Petrol less than £1 a gallon!!!!!!

Obviously when there are responses from people outside the UK it might
cross your mind that you may have posted to a non-uk group, whether
by accident, mistake or carelessness.

 

Would it not be a ha'penny and a farthing? (and possibley a groat?).

 

Farthings and groats were discontinued long before the demise of
pounds shillings and pence. I don't know how old Colin is, but I
suspect that he is not old enough to have used those coins.

 

Farthings went out of circulation in 1960(?) at a guess.

 

A good guess, according to
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_farthing

Apparently they ceased to be legal tender at the end of that year. However,
for all practical purposes they had gone out of use nearly 10 years before
that. ISTR that in about 1950 there was only bread which still sold in
farthings.

Roger

 

It's all that useless information I pick up going to the local pub quiz
on a Tuesday evening.

 

I remember London trams, so I'm old enough to remember the farthing. The
groat hasn't been in circulation since the end of the reign of the first
Queen Elizabeth.

Colin Bignell

 

Roger H. Bennett wrote

I dunno where you lived but the co-op round our way used to have most
things priced in farthings.

 

Well if you want a bit of nostalgia come up to Nottingham where they
are installing a tram syatem (3 lines) at the cost of over £200 million.
Presumably they have forgotten why the ripped out the old system.
No doubt will have to pay to have the new lines ripped out again when
they prove to be an economic failure.
Prehaps the local council will be introducing old money too, it cost
me 20/- to travel a mile on a standard bus (which will be cheaper
than a tram to run).

 

I rather suspect he is (indeed I now know he is), I am not that old
and I knew as a child that farthings were around "not so long ago".

--
regards half_pint

 

half_pint wrote

Probably not. From what I know, of successful transport projects being
introduced in and around the country, Nottingham is always on the list
of those at least prepared to "have a go" at something to solve the
problems. In exchange for which I expect they get a lot more funding to
buffer the costs.

Although I doubt anything like a tram would be of interest to the dozy
cow who backed out of her drive in front of me today and then proceeded
to drive approx 250 yds up the road at a speed which was undoubtedly
unlawful in order to secure a parking place as near to the school gates
as she could.

Unfortunately I was not really in a position to get out and tell her
what I thought of her. However while stopped waiting for her to park
her 4x4 I entered into conversation with a couple of fellow wrinklies
who were waiting to take their granddaughter for a walk. They assured
me that they would be more than happy to bring my concerns to the
attention of the selfish tart.

Result.

 

Really well prehaps they would like to "have a go at" controlling
the huge above infaltion increases in the council tax.
The money could have been far better spent improving the existing
bus network and reducing fares.

Judging by the council tax increases that is not the case.

For the tram even to have been an option, her house and the school would
have to
have been near a tram terminus, a 1 in a 10,000 chance.
Even it it was it would still be cheaper for her to uses the 4X4.
The tram money could have provided a school bus to run from door to door.
The money would have been far better spent in this manner, rather than
wasted on a crackpot scheme on routes already well serviced by
both bus, coaches AND trains.
I suspect the councillors will personally benefit from the scheme in one way
or another.

 

half_pint wrote
snip

I sense a lot of anger here.

 

Too f***ing right..

 

True for groats, but farthings were still in use until only a relatively few
years before the decimalisation (which took place in 1971).

Anyone who is aged (say) 45 is old enough to have used a farthing and to
remember it.

 

And some tight fisted people still have a few in their wallets, along with
a 10 bob note.

 

Whatever it is *sold* in (or whetever the retailers and the government
*think* it is sold in), it is bought in poundsworth(s) - and it was even
when it was "sold" in gallons.

Not many people in the UK (other than the most anally-retentive metric
"enthusiasts") would pull up at a non-self-service petrol station and ask
for "x litres, please".

 

Ummmm ... to make a bus go, pump deisel in. To stop it, rub ruddy great
big lumps of asbestos on steel drums, converting all the energy into heat
(and noise). WASTED.

To make a tram go, pump electrickery in. To stop it, fiddle with the
connections a bit, and it pumps electrickery IN TO the overhead wiring,
helping a tram elsewhere to accelerate, or reducing the net total energy
requirement. REGENERATIVE BRAKING. Not Wasted.

I have a Gut Feeling that running costs of a tram would be much lower than
an equivalent bus, but capital expense would be higher.

 

Not that simple.
Pump diesel in, bus goes where likes. Buses can and or run on diesel
substitutes like chip fat, peanut oil, soya oil etc.

Tram
Generate leccy somewhere in either dangerous nukey type plant or fossil
fuel sulphur producing plant, transform power to 125k volts - loosing
power, transfer power for miles thru miles of wiring losing power all the
way. Lay miles of ugly overhead wiring and convert power back into motive
power loosing power in conversion.
Tram stuck on one course unless you lay some more track.

If you run stuff on leccy , you just move the polution out of town.
Ditto hydrogen powered or electric cars, you need to generate the power
somewhere.