West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Well after much thought I have decided to donate to the railway. Whilst I may not agree with all that is going on (and all the facts are not known) the railway does need help during this period to survive. If there’s no railway all the rest is immaterial. If the railway survives then matters of concern can still be dealt with.

 

I note the search above for analogies.

Long ago and far far away, I was priviledged to be an 'extra' in the filming of a sequence for 'Longitude' at Horsted Keynes on the Bluebell. In the 1939 part of the opening sequence I am the 'porter' who walks across shot looking at their pocket watch. An analogy for the WSR position at the moment is the 17th cetury part of the 'Longitude' opening sequnce concerning the (alleged) fate of a common sailor, Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell and the fleet he commanded...

I trust that is allegorical enough.

Robin

 

Interesting that you should mention Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell. I have read the book Longitude but I haven't seen the film (and indeed wasn't aware of its existence) but I am familiar with the story of how the admiral thought he knew better than a sailor from the Scillies, until his fleet ran onto the rocks.

I leave everyone to form their own opinions as to who among the WSR family has been acting most like the admiral.

 

As I have said, watch out for the horological porter at 3:30...you have to be quick!

 

I had thought of that, but sadly, since it was so apt, the tale turned out to be a myth.

 

Should say "two metres" not "too metres". I know I'm a pedant, but for me it distracts me from the point of the statement.

 

For a lot of people on the Internet English is their second language and they don't know the difference between words like; to, too, two, their, they're, your & you're I often find such mistakes distract from the point they are trying to make in their postings.

 

They are not mine my son sent them I will complain

 

Quite a lot of people suffer from various degrees of dyslexia.

Some years ago there was a regular correspondent on NP who was an obvious sufferer from dyslexia of a fairly advanced sort. This did not stop regular "yah boo" postings from one of the finger wagging fraternity, which was distasteful.

I am not saying this is the case here but we all need to watch ourselves.

 

I agree with you.
I'm sure you knew that I was making a general observation and not taking a 'pop' at anyone in particular.
From many years of using e-mail at work I have come to the view that some people don't think correct spelling and grammar matter in e-mails, or on social media.

 

3 min 27 sec .. Stella cast in this...

 

Reading through a message before hitting the send button can be very useful for correcting any errors.

As I have found in the past, when you read through your message it may dawn on you that the way you have worded it may not come across as the way you meant it to.

When reading other people's messages the important thing to remember is that we're all human and we all make misstakes. <BJ>

 

Don't worry about it. The message still gets through, it's just that the delivery is distracted.

 

This is very true.

More distracting if used in a "professional" production. I've seen printed posters which have obviously never been reviewed for English language faults before publication. I've also seen clothing advertisements posters which have shown the prices in figures, without the currency symbol. (H&M?). In speech the currency unit may often be omitted, as in saying the price is "two fifty", but when written the currency symbol(s) should always be shown, " £2-50 " or " £2-50p " (I personally consider the latter less necessary).

At least since we are using the written word, we do not have to contend with the differing pronunciations of identical letter sequences commonly found in English. The OUGH sequence for example, I give you cough, rough, bough, though, bought just for starters.

 

I normally re-read before posting. Then read it again after posting just to make sure my edit worked the way I meant it to.

 

What was going on here? I took this pic at just before 6pm on a very wet 11 June 1993?

The train on the right has 12 coaches and is about to depart on a 500+ mile journey.



Steve

 

I remember that tour well, though I only joined at Birmingham New St. It was a Pathfinder weekend trip, overnight over Shap and Beattock for breakfast in Fort William, then the following night parked in Ayr station before heading for Stranraer.

 

Great shot, Steve. I was going to ask if that’s one of our WSR Hymeks, and a visit to your website confirms that it’s D 7018.

 

<threaddrift>

Where I've seen 2.50, without a currency symbol, is mostly in pubs and cafes that are trying to be chic. It does jar.

I was taught in primary school, at decimilisation, that the p in £2.50p is a heinous wrong.

In business we were required to use GBP2.50 in all electronic communication as some settings turn the £ to something else.

</threaddrift>

Patrick

 

I recommend 'Grammarly', a free grammar & spelling checker, from www.grammarly.com
It is not flawless, but it does work very well.