Will the snow come next week?

[austin]

I was regularly told off for "playing silly buggers" when the delights of an empty supermarket car park c/w virgin snow cover presented itself. I always took the opportunity to get my hand in again, a bit of safe practice in case it snowed again and I actually needed the techniques for real... I tried to persuade my better half that it wouldn't do her driving skills any harm to have a go too but to no avail.

You can do this all year round if your car is front wheel drive, just "borrow" a pair of McDonalds trays, place under rear wheels, apply handbrake and off you go. Endless fun, or at least until the trays wear out.

[Dave Mann]

Your number plate tail light is out Tony.

[Tony Griffiths]

Your number plate tail light is out Tony.

Thanks, Dave, I'll go and change the bulb now. There we are, all done, constable, even a faint glow onto the number plate. 30 bob for a ticket to the Policemans' Ball? Certainly, there you are. (Click the image for a copy at a higher resolution).

[Steve Bryant]

We've already got snow - lots of it and the minus 35C temperatures that go with it!

BRRRR
Stephen

[AustinWood]

When at university in Dundee in 1965 I experimented with driving on snow/ice. The Law Department car park was covered with snow that had turned to slush then frozen and finally was rained on. Because the surface was very uneven it was impossible to walk on.
I discovered that I could bring my 1930 fabric saloon to a standstill by applying the hand brake to lock the front wheels then putting on full lock, releasing the handbrake and at the same time pressing the footbrake. The car stopped going forwards and started to spin round and round. The faster I went at it the more turns it would make.
Great fun

[Tony Griffiths]

I recall a snow-bound VSCC driving test in 1972. Pat Marsh was in his uncoupled brake saloon and, in one test, where it was necessary to circle a pole, he just applied the handbrake to put the front brakes on and then used the throttle to make a perfect circle around it. In my coupled-brake chummy, it took me four times as long.

[John Mason]

Why do people want to go out the in the snow. I spent 30 years of my like working outside doing 3 shifts that meant 30 winters all wet cold with frost and snow. Now retired I I stay at n doors when snow and ice are about. I was a police officer how I envied the traffic. Officers in their warm dry cars who would wind the window down about 1 1/2 inches to speak to you. Are you reading the Reckers. Only joking I had many chances to transfer to the traffic department but refused as hated dealing with RTA incidents.

John Mason.

[Reckless Rat]

During the winter of 1978 I was on early turn when a heavy snow fall blocked the M1 at junction 31 (A57 to Worksop). I spent the whole of that shift out of the car (Range Rover) helping stranded motorists and ended up having to stay on for the afternoon shift because no-one could get in to work. At one time a bloke came up to me as I was doing an impression of a snow covered Yeti and said "I only live down there at Todwick do you think I could go past?" my reply was that the road was closed due to snow and it was impassable and he'd be best going back down the M1 to Barlborough (jn 30) and trying from there. However he was insistant that he wanted to have a go even after I told him the only way was to park up & walk. By this time the junction and surroundings was looking like an ASDA car park with abandoned vehicles.

My patience was wearing thin due to his persistence so I let him try.

I was still there directing traffic an hour later when he came back, on foot and said "I've got stuck, can you tow me out?"

Answers on a post card please.


That particular winter we lost a patrol car (Granada) for three days. The crew got stuck in Treeton (Rotherham) and had to abandon it. It disappeared under a snowdrift and wasn't recovered until the snow melted and the road was reopened. It started first time.

[John Mason]

Reckers, I think your right but the reply in polite terms would have been ‘Go away in short jerky movements.” As to patrol cars my force pulled them off the road as soon as we had two flakes of snow and put them on standby.

John Mason

[Dave Mann]

I had the task of repairing a ship's horn up the mast in the depths of winter as we approached Oslo.