The Night Mail

[jjb1970]

The last time I visited Beijing just before lockdown not only was cash very rare, many vendors wanted local payment platforms like Alipay and WeChat. I suspect that the Chinese wholehearted embracing of digital payment platforms is more about tracking money and activity than anything else (even if those payment platforms do offer convenience to spenders and a useful service to sellers). I also think the rest of the world won't be far behind. 

[jjb1970]

On the upside, Beijing was beautiful, crystal clear blue sky with an autumn chill in the air, far removed from the image many have of Beijing 10 years ago. I flew in/out of the new Daxin airport and as with other infrastructure projects it is impressive. 

[Oldddudders]

8 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Who knows. 

 

The wheels and track were cleaned before start. 

 

The runaway happened when a new loco was introduced to the layout whilst that newly arrived loco shut down at the same time. 

 

That smacks of a decoder fault on the new loco, and the runaways, as Tony S suggested, being set to run on DC, via CV29.

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Northmoor said:

*It took them considerably longer to accept UK hygiene regulations, at one time they had a one star rating...... 

 

Bear has a policy of only eating in 5* or 4* establishments - I'm amazed they survived if they only had 1*.  I guess enough of the locals either didn't care, didn't look or didn't understand the ratings.

 

51 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

The last time I visited Beijing just before lockdown not only was cash very rare, many vendors wanted local payment platforms like Alipay and WeChat. I suspect that the Chinese wholehearted embracing of digital payment platforms is more about tracking money and activity than anything else (even if those payment platforms do offer convenience to spenders and a useful service to sellers). I also think the rest of the world won't be far behind. 

 

ISTR a news item some months ago about Chinese (in some areas?) getting arrested for either not carrying a mobile or not having it turned on.  Big Brother tracking you n' all that.

 

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.

 

3H did the (24T?) coke hoppers in OO (as well as the LNER open), which were very popular but a bit of a buqqer to build IIRC.  They were hard to weight if unloaded, and thus always, but always fell off!  I still have some of the built opens around in the boxes of things 4mm I haven't looked at for 20 years!

 

I hadn't realised they did 7mm, not having an interest in the scale at that time.  I would look at them now of course, but I suppose Parkside are better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sitham Yard]

11 hours ago, SM42 said:

Today I picked up some o gauge kit bulit wagons made by Three Aitch Mouldings.

 

They are basically square and any damage repairable or missing parts replaceable. 

 

The plan is to turn them out as either a generic  engineer's train or some sort of industrial internal user. 

 

What intrigues me is the manufacturer. 

 

Any one know anything about them and their history?

 

Andy

 

I don't know how to link it but if you search the web rather than RMweb you should find a thread from 2014 on "3h coke wagon kit" which gives some history including involvement of Doug Hewson (known for 5-inch gauge wagons) and possibly Roy Jackson (Retford).

Andrew

[jjb1970]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

ISTR a news item some months ago about Chinese (in some areas?) getting arrested for either not carrying a mobile or not having it turned on.  Big Brother tracking you n' all that.

 

 

That was pretty much the case in Singapore until a few weeks ago. You didn't have to use track and trace or be vaccinated, but you weren't allowed to do anything if you opted out. The government issued track and trace dongles for people without mobiles and for those who have to lock their mobile phones away like school children, but to get into shopping malls, shops and restaurants, be allowed to attend school etc people had to tap and and out and have their vaccine status checked, and it was always checked and monitored. My sister-in-law got a phone call from the ministry of health, she visited from Jakarta and the rule was an outside administered negative ART test had to be uploaded at defined intervals during the stay before doing things, she forgot and got a phone call asking why she was out and about when the ART test hadn't been uploaded (a condition of entry was being contactable). She was told off and told not to do it again. They've relaxed it now. In a sense I think they exercised one of the two logical options, either implement track and trace, or do not implement track and trace. The UK and much of Europe and the world seemed to go for a half hearted approach of rolling out track and trace and then either not enforcing it or making it effectively optional which seemed to kind of defeat the point really. In it's own way Singapore is like a mini-me China, I have an identity card and my identity number is linked into everything. The downside is the obvious question about big government monitoring (though that train left the station years ago for anyone using a mobile phone, the Internet etc), the upside is it is actually a very slick system which does work very well and make a lot of things a lot easier.

[SM42]

16 minutes ago, Sitham Yard said:

I don't know how to link it but if you search the web rather than RMweb you should find a thread from 2014 on "3h coke wagon kit" which gives some history including involvement of Doug Hewson (known for 5-inch gauge wagons) and possibly Roy Jackson (Retford).

Andrew

 

I tried the Web and after 2 pages of auction  results I thought I would ask on here. 

 

Thanks for the steer though on narrowing it down. 

 

Andy

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Morning.

 

3H did the (24T?) coke hoppers in OO (as well as the LNER open), which were very popular but a bit of a buqqer to build IIRC.  They were hard to weight if unloaded, and thus always, but always fell off!  I still have some of the built opens around in the boxes of things 4mm I haven't looked at for 20 years!

 

I hadn't realised they did 7mm, not having an interest in the scale at that time.  I would look at them now of course, but I suppose Parkside are better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd forgotten about the 24t hoppers.  IIRC the frame was very flimsy but you had to fit the wheels before the body so trying to get them square and true was nigh on impossible.  The 0 gauge ones are much better.

 

Jamie

[SteveyDee68]

12 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Or Something to do with tax?

A lady of Chinese heritage that I worked with a few years ago was given the value of the deposit on her house by her parents, who owned the Chinese takeaway in a well-known Saddleworth village*.

 

My mother accompanied her to the bank one lunchtime and thought the carrier bag she had with her was for shopping. Turned out it was full of cash and she was paying in her house deposit into her bank!

 

How long ago was this? The bank asked no questions as to where this bag stuffed full of cash came from!**
 

Steve S

 

 

* Where a well-known model shop was based throughout the 80s/90s/00s

** I heard a rumour that certain banks still take that stance, especially if those bags are full of roubles…

[SM42]

The haul of wagons include 3 by 3H

 

A 5 plank open, a 3 plank and a van reminiscent of the legendary Hornby 00 Peak Freans van. 

 

The van is the worst of the bunch and may end up as an end of siding dweller 

 

Andy

Edited September 18, 2022 by SM42

[jjb1970]

25 minutes ago, SteveyDee68 said:

A lady of Chinese heritage that I worked with a few years ago was given the value of the deposit on her house by her parents, who owned the Chinese takeaway in a well-known Saddleworth village*.

 

My mother accompanied her to the bank one lunchtime and thought the carrier bag she had with her was for shopping. Turned out it was full of cash and she was paying in her house deposit into her bank!

 

How long ago was this? The bank asked no questions as to where this bag stuffed full of cash came from!**
 

Steve S

 

 

* Where a well-known model shop was based throughout the 80s/90s/00s

** I heard a rumour that certain banks still take that stance, especially if those bags are full of roubles…

 

I had friends who were paid like that at sea. Rather than work for a company they did casual and relief work, often if a crew was needed to take a ship on its final journey from point of sale to a beach. In that niche it was normal to be paid in full in cash before leaving the ship. As I understand it their local banks quickly knew what to expect.

[iL Dottore]

5 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On the upside, Beijing was beautiful, crystal clear blue sky with an autumn chill in the air, far removed from the image many have of Beijing 10 years ago. I flew in/out of the new Daxin airport and as with other infrastructure projects it is impressive. 

That is, of course, one of the upsides to the Chinese political system.

If the Chinese leadership decides that it will have (say) zero emissions by 2050, then it will have zero emissions by 2050. So when they decided to modernise China they didn’t hang about. The modern stat-of-the-art infrastructure seen today of China, Singapore and many other SE Asian countries certainly does put the infrastructure of the US (and much of the UK) to shame.
 

I find it intriguing that in China High Speed Rail (aka CRH - China Rail High Speed) was only introduced in 2007  and now they have the world’s most extensive system (40,000 km running trains at 200 - 350 kph). Whilst in the US although the plans for high-speed rail in the date back to the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965, currently only Amtrak’s Acela meets the criteria for HST.

 

It is evident that one of the fundemental differences between the two political systems is that in China the good of the state and the people as a whole takes precedence over the individual. So what the state wants - the state gets!
 

Of course to be totally cynical, one could say that in both systems the rich and the powerful always get their way, the difference being that in countries in the West, the “little people” are allowed to get noisy and obstreperous and tiny cosmetic changes are presented as being “the will of the people” changing things….

[jjb1970]

That visit to Beijing was to speak at a Chinese ministry of transport seminar/workshop on emissions (yes, I flew to Beijing to talk about reducing emissions). The theme of the Chinese presentations was 'the battle to reclaim blue sky', as with much in China it may sound like a cheesy throwback to the Maoist era but they're very earnest about it and are making a huge effort to improve the state of their environment. They have been the biggest spenders on renewable energy, are throwing money and resource at clean technology development and have formidable academic resource and capability. Something I noticed many years ago in my own field is that most of the hard research (laboratory work, field work, analytical work etc) was being done by universities and research institutes in China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. 

[newbryford]

18 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

That must be a cultural thing - both the Chinese takeaways hereabouts also take only cash.

 

Dave

 

Our local chippy is a pretty much traditional English chippy (but also does some Chinese stuff......) 

 

They only take cash and direct people to the cash point about 50 yards up the road who turn up with a card.

But people are lazy and don't want to walk up the road.

So what they do next time is order via Just Eat and collect at a given time - they still have to queue to announce their arrival and await their turn as the food is prepped.

I can't quite work out what the chippy is thinking as the commission that JE takes is above and beyond the now quite small percentages that of the card handlers take.

 

 

 

[newbryford]

9 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On the upside, Beijing was beautiful, crystal clear blue sky with an autumn chill in the air, far removed from the image many have of Beijing 10 years ago. I flew in/out of the new Daxin airport and as with other infrastructure projects it is impressive. 

 

I went there in 1990 - when they were first bidding for the Olympic games (that they later won for 2008).

The smog was horrendous.

 

In April 2008, I was a volunteer driver at the FINA world swimming championships in Manchester and for one of my jobs, I took the head of the Olympic medical team to the airport.

We got chatting about the upcoming Beijing games that summer and he was still doubtful about the air quality being suitable for sporting events.

[polybear]

24 minutes ago, newbryford said:

They only take cash and direct people to the cash point about 50 yards up the road who turn up with a card.

But people are lazy and don't want to walk up the road.

 

One of the little snippets of Royal info mentioned over the last few days is the fact that Buck House has a cash point in the basement - installed by Coutts Bank and strictly for use by the Royals only.  I guess they need it for when they fancy nippin' down the Chinese.

[Adam88]

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

One of the little snippets of Royal info mentioned over the last few days is the fact that Buck House has a cash point in the basement - installed by Coutts Bank and strictly for use by the Royals only.  I guess they need it for when they fancy nippin' down the Chinese.

 

... or go for a pizza.

[polybear]

22 minutes ago, Adam88 said:

 

... or go for a pizza.

 

I wonder if the cash point is only for working Royals?

And do the Royals have to shield their PIN numbers - and check to see if any dodgy card scanning machines have been attached by some scrote.....

I bet the keypad and screen isn't all covered in snot though.  🤣

 

[Happy Hippo]

We have been very touristy today.

 

A drive over to Conwy for a walk around the town saw us sitting on the quayside looking across the estuary whilst eating a tub (each) of ice cream. The view being enhanced by a Holyhead bound 170xxx crossing the embankment between Llandudno Junction and Stephenson's tubular bridge across the river.

 

During the walk back to the car, Nyda was thrilled to find a tea and coffee shop and we came away with three 50g bags of exotic sounding loose tea

We then returned to Llandudno and ate lunch on the promenade. It was very busy, but we managed a stroll along the pier where we indulged ourselves on the Llandudno Eye....

A dwarf ferris wheel.

 

More Guinness and some crisps seems the next item on the agenda.

 

Lamb casserole later😀.

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I wonder if the cash point is only for working Royals?

And do the Royals have to shield their PIN numbers - and check to see if any dodgy card scanning machines have been attached by some scrote.....

I bet the keypad and screen isn't all covered in snot though.  🤣

 

Coutts is just NatWest really like Lexus are just Toyotas with a bit of smarter upholstery. 

[simontaylor484]

I was under the impression from other reports previously that the ATM in Buckingham Palace was also for use by Household staff

[Tony_S]

38 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I was under the impression from other reports previously that the ATM in Buckingham Palace was also for use by Household staff

As many of the people who work in the palace are on rather low wages I hope the cash machine takes cards other than those issued by Coutts. The financial criteria for getting an account with them would require the odd million Pounds floating about. We knew a couple who had a bank account with them many years ago. They were then told that they would have to close and move their account as they didn’t have the income or investments for the bank to continue with them. 

[simontaylor484]

20 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

As many of the people who work in the palace are on rather low wages I hope the cash machine takes cards other than those issued by Coutts. The financial criteria for getting an account with them would require the odd million Pounds floating about. We knew a couple who had a bank account with them many years ago. They were then told that they would have to close and move their account as they didn’t have the income or investments for the bank to continue with them. 

I would Assume it would be a Link type machine I wonder if it is free to use or one of those that charges a couple of quid to get your own money out. Robbing barstewards 

[PhilJ W]

I don't use TIM machines except in dire emergency. If I want cash which is not very often I use the post office.