Early Risers.

[NGT6 1315]

E'ning all. It is April all right, with temperatures having plummeted by several degrees since yesterday! Though as long as it doesn't snow, I don't mind that much.

 

Today saw me meeting up with Richard (Taigatrommel) and family at Naumburg, which with a population of around 33,000 has one of the smallest tram systems in Europe. Opened in 1892, the tram, which at one point had a maximum route length of 5.4 km, struggled repeatedly during its history and as of today operates on a length of 2.5 km between Central Station and Vogelwiese. While marketed mainly for tourist purposes, it does operate on a regular timetable with a 30-minute interval, meaning that for standard service, one single car is sufficient. Six motor cars and one trailer are serviceable at present, with two additional motor cars and two trailers requiring restoration or revisions.

 

There are initiatives for restoring at least part of the remaining original route, which basically rounded the historic city centre and also comprised a loop through the historic market. Of course, like with everything requiring proper planning permissions and funding, that is going to take time.

 

 

 

This is the section to Salztor which is currently in restoration and expected to reopen later this year.

 

 

 

The one car in service today was Gotha T57 #38, seen here with Central Station in the background.

 

 

 

Hands-on technology was evident when I took a glimpse of the cab!

 

 

 

T57 motor cars 37 and 51 were among the stock stabled inside the depot at Poststraße.

 

 

 

Car 38 rolling on a stretch of freshly sown grass track approaching Marientor.

 

 

Well, I think it is now time for some eyelid inspection, so, ta for tonight…

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The refuse collection problems in Sutton alluded too on these pages made it on to the BBC local news this evening, p1ss up, brewery comes to mind.

 

Might be the Scots are growing their own  http://weeteacompany.com/

 

Don

Thats where I get my tea from, I might even try the Scottish grown tea. At the moment my prefered tea is the breakfast blend which suits my palate. Their service is very good, usually within 24 hours of placing an order.

[Tony_S]

Well at least the water softener is installed and there is some very neat pipework just waiting for boiler, hot tank and header tank. They are now at the wholesaler and our chaps are planning to be there at an early hour to collect them. We don't have heating or hot water but otherwise no problem.

Aditi had gone to some modern dance ballet this evening. A live broadcast at the cinema from wherever the really live performance is.

She is going to her French Circle group tomorrow. The visiting lecturer wanted everyone to have read Sleeping Beauty in French stating that it was available "everywhere". He made this request on Sunday. Guess who had to source and download the tale, somewhat more gruesome than the Disney version. Project Gutenberg saved the day!

Tony

[JohnDMJ]

I don't know what I did yesterday but the tea drinking plumber has asked for coffee today.

 

Could be he was telling you something - me fo® k-offee! Did he come back today?

 

Well at least the water softener is installed and there is some very neat pipework just waiting for boiler, hot tank and header tank. They are now at the wholesaler and our chaps are planning to be there at an early hour to collect them. We don't have heating or hot water but otherwise no problem.

Aditi had gone to some modern dance ballet this evening. A live broadcast at the cinema from wherever the really live performance is.

She is going to her French Circle group tomorrow. The visiting lecturer wanted everyone to have read Sleeping Beauty in French stating that it was available "everywhere". He made this request on Sunday. Guess who had to source and download the tale, somewhat more gruesome than the Disney version. Project Gutenberg saved the day!

Tony

 

I too have a water softener. Since I had the house re-plumbed, the only hard water feeds are to the downstairs loo, the bathroom loo and the garden tap. All other feeds (boiler, basins, washing machines, kitchen sink, bath, shower) are soft. Softened water IS perfectly drinkable (and I have since 1967 when Dad installed our first softener!)

 

My current unit is an automatic device with 'two halves'; one refreshes whilst the other is still working.

Edited April 11, 2017 by JohnDMJ

[grandadbob]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The refuse collection problems in Sutton alluded too on these pages made it on to the BBC local news this evening, p1ss up, brewery comes to mind.

 

 

You couldn't make it up Phil. I am actually a keen recycler but the farce that has transpired over the last couple of weeks has rather dented my enthusiasm. I suspect that this weekend when we have a houseful (yet again) my new miniature box designated for glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic trays, other plastic pots, tin cans etc may become rather inundated. I may make a suggestion to the local council about where it can all be put! I have ordered extra boxes but I have no idea when I'm likely to get them. (I don't think they know either)

[Smiffy2]

I must say that I have had no problems at all with Sutton's new arrangements, apart from the box for glass and plastics probably being too small. We have had collections on time and done reasonably (the first week all the green waste was put in together, as expected).

I am amazed at how little food waste we produce - less than two caddies a week - and how much packaging which goes into the brown landfill bin. Paper and card no problem, as that's a big wheelie bin, and really we need a wheelie for the plastic and glass.

 

It's a decent idea, but I'm not sure they've thought it through for flats and houses with small or no front gardens. They have also discovered 'anomalies' in their records over what dwellings are houses and which are maisonettes. Of which there are many here.

 

My collection of bins:

[Donw]

You couldn't make it up Phil. I am actually a keen recycler but the farce that has transpired over the last couple of weeks has rather dented my enthusiasm. I suspect that this weekend when we have a houseful (yet again) my new miniature box designated for glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic trays, other plastic pots, tin cans etc may become rather inundated. I may make a suggestion to the local council about where it can all be put! I have ordered extra boxes but I have no idea when I'm likely to get them. (I don't think they know either)

 

Councils seem to have some strange idea that if they reduce the collections and provide smaller bins we will put out less. I am sure when folk go online or out shopping the key thought in their mind is must reduce the amount of rubbish. One trouble is so many people think council elections are a chance to have a dig at the current government so the behaviour of the local council rarely affects the result. It would be nice if the council tax was based on the actual services you were likely to get.

Don

[laurenceb]

Night all

[emt_911]

Only got to the hotel at 22:00 after a very long day thanks to an emergency call out. The up side of it is that it has secured an exceptional amount of work for the company so it isn't all bad.

 

Absolutely shattered.

 

Night all

[BSW01]

 

Good evening everyone.

 

We got to Boundary Mill just in time to get into the cafe before the lunchtime rush started. As usual Sheila went to 'bag' a table whilst I went to collect the food. For what you pay there, it's pretty good value for money.

 

Well my wallet didn't escape unharmed, by for a change, it was me who made most of the purchases today. I came away with a few items, a new pair of trainers, some socks, underwear and a new bag, so it wasn't a wasted trip. On our way home there was a huge queue to join the queue for the slip road at the junction between the M66 and M60 known as Simister Island and there were plenty of cockwombles all around. You know the ones who won't join a queue, but will happily block a lane, whilst trying to push there way into said queue. I'm afraid I sounded my horn on more than one occasion and gave several of them very unfriendly hand signals, the fecking ejits

 

With so many cockwombles around, I decided to bypass said junction completely and carried on the clockwise carriage of the M60, going home via Stockport. Despite extra few miles of the detour, it took just over 25 minutes to get home form that point, about 10 minutes more than our normal route. However, as we were traveling we saw several MATRIX signs indicating that there were delays of around 90 minutes on what would have been our usual route home, so I definitely made the right decision.

 

Goodnight all

[Barry O]

Four games of cricket (indoors) umpired, a pint or two drunk to quench my thirst and now...time for SOE eyelid inspection.

 

A very quick visit by BG today and two new smart meters fitted. The lads did well.

 

Sleep well most of you, Rick, have a nice day!

Baz

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Donw]

Following comments on Garden Railways. I keep starting to build garden lines but we always seem to move before the line gets fully built. However thanks to the kindness of friends I have been able to enjoy garden railways for years.

I have spent many pleasant afternoons operating this 0 gauge garden line

 

 

This was one of the most delightful lines I have visited belonging to a member of the Isle of Wight Garden Railway group.

 

 

Garden Meetings can be quite social as in the Devon meeting

 

 

One of the Great Little Railways smaller brothers on an open day

 

The nearest Taliesin is mine. This was the first chance I had to run it.

 

These are just a few of those I have visited. So even if you have no line yourself others will allow you to visit and run your stuff.

 

Don 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[AndyID]

E'ning all. It is April all right, with temperatures having plummeted by several degrees since yesterday! Though as long as it doesn't snow, I don't mind that much.

 

Today saw me meeting up with Richard (Taigatrommel) and family at Naumburg, which with a population of around 33,000 has one of the smallest tram systems in Europe.

 

Looks like 3' 3.37" gauge too.

[AndyID]

Oops! (One of the disadvantages of centralization.)

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-39567057

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

We both enjoyed the pan fried salmon and trimmings, to the extent that PP was at one point afterwards snoring his head off whilst Doctors was on TV.  An understandable reaction, some would say.  The evening talk on Thameslink majored on the reconstruction of London Bridge station and was a lot better when the speaker stopped uttering management-speak [stakeholder interface, deliverables, blah blah blah] and rediscovered English to describe the photographs.  Between all this some m*d*ll*ng got done.

 

Tonight there is a concert with Feast of Fiddles, tomorrow I am not attending the Maundy ceremony and sometime soon there is a dandelion patch - sorry, lawn - to mow.  

 

Lot more to read so TTFN and warm thoughts to those in distress

 

Chris

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is fairly chilly this morning - a sign that we are still only in the middle of April.  Despite afternoon temperatures reaching nearly 20°C.

 

The dentist went well yesterday, nothing serious to report.

 

Recycling and rubbish collection is an interesting topic.  Some observations can be made which may help some councils:

 

• Not all recycling makes a profit.  This doesn't mean it shouldn't be done!
• The system needs to be sensible - Don't fail collect a whole bin full because of a few crumbs on something.
• Rubbish is a pain, but you can't get around it.  People will always generate some rubbish, and so you have to be intelligent about collecting it.
• Making bins smaller and smaller doesn't produce less rubbish. 
• Shifting that rubbish to other bins and reducing the overall amount of rubbish is what needs to be done.

For example, since it has become almost impossible to get rid of old white goods in some areas, more old fridges and washing machines have ended up being fly tipped - which also costs the councils money.  If the shops took back the old appliances for free then this problem would be solved.  The shops then pass the appliances on to recyclers in bigger, hence cheaper batches.

 

I don't pretend that Germany is somehow the paragon of recycling, but here shops will (and have to) take back anything old when they sell you new.  That includes batteries, oil, white goods and so on.

 

Have a good day everyone...

Edited April 12, 2017 by Robert

[TheQ]

Morning awl, After a good nights sleep, 5.5 hours in bed 1.5 hours on the sofa.

 

I left the house this morning as dawn arose, to frighten a baby deer that ran behind my Land rover, Mummy  deer then ran out from the other side of the Land rover and zig zag'd down the garden obviously trying to attract attention.

 Shortly After I drove down the road with the sun rise behind me in shades of pink and gold and a rainbow in front of me. Very Pretty.

Then it went dark and started Drizzling not so pretty...

 

This morning, I'm down to 2 equipments to work on,

 One will have 2 hours of manual measurements, then 5 hours of 40 minutes running change a switch 40 minutes Change a switch etc

The other has a 2 hour run, on a new version of the software I've written and now am testing, then 2 days of manual measurements. 

 

Time to check the company junk mail...

[emt_911]

Morning all. I managed an excellent nights sleep but still feel tired but after yesterday that's not surprising.

 

A quick trip to the office before heading to Northampton and then home after I've finished my coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Seems to be a bit dull here with the chance of some rain.

 

D-day plus 2:

A sustained assault on the ceilings meant that they were eventually taken. Preliminary bombardments on the woodwork and radiators have begun and a further assault is expected today. Casualties have been sustained in the form of one aching back and one very sore knee. As the latter is a replacement made of steel and plastic it puzzles me how it hurts so much, I assume it's the surrounding bits attached to it that are causing the pain. The medic (that would be me)  prescribed some magic healing liquid to be taken which seemed to help. 

 

In other news a major resupply of the booze cupboard is needed today for the weekend's operations before any decorating can be done.

Our rubbish collection was a day late, the bins were left haphazardly on the pavement and not on the drive except for the small food waste bin which looked like it had been thrown there. (As had many others in the road.) Unfortunately I wasn't there to see it. Sutton Council arranged for further bins to be available for collection from B& Q at the weekend which was a farce according to a couple of friends who attempted to get them and gave up as there were "hundreds" of people in the queue. The Council claim that 40% of our waste is food which I think is total carp judging by the small amounts put out by us and our neighbours. Packaging though is definitely a different issue particularly polythene but  there does seem to be a move away from polystyrene to moulded cardboard.

Enough he said. I am unwrapped and packaged out!

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited April 12, 2017 by grandadbob

[Neil]

Good morning all. The sky in mid Wales has a distinct grey tone this morning an unwelcome change from the largely blue shades we've been used to the past few days. Yesterday I headed off for my usual Tuesday destination, the Corris Railway's operating base at Maespoeth. Our task was to clean and tidy the carriage shed - workshop so that it's fit and safe to receive members of the public ready for this seasons opening this Friday. All journeys start and finish at Corris but because the trip to Maespoeth is a short one passengers get a guided tour of the engineering facilities at Maespoeth too.

 

As part of my early morning routine I normally also check in with the BBC news website to see what happening in the world at large. This story about potential Russian hacking of the Brexit vote site stood out. With the recent statements that they were active in the US election I thought that the Brexit referendum would be another obvious  target. I'm not surprised to see my suspicions confirmed.

[grandadbob]

Ha!

 

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/carnage-as-hundreds-of-people-queue-for-hours-in-20c-heat-for-new-recycling-bins-a3511911.html

 

Ha again!

 

http://www.newsroomsutton.co.uk/archive/10-april-statement-on-sutton-bin-collection-service/

 

And now on the London Borough of Sutton website!

 

Extra green recycling boxes

All homes on the standard collection service should have received a green recycling box for glass, plastics, cans and cartons. If you need extra green boxes you can request them here. While you are waiting for your new green box to be delivered, please place extra glass, plastics, cans and cartons in cardboard boxes next to your green box on your collection day.

Ha bloody ha! I'm pretty certain that wasn't on there last week which was when I recycled the only cardboard boxes I had that were big enough!   

I suppose they'll get it right eventually.     

Edited April 12, 2017 by grandadbob

[Oldddudders]

Morning all from a sunny but distinctly chilly Sarthe (writes he who has yet to venture out!).

 

While the observers watch some concerning developments worldwide, here in la France profonde I yesterday saw a political poster. Some chap's mugshot - and his party Frexit! What the UK does today....

 

Sherry's son is in despair about errors in his former job, out of which he has been transferred while enquiries continue. My inference is that by prolonging the agony his employer hopes he'll resign, thus avoiding the need to sack him despite not having followed the recognised procedures, and thus risking an employment tribunal. Sherry, and his sisters, are rallying round, but he's deep in gloom.

 

My back is still a wreck, and I now have more supplies of painkillers etc. On Friday Alison and Gerry will be here to mow lawns etc.. I really dare not do anything of that nature yet.

 

I hope midweek finds you well.

[Barry O]

Good morning to most, evening to Rick.

 

A bit cloudy here too but heyho things to do, car to be packed, the A64 caravan trail to be followed.

 

Woo hoo we won on Euromillions last night...a whole £2.80. Will rush out and use this to buy.another euromillions ticket..

 

Stay safe and enjoy you day wherever you are!

 

Baz