Friday 30 April 2010

Introducing "What Typo!".

Telegrammed by Billy Connections
Not a new magazine but Eye's latest, exciting, competition.

Using your skill and judgment you are invited to guess which of the two plaques below was formally unveiled today.

This one...



Or this one...


The former or the latter?

What a forgiving friend Mrs Paint-Shoppro can be...

Don't poo-poo Looby Loo

This from Thomas Crapper...

Unveiling plans for a new 'bog standard loo' for train travellers, Chris Green said ancient, dirty and inadequate toilets that hark back to the Victorian age of steam must be ripped out.

He urged Britain's 2,500 stations to install a standardised national model that is clean, efficient and available to waiting passengers.

Clearly the so-called 'station tsar' is behind the times.


This three year old photo of the formal opening of the new toilets at Welwyn Garden City shows that the Government's rail manager of choice was well ahead of the times.

UPDATE: This from S N Barnes...

I do hope that the new equipment will come with the same clear instructions, here is an fine example from the urinals which graced the facility at Stirling Station.


Of course Crapper's patent actually refers to the U bend, which forms the airtight seal to stop the smell of the sewer from coming back up the pipe.

Could we perhaps see this as a retrofit to some of the more modern on-train 'facilities' that seem to suffer from this problem?

Bulldog's book review: A century of Change

Telegrammed by Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog's flinty old heart was warmed by Mike Horne's and Jonathan Roberts' launch of their book 'A Century of Change - Britain's Railways and the Railway Study Association' at the German Gymnasium Kings Cross last night .

It is a packed hamper of a book bursting with nuggets skillfully gleaned from the RSA archives by Mike complemented by some crystal-ball gazing by Jonathan.

Bulldog, who wishes to make absolutely clear he is not in any way related to Orlando Figues, was genuinely impressed.

The Railway Study Association may be struggling a bit to make its voice heard in an industry where many bosses take a Year Zero view of the profession they have joined. In this rather dismal environment Mike and Jonathan have significantly added to RSA's credibility and produced a great read.

Make a stand, be a thinking railwayman. Go out and buy this book!