Karl

[fairfieldtowers]

I've been in Austria over the last weekend. Karl, who taught me the basic of what I know about snow, avalanches, kicking steps, windslab, etc when I worked in Austria for a few winters many years ago died last week and his funeral at the weekend so I was off to Mayrhofen briefly.

92 and a bit and was still active in search and rescue a few weeks ago

Comments

[g8bur]

I'm sorry to hear about Karl. At least it sounds as though he had a good send-off.

Your journey back sounds quite a nightmare. I've never been to Crewe, but I remember being stuck at Doncaster for three or four hours on the way back from a uk.s New Year Boink many years ago in Manchester, and that wasn't much fun, especially as I had to watch three earlier Stevenage-bound trains leave before the one on which I was APEX-booked came in.

I do indeed remember the 101s - the last set I saw was on the Blaenau Ffestiniog service, at that station while I was waiting for an FR train. I think I've been on a 101 on a preserved line as well.

Lucky with the customs bod at Gatport Airwick; I suppose some of them must occasionally be in a good mood...

[fairfieldtowers]

I'm sorry to hear about Karl. At least it sounds as though he had a good send-off.

He was a great bloke and his local knowledge was outstanding.

Well known locally and held in high regard. We not only took over all spare rooms in hotels but there was a small tent city as well. I was expecting to pay for my accommodation but on arrival I was told the room and meals were free. The town pretty much stopped TAAW during his funeral - much to the disgust of some tourists ~ one couple who muttered to me about the cable cars being off 'and it wasn't good enough' got a short and dusty reply.

[g8bur]

Sad to hear about the clueless insensitive tourists - they might at least have asked why things weren't running as normal before sounding off so crassly. Folk like that give decent visitors a bad name.

[fairfieldtowers]

Damn, don't you just hate it when you hit @post@ too soon.

I do indeed remember the 101s - the last set I saw was on the Blaenau Ffestiniog service,

I was in the cab from not far out of Blaenau to Rock Ferry once - I was about 7 at the time. 10 car (5x2) RA charter and some of the engines kept cutting out. We were at the front and the driver beckoned me in and gave me instructions that if one of the blue lights went out then press it.

Lucky with the customs bod at Gatport Airwick; I suppose some of them must occasionally be in a good mood.

Probably close to the end of his shift and didn't want to get involved with paperwork :)

I dated a customs officer way back when. Claire reckoned the worst duty they had was the Green Channel but Red was straightforward and they usually passed minor transgressions unless you ipssed them off. Caught in the Green Channel always ipssed them off. I boggled a bit when she told me how much paperwork was generated by a catch in Green.

[g8bur]

I never got to cab any engines or DMUs in BR service; it wasn't until the late '90s that I first set foot on a footplate ('3F' 0-6-0T 47327, on the Midland Railway Centre's metals at Butterley).

I once filmed part of the journey from Totnes Riverside to Buckfastleigh, standing in the open doorway of the Class 127 set that runs on the South Devon Railway. I may still have the footage somewhere; I'll have to have a dig and see whether it's still intact on mini-DV or VHS.

(customs)
I can well imagine that they must have quite a bit of bumph to fill in when they take action against someone. I've been through the red channel a few times, with items (not booze) which I had bought abroad, and I always made out a list of them with the prices I'd paid. I never got charged any duty, possibly because it wouldn't have amounted to more than a few quid, but perhaps because of the paperwork too.

[fairfieldtowers]

and I always made out a list of them with the prices I'd paid. I never got charged any duty, possibly because it wouldn't have amounted to more than a few quid, but perhaps because of the paperwork too.

I gathered that their 'floor limit' was 0 but a few quid was often ignored if you were reasonable, polite, had all the paperwork to hand etc unless you got a 'gung ho' type bod - had to deal with one once when waiting for an inbound group and two people were 'missing'. They'd been held up at customs as one of the bottles of wine they'd brought in was 76cl not 75cl so they were 10ml over the limit. They didn't speak much English and the customs bod didn't speak German and they only had 20 quid notes in GBP - I paid the 1p duty for them when I got there and giggled when I thought of all his paperwork (increased because a 3rd party had paid the duty).