You know you’re getting older when……

[Gloster]

I was brought up (fee-paying school system in the late 1960s to mid-1970s) to always show my working: I know that in mocks we would be marked down if we failed to do so. I think it was a requirement of the exam boards (Common Entrance and Oxford & Cambridge) to do so; for that matter, personal calculators were only just coming in when I did my O-Levels and I don’t think you could take them into exams.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Not sure how many. I think Casey Jones all got turned over to MscDonalds franchises.

The one at Manchester Piccadilly was the 11th or maybe 12th to open (sometime during the first half of 1984, possibly April) according to job adverts / contemporary newspaper reports.

 

[McRhu]

No puppets in Space 1999. Plenty of actors dressed in dodgy 'alien' costumes though.


Does it list the English lanuague voice artists ? Sometimes I see an actor where the voice is far more familiar than the face and I wonder ...

I tried to find the DVD in my spare room bric-a-brac avalanche to no avail. Wikipedia lists Tony Bilbow as being the English language narrator though.

 

[swt_passenger]

I tried to find the DVD in my spare room bric-a-brac avalanche to no avail. Wikipedia lists Tony Bilbow as being the English language narrator though.

When I read your post I wondered why Space 1999 would need an English language narrator. Then I went back and found you’d quoted two completely separate points…

 

[Peter Sarf]

If I remember correctly (which I probably don't!) Casey Jones' track gauge used to vary between standard and narrow without his engine even reducing speed. He just went steamin' and a-rollin' without batting an eyelid.

Casey Jones often achieved an emergency stop by putting the stream engine in reverse, letting it spin and creating lots of sparks. He would be grinning at the camera (I can see that grin now). All very professional - not.

Then I discovered real trains. Mainly EPBs but also HAPs, CEPs and VEPs plus the very occasional 33, 71 & 73. Now the rest of the UK is almost bereft of locos so the South Eastern is no longer more boring.

 

[McRhu]

When I read your post I wondered why Space 1999 would need an English language narrator. Then I went back and found you’d quoted two completely separate points…

I realise I'm getting older when I realise I can't quite get the hang of this reply malarkey properly. Apologies for the confusion. It was of course in relation to The Singing Ringing Tree.

Casey Jones often achieved an emergency stop by putting the stream engine in reverse, letting it spin and creating lots of sparks. He would be grinning at the camera (I can see that grin now). All very professional - not.

Then I discovered real trains. Mainly EPBs but also HAPs, CEPs and VEPs plus the very occasional 33, 71 & 73. Now the rest of the UK is almost bereft of locos so the South Eastern is no longer more boring.

Was there not a class 81 written off by that very same technique?

 

[D6130]

Was there not a class 81 written off by that very same technique?

Yes indeed. E3002 was withdrawn in November 1968 as a result of a catastrophic thermal incident caused by an irresponsible driver deciding to put the locomotive into reverse while travelling at speed 'just to see what would happen'. Incidentally, that loco was the prototype for the Hornby Dublo 00 gauge model....whereas their arch-rivals Triang chose E3001.

 

[theblackwatch]

The 32 episodes "Casey Jones" (American railroad engineer) TV series was widely aired on British TV, both on ITV (late 1950s/early 1960s) and then the BBC (late 1960s/early 1970s) so you'd probably need to have been of a certain age demographic to have watched these shows back in the day.

That explains why I didn't know of him - I'm not that old!

 

[Peter Sarf]

That explains why I didn't know of him - I'm not that old!

Pffft. Young whippersnapper .

 

[Junctionman]

Casey Jones................. i watched Back to the Future 3 a few weeks ago ,when Marty and Doc are asking if the loco could do 90 he replies

`Yes ,but you`d have to get the fire hotter than hell and damnation`

i love that line.............

and while were on good lines i`m a M*A*S*H fan and this one cracks me up.............

Col. Sherman T. Potter: [after Frank shot BJ in the leg] Burns, what's the meaning of this?

Maj. Frank Burns: I was cleaning my gun and it discharged prematurely. Sir, I think the Chinese have captured Maj. Houlihan.

Col. Sherman T. Potter: I see. So naturally, you shot Capt. Hunnicut



and we wont even mention Col.Flagg !!!!!

 

[Busaholic]

I was brought up (fee-paying school system in the late 1960s to mid-1970s) to always show my working: I know that in mocks we would be marked down if we failed to do so. I think it was a requirement of the exam boards (Common Entrance and Oxford & Cambridge) to do so; for that matter, personal calculators were only just coming in when I did my O-Levels and I don’t think you could take them into exams.

At Roper Street Primary School in Eltham (1950s) it was about as basic as the name implies, but none the worse for that. We all had these mass-produced arithmetic books, passed down from year to year, which probably pre-dated World War Two. The answers to each question posed were given at the back of the book, so you certainly had to show your workings. My modus operandi was to look at the answer first, to save time, and work back from there in my head. Then, with the certainty of having produced the right answer, I'd write down the workings that got me there, in the correct order, to arrive at that conclusion. I don't think anyone else in the class of 50 pupils (yes, really!) used this technique, and I was wrongly assumed at the time to be quite clever, whereas I was just showing quick-wittedness, maybe deviousness.

 

[Junctionman]

Sums

My memories of learning times table was repeating them over and over over again when in junior school like a song

now i was crap at maths

r2 (Pi R Squared) .... oh yes .... he was an alien from outer space​

 

[Howardh]

Sums

My memories of learning times table was repeating them over and over over again when in junior school like a song

now i was crap at maths

r2 (Pi R Squared) .... oh yes .... he was an alien from outer space​

Ah, old mechanical calculators, with knobs and pullys. In the very early 70's my old man's works had those new-fangled electronic calculators, plugged into the mains and about twice the size (maybe more) of today's tablet. Think it had five functions, + - x and divide plus percent; and a memory. Wow! Played with it for days!!

 

[birchesgreen]

I collect 70s (and early 80s) pocket calculators, something about a red LED display which is very relaxing.

 

[dangie]

....something about a red LED display which is very relaxing.

Much prefer an Old J Spiced Rum myself, but each to their own

 

[Ashley Hill]

When we had heavy gales,storm force winds and strong gusts instead of storms with cute names. Is the idea to make them seem more friendly?

 

[Busaholic]

When we had heavy gales,storm force winds and strong gusts instead of storms with cute names. Is the idea to make them seem more friendly?

'She was killed by Storm Estelle' sounds more kindly, I suppose, than 'a tree fell on her in a storm', not that her friends and family would see it that way.

 

[Gloster]

I thought that it was because they are becoming so frequent that it makes it easier to identify which one of that week’s ‘once in a decade storms’ the insurance company will find a loophole for.

 

[Lost property]

Sums

My memories of learning times table was repeating them over and over over again when in junior school like a song

now i was crap at maths

r2 (Pi R Squared) .... oh yes .... he was an alien from outer space​

Ah, learning by rote.

My own learning, state school, was assisted by the use of gratuitous ABH / GBH and state sanctioned flagellation. We were asked mental arithmetic questions on an individual basis, the wrong answer resulting in a selection of any of the three actions above.

The teaching profession, in those days, must have seemed like a magnetic attraction for socio / psychopaths who probably came to work with little flutters in their hearts as to what the day could produce for them.

Thankfully, those "good old days " are no more.

However, another "incentive " was...negative marking. If you got a question wrong, marks were deducted from your overall mark.

This was used by those great paper tigers and revenue stream generators, the CAA for written exams and, with 75% being the pass mark, there wasn't much margin for error. Then came the oral with a surveyor. Again, now rightly consigned to history.

My real interest in mental arithmetic began when I first got a car "fill her up my good man !" was never going to happen and fuel gauges on the various death traps were unreliable. That, and road / mileage signs were quite often those quaint, barely readable, black and white signposts or even milestones in certain rural counties.

 

[PG]

My own learning, state school, was assisted by the use of gratuitous ABH / GBH and state sanctioned flagellation. We were asked mental arithmetic questions on an individual basis, the wrong answer resulting in a selection of any of the three actions above.

Maybe I'm a tad younger than you as I only experienced those methods of tuition in primary school. On the first occasion I remember going home and being shocked at my parents condoning the teacher shaking my head by yanking my hair violently several times in front of the rest of the class. Quickly realised that was just how it was and got used to it, thankfully my secondary school only used flagellation, which was the headmasters privilege, and then only for more serious misdemeanours...

That, and road / mileage signs were quite often those quaint, barely readable, black and white signposts or even milestones in certain rural counties.

At least with milestones they were actually a mile apart

 

[Bald Rick]

It was, but where do you reckon they got the idea for the name from?

BTW, when were the Casey Jones burger bars (part of the Travellers' Fare operation) first opened? 1982?

And where on the GB network were these "restaurants" located? Birmingham New Street (opened 1982), Liverpool Lime Street, London Euston, London Victoria (adjacent platforms 12+13), London Charing Cross, Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley and Manchester Piccadilly (opened 1984) certainly. Where else?

London Waterloo….

Not sure how many. I think Casey Jones all got turned over to MsDonalds franchises. They tend to be McDonalds that do not accept any of the voucher schemes or other offers btw.

… which is now a Burger King.

 

[12LDA28C]

It was, but where do you reckon they got the idea for the name from?

BTW, when were the Casey Jones burger bars (part of the Travellers' Fare operation) first opened? 1982?

And where on the GB network were these "restaurants" located? Birmingham New Street (opened 1982), Liverpool Lime Street, London Euston, London Victoria (adjacent platforms 12+13), London Charing Cross, Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley and Manchester Piccadilly (opened 1984) certainly. Where else?

There was certainly a Casey Jones at Liverpool Street.

 

[Ashley Hill]

You sit down to watch Pointless and think Meghan Markle is the Co-host. Apparently she’s called Vick Hope.

 

[dgl]

When I recently got moaned at by my sister because I'd taken a photo of her with my nephew but only took the one, I may not be that old but I was brought up with every shot costing money and as such you'd take one shot of something not hundreds!

 

[AM9]

When I recently got moaned at by my sister because I'd taken a photo of her with my nephew but only took the one, I may not be that old but I was brought up with every shot costing money and as such you'd take one shot of something not hundreds!

I remeber film cameras clearly, but to base current practice on behaviours because of the historic high cost of film is a false economy and likely to result in some missed opportunities.

 

[Killingworth]

I remeber film cameras clearly, but to base current practice on behaviours because of the historic high cost of film is a false economy and likely to result in some missed opportunities.

My parents generation were similarly concrrned about the length of telephone calls. 3 minutes until you got the pips.

 

[ChrisC]

My parents generation were similarly concrrned about the length of telephone calls. 3 minutes until you got the pips.

I remember waiting until after 6pm to make phone calls when they were charged at a far cheaper rate.

 

[Ken X]

When very small I used to get told off for picking up the phone to chat to the nice lady who always answered when the receiver was lifted.

 

[AM9]

I remember waiting until after 6pm to make phone calls when they were charged at a far cheaper rate.

In my earliest years, the local exchange was Hainault, the last London exchange to be manually switched with operator connected calls. This had the benefit that the 3 minutes limit didn't exist on local* calls. When in 1965 the exchange was replaced with a normal automatic one, (as the 01-500-nnnn series), we all had to get used to the 3 minute limit. A few years later, I moved to Chelmsford and then Colchester, where 'a', 'b' & 'c' std rates became significant, calls were much more 'measured'!

* - For those not familiar with the phone network 60 years ago, London, (and to a lesser degree, the metropolitan areas of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle) so-called 'Director' exchange equipment meant local exchanges had a three figure number followed by a four figure line number. Calls within the greater director areas all incurred local charges, which in London's case could mean 20+ mile distances reduced drastically the number of expensive STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialled) calls.​

 

[Killingworth]

In my earliest years, the local exchange was Hainault, the last London exchange to be manually switched with operator connected calls. This had the benefit that the 3 minutes limit didn't exist on local* calls. When in 1965 the exchange was replaced with a normal automatic one, (as the 01-500-nnnn series), we all had to get used to the 3 minute limit. A few years later, I moved to Chelmsford and then Colchester, where 'a', 'b' & 'c' std rates became significant, calls were much more 'measured'!

* - For those not familiar with the phone network 60 years ago, London, (and to a lesser degree, the metropolitan areas of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle) so-called 'Director' exchange equipment meant local exchanges had a three figure number followed by a four figure line number. Calls within the greater director areas all incurred local charges, which in London's case could mean 20+ mile distances reduced drastically the number of expensive STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialled) calls.​

Aa late as 1969/70 the office where I worked in Kendal had one telephone, Kendal 64. One of the last manual switchboards installed in Britain about 1938/9. We became 20064 when STD came in. Prior to that switch it was all but impossible to get a new line installed in the area around Kendal.