pitdiver
No longer gainfully employed
Posts: 439
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Post by pitdiver on Dec 20, 2011 7:53:57 GMT
I know it's not April but I thought I would try and lighten up. My favourite was one I did in about 1990. This was to write on a white board in the booking hall at Croxley the following message.
" APRIL 1st !9**
DUE TO THE POOR QUALITY OF ELECTRICITY BEING SUPPLIED TODAY TRAINS WILL BE RUNNING SLOWER THAN NORMAL".
Yes I did have a number of passengers ask how much longer their journeys would take.
Another was a that LUL had been building an extension to Milton Keynes and the new station would be opening on April 1st. A marquee had been erected in central Milton Keynes to cover the station works this would be removed at the grand opening in the morning of the 1st. This was announced on local radio in the MK area.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2011 9:39:52 GMT
Tee-hee, Chuckle chuckle! Thanks pitdiver, you have brought smile to my face, pained with flu; so much for the jab.
I suppose there could be a voltage drop, that would reduce the Quality ......
Happy All-Fool's Day Christmas folks! Cheers R
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Post by phillw48 on Dec 20, 2011 10:02:13 GMT
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2011 10:03:35 GMT
Every year one or other of the railway magazines tries a spoof with varying degrees of success. The best by a several country miles was in 'Steam Railway' magazine in the April 1985 issue.
If there is any group of enthusiasts that tend to take it all far too seriously it is fans of the Great Western Railway. Imagine the consternation then when, in GWR 150 year, 'Steam Railway' published an article stating that the icon of GWR motive power, 'City of Truro', was to be restored in BR lined black livery complete with smokebox numberplate! A photograph appeared with the article which went on to state that the Severn Valley Railway Loco Superintendant, Nula Seer, was behind the move and that a proposal to attach the loco to a Hawksworth high-sided tender 'as proposed in BR days' had been defeated by one vote!
A good friend of mine fell for it hook, line and sinker! The fact that the last GWR 'City' was withdrawn 16 years before BR existed had nothing to do with it! Nula Seer was actually SVR Loco Superintendant Alun Rees.... Backwards! There was no trick photography. The SVR had indeed painted it black and lined it out on one side only for the cameras. A colour slide is in the 'Colour-rail' catologue! It was done over the Christmas period in '84 before the loco was dismantled for restoration. The smokebox numberplate was later auctioned to raise funds for that purpose.
The next issue of 'Steam Railway' was full of vitriol from GW fans who had been taken in. Letters suggesting removal of the loco from the Severn Valley and even the closing down of the railway for this act of sacrelige followed. The anger was unprecedented in a railway magazine letters page but some had twigged. My favourite was a letter that was actually from Richard Greenwood, the owner of 34092 'City of Wells' which was on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. He wrote:- 'It is with disgust that I write concerning the painting of the GWR Locomotive 'City of Truro' in BR lined balck livery. How dare the SVR put such a wonderful livery on a locomotive so aesthetically lacking as 'City of Truro'. Yours sincerely, R Doowneerg'. Fantastic!
An item on the 'News' pages in that issue also touched on the story. The report was detailing progress on the restoration of 'City of Truro' describing how the dismantling process had begun immediatly after Christmas and the loco was progressing well. The last line was priceless. 'By April the 1st, no black paint remained!'.
P.S. L-o-v-e the Ipswich Underground story!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2011 10:22:07 GMT
Planning my next year one already  XF |
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Post by chrisvandenkieboom on Dec 20, 2011 15:40:26 GMT
Isn't that a combination of the Metropolitan Railway and the demise of the British tramways? |
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Post by phillw48 on Dec 20, 2011 17:40:06 GMT
Isn't that a combination of the Metropolitan Railway and the demise of the British tramways? With a bit of Paris Metro thrown in. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2011 18:44:34 GMT
I quite liked the gag where one magazine said it would be funding a feasibility study to reopen the Woodhead Tunnel for an articulated monorail system or some similar crazed idea. I think a few readers were taken in by that too!
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SE13
In memoriam
RIP 23-Oct-2013
Glorious Gooner
Posts: 9,737
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Post by SE13 on Dec 20, 2011 22:08:33 GMT
If you buy a daily paper, always check the Asda adverts on 01/04, they sneak some crackers in like the self cooking potato, but just drop them into proper adverts. Very cleverly done.
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Phil
In memoriam
RIP 23-Oct-2018
Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Dec 20, 2011 23:10:00 GMT
The best railway one I saw was the Rail (mag) reporting, and showing photos of, locomotives with no numbers but just barcodes (remember this was a time long before code readers on mobiles etc.). Well written, very convincing ("Automatic registering of locos/trains as they progress round the land, especially freights") and so close to a bean-counter's idea of saving money that it could just - just - have been genuine.
You can imagine the furore in letters by the platform-enders in the next issue; and some of them complained even harder when they WERE told they'd been had. A dedicated p-ender is very serious and very hard to please........
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Post by pakenhamtrain on Dec 21, 2011 7:36:45 GMT
When the Scotsman was down under in 88/89 they moved the locomotive to South Dynon and coupled it up to R707 and R761 on one of the dual gauge bits and let everyone take a few photos. It appeared in an April edition of a Uk rail magazine with the caption saying the Australians the converted it to broad gauge.
Apparently it did not go down well.
The same picture appeared a month later with a caption along the lines of "Anybody notice the date of this edition?"
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Post by Chris W on Dec 21, 2011 8:46:18 GMT
Some jolly past japes can be read via this 2004 BBC news website article... My personal favourite was the [url=www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwDwRsfUj6Y ]lirpa loof courtesy of Thats Life [/url]  BTW... why are we discussing April Fools in December..... ;D ;D ;D Is someone looking for some ideas for three months time  |
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castlebar
Planners use hindsight, not foresight
Posts: 1,316
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Post by castlebar on Dec 21, 2011 8:47:48 GMT
The one that could have been an April fool joke, but wasn't was an occasion about 30 or so years ago. All L.T. fares went up. A spokesman for L.T. was invited onto the Radio 4 "Today" programme and was asked to explain the reason for the increase. Obviously completely unprepared, the L.T. spokesman completely out of his depth under such interrogation said "Fares haven't gone up, but the distance you can travel for the same amount of money has been reduced".
The interviewer then asked him if L.T. were "taking the travelling public for a ride"!
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pitdiver
No longer gainfully employed
Posts: 439
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Post by pitdiver on Dec 21, 2011 10:16:44 GMT
I thought I would bring a little levity onto the scene. I felt that there had been enough doom and gloom over the last couple of weeks ie. New Met Timetable etc
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Post by ducatisti on Dec 21, 2011 15:49:07 GMT
I fell hook, line and sinker for one in Railway World about 15yrs ago suggesting blocking up the arches in Ribblehead viaduct to house prisoners. I was about 15 at the time...
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SE13
In memoriam
RIP 23-Oct-2013
Glorious Gooner
Posts: 9,737
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Post by SE13 on Dec 21, 2011 17:40:36 GMT
The one that could have been an April fool joke, but wasn't was an occasion about 30 or so years ago. All L.T. fares went up. A spokesman for L.T. was invited onto the Radio 4 "Today" programme and was asked to explain the reason for the increase. Obviously completely unprepared, the L.T. spokesman completely out of his depth under such interrogation said "Fares haven't gone up, but the distance you can travel for the same amount of money has been reduced". The interviewer then asked him if L.T. were "taking the travelling public for a ride"!  Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. |
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Post by phillw48 on Dec 21, 2011 19:01:01 GMT
I nearly fell for the one in 'Railway Magazine' a couple of years ago. The story was that it was proposed that for the coronation the four A1 pacific locos named after some of the companies that were combined to form the LNER (Great Central, Great Eastern, Great Northern and North Eastern) were to be painted in the liveries of the companies that they were named after. A great pity it was only a hoax, imagine an A1 in GE Prussian Blue with a white cab roof and red connecting rods.
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