The life and times of Chris Jones

Update time. The new car is ABSOLUTELY FLIPPING BRILLIANT. I’ve been driving it for a few weeks now and I can honestly say woo. Woo I say. The best thing is the Air Con. It was the hottest day of the year so far today – Not as hot as where it might be for a lot of people, but with the sun out it seemed even warmer. With the Air Con on, though, there was no need for any windows to be electrically brought down!

I went Quad biking at Catton hall on the weekend. It was brilliant. We turned up a bit early, after overestimating the drive time, but a guy was available, and so it was just us three on the entire 15km course. They’re very easy to drive, as they were automatic. It’s quite the thrill, and I recommend it to everyone, provided you’re over 18.

Last weekend we’ve started preparing ourselves to walk up Snowdon. I could probably do it now, as long as you know that there’s no turning back, but when there’s a car waiting for you back in the car park, the temptation to turn around when tired can prove too much. (Personal experience, Moel Famau) – Which leads me to think we need to park in Llanberis, and take the bus to the Pen y Pass pathways, so we need to press on to get home. Anyway, while walking up a random hill last weekend, I discovered a valley filled with bits of industrial past. Being a sucker for abandoned industrial equipment, I took some photos:

Looks like an old Aerial ropeway!

Hurray! I now have a new car sitting in the drive.

More photos soon! Woo.

I was recently rummaging through some old things. My Grandfather was a fireman (in the steam engine sense) for British Railways in pre-dieselisation days. However, when Dieselisation came along, he took a position as a driver, operating out of the depot at Wrexham.

While rummaging recently, I came across an old book (left) dated 1962. The design is that of Class 55 Deltics, showing its dominance in peoples minds even then. At first, this might be naught more than your standard old book. Inside, to begin with, is a brief history of diesel engines. Seriously, it’s as if people had never considered combustion engines before, and for most railwaymen of the time, they wouldn’t have come into contact with one that often. There are technical readouts of diesel engines and how to perfom simple maintenance and even reparation tasks – A different mindset from today where our health and safety laws prevent a driver messing about with the mechanics. There’s even blueprints of the “Type 4 IC CI”, “Type 4 B-B” and the Class 08. Such a find was interesting, but as I was thumbing through the pages, I came across several old, brown documents. Each was dated 1893 and was handwritten, different from the text I had been reading.

Each one is signed by a Mr “G Grant”, and two seem to regard the Eisteddfod at Llandudno and passenger excursions, and the rest rugby clubs. A single letter is from the superintendent of Carriages and wagons Paddington station, and seems to grant some horse boxes and enclosures for usage. Every letter has been signed by “Mr Edgecombe”, leading me to believe he was filing these documents or was a secretary for G Grant.

I contacted the National Rail museum, but they already have similar correspondence in their archives and are not interested. I will attempt the local history museum and see if they will be interested in taking care of these letters, as I fear their condition will deteriorate if left around here.

I don’t think there’ll be any photos for me to take this weekend, what with the fact that taking my car above 1500rpm might send shards of metal flying around.

This is a shame, as I’ve found the right setting to make the D40 stop overexposing grey skies.