Boys and their toys?

A golden age of steam revisited? There never was a "golden age". Steam trains are noisly, dirty, complex, potentially dangerous, less efficient than their more modern counterparts and slower.

Despite this, there is something wonderfully nostalgic about steam trains. Imagine "Brief Encounter" set at Euston station today - You Can! You've a good imagination. No - steam trains belong in the past when it comes to running a modern, efficient, and economically viable national railway service.

But that doesn't mean they should all be confined to the dustbin. These wonderful examples of British engineering can be brought back to life, and even used in a limited capacity. That's what the East Lancashire Railway does.

A group of enthusiasts have managed to procure rolling stock and track and make them function again. Not only have they restored the trains, but also the stations, kitting them out in former livery whilst maintaining modern safety standars.

Their attention to detail is fantastic, and it's hard to imagine the backroom sweat and blood that goes into making these fine behemoths function again. (When their museum re-opens, maybe I'll find out)

All the personnel involved with the railway are volunteers, and I can believe that their uphill battles with beurocracy must have at times made them wonder "What are we doing this for". Yet eventually, even the paper pushers whose primary objective in life is to maintain the status quo, have come to realise that the East Lancashire Railway have accomplished something wonderful and that now, instead of standing in their way, they give assistance.

At every stop on the line, the railway has brought about improvements. Not just that formerly decaying stations have a new lease of life, but that people can visit their area. Ramsbottom in particular is a wonderful example of a small Lancashire town that has benefitted enormously from the re-opening of their station.

So - Boys playing with trains? Maybe. But a hobby that harms no-one, brings joy to many, benefits communities. Can't be bad.

1940's Wartime Weekend

Over the (British) Bank holiday weekend of 24th to 26th May, the East Lancashire Railway runs its now annual 1940's wartime weekend. Rather than try to cram it all into this little column, there's a separate page on the subject which you can visit here.

Cruising twice in two years was great, but now it's time to look at home

Having been away for two successive years, we were wondering where to go next. As the value of the £ continues to plummet against both the $ and the € maybe it was a case of wondering if we should stay home.

The issue was more or less decided when in November of 2009, we'd both given up not wanting to scare the other by pointing out the fact that our kitchen seemed to be sinking.

There were gaps appearing between the skirting board and the floor, and the worktop seemed to be dropping in the centre. Whichever way you looked at it, this was something serious.

The house is a 1930's semi detached, with most of the floors being suspended, but the kitchen (having been extended by us when we moved in) is a mix of the original which is solid, and poorly supported suspended. The suspended extension floor was okay, aside from it bouncing too much. This was due to the inadequate beams the builder had put in. They weren't faulty, but by using smaller gauge timber, he'd kept the price down. The downside to this added bounce was that the fridge would vibrate as you walked past. It didn't matter too much, as long as the eggs in it were srored safely!

It was the solid section of the floor which was the real problem. Why was it sinking? The answer turned out to be a combination of two factors both of which centred on the outside drain.

It seems that the drain had become blocked. By itself, not the worst thing that can happen. But because the gulley didn't fit well, the blocked water had a choice of paths to take. One was to go over the path toward the garden. But what was also happening was that it was coming back through the walls, and washing away the material beneath the concrete floor. Hence the sinking.

This was going to be a major upheaval, and the first step was to contact the house insurers.

A combination of news reports, stories of enterprising homeowners who wanted to take advantage of their policies, plus an inherent belief that insurance money was primarily one way traffic (i.e. us to them) filled me with reluctance to start the process, but it was necessary.

After a series of warnings that all conversations were recorded, that fraudulent claims were being monitored and threats of everything this side of crucifixion awaited anyone seeking to profit from calling their insurer, I was told that this was a valid reason for claiming, and they would put the matter in the hands of their claims adjusters, who would start the ball rolling immediately.

Anybody looking to switch insurers would do well to ask their potential choice of insurance company if they use Enterprise plc as their loss adjusters. Certainly if they deal with the drainage side of the business. Enterprise did indeed contact me and arranged a day they would turn up. Time not given, I had to wait in all afternoon at their convenience.

Two men turned up, "Hello mate, Understand you've got a blocked drain which is causing your kitchen floor to sink". I don't know quite when I became this mans "mate", but the use of either sir, or Mr. Greenberg wouldn't have gone amiss. They did at least rod the drain. So now it was clear. "Someone else will come to repair the gulley, and camera the drain to make sure it's ok." No interest in the kitchen floor. Nor was there going to be. This was in the middle of Novemeber.

The next event was a letter from a company I had no knowledge of demanding I pay them the policy excess. The insurers said that was okay. I would have paid too, except that I received another demand the following day from Enterprise asking for the same excess. By now, I was beginning to wonder what we'd gotten ourselves into. So far, I was £160 down for two men rodding my drain, with no promise of any further work being done. They'd been on site less than 15 mins. I sent off a letter to the first company refusing to pay them, and instead sent the cheque to Enterprise.

After a couple of weeks of incativity, I called first Enterprise to ask them what was being done about the kitchen floor, (nothing, we don't know anything about it), and then to the insurers. That got me a little further. Enterprise would be back in touch to complete the drain work.

Enterprise did get back in touch. They would do the work on 22nd December, starting first thing. My definition of first thing is 6:00am, but I'll accept that others may well be nearer 8:00am. Their man turned up at 10:20 whist I was on the phone to them. He apologised claiming that he was supposed to have finished work for the year, but that his boss had rang him up instructing him to get this job done. Out of everyone I'd dealt with at Enterprise, he was the first person who'd shown the slightest trace of understanding that he was dealing with a client and not a case number. I was anxious to get to work, so I made him a coffee and left him to it. It was snowing and bitterly cold. I didn't envy him.

When I returned home, he'd finished. Sort of. My neighbour continued to look after him, and he'd explained to her that he couldn't finish off the block paving on account of the snow. So somebody would again have to come back to both finish that off, and do a camera inspection of the drain.

More calls after Christmas...