Comments on: How do you reserve 3 beds from Thessaloniki to Bucharesti? http://hovercraftfullofeels.org.uk/2009/08/how-do-you-reserve-3-beds-from-thessaloniki-to-bucharesti/ To Greece by train - and other journeys of the mind, body and soul Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:16:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: chris http://hovercraftfullofeels.org.uk/2009/08/how-do-you-reserve-3-beds-from-thessaloniki-to-bucharesti/comment-page-1/#comment-132 chris Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:48:07 +0000 http://hovercraftfullofeels.org.uk/?p=289#comment-132 I just about remembered enough about wheel tappers to know what they were called - wonderful that there is a family connection! Here is what Wikipedia has to say on the subject: <blockquote>Wheel Tapper: An historical railway occupation; people employed to tap train wheels with hammers and listen to the sound made to determine the integrity of the wheel; cracked wheels, like cracked bells, do not sound the same as their intact counterparts. The job was associated with the steam age, but they still operate in some eastern European countries. Modern planned maintenance procedures have mostly obviated the need for the wheel-tapper.</blockquote> Thanks for the offer of a meal - will let you know once we have a clearer idea of ETA. I just about remembered enough about wheel tappers to know what they were called — wonderful that there is a family connection!
Here is what Wikipedia has to say on the subject:

Wheel Tapper: An historical railway occupation; people employed to tap train wheels with hammers and listen to the sound made to determine the integrity of the wheel; cracked wheels, like cracked bells, do not sound the same as their intact counterparts. The job was associated with the steam age, but they still operate in some eastern European countries. Modern planned maintenance procedures have mostly obviated the need for the wheel-tapper.

Thanks for the offer of a meal — will let you know once we have a clearer idea of ETA.

]]> By: Gordon & Martha http://hovercraftfullofeels.org.uk/2009/08/how-do-you-reserve-3-beds-from-thessaloniki-to-bucharesti/comment-page-1/#comment-127 Gordon & Martha Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:26:15 +0000 http://hovercraftfullofeels.org.uk/?p=289#comment-127 We had wheel-tappers in my youth on the (steam) trains and the very old hammer in the garden shed belonged to my mother's Auntie Hastie's husband, a wheel-tapper who was accidently killed on the railway line back in the 1850s. Glad you had such a superb journey past Mts Olympus & Parnassus - and that you overcame the couchette problem so successfully. Congratulations to Callum for retaining his sang-froid! Here, more harvesting of red currants (and we thought that was them all last weekend. If you'd like to come for a meal on your return home, just let Martha know. We had wheel-tappers in my youth on the (steam) trains and the very old hammer in the garden shed belonged to my mother’s Auntie Hastie’s husband, a wheel-tapper who was accidently killed on the railway line back in the 1850s. Glad you had such a superb journey past Mts Olympus & Parnassus — and that you overcame the couchette problem so successfully. Congratulations to Callum for retaining his sang-froid!
Here, more harvesting of red currants (and we thought that was them all last weekend.
If you’d like to come for a meal on your return home, just let Martha know.

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