Gondor's Grumblings

[PR19_Kit]

Can you tell what it is yet?

Yes, it's a tandem 2 seat Super Hunter.

[Gondor]

Can you tell what it is yet?

Yes, it's a tandem 2 seat Super Hunter.

Show off 

Thought that the combination along with the fact that the tail is missing would make a few people wonder.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Show off 

Thought that the combination along with the fact that the tail is missing would make a few people wonder.

Well, I did it already with my T12 so I know how all the bits go together.

[Gondor]

Mine is a little different from yours Kit, I have the P.1109 nose on mine and I am not using the airbrake that yours looks to have instead of the ventral intake.

Gondor

[Gondor]

I had an interesting time getting home from work this Monday. Started off with getting a bus which was held up by traffic passing it in bus stops so that it could not continue on it's route as quickly as I would have liked. This ended up with my getting to the train I prefer to catch just as the doors closed.
This is not a great problem, I simply have to get off the next train one stop earlier at a far more exposed train station and have less options as far as seating goes.
While waiting for my train to arrive the tannoy announces that my train has been delayed. So the next train comes and goes, not to my destination or route, then the tannoy says that my train is cancelled due to "an ongoing incident". Next train along goes most of the way to home, at least to a town where I can get a bus the rest of the way, great 
During the journey the conductor is called to talk to the driver, slightly odd but I thought nothing of it at the time. However, a short time later an on train announcement states the the strain will only be stopping at the next station before travelling directly to its destination. This is one stop before where I was wanting to go 
So get off the train at the stop and walk for over a mile to catch a bus to the town I was heading to. Things start to look up a bit as I didn't have to wait for long before the bus I was expecting turned up and when that got to the town I had hoped to get to on the train the connecting bus was waiting! Yippee!!
I actually got on this buss's twin as while waiting to get on the bus due to a large que, another bus with the same number turned up so I got on that. Everything going well  At the edge of the town the first bus and mine take a right tur at a roundabout instead of heading in a left direction. Both bussed then proceed to take a very long way around a two to three mile part of their route because the "incident" happened to be at a bridge which not only the trains would normally go over, the bus route goes under it. Once back on the usual route everything goes well until we get near the bus station and I find the local bus to the end of my street has just left the stop before the bus station in front of us and it doesn't go into the station either and there was now way I would be able to catch up to it at it's next stop on foot so it was walk home. Not the best for getting home but in the end I was only just over an hour later getting home than usual which is not bad after going through all that.
Fortunately incidences where someone wants to end their life at that bridge are not that often. No idea yet if they did or didn't achieve their aim but they are not the first and probably will not be the last as the bridge is not only a railway bridge, it also has a footpath to the train stop which is just past the bridge.

Gondor

[kerick]

And they wonder why people drive instead of taking public transportation. They went through a period in Chicago where fewer and fewer people were taking public trans, so they would raise the fares to make up for lost money, then fewer people would ride, so they would raise the fares again. I wish I could get a high paying job making such stupid decisions. Of course I would try to make more intelligent choices and probably get fired.
I hope the incident was just some sort of car accident.

[Rick Lowe]

Annoying, but you got there in the end.
I've seen weather events when most commuters ended up staying the night in town... but then both State Highways *and* the rail line north were closed, so 'most anything would be an improvement over that.

[NARSES2]

Had a few days like that in 40 years of commuting Alistair, by far the worst were when we had serious terrorist incidents, like the IRA and ISIS bombings. However I do have to say that over the last 30 years or so London's transport system has improved immeasurably, mainly because it's all been integrated and is under the control of one body  Good for me as I don't drive 

[Gondor]

I hope the incident was just some sort of car accident.

Unfortunately no, in the UK all major roads and the rail network are fenced off to try and stop animals getting onto the roads or track so someone intruding on the rail line is a serious matter. A couple of weeks ago I was late home because the trains to/from Livingston North station had every other train cancelled as they must have been sharing the same track at some point do to the other track being closed as someone was hit by a train!

As for the cost of public transport, I am glad I live in Scotland and am now over sixty. My £30 Senior rail card reduces the daily ticket from just under £25 a day to £16.35 and all busses are free on the presentation of my pass.

Even with fuel prices going up it would still probably be cheaper for me to use a car which has advantages of being quicker in both directions meaning I could get up later in the mornings and get home earlier as well, who knows, even have some time to do some modelling in an evening 

Gondor

[zenrat]

People getting hit by trains.
Some are selfish suicides (it can end a drivers career* - although some are not affected and keep a score) but others can be idiots taking short cuts or drunken morons.
One night after the pubs closed Mrs z and I were at London Bridge station waiting for the train home.  We were watching a bloke so drunk he could hardly stand.  He staggered towards the edge of the platform, whipped out his dick to piss onto the track and promptly toppled off.
Walking to the edge I saw he had managed to not fall far enough to land on the live rail and was lying in the four foot (the bit between the running rails) with his dick in his hand still pissing.  I honestly believe he was so drunk he didn't realise he had fallen off.
At this point "stand clear fast train approaching" came over the platform PA.  This meant there was a few minutes before a through train (one that wouldn't stop) would be passing along the track he was lying on.  The result would have been messy.  It might have been possible to get it stopped but that would have meant finding a member of the station staff and then persuading them of the need to do so.
I knelt the edge, leant down and grabbing his jacket started to pull him up onto the platform.  Someone else came and helped me and we got him clear.  All the while I was looking n the direction the train was due to come from.  The platform there is curved so there wasn't much of a view but I would have had enough of a warning to drop him and get clear if it had arrived and they used to sound their horns as a warning as they came through.
Once we got him up on the platform people approached and I stood up and melted into the crowd and when my train came in I got on it and we went home.
At no point did I think "he's going to die if I leave him there".  What was actually going through my head was "if he gets hit then i'm not getting home tonight".
I was working for Railtrack at the time and somehow the Zone Director found out about it and wanted to give me a commendation but I refused and it all went away.



* A train moving at 60mph will take 1 1/4 miles to stop after a Full Brake Application (emergency stop) is made if track conditions are good.  So when a driver sees the suicide ahead on the track he or she puts the brakes on and can then do nothing but sit there and watch as the train runs them down.

[NARSES2]

Dad spent 30 odd years working for BR, initially on the track as a labourer and then in the offices at London Bridge, and had to deal with the aftermath of many a suicide. As Dizzy says, it ended a lot of drivers careers', although he always said those of his generation who'd been through the War and death with it a little better than those who hadn't.

My £30 Senior rail card reduces the daily ticket from just under £25 a day to £16.35 and all busses are free on the presentation of my pass.

Gondor

Yup I use my Senior card for when I'm travelling outside of London, but as I live in London itself all my travel within the boundaries is free after 9:00am weekdays and all day weekends and bank holidays 

[PR19_Kit]

DAMN good job there Fred, well done indeed. 

I doubt the drunk ever realised quite how lucky he was!

The late Mrs_PR19 used to work at Gloucester Station and she had to handle all the results of people being hit by trains in the local area. Sometimes she got home completely wrecked because of the stress these events caused her, no matter if they were deliberate actions or accidents. There was an acronym for them, but I can't remember it now, in a similar vein to a SPAD (Signal Passed At Danger...)

[kerick]

We've had a series of crimes where thugs push people off a platform onto the tracks. Just sick.

[Pellson]

In my tail working days, I once had to actively clean up the track after a suicide where someone had stepped out in front of a train making well over 220 km/h. We flushed the entire rail bank for over three km/two miles, and the scene when we got there was pretty hideous.

[Gondor]

Not got much modelling mojo at the moment, still a bit pised that when attempting to fit the rear of a hunter to the forward fuselage which had the wings added, one of the wings came off while I was trying to make sure that everything was ligned up 
Positive modelling note though, I have found the wings for my part built MB.5! Been searching all over the place for them then earlier this morning I decided to empty completly the kit box. That's where they had been hiding!  Yes I had looked in there but thought the instructions or something like that was at the bottom of the box when it was the wings. I can consider doing further work on this knowing that everything is there, except the decals which is no problem.

Buisy next couple of weeks for me medical wise, I have an appointment on Tuesday about my eyes, Wednesday morning I have blood samples to give to see if anything is causeing my breathlessness followed by the following Tuesday getting a chest X-ray for the same reason late in the afternoon so I finish work early that day 

Gondor