Early Risers.

[JohnDMJ]

Clearly soft your council 3 miles and above could have a bus pass any less and you had to walk no money for bus fares.

[in mock Yorkshire accent] And you try telling the kids of today that, and they won't believe you!

[skipepsi]

When I went to college at the age of 26 it was obvious that the 18 year olds had come from another planet ie inside toilets double glazing central heating etc. So when we were asked to talk about ourselves I talked about being born in the front room of a two up two down with cold running water and gas and electric lamps the course tutor thought it was a shaggy dog story. When I read Paul O'Grady's autobiography I instantly recognised his house from the description given as being similar to ours. The accent is real though. My kids didn't understand the concept of changing the TV channel by moving a dial on the TV.

[NGT6 1315]

Morning all...

 

Sun is just rising and it looks like it's going to be a hot day. I wonder if the thunderstorms the weather forecast has been predicting for days will, in fact, occur, though .

 

See y'all later ...

[DonBradley]

My Mother taught me in Year 4. She was "Miss" and I was Bradley. It was months before the boys cottoned on.

We lived 12 kms from the school. It was walk to bus stop (approx 1 km) bus to station, train to town and another bus to school. Approx 1 1/4 hour duration, each way! There was a local school within walking distance, but I had to go to CBC. (Christian Brothers College). My brother went but being 10 years my senior he matriculated the year before I started there.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

Another scorcher is forecast for today - but it is still quite pleasant at the moment. Long may that last!

 

The discussion on how things have changed is quite interesting. A couple of years ago, I went to a museum that had a Strowger telephone exchange set up (A UAX12 if I remember correctly). To demonstrate the workings, they had some dial telephones which you could pick up, and dial the other extensions. A family duly arrived, and Dad was instructing the kids what to do. It went along the lines of "Right, pick up the phone and dial 12 to make the other extension ring". The boy picked up the receiver, hovered with his finger, and with a rather baffled expression looked at his Dad - who said "Go on, dial!".

 

It was at that point I realised what was going on, and I said "He's never seen a dial phone!"

 

The father looked at me and said "Blimey, you're right!"

 

I have lived in a house without central heating (as a student!) and I am old enough to remember TVs without remote control, I remember the first TV we had with a remote control - a terribly unreliable thing which operated on sound rather than IR!

 

Have a good day everyone!

[BoD]

Morning all

 

Heavy rain here overnight and 9 oktas this morning. The sort that, although it isn't actually raining, soak you to the skin anyway.

 

5 weeks of glorious sunshine and the this, all because it's ......

 

...... school sports day. Buddy annoying.

[gordon s]

.....and the first event today is Sixth Form Mud Wrestling.

 

Could be fun watching the girls...

[sixoh8sixoh]

Morning all! Have woken up to what looks like Ark-building weather. I'm supposed to have a tennis lesson at 11 but don't think I'm even going to bother taking my kit in with me.

 

I'm just about recovered from my busy weekend, and the next busy weekend will be upon me in no time!

 

I'm old enough to remember bakelite dial telephones and tvs without remote controls. I think I was probably around 10 when we got our first tv with a remote, although we had a VCR with a remote before that. My Dad jumped on the VCR bandwagon early and bought the system with the best technical spec. It also happened to be the spec that died out first. No, not Betamax, it was Video 2000. This had tapes that (like audio cassettes) you could turn over and use the other side.

 

These died out by about 1986 - well before Betamax - and fortunately his next choice was a VHS machine!

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Morning all,

All this talk of old telephones is well before my time

 

Still wet here, quite humid though although I'm still stuck inside. Modelling held up by lack of polystyrene so all I can do is sit here looking at the layout wishing I was able to work on it!

[skipepsi]

Morning all up late again the little princess will be irate!

[eldavo]

Morning All, Certainly remember dial telephones but then of course I actually remember phones that predate STD. Direct dialing took a while to reach outside the centre of large cities and our first phone at home had no dial and was a "party" line shared with the nextdoor neighbours! Never did figure out how that worked and I still don't like phones very much even after having worked in the telecoms industry for years!

 

Have a good one all.

 

Cheers

Dave

[DDolfelin]

Those old telephones are much sought after now.

Workshops doing them up with new innards.

 

Thank the Lord they're not reviving Trimphones.

A near neighbour has a parrot which must be quite mature in years because it warbles Trimphone noises all day long - and very loudly.

A neat design but so light that it was virtually impossible to pick up the handset without knocking the base on the floor.

 

Don will be pleased to learn that I managed half a day on the layout yesterday.

Solved the problem of the removable hill (bolts and some light meccano type bars).

[Tony_S]

Morning all up late again the little princess will be irate!

 

Program her mobile phone with a really loud alarm call setting!

 

Morning all.

 

I haven't done much this morning apart from putting out the recycling bags and boxes. Matthew is going round to a friend's house to paint some Warhammer models and is then going on to another friend's 18th birthday party tonight. It was going to be a on a beach but tides haven't been cooperative so it is going to be somewhere else on Canvey Island.

 

Old phones. We didn't have one when I was a child. My brother kept in touch with all his friends using amateur radio. They also had teleprinters and amateur television as well. After I bought a house here in Essex, when my parents wanted to ring they used to go round to a phone box (by then not a push button A phone) and we would ring them back.

Old Televisions. When I was 3 we moved to Somerset and my parents bought a television and then at some stage ITV became available (TWW). The set had a big clunky rotary thing to change channel.

 

Tony

 

 

 

[DonBradley]

Don IS pleased to learn that you spent half a day on the layout yesterday!

Having difficulty imagning a removable hill with bolts and Meccano bars, but believes all will be revealed in due sourse.

[Robert]

A near neighbour has a parrot which must be quite mature in years because it warbles Trimphone noises all day long - and very loudly.

 

I used to work at a Garden Centre when I was at University. One day a gentleman bought a parrot in which needed rehoming. It turned out his wife was allergic to parrots and so he took the parrot to work. When the weather got too cold in his office, he reluctantly decided that it would have to go to a new home, so he brought it to us.

 

The parrot, having been in the office for some considerable time, would "ring" like a telephone, then "answer" himself with:

"Nah! Sorry mate, he's not in at the moment" in a perfect South East London accent.

 

Old Televisions. When I was 3 we moved to Somerset and my parents bought a television and then at some stage ITV became available (TWW). The set had a big clunky rotary thing to change channel.

 

My parents had an old Ekco - which was a badge engineered Pye chassis. A wonderful old hybrid set which had a feeling of quality about it. It could just about cope with ITV - but it was a bit temperamental given that ITV from the Dover transmitter was very high up the band. I think they only dumped the set a couple of years ago when the tube finally gave up the ghost.

[45156]

Eh Lads

 

I seem to have started something with a "When I Was A Lad" theme to it.

 

I recall many "hardships" from my youth other than having to walk to school while my dad drove - things like

 

A TV with only one channel, and pictures in scratchy 405 lines Black and White, and programmes shut down between 5 and 6 and then again about 10.30.

A bedroom which could be so cold that ice formed on the inside of the windows.

School that started at 08.55 and went through to 16.00.

 

BTW, party lines on phones worked by sharing the same set of exchange equipment, which was set up with two numbers on the same equipment set - before making a call, you had to press a button, and if you heard the sharer speaking, then you had to wait - you could still call anybody else, except your sharer, and if you tried to do that, you got the engaged tone - calls between sharers had to be operator connected - and it was a fallacy that party linew were always close neigbours - shared service could be anybody on the same numbering group in the exchange. Dial phones are fine for nostalgia, but not a lot of use if you want to use them for navigating a call steering or ordering system after dialling the number, as they don't generate the tones that push button phones do, they dial out using pulses, one for one, up to ten for zero - the exchange can still identify pulse dialing, but much of the called party's equipment can't.

 

Weather today here is cloudy, with a threat of rain to come later.

[DDolfelin]

The fixtures for Lilo Hill can be found elsewhere, Don.

[shortliner]

Eh, when I were a lad, we never adda phone in t' 'ouse till I were about 10, and it didn't have a dial - it was all operator connected - I can still remember the number "Grimsdyke 259" - and I've lived in houses less than thirty years ago where ice formed on the inside of the windows in winter in Lincolnshire! - the joys of RAF Married Quarters! My daughter went to college in Stamford, and was expected to walk to the place where the bus made its pick-up, 3 miles away down country lanes with no street lighting.

[NGT6 1315]

Suburban in the Summer Sun:

 

 

Units 420 429 and 430 on their way from Kelsterbach to Frankfurt Central Station on a S8 line peak hour service. These are two of four 420s reallocated from Stuttgart to Frankfurt last year, which but could only be put back into service about one month ago. They belong to the 7th batch which can be easily recognized by the flush plug doors in place of the recessed sliding doors on the 1st to 6th batch units.

[Robert]

I can still remember the number "Grimsdyke 259"

 

That would most likely have been a UAX13 exchange then!

 

 

Units 420 429 and 430 on their way from Kelsterbach to Frankfurt Central Station on a S8 line peak hour service. These are two of four 420s reallocated from Stuttgart to Frankfurt last year, which but could only be put back into service about one month ago. They belong to the 7th batch which can be easily recognized by the flush plug doors in place of the recessed sliding doors on the 1st to 6th batch units.

 

Alte Schrott!

 

Although, having said that - I'd be surprised if the new replacement units are around as long as these are. They may be old, but they are certainly reliable (apart from the one that I was on that burst into flames!). The ex-Stuttgart units seem to be in better condition too.

 

The S8 is "my" line - when I used to work in Frankfurt, I passed through Niederrad twice every day!

[NGT6 1315]

Alte Schrott!

 

I'm not sure if you are following any German rail forums, but from my experience this example is about the mildest level of "old vs. new" flaming I keep seeing there .

 

Although, having said that - I'd be surprised if the new replacement units are around as long as these are. They may be old, but they are certainly reliable (apart from the one that I was on that burst into flames!). The ex-Stuttgart units seem to be in better condition too.

 

I do not think any newly built units are even meant to remain in service for as long as many Bundesbahn-designed types have - looking at the practice of franchises which often run for only about ten to fifteen years. I personally would certainly not place any bets on units like the 423 lasting much longer than, say, twenty years at best. But you are certainly right in pointing out that the ex-Stuttgart units are in pretty good condition - the 7th and 8th batch sets having been built between 1989 and 1997.

 

Considering this, I do tend to agree with quite a bit of the criticism brought forth against these franchising practices as I rather strongly doubt that sustainability is anything of a criterion in their context. As a matter of fact, a significant number of railwaymen also criticize many of the contemporary rolling stock types, arguing that practical expertise from railway staff is too often ignored by the builders.

[Robert]

I must admit that I am not particularly active on any of the German railway forums - I never seem to get enough time!

 

To be honest, that was a bit of a throw away comment - I've got a bit of a soft spot for the old units, and given the state that some of the new units are in already they are in many cases preferable - although the lack of air conditioning is a bit of a problem at times. Apart from that, I'd rather have the old units to be honest. They are certainly more comfortable - everything from the seats to the ride.

 

I guess it is much the same pretty much across the board. Everything these days seems to be built down to a price, rather than up to a quality. A sign of the times, I suppose.

 

Concerning the attitude of the railwaymen, a friend of my ex in-laws is a retired DB driver. He used to ply the routes around the Rhein-Main-Gebiet in (primarily) 143's. He reckoned they were absolutely brilliant. Simple, reliable and they rarely (if ever) broke down.

[45156]

I've got a bit of a soft spot for the old units.

 

I have an even softer spot for the even older units - you know the ones with numbers starting 001, 003, 023, 044, 052 - spent an entire summer tracking these down between visits to various establishments selling excellent German beers. Best of the lot was Kulmbach where 001 pacifics were to be seen from the station buffet, which also sold Kulmbacher EKU beer - ah happy memories (what I have of them after about 2 litres)

[NGT6 1315]

To be honest, that was a bit of a throw away comment - I've got a bit of a soft spot for the old units, and given the state that some of the new units are in already they are in many cases preferable - although the lack of air conditioning is a bit of a problem at times. Apart from that, I'd rather have the old units to be honest. They are certainly more comfortable - everything from the seats to the ride.

 

Yes, I am aware that you did not mean this the same way many railfans appear to do . As for air conditioning on the 420s - this is what the 420 Plus demonstrators look like: Click. I do like the concept as such, but the result looks a bit - well, ugly . I have heard some railfans refer to them as "Dark Helmet", as per that Mel Brooks film .

 

 

Concerning the attitude of the railwaymen, a friend of my ex in-laws is a retired DB driver. He used to ply the routes around the Rhein-Main-Gebiet in (primarily) 143's. He reckoned they were absolutely brilliant. Simple, reliable and they rarely (if ever) broke down.

 

I have heard much the same about these engines. However, I also noticed there has always been a bit of West/East antagonism among drivers, meaning some former Bundesbahn drivers were rather wary about East German designs, and vice-versa.

[NGT6 1315]

Thunder's coming up from the south and there is a solid wall of dark clouds - about time we had some rain as it is awfully warm up here . From what I just read, the Aachen region appears to be hit hard as well, as there is a tornado warning in effect.