I did a day trip to York (UK) yesterday. The purpose of the trip was to see the 6 remaining LNER A4 Class Pacific's (Steam Engines and yes I can hear some the groans from a few readers). They are on show at the UK National Railway Museum. They include the loco 'Dwight D Eisenhower' that is on loan from the US Museum in Green Gay and 'Dominion of Canada' which is on loan from Canada.
The event was organised to remember the 75th Anniversary of 4468 Mallard reaching 126 and a bit mph. It is half term holidays here and I had to queue for almost an hour to get into the Museum.
I used the Cross Country Trains £15 each way 1st class upgrade. One advantage is that you get free Wi-Fi. However BC access is blocked by the Service. Standard Class on the train from Birmingham to York was crammed. many other long distance services were also 'standing room only'.
Back to the them of this blog entry.
What other places do people typically find BC being blocked? I wouldn't include company intranets in this list.
Then how receptive are those responsible for the network to 'unblocking' requests?
I tried to add an image here but it does not seem to display.
Comments
Picture of big green shiny thing okay
I can see it's a choo choo but if were a mallard it would have purply-blue specula and curly tail feathers.
BC is considered an adult site and we all know they're all porn sites aren't they and decent people don't frequent them.
Angharad
Not Mallard
The A4's were originally all named after Birds. The only other one still with a bird name is Bittern.
The one in the picture is 'Dwight D Eisenhower' It is in green livery as is 'Union of South Africa' The other ones are all in Blue.
It seems that FireFox (or the way I have it setup) blocks images from BC. Safari shows it fine.
Blocked Sites.
Unfortunately, most Free Wi-Fi Hotspots, will block anything to do with any Adult Content.
They have to cater for EVERYBODY that uses them. Thus these sites are often blocked.
Ah, the Mallard.
One of the longest standing unbroken records, as far as I know.
Some Railway Pictures
A4 60007 at NRM
Grand Hall at the RM shoing all 6 A4 locos
BR 9f 92220 Evening Star at NRM. The last Steam Loco built for BR in 1960
BR 2-6-4T at East Lancs Railway (Bolton)
Boston Lodge Works, Ffestiniog Railway, Porthhmadoc, Wales. Fairlie Tank being prepared for service
A conservative estimate a few months ago reported that the Preserved Raileways in the UK contributed at least 250M Pounds to the economy. Not peanuts by any means.
Magnificent. ^_^
I... ...hold you in high es-steam. = )
English Hotels Ltd, also blocks BC on their WiFi systems.
Consequently I no longer frequent English Hotels. Actually the blocking is down to lazy and sloppy management in English hotels, the server system they use actually allows the hotel chain owners to select within the site what sites are to be blocked and of course anything to do with transgenderism has got to be pornographic hasn't it???!!!
If the hotel managers are so ignorant and the corporate owners so equally ignorant and/or transphobic then they lose my custom.
That's a given.
Such a low quality of research indicated by this bigoted attitude usually gets reflects in the other areas of service and that trickles down into other areas of the hotel management so they lose my custom.
A Fabulous Museum
We spent several days in York six or seven years ago. While my wife and sister-in-law were looking for gravestones in Harpham, I walked to and through The National Railroad Museum. It's a great experience, and I would go back. I bought a number of HO and similar scale powered train engines at an estate (tag) sale a few years ago. I think the Mallard is one of them. They are stored in a closet until we take them to our showcase in an antique mall.
Portia
photo
great picture. ill take a train picture any time you want to put it up.
robert
Nice pic of the Loco.
Please post more, would love to see them sweetie! Hugs, Taarpa
Ps. Haven't run into this problem in my area. Though I've heard some public libraries do have restrictions, I haven't had the occasion to use them to find out.
The strange thing is...
I've been able to access BC from hotels in Jordan, Dubai and Bahrain.
On the subject of Train photos, I have about 30,000 shots that I've taken over the past 50 and a bit years so will refrain from posting more than a couple here. Yeah, I was a train spotter in my childhood.
BC being blocked is more likely...
... the rail services network administrator not fully understanging the perameters of the filtering software properly.
Prime exmple of this, When I upated my Cisco Quals in 2006 the tech college I attended had a real pill as the network administator, He blocked every site that had the word 'BREAST' In the title or on the page, cause as we all know when 'BREASTS' mentioned on the internet it's gotta be a porn site.
Not a problem you say, The college also had a catering department thus every recipie that had the the word 'BREAST or BREASTS' were also blocked.
I use this test now to see if net admins actualy know what they are doing or have 'BLAGGED' their way in to a job that they are not qualified for.
Word Blocking
There is a free program written by a Teacher, that closes the Browser when it finds a word that is listed.
I never did like word checking for Web Sites... The words Sex, Rape and a few others spring to mind.
So, News sites would close. Middlesex, Sussex and Essex Cricket clubs would also suffer. And if you are Agricultural... Rape Seed Oil.. :P
Of course, with Children involved...
Most other blocking technologies use the website address. Just tick the boxes to block that sort of site...
Which means, In a College/Uni environment, Fine Art sites would also be blocked (They contain nudes, you know). :D
Being blocked
So far, I have not used too many free wifi locations. I have however, not had any difficulty in connecting to BCTS via the free wifi offered at the McDonald's fast food joints in my area.
Being blocked
I have, But then if you are using BT Broadband at home, you may be all right on that one.
As I do not use BT, I'm blocked, as I have to sign in to the free side of the Wifi.
I believe that's supposed to Green Bay.....
It's just a little place up in Wisconsin.
If you ever get the opportunity, there is a wonderful railway museum just outside of York, Pennsylvania as well. The State of Pennsylvania runs it, and right across the road from it is the New Castle and Hope Railway, which is a refurbished steam line.
I visited both about ten years ago with my sons. We spent hours climbing around and through the old railway equipment.
Dallas
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus