The Night Mail

[Winslow Boy]

We give Telford a wide berth and we've never even bin there.

Edited Saturday at 07:39 by Winslow Boy
Freudian slip that should be 'been' not 'bin'.

[Happy Hippo]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

I would have thought that Captain Cynical could make good use of some of  ALL the knuckle draggers that infest Telfland. Not only would that provide him with cannon fodder but would benefit the rest of us who occasionally are forced to enter the Telfs’ environment by their absence.

 

Dave

I've modified your cunning plan slightly, which in the longer term, will improve the gene pool immensely.

[DenysW]

18 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

any claims that if it's not Midland Railway, it doesn't count is simply not true.

Yes, there's also the Midland Counties, the North Midland, The Birmingham & Derby Junction, the North-Western, the LT&S post-1911, ... The list goes on.

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Thanks to that most inspiring film clip, I shall now, and forever more, give Telford an extremely wide berth…

My father was very impressed by the people of Telford. He and Mum were travelling back from a holiday somewhere in Shropshire when part of the suspension broke on their trailer tent. They parked up in an industrial estate in Telford and at first light Dad removed the broken part and started off looking for somewhere to weld it. A man stopped and asked if Dad needed help and someday asked him if he knew where he could get his part welded. The chap said “hop in” and took him to his specialist welding business and fixed it, no charge, glad to help etc. 

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

We give Telford a wide berth and we've never even bin there.

If you are travelling North to South, or vice versa sticking on the A442 allows you to sweep past Hollinswood(which is Telf Central) at a sedate 60 mph, so if you hold your nose, you can easily avoid the stench.

 

Travelling East to West, or in the opposite direction if you are heading away from civilisation (Welsh border) then if you blink you'll miss it.

 

People who live in the area, but do not live in the immediate area of the town centre always refer to living in their immediate locale and not the town that was forced on them.

 

It is rumoured that when the new town centre was built, they surrounded it with social housing and then populated it with the flotsam and jetsam from the Black County conurbation.

 

Going onto such estates, can be an exercise in determination because the numbering of the houses and the layout of the roads does not seem to follow the accepted convention of  odd numbers one side and even numbers the other.

 

This is possibly because the residents have yet to learn to count!

 

The same can be alluded from the lack of signage for the roads, as the residents can't read.

[Happy Hippo]

13 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

My father was very impressed by the people of Telford. He and Mum were travelling back from a holiday somewhere in Shropshire when part of the suspension broke on their trailer tent. They parked up in an industrial estate in Telford and at first light Dad removed the broken part and started off looking for somewhere to weld it. A man stopped and asked if Dad needed help and someday asked him if he knew where he could get his part welded. The chap said “hop in” and took him to his specialist welding business and fixed it, no charge, glad to help etc. 

A lucky escape, the kind chap was obviously not a Telf.

 

The locals would have circled the mechanical horse and wagon, and emulated the cliche of irate native American attack on a settlers wagon train. 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

then populated it with the flotsam and jetsam from the Black County conurbation.

That could have been me! My parents lived in Wolverhampton and were evicted from their rented rooms just before I was born. They had to return to live with my father’s parents in Acocks Green Birmingham.  

Edited Saturday at 09:00 by Tony_S
Added location in Birmingham.

[SM42]

The odd / even house number exception in Telf is  not the only example. 

 

I grew up in a street where No. 57 was  and still is, opposite No 49 and No 10 opposite number No 74. 

 

Confused the hell out of delivery drivers.  Still does. 

 

The reason behind it, I'm told, is that the crescent was divided into plots and each plot was bought by individual builders, who built a house on said plot.  

 

The plots were numbered consecutively  from one end around the outside and then back again to the beginning round the inside.  

 

As the houses were built one by one and at different rates by the different builders rather than in a huge job lot by one builder, the houses retained the plot numbers as they got built.   

 

Another consequence is the houses aren't all replicas of each other and you can tell which builder had most cash  at the time by the number of similar style houses. 

 

Andy

 

 

[GMKAT7]

Good morning folks,

 

Our bungalow also sits on a road where the house numbers don't match across from each other.

We are 28, the bungalow opposite is 43.

 

There is no 13 in the odd numbered side, but to be that far out is down to the opposite side being on the outside of a curve. Thus, more plots have been squeezed in.

Plus, the houses and bungalows are all different, which probably relates to separate plots and builders as SM42 said.

 

At least all the even numbers are on the same side!

Which must prove that sheep (as in Derbyshire) can read 😂

[zarniwhoop]

I live in a close (straightish road across the hillside). My house (No.3) looks across to the rear of the last house (No. 42). The street starts to my left (Nos. 1 and 2) and numbers continue on my side to the low teens. All in short terraces. The numbers resume  on a pedestrian access up the hill at the far end and run down most of the length of the hill before resuming on the opposite side of my part, but at the inner end and all facing downhill. My part has garages with forecourts in front of houses, there some garages in

a block off the other side of the street, and others a little down the hill (access from older road at rear) and some low down with access from the road which my part of the close is off.

 

So the close is basically a shortish road as the axis of a 'To on its side, with a very long crosspiece for pedestrians.

 

This was a self-build area for Brighton in the 1980s. I remember when you could see it all from the road at the back, it was a large grassy area with some of those field ornaments.

[Oldddudders]

4 hours ago, Northroader said:

Local bus driver from Dawley was Walter Hart

He and Captain Webb.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

The odd / even house number exception in Telf is  not the only example. 

 

I grew up in a street where No. 57 was  and still is, opposite No 49 and No 10 opposite number No 74. 

 

Confused the hell out of delivery drivers.  Still does. 

 

The reason behind it, I'm told, is that the crescent was divided into plots and each plot was bought by individual builders, who built a house on said plot.  

 

The plots were numbered consecutively  from one end around the outside and then back again to the beginning round the inside.  

 

As the houses were built one by one and at different rates by the different builders rather than in a huge job lot by one builder, the houses retained the plot numbers as they got built.   

 

Another consequence is the houses aren't all replicas of each other and you can tell which builder had most cash  at the time by the number of similar style houses. 

 

Andy

 

 

Almost as bad as Leek Street Flats in Hunslet, South Leeds.  5 stories high with walkways between blocks. Every two floors. From the front doors you could go up or down or even stay on the same level.  Often two adjacent doors would have totally different numbers and street names.  There were some excellent plans that gave you a clue but they did, t always survive.  All built with prefabricated pabpnels from Shepherd Construction 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunslet_Grange_Flats

 

Hunslet Grange was the posh Sunday name. 

 

As to Telfs, one future daughter in law is a Telf.  Nuf said. 

 

Jamie

[DaveF]

On my road the numbers from 1 to 20 make sense, after that there are only odd numbers as for some reason houses were only built on one side of the road, the opposite side has a garden of a house on the next road, then grass and some parking spaces.  It makes it very quiet and more spacious than many modern estates.  The road behind my house is even odder - two quite large grass squares with trees, the houses are round the perimeter of the squares.  The second road off my road has houses on only one side for most of its length, the third road again has a square with trees.

 

Finally my road has no houses at all directly on it for the first 100 yards.

 

It is unlike the rest of the estate which is much more normal - except for a very large grass field about 0.4 miles long in the middle of it.

 

David

Edited Saturday at 11:41 by DaveF

[SM42]

A friend of ours lives at No 13. 

 

Now their house is on the corner at the end of their road  if you were to turn right out of their road you would reach the end of the road in two car lengths. Turn left to get back out to the main access road through the estate ( the road they live next to, but not on, has a different name to theirs, and was built about 30 years later) 

 

If you were to start at this junction and head along their road by car, first you would need to squeeze between the kerb lines. There's just enough room to get a car through although you may get a pedestrian with your mirrors  

After about 50 yds you come to the end of the driveable road. The road and houses continue pedestrian only  

 

To access the other end of the road  or its mid point you can walk a few hundred yards, or drive, by leaving their road, turning left, left onto the main road and left again 

 

There doesn't seem to be any logic to the layout at all and has all the hall marks of some houses squeezed in between the rears of previous builds, although it seems too spacious  

or contemporaneous in building  style for that. 

Further houses have since been squeezed in.  

 

Trying to find a particular house by car is a master class in map reading as you have to dive down other cul de sacs to get there, sometimes from a direction that defies logic. 

 

I'm sure removals and delivery folk  hate it.  

 

You can never be 100% sure of which road you are on and if you've got the right  No 21 etc

 

Andy

Edited Saturday at 13:34 by SM42

[GMKAT7]

Good afternoon folks,

 

Sorry, one more house numbering oddity from me.

 

My parents house was the start of a close, branching off the main access road. However, it was a semi-detached and the house next door was numbered as part of the main road.

 

So, there's was No. 1 and next door is No. 103!

Directly opposite was No. 2 of the close, attached to No. 105.

 

Pity any new posties or delivery drivers.

We had more than one flummoxed when looking for 105, expecting it to be us 😂

 

Being at the bend point in a 90 degree corner meant a clear view along both legs of the main road.

It made a good observation point and was used by Coventry 's thin blue line more than once.

Including, unfortunately, one of their number who turned from the drug squad into being 'the man'. 🙄

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[Flying Fox 34F]

House numbering and road names in rural Romania, defy reasonable logic.  
 

There are four houses around mine, one of which is a cross the road, which runs through the village.  This road has no official name, (that causes much fun for official documents)!

 

Two houses are 168A and 168C.  Mine is 168D and over the road is 168E.  There is no listed 168 or 168B?  The final house next to mine is 243?????

 

Fortunately, my house is the only one continuously occupied, three are weekend, nice weather homes, No. 243 is empty!  At least the Postman knows where I am.

 

Paul

[TheQ]

Where we lived in MK, was built in squares... Facing outwards.. so the other side of the road had a different name, the squares were sometimes offset from each other so one straight road may have half a dozen names overlapping each other. As for the numbers, they started in one place on a square and went round the block. So eventually the highest number was next to the lowest. Across the roads numbers, had no relationship to your own.

 

As for this road where we live now, of couple of miles long, less than twenty houses on it ... No numbers, all named.

[Northroader]

4 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

He and Captain Webb.

Captain Webb wannerd a bus driver, E was fust to swim the Channel, then killed hisself goin over Niagara Falls in a barrel, thee sist, an a bus driver wunna have dun that. Walter Hart and is Bedford wan in the Shropshire Omnibus Association, an one on em did the late night run on Saturday night to Dawley from Wellingtun, with that lot from the Lamb goin home, but they didna go straight through pass Lawley, they went thru Red Lake, Dark Lane, an Dawley Bonk. If thee wast theer then, yow wudna worry bout what’s livin theer now. There was the Jacksons in Malinslee, thee cust see their little jockey pushing an owd bike fraame with pram wheels loaded with a sackful a cinders took from the pipe works tip in Frame Lane. Go in thur house an thee wutna see any doors, picter rails., or skirtin boards, all firewood.

Edited Saturday at 15:35 by Northroader

[jjb1970]

Randomized addresses and a lack of logic give a place character, it adds something to life. Take Singapore for example, everything is painfully logical and sensible, it's clean, there's no graffiti, it's safe to go for a walk at any hour of the day or night and everything works. No character at all, what sort of person would want a place like that? I am doing my best to make it more normal and somewhere a human being with a soul would want to live by lowering the tone and adding neglect where I can but there's a limit to what an individual can do. The airport is the worst, 8 minutes from doors open to the taxi stand if hand luggage only, it's outrageous and almost a form of robbery as people want to have hours standing around to admire airports. The other day I had over an hour waiting to have my passport checked at Frankfurt and an hour and a half in Copenhagen, now that's value for money, not this get punters out the door as quickly as possible nonsense.

[TheQ]

6 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Captain Webb wannerd a bus driver, E was fust to swim the Channel, then killed hisself goin over Niagara Falls in a barrel, thee sist, an a bus driver wunna have dun that. Walter Hart and is Bedford wan in the Shropshire Omnibus Association, an one on em did the late night run on Saturday night to Dawley from Wellingtun, with that lot from the Lamb goin home, but they didna go straight through pass Lawley, they went thru Red Lake, Dark Lane, an Malinslee. If thee wast theer then, yow wudna worry bout what’s livin theer now.

Que?

[J. S. Bach]

I live at the end of a cul-de-sac with the number 1100, the odds are all one one side and the evens on the other going away from me. the numbers are consecutive but not 1, 3, 5; there are larger spacings in the sequence. But we have quite large lots; mine is about six acres or so but about two of that is the easement for Norfolk Southern's "R" line from Columbia, SC to Charlotte, NC. Just about 350 feet from my back door to the centerline of the track! I actually cannot see the trains due to lots of trees and the track is in a cut. The summer view:

 

And the winter view:

 

And the view up the driveway to the cul-de-sac:

 

Edited Saturday at 15:41 by J. S. Bach

[iL Dottore]

i’m most disappointed that so many TNMs are so disparaging about the inhabitants of Telfland.

 

No human being is completely worthless, some make excellent organ donors….

[Oldddudders]

Just now, iL Dottore said:

i’m most disappointed that so many TNMs are so disparaging about the inhabitants of Telfland.

 

No human being is completely worthless, some make excellent organ donors….

The latter comment is reminiscent of the unofficial views of staff at Centre Hospitalier in Le Mans, on the annual weekend of the motor bike grand prix. The visitors donate more than they expect....

[jamie92208]

I'm quite proud of myself.   Back in April, with the help of a friend we started putting new metal feet on the four oak pillars that support the verandah roof, which is a heavy tiled one.   The original posts, now some 50 years old have rotted as they were standing in rainwater that got trapped.   The first three went quite easily but the fourth was found to have rotted, internally at least 9" up. Thus is the verandah.

Three of the posts have had their new feet fitted.  (Pied de poteau reglaible) This was the piece we cut out of the fourth one showing the upper serface.

 

1

Things were left there for a while as it was obvious that more rotten wood would have to be cut out.  So Acrow props were left holding the corner up.

 

I went to our local good timber merchant and sourced a piece of oak, 2.5m by 180 by 180.  This cost ne 86 euros, and weighed a lot.    I tried cutting it to 165 by 165 but my hand or power saws were not man enough.   Fortunately I managed to get a local joiner to plane it to size and cut it to length.     With assistance from the same friend  and some work with the handsaw and then the chisel the new piece we eventually inserted into the remaining pillar.

I got it perpendicular with the aid of using a horizontal acrow prop once the foot was bolted in place.   I had remembered to drill the vertical holes for the coach screws, in the base.

 

I wanted to use a couple of wooden dowels to hold it secure so drilled 6mm pilot holes through the joint then went in search of some dowel.  I got some 15mm diameter but couldn't find a 15 mm drill.   I thought about it and looked in my drawer of assorted drills and found a 16mm flat bit.  This turned out to be 15.7mm across the flats so I ground it down and drilled a test hole in some scrap.   A tad too large so I ground some more off till it was 14.3mm AF.   This turned out to be the right size for an interference fit.   

Two lengths of dowel were cut and hammered home with the mallet.   I dn't think that ths joint is going to shift.

I just need to trim the dowels then fill the joint and stain the new wood.   I can now get on with my next important task, creating a layout for a certain 5 yr old.

A work in progress.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 16:05 by jamie92208

[DaveF]

I had a quite normal Saturday except that I decided to visit the model shop in my town which I "found" yesterday - it has only been there for seven years but on a road I don't often use.  He sells mainly war games stuff and other plastic kits but that includes scenic items, plastic card, a good range of acrylic paints etc.  He also has a small stock of railway stuff.

 

I went today as he mentioned yesterday that he had an 0 gauge Dapol GWR railcar as when someone had ordered one from him he decided to get two.  He doesn't get 0 gauge modellers very often so he offered me a very good deal.

 

So it now has a home on my Midland Railway circa 1912 layout.  I do actually have a number of out of period/location models just because I like them and run them from time to time.  The photos are taken with my phone.

 

 

 

One day I will start on the scenic detailing to improve the grass, fences etc but when I run the layout I don't notice the imperfections.

 

David

 

 

Edited Saturday at 16:16 by DaveF