test please delete

[zeitghost]

Moved the old fridge freezer from the spot it's occupied since before I moved here. The disturbing thing wasn't the presence of mouse droppings beneath, but that I was pleasantly surprised to see there were comparatively few of them

Are you thoroughly demoused?

[NickFitz]

Ain't this your neck of the woods, Nick?

Great Central Railway, Leicester

The goods yards are just around the corner, now with housing on some of it and a park on the rest where students occasionally get mugged, it being en route to the poly De Montfort University. For a very long time that area formed Vic Berry's scrap yard, where old trains were piled on top of each other as many as four or five high, awaiting their end. That went up in an insurance fire that burnt for three days or so, supposedly sending asbestos drifting across the city, around 1992.

That big black brick viaduct was removed four or five about nine years ago, and the road is now on a level with the former goods yards and those footbridges. Said footbridges are crossing the river in its original course familiar to the Vikings (who stayed mainly to the north of it) and probably even the Romans (who didn't). It's a backwater now thanks to Mile Long Straight, which diverts the flow into town as a canal; they rejoin just around the station area, so most of what you see in these photos is actually on a large island.

Following the caption "This and the following photos were taken around the areas which were the old railway yards, 2000": the red brick building beyond the viaduct in the third photo, and seen from the other end in the sixth, is the old engine maintenance shed. That's now a branch of Evans Cycles, a couple of other shops, and a gym for the student accommodation block that's been built just off the left of the sixth photo. Said accommodation also incorporates a Lidl on the ground floor.

The Braunstone Gate bowstring bridge was demolished by the poly De Montfort University in 2009-10, along with my local, the white side wall of which can just be seen inside the right end of the bridge on that photo. Having knocked them down, they built a swimming pool, which doesn't even have a bar

So, to answer your question: yes, everything you see on there is within five or ten minutes walk apart from the station in the first photo, which is about twenty minutes away

[NickFitz]

Are you thoroughly demoused?

Yes, there's been no sign of activity that I've been able to detect for ages. I'm expecting to discover some more horrors left behind and underneath the falling-to-bits cabinet when I dismantle it some time this weekend, though

[NickFitz]

Following the caption "This and the following photos were taken around the areas which were the old railway yards, 2000": the red brick building beyond the viaduct in the third photo, and seen from the other end in the sixth, is the old engine maintenance shed. That's now a branch of Evans Cycles, a couple of other shops, and a gym for the student accommodation block that's been built just off the left of the sixth photo. Said accommodation also incorporates a Lidl on the ground floor.

Here it is on Street View in 2008: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.62...7i13312!8i6656

And here it is now, adapted to incorporate various retail emporia: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.62...7i13312!8i6656

And if you go up the road a bit and look the other way, you can see that at least some of the footbridges survive: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.62...7i13312!8i6656

EDIT: and here's what's left of the railway where it crossed the bowstring bridge; this is sort of looking back to where the photographer was from the road: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.63...7i13312!8i6656

[NickFitz]

The goods yards are just around the corner, now with housing on some of it and a park on the rest where students occasionally get mugged, it being en route to the poly De Montfort University. For a very long time that area formed Vic Berry's scrap yard, where old trains were piled on top of each other as many as four or five high, awaiting their end. That went up in an insurance fire that burnt for three days or so, supposedly sending asbestos drifting across the city, around 1992.

Turns out Vic Berry made it into Wikipedia; the fire was actually in 1991. Here's one of the several stacks of trains:

EDIT to add: more heaped trains

[zeitghost]

It would appear I have one of these:

The Hazeltine 1200 Terminal

in my shed, along with two of these:

The Hazeltine 2000 Terminal

They're a bit too big & heavy to cart in here on the train.

And a couple of these:

http://thumbs4.picclick.com/d/l400/p...Disk-Drive.jpg

[DaveB]

It would appear I have one of these:

The Hazeltine 1200 Terminal

in my shed, along with two of these:

The Hazeltine 2000 Terminal

They're a bit too big & heavy to cart in here on the train.

And a couple of these:

http://thumbs4.picclick.com/d/l400/p...Disk-Drive.jpg

I was gong to ask why, then I remembered who I was going to be asking that question

[zeitghost]

I was gong to ask why, then I remembered who I was going to be asking that question

Indeed.

I've just been reading

M2FM or MMFM diskette format

which informed me that Intel, in their infinite wisdom, invented M2MFM format diskettes for the blue box.

Nothing much can read those apparently, until someone sorted it out.

I used to do crap like that back in the day.

ISIS II didn't seem to have a chkdsk function either, which led to interesting times back in the day.

[vetran]

It would appear I have one of these:

The Hazeltine 1200 Terminal

in my shed, along with two of these:

The Hazeltine 2000 Terminal

They're a bit too big & heavy to cart in here on the train.

And a couple of these:

http://thumbs4.picclick.com/d/l400/p...Disk-Drive.jpg

oh memories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histor...10_0000117.jpg

[NickFitz]

Moved the old fridge freezer from the spot it's occupied since before I moved here. The disturbing thing wasn't the presence of mouse droppings beneath, but that I was pleasantly surprised to see there were comparatively few of them

I vacuumed up the few mouse droppings and other bits of solid fluff and crud, leaving an extremely grimy dark rectangle on the floor - I suspect the previous occupants of the flat, possibly going back several iterations, had never cleaned under there either. One corner was particularly bad, as the fridge bit (which is on the bottom) has been rusting away there, probably explaining why it couldn't keep the temperature down.

So I sprayed the area with a cleaning spray, then went and did the shopping. Having got back, I attacked it with the steam mop I bought on a whim a while back, and it did an excellent job - virtually everything came off in a couple of passes, and even the most ingrained-looking bits came up after a couple more

So now the new freezer is there temporarily, and is also stocked with various things I couldn't fit into the old one in such quantities