RE: OPEN ALL HOURS - 218

Another great day, wev'e only had a couple and I can't believe how many people are moaning about the heat. Bring it on I say.

Youve both had a couple of drinks at 9.15 in the morning have you SB ? Interesting

This weather is no good to man nor beast,we are not conditioned to it and never will be,I have all the windows closed and the blinds pulled down.

Its enough to drive a man to drink John

We moan if it rains, we moan if it's warm, and if it snows we almost break down in flood of tears. You would think that living in England as we do we would be well used to unpredictable weather.

Whatever I had a brilliant day out today down on the Severn Valley Railway, I enjoyed it just as much as the kids did. It's only a pity it wasn't one of the Thomas the Tank Engine days that would have just rounded the day off nicely for the youngsters who both fell asleep on the way back.

Phil

Hi Phil, yes nice place for a day out. I haven't been to the Severn Valley for years I reckon it's time for a re-visit.

SB

Yes that is exactly why we went and if I am honest even after saying how much I enjoyed myself and that it is well worth a visit. I have to say I think some of the initial spark has gone. I think that today it is thought more of as a business than it is an interest by those of them who run it.

Don't get me wrong I have no argument with that, because if you forget you are running a business then it will soon fail. It's just that I get the feeling that a good part of the staff are just that staff, paid employees and not volunteers as most of them used to be. Some have got time to stop and talk and explain something you might ask about, but some will just ignore you and brush past.

Still if I'm still around in a few years I can see me going again, just got to wait for some more great grandchildren.

Thats a great place to take the kids Phil, a good part of their history education showing them what trains used to be like. I can also recommend a few hours at Tyseley Railway Museum. You can pay to drive a real monster of a steam engine. I drove Clun Castle albeit only up and down a single track but it was a great experience. The power of those things was incredible. The Castles were the most powerful Locomotives the Great Western Had.

SB

We had a good working relationship with the lads at Tyseley, we used to drop them loads of firewood for free, I suppose it saved a little on those coal bills. We would have only had to pay to tip it anyway. We also sold them 6000 railway books for a tidy few bob, we dropped half there and half at the Severn Valley where I went today.

I think in the end the SVR were the only ones that paid because the money man at Tyseley told me that he charged them what he paid us for 3000 books so theirs cost nothing. We didn't care because we got what we asked I think the market value of the cheapest book was £12 and some were over £20.

The thing about steam engines, they were filthy, they were noisy they were hard work. But they were also part of the most fantastic engineering project that this country will ever see. Take the engines, Rolling Stock, the maintenance organisation of this collossal fleet of powered and unpowered vehicles was incredible. When you think it had never been done before. Thousands of staff had to be recruited. Teams of Engineers (The best in the world) had to be recuited, trained, employed and payed. Then we take the buildings, thousands of them all over the country, many still there. Also the network of road vehicles and their crews delivering the goods. Not forgetting the Coal Mining industry that kept these immense coal hungry monsters moving. How could this be done in this day and age? I suggest it couldn't. With the kind of Mamby Pamby Governments we have these days and the work ethic of today it would probably take 2000 years.

SB

We haven't got the skills or the trades to even approach any such undertaking today. I think it should be made law that in all trades one out of every ten employed should be a trainee or apprentice. No subsidies should be given but a check should be kept that at least 80% of the apprentices time at work was spent learning his trade after all I see nothing wrong with youngsters making the tea ans sweeping up as long as they are learning a trade.

Phil in our industry we used to have The Printing and Paper Products Industry Training Board. We had to prove to this board that we were training our people. Not just youngsters but across the board. Part of my job was to write training programmes for all jobs in our factory and warehouse, using the stage one, two, and three breakdown training programme method. An incentive to everyone was that for every job they learned around the place they was paid £1 per week more. It doesn't sound a lot but in the1980s an extra £10 or £15 per week was most agreeable.
If our training was passed by the PPPITB our company was paid a grant, if not it was charged a levy. This system worked well, especially for me as an on the job trainer. As I was also the Union Health and Safety Rep and First Aider. Ocasionally I found time to do some work.

Goodnight all. Time to make some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs