The Night Mail

[jjb1970]

3 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

I saw that programme when I was working in Sakhalin. Most Japanese TV seems pretty loopy but that certainly stood out. 

 

 

Japan really is a bit different.  I love Japan (it's perhaps my favourite country), but it is a bit bonkers.

[Dave Hunt]

I can’t recall the exact details but someone in America tried to get the owner of a preserved P51 Mustang with a near naked lady painted on the nose prosecuted for some imagined offence.

 

Dave 

[jjb1970]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

I can’t recall the exact details but someone in America tried to get the owner of a preserved P51 Mustang with a near naked lady painted on the nose prosecuted for some imagined offence.

 

Dave 

 

Wouldn't that have been historically accurate? The Buccaneer at the RAF museum Hendon site has a raunchy lady painted on it. 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

No, you need to band together to fight the common enemy: the SNCF (aka THE FRENCH)

We have the Italians round here…

 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

As for cult status Emu's

Don’t mention the war, or at least not in Australia.

[iL Dottore]

48 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We have the Italians round here…

 

Intriguing, isn’t it? the French (SNCF), the Germans (DB), the Italians (Trenitalia), the Dutch (through Abelio which is wholly owned by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen), even the Japanese (JR East) are or have been at one time running trains in the UK.

 

Yet, as far as I can make out, there are no British train operating companies running on European rails. Could it be that it is harder to fleece the government over railway contracts in (sorry) a harder business environment in Europe than in the UK?

 

I reckon what Britain needs is to renationalise the railways, but with a twist. The twist, being that many, if not most, of the good private sector working practices (such as promotion being down to ability and not seniority, no jobs for life, et cetera) are brought in And complete transparency.

 

Failing that, role up the existing railway structure, cancel the contracts (the spivs will have already made their money and then some), and then restart afresh with something like the big four of pre-nationalisation days, where each one of the big four would own everything it needs to be a railway: from track to land to rolling stock to signalling to engineering, et cetera et cetera. If you have to, you could even have them as private railways (like in Japan), but with the necessary restrictions in place to prevent the asset strippers from swooping in

Edited July 10 by iL Dottore

[Willie Whizz]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

 

Wouldn't that have been historically accurate? The Buccaneer at the RAF museum Hendon site has a raunchy lady painted on it. 

Political correctness always trumps historical accuracy. That’s why they’ve recently had to shelve a proposed monument to the Royal Navy’s work in suppressing the slave trade. 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

I can’t recall the exact details but someone in America tried to get the owner of a preserved P51 Mustang with a near naked lady painted on the nose prosecuted for some imagined offence.

 

Dave 

This is original nose art on a B-29

 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

The large object store (1:1 collection) behind Hornbys offices in Margate contains a Merseyrail 503 EMU that was originally "preserved" as a working unit and painted in its original LMS livery.  After a while, it was "stored" in the open air and rotted through a lack of attention.

 

At least it is currently in the dry, though I don't know if anything will be done to restore it.  As of early 2024, two carriages are to be scrapped, the remaining one is to be kept for a "future project".

 

Another example of criminal curatorial ineptitude?

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_503

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Lack of resources, I should think.

A three car EMU or any type of MU takes up a lot of space. Unless it is kept in running order and can earn its keep like the 1938 tube train or the Hastings DEMU it is not viable. 

[jjb1970]

The Hendon museum Buccaneer.

 

[Winslow Boy]

Well I'd like to update the cones and barriers saga with a positive outcome but no such luck I'm afraid.

 

Having failed to bring this part of the great conurbation that is Manutopea to a stop the cones and barriers have declared a truce and have signed a non aggression pact. As a result reinforcements in the shape of temporary traffic lights have appeared. These, particularly as they aren't synced with the other lights have proved far more effective. Traffic is now backing onto the roundabout causing that to become jammed. This is outside rush hour as well.

[zarniwhoop]

11 hours ago, BR60103 said:

I don't know why, but tonight's Night Mail has taken me longer to get through than ever before.

 

I have tried to avoid rating political discussions or television programs I've never seen.

 

I rate randomly - a lot of posts both here and on ERs are either "no interest" or "not understood" or "more than one rating should apply, unsure which". For some of the latter two (particularly posts which have only just appeared) I do come back and usually go with the flow.

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

Well I'd like to update the cones and barriers saga with a positive outcome but no such luck I'm afraid.

 

Having failed to bring this part of the great conurbation that is Manutopea to a stop the cones and barriers have declared a truce and have signed a non aggression pact. As a result reinforcements in the shape of temporary traffic lights have appeared. These, particularly as they aren't synced with the other lights have proved far more effective. Traffic is now backing onto the roundabout causing that to become jammed. This is outside rush hour as well.

 

Pop Up traffic lights are always inappropriately phased, especially when they cater for a side road.  In that case, it always seems that the side road gets twice as much opportunity for movement as the main road.  One sequence I observed was:  Main (up), Side, Main (down), Side. So if you were proceeding along the main and missed your phase, you had to wait for three phases rather than two.  Oh yes, each phase was of equal length, even if the side road was not particularly busy...

 

Have a nice day!

 

[rockershovel]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

We have the Italians round here…

 

Yes, but you don't fight Italians, do you?

[rockershovel]

3 hours ago, Willie Whizz said:

Political correctness always trumps historical accuracy. That’s why they’ve recently had to shelve a proposed monument to the Royal Navy’s work in suppressing the slave trade. 

Abolitionists did not exist, by definition..... 

[rockershovel]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Intriguing, isn’t it? the French (SNCF), the Germans (DB), the Italians (Trenitalia), the Dutch (through Abelio which is wholly owned by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen), even the Japanese (JR East) are or have been at one time running trains in the UK.

 

Yet, as far as I can make out, there are no British train operating companies running on European rails. Could it be that it is harder to fleece the government over railway contracts in (sorry) a harder business environment in Europe than in the UK?

 

I reckon what Britain needs is to renationalise the railways, but with a twist. The twist, being that many, if not most, of the good private sector working practices (such as promotion being down to ability and not seniority, no jobs for life, et cetera) are brought in And complete transparency.

 

Failing that, role up the existing railway structure, cancel the contracts (the spivs will have already made their money and then some), and then restart afresh with something like the big four of pre-nationalisation days, where each one of the big four would own everything it needs to be a railway: from track to land to rolling stock to signalling to engineering, et cetera et cetera. If you have to, you could even have them as private railways (like in Japan), but with the necessary restrictions in place to prevent the asset strippers from swooping in

It isn't just operating the railways. HS2 was, probably still is being built by consortia headed by such well-known British names as Vinci, Skanska and Ferrovial. Its rolling stock is built by those sturdy artisans from the North East, Siemens and Hitachi. 

 

Most of the training being done there is funnelled to contract workers from Eastern and Central Europe. 

 

We have had a long succession of governments which regard actually representing the interests of the electorate as scarcely preferable to molesting choir boys in public lavatories or being slapped in the face with a large, none-too-fresh fish. 

[iL Dottore]

Something for @polybear and other (ahem. ahem) "Gastronauts" on TNM: https://www.theguardian.com/food/article/2024/jul/06/blue-cheese-or-caviar-ice-cream-toppings-get-weird-and-wacky

Here is a screenshot of what they're offering.

I'd certainly try some of the above (but NOT the baked bean ice cream, the vinegar iced cream, the pesto ice cream or the olive ice cream).

[AndyID]

Loaded the trash into the truck to take it to the drop-off point tried to start the truck. Battery flat as a tack. I suspect the extreme temperatures have done it in. Seems ok after I recharged it but time will tell.

 

on reflection I suspect something is draining the battery better get the meter and measure the current.

Edited July 10 by AndyID
moinfo

[DaveF]

Today I had a look at the ballasting I did yesterday.  As I didn't have the heating on the PVA is still drying so I can't do anything more until tomorrow.  

 

As for cones and barriers I thought Northumberland had cornered the market.  Leaving or entering town past the new station there are solid lines of cones around the 2 new roundaouts which will give access to the new bridge over the railway when it is finished - apparently there is a delay because the wrong bolts were used.  From time to time the cones are moved, there is just room to get along the road between the lines of them, the signs advise 20mph but that is a bit fast in places.  Then there is a short slope of about 1 in 5 coming into town from one of the new roundabouts down to the old one - for about 2 car lengths.

 

Then while I was out going to and from a garden centre this morning there were cones cutting off one lane each side of the dual carriageway while they were mowing the verges.  

 

Meanwhile much of the promenade still has a line of plastic barriers to stop people walking off the edge and falling down onto the beach.

 

David

Edited July 10 by DaveF

[polybear]

20 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Something for @polybear and other (ahem. ahem) "Gastronauts" on TNM: https://www.theguardian.com/food/article/2024/jul/06/blue-cheese-or-caviar-ice-cream-toppings-get-weird-and-wacky

Here is a screenshot of what they're offering.

I'd certainly try some of the above (but NOT the baked bean ice cream, the vinegar iced cream, the pesto ice cream or the olive ice cream).

 

See?  Bear's signature "custard on baked beans" is right up there after all

 

 

 

[Canal Digger]

15 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

22 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

It's the ever present weeds, litter and graffiti that put a downer on certain parts of the capital for me Dudders, it just looks so bloody awful. Not a great impression to give visitors

 

 

 

It really sticks out like a sore thumb for visitors from places where it doesn't happen.  I think people in much of Europe and the US tune it out as background white noise and stop noticing most of it. Now when I visit after becoming accustomed to a city where graffiti is so rare it screams at you it is awful to see it everywhere.  I am an enthusiast of European trains but trains in some European countries are dreadful for graffiti.

I may be unusual but provided that it is not offensive or on historic building etc or too extensive and is well done, then I quite like some graffiti as an art form. It takes a certain skill to do a painting from a few feet away which is designed too be seen 30 - 40 feet away*. One recent one locally was of the characters from the 50's/ 60's cartoon Top Cat. Graffiti that is just a mess or on a bridge (that I helped to restore) over a canal then flogging is too good for the culprits.  

 

*A bit like the White Horses adorning the local chalk downs, designed to be seen from several miles away. How does an observer tell the people working on them in the 'pre-history' times to alter the left front leg so that .....? Good Art for me should prompt thought and discussion.

[GMKAT7]

Good evening folks,

 

A food-related tale from me.

 

Some ten years ago, whilst our son was on a week-long school trip, the Boss (SWMBO) and I went to Sat Bains restaurant in Nottingham for a ten-course taster menu meal.

 

After the welcome chocolates and a cup of tea we went off to the meal (we were staying overnight so had a room).

 

The first course was a horse radish ice cream.

Normally horse radish gives me the ab dabs, so I politely put the portion (a small cube) on a side plate.

Equally politely the waitress said it was ice cream, so I better get on with eating it.

 

Wow! What a surprise.

Sure, it tasted of horse radish but not overly so and the contradiction between fiery horse radish and cold ice cream was a very pleasant surprise.

 

Spendy? Yes.

Wonderful food? Yes.

 

Looking forward to going again next year when the boy has finished uni and he can look after the dog for the night.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

 

 

[SM42]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

 

For some reason the auto correct wanted to change choccy to chicly ….??

 

 

Security filter. 

 

What on earth is chicly cake? 

 

Could be anything. Could be those things in  urinals, cat food anything but bear and Hippo fodder. 

 

 

ION. I arrived home this evening and the house is full of wimmin 

 

I'm hiding upstairs. 

 

Andy

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

See?  Bear's signature "custard on baked beans" is right up there after all

 

 

 

Line a bowl with the Mcvities cakes, then layer baked beans and custard for "Bears baked bean trifle"

[polybear]

4 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Line a bowl with the Mcvities cakes, then layer baked beans and custard for "Bears baked bean trifle"

 

Maison Bear (a highly respected, up n' coming Restaurant of impeccable quality) just happens to have an opening for a highly qualified, hard-working Chimp to join the team as a Sous Chef.....