Def by Elf and Safety

Now here's another shot taken from the pastures archive,,, and just think on,,, this was taken well before people could press a few buttons and turn the picture into whatever they wanted.

This apparently is the Gee family,,, you met Cec last week warming up for the sychronised signalling.
Happy bunch aren't they,,, the one up the tree is Cec's father,,, Bill Gee and he is proving that this shot obviously isn't staged as the watch chain is hanging correctly for the position he is in,,, now thats clever,,, the lady 3rd from the left is Bun Gee,, and that is Cec's twin sister,,, she went on to become a time and motion expert which probably answers why her hair style doubles as a crash helmet,,, now I'm guessing here that Cec is the young chap in the front row leaning on Grandads left knee wearing the kilt & junior bowler,,, it's the stance that gives you away Cec,,, you obviously had it from a very early age.
The youngster in the white wrap is Cec's younger sister Joy,, and she went on to become a test rider for Brough motorcycles which probably explains why she has a pair of goggles sewn into her wooly-at.

I could get hooked on trawling through the pastures archive,,,, and I can do it in the warm as well,,, April the 26th it is and it snowed today!!!!
Oh Joy.
Shed Time,,,, very little,,, well apart from the local mariners turning up and decimating the teabag store,,, we didn't do one jot of modelling,,, it was one of those passing constructive comments and serious tea slurping sessions, sometimes it just happens.

What has all this got to do with Elf and Safety you are thinking to yourselves,,, well cop a load of this one,,,
"When I nod my ed,, you it it".

Now I know I have mentioned it before but I have a few ancestors that did actually "werk darn't pit",,, [in the Nottinghamshire area actually,,, but I'm on a bit of a roll],,, I never met them they had all long gone before I came along and I'd just like to say looking at this picture I can see why!!!!
How these guy's kept so cheerful and perhaps even retained their sanity I will never know,,,, "Aye,, where's there's muck there's brass",,, but in my opinion you need serious gonads to get involved with anything like this,,, unbeliveable,,, I don't care how much they got paid,,, I could not do it,,, terror would be understating.

Pastures Formation Signalling Team

Here's one from the pastures archive,,,, the Main Box 1928 formation signalling team.
It's pretty obvious that the trainee has not yet mastered the art of pulling off before assuming the position but it say's on the back of the photo in pencil,, "silver plate runners up 1928. Cecil Gee far right left to become a trainee flower arranger" and I can see why.
Right decision Cec,,, really.

If you sniff the original photo you can still smell the Capstan full strength and that wonderfully aromatic mix of 1 part Camp Coffee 1 part moth balls & 1 part Cherry Blossom,,, oh happy days.

It's surprising what you can find on a quiet Saturday night whilst trawling through the pastures archive and as if to prove the point just look at this little blast from the past.

I am assuming this was taken during the war as all of them have painted their toe caps white so they can be seen at night,,, and a finer set of jaunty caps I have yet to come across.
What is it about railwaymen and small terriers,, I have no idea.
But what a charismatic bunch,,, and I'm sure its fair to assume the chap far right middle row is either wearing his younger brothers trousers or perhaps his braces,, but he is understandably proud of his new watch chain.

I remember going on a trip round the Sheffield Midland south signal box as a teenager,, the atmosphere was something I will never forget,,, warm,, damp,, stale cigarette smoke,,,and a permanent background hum of DC signalling boxes with frequent bursts of bells,,, the bells the bells,,, some things just never leave you.

What is the point of this entry,,, their isn't one really,,, the lunatic lantern is throwing out copious quantities of Saturday night drivel,,, it's too cold to set up camp in't shed and so I thought I'd have a quick blog and perhaps drop in the current rant,,, why is the BBC1 TV turning the early morning news into Blue Peter,, talk about dumming down,,, oh jolly jolly,,, lets sit on the sofa and have an early morning party.

Grow Up,, Wise Up,, Pack Up and just give us the bloomin news.
What really gets me is I have to pay a license fee for this rubbish.
Even if I turn it off I have to pay the fee,,, come the revolution brothers that bunch of know it all's will be the first onto the transport headed east!!!.

Kids these days know nowt.

Things that go CLUNK in the van!!!!!

Ha Ha the joys of exhibiting!!!
So there we were on our journey "sarf of the river"  to Crawley exhibition.
We had made excellent time,,, had somehow missed the notorious Friday afternoon Dartford Crossing mayhem,,, had time to stop for a quick meal at the wonderfully appropriate Clacket Lane services and were cruising the last 20 minutes or so to our final destination when suddenly from the rear of the van that noise that all exhibitors dread,,, CLUNK,,, [muttered breaths,,,,,, oh dear whatever was that!!!]
We pulled into the next layby and opened the rear doors with some trepidation,,,mmmm,,,, not a pretty sight,,,, one of the stacking boxes had decided it was bored sitting on top of it's counterparts and had decided to jump off and go gliding down the layout,,,, and as gravity has no brakes it managed to demolish the:
water tower
3 working yard lamps
1 platelayers hut
2 point levers
on it's 2 second journey down the van.
Now that should not have happened,,, but it did,,, and it's the first time in nearly 10 years of exhibiting.
Picking up the pieces on arrival at Crawley it suddenly dawned on me that the box on top of the stack was the heaviest,,, the other 3 had buildings in them,,,, 5% plasticard and 95% fresh air,,, the top box had the servicing kit,,, and the mains operated minidrill in its sturdy Germanic packing case.

Would Mr Murphy step forward for yet another award.

Not a good idea putting the heaviest box on top SAD,,, but it could have been so much worse,,, now I am also seriously considering we were receiving some assistance from "divine intervention".

 
Meet Neville,,, one of our two new operators,,, he is our very own "Hand of God",,, and a very useful fellow to have around when things go bump in the van,,, stop unexpectedly,,,, come off the rails,,, or simply just go wrong.
We started earlier than normal on the Saturday morning and the first task was to glue the remains of the water tower together,,,,if you look closely at the first pic it is a bit like Ernie's wig,,, you can just see the joint.

Anyway sincere thanks to Alan,, Neville and Roger,, the merry band of emergency gluers,,, rebenders,,, and weatherers who managed to jigsaw it all back into place in time for the arrival of the great unwashed at 10am

As usual I think we enjoyed ourselves as much as the public did and apart from the obvious the pastures ran pretty well all weekend.

Divine intervention????? don't know how but we managed to come away with an award as well!!!
Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!!!!

The next one is in July,,,, so watch this space.