Fun in the snow?

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon tour, circa 1975?

<googles>

1973, blimey.

Followed closely by The Who, Who by Numbers tour.

Probably the best two gigs I ever went to actually.

 

Well yes.

Which is why I made an early start and managed to get my chores done
before the snow hit so I could use the buses. I will never understand
people who will happily stand for ages for a bus when they are probably
only going a few stops and the traffic is barely moving. Walking is
always a better option (assuming you can walk with relative ease)
because you at least have the sense of momentum and progress.

And although there are a couple of more things I need to get to the
shops for I was more than content to sit inside this afternoon and I'll
make the trip another day.

The only worry now is if BA decide to cancel all their bloody flights on
Christmas Eve because a spec of snow might fall out of the sky. A
bloody disgrace - how on earth do BA manage when they have to fly to
cities that are perpetually cold for months on end? And this after
Heathrow management crowed about how they kept open when Gatwick had to
close a couple of weeks ago.

Perhaps I am misremembering but I don't recall the entire country coming
to a halt just because we had snow in the 1970s and 1980s. Have we just
gone completely stupid and soft these days? Everything is portrayed as
an emergency and a crisis and yet it is simply some cold weather - I
hate the damn stuff but it is not the end of the world.

 

You can get any motorway camera from www.realtime-traffic.info as well.....

--
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#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Indeed. That's the method I use.

--
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Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Pink Floyd, Wembley Stadium, summer of 1988.

It's all been a bit downhill from there, TBH.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Never been to one.

 

Thin Lizzie, Keggy Road Tech, Derby[1] err, 1974/75 or thereabouts.


[1] Now Derby University, allegedly.

 

AOL. The only ones that invoke anything close to that nostalgia are
catching Rory Gallagher on a night of relative sobriety in Colston Hall,
Bristol and seeing the original Bhundu Boys lineup at the Butter Market
in Shrewsbury.

 

You misremember.

I was at Essex Uni in 81/2, when we had about 3ft of snow in the Wye
Valley. I came home at Xmas on a coach via the Cotswolds to Cheltenham. I
was 5 days late getting back in the New Year because Nat Express cancelled
the service.
http://www.wyenot.com/snow.htm scroll to the bottom for 1982
Although, out in the rural part of the Wye Valley it was more like these
pictures of Tredegar due to the drifting
http://www.tredegar.co.uk/pictures/snow_82/

 

To be fair, this isn't a BA issue, but a BAA issue. If LHR can't keep
its runways open, it's not BA's fault.

You are misremembering. And in the 1970s the country came to a halt
several times without benefit of snow.

 

My experience of snow in 1978 (my birthday trip was cancelled), 1982
(couldn't go home for half term) and 1985 (Norfolk shut down) says it did.

Auvache makes a valid point (for a change) in there being a lot more
traffic so the effects of the snow are compounded.

I have also discovered my 1996 Volvo is absolutely hopeless in the snow
but the 1965 Jag is pretty much unfazed by it.

It has to be said rear screen demisters, high speed fans and heated seats
do have their benefits [1] but simply being unable to get out of the
parking spot do not...

Both have normal road tyres, similar weights (1400kg vs 1600kg) I'm
guessing that it's FWD vs RWD - and there would have been a lot more RWD
cars around in the 70/80s.

The railways are slightly different and as the more electric modern stock
and power supply equipment [2] are more sensitive.

There's also a lot fewer diesel locomotives to do the rescuing or in my
experience throw a load of engine and coaching stock at the railway as
replacement services.

On exceptional days the delay payments system is written off and one
private company does not want to pay another, separate, private company
for the use of its diesel engines to run a service so the job falls to
pieces.

It was also normal for locos to be fitted with miniature snowploughs as
standard in the winter months which kept lines clear:
http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/5/4/2/4542.1260101637.jpg
http://freepages.nostalgia.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cyberheritage/egge2.jpg

Multiple units don't have them.


[1] If only for the "Have I wet myself?" feeling.

[2] Built to a price rather than a spec and the new substations don't
like intermittent heavy current draw, a side effect of icing. The old
ones didn't either but could cope with it. The new trains have software
limiters to check for unexpected arcing - they also have an "ice mode" to
modify the software parameters but doesn't really help.

Cheap OHLE doesn't like the weight of the snow on the wires either.

 

Christ, is there such a thing as a grammar thief?

 

Also remember seeing 808 State supporting the Happy Mondays at around
the same time, at the GMEX, shortly followed by 808 State supported by
N-Joi.

 

To judge by the way a BMW was frantically wheel-spinning and getting
nowhere yesterday, I'd guess that today's wider tyres don't help.
Narrower tyres mean more loading per square inch of rubber, I suppose,
and thus a better chance of traction.

Or am I talking bollocks again?

 

I don't know - it's 205 section vs 195 (Volvo and Jag respectively),
which seems pretty similar to me.

 

In general, car tyres are a lot wider, though - and lower profile.

Back in the 70s and 80s your normal family car would have been using
something around 155-175 width and 70 or 80 profile - these days, 200+
widths and 50 profiles are commonplace.

Comparing your Volvo to the Jag, I'd probably suggest that the Volvo
tyres have a 'summer' biased tread pattern, whereas the Jag is wearing
older generation tyres with a much more agressive 'all year' pattern.

 

True - not sure if profile is relevant for gaining traction on snow.

Tyres make a huge difference but when the treads are full of snow it
doesn't make that much when both are all-rounders and neither are what
I'd describe as aggressive:

These are the tyres fitted to both:

Volvo:
http://bit.ly/volvotyre

Jag tyre
http://bit.ly/jagtyre

 

Teflon cheapies.

Branded, and with a much more agressive tread pattern.

 

It's a banger and it's mine, what do you expect...

They're still the cheapest. See "Classic" and read "old technology at a
premium price".

....and having done a little bit of looking up the Jag has a limited slip
differential, the Volvo doesn't seem to (I thought both had). This would
make a massive difference.

 

You can be that even old Vredestein patterns and compounds are better
suited to current conditions than Chinese produced cheapies, though.

Yes, that would help.