Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Life's too Short

A417, in the dark, losing what little night vision I ever posess due to a quarry wagon coming opposite direction on a side road (trees have grown now, can't happen) stuffed the hire car into the back of a JCB. Now you know why I won't drive the Mog in the dark...
When I went back to work after two months on light duties (for first month) I was asked to go back to the commute to another site. Answer was not particularly polite. Don't mind the occasional delivery trip or odd job on another site, but no more distance commuting. Local site 11 miles from home. Remote was 70+.
Lorries, most do check mirrors, the trouble is there are large blind spot areas, not so bad now, but still there to some extent (yes I have an HGV licence - well, I need to take a medical and now a CPC to go back to driving them). Would not go back to it though - too many reps / school run Mums etc. in tin boxes who don't / can't / won't allow for the fact that these road going behemoths NEED more space, to turn / stop / accelerate to cruising speed etc.
So, nice one Jeremy, I have done a little bit of driving, but Class 14, 24, 37 and 47 don't really count!

Cheers,

It doesn't look to me like you need any lessons Neil. Not unless you want to learn how to pass an untidy bedroom or a dead animal off as "art"

Oh, those count in my book! I've only driven Units (143/150/153/158 for those in the know) and HSTs, plus the class 108 DMU at Midsomer and our little 0-6-0 DH shunter. Turned down the opportunity to drive a 57 (47) with Sleepers ECS from Padd to Old Oak. Fool.

[Apologies to all 'normal' TM'ers who don't speak Anorak ]

Jeremy

At least you took the plunge Neil. I worked for NatWest in IT for a good part of my years but my wife and I always dreamt of leaving to paint and carve full time. It's not easy with two well established careers and mortgage etc to pluck up courage to take that plunge. The decision was made for me in '96!

Good luck with your dream.

I would still like to drive a DMU. In particular the one at Quainton as I remember travelling up to the City quite a lot on those (in blue livery).
Unfortunately, GWR have a habit of swapping out driver experience courses, so even if I book a DMU I might not get it.

BTW I forgot one of several 03s in that list

Anyway, as Brian said earlier, didn't every schoolboy want to be a train driver at some stage?? I have added trams (well one narrow gauge at Seaton Tramway) - a half day course, the instructor, Mike Ward, was a distant descendant of Daniel Gooch. Had a short drive of a narrow gauge steam 040 at the Perrygrove Railway in Forest of Dean £5 for 20 + minutes and a tour of their engine sheds / workshops. Plan, sometime, to also do a course at Crich tramway, and a couple of other railways.
Another reason I can't afford to retire - all these experiences are not cheap!

Cheers,

Land Rover now put cameras on all corners of their Chelsea Tractor models for a modest optional price (ha ha). The big articulate lorries have an amazing cost and the level of engineering built into them is quite impressive so how come they don't go for a camera/glass cockpit moment.

Place a couple of cameras front-back and back-front down each side (wireless will drag the rear camera signal back) and link the indicator stalk to the iPad adjacent to line of site (closer than looking across at the opposite wing mirror before anyone complains about distractions)

You indicate
iPad lights up with real time view in split screen for cameras.

Artificial Intelligence then used to determine if you have a small low object in the danger zone and screen flashes Bright RED alternating with the image.

If you are sitting on the wrong side of the cab make it code of conduct so the smart firms take it up and then 2 years and make in mandatory. Record the red flashes for big brother accident investigation and the insurance payment might even pay for the deployment.

WiFi will do most of the work for connectivity. 24v power is not an issue with a small PSU for the cameras which are readily available in protective housing these days for home monitoring. Little bit of code monkey engineering and the roads are safer.

Graham - off you trot, mock up prototype and we can go 50:50 ?

No ?

You know - that's not such a bad idea!
But I'll bet the systems are already out there...

I'll have a search at lunchtime.

Given all the fun with Bluetooth tyre sensors we Aero owners have experienced, I@m not sure if a Wi-Fi connection in vehicle is one I'd be prepared to trust for my vision _just_ yet ;-)

Hehe,
Is that down to just the Bluetooth though?

Alistair, sadly, we're way too late: Google "hgv blind spot camera" and HGV cameras (many are for reversing).

Cheers,

Thank you for your comment, I've not got any qualifications in Art, just self-taught, so not sure how my work would go down at Art College...It's tents and sharks and "installations" that make me despair of modern art, but Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst seem to make an o.k living out of it!