The grumpy thread

[Guest]

Rolling stock does seem to get shitter the further north you go. I'm still hoping that one of my northerly tat collection missions will get me a ride in one of these.

Still quite a lot of those around Yorkshire - they're clattery, noisy and freezing cold. If I'm getting the train to Leeds (rare nowadays), I'll make a special effort to get the big Kings Cross train, just to avoid being stuck on one of those. They're horrid, though I can see the appeal if you only had to do it once or twice.

[Richard]

The last time I was on a train in Yorkshire (Skipton to York, changing at Leeds) I found it incredibly quiet and luxurious. There were vacant seats and everything- you don't get that up here.

[Guest]

That's because you've got to pay more to sit on the inside.

[Pillock]

I had to get three trains to go collect a car from sporty-shite up in glorious Bolton-ish.

 

First one, on the ECML was a refurbished Class 91. Lovely inside, power points at the seats, lovely quiet and quick. Newark to Leeds.

From Leeds to one of the Manchesters, a 156 Sprinter. Slightly less nice, but still quiet enough and comfy.

From the Manchester to the little station I was ewnding up at, I got one of those godawful RailBus things. A bus, sans suspension, on metal wheels - what a fantastic idea. Noisy as hell, uncomfortable, slow with really itchy seats. Certainly did get worse the further north I went!

 

Based on this, I can only imagine the trains on the south cost are made of gold, do 400mph silently, cost nothing, and have international supermodels available on demand to tug you off en route.

 

Edit : Wuvum, finally saw the picture - that's the ruddy RailBus contraption I'm on about. Used to see them all the time working north from Sheffield.

[Pete-M]

Hartlepool has the shitest train service I've ever been on.

 

Seats look like they've been stolen from a collection of '82 BXs and retrimmed in fluffy shite.

[Polystratus]

I had to get three trains to go collect a car from sporty-shite up in glorious Bolton-ish.

 

First one, on the ECML was a refurbished Class 91. Lovely inside, power points at the seats, lovely quiet and quick. Newark to Leeds.

From Leeds to one of the Manchesters, a 156 Sprinter. Slightly less nice, but still quiet enough and comfy.

From the Manchester to the little station I was ewnding up at, I got one of those godawful RailBus things. A bus, sans suspension, on metal wheels - what a fantastic idea. Noisy as hell, uncomfortable, slow with really itchy seats. Certainly did get worse the further north I went!

 

Edit : Wuvum, finally saw the picture - that's the ruddy RailBus contraption I'm on about. Used to see them all the time working north from Sheffield.

Even worse was these:

 

 

Very bouncy, the last Pacer unit I rode on was last year from Doncaster to Scunny last year, wasnt too bad since they had ripped out the original bus type seats, and put in modern seats.

[barrett]

Based on this, I can only imagine the trains on the south cost are made of gold, do 400mph silently, cost nothing, and have international supermodels available on demand to tug you off en route.

Nah, ours are shite too, but there are no moaning northerners on board so clearly they have the upper hand

[sporty-shite]

I had to get three trains to go collect a car from sporty-shite up in glorious Bolton-ish.

 

From the Manchester to the little station I was ewnding up at, I got one of those godawful RailBus things. A bus, sans suspension, on metal wheels - what a fantastic idea. Noisy as hell, uncomfortable, slow with really itchy seats.

They seem to have got progressively worse over the years, although they're still a sight cheaper and quicker than the bus. However, I only go on them to go to/from Manchester on the rare occasions I go on the lash or shopping (which usually involves a few pints ) So I usually have a bit of motivation to go.

 

I'd hate to have to commute on the bastards, though, especially as they get packed in the mornings/evenings.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

From the Manchester to the little station I was ewnding up at, I got one of those godawful RailBus things. A bus, sans suspension, on metal wheels - what a fantastic idea. Noisy as hell, uncomfortable, slow with really itchy seats. Certainly did get worse the further north I went!

When I used to use these daily, they had bus seats and weren't so bad. Last time I got on one, they'd been fitted with taller individual seats. The result was a more claustrophobic train, and a less comfortable ride thanks to the reduction in kneeroom and the fact that you can't spread out on the seat anymore.

[Tayne]

,

[Pillock]

Normally I like getting the train places.... strange really as I'm quite a irritable driver when I get stuck in a jam and stuff, but if a train is late or cancelled or whatever I just chill on a bench and wait for the next one. Including once encountering a bridge strike in Slough, and it taking well over 18 hours to get back to Nottingham using the most bizarre route imaginable. It's like an adventure.

[brammy777]

I once got a train from Basingstoke to Bangor. It took forever and I had to go past Rhyl. But if you wanted to stop at the smaller stations, you had to request the train to stop, and we didnt stop there. Some weird, extremely tanned man offered me chocolate and told me all the sights to visit though.

[maxpower]

our trains have just been changed from 1960's to brand new rolling stock...amazing it took winning the olympics for them to realise the trains were clapped out shite boxes

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I like clapped out old trains. I find new ones are usually very stuffy thanks to a lack of opening windows, high seats etc.

[whitevanman]

The last train in this area was 1965...and the last bus was 1995 I'd be happy if any of them were still going

[trigger]

A Volvo Amazon just like I'm after in the right model, right colour and right price local to me has just been listed for sale, and no ones answering the phone! I don't get over excited much do it!

[brammy777]

Trains round here were made recently so theyre pretty good, but the seating arrangement is awful, plus if one person sits in a 6 seat block, everyone else seems to avoid it like the plague. And then they will sit on the outside of the two seat row and put their bag on the other seat.

I dont really get trains anymore, I would rather sit on a bus which has an extremely noisy rear axle. On the subject of seats, Stagecoach took all the comfortable coach seats out of their buses and put in basic ones which are crap basically. Oh but they did put coach seats back into one of the Dart Dashes, but that means you have about four inches of leg room.

[Station]

Just changed a K-series engine head, head gasket, etc to cure overheating.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! See what I wrote there = 'cure overheating".

 

Anyway, within half an hour later, the coolant was surface of the sun temperature and spurted the lot out into the air, etc. It's great to think of all the time I've spent wasting my fucking life away, cutting my hands to shreds, getting filthy, in the pissing rain. And now the bottom end is probably cracked or something, or probably not. Maybe the head just doesn't feel like it.

KUNT SERIES

[Guest]

Hey, Student Finance England!

 

When I apply for a tuition fee loan and a maintenance grant, I expect to get both as is my entitlement, not two thirds of an arbitrary figure plucked from nowhere. And why in sweet fanny Jesus does it say in the PF1 book that you don't have to pay the maintenance grant back? Why does your form say I have to?

 

Make no mistake, someone's head is going to roll for this. I have not come this far and got this close to going back to Uni only for some useless twat in an office to ruin my chances due to the slip of a mouse. Where the fuck am I supposed to get 2K from without a loan?

 

Thanks for ruining my evening. There was an old Citroen I wanted to go and look at with my mate. That's gone to the dog's now, hasn't it? HASN'T IT???!

I'm waiting to hear about mine at the moment, I've applied for everything going and if I don't get it I can't afford to do the course (PGCE). Your shite situation has me worried. Hope you can get it sorted with the bare minimum of shouting and swearing, particularly the grant bit, that's why it's called a GRANT not a LOAN.

Hey, likewise mate. I don't imagine your situation is like mine though. It doesn't make it any less relevant though. Just different.

 

They've chosen to interpret my loan application in a truly bizarre way. According to them, I'm not entitled to a tuition fee loan because I 'studied for 4 years previously'.

 

Yes. Except for one tiny factoid. Three of those were self funded. I still have two years of entitlement left, and I really couldn't give a rat's arse what the rules are about time of study. My time hasn't 'expired' because I never used it in the first place.

 

Yes SFE, I'm really sorry I reduced one of your idiotic staff members to tears on the phone. I really couldn't give a fuck at the moment, and what I said was extremely light compared to the abuse I've taken on the phone at work. Some pointers:

 

1. Getting my ART ID wrong FOUR times after me repeating back to your staff member means she's shit at listening to what I'm trying to say, especially when I was spelling it out number by number. Great way to boil my blood before we've even got to the problem.

 

2. My second name is 'Burgess' not 'Busgess'. Get it right FFS, it's not that hard to pronounce.

 

3. Say 'Sorry'. Yes, it's the most ineffectual word in the language, especially in the world of the call centre, but it's a start.

 

4. Oh yes, and here's why my 'abuse' wasn't abuse - all my comments were valid. 'Because that's what the SFE have decided' isn't a reason.

 

5. A maintenance loan is not a grant. You can keep that, I applied for the grant and that is what I am going to get, because I meet the eligibility requirements. The amount I asked for is not what I got.

 

6. I would also like my tuition fee loan, you know, the one that every UK citizen is allowed. One this year, one next year, so I've had my three years.

 

7. This is not the end of it, not by a long shot.

 

I couldn't ring up Salford Support today because of work, and they have gash office hours. The bank won't give me a CDL or a loan because of my part time hours. I can appeal to the SFE (hmmm, yeah, that'll work) and ask for Salford to lean on them, but that's about it.

 

I am not losing my mind over this, neither am I prepared to sell everything I own because of some idiotic policy.

At the very worst, I will have to defer my place (if Salford allow it) and get another job on a better salary (yes, that'll be easy) for a year and save up. I have some savings, but not enough to pay for a year#'s worth of tuition fees.

 

I can see this ending up in a series of nasty emails and letters, a truckload of arseache, and me having to take a day off work exhausting every possibility.

 

Conclusion = WAR.

[RedSparrow]

FUCK.

 

Some of you may remember I was whinging about the TR7 being rear-ended a few weeks ago.

Just got back from working abroad so decided to chase the bloke up. He actually answered his phone this time. The cunt denied all knowledge so I tell him to expect a visit from the police and hang up.

So I phone the police and report it, who of course tell me to speak to my insurers and get them to deal with it. Fine, I think.

Can I find my insurance forms? No, but what I do find is a LETTER FROM MAY REMINDING ME THAT MY INSURANCE IS ABOUT TO EXPIRE. So yes, when he hit me I was uninsured, so this little episode is going to cost me about £200.

I am angry with the dickhead for denying the ahole thing and I am angry with myself for forgetting the insurance.

 

AAARRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!

[ChinaTom]

I think the message is "there isn't any money in the till".

 

Despite your plight here, I am ever so slightly envious that you have 2 cars and savings. Please give me some tips here. I have a ridiculous job that pays nicely but there's NEVER anything left at the end of the month.

 

Good luck with it all though

[Station]

Write him a letter addressed from a made up Insurers like 'We Break Your Face Insurance Group (and Security Group)', put loads of spelling mistakes in there and sign it from Big Ern, or something.

[myglaren]

Write to your MP Wat, unless you are closely related to this bloke -

In which case don't waste your time.

[Guest]

I think the message is "there isn't any money in the till".

 

Despite your plight here, I am ever so slightly envious that you have 2 cars and savings. Please give me some tips here. I have a ridiculous job that pays nicely but there's NEVER anything left at the end of the month.

 

Good luck with it all though

Savings = £800.

 

I actually have 3 cars, but one's going. I can only stretch my salary to last a month, and that's because I still live at home after being crippled by studio debts.

 

I have a shit job.

[seth]

I swear teh lady who lives opposite has just acoustically parked using the front grille of the Hillman. Likely not for the first time either as it seems to regularly get "tweaked".

[trigger]

I went to look at the Amazon tonight, It was in Eye, North Suffolk and it was chucking it down as i left to drive up there, I couldn't even see the car in front of me at one point on the A14 as the rain came down so hard .

 

When i got to Eye this is the sight that i saw.

 

 

 

Not to bad i thought, Front bumper needed re-chroming and wheels painting, that's all i thought, but sadly once i started looking around it things went down hill, Both front wings need replacing, neither doors closed properly or even locked, front scuttle was rotten, It had 5 ft deep chips all over the bodywork from all the paint over the years, The bonnet was rotten undernieth, The floor was very rusty and would need work for the next mot, There was a hole in the boot floor and it let water in and crack marks on the body from where old filler repairs had split.

 

The lady let me take it for a test drive which was great, It was very nippy, It's a 122S with the 1800cc engine and twin carbs and they have fitted a overdrive gearbox, apart from a wineing gearbox (not sure if that's normal or not) it drove fine, The drivers seat was split but the rest of the interior (which was under seat covers) was supposed to be o.k.

 

The lady said it was subject to a £4000 restore 6 years ago before she bought it, I think Stevie Wonder must of done the work, the wings were only held on by two bolts .

 

She wants £1800 inculding stacks of spares like bumpers, bonnets, gearboxes and engine block, As tempted as i was, I had to walk away.

 

I'm still gutted.

[Guest]

That really isn't a bad deal Trig. Trust me, as Amazons go, that one looks pretty good.

[trigger]

I think i could of got the price down a fair bit more, she said it came with a trailer load of spares as well, But my biggest worry was the bodywork, I think the doors need adjusting, it came with a new bonnet and front bumper, the wings were fucked, especially around the headlights, the floor needed work for the mot, It did run well, she drove to the Lake District last summer in it with out fail and the overdrive did work, Once your up to 45-50 you up a little knob out and it clonks up a cog.

 

If i bought for it £1500 say I'm not sure i could afford to spend lots more on it to get it nice again.

 

But the two i was watching on ebay sold for silly money, THIS white one in London which was also tatty went for £2700 whilst THIS lovely blue one sold for £3700, the seller told me the reserve was £2000 and that he wanted £2750 ono for that so to get £1000 more then you was after is a result.

 

I'm starting to wonder if i done the right thing now...

[seth]

That really isn't a bad deal Trig. Trust me, as Amazons go, that one looks pretty good.

True, it does look nice in the photos (in the rain!) but Wat, you know how much a slightly rusty Amazon can hide! I've been watching PaulH's be slowly transformed into a solid car too.

[Spiny Norman]

Both front wings need replacing, neither doors closed properly or even locked, front scuttle was rotten, The floor was very rusty and would need work for the next mot, There was a hole in the boot floor and it let water in and crack marks on the body from where old filler repairs had split.

 

 

My tuppence worth?

You did the right thing walking away, that one sounds pretty rotten.

Most rusty Amazons still drive quite well, mechanically they really are close to being indestructible, but sorting the grot would be a costly process.

 

I think you'll find a lot of 'Zons like that at around that money, they can look OK and drive nicely but they can be needing a lot of work underneath.

Keep looking, finding a good one will be well worth the wait.