OT: I was idly musing.........

[The. Wanderer]

.... coz I was restless and couldn't sleep, about how items get the most unusual and misleading names.

Building overhead lines, one uses a square curved washer where bolts go through the pole before applying the nut. Nowadays they're just a stamped and shaped item about 2" square.

Back in the 1930s one of the private companies, Edmondsons, used a cast washer, much heavier and altogether more aesthetically pleasing. The drawing number for this item - everything had a drawing - was E22.

It turns out that E22 was also the item in the rule book for the GWR governing working on wet days. I guess someone who had worked for both GWR and Edmondsons had christened them thus.

[damduck-egg]

In the mid seventies I was installing some catering equipment on a regular basis. There was a fitting that was popular because it was smaller than the standard item and took up less space. This was known as a railway fitting as its intended use originally was in the confined space of a Buffet car.

G.Harman

[Roger Mills]

Nah - just co-incidence! If you Google for E22 you'll get lots of hits - including a route across Europe and a pill, to name but a few.

[The. Wanderer]

Whooosh!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The. Wanderer" saying something like:

I think you've been grabbing too many live wires. Co-incidence, nothing more.

[The. Wanderer]

I don't think so.

Old country boys used to move from GWR to Electricity back in 1930s. The coddie on one gang kjnew of a couple of old boys who had started life on the railways.

Jeez, why did I bother trying to bring a little levity......