Lyr Req: British railways are the best

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 06 Jun 05 - 08:12 AM

Not a direct response to the thread, but this goes down well in East Anglia (tune of 'Freight Train'- adapt the lyrics to local frustrations!)

'One' train, 'one'train, goin' so slow,
Could it be the wrong kind of snow?
All I want is to get to town,
But you always let me down.

Went to town the other day,
London's just an hour away,
But we stopped outside Marks Tey,
And that's where we spent the day.

Ch:

Vital meeting, musn't miss,
Lots of jobs depend on this,
Brakes go on with a sudden hiss,
There's a leaf on the line at Diss.

Ch:

'One' regrets there'll be no train.
Driver overslept again,
This is doing in my brain,
And it's coming on to rain.

Ch:

Engines break down, trains derail,
Powerlines and signals fail,
Trains get lost in fog or hail,
You can hear the passengers wail:

Ch:.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: GUEST,Hen Harrier
Date: 06 Jun 05 - 12:13 AM

Sapper82.

As far as I know, there's still plenty of older stock still spattering it about all over the place!

I had a trip on the Severn Valley Rly recently in an old LMS compartment carriage and it reminded me just how comfortable they were compared with modern "aircraft" type, cramped and often without a proper window seat conditions - not to mention air-conditioning equipment that often doesn't work. In winter you freeze and on hot summer days you suffocate, elderly folk (amongst others) have a really tough time of it, there always seems to be and has been, a major problem with adequate maintenance of the air-conditioning equipment. It was OK when only the Pulman stock had it with relatively few vehicles involved! With the older stock, at least you had SOME control of your local environment!

Riding quality has, however, improved but we've only just caught up with what was the norm in this repect with countries such as France or Germany 80 years ago!

A not inconsiderable proportion of the population are now well over 10 miles from their nearest railway station. It wouldn't be so bad if you could always rely on there being a convenient bus service to connect as you would expect to find in the Swiss transport infrastructure!

We've still a huge way to go to avoid, or alleviate the much talked about road gridlock!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jun 05 - 04:04 PM

QUESTION:

Who said: "It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive."? Was it:


1. Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish author of "Travels With a Donkey").
2. Bill Bryson (American Travel writer).
3. A spokesman for British Rail.

Surprisingly, it wasn't No. 3, but No. 1 (I think).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: sapper82
Date: 05 Jun 05 - 08:47 AM

Perhaps for Steam Traction Lead, but the Deltics, HSTs and the current GNER Electrics have cut the '30s schedule substantially.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jun 05 - 08:21 AM

OK Sapper - I sit corrected - BUT the London- Edinburg record from the thirties does still hold I believe !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: sapper82
Date: 05 Jun 05 - 08:10 AM

Hen Harrier
With the rolling stock introduced over the past 15y it has.

GUEST,Leadfingers

Nope. Only holds the world absolute speed record for Steam Traction of 126mph.
Set on the descent down Stoke Bank, the attempt knocked out the middle big end bearing and the loco was removed at Peterborough.

Gresley A4 Pacifics

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: GUEST,Leadfingers
Date: 05 Jun 05 - 07:32 AM

And doesnt 'Mallard' still hld the record for London to Edinburg set in ?1936? - So much for modernisation !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 10:55 PM

Comment on TV this week is that it now takes 30 minutes longer to travel by train from Bristol to London than it did in the 1970's !!!
Colyn.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: Jim Martin
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 10:01 PM

It's time this very unhealthy (especially for railway workers) practice (toilets flushing onto track) was stopped.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: Sorcha
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 09:34 PM

Over here, the sign says just Please refrain from flushing while in the station..nothing about 'gentlemen'....and at least in Britain if you miss a train there will be another before tomorrow...or later...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: GUEST,gnomad (sans biscuit, backdoor)
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 09:21 PM

Is this the song which starts:

"British Railways are the best,
Their toilets flusher than the rest,
But please refrain from using one right now."?

I've just tried a search, but have a feeling they don't work for backdoor entrants. I think it might be in the digitrad under "Gentlemen will (perhaps should) please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is standing in the station" or something similar.

Of course I may be on entirely the wrong track here, it would be appropriate, any way if that doesn't help I will try to dig up the goods when I visit my reference section at the weekend.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: British railways are the best
From: Jim Martin
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 07:49 PM

Best for what?

Trains can now go at 125mph but pre Dr. Beeching, when most passenger trains did not exceed 90 mph (apart from a few which attained 100 mph - Deltics and LMR electrics), it was always reckoned that no one was more than 10 miles from their nearest railway station!

Is this really progress?

Subject: Lyr Req: British Railways are the best
From: GUEST,Spalpin
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 07:26 PM

British Railway's are the best