Atomic Systems

Once again I have heard an announcer talking about “The coldest in living memory” One has to ask “whose memory?”
A river or canal freezing is not a rare experience. In my boyhood living in the Midlands the Trent and Mersey canal near us froze over for one or more times almost every winter, becoming a popular skating rink and playground.
My memory is a lot longer than yours, but even our children remember the winter when we were living in Reading and the Thames, a not inconsiderable river in size, was frozen over completely. We have photographs of the family in the middle of the river.
Those of us who were there at the time will not forget the great freeze of 1963. It started at Christmas and continued through to March.
See, for example http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/wind ... eze63.html

nor 1947
http://www.dandantheweatherman.com/Bere ... er1947.htm

and 1940 was equally bad - and with a war going on, one even harder to bear- but we kept going, unlike today's weaklings

Tony (the old one)

Tonysmedley wrote:Those of us who were there at the time will not forget the great freeze of 1963. It started at Christmas and continued through to March.
Tony (the old one)

I remember it well, athough I was only a sprog at the time
I seem to recall that there was still some snow on the ground at Easter!
Even the water in our Loo (we did have an inside one! ) froze.

"Eeee, them wurt days"

Those of us who were there at the time will not forget the great freeze of 1963. It started at Christmas and continued through to March.

There in lies your answer - can you remember it being this cold at the end of Nov?

Hi
Well we all had a splendid walk this afternoon ..... the boys love the snow.













Unfortunately I've just been informed that our UNISON Branch retirees Christmas Lunch has been canceled , because some are not keen to travel on friday..... so they are obviously not as hardy as Tony.

Cheers
Jon

Lovely stuff Jon, looks like a Winter wonderland!

phat2003uk wrote:Lovely stuff Jon, looks like a Winter wonderland!

Thanks Richard.
It looks like the Lincoln Christmas Market will finally look like the posters ..... the first time in living memory...

Are there any steam/Diesel specials this year ?

Cheers
Jon

Very nice photos there Jon
Glad to see you've still got both dogs
Kind regards Stephen
Ps On the subject of cold houses ...We lived in a two up two down terraced house with an outside loo and no bathroom
We had a galvanised bath that was kept on the air raid shelter that doubled up for a coal store
Sunday evening the bath was brought in front of the fire and my late father would bath me and my late twin brother whilst listening to Sing Something Simple on the radio

I cannot specifically remember it being this cold at the end of November ( age does affect me) but there have been instances of very cold periods at the beginning of November. Just don't ask me when.

jbilton wrote:

phat2003uk wrote:Lovely stuff Jon, looks like a Winter wonderland!

Thanks Richard.
It looks like the Lincoln Christmas Market will finally look like the posters ..... the first time in living memory...

Are there any steam/Diesel specials this year ?

Cheers
Jon

Unfortunately I've heard that the market has been cancelled due to safety concerns regarding the snow . As a result, most if not all tours seem to be cancelled which were destined for Lincoln.

phat2003uk wrote:Unfortunately I've heard that the market has been cancelled due to safety concerns regarding the snow . As a result, most if not all tours seem to be cancelled which were destined for Lincoln.

jbilton wrote: Unfortunately I've just been informed that our UNISON Branch retirees Christmas Lunch has been canceled , because some are not keen to travel on friday..... so they are obviously not as hardy as Tony.
Cheers
Jon

Well, everything's getting cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions: even music concerts are cancelled, lots of activities (e.g. Dance, Zumba, pantos) are cancelled, and even the schools, collages, some leisure centres and council places were closed. So at the moment, we'll probably have to stick together and cope with adverse weather for now (At least where I live it's not as bad as the East Coast, but.)

Please do check the weather as much as you can.

phat2003uk wrote:
Unfortunately I've heard that the market has been cancelled due to safety concerns regarding the snow . As a result, most if not all tours seem to be cancelled which were destined for Lincoln.

Hi Richard
Yes your right.... my wife just said the same.
Now thats going to cost the council (Tax payers) some money.

Cheers
Jon

I'm still wondering what all the fuss is about - woke up to hear the local news saying "don't travel unless absolutely neccessary" and looked out to find it was a lot better than yesterday.

Starting to think we've got our own little micro-climate and that once the rest of the country is snow free that we're going to get a load and look incredibly stupid.

gswindale wrote:I'm still wondering what all the fuss is about - woke up to hear the local news saying "don't travel unless absolutely neccessary" and looked out to find it was a lot better than yesterday.

Starting to think we've got our own little micro-climate and that once the rest of the country is snow free that we're going to get a load and look incredibly stupid.

No snow here either Geoffrey? Hang on a minute

"Nah nah na nah na!" How childish!!! BUT do Google Brass Monkeys.

You know they say the sun always shines on the righteous? Guess they must have missed the fact I'm here then!

Just three thoughts...

Love the shots of your hounds Jon... what are they? better than the shots on the pets thread!

Secondly perhaps those who keep commenting that "this doesn't happen in Sweden, Canada, Norway, greenland etc.etc. ....might like to consider that their news stories might be about how they've achieved something DESPITE the weather rather than start bleating "OMG the worlds ending because we haven't invested twice the national debt in snow clearance." One idiot on the BBC tonight confided with the public that NOWHERE else in the Western World had third rail railway systems and that we ONLY had them because they were cheap!!!!! HELLO!!!! HELLLOOOO!!!! Well I've been to Boston and New York which regularly have much worse weather and GUESS WHAT TYPES OF RAILROAD SYSTEM THEY HAVE. If many of you made such an incompetent call at work you'd be on a disciplinary!!!

Thirdly and MUCH MORE SERIOUSLY.

Instead of asking people to "send in your pretty pictures of the snow" ...how about the more "grown up suggestion" of IF you've any neighbours who are frail, sick, disabled, elderly or living on their own... DO give them a knock and ask if they're OK and if you can do anything to help. Not a bad idea anytime but sub zero temperatures during soaring fuel prices and so wide spread so early are a bit more significant than "Oh Gosh LOOK at the LOVELY pictures people have sent in that we can use for nothing (instead of paying a standard transmission fee)".

A GOG? YES! FULLY paid up!

Yes it is pretty! ....but what's sad is we've lost the ability for lateral thinking, contingency planning and the need for community care?

BTW anyone signing up for the next global warming conference might like to send that money to Help the Aged and Children in Need instead? Oh but wait there's no money in that for you is there?

Geoff

Hi

Thanks Stephen and Geoff.
They are Irish Wolf Hounds..... and the Older one, Alfie, walks better now he's on tablets.
In fact on Tuesday, when it was a bit windy/ snowy.... a couple of times he actually ran around a bit.
The younger one Dillon, wants to go out every ten mins.... to check to see if the snow has gone..

I agree, not sure whats going on..... with a third of Trains canceled.
Do the private companies make money in compensation ?

I've just fetched my son from work and taken my wife to work.... roads are fine round Lincoln.... so have no idea why the Council canceled the Market.
Apparently it was a joint decision with the emergency services ..... well they benefit in not having to pay overtime .... so they would cancel every year given the choice.

I should also add that we had no post yesterday either .... but no idea why.
We had Post on Tuesday when it was snowing hard...


Cheers
Jon

Quite deep snow here in urban Surrey - my college is closed and even then I wouldnt have been able to get here - the joy of 3rd rail means the trains are crippled.