On Thu, 25 May 2006 22:42:14 +0100, Arthur Figgis
] wrote:

On Thu, 25 May 2006 13:51:38 +0100, Colum Mylod
wrote:

The clocks on the BVB (Bex-Villars-Bretaye funnic.) were 2 minutes
slow when I checked with my syncronised (Rugby, allow for the hour!)
watch. That won't help sell Swiss railway clocks now will it?!

Out of interest, does anyone sell sensibly-priced Swiss railway
[style] clocks? I'd quite fancy one of those last-second-pause-clunk
clocks on my wall, just to confuse people.

The LT Museum shop stocks Modaine watches and clocks. Not sure what your
definition of sensibly priced is but they are not particularly cheap.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

Paul Corfield writes:
On Thu, 25 May 2006 22:42:14 +0100, Arthur Figgis

Out of interest, does anyone sell sensibly-priced Swiss railway
[style] clocks? I'd quite fancy one of those last-second-pause-clunk
clocks on my wall, just to confuse people.

The LT Museum shop stocks Modaine watches and clocks. Not sure what your
definition of sensibly priced is but they are not particularly cheap.

Nor do they have the essential last-second-pause-clunk feature.
For poseurs only.

Graeme Wall wrote:
In message
(Rian van der Borgt) wrote:

On Tue, 23 May 2006 21:09:23 +0100, Graeme Wall wrote:
(Rian van der Borgt) wrote:
On 23 May 2006 11:47:55 -0700, wrote:
I don't think banks on the continent are better or worse than British
banks, they only have a different way of making their money, and
levels of service are often better.

Yes, my bank account at NatWest is free, but take an example: for
Euro-transactions they charge a hefty £10 on top of the exchange
rate.

...which I doubt is legal. Transactions in euro within the EU should
have the same costs as domestic transfers.

No, within the Eurozone

It's really the EU. You may want to check EU documentation, e.g.:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/03/140&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en


Providing the two accounts concerned are both Euro accounts, so effectively
in the Eurozone. It is not easy to get a Euro account in a British High
Street bank.

It's very easy for a company to get one. I write from experience.


Regards

Mike

Paul Ebbens wrote:

Not entirely sure what the rule is on UK debit/credit cards being used in
Europe and being charged £1-3 or so for a simple ATM or purchase...

£1 - £3 ?

My bank (RBS) charge me £10 to withdraw €300 from ATM's on the
Continent, so I've stopped doing it. I take Sterling with me and change
it at a bank in whichever €-land country I visit first. This always
works out cheaper than buying the currency here. I also keep a small
stock of Euro at home, so I'm never out of pocket when I arrive.


Regards

Mike

Arthur Figgis wrote:
On Thu, 25 May 2006 13:51:38 +0100, Colum Mylod
wrote:

The clocks on the BVB (Bex-Villars-Bretaye funnic.) were 2 minutes
slow when I checked with my syncronised (Rugby, allow for the hour!)
watch. That won't help sell Swiss railway clocks now will it?!

Out of interest, does anyone sell sensibly-priced Swiss railway
[style] clocks? I'd quite fancy one of those last-second-pause-clunk
clocks on my wall, just to confuse people.

I believe SBB do, but I'm not sure. They definitely sell wris****ches
in that style (I'm wearing one now), but you have to buy the expensive
ones to get the last-second-pause-clunk effect (mine doesn't have it).


Regards

Mike

"Mike Roebuck" wrote in
ups.com:


Paul Ebbens wrote:

Not entirely sure what the rule is on UK debit/credit cards being
used in Europe and being charged £1-3 or so for a simple ATM or
purchase...

£1 - £3 ?

My bank (RBS) charge me £10 to withdraw €300 from ATM's on the
Continent, so I've stopped doing it. I take Sterling with me and
change it at a bank in whichever €-land country I visit first. This
always works out cheaper than buying the currency here. I also keep a
small stock of Euro at home, so I'm never out of pocket when I arrive.



Jeesus! Change your bank, then! I have never been charged more than £1.50
to withdraw money from an ATM, and I've travelled all over Europe (perhaps
15 countries), Turkey, southern Africa....

All using my Switch-Maestro and First Direct, and I've been with them since
1997.

I never ever ever take Sterling with me (I don't carry money with me as a
general rule, just take out what I need for a couple of days).

In message . 145
"Tristán White" wrote:

"Mike Roebuck" wrote in
ups.com:


Paul Ebbens wrote:

Not entirely sure what the rule is on UK debit/credit cards being
used in Europe and being charged £1-3 or so for a simple ATM or
purchase...

£1 - £3 ?

My bank (RBS) charge me £10 to withdraw €300 from ATM's on the
Continent, so I've stopped doing it. I take Sterling with me and
change it at a bank in whichever €-land country I visit first. This
always works out cheaper than buying the currency here. I also keep a
small stock of Euro at home, so I'm never out of pocket when I arrive.



Jeesus! Change your bank, then! I have never been charged more than £1.50
to withdraw money from an ATM, and I've travelled all over Europe (perhaps
15 countries), Turkey, southern Africa....

Change your bank, I never get charged at all, Europe, (Ireland, France,
Holland, Spain, Italy, Denmark) Africa, North and South America...


All using my Switch-Maestro and First Direct, and I've been with them since
1997.


Nationwide Flex account Visa debit card.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

In uk.railway Mike Roebuck wrote:
[Euro accounts]
It's very easy for a company to get one. I write from experience.

Is that any old company? So can anyone get an account by being a Sole
Trader trading as Made-Up Company Name (which has no assets, income or
outgoings and isn't registered for anything)?

Theo

On Thu, 25 May 2006, Neil Williams wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

In fact, we need to sort out a single worldwide payment system. All
this Maestro-but-not-Delta, Visa-but-not-AmEx, etc, is just retarded.
We've manged to settle on single global standards for almost everything
else that matters, so why not payment?

We mostly have, certainly in the UK - the technology exists to support
the lot. The reluctance to accept AmEx tends to be because that
organisation imposes much more punitive charges on the retailer than the
credit cards do, which only AmEx can sort out.

That's my point - we should have a unified system, so you don't get some
payment operators running round charging silly rates, thus screwing over
customers who have cards which use them. I'm not entirely sure how this
would work, i do admit. Differently!

Double-deck trains! Wheee!

In a nice big loading gauge. Very basic (and sometimes somewhat garish)
interiors, though.

Yes, they were very spartan - even the intercity trains. Maybe it reflects
some sort of ascetic tendency in the Dutch character. Or maybe they put
crappy trains on the lines tourists use .

I don't have any first-hand knowledge, but some reading suggests that
holders of Maestro cards may be shafted good and proper - our Switch
system is being (has been?) rebranded as Maestro, but the system is
still different to what's called Maestro on the continent, so *you
can't use a European Maestro card with a British Maestro till*. The
fact that people stupid enough to make a decision like that are in
positions where they're able to make a decision like that tells you a
lot about what's wrong with British business.

That is really rather silly. Did you have any experience the other way
around - i.e. do UK Maestro cards work fine abroad? (I wouldn't know -
mine's a Visa Delta, but for various reasons, mainly due to fraud
susceptibility, I vastly prefer to pay by credit than debit cards).

Mine's a Delta too, so no idea.

tom

--
Is this the only way to get through to you?

On Fri, 26 May 2006, Mike Roebuck wrote:

Arthur Figgis wrote:
On Thu, 25 May 2006 13:51:38 +0100, Colum Mylod
wrote:

Swiss railway clocks

last-second-pause-clunk

the last-second-pause-clunk effect

?

tom

--
Is this the only way to get through to you?