isitafox

To continue the useless train rant, I'm working currently, train sat in sidings waiting to go, shunter asks if I can clear signal towards sidings for shunt move so I tell him when the train that's there has departed as I've cleared the route for it. Train departs, shunter starts radioing again asking for signal so I ignore him and pull the signal for the shunt move as previously agreed. Shunter then radios AGAIN asking if the signal is for him and his shunt move, I somehow resist calling him a bellend. f**king morons....

The strikes are hitting me hard and it's wank. On one hand there was good reason for them, NWR have always had a clause in contracts that they couldn't just sack maintenance staff as the RMT always push to make sure that is included in any negotiations. Currently they want to get rid of thousands of track workers which on one hand could work in favour of those who are almost ready to retire and would take an early payout package but the issue is the fact that instead of replacing them they want to delegate their work to the staff that are leftover and also use trains to do certain jobs like assess the condition of the track instead of people. To the general public this might sound like progress but to us on the railway it is a terrible idea, the majority of the rail network is patrolled weekly (though bosses have even tried cutting that back) and trains can only identify certain issues meaning the potential of life threatening accidents would shoot up considerably. The wage deal is just a normal negotiation done every two or three years but since we came under the governments control we got hit with the same pay freeze as civil servants and the NHS. This is the bit that doesn't make sense as whilst NWR is partially funded by the government it is also paid for by lots of private firms who run railways in different countries, they are taking record profits every year, spending that money elsewhere and then trying to say there is no money to fund a pay rise which is absolute bollocks. The thing that is starting to piss people off is the RMT have their own agenda, we were offered 8% over two years last month (not amazing but in the current climate still alright) along with the no compulsory redundancy deal RMT wanted but as they knew us members would probably take the deal they flat refused it without even consulting us. We're now stuck with having to strike when we could have had it all sorted and losing money which we'll struggle to recuperate even with a pay rise. That and the fact that the planned strike dates have hit half the staff harder than the others, if we were still atriking this week it would be the 5th and 6th for me when some have only had 1 or 2. Be interesting next month as our strike vote runs out so will have to be retaken and I'm not sure people will say yes this time round..... In addition to this NWR f**ked us over by paying us the original strike days "by mistake" and going on to take the money from this months wage along with another two days strike pay to back us into a corner.

Nope, we use Cyclesolutions and you can literally order anything off their website up to £1000 per year and they'll price match everything

Works cyclescheme wins again, after bagging a pair of Pro 4 hubs for around £150 (can't remember exactly) I've just bit the bullet and ordered some forks for my Big Dog. Ideally wanted some Revelations but there was no stock at the store we use so gone with a set of Domains which after a price match and tax adjustment work out at £220!

Met Martyn Ashton, that is all.

Huge thread bump but I couldn't think of a better place to post. Went to a Speakers From The Edge talk tonight in Buxton to hear about Martyn's career and life after his accident. Was a lot I never knew about him but what an absolute legend, even met him afterwards and had a quick chat. He remembered the book we sent and said he keeps it on a shelf in his living room. One hero I'm quite happy to have met!

Ended up ordering a ryobi driver. Pulled apart my other two ryobi's, one is properly dead but the other was just crusty and manky on the motor so cleaned up and fingers crossed the battery will charge with the new charger and I'll have two working drills again.

Was gonna go Ryobi one as that's what my old one was but the first drill I linked has the same kind of interchangeable battery setup (I think most have gone that way since Ryobi) and the price of Ryobi stuff seems to have shot up a lot from what it used to be

Just to clarify this isn't it the thread for all the bellends of the forum over the last few years! My cordless drill has finally shit the bed so I'm in the market for a replacement but I'm obviously a cheapskate and it's mainly DIY use so want to spend as little as possible. Currently looking at either a refurb set from Screwfix https://www.screwfix.com/p/refurb-erbauer-eid18-li-ecd18-li-2-18v-2-0ah-li-ion-ext-brushless-cordless-twin-pack/916xr or this budget set brand new https://www.toolstation.com/bauker-18v-cordless-combi-drill-impact-driver-twin-pack/p64416?store=NR&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dm&pcrid=560268661338&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CjwKCAjwur-SBhB6EiwA5sKtjhFjnP-0WUSKnPbeBs8ol0dcWXY8x9j70LZRsewgEO_FEn-7BjdxsRoCvswQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds if anyone has any advice?

I'm actually gonna leave his post in for comedy and "shit I'm old now" reasons

After having Habs Rey and Steve Peat previously, Buxton Opera House have got Martyn in for one of their Speakers from the Edge talks and I wondered if anyone on here was going? Already asked one of the trials groups on FB but no replies so far, the Hans Rey talk was great and I'm really looking forward to this one!

Wow just seen Inspired's post on Facebook. Good luck with the future bud, I'm sure whatever you end up doing to keep the bills paid will be a success! Seems weird as I've not ordered anything major for a while and any time I think of Tarty I still think of the old crew of Gav, Stan, Cap, Mark, Kenny and Ali's legendary bombproof wheel builds! I can now allow the changing of your username on here, long may it confuse the hell out of me

Yeah 15 stone swinging around isn't exactly a confidence builder on those

Late update but went to look at above car and it was a nail. Needed a respray and the interior was rank.....

After waiting weeks for the weather to pick up and work to ease so I had a few days available I finally got my pull-up bar up and the door fitted in the back of the garage which makes me happy. What doesn't make me happy is we had a new boiler fitted end of last week and I got a message off the wife first thing to say the heating hadn't come on, got home to find the pressure at zero. Refilled the system but got to keep an eye on it now. If there's a leak it can only be somewhere downstairs under the floorboards but could just be air in the system somewhere still f**king it up as the pipework in this house is a joke......

Change of plan now anyway, missus says it looks too boy racerish for her to use for work, personally I think it looks tidy

More cheap to run/service/not tempt me to mod

Well was looking C1/107/Aygo as a friend races the Citroëns but seen the Seat above for £800 more and it's just generally a lot nicer

After a cheap motor as the cambelt went on mine the other day and considering going cat c/n as it's not something we'd be planning to move on anytime soon so wondered what people would consider about this? Baring in mind this was done when the car had covered 8500 miles and now it is currently at 40k and has a pretty clean MOT history ever since being put back on the road (just tyres really!)

Just ordered a couple of 4" fence posts for my pull-up bar but not sure about the sellers logic. Single posts £38 each or a pack of two for £96....... Obviously bought two single posts

Definitely adulting hard when you spend birthday and Christmas vouchers on tools to attack the garden with!

I think that's just rigid/hardtail 29ers in general. Took mine over Jacob's Ladder last summer and I couldn't believe how easy it was riding up compared to the last time on a 27.5 full suspension. Considering I hadn't ridden in ages I went bottom to top without stopping, just sailed up!

Just watched Ali, looking forward to seeing how they hold up to some proper street rides

Believe me I've been fighting the need to buy a jump bike for a few months now. When I get the garage sorted my first job will be knocking together something from spares which will then be subject to a few sneaky upgrades when the wife is at work

New pump track just opened nearby in Eyam (the plague village!), dying for the weather to dry up so I can take the kids for a play but it's given heavy rain all weekend. Hopefully squeeze an hour or two in on the Adamant there one day next week when the kids are at school.