The things people say

Few years ago I heard someone from Britt Alcroft was being shown round the 28 at Bury she asked how many were built '20' came the reply 'I can see why, their very ugly aren't they...?' she was told through gritted teeth it may been somthing to do with how they liked to set themselves on fire...

 

I think the lady was being very perceptive and got it spot on.

 

Lady from BBC Radio 3 on the footplate with me as we wound our way down Tenterden bank - "You aren't steering this are you"?

 

Gosh; some belters in this thread. Positively makes "look, the silly man's washing the coal" at Haworth seem positively sensible.

 

Hahaha My daughter informed me this was how it worked only a month ago while we watched Lydham Manor couple to the Devon Belle.

She's very astute for a 7 year old ;-)

 

Joe public, dont you just love them you should write a book Howard, the things you get told when on a preserved railway

 

Locomotive (over 100 years old) arrives at station with vacuum brake making a deal of noise as usual. "Is it a diesel made up to look like a steam engine" was the query.

Paul H

 

My recent favourite I heard from a group of pensioners on the WSR:

"This line used to go on to Ilfracombe until Dr Beeching shortened it"

Mind you, perhaps not a bad idea, with a spiral tunnel inside Minehead North Hill and all the necessary engineering - unemployment in the west country construction industry would be over for a while.....

kind regards

Robin

 

Further on in the evening whilst sitting outside a pub in Swanage, a group of rowdy stag revellers were being updated on the football score between Everton and Chelsea, by a chap sitting on his own minding his business.

When Everton equalised and he informed the group they half rounded on him calling him a Everton supporter.

"Not interested in football" replied the chap " just keeping you informed, Boxing is my game, I enjoy fighting."

The group went silent and went inside.

 

I have to admit I do like to throw in a few 'unfacts' to keep my friends guessing, as usually it's a barrage of 'fact attack' when we visit a railway!

The strangest ones are when the general public like to inform the train crew of how the machine they are operating works.

This was experienced when we were on the footplate of 'Henbury'

Spanish guy: Do you know how those go around corners?
Us: Well...
SG: They have a differential in between the wheels to stop them locking
Us: No, I'm afraid not, perhaps on more m...
SG: No, they do
Us: This is a bit older, it has a standard axl..
SG: No, that is how they go around corners.
Us: Oh, ok then, thank you.

 

I'd like to see (and even better, hear) a Gresley 3 cylinder loco with conjugated drive to the middle engine, in which the relative phase of the left and right hand valve gear was changing round corners as a result of a differential ...

Tom

 

A few years ago at Kiddy I was talking to a mate, 46521 was behind us on the blocks waiting to shunt the stock out and a guy come up to us and asks 'what time's this off to Cov then chaps?'

 

What I actually find far more objectionable is the the kind of people who do know what they're talking about laughing at others who, quite justifiably, don't.

Let's face it, the vast majority of punters on preserved railways neither know nor care about the details. They just want to have a nice time - the sound, the sight, the smell, the illusion that they are travelling back to the past. Mocking them for thinking that trains are coupled by magnets or that the reversing wheel is a steering wheel is no different to laughing at somebody who has no great interest in football not knowing the offside rule. Or someone like me who, as a football fan, does understand offside - but neither knows (nor remotely cares) why rugby and American football seem to stop every 10 seconds.

I have a vivid memory of when I was a young kid, back in the mid-70s. We lived near the Hastings line at the time and Deltic 55007 was doing a railtour all around Kent. I liked Deltics, purely because they looked imposing and they made a good noise.

Quite innocently I asked my dad - a hardcore railway enthusiast - if the Deltic was coming down the Hastings line. In response I got a stern lecture all about why that would be was impossible, with minute after dreary minute of chapter and verse on the minutiae of why the Hastings line tunnels had a narrower loading gauge, all with the heavy implication of "Don't you know anything?"

Nothing puts me off railways more readily than the type of enthusiast who feels the need to proclaim their knowledge, boring anyone within earshot to death about the minutiae of liveries, boiler pressures or the perceived merits of Surzler over English Eccentric locomotives, implicitly sneering at people who don't know as much about railways as they do - as if not being a railway enthusiast makes you some sort of less intelligent being.

Of course the ironic thing about anyone shouting their mouth off or laughing at others is that it all comes down to their own chronic insecurity, the empty vessel making the loudest noise and all that. What's that saying? Far better to keep your mouth shut and have others think you're a fool, than open it and remove all doubt.

 

I didn't realise we had met before!

 

I might upset DisuedBranch with this, but here goes. I once overheard someone on a railtour telling his companions that a diesel-electric locomotive was one that could run on electricity when under the wires, but used its diesel engine when it wasn't. He also informed them that the Southern Railway painted the Bulleid Pacifics in Match Light green.

 

Livery debate alert.

 

And there is the root cause of your post.

 

I wasn't laughing - merely passing on something overheard. This thread is entitled 'The things people say' is it not?

 

I think this reply was aimed at Disused Branch rather than me.

 

For the more obscure details, I can see your point, but.... thinking that an engine needs to be steered? Sorry, I think that betrays a fairly alarming level of lack of native wit (at least, in a person who is old enough to vote).

Noel