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A West Midlands Travel 1993 Adventure

motorman-mike said:
... please could you tell me how you get the accents to put over the Czech letters? ...
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With pleasure, Mike! (And thanks for your continuing adventure story.)

EITHER "copy" and "paste" into BHF from a pre-existing document or web-page. Wikipedia pages are good because they always use the correct accents.

OR go into MS Word: "insert", "symbol", "more symbols". This gives you a very full alphabet. After inserting the symbol you're looking for into your document, just "cut" or "copy", and "paste" into BHF. (I'm sure there would be a similar procedure in other programs like MS Word.)

Also in MS Word, the "insert", "symbol", "more symbols" procedure allows you to assign a key (or key sequence) to a particular uncommon character. For example, I have "ctrl+e" assigned to "é". But this only works within Word of course. If there's a method of assigning keyboard "short-cuts" to unusual characters in the wider Windows environment, I haven't discovered it yet (but I would like to).
 
Er um yes, many thanks for your quick response Thylacine and for explaining the procedure. I will have a go but without wishing to sound defeatist, I looks a tad complicated for a quick result with my grasp of computing, however nothing venture, nothing gain, and after all I've got the rest of my retirement to sort it out:confused:
Mike
 
Thylacine said:
Touching story of the old bus driver, Mike, and fascinating that they used to drive on the left side of the road (which is of course the right i e correct side in UK, Aus and Kiwi-land). Adolf has a lot to answer for! I believe Sweden also used to drive on the left, but changed over one weekend within the living memory of some of us. Does anyone remember the year?

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Am just reading through this thread so if someone has already answered the question my apologies. Sweden switched from driving on the left to driving on the right in 1958. One of my Swedish friends tells me that even when driving on the left they had left hand drive cars and he remembers his mother and father having rows about whether it was safe to overtake or not as his mother was sitting in the right hand seat.
 
Last year I was in Budapest and both before and after my trip, I have been searching the web for information about Budapest's transport system. There is a mass of stuff there including some archive film of trams and metro trains driving on the left. Remeber both the Czech Republic and Hungary used to be part of the AustroHungarian Empire.

If anyone is interested in Budapest transport a good place to start is to Google "The Tram Hikers Guide to Budapest"
 
Sorry for delay in posting. We began our tour of the works in the wheel shop followed by the bodyshop we found out that the track metre (3 foot) gauge was to be changed to standard 4ft 8.1/2 inch so many trams were being rebogied as during the changeover an additional outer rail would be laid to give dual gauge. In the bodyshop we found several handsome metre gauge Tatra T2 cars bought in cheaply from Ostrava awaiting rebuild and return to service in Liberec. T2's originally ran in Liberec and were replaced by new T3's, but Thomas Krebs was sure although run down, after rebuild they would be useful in the fleet at a fraction of the cost of new cars.
 
To resume! The orange T2 had been a works car and behind it an all over livery car with writing removed, and behind that a down at heel Communist standard liveried car. This brought us to the back of the depot where we were delighted to find a traditional early ex Usti nad Labem Ringhoffer car undergoing restoration following years as a works car in Liberec. Alongside it was an amazing old wooden overhead repair trailer, resembling an American railway caboose, which we were told was still used! Before leaving the workshop there was a chance to cab a T3 which shows how things have changed since the days of simply a standup controller and mechanical handbrake. The horizontal grabrail serves no other purpose than somewhere for the motorman to rest his hands. Apart from far left green power 'on' and red power 'off' buttons we could not identify any of the other controls on the dash panel. Outside we observed trams ready for and going in to service before hitching a ride on one out of depot back to the city centre. Tomorrow we would be taking 3247 for a day trip to Poland!
 
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Hello Mike, I have to tell you that I do not know how you do it!!! It is all very interesting and I always read your posts but I would never have time to do this sort of thing.
 
Mike, thanks for the continuing story. :thumbsup: Czech anoraks will be salivating if they ever discover this thread! There's a Tasmanian anorak doing just that right now (not a pretty sight! ;)).

He's good isn't he Stitch. And now that he's a gentleman of leisure, I'm hoping more wonders will be forthcoming from Mike the Motorman.
 
Stitcher said:
Hello Mike, I have to tell you that I do not know how you do it!!! It is all very interesting and I always read your posts but I would never have time to do this sort of thing.
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Thanks Trevor, but I doubt if I spend as much time as I know you have to stitching those beautiful masterpieces of yours. It's no wonder you have to ration your time on here. Mind you I do get the odd nudge from the love of my life when she notices how long I have been in front the old computer:headhit: :angel: :dft005: ouch!
 
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I know what you mean Mike but I suppose it is a good job we all have different interests. I don't get the aggro from my housekeeper, cleaner, cook, nurse, teasmade because as you know I have my computer to hand in the front room whilst I am sewing, and my little angel sits watching the tele in the same room.
 
So today we head off for a day trip to Poland. An uneventful journey took us to the town of Jelenia Gora, not too far over the border from Liberec. Before leaving Czech a coffee stop was made at a 'Motorest' (3247 back end and me posing there).These roadside cafes are found all over the country and date back to Communist times, being very drab inside although they do have curtains now! Dating back to Communist times also, was a Russian built estate car at the Motorest. Somebody said it was a VOLGA but with no I.D. or badging I couldn't say. At the border we were pleased to have our passports stamped as proof of our visit, (the Czechs wouldn't stamp them when we had originally come through from Germany and refused to again when we re entered from Poland). It was arranged that 3247 would be welcome in the local bus station so once parked up (to the total amazement of the local bus drivers and passengers) we went on a grand photoshoot of the local buses in the station. The Poles must have wondered what had hit them. There were a selection of urban and interurban buses of strange, to us, makes. First up was an AUTOSAN dual purpose with a neat back to front Esso advert on the front which was for something else, not petrol or oil. This was parked among several JELCZ built buses which were built by agreement with Berliet Co. of France to French design. Some, we were told, had Leyland engines - that was a surprise.
 
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Thylacine you really must get your specs fixed especially with all that writing you do over on the Steam Bus thread but I will write a bit larger for you I promise.
 
Thank you, something, Tramway Driver - You've got me there - how about in German or even English?:rolleyes:
 
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"Motorman", of course! At least I hope that's what it says ("tram driver" actually). I'm just showing off my "Google Translate".
 
Had to smile there, because I used Google to translate an email to Czech for my friend in Usti Nad Labem. He replied in Google English. As neither could understand the other we both agreed to carry on corresponding in German:D
 
Thanks Aiden, Google actually came up trumps there, Thylacine my apologies for doubting your translati:dft006:n
 
Still in Jelenia Gora Bus Station and more buses to see. The next Berliet derived Jelcz (1)is looking decidedly lopsided compared to it's smart Skoda derived Jelcz stablemate behind on the right. In (2) we see a dusty interurban (Skoda derived) Jelcz waiting to depart to Wroclaw. Behind it stands dusty Autosan whilst in front (3) we find a another really scruffy Autosan awaiting departure to some unpronounceable destination. We were told the tarpaulin screen across the front was to protect it from dust or mud thrown up by other users on the unsurfaced roads it would be using!. This was the only non Jelenia Gora registered bus in the station. (4) Shows a couple of fairly smart unidentifyed buses, the one on the left having no makers ID and the other displaying B R N O B but we couldn't decide whether this stood for the maker or the operator. It was time to go for some eats but first we all advisedly changed £5 to Polish Zlotys. As this was before they altered their currency value we couldn't believe how many thousands of Zloty's we got each. Because of the low cost of living there we were amazed how little we could spend on food and drink which was just as well as there were no English menus and waiting staff who didn't speak English. We ordered what we thought was steak and chips to be served a lump of raw beef mince hollowed on top with a raw egg in! Normal in Poland apparently, but the chips were nice, all of the team left the rest much to the dismay of the poor waitress. Ordering beer was no problem so at 25p a litre we were quite happy as you see by my face in (5). Following a walk round the town and some ice cream and coffee, we headed back to Liberec. Won't be out in 3247 tomorrow, we're off to the mysterious Jested mountain by tram.
 
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Thanks for continuing with the story Mike, very interesting experiances you all had. glad you are enjoyoing your retirement mate.
 
Hi Mike,

That thread was a long read, but a fascinating story and some good pics - and that beer in Pic 5 looks good! :D

Enjoy your retirement! :grinsmile:

Maurice :cool:
 
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