Farnham Repair Cafe

Episode 4 – Farnham Repair Cafe

Welcome to the Farnham Repair Cafe podcast made as part of the Surrey’s Greener Future initiative.

I visited the January session of the Farnham Repair Cafe. The project has been running in Farnham since 2015. People bring broken items along for repair. The repairers have a 65% success rate.

The Repair Cafe concept started in the Netherlands. There are now over 2,000 repair cafes in countries across the world.

109 people brought items to the Repair Cafe for repair at the January event. I spoke to some of the repairers about their reasons for taking part, I then spoke to Martin Charter who is key to the organisation. I also found out about the 3D printer which is very helpful for making new parts.

Click on one of the photographs below to see the gallery:

About the Farnham Repair Cafe:

To contact the Repair Cafe please send an email to rcarruthers@uca.ac.uk.

You can find the Repair Cafe at the Spire Church in South Street, Farnham. It is across the road from the town centre branch of Sainsbury’s.

The Repair Cafe takes place once a month on Saturday mornings. The dates of the Repair Cafes in the next three months are 8th February, 14th March and 11th April.

There are many other Repair Cafes in the UK, please use the internet or local press to find out about one near you.

Interested in running a Repair Cafe in your area?

There is a Repair Cafe Conference at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham on March 12th. To find out more click here.

Find out more about Surrey’s Greener Future:

To find out more about the ‘design challenge’ please follow this link.

About the ‘Surrey’s Greener Future’ podcasts:

The next episode will be in a few weeks.

Please use any of the material to support your own initiatives to Combat Climate Change – each of us really can make a difference!

You can listen to this podcast on   / iTunes, Deezer, Spotify and Stitcher.

AKM Music has licensed ‘Perfect Circle’ for use as the theme

Audioblocks has licensed Moving Day by Bob Hart for use as incidental music in this episode.

You may use the photographs that accompany this podcast subject to compliance with the Creative Commons licence.

© The MrT Podcast Studio 2020

The Southwest Chief part 1

The Southwest Chief part 1 – US Rail Journeys Series 2 Episode 2

I spend some time investigating the history of Los Angeles Union Station in the Southwest Chief part 1 . This magnificent building was the last of the Union stations to be built. Find out more about Union station here.

I then went to my platform to board the Southwest Chief for the 2,265 mile journey to Chicago. The journey is advertised as taking 40+ hours – click  here for more details.. There are frequent delays to long distance passenger trains as freight takes priority.

I arrive on the platform in time to see the Southwest Chief reversing into the station. All around me commuters are rushing for their local trains home to enjoy the beautiful evening.

Although the train was late arriving at the platform we departed on time. We travel through Fullerton and on to San Bernadino in this episode. We listen the announcements about dinner as we travel through a beautiful evening.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please join me in two weeks for the next episode where I continue my journey to Chicago.

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

 

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Spotify and Stitcher.

Music:

AKM Music has licensed the theme, Steam Railway, for use in this podcast.

Audioblocks.com has licensed California Sun Instrumental Mix (by Bobby Cole) and Surfari (by G Mosby, E Wilson & B Gagnon) for use as incidental music in this podcast.

© The MrT Podcast Studio 2019 – 2020

Watercress People (4)

Episode 28 – Life on the Watercress Line – Watercress People (4)

Welcome to Watercress People (4), where I interview three of the many people who make the Watercress Line the great experience that it is.

Sandra Johnson

Sandra tells me that she and her husband were at a loose end, saw an advertisement and, liking steam trains, volunteered 31 years ago.

She has been manager of the very popular Watercress Belle for the last 20 years.

The chefs cook all the food is cooked from scratch in the Kitchen Car. Diners receive a four course with Silver Service. The Kitchen Car (no. 1668) is very important as they are a very hard to get hold of these days. This gives the Watercress Belle an edge over many other organisations who cannot cook food from scratch on the train.

To find out more about Watercress Belle dining please click this link.

David Mead – Regional Groups

David tells me that his role is to coordinate the regional groups. He does this by arranging meetings and getting volunteers to publicise the Watercress Line.

To find out more about the Regional Groups please click here.

Steve Crowther – Stationmaster at Alresford

Our conversation starts by talking about training days. I learn about the importance of people understanding each others roles. We continue by talking about people requiring the skills to deal with passengers with special needs.

Many of the volunteers bring specialised skills from their work and these are of great use – although Steve tells me that they’ve not had an opportunity to use their dentist.

Steve enjoys being in the Signal Box when there is an evening service. She also loves the Santa Specials because of the large numbers of smiling faces.

We finished by talking about her thoughts for the future.

To find out more about Alresford station click here.

Please note: there are no photographs to accompany this Podcast.

Find out more about the Watercress Line:

To visit the Watercress Line website please follow this link Watercress Line.

About ‘Life on the Watercress Line’

This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Deezer, Spotify and Stitcher.

AKM Music has licensed Steam Railway for use as the theme and incidental music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio 2020

The London Underground

Season 2019 / 2020 – Talk 01 – The London Underground

The talk by Tim Davies on the London Underground is the first talk of the 2019 / 2020 year.

Tim tells us London before the Underground. Walkers ran the risk of unpleasantness from above and around their feet because people emptied chamber pots from above and horses and cattle on the streets also generated a great deal of compostable material.

On 10th January 1863 the arrival of the Metropolitan Railway changed this. The talk tells the story of the story of the planning and building of the line from Paddington to the city.

The talk covers the building techniques, tells the story of the expansion of the Underground and the coming of the deep ‘Tube’.  The development of ‘house styles’ is discussed, initially these varied by company. Frank Pick did much to develop the style we know today.

Inter-war investment is described covering the expansion of the network, new rolling stock, advertising and maps. We look at the building of London’s first skyscraper at 55 Broadway. This Grade I listed building has been the HQ of the Underground since it opened in 1929.

The final part of the talk looks at a number of disused stations and considers their place in history.

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

Interested in finding out more?

The London Transport Museum (LTM) in Covent Garden has licensed photographs used in this talk. Visit the Museum understand more about transport in London; find out more by clicking here.

There are Open Days at the LTM Museum Depot in Acton, click here to find out more.

To find out more about the Hidden London tours click here. I have found these to be both informative and enjoyable.

About this podcast:

The Farnham U3A site is at Farnham U3A Home Page.

AKM Music has licensed Media Magazine for use as the title music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham U3A World History Group 2020

From London to LA

From London to LA – US Rail Journeys Series 2 Episode 1

I travelled from Heathrow to Los Angeles in From London to LA. I flew with British Airways from their flagship Terminal 5 on a Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’. The flight to took nearly 11 1/2 hours. Find out more about flying with BA here.

I took the FlyAway bus from the airport to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. This bus service runs at regular intervals throughout the day and night. Click here to find out more about this service.

I stayed in the DoubleTree in downtown Los Angeles before starting on the first leg of my train travel. The hotel is located three blocks from Union Station.

The DoubleTree has the lovely Japanese Kyoto rooftop garden. The Kyoto Garden is based on an ancient Japanese garden in Tokyo built for the 16th century samurai lord Kiyomasa Kato. The original was an oasis from the discord of Tokyo, this is an escape from downtown Los Angeles. Click here to find out more about this hotel.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please join me in two weeks for the next episode where I will start my journey to Chicago.

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

 

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Spotify and Stitcher.

Music:

AKM Music has licensed the theme, Steam Railway, for use in this podcast.

Musopen.org has licensed the version of the Flower Music used in this podcast.

Audioblocks.com has licensed the other incidental music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio 2019 – 2020

Steam Dreams 20th Anniversary

Steam Dreams 20th Anniversary follows a special steam train journey from London to Yeovil Junction on 17th December 2019. 350 passengers joined the train for the journey. The LMS locomotive the Duchess of Sutherland hauled the train. The route ran from Victoria Station to Yeovil Junction, stopping at Woking, Salisbury and Sherborne on the way.

The original train, on 16th December 1999, ran from Waterloo Station in London to Salisbury.

At Salisbury the passengers attended a ‘cake cutting’ ceremony on the platform. The Duchess of Sutherland took the opportunity to refill her tanks with water.

We then rejoined the train and continued our journey to Sherborne. Most of the passengers left the train in Sherborne so that they could visit the town. Many also attended a special Carol Service in Sherborne Abbey.

The rest of the passengers continued on the journey to Yeovil Junction. We were lucky that the earlier wet weather had cleared up. We were treated to a lovely sunset as our engine and train were serviced. The Duchess of Sutherland was turned on the turntable – a splendid sight.

The train then returned to London, stopping at Sherborne and Salisbury to pick up the returning passengers.

Please click on a thumbnail to open the photograph gallery:

Find out more about The Steam Dreams Rail Co.:

To visit the Steam Dreams website to find out more about the Day Trips and Holidays please click here.

Travel from Waterloo to Windsor on the Royal Windsor Steam Express:

The Royal Windsor Steam Express is a scheduled steam train service running from London to Windsor and Eton Riverside station. It runs on selected dates from June 2nd to September 8th 2020. It is a great introduction to steam train travel! Find out more at.

Travel on the Sunset Steam Express:

The Sunset Steam Express is an evening train. It runs on selected dates from June 2nd to September 8th 2020. It takes a circular route from London, through the Surrey Hills and then returns to London. A great opportunity for an enjoyable evening out. Find out more at.

About ‘Steam Dreams 20th Anniversary’

This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Deezer, Spotify and Stitcher.

AKM Music has licensed Steam Railway for use as the theme and incidental music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and The Steam Dreams Rail Co. 2020