Fuel Prices

[Smiffy]

The railways are terrible - incredibly expensive to use and ticket purchasing seems to be intentionally overcomplicated.
There appears to be ridiculous inefficiencies throughout the sector - I hear loads of stories from local lads who work on the rail and it’s bonkers. (I also remember @Lynchy previously posting some mental figures for prices of jobs and wasted shifts etc).
A section of track was replaced near me a couple of weeks ago over a weekend - I watched from a bridge for 10 mins and was surprised how backwards the working practices were. The new track had been laid, and a massive train full of ballast was on the line immediately parallel. Two road railers (and numerous orange-clad shovel-leaners doing bugger all) with big grading buckets on standard quick hitches were digging ballast out of the train and making a meal of spreading it around the new track and sleepers. There was stone everywhere, way more than needed, and tonnes of the stuff left in the train that they couldn’t scoop out! Why they didn’t lay it with a basic stone-cart conveyor setup directly from the train doesn’t make any sense at all to me…

They have the proper machines to do that. They are all parked up in the rail yard without any sign of use.

I live in a small town. There are larger towns 15min in any direction. Once an hour you can take a 45min bus ride to two of those towns. Which is usually late and sometimes never turns up.
There is very little employment in the town outside of the shops.
How on earth are you meant to live without a car.

 

[Gunners]

Even with the daft fuel prices it's still nigh on twice the price to get train to Surrey for me than driving my not exactly economical V6.

yes, we tax the trains round here. Ruin the countryside those noisy things while you're trying to shoot pheasant from your range rover

 

[JD450A]

Passenger trains are s**t, best thing we as a country could do is get shot of the f****ng things and open the timetables up for more rail freight.

 

[Lancs Lad]

yes, we tax the trains round here. Ruin the countryside those noisy things while you're trying to shoot pheasant from your range rover

Aye up

 

[Shovelhands]

yes, we tax the trains round here. Ruin the countryside those noisy things while you're trying to shoot pheasant from your range rover

 

[Storrsy]

The trouble with so much is lack of efficiency. Wholescale wastage everywhere. Whether that's 6 blokes stood round fixing a pothole or collosal food wastage in supermarkets. No wonder everythings so flippin expensive. Largely falls to the tax payer or end user to foot the bill.
Classic example this week. I dug a load of trenches for Western power (or Kier) to lay cable and sand them prior to me backfilling. I did my bit Kier turn up the following week with completely inappropriate equipment. Turns out there hadn't even been a site visit before hand so they had no clue what they were turning upto. The whole crew had to turn around and bugger off elsewhere. If I ran my business like that id be broke in a month. Never mind someone else (us) will foot the bill to sort out the mess.

 

[V8Druid]

View attachment 36496

Alan Turner .... in a 2 door ....... that is going back some years

 

[JD450A]

Kier turn up the following week with completely inappropriate equipment. Turns out there hadn't even been a site visit before hand so they had no clue what they were turning upto. The whole crew had to turn around and bugger off elsewhere. If I ran my business like that id be broke in a month. Never mind someone else (us) will foot the bill to sort out the mess.

That's why I sand the trenches with them and make sure I'm there to pull the cable with them.... Otherwise you end up tidying up 1t dumper ruts everywhere.

 

[Routy56]

That's why I sand the trenches with them and make sure I'm there to pull the cable with them.... Otherwise you end up tidying up 1t dumper ruts everywhere.

Sounds familiar - s'what I was doing last week....

 

[6feetdown]

MSN

 

[pettsy]

Received today…

“ FUEL PRICE UPDATE

We’ve seen the commodity price for oil continue to rise this week, so there will definitely be an increase on next week’s prices. The increase probably won’t be as great as it was this week, however we’re just letting you know in case you want to take advantage of your current price.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.”

 

[doobin]

A lot depends upon whether the BoE follow the Fed with a decent rate rise tomorrow. If they don’t then the pound will fall against the dollar and petroleum will break £2 a litre everywhere.

 

[Lancs Lad]

Received today…

“ FUEL PRICE UPDATE

We’ve seen the commodity price for oil continue to rise this week, so there will definitely be an increase on next week’s prices. The increase probably won’t be as great as it was this week, however we’re just letting you know in case you want to take advantage of your current price.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.”

Crazy, filling from my little bulk tank for next few fills me thinks.

How long is it wise to keep diesel without additive?

 

[DaveDCB]

Crazy, filling from my little bulk tank for next few fills me thinks.

How long is it wise to keep diesel without additive?

Had it for 12months before, but don’t know what additive it comes with?

 

[craig]

Crazy, filling from my little bulk tank for next few fills me thinks.

How long is it wise to keep diesel without additive?

Pump it out of the tank back into the filler, just to move it around will help.

 

[GazCro]

Crazy, filling from my little bulk tank for next few fills me thinks.

How long is it wise to keep diesel without additive?

Many variables, how clean was tank does it condensate where its at, time of year etc. I'm quite happy with no additive this time of year but will deffo get it in before winter.

 

[Lancs Lad]

Many variables, how clean was tank does it condensate where its at, time of year etc. I'm quite happy with no additive this time of year but will deffo get it in before winter.

I'll have refilled by then hopefully. It's just buffer for a few tank fulls and if pumps dry up etc..it's ott but nice knowing it's there.
Stored indoors dry etc.
Cheers.

 

[Lancs Lad]

Jjust had to fill up at services to 2.14

 

[Lynchy]

The railways are terrible - incredibly expensive to use and ticket purchasing seems to be intentionally overcomplicated.
There appears to be ridiculous inefficiencies throughout the sector - I hear loads of stories from local lads who work on the rail and it’s bonkers. (I also remember @Lynchy previously posting some mental figures for prices of jobs and wasted shifts etc).
A section of track was replaced near me a couple of weeks ago over a weekend - I watched from a bridge for 10 mins and was surprised how backwards the working practices were. The new track had been laid, and a massive train full of ballast was on the line immediately parallel. Two road railers (and numerous orange-clad shovel-leaners doing bugger all) with big grading buckets on standard quick hitches were digging ballast out of the train and making a meal of spreading it around the new track and sleepers. There was stone everywhere, way more than needed, and tonnes of the stuff left in the train that they couldn’t scoop out! Why they didn’t lay it with a basic stone-cart conveyor setup directly from the train doesn’t make any sense at all to me…

Yeah it seems pretty wasteful...used to work in ballast quarry,trains often turned up to get loaded some carriages full,but on re lay often can't get to every carriage,sometimes job lengths get cut back last minute,distance and difficulty moving engineering trains during possession mean it's better to have left over than under!
Chuck ballast all over then run along with profile bucket 2 slots cut out to run along rail then tamp n brush ,job seems bit random but works

 

[CPS]

The railways are terrible - incredibly expensive to use and ticket purchasing seems to be intentionally overcomplicated.
There appears to be ridiculous inefficiencies throughout the sector - I hear loads of stories from local lads who work on the rail and it’s bonkers. (I also remember @Lynchy previously posting some mental figures for prices of jobs and wasted shifts etc).
A section of track was replaced near me a couple of weeks ago over a weekend - I watched from a bridge for 10 mins and was surprised how backwards the working practices were. The new track had been laid, and a massive train full of ballast was on the line immediately parallel. Two road railers (and numerous orange-clad shovel-leaners doing bugger all) with big grading buckets on standard quick hitches were digging ballast out of the train and making a meal of spreading it around the new track and sleepers. There was stone everywhere, way more than needed, and tonnes of the stuff left in the train that they couldn’t scoop out! Why they didn’t lay it with a basic stone-cart conveyor setup directly from the train doesn’t make any sense at all to me…

The old man has started to do a few bits for the railway, mainly structural beams etc.
He did a beam a few months ago, about 4m long plate welded on each end..... fair lump of a beam maybe 300 square nothing to crazy.
It was being fitted on the Saturday night, I turned up to the yard on the Friday morning and I'm not joking I thought someone was dead! The amount of orange hiviz suits I thought a beam had fell on someone and this was the investigation team
22 guys there to check that the bolts would torque to the required spec.... Big massive road compressor and a guy with a big air gun that would not tighten the bolt up enough to squeeze the special washers that they flew someone from NI to Essex to collect the day before because the courier couldn't guarantee a next day delivery.
Anyway the old man said, try my hitachi 3/4 drive corded gun..... 5hey did and it worked a treat forman ask if he could hire it and were he bought it and turned around and sent a guy to buy 2... one for the job and two spares

Got to be the dearest beam ever to leave this yard