Early Risers.

[lightengine]

 I remember catching an HST to Loughborough once, seated towards the rear of the train. Arriving late on a winter's evening I wasn't aware that the train was longer than the platform. I soon discovered this as I opened the door and saw a long drop. More worryingly was the fact I had to leg it up a number of carriages asap to get off the train before it set off again!

 

There was a blind gent who was a piano tuner and regularly travelled between Worthing and West Worthing by train. One afternoon the train stopped at West Worthing home signal as there was a problem on the crossing ahead. Unfortunately he opened the door and stepped out, fortunately surviving the drop onto the ballast/embankment.

[The Stationmaster]

It was a pretty unique manouvre to open those doors. In the 70's whilst working at Teignmouth station I had to walk the line as a train had reported a body along the sea wall track.

Later I had to attend the coroners court in Teignmouth. The coroner being a nice man and considering the family, obviously did not want to say it was suicide. He said that the lady had accidentally confused the external door with the toilet door. A pretty baffling mistake. The toilet door handle being an oval kind of shaped knob about chest height compared to the arm stretching manouvre needed to open the external door.

 

The first fatality I ever had to deal with was a chap who had gone out for a walk in the middle of the night and had been hit by the Up Penxzance Sleeper on a  foot crossings,  Over the previous 18 months or so he had jumped in to the lake at Longleat, walked out into the middle of the road in Frome in front of a laden 8 wheeler stone lorry, had consumed rather a lot of pills at least once and had been in the mental hospital at Shepton Mallet a couple of times being treated for serious depression.  On the advice of the Coroner the jury returned a verdict of Accidental Death it having been explained that he was in the habit of going out for walks in the middle of the night and might not have expected a train to come along.

[pH]

As it says under my avatar picture, Port Moody was the original western end of the Canadian Pacific Railway. There's a plaque in the city which says that "A branch line to Vancouver was built a few years later"! As an acknowledgement of the railway background, the new city hall which was built a few years ago is in the form of a railway roundhouse. There are cherry trees planted round the circular drive in front of it, and these are now in bloom, making a nice picture:

 

 

There is a new art installation in the grass lawn at the centre of the circular drive. The description explains that the lawn is in the position where a turntable would be in a roundhouse, so the sculpture is of a locomotive, and it rotates (though it wasn't turning yesterday). 

 

 

This next picture was supposed to be of a blue heron sitting on a railing, but the heron decided not to wait to be photographed, so the picture is now of a blue heron in flight:

 

[Coombe Barton]

Oh the irony

 

 

Edited March 20, 2016 by Coombe Barton

[Mike Bellamy]

Pleased to report the safe delivery of first Grandson at the Royal Derby Hospital yesterday afternoon.

 

Picture below taken this afternoon when the little man was a day old . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

and for a better picture without me . . . . . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

.

[Smiffy2]

Congrats to all, Grandad MIke!

[BSW01]

Congrats Mike, first of many eh? Grandkids are great aren't they?

[Judge Dread]

It's great being a Grand dad, the only down side is having to sleep with a Grand mother!

[BoD]

Congrats Mike, first of many eh? Grandkids are great aren't they?

Yep, mainly because you can give them back at the end of the day.

[BoD]

Evenin' all,

 

Very pleasant day was had at Ally Pally and i understand there were some model railway layouts there as well as the shopping venue, places for feeding and of course drinking beverages (various).  A very sociable gathering of those ERs

Did anyone see fit to record this momentous occasion on silver halide coated gelatin emulsion?

[newbryford]

Just back from watching the ice hockey and I have a few words...

 

 

CHAMPIONES, CHAMPIONES, OH LAY OH LAY OH LAY (and repeat)...........

 

 

Well done to the Blackburn Hawks for retaining their league title.

 

Cheers

Mick

[emt_911]

A relaxing day as planned and I'm starting to feel better and ready for tomorrows ER at the start of a short week

 

Mal - I did spot the 2 handbag tiffs. I wonder if anyone gets cited for either of them. I hope that the chemo appointment goes to plan

 

Jock - You obviously needed the sleep. Thanks for the thought. I'd rather recover quickly than potentially infect others, some of whom may not be a healthy as me,  with a bug because I want to enjoy myself.

 

Mike - Congratulations to the family

 

Night all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Congratulations Mike on becoming a granddad. Went to the Southern Expo (plastic kit bashers) show at Hornchurch, one table was full of models made by youngsters under 18 and very good models they were too, and at least half of the models were by girls, one only 10 years old. Sorry I didn't take any photographs as two or three were of railway subjects. Managed to find a couple of kits that could be used on a layout, one is of a 1930's limousine car and the other is of a farmhouse. Both are to 1/72 scale which makes them suitable for 00 scale, the farmhouse in particular. Getting late now so time for bed, goodnight all.

[Tony_S]

Did anyone see fit to record this momentous occasion on silver halide coated gelatin emulsion?

I don't think so. We did have a brief conversation about passport photos and I think agreed we hadn't changed much!

[BSW01]

Evening everyone. Sunny but cool today, after a bit of a lie in this morning I did manage to get about 4 hours in the workshop today. The tenders coming on very nicely but nowhere near ready for the paint shop, what was I thinking yesterday. I've got the top, running plate and running chassis to the stage where they can be attached to each other by just 2 small screws. I've also drilled a hole in the running plate ready for the tender to loco socket to be fitted, but that's a job for next weekend me thinks. But since mid afternoon we've both been relaxing, and after tea we had another glass of red.

 

I'm not sure what's happening tomorrow on the work front yet, if no work is dispatched first thing then it'll be into the office. This weeks a very short week as I have a half days training on Tuesday morning and our monthly departmental meeting Thursday morning, no doubt I'll be in for a lot of stick then as our company news paper arrived last week and there's a piece about my upcoming sponsored swims on the back page, I'll take my sponsor form in I think! And of course Friday, yeah, is a bank holiday, which will be followed by a weeks holiday.

 

I'm off to bed now so goodnight all.

[Barry O]

Totally whacked... drive up and down to Derbyshire then made tea (roast Beef with Yorkshire puddings) then a final of some indoor cricket - which was slightly spoiled by some goings on in the last over... 

 

Off to bed so sleep well and have a great day Rick!

 

Baz

 

PS I have been on missionary duty in Yorkshire, Herts, Oxfordshire and then back in Yorkshire for a long time so will celebrate Durham Day with a bottle of beer from Durham Brewery before finally calling it a day!

[andyram]

Evening all and congrats to my fellow Mickleover club member, Mike Bellamy, on becoming a grandfather. I also hope those that visited Ally Pally had an enjoyable meet up.

Feel a bit fed up this evening. Getting the full blown cold shoulder treatment from the other half. She has been like a bear with a sore head all day. Part of it may have been because she has not been well, but much of it is probably a reaction to my Derby County's 1-0 win over her Nottingham Forest yesterday! I really have not been able to do much right all day. I would not mind but I have bent over backwards to help her today. I took Amber out in the morning to give Sarah a break, took them both to the garden centre because she wanted to run out there for cat food, then took them out for Sunday lunch. I also helped her deliver the latest batch of Avon books. All of this was on a day when I had a mountain of work to complete for tomorrow.

I tried desperately to complete it during the remainder of the afternoon either side of making tea for us all. I did not get the work done and happened to suggest that I had too much still to do in order to help with Amber's bath and bed time arrangement. Big mistake!!! Ended up putting Amber to bed after all. The result - some of tomorrow's deadlines missed, unless I can get it all done before school. Highly unlikely.

 

Oh well. Rant over!!!

[Jock67B]

Evening all,

As I feel totally whacked now, I'm off to (Try to sleep) and will attempt a post in the morning. Quite a bit to cope with tomorrow which I will talk about then, we shall run over at the time.

Hope everyone manages to get a good sleep, and hears the alarm, which I didn't this morning. Good luck for those unwell alongst us, and good night one and all. Hope all feel better by morning,

Kind regards,

Jock.

G'night Pete! G'night insomniacs

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all - hope you get a good night's sleep Jock

[laurenceb]

Sleep well Jock

Night all

[Two_sugars]

 Goodnight Everyone . . .Sleep well.

 

 

 

John

[emt_911]

Morning all. Didn't sleep at all well last night and feel more tired than when I went to bed. Lots of coffee planned for today.

 

It looks like this week should be fairly easy with the continuation of surveying work and at least the forecast is reasonable.

 

Jock - I hope that you've managed a decent nights sleep.

 

Have a good day everyone

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

For some strange reason I did not do nearly as much as planned yesterday.  The laundry was accomplished, with the not altogether welcome follow-up of ironing today.  Lunch was toad in the hole, a favourite dish, but I nodded off afterwards so will have to watch the new Traction DVD again.  Then ITV screened 'Octopussy', complete with Nene Valley Railway footage, so there went another couple of hours.  Some m*d*ll*ng did get done while 'The Voice' was being transmitted and I only broke two drills.  Fortunately I stocked up on the relevant size and even more fortunately it's York show this weekend.

 

Tonight there is a railway film show in Kettering.  It is one of the 'Railways Remembered' series presented by Rob Foxon.  How good it will be to see films projected on a screen instead of irritating clips via YouTube which, if I understand the copyright screed on BTF DVDs correctly, ought not to be there.  If and only if it is fairly warm this afternoon I might just venture into the jungle garden to see how the dock leaves, nettles and other triffids have flourished over winter.  Mind you, I need a new trowel.  The old one fell apart and I forgot to replace it. 

 

Another job that needs doing is to update my list of Bradford Barton books.  I bought one at Ally Pally which rang no bells whatsoever.  I find that I already have a copy.  This keeps happening!  Is there no cure?

 

Best wishes, good health and condolences to all who need them

 

Chris

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

I hope you all had a reasonable weekend - congratulations and commiserations where appropriate.  I am sorry, but I haven't had a chance to catch up with events over the weekend, and today looks like it is going to be another rather busy day.

 

We have a fairly nice spring morning in this part of the world.  Although the weekend was a little bit on the grey side.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[trisonic]

G’night Jock, G’night everybody....

 

Best, Pete.