What ever happend to the WAFFLE ticket????

[JCitron]

Bill,

I agree with you on the rosy colored glasses. We're all guilty of it. We look back to when things were better, and only remember the good ole days.

Railroads, for example, were dangerous places to work. They still are, but more so then. Steam locomotives today are museum pieces that are all cleaned up and shiny. The old varnish looks elegant next to the boring diesels we have today. The only thing is we never saw them run on the road, except in video, doing the dirty dangerous work for the railroads. Many people were killed, or severely injured, working for the railroads, and in particular working with those beautiful steam engines.

John

 

[wholbr]

Hi John and Everybody.
You're very right John in stating the dangers of the rail industry especially throughout the days of steam. Almost all my family worked in the British rail industry and I was very much frowned on when I decided to join the road transport industry. Part of that decision was made on the basis of what they told me of the conditions they worked in.

My uncles had been for many years both been firemen very often on the Bristol to London Paddington route. The engines where often poorly maintained with heavy steam leaks. This meant that the firemen would literally not have time to bend his back up straight throughout the one and three-quarter hour journey of the limited stop Trains to London.

At the conclusion of their shift there were no showers at the terminals to rid you of the dirt and grime that collected on your skin and hair. You just picked up your billy can and caught the bus home only then to have a bath. I often wonder what those old drivers and firemen would say about us cherishing those old steamers. I suspect it would be the same as I say about the owners of the preserved lorries."They never had to drive them everyday otherwise, they would not want to know them"

As stated in my previous posting when I joined the road haulage industry in the 60s things were not much better than they were in the rail industry. I started driving At 18 on a seven and a half ton Thames trader. The engine noise was so loud that if you had a mate in the passenger seat he would literally have to lean over the engine cowle in the cab and shout in your ear anything he wanted you to know.

Seven and a half ton was the largest vehicle you could drive until you were 21. So at that age I stepped up to my life's ambition to drive an 18 ton Seddon Atkinson Artic the biggest vehicle allowed on the roads in those days. I think it was built in the 1950s with vacuum breaks (which were very inefficient when used) and what was known as a ratchet handbrake. To pull a ratchet handbrake on you had to wind it up moving the huge handbrake lever backwards and forwards several times before handbrake was actually applied which of course took several seconds.

On climbing in the cab on the first day of driving the vehicle I seen a large notice on the dashboard stating in large black type "USE FOOTBRAKE FOR SERVICE WORK. IN AN EMERGENCY HANDBRAKE AND FOOTBRAKE TOGETHER. The vehicle was flat out at 39 mph, but believe me you never ever wanted to go that fast with those brakes.

And they call them the good old days.

Bill

 

[axe1970]

Hi Mr Mom.

I remember you.

Regards

 

[Johnk]

The thing to remember guys, is that the time, the good old days were the only things you knew. When you climbed into that 18 tonner, at the time it was probably the most exciting thing in your life and maybe one of your greatest achievements. You had no idea what a Mac or Kenworth would look like, or even drive like today. There was nothing to compare against, so what you had at that moment was the biggest and the best, and you owe it to yourself to cherish those memories. (slightly exaggerated as they often can be )

When you reflect, you recall the way you felt the very first time you stepped into that truck, not the 3,000 trips later when the calluses on you hands had grown as big as golf balls and your left hip was screaming for a replacement.

We watched TV because it was new, exciting and novel, or looked up in amazement whenever a plane flew over. Today, the first thing kids do when they board a plane is pull down the blinds so that they can see the TV regardless of what garbage is on.

Provided you don't mind locking yourself in at night or watching murders and muggings on TV, or travelling on a train where some spaced out fool thinks he's there to entertain you, these days are indeed good. Why today you can't fish on the jetty without a license, walk in the park in the moonlight, or even take the dog for a stroll after dark. That equates to more quality time watching some senseless program on TV where four people are guaranteed to be murdered in less than an hour.

I think I was one of the lucky ones. I had a small six track railway terminus, a four track tram terminus, a beautiful beach with towering cliffs, frog filled swamps and bushland all within a mile of where I lived. I was also adventurous and loved the outdoors. Today most of those things have gone. The cliffs have been made safe, the railway and tram terminus have been replaced with a single station and car park, the bushland is all housing, and the beach has erroded away. Oh, the street out the front of my house where we could play cricket for hours without being disturbed is now a four lane major road carrying 20 cars a minute. Things are definitely much better now.

I moved to Cairns where things were a bit more like they were in the 60's in Melbourne except for the crime. But even Cairns is getting better, so I'll guess I'll have to move on again.

I think we're entitled to reflect, for some of us it's the only thing left that keeps us sane. (Okay, question that one too if you like)

 

[pommie]

/me wanders through the thread, sees the topic, dips his finger in the syrup, licks his finger, exits stage right mumbling "yummmmmmmmm"

Cheers David (who never did 'earn' a waffle ticket)

 

[narrowgauge]

At 81 I can probably go back farther than most, and while I have many memories of good times when it never rained and the sun shone all the time, considering all that, I believe we are better off today than we were.

John, I have nothing that dates back to the Community edition except the memory of the excitement when I found I could model railways on my computer. That and Gmax and I was hooked.

Peter