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Standard gauge 4 foot eight and a half inches Ken, adopted by George Stephenson as that was the standard gauges for colliery wagons in the North East pits, apart from a few others it was used all over the world, probably due to the large number of british engineers used to build railways around the world and the large number of locos built in this country for export, Irish railways used 5 foot 3 inches for some strange reason.

Locos in cases at stations, Paddington had a beautiful model of a GWR King on platform 1 of which the motion operated on the insertion of money in the slot, ("Don't waste your money on that"), being the usual accompaniment to any attemped insertion of same.

And who's Jane Morgan?

 

Stu

Not guilty of handing out detentions, Ken. I left Bath Tech in 1961 after the fifth form, when my dad was moved to Scotland. But your name also rings bells. Were you of that generation?

Ah the magic of Graham Farish N guage. Once built a whole N guage layout round the manager's office at a Scottish airfield. Pilots used to come up to the control tower to play with it. Farish kit was built in a factory near Wareham, not far from here. All gone now, sadly.

Yeh...who is Jane Morgan?

Aha..  ...  now we know; ... thanks Tony for the JANE MORGAN enlightenment .. was is something that I said?  .. yes it was !! .. I just didn`t know it of course! .. I mean, unless you`ve heard of the srtiste`and her work .. all is a mystery!

 

Good old "Wiki", been on there tonight as it happens .. got bored, started another article on Somerset. Hey -ho .. someone`s got to do it.

 

How is the world and all who sail / sink / swim / in her? ... Stu, you can always drop in here after leaving Shirl in Bristol, I can always tell her you have been abducted by aliens .. or are in the company of aliens .. amounts to the same thing really. Hey, come to think of it we may be away for the day (if weather holds up) with Janice and Paul, Caroles` sister and her husband ... take your chance on us being in.

 

Well, the Bacardi calls me .. third large glass just going down.. cheers.

Hi all.

I didn't realise that my comment about Jane Morgan would cause such consternation! But it was fun whilst it lasted.

Anyhow, you all seem to have sorted out who she was, and the opening lines of the song were:-

'The day the rains came,

Mother earth swelled with pride'..............

See the link?

Finished work in Oxfordshire today, office tomorrow and may have to go to Cockermouth next week.

Our customer's factory there has been under two feet of water!!!!!

one of our engineers went up yesterday on a reccy mission, I called him at lunch time for a progress report.

When asked how he was getting on he said 'Swimmingly'.

Apparently they had a JCB inside the factory demolishing offices and scooping up office and contents to dump it in skips outside.

When I say contents I mean everything, computers, phones, desks, filing cabinets and contents, everything!

So heavily contaminated not economical to try to recover any of it.

Bi for now.

Sticky.   

Hi Anth.

Thanks for the music.

I remember when the song first came out, listening to it on radio LUxembourg. the old valve radio used to fade and drift like nothing else, but it was all we had in those days.

I guess that all Luxembourg listeners from thos long off days will also remember Horace Batchelor with his 'Famous infradraw method', of course he came from Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H...................

Happy days!

Sticky.  

Horace Bachelor by name "bachelor" by nature in his later life (single again) .. He lived in a bungalow on the A4 between Saltford and Keynsham with his house keeper for company. His son took over the "infra-draw method" forecast business in the late 60s` early 70s`.

 

I met Horace, and got to know him quite well as his T.V. repair man. I worked for Granada in Bristol for a while, he was on my patch. He had two T.V.s` from us, a 25" Colour G.E.C., and a 24" Mono G.E.C. (one on top the other). he had the B/W set just in case the colour one broke down ( common in those days with valve T.V.s`). He used to live in one small room with his chaise lounge up against one wall, eating and sleeping opposite his beloved T.V.s`. He had a penchant for water colour and oil painting. His old bow windowed entertainment room was steel shuttered all the time. This was his haven of peace and art studio. His ability as a painter seemed quite good ( My limited experience at the time), I was one of the few priveliged to be let into this fortress. It took about 6 months of visits if I remember for him to start talking. Previous to this, all communication was through his housekeeper.

 

The bar, and all the optics were still there, a few chairs, pictures all over the floor, his easel and paint stuff and a table full of part finished work. .. nothing else. The Football business took it out of him, he became a recluse. When he died the housekeeper got the old house ( I think Son was wealthy enough not to contest this). The house is much extended now, a massive conservatory too built on the side. It operates as a nursing home. Have no idea who runs it.

 

Every time I drive past I think of him, my old "Sobell" transistor radio and the girl I used to sit with listening to "208 on the medium wave dial" Luxembourg night after night.  All this long before the days of "pirate Radio" .. good time for broadcasting and music. The fading, down to the variation of the "E" layer at night on  medium radio frequencies.  

Hi Bill.

Nice to know someone who actually met Horace Batchelor, and that he was a real person!

Sounds like he led a sad sort of life towards the end, although I wonder about the 'Housekeeper'.

Great fun in the radio Luxembourg days, although I never had transistors or a girlfriend to listen with, just an old five valve superhet, and one of them was the rectifier! Still, we managed to get a half decent signal most of the time, mind you I think that the numerous yards of aeriel probably helped.

Been a bit of a day really, fetched a lathe and mill back from Gloucester on a ropey old trailer, but we made it OK.

Sheeted down for the night, unload tomorrow.

Have to go, newsletter to finish publishing.

Bi for now.

Sticky. 

Bill, many thanks for the inside view if Horace Bachelor. As a Keynsham lad I came in for a lot of stick when I went away. I thought if I heard K E Y N etc quoted at me once more I would go mad. ( it STILL happens!)

 

One point of fact. It wasn't a bungalow but a 2 storey house with green tiled roof and green shutters. He had a chauffer driven Vauxhall Cresta, which even at the time seemed a bit naff. I used to wonder why, if his system was so great he didn't live somewhere better.

 

The house became a nursing home before being demolished and replaced by a feeble block of flats.

 

My Aunt who was in Keynsham hospital for years used to get £2 at Xmas from him. He gave all the residents a present of £2.

Hello Guys,

Just updated Horaces page on Wikipedia. Thanks for the update Chris, I probably got confused about the building (long time ago!). The entertainment room gave the impression of a single sory extension, probably where "bungalow" comes into the equation. I `m glad I didn`t dream about the shutters, always struck me as odd, detached house with a view, and all that.

 

I can only remember him as quite an articulate man, even though many felt his radio voice didn`t amount to much. Once he opened up, he gave the impression of a "bit of a lad". I bet a lot of us will carry his memoery to our graves. Tea on the table...catch you later all.

Hi all.

Nice to hear all about Horace, but like you said Chris, K-E-Y-N-S............. wears a bit thin after a while. Must have been a fair b****er for anyone that actually lived there, about the only thing that it was famous for!!!

At about the same time that I was a Lux listener, that is about fourth / fifth form age, the school organised several trips, I guess associated with carers possibilities, around local industrial / commercial sites. Some of these were out of school hours, but not all.

I remember going around Fry's with Ray Jones, most of us went on that one because of the prospect of free sweets, bit disappointing from what I remember! We also did Portishead radio station and power station, much more interesting, that's where I discovered that radio transmission in those days was not really electronics, more yer heavy engineering. Another trip I remember was to the C.A.D. at Corsham (Central Ammunition Depot) about 95% of which was under ground in the old Bath stone mine workings, an amazing place. Besides the miles of ammo storage there was also all the facilities required to maintain a full work force, about 50% of which were military, mostly Piuoneer Corps (They were the only ones daft enough to work down there!).

The facilities included a working railway terminus, freight and passenger, canteen, shops including a hairdresser, power station etc.

Funny thing was it was not until we arrived that we found out that my old mate, Tommy Ralph's dad was conducting the tour, he worked for the ministry at the time. During the latter years most of the 'Goods' for the site was transported by road from railheads at Thingley Junction and Laycock Halt (So extensive they were part of the same rail complex), the mainstay of the transport being Scammell Scarabs with dropside open trailers. However the railhead underground was still maintained for 'Other consignments'.

Rambling on again.

Gotta go now.

Have fun.

Sticky.

PS Nearly forgot, Bi Bi to Parrotty.

PPS. Hi Ken, you must have posted your two penn'orth whilst I was writing the above!

Didn't know about the Roman chariots, but the four foot eight and a half gauge was adopted by the Stevensons and their compatriots as the standard guage used mostly on the early industrial systems and then evolved, the gauge was probably inherited from the early tramways, but if this is traceable back to the chariot I know not. Old I.K.B. upset the apple cart with his adoption of seven foot and quarter inch gauge, his arguement being that the greater gauge would offer a better ride more befitting the upper class of passenger he envisaged travelling on his new railway, remember he was also building steam ships to link West Country ports with America. He also envisaged that his gauge would offer more efficient load carrying capacity and less track maintenance cost. Thus the gauge wars began!

Incidentally I believe that earlier Stu? stated that the Irish gauge is five foot three, I've always thought it is five six, but stand to be corrected as I may be getting muddled with India which has five foot six, four foot eight and a half and two foot, there are probably others as well!

Can't understand the Chinese ice cream as they don't have a dairy industry, or they didn't in the late eighties when I was there last. If you wanted butter it was tinned and imported from Aus.

Funny old world aint it!

Sticky.

Chinese ice cream eh! can't honestly say I saw a lot of it in China, well none actually, come to that didn't see many cows either, there were some in western China along with a much larger number of yaks, yak ice cream anyone? Having smelt yak butter candles burning in buddhist monasteries I think I'll pass.

On the Radio Luxembourg front didn't anyone listen to AFN, reception was patchy even with miles of aerial, but the sounds were worth it.

 

Stu

 

PS. returned from the shopping expedition intact, even if fat wallet is now considerably thinner, at least it didn't rain until we were well on our way home, all I wanted was a new pair of chinos and a good look round the cheap record shop for a few CD's needless to say came home with nothing.

Harping back to the four feet eight and a half inch discussion ... you've probably read this before, but it bears repeating.

 

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet eight and a half inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did they use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (including England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. So the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Thus, we have the answer to the original question.

Now we come to a twist to the story…

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are Solid Rocket Boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Morton-Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs, therefore, had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses's asses. So, a major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of two horse's asses.

 

I say David, he last sentence .. should it not have read "Two whores` asses? " .. or are my eyes playing me up again .. Ha Ha

Brilliant David, loved it, the obvious next item for discussion could be "rulr of thumb", or the "golden mean". Come on guys that should fuel your collective imaginations. Me? I've more important things to do revising tax discs, parking violation codes and car badge recognition, life's really hard. Oh! as an aside Bill the exam was multiple choice questions as well, we were given 90 mins. to do it and all finished in about 15.

 

Stu

 

PS. You know your trouble Williams, sex on the brain, that's wot! whore's asses! I ask you!!!!!!