Early Risers.

[edcayton]

Debs, please can you tell us something of your train-driving career please?

 

Ed

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, a little dull here but not precipitating which is as good as it gets on a bank holiday weekend!

 

Mrs H had a steriod injection into her wrist yesterday for her carpal tunnel problems, a bit of a rush job again before the weekend - it's worse than ever this morning so that's her ride out on the bike ruined. 

 

Debs, great hear the parental units had a good tour, that sounds like it might have been one of the Mk1 Pullman cars they were in - Met-Cam built.

 

MRI, what a noisy business that was for the hip as my head was right inside, nasty injection of the magnetic reacive agent into the joint too, got it all to do again soon by the sounds of things, gloom.

 

If the rain holds off I may have a toddle out on one of the bikes while Mrs H takes her frustrations out on something else for a while...ahem.

 

Debs, how is that beast of a diesel coming on?  Haven;t seen it for a while, it was looking muchly impressive.

[The Stationmaster]

Not at all comparable to the present UK rise in resentment of willing migrant workers at a time of employment issues, and the arrival of a new-ish political party seeking to make UK independent, of course............

No indeed - totally different in both origin and the way things changed over the course of about 40 years.  Anti-semitic laws were being passed and restrictions imposed on native German people of the Jewish religion starting from the late 1890s with some restrictions increasing in the years prior to 1914 - simply because of their religion.

[trisonic]

We had 18 couples and their parents (finally) over for Pre-Junior Prom eats and (soft) drinkies (you cannot serve alcohol to anyone under 21 - even at home). I seem to have been the only adult present who had never attended any kind of prom....

 

Here is an unedited photo taken on my (laughingly called) lawn in the backyard.

Anyone spotting my daughter will get a Brownie Point. Hint, and to give a sense of scale - the young lady in the centre of the photo is 6’ tall and is not my daughter (she is the daughter of my financial adviser):

 

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

[AndyB]

Morning all,

A lovely sunny day here to start the long weekend off. 

 

Attended a works reunion last night. I left the company about 9 years ago and hadn't been around to see colleagues get old. 

Sadly quite a number of former colleagues had passed away - some in their late 50s or early 60s. Seemed to be a correlation between "pipe smokers" and early checkout!

 

Anyway, on a lighter note catching up with last night's episodes of Dr Who with my youngest and then heading out to work on the garage refurb project. 

Andy

[Tony_S]

I will get round to the dusting soon. I disturbed a lot of spiders when I checked the ethernet cables behind the television when fault finding recently so I suppose I should return all the cables to where they were first. It isn't difficult, fortunately I used bright yellow cables.

[Tony_S]

  I seem to have been the only adult present who had never attended any kind of prom....

 

Here is an unedited photo taken on my (laughingly called) lawn in the backyard.

Anyone spotting my daughter will get a Brownie Point.  

 

I know which one is your daughter but I have seen the Facebook photo posted recently.

Aditi's cousin has just graduated from college in India and my Facebook page now has a lot of happy young people smiling for the camera. Aditi isn't going to use Facebook until she retires so I have to pass on all the greetings from India.

I  haven't been to a "Prom" either. I'm not quite sure when the American style school/college prom started here, but in Essex it must have revitalised the dinner suit and posh frock industry.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Tony_S

[NGT6 1315]

A humorous moment was had at school yesterday when one student asked: "What's an antonym to 'buffalo'? 'Dead buffalo'?"

[andyram]

The start of the Bank Holiday weekend and, despite an absent wife and daughter, I am up by 7am to some bright sunshine. I already been into Derby to pick up a new bank card and I have been shopping around for a new laptop. The current laptop is on loan from the school and is blessed with two user i.d's. One is a personal one, the other a school i.d which links to the school server (when it works). The current laptop is due to be replaced and the new one will only have the school i.d. Apparantly this is to guard against private child data being removed from school. Without the personal i.d I will not be able to access the internet at home to download resources and will be severely restricted in what I can do at home. I could do without the expense, but I think I will have to go out and buy my own computer so that I can continue to work at home.

 

 The sun is still shining, I could go out and enjoy it in the garden or off to a preserved railway - but I think I will stay in and watch the drama unfold on the last day of the Championship season!

[Tony_S]

A humorous moment was had at school yesterday when one student asked: "What's an antonym to 'buffalo'? 'Dead buffalo'?"

Don't confuse a buffalo with a bison though. Though everyone in my home town knows you can't wash your hands in a buffalo.

[trisonic]

Tony, It was a very nice evening (thank God), lovely and warm. Would it give a clue to the others if I said her dress was “Aqua”? Probably not with this audience....

 

Best, Pete.

[NGT6 1315]

Thought for today: Could you be punished for counterfeiting money when you coin a new term?

[shortliner]

For those of you who are old enough to remember, enjoy.
For the rest - it's a history lesson!!
Very surprising how time and memory has taken its toll.
Have things really changed  this much in our time?
         EATING IN THE UK IN THE  FIFTIES
  

Pasta had not been  invented.
 
Curry was a surname.
 
A takeaway was a mathematical  problem.
 
A pizza was something to do with  a leaning tower.
  
Bananas and oranges only  appeared at Christmas time.
  
All crisps were plain; the only  choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not.
  
A Chinese chippy was a foreign  carpenter.
  
Rice was a milk pudding, and  never, ever part of our dinner.
  
A Big Mac was what we wore when  it was raining.
  
Brown bread was something only  poor people ate.
  
Oil was for lubricating, fat was  for cooking
  
Tea was made in a teapot using  tea leaves and never green.
  
Coffee was Camp, and came in a  bottle.
  
Cubed sugar was regarded as  posh.
 
Only Heinz made  beans.
  
Fish didn't have fingers in  those days.
 
Eating raw fish was called  poverty, not sushi.
  
None of us had ever heard of  yoghurt.
  
Healthy food consisted of  anything edible.
  
People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.
  
Indian restaurants were only  found in India.
 
Cooking outside was called  camping.
 
Seaweed was not a recognised  food.
 
"Kebab" was not even a word  never mind a food.
  
Sugar enjoyed a good press in  those days, and was regarded as being white gold.
  
Prunes were  medicinal.
  
Surprisingly muesli was readily  available, it was called cattle feed.
              
Pineapples came in chunks in a  tin; we had only ever seen a picture of a real one.
  
Water came out of the tap, if  someone had suggested bottling it and
charging more than petrol for it  they would have become a laughing stock.
  
The one thing that we never ever had on our table in the fifties .. was elbows!

 

[AndrewC]

Afternoon all from the comfy respite of the local 'spoons. Wandered along to the Hornby collectors show at the Methodist church. A few more stops in some of the shops then a quiet afternoon in the shed awaits.

 

Enjoy your day.

[BoD]

Anyone spotting my daughter will get a Brownie Point.

None of them.

 

 

 

They are all far too pretty.

[Barry O]

We had 18 couples and their parents (finally) over for Pre-Junior Prom eats and (soft) drinkies (you cannot serve alcohol to anyone under 21 - even at home). I seem to have been the only adult present who had never attended any kind of prom....

 

Here is an unedited photo taken on my (laughingly called) lawn in the backyard.

Anyone spotting my daughter will get a Brownie Point. Hint, and to give a sense of scale - the young lady in the centre of the photo is 6’ tall and is not my daughter (she is the daughter of my financial adviser):

 

DSC_21184.jpg

 

Best, Pete.

No they are all far too pretty - she must take after her mother...

 

(runs and hides)..

 

Baz

[BoD]

What an intelligent, witty person you must be Barry.

[Debs.]

Debs, please can you tell us something of your train-driving career please?

 

Ed

 

I worked on the footplate for B.R.(M) at Birkenhead Mollington Street {shed code 8H} between 1973 and 1979 as a traction trainee (a role which had been a "Fireman" in steam days; but was later known as "Secondman").

 

Then, there were mixed freight ('trips'), MGR coal trains (Lancashire collieries to Fiddler`s Ferry power station), iron-ore in bulk; the legendary unfitted bogie-hoppers known as 'The Shotwicks' and many light-engine movements all over the North West region, but with bulk heavy-oil movements out of the Stanlow refinery, representing the bulk of the shed`s rostered work, there were also some 'top-link' jobs: regular DMU passenger routes and the occasional passenger special.

 

When not acting as "secondman" on the many longer rostered jobs and being young at the time, I did a great deal of (lowly) 'shed-turns': shunting locos for fueling and starting and preparing them in time for service, which was supposed to introduce one to general locomotive and DMU driving-knowledge/handling under what were 'said' to be supervised conditions....the reality was, that I was most often left to do the job alone for the entire shift, as the shed-turn drivers were covering jobs elsewhere.

 

Classes of locos frequently seen at Mollington St. were: 03`s, 08`s, 25`s (often in pairs), 40`s and 47`s.

 

There was an element of "Dead Men`s Boots" at Birkenhead and I stood little chance of being 'passed for driving' within the forthcoming several years, and that, combined with seeing the wind change with regards to B.R`s freight policy, and a national network of oil-delivery pipelines being built, meaning there`d be fewer oil-in-tank trains on the move (on which the shed`s work mostly relied) I decided there was no future for me there.....I left the railway and went to University (in California) and another life began.

 

Working on the railway then, was a special time, "the job" was full of some real characters (many of whom were very kind to me) and I learned a great deal from them at a pivotal time on my life.......I`ve never forgotten it!

The only negative aspect of that time, is that my sleep patterns became 'broken' (in those days the circadian rhythms were not considered as much as now, with rostered booking-on times randomly changing between 'nights', 'days' and 'earlies' and generally being altered (seemingly) every couple of days, such that even today, I struggle to be able to find sleep in one chunk at night.

 

Mollington St.was closed permanently in 1985 and was demolished soon after.

 

Birkenhead Shed in happier days:

 

 

The refuelling point:

 

Edited May 3, 2014 by Debs.

[The Stationmaster]

Tony, It was a very nice evening (thank God), lovely and warm. Would it give a clue to the others if I said her dress was “Aqua”? Probably not with this audience....

 

Best, Pete.

I reckon with a touch of Italian heritage it might show in her hair - so the young lady 3rd from the right.

[Coombe Barton]

May 3rd

 

Daughter in to be law's birthday (been round earlier)

 

Would have been my dad's eleventy first birthday (born in 1903)

 

And it's the thirty seventh anniversary of my wife's daughter's cot death at the age of seven months, so have just come back from the cemetery.

 

Happiness tinged with sadness.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Coombe Barton

[Jock67B]

May 3rd

Daughter in to be law's birthday (been round earlier)

Would have been my dad's eleventy first birthday (born in 1903)

And it's the thirty seventh anniversary of my wife's daughter's cot death at the age of seven months, so have just come back from the cemetery.

Happiness tinged with sadness.

Funny how life balances things and don't forget, the deeper your love, the keener the 'hurt',

Kind regards,

Jock67B.

[Motters]

I seem to have been the only adult present who had never attended any kind of prom....

 

 

Nope... never attended one either... but have catered for hundreds....

 

Is it just me (and no disrespect meant to all of you with kids)... but girls didn't look like that when I was at school anyway. Saw a prog on the TV the other week that PROVED that girls are maturing far earlier now than they were 30-odd years ago... some poor kid in America was developing when she was 7 years old.

 

Nowadays at the formals all the kids seem to want to do is to get drunk (by sneeking in their own drinks) or hooking-up with their date... hence at our formals where I work the security detail is doubled in size to cope with all the goings on. 

 

Motters

[trisonic]

The “Juniors” are aged c. 17 years old

 

I reckon with a touch of Italian heritage it might show in her hair - so the young lady 3rd from the right.

Correct!

 

Best, Pete.

.

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Sorry for the prolonged absence, and given the length of time that I've been off, I can't begin to catch up.

 

Great to see some new faces as well as the usual suspects on board. 

 

Generic greetings/condolences/congratulations to everybody.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[trisonic]

Hey, Stewart!

 

One band that would make me get back on stage (I have jammed with some of them). The other link is that one of them’s  daughter is also pictured in the Prom line up:

 

 

If they come to your town please see them (before we all die off).

 

Best, Pete.

Edited May 3, 2014 by trisonic