A phone call I'd never want to make...

I really wouldn't have liked to have been the driver explaining this to his depot manager... Easily done though.

We have the technology...

We have all seen in stark clarity one of the worst rail disasters of the modern age. Quite how something so terrible could happen despite the technology and fail safe systems available to us today, is frankly incredible and does fill me with a sense of anger and frustration.
There can be no doubt that the tragedy was caused by excessive speed. You don't need to be a rail industry expert to see that something travelling so fast around so tight a bend will try to leave its tracks. After all, the only thing holding the train to the track is gravity - nothing else. I know, as does many a youngster, how easy it is to crash a model train on a tight bend. Go too fast and off it comes, and it did often, much to the frustration of my father who would have to put the train back on the track each time.
Something clearly went seriously wrong. Why did the safety systems fail and how was it possible for a driver with, so it is claimed, so much experience to drive his train at such speed into a bend that already had gained notoriety for its extreme curvature?
It would be so easy to fit a system that automatically reduced the train speed in time for the bend, overriding the regulator, until it was safe for the driver to resume control. This technology exists - and it is used. We only have to look at our own driver-less Docklands Light Railway to know that it works - and has done very well for many years. A roller coaster has this technology fitted by standard. I find tragedies like this, and the needless loss of life, harder to accept as it would have been so easy to prevent the train from going too fast.
As with all tragedies, we need to learn lessons from them and this is no exception. But in my mind, the lesson is a simple one, and that's simply to use the technology we have.

Peterborough Bus Rally

Last Sunday the 14th saw us at the Peterborough Bus Rally held at Sacrewell Farm. The weather was perfect unlike last year when the field was flooded due to the incessant rain. There were a good mix of vehicles on display this year though notable by their absence were Leyland Nationals though there was one Olympian in the form of Stagecoach's MegaDecker stretched wheelbase vehicle which ran the shuttle to and from Peterborough Queensgate. Stagecoach also had their Bristol Lodekka's running trips to and from Wandsford Station and these were a real joy to ride. From their modern stock, Stagecoach had two of their ADL Trident Enviro 400's on show with Lincolnshire Roadcar livery. One ran the trip to and from Wandsford and I have to say it was the most uncomfortable ride that day. Despite its relatively young age, there was no air conditioning and the bus was a greenhouse on wheels - literally - given its panorama top deck windscreen!

I'm already looking forward to next year when I hope to enter our own E213 WBG NC Leyland Olympian, assuming we get her roadworthy.

A few photos from the event...

Thoughts on Last Week

Last week was for me pretty amazing. At the beginning of the week, during one of our group sessions, a member of the group asked if I could spare ten minutes and drove me off to a remote part of Spalding. I had absolutely no idea where I was being taken or for what purpose other than the fact that I was going to be shown something incredible. We pulled into a yard which consisted of a couple of barns, a stable and some stacks of farm pallets. I was led between the pallets and there looking rather sorry for itself and a little weather beaten was a double decker bus - a Leyland Olympian to be exact - as I know my buses. I was shown around the bus and I was told that the bus belonged to our group member and friend and that he wanted to donate it to the group and he wanted me to look after it and get it back on the road. Well, it has been some time since I was really shocked and lost for words but on this occasion, I was absolutely dumbfounded. When I think of how long I have wanted a bus to work on, to restore and to get back on the road, and a person we have helped through our support group has in effect given us a bus - just like that - to be honest I must have experienced some of the feelings and emotions that occur when the lottery jackpot is won. Just looking round the bus, I could see its potential straight away. OK it needs some TLC and the paintwork (adhesive vinyl) needs to be removed. I was told the inside has been completed to a very high standard and was used as an exhibition and training vehicle. I was keen to see the inside, but our friend hadn't brought the keys with him but promised he would do so on Thursday when we would next meet.
I couldn't wait, and the bus was on my mind constantly until Thursday afternoon, when after our group meeting, he took myself and our group treasurer to see the bus again - and this time he had brought the keys.

Stepping inside was like entering the Tardis. In fact, once inside you wouldn't know you were in a bus for the quality of the fittings and workmanship is nothing short of excellent. Everything has been thought of and provided right down to a kitchen area complete with fridge, sink, storage, toilet and numerous power points all round. Upstairs is fitted to a class room standard complete with work benches all round and power points for multiple laptops. There is air conditioning upstairs and down and an emergency hatch built in to the floor, ideal for getting equipment to the upper deck. In the front of the bus on the top deck, there is a small office big enough to seat two people with desk space and room for filing and storage.

Every section of the bus is separated by a fire door with a round window and roller blind - for they've thought of everything.
The bus is equipped with its own fresh water supply courtesy of an on-board water tank expertly hidden under the staircase and it has its own diesel generator hidden in the front of the bus where the entrance would normally be - capable of running two average sized homes. There is even a disabled lift to bring wheelchair users on to the bus and an awning for those hot summer days.
Again, I was dumbstruck but this time I became quite emotional as I found it impossible to express my feelings in words. Our treasurer who had accompanied me was also quite emotional and knowing how much I have longed for my own bus, she too had a sense of how I was feeling. I really was thinking that I would wake at any moment from one of my Utopian dreams and that it would all have been a fantasy.
As reality began to sink in, it was obvious that the bus could be used for a variety of different projects and could even earn us some money if we were able to get it to a state whereby it could be hired out.
We left the bus feeling a little numb, the sort of feeling you get when you step off a fast fairground ride. Before we left, I was given the key to the bus. I was told that I should make a copy and that from this day forward, I would be responsible for the bus, all works undertaken and its primary driver.
We bid a more than grateful farewell to our friend and drove home, still in shock and unable to fully comprehend what we had just seen and heard.
Since Thursday, the bus has been on my mind and the enormity of the project has me wondering just how on earth we will do everything that's needed to get her on the road again. I did yesterday take my wife and son to see the bus. My son now has a real bus to play with in the Summer Holiday and my wife has just been very quiet. Today we attended the Peterborough Bus Rally and seeing all the buses there, each of them an individual restoration project, has made me all the more determined to see our bus on the road, repainted and looking like new. I have set myself a goal of getting the bus ready for next year's rally when I will be entering it. I have longed for the day when I would be able to drive my own bus to a rally and exhibit it and events have always got in the way or made it simply impossible. Perhaps now, it can be a reality.
I have set up a new blog for everything bus-related. Here you can follow my progress in getting the bus fully restored and back on the road. You can find it at http://ourbusproject.blogspot.com

Last week was also significant due to a visit to our group by Charles Cooke of Lincolnshire CDA, and fellow Shine Ambassador. Charles was interested in finding out all he could about the group and we discussed a variety of different topics including funding, a possible gardening project and potential sponsors for our bus project. We were grateful to Charles for his time.

A committee meeting for the Ivo Centre, where we hold our group meetings, was held Wednesday evening and this was an excellent opportunity to network and to discuss a broad range of issues with other committee members. There are some exciting plans for the building, which if they materialise, could turn the place from a 'day centre' to a training and resource centre.
It was also very nice to be thanked by the Chairman and other committee members for the AV system we have installed for the use of everyone. I felt really proud for having set out to achieve something, achieving it and for being able to give something back.

It was certainly a week I won't forget...

It'll Never Catch on

How extraordinary it is to think that one person invented the computer mouse. Something that is so commonplace in work, schools and homes and something we take so much for granted. Yet the computer mouse hasn't been around for that long. I remember with fondness joining Churchill Insurance in 1989 and working my way into the IT department. There were certainly computers then and Churchill pioneered the use of IT back then which drives much of UK industry today. The computers back then were all text based, running UNIX and what we now refer to as 'green screen' terminals.
I recall one particular day when we were all asked to attend an IT department meeting. We were told that some people from a company called 'Microsoft' were visiting to showcase a new computer system they were calling 'Windows'. I think we saw it as yet another company trying to jump on the Churchill bandwagon, given that Churchill was at that time the UK's fastest growing company.

I remember a projector and a computer set up in a meeting room and the now familiar Windows desktop. On the desk was a standard looking keyboard and another device attached to the computer by a long thin cable. We were shown by the very excited representatives of Microsoft how the pointer on the screen responded to movements of the device on the desk. They called it a 'mouse' and it became clear why given its appearance. They demonstrated how programs were executed by double clicking an icon on the desktop and how it was possible to grab an item and move it to a desired location. Dropping an item in the recycle bin caused the computer to make a paper scrunching sound. The people demonstrating the system were clearly very excited by it, but were we? Well the answer is no. In fact our head of IT at the time stated to his assembled team that 'it'll never catch on'. We all agreed and so things remained the same for a couple more months.

Then slowly, things began to change. Managers began to have their computers replaced. One by one, computers running the Windows 3.1 operating system by Microsoft began appearing all over the company. Someone had clearly been impressed by what they had seen, though it is more likely that our biggest rival Direct Line, just down the road in Croydon, had begun installing them. The preference throughout my time there was to wait for Direct Line to do something, give it a few months to make sure it didn't flop, then do it ourselves, only ten times better.
Excel seemed to be the favorite application at the time though it didn't take long before staff had found Solitaire. The star field screensaver was also popular as was the Marquee screensaver which allowed staff to type their own message to scroll across the screen whenever they left their desks, messages such as 'Mel's Computer', 'Back in 5 minutes' and 'Don't even think about it'. For those witnessing the coming of Windows, these were exciting times.
So I find myself giving thanks to Doug Englebart. For his invention changed forever the way we interact with computers. If Windows hadn't been invented by Microsoft, maybe we would never have known about the mouse, for it was really Windows that exploited its full potential and made it an essential aid to using Windows 3.1 way back then. Long may we continue to point and click.

Poorly Polly

This is my dog Polly and today she had an operation to remove a lump that had formed down below. She's still pretty sedated and has refused to eat anything since returning home. She has a small drain tube which you can just see but it isn't bothering her at the moment.
I didn't think I'd get that emotional, but saying goodbye to her as we left her with the vet was possibly one of the most painful things I have done and boy did I cry, as did my wife. I've been clock watching all day willing it to get to 3pm when we could call to find out how she was. I'm just so glad to have her home fit and well, if still a little groggy...

A Disjointed Trust

I'm a huge supporter of the NHS but I am reminded from time to time of just how disjointed the organisation really is. Working for the Trust here in Lincolnshire as a volunteer practically full time unpaid does have a tiny benefit of being able to claim expenses for travel. This doesn't amount to very much - roughly £100-150 a month. The procedure for claiming is quite straightforward and I have further refined the process by choosing to email my expenses reports. When it comes to paying however, they operate to their own timetable so reimbursement is something that cannot be relied on.
An event earlier in the month showcasing the work of the various projects fortunate enough to have been awarded funding from the Mental Illness Prevention Fund, incurred the expense of driving from here to Sutton Bridge to collect a colleague and on to Sleaford where the event was being held. We were told that instead of claiming our expenses in the usual way, we should claim from a separate fund set up to reimburse everyone who took the time and effort to attend the event.
We were all sent an expenses claim form, somewhat different in appearance to the one I am used to. I duly completed the form and posted it off to Trust HQ as requested incurring the 60p first class fee. A couple of days passed and I was called today querying the fact that the mileage total worked out by their people was different to the total I was claiming for. Also, the fact that I had carried a passenger for 70% of the journey had no bearing on the total whereas I had claimed for 20p per mile rather than the 40p per mile standard rate. This is normal for my volunteering role and something I've never had a problem with. I was told that there is no provision for reimbursing passenger mileage. I explained that as a volunteer for the Trust, this is standard policy and that they should perhaps talk to volunteer services who clearly have their own set of rules and procedures.
It strikes me as ridiculous that within one trust there is more than one method for reimbursing personal expense. I don't however find it surprising but it does lead me to question why I bother sometimes. If only they knew of the amount of time, effort and personal expense that goes into running a group like ours, they wouldn't quibble over a couple of miles or the fact that I went out of my way to drive a passenger to THEIR event.
The NHS as a whole, despite the newspaper headlines, can do a pretty good job. Where it falls down is on things where any level of organisation is required. It is so fragmented that even departments within one trust have their own procedures and ways of doing things. This applies even to finance departments as I have found where you can be paid for doing something by one department and refused by another. Pull yourselves together or these volunteers will go somewhere else.