dispatched by post on 14th. June, 2024.

Referred to by staff as the “first run”

 

Postal vote packs for those electors who applied after 5th. June, 2024 will be dispatched en-masse on Wednesday 26th. June, 2024

Referred to by staff as the “second run”

 

Nowhere on either the “UK GOV” or ‘Electoral Commission’ websites can I find any reference to these ‘cut off dates’ and ‘first and second runs’

 

In a telephone call to the Cardiff Electoral Services office which commenced at 10:00hrs on Monday, 24th. June, 2024 I offered to attend at Cardiff County Hall, Atlantic Wharf in order to collect my wife’s and my postal voting packs in order to guarantee my vote.

 

I was told this course of action was not possible, we would have to receive them in the post like everyone else, even though the postal vote packs would arrive whilst my wife and I are out of the country.

 

To this end, my wife and I have been denied our democratic vote, not through any fault of ours, but due to the bureaucratic policies and procedures of the Electoral Commission.

 

Should this matter not be resolved by 12:00hrs (midday) Tuesday, 25th. June, 2024, and your organization can produce some means by which my wife and I may exercise our democratic right on Thursday, 4th. July 2024 I shall pass this and the other e.mails, together with a transcript of my earlier telephone conversation with your staff,  to media outlets of my choosing.

 

I await your response.

.

.

U P D A T E

 

This morning, the postman delivered two Postal Vote Packs, one for yours truly, the other for the good lady.

.

I very much doubt they were posted First Class,  as part of 'the first run' on 14th. June, and had taken 11 days to travel 3 miles.

.

The cynic in me suggests that  yesterday's "rant" proved successful, and there is a way for the Electoral Services to dispatch Postal Vote Packs between the 'first run' and the 'second run'

.

Anyway, two postal votes have now been cast, and returned.

.

.

 

Edited Tuesday at 15:33 by br2975

[ian@stenochs]

5 minutes ago, br2975 said:

.

.

U P D A T E

 

This morning, the postman delivered two Postal Vote Packs, one for yours truly, the other for the good lady.

.

I very much doubt they were posted First Class,  as part of 'the first run' on 14th. June, and had taken 11 days to travel 3 miles.

.

The cynic in me suggests that  yesterday's "rant" proved successful, and there is a way for the Electoral Services to dispatch Postal Vote Packs between the 'first run' and the 'second run'

.

Anyway, two postal votes have now been cast, and returned.

.

.

 

 

Our postal votes were already here in our hotel in Portmadog when we arrived today. No hastle. It only needed a short phone call to our local electoral register office in Ayr on the day after the election date was known to ask that they be redirected.

[br2975]

10 minutes ago, ian@stenochs said:

 

Our postal votes were already here in our hotel in Portmadog when we arrived today. No hastle. It only needed a short phone call to our local electoral register office in Ayr on the day after the election date was known to ask that they be redirected.

.

Obviously your local office contains staff with 'problem solving' capabilities that are lost on the staff here in The Principality.

.

Sadly, redirection to our hotel in Cavtat, Croatia would have proved to be beyond the last straw,

[rockershovel]

6 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Women's Land Army? They had recruitment posters saying 'Backs to the land'. Some of those women worked as lumberjacks (lumberjills?) who I'm sure could look after themselves.

Lumberjanes

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, br2975 said:

Anyway, two postal votes have now been cast, and returned.

.

I will do mine and and post it tomorrow. That should be enough time for the electoral people to do whatever they do with it. I have every confidence in our local posties doing their part of the process. 

[Hroth]

6 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Women's Land Army? They had recruitment posters saying 'Backs to the land'. Some of those women worked as lumberjacks (lumberjills?) who I'm sure could look after themselves.

 

We all know that lumberjacks put on womens clothing, and hang about in bars...

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 ...snip... What EMU would you use as a basis of a such a service?

Brighton Belle?

[Happy Hippo]

4 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Brighton Belle?

Restricted to the 3rd rail 750 DC lines in the South east of England.

 

Not good for your luxury trip up the ECML.

[J. S. Bach]

No real problem, just change the DCC settings!

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Why when it's actually now a decent engine? Had some fantastic runs behind it when at the ELR.

 

I still maintain it's overrated and should be in private hands though.

 

 

 

Jason

 

Primarily cost. The last overhaul cost 4.5 mill and that was in 2016. Another is required in 2029 and that's out to tender now. I would not be surprised if it's well over 10 mill. I think the boiler certificate is up in a few months too. So much of it has already had to be replaced that it's now really a reproduction of the original.

 

Much as I love steam locomotives they are really an anachronism. Nothing can recreate real steam operated railways for me other than old films and my memories from the 1950's.

[Dave Hunt]

31 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Edited Tuesday at 17:29 by Dave Hunt

[AndyID]

28 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Restricted to the 3rd rail 750 DC lines in the South east of England.

 

Not good for your luxury trip up the ECML.

 

Just add a transformer, some rectifiers and a pantograph and Bob's your uncle or possibly your father.