The joy of Trains

The Running Man

And draggin us back off topic again I used to live in Hednesford. Played a season of rugby there too. Many many moons ago. Cracking rides through the Chase : and Clarkson is a complete kn0b : lovely place ....

Saying that we both worked at the Post & Mail in Brum and the (car) commute in down the motorway was consistently the worst I have ever experienced.

prawny

The Running Man wrote:

And draggin us back off topic again I used to live in Hednesford. Played a season of rugby there too. Many many moons ago. Cracking rides through the Chase : and Clarkson is a complete kn0b : lovely place ....

Saying that we both worked at the Post & Mail in Brum and the (car) commute in down the motorway was consistently the worst I have ever experienced.

I live in Hednesford

Was it a while ago? It's a bit of a sh@thole now. Although compared to almost all of the places I ride through on the way to work it's nirvana.

The Running Man

We were in Corsican Drive on what was then a new estate about 20 years ago and there were still plenty of green fields around.

I've not been back for ages so I expect it's changed a lot!!

prawny

The Running Man wrote:

We were in Corsican Drive on what was then a new estate about 20 years ago and there were still plenty of green fields around.

I've not been back for ages so I expect it's changed a lot!!

Crazy! I live just round the corner. Corsican is still nice enough, I run laps of that when I bother to run because it's safer than running by the council estate most of the time.

The massive field is still there but they've been trying to build on it for years now. I don't think much will have changed around that part since you left, the town is dying though.

The Running Man

Cue spooky music - how weird is that then!!

Happy days in Hednesford & Brum Prawny ...... we met some really nice friendly people before disappearing back down south.

I have to say though that riding through Wiltshire beats a wet night in Walsall every time!!

Yow all roight c0ck??!!

rally200

RockyHopperShow wrote:

rally200 wrote:

Be fair, steering one of those huge great trains and keeping it balanced on those tiny little rails must be bloody difficult,

and think about tube drivers, they have to do all that in the dark.

Thanks for that, I didn't realise there was so little to my job - a job that 80% of applicants can't pass the aptitude test for, let alone see the course through to the passing-out stage. It is very easy to dissect an occupation to the bare bones, what's yours Rally200?

quote]

sorry I thought that was so ludicrously reductive that no-one would take it seriously - I was thinking it was a sort of jibe at people who don't get that there's more to the job than it appears - on reflection I guess you are feeling under attack .

If you want to have a pop at my job feel free, I'm a surveyor - a bit dull, won't provide much material

Actually I'm not against the drivers - its the company's short termist approach (encouraged by the whole rail franchise system) that's created the situation where thaey have to rely on overtime, and lay themselves open to a withdrawal of goodwill.

RockyHopperShow

The funny thing is that Muir Lochhead, Chief Executive of FirstGroup has pocketed a £250k bonus.....for running the worst rail franchises that there are? You can bet your life his immediate underlings will trouser a hefty wedge too. Nice work if you can get it. Something to think about when you are sniffing some other poor passenger's (sorry, Customer's) armpit on a packed service to London bridge.

redvee

Read a letter in todays Metro asking wether the cyclists who take up three seats with their bike pay three times the fare? :x

tebbit

There was an article in a railway magazine about the franchised rail system, with one company owning the track and others leasing the use of it, the conclusion was that it was a bloody stupid way to run a railway. The article was written about the Cheshire Lines Comittee in about 1904 and was used as an argument against the franchising system.

Bring back British Rail, and can we have Beechings head on a spike?

snailracer

redvee wrote:

Read a letter in todays Metro asking wether the cyclists who take up three seats with their bike pay three times the fare? :x

Seats? On a train?

Gazzaputt

With being knocked off and now a severer chest infection I'm now on the train.

What a depressing experience.

MonkeyMonster

As a small note if you didn't know - you can take bikes on the sleeper trains that go from euston to glasgow or edinburgh...