Early Risers.

[45156]

Morning All

 

It's Monday, and I will soon be setting off for LASAR to do some PAT testing, and now other duties in the shop as well, such as making sure that the book room is stocked up and the DVD shelves are likewise.

 

As usual, generic greetings are on offer to the ailing and the celebrating.  And a wish for some of the mising ERs to return - Ivan and Pete to name but two who seem to be departed from these parts.

 

Bacon bagel calls now, so back tomorrow.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[roundhouse]

 

Ian, you will probably have to do a factory reset on the Vermin StupidHub. I long ago set mine to modem mode and use ASUS AI Mesh compatible routers instead. Range is so good I no longer need a repeater in the shed, and I can still get a decent connection in the local chippy. I'm also running 4 Sonos speakers and a Sonos connect with no drop outs or hiccups, even when streaming vinyl from an analogue amp via the connect. 

 

Yes will do a reset some time today in between modelling. All echos playing music synced together now along with the one plugged into the hifi. 

 

A load of C & L concrete sleepers being cut down in length and bottom thickened out to add to the pile of sleepers in the yard on Dobris plus some weathering  etc.

 

Glad I am at home as Thameslink was up creek this morning and the train that I dropped my other half at the station didnt show up. It also affected some of her work collegues heading in from North of London.

Edited November 19, 2018 by roundhouse

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I am sooooo glad this morning that I no longer have to commute what with all the chaos this morning due to overrunning engineering works which means that a lot of stock will be trapped in its depots, oh such joy. Decidedly nippy this morning when I went out to get the milk in, so cold in fact the milk is now warming up in the fridge. Which reminds me of the school milk when I was a youngster, one winter morning it was so cold that the milk froze in the bottles and as it expanded it pushed the caps off. Now time for muggatee, be back later.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Good to hear that ChrisF js getting on with some modelling - an excellent step to back up his very positive achievements in Irwell land.   As ever little planned for today here beyond a probable continuation of winterisation in the living room - deferred from yesterday - and no doubt a bit more progress through Max Hastings mighty tome 'Catastrophe' about the outbreak of WWI which has sat on the 'to read' list for rather too long; he really is an excellent writer and a very impressive historian so 500+ pages definitely does not drag.

 

Outside it is colder by seemingly no proper frost this a.m and it is dry, but forecast to get wetter, and not whiter, as the week progresses.   Must raid the piggy bank ready for Saturday as well.

 

Have a good day one and all.

[AndrewC]

Good moaning from the boring borough. It's raining. It's Monday. It's waste of time meeting morning. Meh. 

 

I have a feeling our resident from the hill of Strawberries isn't going to be a very happy bunny when he checks in this morn. Twitter has now renamed SWT to S*itheads, W***ers & Tw**s. Despite the cause being Network Rail's sub-contractor's engineering works overrunning. 

 

I'm very glad to be in my home office, warm & dry, and travel stress free. Time for another coffee and mentally prepare for a technical interview with a potential new employer. 

 

Enjoy the day. 

[Tony_S]

Afternoon all.

I really thought I had posted this morning but perhaps that was yesterday.

It has been sunny and wet here this morning.

I wasn’t going to do much but Aditi seemed keen on sorting out stuff for the charity shop. I got rid of things that no longer fit and never will fit again. We now have a huge box of coat hangers too.

Tony

[Tony_S]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I am sooooo glad this morning that I no longer have to commute what with all the chaos this morning due to overrunning engineering works which means that a lot of stock will be trapped in its depots, oh such joy. Decidedly nippy this morning when I went out to get the milk in, so cold in fact the milk is now warming up in the fridge. Which reminds me of the school milk when I was a youngster, one winter morning it was so cold that the milk froze in the bottles and as it expanded it pushed the caps off. Now time for muggatee, be back later.

It must have been colder in the Midlands. Frozen milk, especially the free milk at school was frequently frozen.

[Gwiwer]

I have a feeling our resident from the hill of Strawberries isn't going to be a very happy bunny when he checks in this morn. Twitter has now renamed SWT to S*itheads, W***ers & Tw**s. Despite the cause being Network Rail's sub-contractor's engineering works overrunning. 

 

Enjoy the day.

 

The correct version of that is SWR : Something Will Run

 

Well that was a day!!! The first in which I have not just despatched no trains but had no trains offered for despatch. Multiple engineering over-runs blocked Southern and Gat-quick Express trains through Balham until around 06.45 and, far more seriously, SWR trains through Wimbledon until 10.30. And your scribe was in charge of the Down Main Slow platform 11 which had still had no service by time I left.

 

All the many hundreds of commuters who normally travel to Wimbledon, Kingston and points south-west were advised (by website, app and even push notifications to mobiles) to not attempt travel. Numbers were down on normal but I still had to re-direct several thousand hopefuls. While many were understanding there were the few who tried to make a bigger or personal issue of it.

 

Adding to the problems, as AndrewC alludes to, was the fact that most of the suburban fleet was trapped in Wimbledon depot. Coupled with staff dislocation this also had a profound negative effect on what we might otherwise have run on the Windsor Lines. Among the oddities which did run was a Waterloo - Exeter via Addlestone service. That’s not something you would ever normally see. I don’t know if the crew signed the route or were conducted over the diversion.

 

I survived with a smile on my face and reached home to enjoy a tasty bacon, brie and cranberry sandwich for lunch.

 

Then I opened my emails and learned that our estate agent managing the Australian property has gone into receivership. That explains why we haven’t received any rent for two months nor had a response from them explaining why. The issue here is that the rent feeds the mortgage and we have to establish if this will leave us out of pocket. And how do we appoint a new agent if there is no-one left to sign over the property management agreement.

 

It never rains but it pours, eh?

 

Phew. I’m off for a kip!!!!!

[Happy Hippo]

Ray went on his own and, working with another member, got the traverser running satisfactorily on the new hydraulic system.  That means no more manual, back-breaking pushing back and forth.

 

 

Poor sausage!

 

Try this:

 

[Happy Hippo]

I remain unconvinced that pictogram doesn't mean "Run away all"

 

Today was spent with my son and daughter-in-law delving into the past of Albus Dumbledore and his then contemporaries.

 

There's a lot for fans of JK Rowling's imagination to digest, including many familiar characters some 70 years earlier, and much that is completely new to the canonical form of the Harry Potter backstory.  On the whole the "Crimes of Grindelwald" screams of being the setup for a third installment of a "Wizarding World / Fantastic Beasts" series, alternatively full of computer-generated magic (literally so in this case) and confusing dialogue that tries hard not to explain everything clearly so as not to spoil the reveal in the next installment.

If you think that's good then you'll just love George the Stunt Hippo, when it's globally franchised.

[Barry O]

Humph!

 

Wasted all day gathering my paperwork together to submit my tax return on line. 

 

Pah!

 

It appears I may owe the HMRC £44.91.

 

Baz

[Gwiwer]

Unsurprisingly we made the national evening news. Somewhat surprisingly one of the snippets included a very familiar voice announcing that all trains from platform 11 were suspended.

[AndyB]

Evening all,

2 hours to get home this evening, which consisted of:

First 0.1 miles = 1 hour.

Next 0.3 miles = 30 minutes.

Next 14 miles = 30 minutes. 

Now, you might ask why I bothered to even leave if it was that bad. I think the answer is that it normally only takes about 45 minutes to do the first 0.3 miles, so when I ventured out it didn't seem "that bad". 

We used to complain about the journey to work. We now feel like we're held hostage at the end of the day. 

The number of complaints letters going into the County Council is increasing. I think mine tomorrow may be along the lines of....

"Dear Traffic Bloke. As a major employer in your area we are now looking to move counties. We hope this won't impact your tax receipts too much. Goodbye and thanks for all the fish."

 

[newbryford]

Evening all,

2 hours to get home this evening, which consisted of:

First 0.1 miles = 1 hour.

Next 0.3 miles = 30 minutes.

Next 14 miles = 30 minutes. 

Now, you might ask why I bothered to even leave if it was that bad. I think the answer is that it normally only takes about 45 minutes to do the first 0.3 miles, so when I ventured out it didn't seem "that bad". 

We used to complain about the journey to work. We now feel like we're held hostage at the end of the day. 

The number of complaints letters going into the County Council is increasing. I think mine tomorrow may be along the lines of....

"Dear Traffic Bloke. As a major employer in your area we are now looking to move counties. We hope this won't impact your tax receipts too much. Goodbye and thanks for all the fish."

 

 

22 mile commute for me - usually takes about 35 minutes. (40 on a summer Sunday when I get held up by tourists)

 

It's not all grim up north......

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited November 19, 2018 by newbryford

[AndyB]

22 miles - usually ta

 

 

22 mile commute for me - usually takes about 35 minutes. (40 on a summer Sunday when I get held up by tourists)

 

It's not all grim up north......

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

But I think even "the north" is getting further and further north. 

On our annual pilgrimage to Aberdeenshire we used to note that once we got past Manchester the traffic thinned out. Not so much these days, and it sometimes seems we have to get past the Lakes before it is noticeably quieter. Just don't mention the traffic in the Midlands last year - a standstill round Birmingham, Stoke... 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Apparently the engineering overrun this morning was due to the discovery that a section of track that was meant to have been left in place required urgent replacement. That is according to some news reports but it must have been really bad for it to require immediate replacement.

[Barry O]

looks like my week could be getting even more entertaining. Had a phone call tonight about a large model railway exhibition this weekend....."can I demonstrate this year?.... Err no, demonstrators were booked last year...".but I am really good and I can sell my models to pay for my stand"..er no..the demos don't sell anything... "can I come next year?".. what do you demonstrate....p"apier mache mouldings of trains" ...err no thanks....

 

 

and with that..goodnight all!

 

Baz

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

The banner headline is quite correct, the forum is running so slowly it is doing my head in!

 

Mad at work, really getting the er, that time of year rush, plus had a call from an RMWebber - caught me out for a second while I tried to process who it was! D'oh, got there in the end, cheers Bob!  Always nice to speak to 'on-line friends'. 

 

Dare I post a trainphoto….no best not.

[Gwiwer]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Apparently the engineering overrun this morning was due to the discovery that a section of track that was meant to have been left in place required urgent replacement. That is according to some news reports but it must have been really bad for it to require immediate replacement.

No official comment has yet been seen. Word is that a section of track which was replaced was found to not meet specifications and had to be urgently replaced. Another word is that a road-rail machine was wrongly routed through points, derailed damaging said points. Third version as Phil posted. The truth is out there. Someone will pay dearly for today’s problems. Edited November 19, 2018 by Gwiwer

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Isn’t it funny how sometimes one job leads to another? After I’d finished the patio, path and cellar steps, I came in and made myself a muggertea. Whilst drinking it, I noticed that the filters on the cooker hood needed cleaning, so I thought to myself, I’ll give them a clean. But it took me a bit longer than I expected, ho hum. This then highlighted the fact that the rest of the cooker hood needed cleaning, so that got a good clean next, followed by the hoods light fittings. I then decided to do a little sorting of stuff for a local charity shop. Most of the items needed a cleaning, so I set to and did the lot. Then the area of the work surface that they’d been sitting needed a clean, so I did that too. I was just finishing off when Sheila came back from her Zumba class.

 

I finally managed to get to the workshop after dinner, where I repackaged the faulty TTS sound chip, which I’ll send back to Hornby during the week. It’s definitely the chip that’s faulty and it’s rather an odd fault, because after a few minutes the sound cuts out, but only for a second or two. However, the engine continues to run without hesitation! I’ve even tried the chip in two different engines and the same thing happens, so fault is definitely with the chip.

 

Goodnight all.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

Retirement is - looking at stories about possession overruns with a wistful smile, some sympathy, and yet another opportunity to pass on the well worn tee shirt.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[southern42]

Some pics of West Shore's traverser taken a month ago.

 

There was an oil leak at ground level and a few other issues showed up all of which attracted a good number of bees round the honey pot (me included!)

 

The running track is on the left, the steaming bay, turntable and sheds top right, and headshunt mid right.

 

The traverser travelling towards the headshunt.

 

All is now well and the traverser glides across satisfactorily.  Hopefully, I will get to see it in action soon, though, I guess that will depend on anyone wanting to run...at this time of year?  A C*******s run has been proposed, anyway....   The Polar Express, no doubt...???

 

' Night all and nos da.

Sleep tight.