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Re: Snow UK

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 1:48 am
by jarndice
I could put up with living in a country that suffered large annual snowfall what I cannot get my head round is what makes people build their homes out of wood in an area prone to Tornadoes each year or live in caravans in the same locale,
That seems to me to be inviting trouble,
Shaun.

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 1:00 pm
by jarndice
I bet you couldn't make an 8inch hole with that particular instrument more than once every minute with out the application of external warmth or the frequent swallowing of little "Blue" pills :haha: :haha:
Just saying.
Shaun.

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 7:11 pm
by 43rdRecceReg
Son of a gun-ner wrote:Image
...and you soon discovered it was only three ;) :haha:

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 7:31 pm
by 43rdRecceReg
Down in Devon they've had 5ft snowdrifts, apparently. Imagine 10-15ft snowdrifts everyday for almost three months, and that will give an idea of Winter 1962-63. It was the worst winter ever recorded in Britain (records only began 100+ years ago for snow, apparently), and deemed to be the worst for over 200 years.
This is what my front gate looked like this morning with a modest 2 foot snowdrift.. Still, I wouldn't want to risk a Tamiya King Tiger in this, as Stian did in Norway 8O :D Heng long maybe..now there's thought ;)
Highland snowdrift...
Highland snowdrift...
Mind you, A Tauchpanzer might do well.

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 11:08 pm
by Tiggr
I've told you a million times

Don't exaggerate ! :haha:

Ideal running opportunity.......
IMG_1069.JPG
IMG_1069.JPG (87.46 KiB) Viewed 2165 times

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:40 pm
by Will01Capri
Had a bit of snow up my way, i still reckon the rest of the world looks and laughs at us, but it is the hardest snow conditions i have ever witnessed in the UK.
In total only 6inches but the Police closed all the local roads for safety reasons!
I only have cars, but i manged to get through all the snow in my cars which all run summer tryes with no issue. Even had people in 4x4s stopping me and telling me the road is unpassable i cant get through in this, so you got no chance. Then i drove through with ease!!! Numpty drama queens!

Unfortuantely the media really didn't help matters and it was blown out of all proportion, quite meladramatic! Quite frustrating, but in fairness to the UK, we are not used to it and not equipped to deal with this type of weather.

But its damn fun when it does come :)
Personally i love the snow and wouldn't mind if it happened more often. Then i could get my wife to drive the car and pull me along with my ski's behind :)

Unfortunately i didn't get the tanks out, but i did trial test my modofied WPL trucks, they were great fun in the snow. It was quite a dry snow so the wheels didn't clog like they did when it snowed over Christmas.

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 2:23 pm
by 43rdRecceReg
Yes, Will, I noticed that the Weather sooth sayers had issue an unprecedented 'Red' alert for the Dumfries and Galloway area. A tad OTT, methinks.. :problem: In fact, Winters always seemed to be like this one in the 1950s and 60s. How well I remember frozen ears, chilblains, and cracked lips. Usually, we lots of icicle stalactites, bulging lead water pipes (yes, lead.. :shh: ), and cinders scattered on paths for extra grip. In Germany, it's compulsory for home owners to clear the path outside their homes, and this helps keep things moving. Mind you, in this age of 'compensation culture' we'd be reluctant to do that just in case some 'compo' vulture decided to fall over on our patch of path... :wtf:
I think we were better equipped for hard winters then (snowploughs for trains etc..), but I suspect spending on appropriate infrastructure (snowblowers and the like) has declined over the years, and been hastened by the privatisation of road services.. (Bear of Scotland and others..). Also 'global warming' seems to take us from one weather extreme to the other, where winters (seemed or) were once predictably, and regularly cold... :think:
On the topic of cars, it wasn't unusual for drivers to keep snow chains handy back then, just as they do in Switzerland and other Alpine regions today, as well as Northern Europe. Maybe we should too..

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 2:38 pm
by rochesb
Part of the problem with cars these days is the 'wide& low profile' ' summer tyres fitted on alloy wheels favoured by so many. Snow chains on these can damage the rims & anyone who has had a rim cracked or scuffed by a pothole will know how expensive they are to repair or replace. Snow socks can help but there is no substitute for winter tyres. These are mandatory in many countries across Europe. Unfortunately most motorists in the UK (myself included) struggle to justify the expense of another set of tyres/rims, not to mention having somewhere to store the 'other' set.

Even if you do buy a set of winter wheels, odds are the car in front of you on the road won't have them so when they get stuck, so do you. I found this out a few years back when I had a Land Rover Discovery with all-terrain tyres, pretty much unstoppable on snow, mud etc but no use when stuck behind a queue of cars on a slight incline covered in snow & ice.

The other problem is all the fancy driving aids cars have these days, things like traction control & automatic gearboxes. Sometimes you need your wheels to spin to get you moving & unless you turn off some of these features the car will come to a halt rather than let a wheel slip.

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 2:47 pm
by jarndice
The biggest single reason why roads in town are not cleared of snow effectively is "Speed Bumps",
You cant run a Snow plough down a road with Speed Bumps and as road salt fails to work below a certain temperature the roads can soon become impassable,
A Biker riding on a snow covered street which has somewhere underneath the snow those self same speed bumps is a recipe for disaster for the biker.
Shaun.

Re: Snow UK

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 3:02 pm
by rochesb
jarndice wrote:The biggest single reason why roads in town are not cleared of snow effectively is "Speed Bumps",
You cant run a Snow plough down a road with Speed Bumps and as road salt fails to work below a certain temperature the roads can soon become impassable,
A Biker riding on a snow covered street which has somewhere underneath the snow those self same speed bumps is a recipe for disaster for the biker.
Shaun.
That's certainly very true of the local estate roads around where I live, none of them were ploughed during the recent snowfall. They used to run a snow plough through our street until they installed speed 'cushions' on the main road nearby. I believe these & other traffic 'calming' measures are responsible for an increase in air polution too.

Of course the taxi minibuses, white vans and buses just sail over them without slowing down.