Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

The weather has been a bit mixed again today, rain on minute, then sunny the next and back to rain again.

 

As is now the norm for a Friday, after we’d been to the Trafford Centre well called at the butchers to pick up the weekly meat rations and I also got myself a pastie. After dinner we then went onto Waitrose to get the other bits we cannot get locally, then it was home for a mid afternoon muggertea and a sit down before James and Amelia came round for tea. The net result is that I now have the weekend free to play about in the workshop. Finally the evening was rounded off with a nice bottle of Malbec.

 

Like Mick, I also treat anything with wires attached with great respect. The highest voltage I’ve worked on were 3 phase motors running on 6.6kV, they always had my greatest respect. I’ll try and dig out some photos tomorrow if I can.

 

Goodnight all

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Ozexpatriate]

I still work with 1000v and up to 120A, I used to work with up to 50,000 volts a couple of amps or 415V and effectively unlimited current, changing live contractors from the transformer fed by the National grid.

"Contractors"?

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[southern42]

' Evening all from red dragon land.

 

Pleased to say the brickwork carving on the the small building is finished.  Only trouble is, there is a larger building to do the same thing on afterwards.  

 

As to Christmassy cakey things, I am planning to up the fruit and spicy flavour of my fat-free fruit bars.  This also means brewing the ginger-cinnamon-liquorice tea a bit longer before soaking the fruit in it.  Don't worry! I shall be making our usual Christmas cake as well.   I will also use my extra points/money off coupons on something, no doubt.

 

But it is bedtime already so ' night all and nos da.

[Ozexpatriate]

As to Christmassy cakey things, I am planning to up the fruit and spicy flavour of my fat-free fruit bars.  This also means brewing the ginger-cinnamon-liquorice tea a bit longer before soaking the fruit in it.  Don't worry! I shall be making our usual Christmas cake as well.

I was with you through ginger-cinnamon, but you lost me at liquorice. Not that it matters, I shan't have the fortune to taste them anyway.

 

Merry merry!

[TheQ]

"Contractors"?

Contactors, don't you just love speil chequers.

 

It's blowing a hoolie out there, I've been awake an hour, I can't sleep, Ben the Collie's unhappy with the noise.

 

Miss type to you later...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Two nice things happened yesterday.  The first was learning that I had won a voucher for £50 simply by voting for Black Lion Crossing as the best layout at Manchester and having my voting slip drawn out of the hat.  The second was even less probable.  With the seasonal greetings card from my aunt and uncle was enclosed a letter in reply to my round robin in which I had explained the manner of my coming out back in August.  They said some kind and touching things which I am not sure I had any reason to expect.  That they are happy for me means a lot.

 

After all that excitement I will be at the Peterborough show today, with The Tie.  After the show is over for the day I will be dining with an old friend in a rateable gastro pub.  We will exchange seasonal gifts and greetings.

 

Warm thoughts to all in distress or missing.  

 

Chris

[skipepsi]

Morning all the rain is persisting down and has been all night, shortly DD2 will be taken to work then I can return to bed perchance to sleep again. Make the best use you can of what you have been given today.

[Barry O]

Its amazing the things you learn on here. Been trying to work out what a "marra" is, rather than asking decided to enter it in the search box and found out that it's a northern "mate" devolved from bed sharing in the Durham coalfields. Wasn't there a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta based on bed sharing?

 

Off to bed now, pleasant dreams.

 

Keith

Hence the folk song from northumbria.. "keep yer feet still Geordie hinny"

 

Baz

Edited December 8, 2018 by Barry O

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Been chuckinitdarn and blowing a hoolie all night.

 

Polly, her indoors says can we have your recipe please..the tea sounds fabulous!

Mick, hope you get back to sleep ok. Nice to see another post from you. I hope life is treating you and your good lady well.

 

Not alot to do today. Atrip down to the Leeds Mrs is on the cards.

Youngest Herbert is in Edinburgh with his girl friend for the weekend. He was going for a drink with one of the brewers from the Caledonian brewery last night. Meant to warn you Mal, many apologies.

 

Anyone who is off to Peterborough this weekend, enjoy the show. Afraid my travelling list for next week precludes a visit. ( and tomorrow my car is turning into a furniture delivery van for the day).

 

Positive thoughts to all who ail and/or also to those missing.

 

Baz

[jamie92208]

A quick good morning to all.   It looks to b clearing up here.   We had a wet afternoon yesterday and I had a rather damp hour or so on the station at Ruffec, however 4 new loco numbers went in the book, which made it worthwhile.   One freight had 2 dead in train diesel locos behind the electric.  This morning Beth and a neighbour are off round the village hanging home made Christmas decorations round the village (Empty boxes and toilet rolls wrapped in foil paper).   I'm off shortly to the Danglies of St John to order some old style French number plates for Horsetan's CX.   Some other friends arrive from the UK today and we are hosting them this evening.

 

Regards to all, and Baz, sorry to hear about your marrra.   However the word hinny brings back some pleasant memories as I did my training with geordies.

 

Jamie

[88C]

Ready to set off for Peterborough, shopping list prepared and a meeting with ChrisF arranged.

 

Brian

[TheQ]

I got woken by Ben who wanted out,

Out is 50mph horizontal drizzle,

The yacon can stay where it is today,

I'm going to head directly for the mobile home / alleyway workshop.

That's when a Muggacoffee has been consumed...

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry and breezy here at the moment with sunny periods forecast along with showers later.

Poor night's sleep for me and aching all over, particularly my hip which doth protest a lot. It's been worsening all week, so much so that regrettably I've cancelled our proposed visit to Peterborough tomorrow.

I don't fancy 2 hours plus in the car followed by several hours walking around so will have to give it a miss.

I will go out for a gentle half hour stroll to try and loosen things up but that will be my limit for today.

After that I will try and finally decide on the track plan for my little O gauge plank. Not a lot of options really because of the lack of room at the moment. In the New Year there is a possibility that situation will change but considerable investigations and discussions need to be done, however The Boss is being very supportive.

I will of course be watching some  a lot of rugby later, there are 3 matches on this afternoon.   

Have a good one,

Hopalong Cassidy.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Bright and sunny at the moment but not expected to last. I see Debs is posting on E-bay so we'd better behave ourselves, the awl is being sharpened! Now I'm off to Brentwood to dispose of a few modelling tokens.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

Not a pleasant night due to strong winds and heavy rain, hence the lateness in getting up. Breakfast has now been consumed so I’m off to the workshop.

 

Back later

[southern42]

' Morning all from red dragon land.

 

Woken up by Ray during the night getting up to fix a noise coming from outside.  There was a constant banging on the window sill.  The telephone cable through to nextdoor had come adrift and was banging in the wind.  We're all running late this morning.  Muggatea coming up when I've posted this,

 

' Evening all from red dragon land.

 

Pleased to say the brickwork carving on the the small building is finished.  Only trouble is, there is a larger building to do the same thing on afterwards.  

 

As to Christmassy cakey things, I am planning to up the fruit and spicy flavour of my fat-free fruit bars.  This also means brewing the ginger-cinnamon-liquorice tea a bit longer before soaking the fruit in it.  Don't worry! I shall be making our usual Christmas cake as well.   I will also use my extra points/money off coupons on something, no doubt.

 

But it is bedtime already so ' night all and nos da.

 

 

 

I was with you through ginger-cinnamon, but you lost me at liquorice. Not that it matters, I shan't have the fortune to taste them anyway.

 

Merry merry!

 

Ingredients: Ginger Root (70%), Liquorice Root(15%), Cinnamon (10%), Cloves (5%)

 

I tried drinking one mug of the tea but did not like it but did have a brilliant senior moment when I thought I could use it to soak my dried fruit in it.  After all, some recipes do say soak in tea.  So why not fruit tea?  The first time, I only made a short brew...could be stronger...

 

Enjoy your day one and all.

Edited December 9, 2018 by southern42

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon.

 

It was one of those nights when our bedroom window, west facing, sounded like it was being washed with a hosepipe in the way of a cheesy old film effect.  Thus not a great sleep.

 

Mrs H off to Pilates first thing so I had a walk around Ramsey, various damaged body parts don't much like this sort of weather but keeping things moving is better than sitting about.  Enthusiasm to go down to the garage to either muddle railways or fiddle with motorbikes is at a low ebb.

[lightengine]

Opened the mail without checking the addressee today. One card was for my Mum containing a ROUND BWOODY ROBIN from my cousin.

Next time I will check carefully and if the envelope feels too fat it's not getting opened. 3 in 1 year so far. Too much.

 

EDITED,

Incidentally if anyone would like to read a round robin or 3 that will mean absolutely nothing to you, I can mail them on.

Edited December 8, 2018 by lightengine

[New Haven Neil]

Thinking about respect for electricery, when I was at sea I saw a hint of the violence it can create when things go wrong.

 

On an LPG tanker with re-liquefaction plant, basically large two stage refrigeration compressors (there were 6), each being driven by a large 600Kw motor (several tons worth, four feet or more in diameter), 440v three phase, mounted in a separate room (so the hot sparky bits are not near possible gas escapes) with an oil cooled gland where the shaft passed through the bulkhead.  One of those leaked, the oil running down into the motor windings, which when started (without being checked first - another story, having not being used for a couple of weeks!) the subsequent reaction blew a hole in the cast steel motor casing about a foot in diameter.  There was nothing much left of the windings, just copper and steel bits all over the plant room.  It was a mess, to understate the matter, had anyone been in the motor plant room when it was started the outcome would not have been nice.  It was all less than a year old too, the pride of the fleet!

[Gwiwer]

Saturday Greetings to all.

 

A quick scan through recent posts suggests some of us have been troubled by great wind.  I trust no errant solids were involved.

 

Yesterday became the day we were trained for and the day you never want to happen.  In short the Gatwick Express struck a person right in front of me while passing through platform 13 - and of course in front of hundreds of waiting passengers and some other staff as well.  The emergency response was swift and substantial including a helicopter and crews from across south London.  

 

The first indication that the victim was still alive came with the swift restoration of services through platforms 14 and 15, the adjacent lines, on the Brighton Slow side.  As this meant up trains were passing the front of the incident train it was apparent that (a) there was nothing visible to passengers on those trains and (b) the coroner was not required.  

 

Around 45 minutes later I was witness to a stretcher being eased out from beneath the leading coach of the Gatwick Express and brought towards the platforms.  As per training I averted my gaze and went about my own business.  Word through the station grapevine - which might or might not be accurate and the facts of which might have since changed - are that the victim suffered life-changing injures to legs and head but was recovered alive.  

 

I made a point of asking every member of staff I was close to how they were, and whether they were OK with me signing off at the appointed time, before leaving.  And I duly left, with the thanks of some of my colleagues for asking, and came home to a stiff drink and a snooze.

 

Neighbour (Upstairs) came down later for a chat over tea.  It is a Very Good Thing to have developed a close friendship with someone who is happy to listen at such times and then ask if I am OK.  Such things are not one of SWMBO's strong points; when I related the day's events to her later it was met with almost complete indifference as though assuming that since I was behaving normally everything was fine.  

 

I thought about a visit to the House of Falling-Down Waters but in the end felt too tired having had a week of poor sleep including the previous night.  And now including last night though I don't recall anything specific disturbing me.  We had a bit of a breeze but not the troubling gales.  There was no (audible) falling-out-of-bed from Neighbours (Upstairs) and there was no visit by the local fox population that we were aware of.  Ho hum.  Must have been the Night Pixies being tricksy.

 

This afternoon I am told we are taking the train into London before bus-riding through the Christmas lights of the West End.  Leaving the Modelling Vouchers at home might ensure no over-priced merchandise is purchased along the way!  All Christmas mail has departed this address other than items which will be hand-delivered or personally presented.  One card has arrived.

 

I wish you all the rest of a Satisfactory Saturday, weather, teeth and other embuggerances permitting.  

[JohnDMJ]

Saturday Greetings to all.

 

A quick scan through recent posts suggests some of us have been troubled by great wind.  I trust no errant solids were involved.

 

Yesterday became the day we were trained for and the day you never want to happen.  In short the Gatwick Express struck a person right in front of me while passing through platform 13 - and of course in front of hundreds of waiting passengers and some other staff as well.  The emergency response was swift and substantial including a helicopter and crews from across south London.  

 

The first indication that the victim was still alive came with the swift restoration of services through platforms 14 and 15, the adjacent lines, on the Brighton Slow side.  As this meant up trains were passing the front of the incident train it was apparent that (a) there was nothing visible to passengers on those trains and (b) the coroner was not required.  

 

Around 45 minutes later I was witness to a stretcher being eased out from beneath the leading coach of the Gatwick Express and brought towards the platforms.  As per training I averted my gaze and went about my own business.  Word through the station grapevine - which might or might not be accurate and the facts of which might have since changed - are that the victim suffered life-changing injures to legs and head but was recovered alive.  

 

I made a point of asking every member of staff I was close to how they were, and whether they were OK with me signing off at the appointed time, before leaving.  And I duly left, with the thanks of some of my colleagues for asking, and came home to a stiff drink and a snooze.

 

I wish you all the rest of a Satisfactory Saturday, weather, teeth and other embuggerances permitting.  

 

You were around East Croyden then. Please don't take this as a callous remark, but it would seem that the result was probably not a success from the casualty's point of view. Said person may be back!

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

 

Compared to the incidents Gwiwer has to deal with, I'm glad for my quiet boring life... I really don't know how he copes.. I wish for him a quieter more peaceful life..

 

 

As for my life today,

layout carriage, filled sanded and after yellow added given another coat of paint. It was noticeable the first coat is much darker than when wet. It hasn't dried enough yet for a third coat but it looks a very military olive drab at the moment. I'm not sure whether to give it another coat with more added yellow. Or just to give it a varnish coat which has a yellowing effect anyway.

 

I had just finished that, when summoned to take Ben the olive green eared dog for his stroll down the beach, there being the massacre of pheasants going on down the lane. Oh green eared? Yes he was playing with his ball when it rolled under the wet carriage, he made a dive for it..

 

On return from being sand blasted at the beach, I have built the bottom board of the next carriage, I would have done more but my left knee was playing up again and wouldn't take much more standing in the cold. So I have returned to the house, the tumble dryer is running, and shortly the next load for the wetting machine will be started. A glass of whisky is by my side, slowly being consumed, and O.S. Nock's The Highland ....... Will shortly be read..

 

SWMBO is out weaving for another hour and a half, I can relax as I wish.

all is well with my world...

[Gwiwer]

You were around East Croyden then. Please don't take this as a callous remark, but it would seem that the result was probably not a success from the casualty's point of view. Said person may be back!

 

I work at Clapham Junction.

 

We have no indication at this stage as to whether this was an intentional act or genuine accident.  That is not for us to determine.  Either way it is traumatic and has affected, to a greater or lesser degree, a large number of people who were witness to it happening or to the immediate aftermath.  Many heads turned upon hearing the moment of contact and I shall not easily forget the looks of horror on those faces as the train made a fully emergency stop within its own length and waiting passengers ran toward the front of the train probably as an instinctive response.

 

Our training includes a day with the Samaritans.  We are coached to take special note of people in unusual or specific locations, asking certain questions or otherwise apparently behaving out of what we might consider the normal pattern.  Not every event fits the training.  I was involved in one while working in Australia in which the victim, upon reviewing CCTV, behaved in every sense according to normal patterns and therefore did not alert any of us until she walked quite deliberately the few steps into the path of an approaching train.  

 

The important points here to note are that station staff are trained to observe, report and act which can include intervention, and we are trained in how to respond, react, the immediate, short- and long-term potential after-effects.  No-one who spoke to me in the immediate aftermath yesterday was, for example, told a person had been hit.  They were all told "We are managing an emergency".  Accurate, truthful and at the same time less distressing when what is taking place around and beneath the train is plainly obvious to everyone.