On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:26:29 -0000 someone who may be "BH Williams"
wrote this:-

It's no use asking somebody like Ross
how long his train is going to be delayed while he's still underneath it
with his Junior Hacksaw.

To which he might have replied, as a driver of my acquaintance did 'A
F****** sight quicker if I didn't have to keep answering the radio'

A long time ago off Norway a Royal Navy destroyer was stationary, a
German shell having smashed the main steam pipe to the engines.
Given that the objectives of a warship captain are for the ship to
float, move and fight (in that order) this was not a happy
situation.

While the engineering people were desperately trying to get some
boilers going and connected to the engines they stationed a seaman
at the voice pipe to the bridge. The first time the bridge asked how
long it would be the seaman asked the engineering people, added a
bit more time and passed it on. After that the seaman didn't bother
asking, he just deducted roughly the amount of time that had passed
since the last time and passed that back, in an increasingly curt
fashion.

That wouldn't always be possible on a driver only train, especially
as "safety" frowns on asking passengers to help these days. However,
a spare member of staff or the guard might be able to deal with some
of these enquiries.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54