Re: GUNZEL

[pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown)]

Railway Rasputin <bob@fastlink.com.au> wrote in aus.rail:

>David Langley wrote:
>
>> Railway Rasputin wrote:
>> > Anyway if you are stupid enough and give them and answer you are alway wrong.
>>
>> Is it a contradiction in terms to refer to an informed gunzel? Judging by the
>> above they are obviously uninformed.
>>
>> DEL
>
>No they ask the questions to see if you know the answer.
>
I seem to remember asking (or trying to ask) guards a few questions.
If I could get a vocalisation of anything better than beery grunt, I
thought I was doing real well. Basically I gave up asking rail staff
any questions because most of them, the non-railfan, the "I'm only
doing this 'cause it's a job and it's better than being on the
friggin' dole"- type railman was one of the most ignorant and useless
life-forms you could come across this side of herpes and cockroaches.
Apart from what they had to do, they knew SFA about anything else.
Breathing seemed too much of an intellectual exercise for some of
them.

The railwayman-railfan, on the other hand was a really good find. He
could have been Rail Motor Driver, SM, Caretaker, Signalman or Ganger.
He answered all your questions, no matter how stupid (better to ask a
dumb question and be a fool for five minutes, rather than not ask and
be a fool for life) and pointed out, without prompting, all the points
of interest as one railfan would to another. It was a joy to find
someone keen and interested in their job. The goodwill that these
enthusiast railwaymen created between the railways and the public was
priceless.

Now I don't doubt that most railwaymen are in the middle between
seaweed and sainthood. Finding the right person was tricky, often I'd
take my son with me because he found them better than I could - most
railway men love kids. But I haven't got the time for any railwayman
that's so up themselves that they regard a grunt for an answer as an
adequate response to a question. As they say; dumb-looks are free and
some railwaymen are very free with that kind of advice.

No wonder why Victoria got rid of guards.

Les Brown