Early Risers.

[beast66606]

Afternoon all, and it's a sunny one here.

Just had an interesting experience whilst placing an online order for mum.

Not surprisingly the checkout process asked for me to type in the delivery address. 

What I haven't seen before is that as you enter the house number you get a predictive list of ALL the same house numbers.

 

Now, having some appreciation of how different commercial gazatters respond to address search and I know you can get some "odd" results thrown up unless you programme them to recognise that a string of text is explicitly a postcode. And even after that only about half the postcodes in the UK give the correct results. Very much a case of GIGO.

But I've never seen this kind of thing in an address checker. 

This leaves me wondering if all the results shown to me were for the website's customers. In which case, oops. By the nature of the website the delivery addresses may well be for those who are somewhat vulnerable. Lets hope the company wasn't giving out their addresses.   

 

There are software packages which specialise in post code / address verification - one of my old jobs was to integrate one of them into our applications.

I've seen a few of the "Start typing your address " sites, interesting to see how many other houses have the same name of ours.

The search is unlikely to be for existing customers otherwise adding a new address would be problematic certainly in the ones I've used.

 

A day of gardening - yawn - followed by a snooze, then a gentle wander for half an hour - to the village and back - or so  followed by chippy for tea as we couldn't be bothered to cook.

 

I've got pleny of night vision hedgehog action and we were suspicious that either one was incredibly hungry and thirsty (possible with the warm days) but last night the camera captured two hogs at once - although one put the other to flight pretty quickly, no arguments, it's presence made the other vanish in a flash. We think there's also a youngster, last years probably, as one looks smaller than the others (at least two as we now know), but it's hard to be certain and it may just be one of the two. Pleased with that and they all look good and chunky = healthy.

[roundhouse]

Yes and no.  Many Southern train times are altered and their alerting campaign suggests "every single train time will change".  It won't.  Most are re-timed but in many cases by only a minute or two and not then at every station.  There are some more significant changes here and there including more trains on some routes at peak times and the promise of longer ones where possible.  The reshuffle of rolling stock has been made possible by the reassignment of some London Bridge services to Thamesstink using class 700 stock releasing class 377 units for other duties.  Look out for white trains to East Grinstead for example. One major change outside London is the cessation of diesel services to Brighton. The Ashford service now reverts to a Marshlink shuttle to Hastings which forces a change of trains for some but allows the use of 4-car 377s in place of 2-car 171s at the busy Brighton end.  More trains run between Brighton and the East Coastway route too.  Please DO check all times and all journeys and with the best will in the world there is going to be some level of unfamiliarity as things settle down.  Stopping patterns, departure times and stock formations will be unfamiliar to everyone from signallers who have to make regulating decisions every few seconds (and who these days carry the can for getting it wrong) through to platform staff who do not yer have any form of information available over and above the public apps which anyone may use.  It's not our fault if things aren't perfect on Day One.  We will do our best to give you accurate and timely information and get you to your destination.  It's as big a change for us as for anyone else.

 

South Western has altered a few trains by a few minutes to accommodate Southern's changes and has altered a few stopping patterns largely on the West of England line.  There are changes too on South Eastern again to accommodate Southern / Thamesstink's new timetable and because part of the South Eastern service will also now go Blackfriars to end up in Peterborough, Cambridge or Bedford.  The Thamesstink changes are being phased in over a four week period so not all trains will run from tomorrow.  North of London there are significant changes to the Great Northern services which means many that formerly arrived at Kings Cross will now run to the underground cavern at St. Pancras and continue to Southern Region destinations.

 

Some commuting patterns will change.  Some new opportunities will arise and some journeys will now require a change of trains or of London terminal station.  Whether the expanded cross-London operation, which has cost a very fancy sum of money and taken many years of disruption to achieve, actually delivers is definitely open to debate.  As a cross-town suburban operation it worked.  The Brighton - Bedford service was claimed to be popular but in reality wasn't used throughout by too many people.  How much demand is there for travel between Haywards Heath and Harlington I wonder?  Now it is being offered as the core artery for many routes.  Cambridge - Gatwick I can understand at a push but Peterborough - Littlehampton - why???  I foresee platform capacity issues at London Bridge where those waiting for the next several evening departures all crowd onto the one platform - decently wide though it now is - and attempt to board a train which instead of arriving 5 - 7 minutes before departure empty from the sidings now arrives 1 - 2 minutes before (assuming it has negotiated the Core on time) and arrives part-filled from somewhere much farther north.  Already there are many many complaints about the standard of accommodation aboard the 700s.  Clean and clinical - yes.  Comfortable and suited to medium-distance commuting and leisure travel - most definitely not.  

 

We shall see what happens.  

 

Meanwhile it is still Sun Day, the locals are already enjoying the weather on the lawns, breakfast was enjoyed on the Terrace and even the cat - previously confined to quarters lest he bolt and never return - was allowed out and enjoyed a roll on the coir mat and a half-hour of fresh sunny air.  

 

In other news I re-established contact yesterday with a friend I have not seen in 23 years.  I last knew of her working in the Barking area.  By a remarkable coincidence she is now working not just nearby to me but in one of the offices which form a part of the main entrance to the House of Fun.  In other words moments away after all this time.  We have arranged to meet for lunch this coming Friday as the four other days are not convenient for one or other of us.

 

A quick trip through the in-box is required before the pressing of shirts and trousers for tonight and tomorrow.   Continued best wishes to Debs and her support network, and to those with dark-coated canines currently off-leash.

Got home a few hours ago after a very pleasant drive back form Devon with only the usual hold ups at Stonehenge.

 

However the first day of the new service on the Brighton line hasnt definitely not gone to plan. Many services through Redhill cancelled this evening due oto an operational incident at St Pancras. Many of the new Thameslink services have been cancelled throught their entire journey from Cambidge, Peterborough to Gatwick / Horsham. Not a good omen for the coming days.

 

We shall see what tomorrow brings.

 

PS - a good job that the Southestern services from Hastings are diverted through Redhill today  otherwise there wouldnt really be much running.

Edited May 20, 2018 by roundhouse

[AndyB]

.... Course, we have the advantage of running on Arthur's Seat rather than on city streets.

 

 

Mal

 

 

But maybe not tonight. Unless of course Gabe set such a pace she set the grass on fire!

[Sidecar Racer]

 I am a fan of the Typhoon (my nephew works on them) and the RAF singleton display is quite impressive, but this non-Typhoon display is stunning. Especially at 6.35....

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/134298-one-for-the-plane-iacs/&do=findComment&comment=3170294

 

Cheers,

Micki

 

 Typical , you get more 'likes' for re-posting that video here than I did on the original .  

[Barry O]

Night all!

Baz

[Gwiwer]

A fundamental problem and flaw with the Thamesstink operation is that an incident at, say, Sandy can deprive customers at Salfords of service. A balls-up at Bedford has been interrupting Brighton line trains for years. The “Big Bang” as the new timetable kicks in may result in more such servicevinterruptions such as already reported from today. Dave of Dormans is going to be mightily unimpressed if his evening commute doesn’t go as planned because of holdups at Hitchin. I doubt the average user’s ability to comprehend why a c0ck-up at Cricklewood causes lateness at Littlehaven when the two - to Joe Public’s mind - aren’t even on the same line.

 

As I said we shall see. But my observations (neither comprehensive nor in any way scientific) suggest that most people still want to go to Victoria not Blackfriars (granted many peak-time users require London Bridge and some will find City even more handy) as the procession of trains through the likes of East Croydon tells. Southern’s are usually full and standing - sometimes impossible to board - even at off-peak times and weekends. The white trains are largely empty. The “flying tomato” Gatwick Expresses - that’s another issue altogether.

 

A pleasant evening was had dining beside the Thames in Richmond as the light lowered. Food quality wasn’t the best we have had though there was nothing really amiss. The Uber home cost less than one for an identical trip a few days ago despite that being on base fare and tonight’s with a surge charge of x2.2 applied. Go figure. Still a good deal cheaper than a black cab however and almost on-demand on a night with only an hourly train service.

 

Off to bed now. Best professional attitude required tomorrow. Night all.

[The Stationmaster]

Mike - I am sure we could if we had access to the terminal. Of course there is nothing “simple” about a place the size of CLJ and the term is a well-seasoned railway one.

 

We have used loading books in the past though only our own as Southern and TfL decline to share them. Now they are only issued to “key” stations (possibly a cost saver in the new franchise) and since we do not normally terminate nor, apart from the 07.54 Teddington, start services we are apparently not a “key” station.

 

Result? For the winter timetable period we have used Waterloo’s previous summer books as almost no changes were made and we could easily adjust the timing. For instance our xx.27 Exeter is the xx.20 off Waterloo

 

Now we have nothing. Unless the new pocket timetables have arrived today we don’t have hard copy at all. We do have RTT and OTT if we care to run down our battery and run up our data charges. Not all of us have company phones either.

 

The morning might be very interesting indeed.

 

WTTs are easy - just download them off the 'net.  Mind you you'll need an awful lot of paper if you want to print them   Otherwise use RTT (less paper to print) and do simplifiers off that.   Amazes me how far backwards the railway has progressed in a decade or so - I didn't like the layout of simplifiers that came out of TRUST but they were easy to get and saved those as liked 'em an awful lot of work in doing their own.

Edited May 20, 2018 by The Stationmaster

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[andyram]

Good evening to everyone. Generic good wishes to everyone. It sounds like quite a few ER's have had an enjoyable weekend. Great to hear some positive news about Debs too. 

The battle with black dog continues today. This morning it was definitely in control and the coiled spring status remained. This afternoon things were much better, the inlaws came around for a BBQ and we made good use of the warm weather. Some pleasant drinks under the gazebo whilst Amber played in the paddling pool were enjoyable. It developed into a full on water fight between Amber, Grandad and I later on and there were lots of laughs. It certainly helped the mood.

 

 This evening, after Amber had gone to sleep, I enjoyed the last of the daylight with a mug of tea in the garden. Our resident bats circled overhead as the light faded. It was a nice end to the day.

 

 The mood is slipping a little now as I contemplate a difficult week. There will be another doctor's visit, the current end of the sickness note and the funeral of the ex pupil. I will also need to write the resignation letter - I had decided before I went off ill that I would leave the school in the summer. The letter needs to be handed in before the end of the month. That situation fills me with dread.

 

 This weekend has also seen the closure of my layout's Facebook page. It apparently falls foul of their rules that a Facebook page needs to be under your real name. How that will work for a number of teacher colleagues who do not use their real names remains to be seen. The closure means I have lost my Facebook link to many, including Debs. However I  have now linked the business page to my regular Facebook one and the address is now part of my signature.

 

 Going back to yesterday, we did watch the Royal Wedding. It was a very nice event - although the American preacher did carry on far too long.

 

Best Wishes

 

Andy

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Yet another glorious sunny day here in the Northwest. After a short lie-in this morning, I had every intention of heading straight to the workshop to make a start on fitting the sound decodes I purchased yesterday. However, my first task was to have a look at one of our sofas, as when I got up to go to bed last night I heard what sounded like a spring breaking. Sure enough once I’d removed the bottom of it I found two broken springs, I assume one must have broken some time ago without either of us noticing. A quick look at how the springing was achieved (they are zig-zag springs not coil springs) and where the breaks were (1” from the end), I soon formulated a way of repairing them. I added a small piece of wood to the main sofa frame and attached the springs to the new piece of wood, which resolved the problem. It’s also a lot more comfortable now too, result!

 

Once that was done it was off to the workshop, where I finally got round to dismantling the old dexion shelving unit and finished off putting everything away. But by then it did mean that the whole morning was gone, without any sort of modelling being done, but such is life!

 

After dinner I headed of to the workshop and decided to fit one of the decoders into my S15. On appear this should have been a simple job, but it in reality turned out differently. One of the wires that goes to each of the tenders bogie pickups passed through the hole that is for the fixing screws that attach speaker body to the tender chassis. So I dis-connected both wires, one at a a time, redirected them through the holes meant for the pickup wires and re-soldered them back to the pickups. I then fitted the speaker, plugged in the decoder and tested it, everything worked ok, so I then reprogrammed the decoder to match the loco number. By now, time had marched on quite a bit, so I just plugged the second decoder into the decoder socket in the tender and tested to make sure it worked. Once I was satisfied it did I packed up for the day. The two N15s I want to do next will take a bit more work, as both of them are the older type, which have the decoder socket in the engine and not the tender, as in the S15. But, as it’s easier to put the speaker in the tender, I’ll have to make a socket for the two wires that will bridge the gap between the engine and the tender.

 

Time for bed now, goodnight all.

Edited May 21, 2018 by BSW01

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[newbryford]

 Typical , you get more 'likes' for re-posting that video here than I did on the original .  

 

 I posted a link to your link, therefore my "likes" are your "likes"........

 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[newbryford]

Come on Debs, we're all on your side.

 

Busy day at work today - it's a hard life being paid to wire up layouts..........

 

First thing tomorrow (actually in about 8 hours) is a customer visit in the Bolton area, then there will be some testing of a model railway nature (I'm allowed to say that, as it's actually work!)

 

Have a good Monday folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[chrisf]

Chicken on a raft on a Monday morning.  Oh, what a terrible sight to see

 

Good morning one and all!  I was reminded of those lines from one of Cyril Tawney’s songs at breakfast yesterday morning because the Grange Hotel serves fried eggs on a tiny bit of toast.  “Chicken on a raft” is a submariners’ expression for egg on toast.  I chose a double yolker because I deserved to be seeing double after the convivial evening in ‘Spoons which I’m told I enjoyed.  Sleep on Saturday night was more of a stupor if I’m honest.  As I have been rumbled [thank you, 81C] I admit that I was in good spirits.  After what has been going on lately ExpoEM Spring was very well timed.  There was plenty to do and many kindred spirits to share the experience and there was little awareness of the R*y*l W*dd*ng.  There must have been many RMwebbers there who I did not recognise or spot, so please accept my apologies for being spurned.  I promised to be rude about Bracknell but to be honest there is nothing new to say except that the EMGS Newsletter accused Sainsburys of having a restaurant.  It doesn’t.  It has a St*rb*cks and there is nothing suitable for a decent breakfast.   I had to continue to Bracknell town centre and have breakfast in ‘Spoons.  Oh, such hardship.

 

Today I need to collect my prescription and fetch the latest batch of chemical warfare.  On Tuesday there is an appointment with, or b*ll*ck*ng from, Sister Diabetes.  On Wednesday, Thursday or Friday a friend and I will visit Cambridge beer festival, probably in flagrant defiance of what the Sister advises, and on Sunday I will [dis]grace Railex with my presence.

 

On Friday evening there was a long e-conversation with Harry which has finally shed some very necessary light on what lies behind what has happened.  I WILL share it but I need a bit longer to make complete sense of it so please bear with me.

 

Andyram, I am sorry to hear that the black dog is still at large.  You do not deserve this.  Warm thoughts as always to you, Debs, Robert and his dad, Tony and Aditi, Simon, Mal and all others in distress.

 

Chris

[roundhouse]

I would say good mornng but our trian this morning to London Bridge is cancelled, so no train heading North form Redhill between 06.45 (Vic) and 07.09 (Bedford via LBG). Its going to be rather crowded.

[TheQ]

Mooring awl, Inner temple here,

I fell asleep early after yesterdays exertions this also meant I woke up early and then went down to the sofa, Couldn't get back to sleep for ages.. total about 5 hours...

 

Suprisingly this morning, No back pain, for which I am extremly happy..

 

This morning was this years start of using the motorbike to work, somewhat late this year due to forgetting the mot and it then had two wire breakages in the starting interlock. But it was a beautiful ride in and the new route becasuse of the NDR has a lot less bumps in it, the one recorded problem with this bike  is hard suspension (even though I've wound it down to the softest setting).

 

 I was going through Wroxham approaching the spped sign and it said 37mph... eh? I looked down, I was doing 30, then in the mirror and a soft top BMW was storming up behind me, so the speed gadet read it's speed or a combination of our speeds not just mine. anyway due to combination of other cars and it being sensible as to where to overtake, it didn't.  I went over the rail bridge and when I hit the national speed limit sign and opened up, the BMW by this time was lining up for a gentle overtake of a 30mph moped, but I wasn't there... Off i went to the 60mh limit, and it didn't catch up. I guess they were one of those drivers that does about 40 in town and 40- 50 out of town...

 

Todays work... I have no idea, I can't do the scheduled equipment today due to a problem with the other equipment owned by that section, and I can't work on that without input from My boss..

 

Time to go see what I can find, till the boss comes in, in an hour and a half.

[br2975]

ALERT - Do not, under any circumstances, cross my path today !

.

An early call at 2:00am Saturday morning alerted me to the total destruction of my car, and those of two neighbours by a drunk driver who abandoned his silver Astra in the next street.

.

Brian R

Edited May 21, 2018 by br2975

[NHY 581]

ALERT - Do not, under any circumstances, cross my path today !

.

An early call at 2:00am Saturday morning alerted me to the total destruction of my car, and those of two neighbours by a drunk driver who abandoned his silver Astra in the next street.

.

Brian R

 

Morning Brian.

 

 

Looking at the various ratings to offer against a post, I can't seem to find the " What a w@@@#r " button.......

 

 

Rob.

[br2975]

Morning Brian.

 

 

Looking at the various ratings to offer against a post, I can't seem to find the " What a w@@@#r " button.......

 

 

Rob.

 

 

Cheers Rob, and others.

.

When I emptied the car, and removed my grandson's child seats from the distorted rear seat is when I realised the potential consequences.

.

The owner of the offending vehicle was arrested in next to no time.

.

To rub salt in the wound, I aggravated an existing knee injury jogging after his car and now limp like Long John Silver !

 

I await news of his fate !

.

Brian R

Edited May 21, 2018 by br2975

[81C]

Morning Peeps 

I'm off to the Britsh Airways heritage museum this AM with friend Steve it should be a good day it's the first of many ventures 

as he retires this or next week hopefully the gang going to Railex might meet him if he can attend I must off and get ready as he

is picking me up at 9AM. 

                                                                                                                                                  Have a good day I will.  B.I. Ggles 

[Barry O]

Hey up!

 

Hope your day gets better Brian.

 

Fatchy pog here this morning but it is already starting to clear.

 

I have my list of jobs to do from her indoors, I need to do those, then complete an umpires observation form for my colleague yesterday (he did very well) before doing a bit of crust earning.

 

Have a good day

Baz

[Ashcombe]

Unlike most of you miserable bu@@ers I actually watched the wedding (whilst having my breakfast) - in fact it was very entertaining !

 

- Gospel Choir (very good) singing “Stand by Me” - King, Lieber, Stoller - at a Royal wedding? Some are reporting this song as “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers, some got confused...

 

- 19 year old Cellist soloing, Sheku Kanneh-Mason,who happened to be black - at a Royal wedding?

 

- African American Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopalian Church/USA giving a brilliant sermon (compared to the bland C of E types) - at a Royal wedding?

 

- As was expected by, at least Mal and me, the RAF getting out of step down the hill in Windsor........

 

The only downside was the miserable, unsmiling biotch that David Beckham took....

 

Best, Pete.

Totally agree, Pete!

 

And much to his surprise (and mine!) Ian enjoyed the parts of the ceremony he watched, especially the highlights you’ve identified.

 

I was very proud to see a past pupil of mine singing with The Kingdom Singers.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Ashcombe

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

It’s another beautiful sunny day here today and my plans are to spend most of it in the workshop.

 

Just waiting for Sheila to depart for her Zumba class and them I’m off.

 

Back later.

[jamie92208]

Good morning to all from a village that is gradually getting brighter.   

 

Brian, what a night.  I hope that you can get it sorted out soon without too much hassle from the Insurance industry.   When my car nearly got written off by a runaway horse and cart I realised just how much collateral damage and hassle such events cause.   

 

Yesterday went well.  The Church anniversary was good and many commented that the service was a breath of fresh air.   Then in the afternoon Martin and Katie eventually joined us.  We realised that it wold be the last major meal that we have with friends in our house that we've occupied for 39 years.   Martin then helped me bring a heavy object down from the loft. An evening was then spent using my new scanner to scan some plate glass negatives that had got badly cracked.   The results were much better than expected and hopefully with a bit of photoshop work I should be able to produce some good sharp and undamaged images.  

 

Beth ahs set off to Asda to meet two friends.  I'm shortly off to my last Tram Society committee meeting with several boxes of things to distribute.   This afternoon the remaining spare bed , which was needed over the weekend will head off to pastures new and another bedroom will be cleared.  This evening will be spent at the clubrooms so a good day lies ahead.

 

Thoughts with all those suffering and hopefully Debs will continue to improve.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

 

PS.  our house guests (A retired Baptist minister and his wife ) gave a huge thumbs up to the sermon at the wedding.  

Edited May 21, 2018 by jamie92208