Early Risers.

[tomparryharry]

Good Morning Peeps.

 

Sunny morning in Newport today. No other appointments pending, so it's breakfast & strolling with the hounds.Had a pleasant chat with our neighbour, who's taken his children away for 2 weeks. That means I can get some 'bangin' & hammerin', as we upgrade the top of the house. Double glazing to go in next week, then the kitchen awaits. I'm determined to get some modelling done, but there's still of lots of kits in store. There was a huge loft when we moved in, and I've got my eye on it. Perhaps my luck is changing for the better. With luck, Mrs Smith will be ordering a book via Amazon (No, no cats!)so I'm looking forward to that auto-coach reference volume.

 

Have a good day folks.

 

Ian

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Rather overcast here with much rain forecast.

Matthew has sent us photos. He is now in a place called Pula. Many Roman ruins. Very sunny too.

Have a good day.

Tony

[Gwiwer]

Good morning from the Up Relief Line platform at Acton Main Line. Having assisted SWMBO into work with some bulky items I am now making full use of my free London travel before the monsoon arrives. Watching the scene mid-way through a phased handover to electric traction and mid-way through a major livery change, plus a good assortment of freight, it's definitely varied and colourful.

 

Wishing a good day to all and a safe dry one if the predicted weather arrives.

[DDolfelin]

My ignorance of anything railway related is common knowledge but I received a picture from a friend of 61264 pulling eight modern coaches because the eight restored coaches had been vandalised. It was going to Pickering (possibly from Whitby?).

Is this common knowledge?

Feel quite annoyed that the hours spent by volunteers have been wasted by these cretins.

Any further info?

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

The sun is trying to shine this morning, but I get the distinct impression that it's going to chuck it down.

 

It has been decided that we must visit boundary mill this morning, so we will be leaving for there shortly.

 

Not much else planned for the day.

 

Back later.

[AndrewC]

Morning all from the borough of boring. Life slowly returning to normal. I'm still in a load of pain but that beats the drug side effects and withdrawal symptoms of last week. Physio started yesterday. Suffice to say the layout/module has sat lonely and neglected in the shed for the past 2 months. Need to get my mojo back as there is loads to be done before its next outing in November. I've also got 8 weekends worth of household and garden work backed up. Really need to get on with finishing the concrete clearing of the front. Our brickie is due in 3 weeks time to replace the side fencing and to rebuild the front wall that was demolished by some womble du coque last December. Once that is done and dusted SWMBO can get the new planting done. That will free up around 50 pots worth of plants that are taking every available space in the back, including half of our parking space. 

 

Car rentals: Always ended up with a bigger car than I wanted whenever working in the US. I think the worst was some over sized Chrysler thing that despite the no smoking sign had been used for a cigar festival. It went back the following morning after the pine fresh spray had worn off. <barf> Hate renting a car in the UK. The b'stards always try to upsell or in one case tried to refuse to rent without their overpriced insurance. Renting in Calgary in June was a piece of cake. I used a UK site called Argus Car Hire. Basically it works like those hotel booking sites. By trimming a day off the rental, picking up away from the airport, (walking distance to MiL actually, bonus result) I ended up with the red Mustang convertible at a cost that was only £30 more for the week than renting a granny-mobile. (Toyota Camry) 

 

Right back to work such as it is. Supposed to be writing documentation but my brain won't reboot and I feel dozier than usual. 

 

Enjoy your day all. 

[southern42]

' Morning all from red dragon land.

 

Back from way out East, granddaughter's lovely Christening, and Jones the Steam's bit of trainspotting.

 

Just enough time to post one of Jones's photos of Llangollen for Andy.  Er...well...mine actually - Jones decided to stay in the car rather than get wet out in the rain!  And I thought these injan men went out in all weathers!     No doubt, Jones will be posting on his thread at some point !  

 

... I had planned to visit Llangollen on Thursday...

 

Hoping you and Amber will get there soon, Andy.

 

 

It is a long wait in the wet!

 

 

Time to catch up on the washing, replenishing the store cupboard, ERs, etc.

Enjoy your day.

 

[BoD]

My ignorance of anything railway related is common knowledge but I received a picture from a friend of 61264 pulling eight modern coaches because the eight restored coaches had been vandalised. It was going to Pickering (possibly from Whitby?).

Is this common knowledge?

Feel quite annoyed that the hours spent by volunteers have been wasted by these cretins.

Any further info?

it made the news here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-40697952

 

There is a whole topic devoted to it in the Prototype - preservation section of RMweb. As happens too often on RMweb, it started off being informative, with knowledgable posts, but got locked when some individuals decided to vent their spleens and prejudices.

[DDolfelin]

it made the news here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-40697952

 

There is a whole topic devoted to it in the Prototype - preservation section of RMweb. As happens too often on RMweb, it started off being informative, with knowledgable posts, but got locked when some individuals decided to vent their spleens and prejudices.

 

Thanks, BoD.

What a disgusting thing to happen.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Interesting to see that GDB is looking forward to the replacement of atrociously early mornings by constant management supervision - hmm, difficult one that, sort of frying pan into the fire job perchance.

 

As to car hire Mr Hertz has never given me anything bigger than the class of vehicle I've ordered but an independent bunch in Inverness really went for the jugular with the upgrade they gave me for a trip around wastelands north of the Highlands - 'sorry guv but we can't supply the Discovery you ordered but you can have this instead - at the same price'.  Actually it was more expensive because the Hummer (a civilian version fortunately) drank considerably more fuel than the Disco would have and it was a particularly wonderful machine to take off metalled roads, despite its alleged heritage.

 

Fortunately laddo's resignation seemed to go quite well yesterday as he was neither slaughtered nor sent on immediate gardening leave - the lack of the latter has somewhat upset Mrs Stationmaster's fiendish ideas.  In the meanwhile he is rather chuffed with himself as he was passed out for his first Great Cockcrow Signalman's job and also told he was passed on Rules without taking the rather daft written exam.

 

The seaweed brigade are promising heavy rain - I think they're right but it hasn't arrived yet.

 

Have a good day one and all and continuing positive thoughts for John and Debs

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Yesterday afternoon I found my garage blocked by a van parked up against the door. The van itself has evidently been in an accident as the drivers side is a bit battered and by markings on the windscreen has recently been auctioned. If I can't locate the owner its going to get towed away. It has been there since the weekend and I've noticed that the grill badge has disappeared (its a VW Caddy) and someones attempted to remove the number plates. I have asked around but today I'm going to report it to the council as I rent the garage from them.

[Danemouth]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Yesterday afternoon I found my garage blocked by a van parked up against the door. The van itself has evidently been in an accident as the drivers side is a bit battered and by markings on the windscreen has recently been auctioned. If I can't locate the owner its going to get towed away. It has been there since the weekend and I've noticed that the grill badge has disappeared (its a VW Caddy) and someones attempted to remove the number plates. I have asked around but today I'm going to report it to the council as I rent the garage from them.

I would be inclined to  ring the Old Bill as it may be a dumped stolen vehicle.

 

Dave

[AndrewC]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Yesterday afternoon I found my garage blocked by a van parked up against the door. The van itself has evidently been in an accident as the drivers side is a bit battered and by markings on the windscreen has recently been auctioned. If I can't locate the owner its going to get towed away. It has been there since the weekend and I've noticed that the grill badge has disappeared (its a VW Caddy) and someones attempted to remove the number plates. I have asked around but today I'm going to report it to the council as I rent the garage from them.

Good luck with that. Neighbours had an old variety bus dumped in their part of the alley way. Despite 6 months of calls to the police (who did contact the registered owner) and promises from said owner that it would be moved, nothing happened. Then one night the bus magically moved to the road and parked up on a pair of double yellows. Voila, gone in hours. 

[Purley Oaks]

Afternoon all

 

Sunny with clouds today.

 

We had an old Merc parked in our street for ages but the polis told us they could do nothing for 6 months. Just before the due date the 'owner' turned up with a tow-truck to take it away. Turned out the 'owner' was a car salesman who was using our street, among others, as his sales forecourt. As we're tight for parking anyway I told him so and it hasn't happened again.

 

Thanks for the Llangollen pic, Polly, always like that view from Carrog.

 

A festivalling evening today, Milton Jones at 7.30pm, and Mark Steel at 9.30pm. So just time for a small beer in-between, then.

 

Have a good day

 

Mal

[roundhouse]

My favourite rental car anecdote.

 

Family NB turned up at Charlotte NC airport expecting a midsize car.

We were third in line for one. A couple and a single business traveller. There weren't any immediately available, but some would be along shortly but if you want a truck, you can have one for the same price.

There were two parked up.

 

The couple took one and the single guy was thinking about it until he turned round and saw the look of disappointment on my and Junior NB's faces.......

He then said "I'll wait for a midsize" much to our gratitude.

 

It was only when loading our luggage that we discovered that three full cases, three flight bags and three passengers was a bit of a tight fit as we weren't leaving or luggage in the open loadspace.

 

This was a great vehicle to blend in in NC, SC and GA. All it needed was a gun rack.

USA41.jpg

 

 

Lots accomplished at work on the tracklaying front. The double triangular junction has been laid on the section above the boss' desk (he's away for a few days) and most of the elevated trackbed section is in place.

 

A few customer service jobs tomorrow am and hopefully finish the whole elevated section.

 

Have a good Tuesday folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Got any job vacancies!!

 

A bit far for me to commute though but laying track and fiddling with electronics sound like heaven compared to current job. One work collegue handed in his notice a few weeks ago whilst I was away then he was away so just had a long conversation with him and he is changing career but not sure what yet.

Edited August 8, 2017 by roundhouse

[Ian Abel]

Morning, nondescript Tuesday here...

 

Nothing to report from yesterday, entombed in a conference room with few distractions/visits from client staff.

I did miss out on what I hoped was going to be a cheap eBay Bachmann 4MT tank, don't really need a second one, but if I'd got it cheap (went over my pre-determine limit) I'd have been happy with that.

 

17 cloudy and rain showers this morning, varying opinions as to the weather for the day high may be 25-27 and water from the sky in varying amounts predicted.

 

On with Tuesday  

[shortliner]

Got the Kia back - great service as usual - Love that 7 Year warranty!

[TheQ]

Got the Kia back - great service as usual - Love that 7 Year warranty!

My  kia (2009) is Pre the 7 Year warranty, it also cost only half the price of the current model. but reliable they are...

[Horsetan]

Counsel at this afternoon's hearing has come up with so many permutations that I am now slightly confused. And because the list at the County Court is so crowded, he still hasn't been seen by the District Judge yet. Meanwhile my client still hasn't responded to the e-mails I sent him last week, so I think I will have to ask Counsel to fly by the seat of his pants, so to speak.

 

Meanwhile, in the secretive Irishman's Estate, HMRC confirms that not only can we pay the humongous IHT bill in instalments but that we may be given up to 10 years to do so.....at a rate of 2.75% interest. Oh great.

[Gwiwer]

Got the Kia back - great service as usual - Love that 7 Year warranty!

 

 

My  kia (2009) is Pre the 7 Year warranty, it also cost only half the price of the current model. but reliable they are...

 

 

My all-time favourite car to drive so far has been the Kia Cee'd.  I had two at different times as rentals and could fault neither.  We own (still) an Australian Kia Rio which we bought from the showroom with just 7 kms on the clock back in January 2002.  it has been the best car we ever invested in.  Cheap to buy - and we got a discount - and fairly economical to run.  Minimal maintenance costs (it's up to 250,000 kms now and only on its second clutch, for example) and did everything we ever asked of it from town hops to lengthy interstate trips of several days.  Sometimes in extreme weather too - searingly hot (and she never once got near to overheating) or torrentially wet (never stalled in water either).

 

I'd usually recommend a Kia to anyone.  Though the Hyundai i30 is basically a Cee'd chassis and mechanics with Hyundai's own but very similar body.  They're pretty good too.

 

I would not recommend South West Trains to anyone this afternoon.  Service to and from Waterloo are in total disarray.  No reason, explanation nor apology has been offered to those including myself waiting at Clapham Junction.  Platform staff were conspicuous by their absence; there were two blue-jacketed "crowd controllers" who denied working for SWT, had no idea where the trains were going and even advised one passenger to "Take the Windsor train and change there for Heathrow".  Fail.  The information screens were no more helpful.  Trains were all shown as "Delayed" or "Cancelled" but when one arrived the display changed to "Stand Clear - not stopping at this station".  Nothing seemed to be running to the Kingston / Shepperton line until after an hour a train crept in showing Shepperton on the front - and which continued to creep right through without stopping.  It had passengers aboard and some were in the doorways with fingers poised on the open buttons so clearly hoping to alight.  No chance.  With nothing else showing I ended up boarding the next train to Twickenham and bussing as close as I could to home.  Very, very poor show, SWT, and Deity of Choice help those trying to get anywhere at 5pm if 2pm was anything to go by.

 

Arrived back at the Hill over an hour later than intended.  Delayed coffee now being enjoyed.  Wonder if I can claim Delay Repay against my free travel pass?

 

Back later.  Until then ..... 

[81C]

Good luck with that. Neighbours had an old variety bus dumped in their part of the alley way. Despite 6 months of calls to the police (who did contact the registered owner) and promises from said owner that it would be moved, nothing happened. Then one night the bus magically moved to the road and parked up on a pair of double yellows. Voila, gone in hours. 

That's funny there was a 2CV which was untaxed left in our road some years ago the same thing happened to that.

 

Another incident was when some @rseole left his car heap of sh1t across my drive I checked with all the houses to see who owned it with no luck the numbnuts had left it unlocked

and the hand brake was off and a big ghost like thing that looked like a Transit came along and shoved it up the road out of the way.

Strange happenings in these parts.       

[Judge Dread]

That's funny there was a 2CV which was untaxed left in our road some years ago the same thing happened to that.

 

Another incident was when some @rseole left his car heap of sh1t across my drive I checked with all the houses to see who owned it with no luck the numbnuts had left it unlocked

and the hand brake was off and a big ghost like thing that looked like a Transit came along and shoved it up the road out of the way.

Strange happenings in these parts.       

I've reported an abandoned car in a lonely layby via a friend with the local council. He passed on the details to the police. They came back to him saying the car was not reported stolen, and as it was taxed, insured and M.O.T'd they were not interested. It's been there some six weeks now.

[Horsetan]

 

That's funny there was a 2CV which was untaxed left in our road some years ago the same thing happened to that.

 

Another incident was when some @rseole left his car heap of sh1t across my drive I checked with all the houses to see who owned it with no luck the numbnuts had left it unlocked

and the hand brake was off and a big ghost like thing that looked like a Transit came along and shoved it up the road out of the way.

Strange happenings in these parts.    

 

 

I've reported an abandoned car in a lonely layby via a friend with the local council. He passed on the details to the police. They came back to him saying the car was not reported stolen, and as it was taxed, insured and M.O.T'd they were not interested. It's been there some six weeks now.

 

 

If you do come across a blue-and-white 1977 VW Type 2 Camper van, on an S-suffix plate, do let me know. My client would quite like it back, as it is technically her inheritance....

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl, welcome to an extremely soggy Norfolk.

 

I left work at 15:00 in the dry, I then spent 15 minutes in the queue for the new roundabout on the NDR, they had the phasing very wrong leaving a queue into Norwich. shortly after it started to spit and I could see lightening In the distance.

 

As I approached the Bure valley railway there was a tail back in the traffic, with cars at the front doing multiple point turns. When I got to the front I drove down the slope to the bridge under the Norwich to sheringham line. Through about a foot of water, round the drowned white Mercedes two door, parked in the middle of the road, clear of the flood, in the pouring rain with the driver's door wide open. With henwomble standing around.

 

I would guess she went in too fast flooded the engine, and rolled out the other side.

 

It took about 1.25 hours to get home for what is normally less than a 40 minute journey.

 

I've got home to find Ben the Border Collie being very silly in the thunder, he's hiding in the other room at the moment. It's still chucking it down.

 

SWMBO has departed for her weaving group, She has already walked Ben, but if it stops raining I'll let him out round the garden.

 

So I've to make my own dinner, if I can find some bacon, it will be my approximation of spaghetti carbonara.

 

Stay dry folks...

[AndyID]

 

If you do come across a blue-and-white 1977 VW Type 2 Camper van, on an S-suffix plate, do let me know. My client would quite like it back, as it is technically her inheritance....

 

Last car I owned in the UK was a Fiat 132 (1976 model?) It was a nice car, but I very much doubt anyone would want to inherit it now.