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I do somehow get the impression that bonking doesn't come very high on her list of activities...Comment
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Originally posted by zeitghost View PostI do somehow get the impression that bonking doesn't come very high on her list of activities...
YMMVComment
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I read this story somewhere many years ago; I can't remember where, although it may well have been in the Readers Digest some time in the Seventies.
For some reason I was just reminded of it, and TPD seems like as good a place as any to record it
Back in the heyday of the Great Western Railway (the story goes) the son of one of the Directors was brought into the company after his time at University. Universities (both of them) being what they were in those days, said son naturally had no idea of any of the realities of what made a railway run, whether on time or otherwise.
He was therefore given a year, during which he would go about the business, examining whatever he chose and asking whatever questions might seem meet, after which he was expected to come back with an idea of how the company might save some money.
When his year was up, he had one idea.
"Everything has the name of the company - Great Western Railway - on it: it's cast into the train wheels, it's stamped into the cutlery in the restaurant cars, it's woven into the antimacassars in the carriages.
"Wouldn't it be cheaper to just use the initials - 'GWR'?"
Supposedly, this simple step saved them tens of thousands (probably equivalent to a million or more nowadays) a year, as well as greatly enhancing their brand by giving people a simple TLA by which to refer to the company
Anyway, haze at Liverpool Crosby (four miles visibility) so it must be time to say goodnightComment
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Originally posted by NickFitz View PostI read this story somewhere many years ago; I can't remember where, although it may well have been in the Readers Digest some time in the Seventies.
For some reason I was just reminded of it, and TPD seems like as good a place as any to record it
Back in the heyday of the Great Western Railway (the story goes) the son of one of the Directors was brought into the company after his time at University. Universities (both of them) being what they were in those days, said son naturally had no idea of any of the realities of what made a railway run, whether on time or otherwise.
He was therefore given a year, during which he would go about the business, examining whatever he chose and asking whatever questions might seem meet, after which he was expected to come back with an idea of how the company might save some money.
When his year was up, he had one idea.
"Everything has the name of the company - Great Western Railway - on it: it's cast into the train wheels, it's stamped into the cutlery in the restaurant cars, it's woven into the antimacassars in the carriages.
"Wouldn't it be cheaper to just use the initials - 'GWR'?"
Supposedly, this simple step saved them tens of thousands (probably equivalent to a million or more nowadays) a year, as well as greatly enhancing their brand by giving people a simple TLA by which to refer to the company
Anyway, haze at Liverpool Crosby (four miles visibility) so it must be time to say goodnightComment
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