Re: GUNZEL

[Railway Rasputin <bob@fastlink.com.au>]

Les Brown wrote:

>
> 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

Fair enough but its a bit rich when they ask you a question and when you answer it
they tell you its wrong, especially when you are trained and know the answer.
like this one:

What train is this?
An S set.
No it isn't, its a K set.
No it is a series 4 Goninan S set.
Aw, you don't know what you are talking about. (he walks off)

Never mind the S target on the from and back.


rgds