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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

This part of the thread has reminded me of an exercise undertaken in the UK by some organisation (possibly a charity) a good few years ago. They got someone to lie on the pavement on a busy main road pretending to be unconscious , in an effort to establish the extent to which motorists would stop and render assistance. The organisation was quite rightly bollocked severely for causing potential danger to the public.
 
On the subject of train drivers speeding; British trains are subject top strict speed regulations. Drivers are now complaining that 'railway enthusiasts' with radar guns are reporting trains for apparently speeding.

As the devices aren't issued or supervised by the police the information they produce isn't acceptable as evidence in any legal proceedings. The railway companies still have to waste time investigating allegations of speeding though.
 
Another little strange thing yesterday and weirdly at the very same junction where the previously reported mysteriously appearing pedestrian incident occurred. Again I was at the front of the queue at the traffic lights keeping a really good eye open for trans dimensional beings this time. Suddenly in the middle of the adjacent tarmac drive adjacent to the road I noticed there was a thin upward stream of what appeared to be smoke but could have been dense steam. It was too powerful to be a dropped ciggie or vape thingie and must have been coming through a very small fissure since it was quite forceful and there were no obvious cracks in the tarmac . There were a couple of blokes standing nearby who appeared unconcerned. Only had a chance to look for a few seconds before I had to move off but it looked quite peculiar. Only explanation that I could think of was that someone was doing some sort of smoke test on the drainage system to the house to locate a leak. Weird.
 
Another little strange thing yesterday and weirdly at the very same junction where the previously reported mysteriously appearing pedestrian incident occurred. Again I was at the front of the queue at the traffic lights keeping a really good eye open for trans dimensional beings this time. Suddenly in the middle of the adjacent tarmac drive adjacent to the road I noticed there was a thin upward stream of what appeared to be smoke but could have been dense steam. It was too powerful to be a dropped ciggie or vape thingie and must have been coming through a very small fissure since it was quite forceful and there were no obvious cracks in the tarmac . There were a couple of blokes standing nearby who appeared unconcerned. Only had a chance to look for a few seconds before I had to move off but it looked quite peculiar. Only explanation that I could think of was that someone was doing some sort of smoke test on the drainage system to the house to locate a leak. Weird.
Was it freshly-laid tarmac? Might have still been warm.
 
On the subject of train drivers speeding; British trains are subject top strict speed regulations. Drivers are now complaining that 'railway enthusiasts' with radar guns are reporting trains for apparently speeding.

As the devices aren't issued or supervised by the police the information they produce isn't acceptable as evidence in any legal proceedings. The railway companies still have to waste time investigating allegations of speeding though.

OT but I’ve spent my entire working life on the railway in the UK and have never heard of this.

Since 2001 it has been mandatory for trains to have an onboard data recorder (like most aircraft) which records, among other things, speed. Drivers are subject to regular unannounced competence monitoring using OTDR data. Most modern trains feed back live data to the Operations Control room and this invariably includes real time GPS position and train speed, so I can see exactly how fast a train is going and where it is from the comfort of my desk.

Backing this up a few companies do still use radar speed measurement using calibrated equipment - as was extensively used in the days before OTDR right back to British Rail in the 1980s - but this is dying out because it’s not cheap or, indeed, particularly effective because the first driver to pass the guys with the speed gun warns all the other drivers. Following the Ladbroke Grove crash of October 1999 equipment on the track and trains was installed nationwide to prevent overspeeding on approach to red signals or reductions in permissible linespeed.

The police take nothing to do with the enforcement of railway linespeeds or professional driving policies; it is solely a matter for the train operating companies who employ the drivers. There’s no equivalent of the Road Traffic Act for railways so it’s not a specific offence to drive a train too fast. It might be prosecutable under ROGs or other general Health and Safety legislation but it would have to be really egregious to get to that point.

I have never heard of a driver being dobbed in for speeding by ‘spunkers’ as we endearingly call them. In my years working in Operations Control we do get reports from members of the public on Twitter most days making all sorts of ludicrous overblown allegations against train drivers but these are almost always found to be false. We do occasionally get reports of trains speeding (usually over temporary or emergency speed restrictions) made by railway staff and these are always investigated thoroughly.
 
I would have thought that trains had governors as some transport trucks do.

Trains' speeds are closely monitored, as @Carse describes. I have pm'd Carse with details of my 'horse's mouth' source.

One train driver said that if he saw a radar gun being pointed at his cab he'd inform the police that someone was aiming a gun at the train!
Well, he wouldn't know what it was now, would he?
That'd put a stop to it.
 
Trains' speeds are closely monitored, as @Carse describes. I have pm'd Carse with details of my 'horse's mouth' source.

One train driver said that if he saw a radar gun being pointed at his cab he'd inform the police that someone was aiming a gun at the train!
Well, he wouldn't know what it was now, would he?
That'd put a stop to it.

Rail workers take a lot of abuse.

A rail worker thrown from a train by an angry passenger during "three weeks of hell" at work has spoken of the impact it had on his mental health.

Southeastern train manager Neil Chapman said he was close to "losing it completely" before seeking help. Increased episodes of violence and people taking their own lives have contributed to Mr Chapman's struggles. However, he has turned his life around with the help of a scheme started by the rail firm and a colleague.

Mr Chapman said Lee Woolcott-Ellis, a fellow train manager who persuaded bosses to let him set up a mental health support system, was a "genius". ...

Figures provided by Southeastern showed 2018 had the highest number of reports of violence and serious public order offences since 2007. Between 2014 and 2018 there were 3,233 reports of violence and 3,243 reports of serious public order. ...

You can see more on Inside Out South East at 19:30 GMT on BBC One (tonight), and later on BBC iPlayer

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-51283936
 
Rail workers take a lot of abuse.

A rail worker thrown from a train by an angry passenger during "three weeks of hell" at work has spoken of the impact it had on his mental health.

Southeastern train manager Neil Chapman said he was close to "losing it completely" before seeking help. Increased episodes of violence and people taking their own lives have contributed to Mr Chapman's struggles. However, he has turned his life around with the help of a scheme started by the rail firm and a colleague.

Mr Chapman said Lee Woolcott-Ellis, a fellow train manager who persuaded bosses to let him set up a mental health support system, was a "genius". ...

Figures provided by Southeastern showed 2018 had the highest number of reports of violence and serious public order offences since 2007. Between 2014 and 2018 there were 3,233 reports of violence and 3,243 reports of serious public order. ...

You can see more on Inside Out South East at 19:30 GMT on BBC One (tonight), and later on BBC iPlayer

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-51283936

Excellent, thank you for the heads-up.
 
Rail workers take a lot of abuse.

A rail worker thrown from a train by an angry passenger during "three weeks of hell" at work has spoken of the impact it had on his mental health.

Southeastern train manager Neil Chapman said he was close to "losing it completely" before seeking help. Increased episodes of violence and people taking their own lives have contributed to Mr Chapman's struggles. However, he has turned his life around with the help of a scheme started by the rail firm and a colleague.

Mr Chapman said Lee Woolcott-Ellis, a fellow train manager who persuaded bosses to let him set up a mental health support system, was a "genius". ...

Figures provided by Southeastern showed 2018 had the highest number of reports of violence and serious public order offences since 2007. Between 2014 and 2018 there were 3,233 reports of violence and 3,243 reports of serious public order. ...

You can see more on Inside Out South East at 19:30 GMT on BBC One (tonight), and later on BBC iPlayer

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-51283936
Ms PeteS has occasionally had to take rail journeys for work. Without fail there has been some drunken angry idiot causing problems.
 
Had an interesting encounter yesterday morning..

I had the day off work, so took my son to school only to forget his PE kit, which meant that at some stage within the next hour, I would have to go home, fetch the kit and return to the school to drop it off.

I had some chores to do in the village first, then went home and collected his gym bag, and drove back to the school. Once I’d dropped the bag off and walked out of the school gates, the quiet country lane in which the school is located was completely empty.

As I was walking to where I’d parked the car the sun was directly in my eyes, so I put my hand up in front of my face to shield my eyes from its glare, and saw a figure in front of me that was definitely human, but because of the brightness of the sun I could not determine any details, all could see was the persons silhouette

Whoever it was seemed to be crouching down, (I assumed tying a shoelace or perhaps cleaning up after their dog) then they stood up, turned to their right and disappeared from view.

Of course that’s fine, except they couldn’t have turned to their right, as that side of the road is covered in thick hedgerow’s and bramble bushes. I walked to where I saw the figure disappear and but couldn’t any gaps in the hedgerows and can’t see how someone could have walked through it. Besides if someone did somehow hack their way through, there would be no point as the other side is the dividing metal fence to the school.

Could have been a trick of the light of course, but it was bizarre, and definitely one for the forum.
 
Had an interesting encounter yesterday morning..

I had the day off work, so took my son to school only to forget his PE kit, which meant that at some stage within the next hour, I would have to go home, fetch the kit and return to the school to drop it off.

I had some chores to do in the village first, then went home and collected his gym bag, and drove back to the school. Once I’d dropped the bag off and walked out of the school gates, the quiet country lane in which the school is located was completely empty.

As I was walking to where I’d parked the car the sun was directly in my eyes, so I put my hand up in front of my face to shield my eyes from its glare, and saw a figure in front of me that was definitely human, but because of the brightness of the sun I could not determine any details, all could see was the persons silhouette

Whoever it was seemed to be crouching down, (I assumed tying a shoelace or perhaps cleaning up after their dog) then they stood up, turned to their right and disappeared from view.

Of course that’s fine, except they couldn’t have turned to their right, as that side of the road is covered in thick hedgerow’s and bramble bushes. I walked to where I saw the figure disappear and but couldn’t any gaps in the hedgerows and can’t see how someone could have walked through it. Besides if someone did somehow hack their way through, there would be no point as the other side is the dividing metal fence to the school.

Could have been a trick of the light of course, but it was bizarre, and definitely one for the forum.
An alien using an adaptive camouflage or cloaking technology?
 
6:30 yesterday morning took the scooter to the Station , pitch black, hard frost, mumbling protective mantras to stay upright. Two miles in on the fast bit of road I felt something very lightly brush against my right ankle - it is not unknown for me to pull on trousers with a rolled up sock in the leg that works itself out at the most awkward moment, but it wasn't that. Looked down but couldn't see anything, couldn't stop for another half mile - the petrol filler flap was missing, the locked filler flap. What the ... how ?
At first light this morning I spent an hour on foot on the narrow verge (no pavement) retracing my journey. Five L plates, two wing mirrors, a squashed badger but nothing of use - without being dramatic I spotted something half poking out of a verge drain. I found the flap, the spring hinge mechanism missing, been run over a couple of times but I can salvage something from it. But strange.
 
it is not unknown for me to pull on trousers with a rolled up sock in the leg that works itself out at the most awkward moment
I thought I was the only one who did that! Now I feel better.

the petrol filler flap was missing, the locked filler flap. What the ... how ?
Could someone pick the lock in order to siphon fuel from the tank?
 
Bad Bungle said:
it is not unknown for me to pull on trousers with a rolled up sock in the leg that works itself out at the most awkward moment

I thought I was the only one who did that! Now I feel better.

Me three.

It's happened with underpants as well.

When I mentioned on'ere doing this myself, someone told me firmly that it couldn't happen to THEM as they separate all their clothes as they take them off and either hang them up neatly or place them in the washing basket.

That certainly put ME in my place. It also gave an insight into how totally horrifying that poster found the prospect of that happening to them. ;)
 
I've just had an event that I'm not sure if it's a minor strangeness or a Mandela Effect...

Been busy moving house. Today, whilst looking for somethng (which I need this week and I am SURE I put in a significant and noticeable place but now can't find, which isn't even the strange bit), I found a ring box in a cupboard. It contained the ring that I was given to take care of, it was my paternal grandmother's engagement ring and I, as the youngest female in the line, was passed it by an aunt to pass on to my eldest daughter.

It's a gold band, my grandfather bought circa 1920 to get engaged with. Now, I would have sworn to anyone asking that it was set with rubies. Tiny little rubies set into a very tiny (won't even fit my smallest finger) gold ring. But today, when I looked in the ring box, the gold band is set with diamonds... still very small, and the whole ring is as I remember, but I was convinced it was a ruby ring.

Or maybe I'm just an idiot.
 
... It's a gold band, my grandfather bought circa 1920 to get engaged with. Now, I would have sworn to anyone asking that it was set with rubies. Tiny little rubies set into a very tiny (won't even fit my smallest finger) gold ring. But today, when I looked in the ring box, the gold band is set with diamonds... still very small, and the whole ring is as I remember, but I was convinced it was a ruby ring. ...

How familiar were you with the ring to begin with, and how long had it been since you'd examined it / really looked closely at it?
 
Something happened on Friday evening, which made me believe that I’m completely losing the plot, and that the stress of my job has finally taken its toll on my state of mind.

It can be classed as fortean though, so here goes.

In the main street that runs through my village was an old fashioned laundrette, (which I thought only existed in Albert Square :) ) but In the four years that I have lived here, I never saw anybody use the place, so it was no surprise when one day I saw a note in the window, stating that the shop was to close permanently due to lack of custom.

The shop then lay empty for some months, until one day I saw workmen taking all the old machinery away, then a few months later other workmen renovating the place, and it eventually re-opened as a hair salon.

Anyway, I’m driving home from work Friday night and I’m running low on fuel, so decide to stop at the petrol garage opposite the salon and fill up.

As I’m standing at the pump, watching the litres of petrol go in, I’m casually glancing around, and notice the salon opposite had reverted back into a laundrette. I blinked a few times to make sure I was not mistaken, but no, the place had returned to its previous business, as I could see the washing machines and dryers stacked up against the walls, and an elderly gentlemen sweeping the floor.

I thought this weird, as I pass the shop on a regular basis, and had never seen any work being done to convert the shop back into a laundry.

I had a mind to walk over and ask the guy sweeping when the shop converted back, but had a car behind me waiting to use the pump, so instead went to the garage kiosk to pay.

When I came out I had a WTF moment. The newly converted Laundrette was back to the hair salon. I could see two of the stylists packing away for the evening.

I should be worried about this, but it was the end of the working week and I’d had a tough day., unless the laundry shop had a Brigadoon moment :D
 
Something happened on Friday evening, which made me believe that I’m completely losing the plot, and that the stress of my job has finally taken its toll on my state of mind.

It can be classed as fortean though, so here goes.

In the main street that runs through my village was an old fashioned laundrette, (which I thought only existed in Albert Square :) ) but In the four years that I have lived here, I never saw anybody use the place, so it was no surprise when one day I saw a note in the window, stating that the shop was to close permanently due to lack of custom.

The shop then lay empty for some months, until one day I saw workmen taking all the old machinery away, then a few months later other workmen renovating the place, and it eventually re-opened as a hair salon.

Anyway, I’m driving home from work Friday night and I’m running low on fuel, so decide to stop at the petrol garage opposite the salon and fill up.

As I’m standing at the pump, watching the litres of petrol go in, I’m casually glancing around, and notice the salon opposite had reverted back into a laundrette. I blinked a few times to make sure I was not mistaken, but no, the place had returned to its previous business, as I could see the washing machines and dryers stacked up against the walls, and an elderly gentlemen sweeping the floor.

I thought this weird, as I pass the shop on a regular basis, and had never seen any work being done to convert the shop back into a laundry.

I had a mind to walk over and ask the guy sweeping when the shop converted back, but had a car behind me waiting to use the pump, so instead went to the garage kiosk to pay.

When I came out I had a WTF moment. The newly converted Laundrette was back to the hair salon. I could see two of the stylists packing away for the evening.

I should be worried about this, but it was the end of the working week and I’d had a tough day., unless the laundry shop had a Brigadoon moment :D

I think @Carl Grove and @CuriousIdent would find this interesting.
 
Something happened on Friday evening, which made me believe that I’m completely losing the plot, and that the stress of my job has finally taken its toll on my state of mind.

It can be classed as fortean though, so here goes.

In the main street that runs through my village was an old fashioned laundrette, (which I thought only existed in Albert Square :) ) but In the four years that I have lived here, I never saw anybody use the place, so it was no surprise when one day I saw a note in the window, stating that the shop was to close permanently due to lack of custom.

The shop then lay empty for some months, until one day I saw workmen taking all the old machinery away, then a few months later other workmen renovating the place, and it eventually re-opened as a hair salon.

Anyway, I’m driving home from work Friday night and I’m running low on fuel, so decide to stop at the petrol garage opposite the salon and fill up.

As I’m standing at the pump, watching the litres of petrol go in, I’m casually glancing around, and notice the salon opposite had reverted back into a laundrette. I blinked a few times to make sure I was not mistaken, but no, the place had returned to its previous business, as I could see the washing machines and dryers stacked up against the walls, and an elderly gentlemen sweeping the floor.

I thought this weird, as I pass the shop on a regular basis, and had never seen any work being done to convert the shop back into a laundry.

I had a mind to walk over and ask the guy sweeping when the shop converted back, but had a car behind me waiting to use the pump, so instead went to the garage kiosk to pay.

When I came out I had a WTF moment. The newly converted Laundrette was back to the hair salon. I could see two of the stylists packing away for the evening.

I should be worried about this, but it was the end of the working week and I’d had a tough day., unless the laundry shop had a Brigadoon moment :D

Classic timeslip! Shame you didn't take a photo.
 
Transdimensional laundry obviously. Probably keeps having to close cos it never gets enough custom due to it never being in the same dimension for long enough.

So where do socks disappear to in a transdimensional washing machine? Our dimension?

Wonder if it would be worth returning to the petrol station and asking the attendant. But then get there and find the station is long closed and overgrown... Then go over to the salon to ask them, look back and the station is open.
 
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