PhilJ W

The GE and GN joint was plagued with level crossings which was one of the reasons quoted for its closure.

A friend of mine who is only a matter of weeks older than me became a great grandfather at the age of 56! His wife was over the moon at the prospect of being a great grandmother.

Is that the one with a 3 letter name beginning with S and ending with N?

Up at 5 this morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Probably catch up on me by lunchtime.

I intend to go there myself, also by public transport.

Just noticed, I've just reached 3,000 posts.

Tony, if you are talking of Chatham I have volunteered to steward on Saturday, if you want a lift PM me. I will have to leave about 8/8.30 o'clock however and will be there until about 3 o'clock.

I'm wondering if the sign was meant for vans, which should always be reverse parked for safety reasons (you can see bu**er all whats behind one when reversing).

A snakes stomach fluids are extremely strong and acidic. An ex soldier friend of mine told me that when he did a stint in Belize the favourite trick of the squaddies was to kill a rat, stuff it with Alka Seltzer and throw it into the undergrowth were the snakes used to hang out, the snakes would swallow the rats and then explode when their stomach juices reacted with the Alka Seltzer.

I'll keep an eye out for them at my local Asda's, they seem to be the only place still stocking them locally. Otherwise its a trip to Lakeside, not the easiest place to access from the east.

The remains of the direct line to Harwich that was diverted to serve Parkstone Quay are still visible, that line was diverted IIRC in the 1890's. Also traces of the direct Eastern Union Railway between Great Chesterford and Newmarket can still be seen, that line was closed as long ago as 1855!

The Georgetown C's were an experiment to see if double deck trolleybuses were suitable. They operated with a conductor on each deck, the 'senior' conductor being on the lower deck. They were quite successful by all accounts but a change of political parties on the municipality spelt the end of trolleybus operation altogether.

Thank you, the union that I was a rep for (GMB) was very good at training its reps even giving residential courses. In my occupation (local government) I thought that that some times things were bad but by meeting reps from other industries I came to the conclusion that it wasn't so bad after all. The courses that they ran on HR and H&S were so good that some employers sent their own staff to them, the union charging them a suitable fee.

The only London Trolleybuses to be re-bodied entirely were those whose bodies were destroyed during wartime. Many of the earlier classes were rebuilt, in particular the Brush bodied 'B' class whose bodies showed signs of weakness within two years of their being placed in service (the construction method allowed the bodies to flex too much). All of the B, C and D classes had no drivers bulkhead as built and this was also a cause of weakness. All of these bodies were rebuilt up to about 1940. An interesting anecdote about the 'C' class vehicles that were sold to Georgetown Malaya, the local termites found the English ash body frames much to their liking and it was not unusual for a body panel to fall off.

There are some HR people who are very good but they are few and far between. At one time I was a trade union rep. I was asked at very short notice to sit in on a disciplinary hearing, a female colleague with a longish period of sickness absences. When I entered the room there was the lady herself, the manager bringing the complaint, the union branch secretary, the HR person and myself, except for the lady herself it was all male. I immediately spotted that the incidence of absences suggested a 'women's problem' which only the HR person seemed to notice. After the interview, in which the lady hardly spoke it was decided that a note would be placed on her file, the mildest form of 'punishment'. Afterwards I had a word with the HR person and he took up and implemented my suggestion that female staff on disciplinary interviews should have the right to an 'all-female' interview. Unfortunately the HR chap was only there for a few more months before being 'head-hunted' by another organization.

Romford (GE) goods yard is now long gone but the bridge that carried the 1 in 25 incline down into the yard still spans Waterloo Road is still there butting up to the main line bridge. The archway beneath the up end of the platforms that connected the yard to the brewery is also still there.

Not from there anyway, he hasn't got one of those.

Suddenly I've started thinking of St. Trinians.

I'm still trying to work out where he produced his ticket from.

Seeing as its sandstone the stream might have found another route, possibly underground.

For those who have PBS America on satellite or cable at 10.15 pm on Monday 16th there is a program on New York's Pennsylvania Station.

The Nissan ZE OD just looks weird, Reliant Robin at Le Mans anyone?

My dad was out in Burma 1942-1945 serving with the XIV army, known as the 'Forgotten army'.

Another toaster problem this morning, I've now got it to work properly so this morning it carried on working until the smoke alarm told me that the toast was 'done'. After I had binned the two pieces of charcoal fortunately it behaved itself, but a new toaster is on the cards methinks.

Not forgetting the main rule, if in doubt refer to rule 2 (In this case).