midnight at the switching yard

greetings

such is the vagaries of my life that i have, over the last twenty four months (or two years, look you see) gone from no using a train at all, to using it frequently, to using it now and then. this isn't radically different from a lot of people, i know, and does not make me special. but it does mean a lack of usual observations from them. 

very little in this world irks people of the UK (or specifically England, for all i know it's all better in different areas) as much as the trains do. once upon a time, we are led to believe, they just "were". as in, trains more or less ran on the schedule presented, and it was relatively fuss free. they were kind of affordable too. now, of course, we live in a "better", more progressive and advanced time. 

how, or in what ways, are these "better" times characterised? well, we as a society (if not nation) have evolved, or progressed, to the point where trains are now extremely expensive, so taking one is generally an act reserved for the bourgeois elite or ruling classes. i say "take", but rather mean purchase a theoretical ticket. quite a big part of improved rail services is no trains running, apparently. 

of course there are reasons for trains not running. it's not just to make them more efficient. sometimes they are not running as they are perpetually "improving" the tracks. train staff also appear to get quite a lot of plague, which means staff shortages. and, of course, the train staff simply must go on strike on a frequent basis, for no discernible reason. 

with respect to the latter point (above), something all in that there London (innit) really, truly love is that Transport for London (affectionately called TfL, or sometimes simply c***s) go on strikes a lot, for reasons such as being "insulted" by being offered (even) more money for less work, or just because they have not been on strike for a bit. 

my most recent (at time of writing) train experience, which yes featured a delay, revealed another reason why trains are getting so efficient that they seem not to run so much. those with a keen eye may have spotted it in the above picture, presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, but here, have a close look at the one below. 

do you spot it? can you see the issue? if not yet, then i shall do a slight break in text here, so as to allow you to look again. answer, for those interested, in the next paragraph. 

extraordinary, that. it seems them what do the trains have now abandoned any pretence of using the same calendar as what normal people do. theirs is clearly a special one, featuring as it does a 31 April. i wonder what other curiosities lie in their version of days. 

not a particularly great deal i can add, except to say that if you are currently planing on taking that gamble of booking a train ticket on the off chance it actually works, well, best of luck. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!