OT: Laundry symbols

[Colin Bignell]

My recollection is that it looks too long to be a tram.

[Colin Bignell]

That does have a plate below it saying No Explosives. A bit odd, to my mind, that the vehicle shown is a car, rather than a commercial vehicle. I can't imagine anybody who has packed a car full of explosives is likely to take much notice of that sign.

[chop]

Its less clear how true that is for younger people who have never even seen a steam train, even an antique.

Of course if does if the symbol means nothing to a particular individual.

Useless for visitors and those who don't have a drivers license.

[Rod Speed]

It has a pantograph with most trains.

To us, sure, but its less clear how true that is for most young people.

[alan_m]

[alan_m]

[Tim+]

God that reminds me of my struggles to tell the time. I think I WAS “clock dyslexic” and really struggled with the two hands giving different information but with just one set of numbers. Just blew my mind until I was

10 or 11.

Tim

[SteveW]

Some modern trams are flexibly jointed and have flush sides, so they look like one continuous, curving carriage - much like the sign. Yes, you can see the difference, but not so rapidly and unambiguously as with the UK signs.

[Colin Bignell]

I was comparing it to continental trams like that*. However, I don't suppose you want to be hit by either, so it probably won't matter if you don't know which one the warning is about.

• The only trams I have seen in the UK were the old London trams.

[SteveW]

Except that one tends to cross the road, while the other often runs along it and it's good to know what you are looking out for.

Many cities have modern tram systems in the UK. When they started digging to put the tracks in, they found lots of the old tracks still buried in the road.

[Colin Bignell]

Something big and very heavy that runs on rails.

I know. I've just not seen any of them.

[NY]

On the other hand, the octagonal STOP sign still has the word STOP on it. I noticed in Norway or Denmark (I forget which) that their octagonal sign has the same word - in English, not Norwegian or Danish.

[charles]

there's an excellent tram museum in Derbyshire so you can remind yourself. I used to travel on Edinburgh trams to get to school.

[Rob Morley]

I successfully machine washed a leather jacket that had been put away damp and gone mouldy - I used washing up liquid.

[Colin Bignell]

According to online translation, the Danish for stop is stop.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I dont believe I ever saw a tram in the UK at all. Unless you count the Mumbles railway.

I vaguely remember trolley busses...

[The Natural Philosopher]

The problem is getting the oils back in afterwards

[Max Demian]

Prior to the recent revival, the only trams I had seen in the UK are the Blackpool ones; and, at least then, they weren't very "trammy" trams as they ran along a separate track between the promenade and the road, and, if I recall correctly, only ran on the road for a few yards at one end to the tram garage (if they call it that).

I still haven't used a tram here; only in Amsterdam and Budapest.

I remember seeing them in some town from car windows.

Abroad, I saw them in Budapest and Athens.

[Max Demian]

So do most trams. And you need to distinguish them as you are more likely to be run over by a tram.

Or get your bike tyres jammed in the tracks, which is a danger that people seem to have forgotten about.

They might be familiar with Thomas the Tank Engine.

[Max Demian]

That only applies to the buttons on remote controls (or appliances) or touch screens. On music players with buttons the screen symbols indicate what is going on currently, except that my Nokia feature phone indicates which button to press.