Early Risers.

[AndyID]

 

I do remember the trolley buses in Glasgow,

 

Likewise, but I don't think I ever traveled on one. IIRC they were colloquially referred to as "the silent death".

[New Haven Neil]

I can just recall pestering my grandmother to ride on the route 11 trolleybus in South Shields - last one ran when I was just 5. It's a strong memory but I have little to put either side of it, I know it wasn't the direction we were meant to be going!

[PeterBB]

Smiffy,

 

I too travelled on the trolleybuses to Kingston and Tolworth and in fact photographed the last London trolleybus as it left Wimbledon Town Hall for Kingston.  They were silent and efficient.  In terms of trams, Merton Road is a burnt in memory, not because the seats were reversed merely by pulling the backs the other way, but because as a youngster I was on one that caught fire.  While they were still around I also remember getting my bicycle wheel stuck into one of the tracks although why I was so far out in the road I cannot remember.

 

Of course if you still want to travel on trams there is always Blackpool or of course Crich Tramway Museum.

 

Oddly why do we 'celebrate' the last of something when in reality we do not want it to be so?

 

In other aspects the cat that we have been looking after has returned home.  He was a bit quick with his claws and teeth but really loved having his neck and head stoked.  We also discovered that he really loved fish because when it was available he didn't touch the meat.

 

The less said about the weather the better but I would rather have this than what some folk elsewhere are having. 

 

Peter

 

Edit = spelling ... why is it that although you check you always find one after you have pressed the key?

Edited September 10, 2017 by PeterBB

[andyram]

Evening all. A very quick check in this evening after a busy few days. Generic greetings, congrats and commiserations as appropriate - I really cannot get through 192 posts right now. 

 

Just to catch up - I finally made it to the new place on Friday and was asked to help out on a school trip. That was an interesting experience. This is certainly a very different school, with very different expectations. 

 

A full week beckons. Hope it goes well for you all.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Horsetan]

I always thought mine must have been faulty. 

 

Maybe it was continuously variable, but the belts were a bit slack.

[BSW01]

Evening all

 

Well the threatened rain finally arrived, it started around 5:30, at around 7:00 we then had thunder and lightening, thankfully it's all quiet now. Still, its filling the water butt, the way it's going I expect it will be overflowing soon, I'll check it tomorrow.

 

Goodnight all

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[newbryford]

Sunday has been a good day.

 

Quiet day on the customer call front at work, but it allowed me to catch up on some more tracklaying/wiring for the test track

 

Last night's hockey game was good with a tense finish with the opposing team swapping their goalie for another player with 1.45 to go with the score at 3-1. 15 seconds later and it's 3-2. They pulled the goalie again for the last minute and we managed to hold off, and just missing making it 4-2 on the empty net.

Because of work I didn't manage to make the away game at Whitley tonight but that was an even closer affair, going to sudden death overtime for a Hawks win 3-2. 

Well pleased.

 

And then I had a good result selling a few yellow items on ebay, fetching about 3 times more than I hoped for. The 2018 holiday fund has been kickstarted.

 

Have good Monday folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Barry O]

Home at last!

Layout was in the van by 6:15 in swindon,then it rained while we went to the car. Stopped for a drink at Tamworth, back in Leeds and all unloaded and put away by 11. Dropped off Nicktoix and our own Dr John before getting home, unloading the car etc by 12.

 

Nice to see PetetheMole (and son) on Saturday as well as Mr and Mrs Grandadbob and Mr and Mrs 81C. Today.

 

Mike, you should have tried the station long stay. A bit further to walk but sensibly priced.

 

Swindon does create it's own problems though. Shutting the A419 at Junction 15 and having roadwoks at junction 16 plus people driving at 35mph on the M4 meant I missed a special do on Saturday. Not happy about that but c'est la vie!hi

 

Sleep well awl!

 

Baz

[BR60103]

I never rode a British trolley bus but apparently knew Edinburgh trams at age 2.

 

Toronto had trolley coaches (our term) for quite a while. They had a major expansion around 1950, then buying coaches from systems that were going out of business. After 20 years the bodies were life-expired, but the mechanisms were considered good for another 40 years. Two coaches were sent out for experimental re-bodying. The one sent to England was never seen again, but a firm in Canada managed to produce a body. This was good enough that Toronto rebuilt the lot and several other cities did the same. In the 1990s, there was a change of heart (and brains) at the TTC and the lot was eliminated.

 

I was a member of the North American Trackless Trolley Association at the time.

[pH]

In the 1990s, there was a change of heart (and brains) at the TTC and the lot was eliminated.

 

You can always come out here and ride ours:

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/cms/binary/10812838.jpg?size=sw620x65

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

As predicted, I spent yesterday quietly.  There was laundry, a bit of RMwebbing and booking my rail tickets for my trip to the Manchester show in December.  £8.60 each way from Milton Keynes is not bad.  I also watched some of Radio 2 in Hyde Park via the red button.  Seth Lakeman rose above the technical shambles like a trooper but poor Wildwood Kin were left looking utterly helpless.  I have prompted an explanation by registering a complaint with the BBC.

 

Hooray for trolleybuses, say I.  Rick started it with remembering the 607.  I lived in Acton until 1962 and recall it well.  Routes 660 and 666 stopped outside my home in Horn Lane at the Acacia Road fare stage.  I used them to get to school in Hammersmith.  As a bonus, the 626 trolleybus stopped right by the school playing field in Wood Lane – now very close to Clarendon territory - and delivered me to the door after games.  I might as well do the shout-out now: any Old Latymerians here?  More recently I was able to sample the Vancouver system and was well impressed with the speeds attained.

 

Today I need to collect my prescription, tomorrow I visit Poorly Pal after the regular fodder run and the rest of the week should be quiet until Saturday, of which more anon.  Oh, and by the way I don’t give a donald duck about the Hattons announcement.

 

Best wishes and felicitations to all in distress and recovery. 

 

Chris

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is somewhat cloudy this morning, and it was spitting with rain when we left home.  It is also the first morning that has required a jacket - given that the wind is rather chilly.  Having said that, I am extremely glad that we are not facing a hurricane.

 

Oh well - time for a coffee!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Here, Ben the Border Collie is in in his bed....or at least he was before I left for work..

 

A good nights sleep of 8 hours in two sections!!

 

The journey in was somewhat interesting due to a fire, I had to turn round in a single track road layby and then take several very tiny single track roads round the blockage..

 

http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2017-09-11/crews-tackle-severe-fire-in-norfolk-thatched-pub/

 

From the main Photo the pub is the section on the right as you look at it, then there was an ex shop in the middle and a house on the left.

 

The Photo is taken from the main road from Stalham, that road does a 90 left in front of the pub then does a 90 right round the end of the last house there is only three feet of House owned walkway in front of the buildings, and the road goes right to the edge of the house on the left. after the second bend. Also there is another road coming in from the right, which then goes out to the left .

 This is going to cause chaos, are there are villages between there and the coast. it's on at least two bus routes. The school buses uses that route, as do bin lorries and farm vehicles. The alternatives are long diversions of several miles down single track roads some of which are not suitable for artics.  The house on the left was also up for sale!!

Further engines were arriving as I proceeded on having got back on route. probably crew change over.

 

Meanwhile on the radio.... the Womble was Talking to the fire service of the shortage of retained crews. seemingly there are 39 fire stations of which 30 are retained crews and there are 80 vacancies. I think the problem being many villages and towns where the stations are do not have enough able people living within the 5 minute call out time required. North Norfolk in particular  is the second highest elderly population and is mostly dormitory housing for those working in Norwich and beyond.. (if it's not holiday cottages.)

 

Hmm time Creaps on

 

 Time to go do some work...

Edited September 11, 2017 by TheQ

[roundhouse]

Morning from a sunny Surrey. Another full week of work.

 

A good weekend with the layout at the Woking show. Apart from the odd hiccup with the touch screens on Saturday the layout worked well. A few potential invites.

 

We had th layout down and packed into the car thirty minutes after the show closing and we were just about the las to stop running at 5pm and one operator short. Thanks to our excellent team that now know how tings are set up and taken down.

 

Next show is in three weeks time so more time for beer but also to help mum clear the house and finalise paperwork for her up coming move.

[Barry O]

Hey up...slept well just not enough of it.

 

Chuckinitdarn again.

Need to do stock repairs and hire a van to go to Hull/London this doing weekend as well.

 

Enjoy your day!

 

Baz

[Barry O]

Double post....

 

Baz

Edited September 11, 2017 by Barry O

[Smiffy2]

Morning all.

Sunny but a bit chilly, tranquil.

 

Trolleybuses - LT route 654 used to stop outside our house, and would have been great if it still existed for visits to Croydon or Sutton. But long gone, and the bus replacement doesn't come here any more. Cut price Carly Simon?

 

My mother used to recount how trolleybuses passing the house used to turn the TV picture upside down. Not sure about that...

 

Off shopping in a bit (Lidl and Carrefour if anyone's interested) and then over to see our biker neighbours. Then more sleep. And after that, more sleep and some modelling.

 

Andy - really pleased at your new situation. Teaching is the best job in the world in a supportive team, looks like you may have found one. Bonzer.

 

Update on whelks later, none in the shops today because it's Monday.

[Barry O]

Trolleybuses...Middleborough had them when I visited once in about 1973.

 

Did try them in Wellington NZ and may try them again on our next visit.

 

Leeds tried to reintroduce them (the City had trolleybuses before trams) but the council and it weak technical consultants made a hash of the whole scheme...

 

Baz

 

PS Smiffy, get the cockle gathers together and have words..some of us haven't had any for weeks!

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.

 

It might be a "sunny Surrey" but it's been persisterating down much of the night over the Hill and continues to be grey, damp and very cool.  For the first time this Autumn the heating is on in the morning though it's been used for a couple of hours most recent evenings.

 

A good social chat arose with the neighbours last night while we cooked our respective feasts.  With both back doors open and they (downstairs) also catering for they (upstairs) there was much offering of food and drink between the flats.  I like it when folk can live that way - close but not in each other's pockets and with friendly respect for each other.

 

Peperwork was completed at 00.02 following yesterday's committee meeting which means I have no voluntary millstone around my neck awaiting attention.  I always set myself a deadline of producing the required minutes the same day a meeting took place while things are fresh in mind and so as to not wonder what on Earth my notes meant weeks later!

 

Further down the trolleybus route I rode them in Portsmouth on at least the Eastney circulars.  We lived briefly in Fareham and sometimes took the Gosport Ferry to Portsmouth then the trolleybus towards Southsea beach.  It didn't actually go to South Parade so there was always a walk but it was the best we could do.  I don't recall seeing London 660 / 666 (two closely related routes as still are their replacements the 260 / 266) but would have seen some riding the 607 up to Shepherd's Bush and back.   I also saw them in Maidstone and rode one very briefly for the sake of it a couple of stops through the town centre but did better in Bournemouth where I spent as much time as I could out of a family holiday swooshing up and down Richmond Hill and other delights on their unique twin-entrance twin-staircase trolleybuses in a cheerful yellow livery.  And I have seen but not ridden on the South Yorkshire Denis Dominator one which was aimed at proving the technology was still fit for task in the next generation but failed to prove where the money was coming from to install the wiring and pay off the NIMBY squads.  

 

All of which reminds me - Fareham / Gosport Ferry was in Provincial territory.  A small and very eclectic make-do-and-mend outfit which lasted over 100 years because of the original Gosport Railway Act of Parliament.  They formed a barrier between Southdown to the east and Hants & Dorset to the west though were never permitted into Fareham Bus Station as were both the larger outfits.  You never quite knew what might turn up but a Guy Arabs already pensioned off by nearby Southampton City and rebodied locally by Reading's with stylish full-front body and repowered with a Deutz air-cooled engine was nothing unusual.  They also had a former mobile shop converted to single deck bus and used off-season on the rather quiet Stokes Bay run.

 

Ale delivery due.  Sharp's Doom Bar this time.  Not much else to report and it's not even coffee o'clock yet.  Wonder if the cat needs some patting.

 

Best wishes to all.  Welcome to another working week for many.

[TheQ]

Further pictures in the local paper before and after the fire.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/more-than-45-firefighters-from-across-norfolk-are-battling-a-thatched-roof-fire-in-ingham-1-5188938

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Sun and showers this morning and a bit breezy. I posted a Youtube video of the Wellington NZ trolleybuses a couple of years ago, what surprised me was their speed and acceleration under battery power. I'm trying to find that video again. Baz, you'd better hurry if you want to see the Wellington trolleybuses as apparently some routes are being replaced with hybrid buses with a view to replacing them on all routes. Ironically some of the trolleybuses are being converted to hybrids.

Not the Wellington trolleybuses but preserved NZ ones. Edited September 11, 2017 by PhilJ W

[Purley Oaks]

Morning all

 

Sunny here - in fact the whole weekend wasn't bad, just a heavy shower yesterday at 5pm-ish - the forecast was for rain all day.

 

We have now broken the previous dry spell record - 73 days without rain set in 1917.

Also read about the  drought in Dakota and Montana - shame we're still unable to save all of the rain from horrific hurricanes...

 

 

I'm glad that Rick and Polly mentioned Trolley buses.

Can just about recall the red trolley buses at West Croydon but not their route numbers; remember the yellow ones in Bournemouth from holidays. Sarajevo still has some single deck trolley buses, along with their regular buses and trams.

 

 

 

 

I never rode a British trolley bus but apparently knew Edinburgh trams at age 2.

 

And you can ride them again now... and see the local paper for the ongoing 'tram costs fiasco inquiry'

 

 

 

Just spent the weekend finishing Gabe's tax return - rather get it in early than have the mad January rush as experienced earlier this year, ahem!

 

Hope your Mondays go well

 

Mal