What made you feel good today

[picsfor]

I believe i read somewhere that WD40 was involved 

Whilst I accept what you're saying about condensation Jonathan - trains are designed for this.
Hang on - British trains are designed for this. Eurostar's are of a French design - so we can still blame the French.

What i find most worrying is the total loss of power to all of the trains auxilliary functions such as air con, heating, comms etc. Followed up by the appalling customer care service.
This is not a new tunnel. It is not even a new tunnel system (Mersey Rail have been operating a similar system since 1978).

There is more to this than we have been told so far (or will ever be told).

[Hinfrance]

The French news was very forthcoming with details about the problem - totally unlike the Greenpeace Broadcasting Corporation's coverage.

The explanation was as follows:

Short version: The wrong kind of snow
Long version: Running the trains through the snowstorms in Normandy, which were very powdery, forced snow through the vents and onto the hardware inside. The trains were designed to run frozen up and did so until they entered the tunnel when the now quite large amounts of snow melted quickly and shorted most of the systems out. All together 7 locomotives failed in the tunnel.

The fix apparently involves preventing powdery snow from getting into the works, so might involve gaffer tape.

Whatever the cause, there was no excuse for the rubbish customer service after the event.

[picsfor]

Ahhh - the powdery snow.
Last time i heard that was when the Class 90's that Jim no longer uses were new - and the new electrified service from Bedford - St Pancras started.
Seem to remember the last batch of British built diesels also suffered a bit as well.

The solution has been around for many years and is fitted to all of the older trains (surprise surprise).
The ventilation on the sides of the vehicles are fitted with louvred slats instead of 'fixed' slats.
That way they can be altered to point in a trailing direction so snow and rain do not get into the hardware very much if at all - and certainly not enough to cause problems.
The other option was to fit horizontal slats with an opening pointing down (which i believe was the fix on the Bed-Pan trains).

However you look at it, this is a well documented problem with well established solutions, some going back to the 1950's!

[ABERS]

They should bring back Will Hay to get things up and running, they never had those problems! 

[Jonathan]

Nobody can do it like a steam train..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLOylpN0RD8

[ABERS]

Eurostar eat your heart out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBMHU1BJXCw

[Graham]

 Oh good. I've been waiting for an opportunity to link to this
         I believe it's one of those "Viral" advert things encouraging European kids to take up engineering.
                         http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/kids-mess-with-railways-p1.php
                                        Graham.

[picsfor]

Oh good. I've been waiting for an opportunity to link to this
         I believe it's one of those "Viral" advert things encouraging European kids to take up engineering.
                         http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/kids-mess-with-railways-p1.php
                                        Graham.

Yes that is a good one. Saw it when they were rebuilding Rugby. Some one suggested it was gonna be the new flyover 

[greypoint]

The rain has melted the overnight snow and the temperature is above freezing - don't even mind having to go back to work for the next two days now

[Sarasocke]

We have a dog transport on its way from Romania - another 53 dogs on their way to a better life !
They should arrive here around 7.30pm.
I know it's not the solution to the stray dog problem - we're working on that one But in the meantime at least some of those already there can be helped.

[irv_b]

Today is the first day that me, my wife and one of my sons have all been able to function properly since xmas eve, when we all came down with a very heavy cold bug so bad, we didn't eat till 9 ish xmas day. There is still tons of alcohol and food left in the house (well till tomorrow, when we have family coming round)
Hope everyone had a good one

[Eileen]

I just watched an episode of 'Are you being served?'. First time I've seen it in years, and it's still very funny. A real classic. 
Hope you're fully recovered now Irv and enjoying the new year celebrations. 

[wendoureecat]

Finding out that our bushfire survival plan worked. Our brave CFA volunteers were fighting a bushfire not 100 metres from our home last night but we were packed up with all three cats within five minutes waiting to be evacuated. The wind changed to our direction just as the rain came down so even though our new years plans were changed we had a brilliant new year being safe. Happy New Year to those still to celebrate it.

[Oldboy]

Today is the first day that me, my wife and one of my sons have all been able to function properly since xmas eve, when we all came down with a very heavy cold bug so bad, we didn't eat till 9 ish xmas day. There is still tons of alcohol and food left in the house (well till tomorrow, when we have family coming round)
Hope everyone had a good one

Sorry to hear that irv_b and hope you and yours are now better. 

[Oldboy]

I just watched an episode of 'Are you being served?'. First time I've seen it in years, and it's still very funny. A real classic. 
Hope you're fully recovered now Irv and enjoying the new year celebrations. 

Fully agree about, 'Are you been served', still a great comedy and performances by all. To-nights episode was very funny.