Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Nice to hear that you're enjoying my nautical(ish) ramblings Jock - I always find the crane (20 ton SWL) fascinating and an interesting survivor for this day & age.  Anyway before too long the thread will be arriving in Scotland albeit on a none too bright morning but there'll be a trip up the Irish coast first.

 

Our Latin master was a right stuffy s*d but he had a bit of a secret as he often used to pop out the school for a quick half of bitter in the lunch break.  In the summer - and being eternally useless at cricket (no doubt to the never ending despair of my Yorkshire born father) - my main sporting interest was rowing.  This had the advantage of requiring one to leave school sometime after school dinner on Wednesday afternoon and be at the boathouse down in the town before the official starting time of 'afternoon games' and I normally shot off at the first opportunity, left my school blazer in the boathouse, and popped into the pub next door for a sly half before changing.  Occasionally others would join but most were far too well behaved(???) to go out for a drink in school hours however one week several decided they would follow my lead and hop off early to get a drink in; oddly for some reason that particular week I was delayed and didn't get down the hill in time for a drink.  And before my arrival the Latin master had obviously had a brainstorm and had decided to visit a different watering hole - the town had a choice of 35 pubs but he chose that one, and caught 4 of them with half pints in their hands, oops.  Oddly nobody (but me) went their lunchtime drinking again and the Latin master clearly satisfied that he had had a good catch never bothered going there either.

 

But things change over the years - the rowing club, whose membership now includes Olympians  , moved upstream and out of town and although I believe it has a bar it no longer has a reputation at regattas for having to call crews from the beer tent;  the old building is now some sort of upmarket hairdressers establishment.  Even the 'pub - back then the Public Bar of a riverside hotel - has gone and is now a rather swish upmarket Indian restaurant.  Some people call this sort of thing progress  .

 

Have a good day one & all.

[The Stationmaster]

As you and your Mum can't identify a specific device ("every time I turn on the washing machine") etc I suspect you will need an electrician to check that the ring main trip or wiring is ok. As it is a regular occurrence it could be anything.

Agree very much with that but I would suggest it might be worth having a look at the kettle and the toaster although they should blow their own fuse first of course (n.b. 'should' - some years back after MIL's 'intervention' with a knife to rescue a slice of toast our then toaster blew the main fuse but its own was unharmed).  Also I find it not unusual for all sorts of things to come from the factory heftily over-fused with a 15 amp fuse in the plug when something much, much less would do.

[Robert]

Looking for a bit of advice. The ring main at my mother's house trips out the fuse about once a week and has been doing so for about a month now.

If it is the fuse that is tripping, rather than an RCD then it could well be that the ring main is simply overloaded.

 

However, the best advice would definitely be Tony's. Get an electrician in to take a look at it. That is the simplest, and safest option.

[BoD]

Can I add ageing iron to the list of possible culprits.

Ours tripped the trippy thing a couple of times when was turned on and or off.

Replacement doesn't

[45156]

Can I add ageing iron to the list of possible culprits.

Ours tripped the trippy thing a couple of times when was turned on and or off.

Replacement doesn't

We found that there was a problem with one of the sockets earth connection, and the main ELCB kept tripping when it was used.  Again to trace that sort of problem needs either a bit of trial and error or an electrician, and even if the trial and error identifies a faulty socket, then an electrician is probably needed to rectify anyway.  I used to do my own electrics, but nowadays I leave it to the professionals, and anyway I have a home repairs policy which covers electical faults.

[jamie92208]

We found that there was a problem with one of the sockets earth connection, and the main ELCB kept tripping when it was used.  Again to trace that sort of problem needs either a bit of trial and error or an electrician, and even if the trial and error identifies a faulty socket, then an electrician is probably needed to rectify anyway.  I used to do my own electrics, but nowadays I leave it to the professionals, and anyway I have a home repairs policy which covers electical faults.

 

One thing that I would suggest from past experience is to try and find out exactly what is plugged into that ring main.   When we had a new consumer unit fitted it took me ages to get every hidden thing unplugged.  This can include things lie fridges, freezers and other kitchen appliances that have sockets at the back of cupboards.  Bedside lights were also culprits and the worst that I forgot was the TV booster that's plugged in in the garage.  

 

Jamie

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

 Weather returned to more like normal for the time of year, now Bank Holiday is past. Evidence of two pigeons that bought it in the garden this morning. One definitely by fox I think, judging by the honk of the dropping it left on the remains of one wing, with many other heavily mauled parts lying around; and I suspect an avain raptor for the other, very neat circle of plumage on the ground, nothing else left except a foot. (With a total of three pigeon feet on the ground, I am confident that two were done in.)

 

Were all Latin masters  the same 'back in the day'  ours had a similar phrases like ' You half baked quarter wit son of sin '  I mean we were classed lesser than a half wit ..

It strikes me that, in the very near future, there will not be the possibility of discussing Latin phrases. Is it now taught anywhere except specialised institutions?

 Happily I was spared Latin by a modern curriculum arranged on the principle that subjects of current relevance were perhaps rather more valuable. Never yet been stumped by lack of Latin, but would have been seriously embarrassed by inability to read French and German. Japanese would have been useful but the need wasn't foreseen, just as Mandarin might well be handy today. What will it be tomorrow?

 

The explanation of Latin master's legendary viciousness was given by a friend, ex Rugby School, Trinity, HM armed forces, fine upstanding chap, etc.. His view was that since Latin had been the mark of a grammar school or private education prior WWII, these people typically achieved commissioned rank in the war. Post war those with no real abilities to offer in civilian life were 'reduced' to teaching the one subject they knew which had some rarity value: Latin. The drilled in institutional authority over other ranks, was turned on the pupils. (Those among the Latin masters who been NCO's doubly so.) As it dawned on the educational establishment that Latin was of significantly diminished value, the tension within these poor s.o.b's. increased, and the outworking of this further piled on the pupils.

 

There's a good spread of schools still offering classics, both Latin and Greek; it is now seen as an exercise in mental development rather than possessing much material value. One of my nieces progressed from school to a Classics degree, and was quite impressed with just how much material of dubious worth has the tag 'classical literature'. If nothing else she reckons it has taught her discrimination between the worthy and the worthless.

 

If it is the fuse that is tripping, rather than an RCD then it could well be that the ring main is simply overloaded.

However, the best advice would definitely be Tony's. Get an electrician in to take a look at it. That is the simplest, and safest option.

But start from a common sense evaluation of your own: the power consumption rating of all the devices on the circuits, the state of the sockets and all visible wiring, likewise the state of the appliances. All electrical devices with water in are top suspects, washing machines, dishwashers, immersion heaters, electric kettles, in addition to the iron already mentioned.

[NGT6 1315]

Interesting to see your office Dominik.  They are certainly a lot more modern and plush than the trams that we have in this part of the world.  I also like to see ticket machines in the tram itself.  That is something that the RMV seems reluctant to do (for some reason).  We also don't have ticket machines in the S-bahn.

 

Actually, the S Type trams (those with running numbers in the 200 range) in Frankfurt are a Bombardier Flexity derivative like our NGT12s, Robert! This made it easier for LVB to assist VGF with a group of drivers in (I think) 2011 when VGF was going through a wave of extended health-related absences. Curiously, the LVB drivers were booked only on Lines 14 and 15 as VGF thought they should not be made to drive past Central Station with all those people criss-crossing the tracks at the tram stop there. Though if you have seen the tram stop at Leipzig Central Station with four tracks and up to 128 departures per hour, this decision seems a bit over-cautious! Consequently, when a VGF delegation paid a visit to Leipzig to thank LVB for their assistance a while later, they were baffled beyond belief when they observed the goings-on at Central Station…

 

Interestingly, statistics demonstrate that of all stops in our network, Central Station is, in fact, the safest in relation to passenger numbers.

 

 

 

Here, I had just prepared the pair of 1349 "Windorf" and 1324 "Mockau" for the first half of my shift on Line 7.

 

 

Leoliner interior:

 

 

…with low floor section in between the powered outer bogies.

 

 

 

 

 

And a feature on our ITCS terminals which seems a bit out of place on a tram:

 

 

Yes, it does have a navigation mode. I understand this is a function the ITT units have in common with the Trapeze ticontrol.500 combined ITCS terminals and ticket printers now installed on the majority of LVB buses. On buses, having a sat nav available may, of course, be useful indeed.

[jamie92208]

Afternoon all, a bit late in parade this morning as I was up at church moving bits of layout around early doors.  More on the layout thread but it has been a successful day so far.

 

I had to take Latin to O Level and our latin master could only be described  as a sadistic sod.  He was also a housemaster and when he caned a boy he used to land all 6 strokes in the same place and usually cut on the 2nd stroke. (That was through trousers and underwear).  We did not get on and I was never any good at Latin and eventually dropped it three weeks before O level, to the annoyance of the guy who administered the exams.  I was forced to sit through the first paper as a punishment.   I managed to scrape through my French O level and just like Pete above found that I could read Spanish which has been helpful to me.  I suppose that some of the Latin must have stuck because I find it useful in deciding what the plural of a word is and hate it when commentators talk about stadiums.  I also understood what a vomitorium was when I saw it on a set of doors inside a football stadium.

 

Anyway regard to all and it's time for lunch.

 

Jamie

 

PS I was never unfortunate enough to be caned but avoided it by the skin of my teeth at one point.

Edited September 1, 2015 by jamie92208

[DDolfelin]

I was caned (on the hand) and it broke a finger.

Years later I saw the swine on the Underground and realised (as did he) that I was a foot taller than him.

 

He exited at the next stop.

[Oldddudders]

TED - really Tom, but T.E.D. were his initials, so as nicknames go it was inoffensive - was a rather kindly man, who loved his classics. He was wont to inspire too, albeit some of us were beyond help. "You must construe, my friends! Imagine you are nestled behind your tortoise, while all these hairy Gauls are rushing down the hill towards you!" Sherry believes we may already have mentioned his only child taking her own life after graduating from Oxford. What you give isn't always matched by what you get back from life.

 

EDIT - I failed Latin O Level twice.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Oldddudders

[Tony_S]

Matthew went to "Latin Club". It was run by a teacher who had taught Latin but had reinvented herself as French and German teacher when Latin was dropped as a subject. It was fun. I was once invited along (parental volunteer, male required!) on their trip to the Museum of London. The special " you are allowed to touch" Roman exhibits were bought out for us to handle.

I once made the club Roman Legion style bread. They ate it all without complaint.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Tony_S

[roundhouse]

whats Latin

 

Didn't even get the option at our school.

 

I did fine at English but you wouldn't think it Wirth my typos.

[railsquid]

Three years of school Latin, the final one personally tutored by the headmaster. Utter utter waste of time and brain cells, was effectively not much more than rote learning, and has long since vanished beyond recall. Fat lot of help it was "understanding" the origins of the English language, which is how it was partially "sold". German was much more useful for that kind of thing, and in my humble opinion two modern European languages from different trees (e.g. Germanic and Romance) are an excellent basis for understanding further languages.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

... I also understood what a vomitorium was when I saw it on a set of doors inside a football stadium. Anyway regard to all and it's time for lunch.

And you also learned the value of comic juxtaposition. Alan Coren did it slightly better in his 'Great American Novel of  whenever it was'; but yours is an honourable effort.

[Ian Abel]

Morning...

 

Hmm, where to start? Sections include i) Car problems ii) A quiet evening at home iii) Latin or NOT! iv) Internet bun-fights

 

Let's dive right in shall we;

i) You KNOW it's time to get an intermittent problem looked at when the Mrs and MiL become stranded at the lake cabin, and you get a phone call informing you of the situation!

  Our vehicle (2004 Chrysler Concorde, so Jock has a reference and possibly some knowledge though unlikely as it's a US beastie!), has for about 6 months now had an intermittent starting problem. You can drive it no problem for weeks, then it'll simply not start, though it turns over just fine. Usually, if left for 5 minutes it'll eventually perform. Seems like possibly a fuel problem. So intermittent we never get around to taking it in. That changed yesterday after the "stranding" and it taking more than 30 minutes before it decided to start again <sigh>.

Off to the mechanic first thing.

 

ii) We were all set for a lovely quiet evening at home, Jemma, Mrs and me, cooking dinner at 6:30. Frantic call from Trevor. He'd just got back from work and instead of the move to a new apartment being executed in his absence (LONG story involving his room-mate and the fact we "Abel" family have been the sole help for past three moves), so that he simply had to show up at the new place and put his bedroom in order etc., the entire contents of their two bedroom apartment were STILL in the driveway of the old place. Movers contracted to do the work (by room-mate and his family) did a no-show with no sensible explanation, and roommate essentially froze in panic and sat for 6 hours pondering what to do! Off we rush, enlisting the help of a friend and pickup truck and spent 3 1/2 hours moving at 7PM! Now THAT'S what I call a quiet evening <sigh #2>

 

iii) The grammar skool I attended had compulsory French from 1st year to GCE, and starting in second year we got to choose Latin or German. As I figured I wasn't going to be a Doctor or Chemist, I went the "jah vole" route. Better in the end as we went on winter ski trips and the Latin folks had a rather more difficult time in Bavaria than I did

 

iv) Internet bun fights - this is NOT written without at least some measure of humor and lightheartedness, but REALLY, let's not all chuck everything out of the pram over a few disagreement? Everyone has their own opinion on anything/everything and it'd be sad if we all agreed. I mean, I even tolerate the GWR folks, in spite of it all 

We're here for a short enough time anyway, and what with the general cultural, education and geographic differences that mold our being, it's little surprise that we don't all agree. That said, I'm quite happy to be called an idiot by anyone/everyone since I know it's not malicious but merely a difference of opinion, and I'd continue to annoy you all with my posts, rather than leave. I'd be the worse for not being in this company. I'd rather enjoy and tolerate (in the case of non-BR/SR aficionados - har har) all the people I come across, than remove myself from the interaction with what is generally speaking a group of well informed and knowledgeable people.

With that I'll see if I can't find some more folks to offend with disparaging remarks about their heritage, education, or worse still the railways they consider worth the paint job!

Friends, even virtual ones, are an important factor in our well being and we should value that...

 

So, what WAS going to be a short post resulted in the above waste of internet bandwidth, I hope I didn't cause too much disruption to the email scammers by using it up!

 

21 at paper retrieval time, supposed to get to 31 and beastly humid.

 

Carpe diem (I know THAT MUCH Latin), Working away at reports and database issues...

Edited September 1, 2015 by Ian Abel

[Judge Dread]

For my sins I did not do Latin at my grammar school but I did French, woodwork and metalwork. Our French teacher told us all that after five years of learning, we should be now able to hold a conversation with a  French person with the same period of learning. That would be a five year old French person.  He was wrong, I for one, wasn't that good!

I am told my fifteen year old grand daughter has been taking Latin lessons as an aid to learning other languages. 

Edited September 1, 2015 by Judge Dread

[Jock67B]

Mornin' all from the Gateway to The World. It's brightening up here so hopefully will stay dry.

 

I studied Latin to O level but didn't continue. Having also done French O level I found years later that enough of both remained in my data banks to help me read Spanish when I was researching uniforms etc. for the Spanish Civil War at a time when very little reference material was available in English.

 

The full version of DD's Latin is a rhyme:

 

Caesar adsum jam forte,

Pompey aderat.

Caesar sic in omnibus,

Pompey sic inat.

 

Martyn goes back to school on Thursday and is very gloomy. At least he doesn't have to do Latin.

 

It's a shame we won't be getting the news from the North Norfolk coast.

 

I suppose I ought to get on and do something. I'm spoilt for choice.

 

Have a good day.

 

Pete

Pete and DD,

Our version, when we came south to school in England (I hasten to add as the English usage would have been perceived as wrong and possibly punishable at the Academy!) was :

"......forte,

Brutus et erat,

Caesar sic in omnibus,

Brutus sic in at"!

Never forgotten?

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Donw]

Andy

 re the ring main problem

check one is it the MCB/fuse or the RCD I assume the RCD as that will cut out lights and ring main (unless you ha

ve a split load and they are on different halves)

 

If it is rcd likey cause are the kettle, damaged lead etc  look for something used regularly but not all the time .

 

If it is MCB could be a sticking motor causing a short overload such as the vacuum or a damaged appliance lead (outer sheaf may be ok but wires and insulation damaged inside) the latter can cause a short one time and an earth fault another depend on the way the lead is bent

 

My mother complained that her hand held food mixer was making an odd noise. I found the motor had become lose inside and was trying to turn. In view of the fact the live lead could break and touch the metal shaft I said not to use it. It took a lot of persuasion before she would see sense.  

 

Don

[bbishop]

Afternoon all,

 

You may recollect that over a year ago I wrote the RMWeb obituary for a close friend, Peter Rumbelow. Anyway, his widow invited me over today to choose any of his books. As Peter's first love was the Midland Railway, I now have a complete set of Summerston and Jenkinson & Essery. Plus a couple of the LMS series, Talbot's LNWR and vol 2 of Lacy & Dow. I could have chosen more, but my library space is already overflowing. But, in truth, I would far, far prefer being able to ring Peter with an LMS enquiry, then buy him a pint or few in payment.

 

Feeling glum, Bill

[45156]

Back again having sorted out (eventually) all the hassles from this accident - hire car was a bit of a nightmare, and the guy who came to collect me was not local, and didn't know the back-doubles. There were hold ups all over town due to various things, and it took him an hour to cover what is normally a 15 minute drive from the depot to 45156 towers, as he seemed to go from one traffic jam to another.  So I navigated him back by some back roads and it only took 20 minutes.  Then when I got to the depot, I was advised that I was being allocated the great boat of a Seat that I was travelling in, and was a diesel.  I had expected a direct substitute for the Peugeot, and had to fight to get a SMALLER car.  My big worry was that as I have 40+ years of driving petrol cars, with about 25 of these at the unleaded pump, and was pretty sure that I was a prime candidate for a mis-fuel.  Also, the way he was driving the Seat, with the nearside in the ditch most of the time, I got the impression that it was quite wide, and again I didn't want to get myself into a situation where I would misjudge the width and hit something or wind up driving in the gutter.  After a lot of remonstration, I actually manged to get a petrol engined Fiesta - not the greatest in the world (in fact it was a car that I did not want when I changed my last one, but certainly a lot more 45156 friendly).  I still have the Peugeot at the door, as the insurer would only offer a repair from a body shop in Carlisle, or one in Heywood - nothing in between.  I am still waiting for the Carlisle people to call me with an update on when the flatbed can cover the 60 odd miles to come and get it.

 

30747 has not suffered any breaks, but has been referred for a (hopefully) short course of phyiso to unlock her back and neck.

 

So once I had this car, I decided to to go to Asda, and picked up a few beers on their 4 for a fiver offer, and when I got home, the handles on one of the bags burst, so it was farewell Lancaster Red, and farewell Courage DIrectors....

 

I think that the biggest mistake I made was actually getting up.....

 

Edit for sense and spelling

Edited September 1, 2015 by 45156

[bbishop]

Latin ..... Until about 1960, one had to pass Latin O level to get into Oxbridge. So, come 1963 my school insisted on two years, then the Language stream took it to O level and maybe beyond. In the first year, the master had joined the school as a boy in c.1910 and (other than Varsity) stayed until 1963. And his hobby was the Old Boys Rugby Club. The master in the second year was pretty easy-going, so after a few weeks I told him that I had no interest in Latin. Having ascertained that I was aiming at the Science stream, he agreed I could give it up, just so long as I came first in Maths. I did.

 

The only value of Latin to me, was that the one year gave me an understanding of English grammar.

 

Bill

[gordon s]

Evening all….Just got back from golf and it appears WW3 has broken out.  Saddened to read about Martin...

[45156]

Evening all….Just got back from golf and it appears WW3 has broken out.  Saddened to read about Martin...

RMWeb is not feeling quite so warm and cosy as normal at the mo - let's hope it doesn't continue.

[DDolfelin]

Now for something different.

This lady stopped to take a selfie and showed me her puppies.