West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I was once told that I was always in the poo, and it was only depth that varied.

 

The ordeal of the ordure depends on the odour.

Robin

 

Sadly, none of my ex-wives were willing to pick me up from the station.

 

No - came up to Stratford-upon-Avon when National Grid moved its HQ to coventry

 

Really? Usually it was Mr x drove to the pub and Mrs x drove home - didn't trains to Staplehurst have a buffet?

 

Buffet! You felt lucky if you got a CEP more often than not it was a draughty VEP. Ocasionally we had to suffer HAPs. On the rare ocasion Mrs Dave came down to the station, I usually walked, she drove home. I could not understand why at the end of a long day you wanted to drive home rather than ones personal chauffeurs.

 

Probably they worked for Auntie.

 

HAP's? Eee..... you 'ad it easy. When I were a lad, t'were EPBS's, wall to wall*, once them 4DD's were gone.

...... an' you try tellin that to kids these days .....

* Quite literally, the way those things rode through the tunnels at Woolwich!

 

I recall a Gillingham driver once telling of the day a "man from Derby" came to ride in his cab following complaints about rough riding through Higham and Strood tunnels. Apparently after travelling down from London to Gillingham, he refused to travel in the cab on the up journey, feeling safer on the cushions. EPBs certainly did move about a bit once they got up to speed.

 

Dropping your 'h's there Robin !

Steven

 

I am sure many of us had little enthusiasm for Southern Railway (BR(S)) as much of what they ran was simply long, single deck tramcars running on reserved tracks.

 

The most intense, high capacity railway in the western world, working to headway’s that made BR(W) colleagues gasp?

 

As we used to say at Hoo Jn, the Southern ran to a timetable, the Western to a calendar.

We used to run a train to Acton Mainline (and back to Strood) booked departure at 15:00, normally left within 5 minutes either way.

The Western used to run a train of empty oil tanks (various originating points) which left Acton on a Thursday afternoon or evening, arriving Hoo Jn anytime between 20:00 and midnight.

 

I was taking to one of the Dunster station staff today about their toilet roof, he said "wait till you see what else we've got in store".

DJB.

 

1st February 2018 and the primroses are out at Stogumber Station.

The first passenger train of the year is due on 10th February. I wonder how long to the first EGM of the year?

 

How not to display a railway relic, courtesy of the NRM .......

http://www.nrm.org.uk/globalmedia/CD050183_2.png
Borough Market Junction signal box devoid of all context - might just as well have the backdrop of a Caribbean island.

 

Both my parents and all four of my grandparents were true cockneys, all born in ‘Befnal Green’ ‘Ospital.

But then Dad moved us to Somerset in 1968....

Robin

 

gaw blimey strike a light

 

If It Wasn't for the 'Ouses in Between
-- Gus Elen

If you saw my little backyard, "Wot a pretty spot!" you'd cry,
It's a picture on a sunny summer day;
Wiv the turnip tops and cabbages wot peoples doesn't buy
I makes it on a Sunday look all gay.
The neighhours finks I grow 'em and you'd fancy you're in Kent,
Or at Epsom if you gaze into the mews.
It's a wonder as the landlord doesn't want to raise the rent,
Because we've got such nobby distant views.

CHORUS:
Oh it really is a wery pretty garden
And Chingford to the eastward could be seen;
Wiv a ladder and some glasses,
You could see to 'Ackney Marshes,
If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between.

We're as countrified as can be wiv a clothes prop for a tree,
The tub-stool makes a rustic little stile;
Ev'ry time the bloomin' clock strikes there's a cuckoo sings to me,
And I've painted up "To Leather Lane a mile."
Wiv tomatoes and wiv radishes wot 'adn't any sale,
The backyard looks a puffick mass o' bloom;
And I've made a little beehive wiv some beetles in a pail,
And a pitchfork wiv a handle of a broom.

CHORUS:
Oh it really is a wery pretty garden,
And Rye 'ouse from the cock-loft could be seen:
Where the chickweed man undresses,
To bathe 'mong the watercresses,
If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between.

There's the bunny shares 'is egg box wiv the cross-eyed cock and hen
Though they 'as got the pip and him the morf;
In a dog's 'ouse on the line-post there was pigeons nine or ten,
Till someone took a brick and knocked it orf.
The dustcart though it seldom comes, is just like 'arvest 'ome
And we mean to rig a dairy up some'ow;
Put the donkey in the washouse wiv some imitation 'orns,
For we're teaching 'im to moo just like a cah.

 

EPB - Every Passenger Bouncing was the polite name.

Regular morning commute was being in one of the middle cabs with dozens of others squeezed and crush loaded into the van on a Caterham from East Croydon to London Bridge, speedo often over 80 after Forest Hill down the till the brake application went in 'hard' for New Cross Gate. Coming home the peak hour Thumpers from LB to Uckfield were always good for rough riding over Norwood Junction pointwork it having just about managed to get to over 50mph by then. Looking at the Leaf Springs on our motor coach now I can understand why - at best they are flat when new.

B