The Kintyre Forum

Kintyre took a battering with severe gales on Thursday evening and early Friday morning. The power went off in the village at about 1.15am Friday morning and the water supply about 7.00am. Despite trying to cope with that the winds died down, but then the snow started in the late afternoon. The electricity power company and water board employee's were doing their best to restore the services despite working in atrocious weather condition conditions. Seemingly the damage to the power lines was more than they thought and a large trailered generator was being brought in. Talk is that the repairs may take 3 to 4 days? Carradale was connected up to the genarator and power restored at 6.00pm. Water was back on around 10.30am. Having to go to the town yesterday afternoon the road was getting bad around the Saddell area, snow starting to lie. On returning later in the evening (5.30pm) it was chaos at Saddell with cars parked and others trying to get up Saddell schoolhouse hill. The local farmer Gus Black was doing his bit by gritting the road trying to help the commuters get home. As I weeved my way on to Carradale I came upon the local bus stuck fast across the road on Torrisdale hill. What vehicles made it to here had to drive in the grass verge to get past.Having eventually got home seemly the road was closed by the police later to prevent further incidents.As i type this a flurry of snow falls now and again, but forecast is giving rain coming in later (we hope).

Saddell schoolhouse brae 3.30pm


Bus across road at Torrisdale Hill at 5.50pm








Generator supplying village with power

lots of pics of a bus, and a millimetre of slush, good job we don't live in New England or somewhere where they get real snow

general jack o'niell wrote:lots of pics of a bus, and a millimetre of slush, good job we don't live in New England or somewhere where they get real snow

Well "general jack o'neil", whether it be a millimetre of slush or a foot of snow it'll naw make any difference to you as not being a commuter trying to get home or to work, or members of the public depending on the bus service who do not have vehicles, and as I stated already, may be an ambulance.

Real snow!!!!!!, not much we can do about that, but if it comes I hope we have the facilities there to clear it.

Further from your so called millimetre, it snowed heavier later that evening and the Police closed the road to prevent further incidents.



Pictures taken Saturday afternoon as rain started to thaw snow. Bus and BT van at Greenhill.


Top of Torrisdale Hill.

Ach, if it's snow yer on aboot try about 6 - 12 inches in a couple of hours. But then that is upstate New York fer ye!


Go Giants!

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Annie wrote:Ach, if it's snow yer on aboot try about 6 - 12 inches in a couple of hours. But then that is upstate New York fer ye!


Go Giants!

Well Annie, the only ones that would appreciate as much a fall of snow would be the youngsters, plenty of days off school .

And speaking of right falls of snow in these parts, back in the early sixties (1966?), may be you were to young to mind , when the snow was fence height. In places it was 10 to 12 feet drifts, our old house at 55 Davaar Ave the high fence between us and 49 was completely covered as were the back doors (well ours was at the side). Can also mind us all helping to dig out the few cars that were in the street them days, they were completely covered, my fathers wee Austin included. Pity we did not have our digi camers then .

March 63 ??

touched a wee nerve there? if the roads had been gritted it wouldn't have been worth mentioning, all i was implying was theres a world of difference between what we call snow and what the rest of the world calls snow, they seem to manage to go on with their day to day lifes unencumboured, this country comes to a standstill., i remember the snow of 66, i have a scar on my top lip to remind me of it. the memory of being dragged up the gallowhill to sledge with the cold stinging the butterfly clips and stitches holding my lip together has never left me, plus i was only four at the time. how did i get the scar? my older brother had dug a hole in the garden, why? i had filled it in with snow, he came after me with a length of iron bar, caught me skating on the slabs at the top of albyn, claims he meant to hit me on the shoulder, knocked out two teeth, that was the winter before sweltered was born so he has never seen real snow.

general jack o'niell wrote:touched a wee nerve there? if the roads had been gritted it wouldn't have been worth mentioning, all i was implying was theres a world of difference between what we call snow and what the rest of the world calls snow, they seem to manage to go on with their day to day lifes unencumboured, this country comes to a standstill...

Support for the general from here.

We went to Carradale saturday morning from Machrihanish, since we found the weather enjoyable for a ride. On the way, we meet several cars, (and one bus), that had stopped or given up, and even one car hanging on the edge. Entering the Carradale Hotel, a local man in the pub was surprised to hear, that we'd made the journey in a normal car. But we just didn't understand why this little amount of snow could stop any traffic at all. In scandinavia that wouldn't have been regarded as snow at all.

Bu perhaps it's just because your blessed with milder weather here, so you never get used to snow, and especially not driving in this stuff

bakbjerg wrote: Support for the general from here.

We went to Carradale saturday morning from Machrihanish, since we found the weather enjoyable for a ride. On the way, we meet several cars, (and one bus), that had stopped or given up, and even one car hanging on the edge. Entering the Carradale Hotel, a local man in the pub was surprised to hear, that we'd made the journey in a normal car. But we just didn't understand why this little amount of snow could stop any traffic at all. In scandinavia that wouldn't have been regarded as snow at all.

Bu perhaps it's just because your blessed with milder weather here, so you never get used to snow, and especially not driving in this stuff

bakbjerg

I'm naw getting into a debate with you or general jack about the so called amount of snow on the road or your driving skills that got you to Carradale on Saturday morning, well done to you .
Some people have front wheel drive cars and others rear and if you have a bit of common driving knowledge as you probably will have coming from a country with proper snow, front wheel drive is better. Snow tyres and chains very seldom needed here. Back to the point, it is Friday night the problem occured, was not the amount of snow, but it froze as early evening came on and was very slippy.
Another point and i could have quite a few, is some of these commuters were elderly and some with small children and may not like driving in these conditions. The road is bad enough on places when driving in normal conditions.

Back to Saturday, I also drove to the town in a Transit van, probably past you, still slippy on bits, but then vans are a bugger anyway, especially white ones. My concerns are for our community, we and our familys have to travel that road on a daily basis, not on a one off visit. Agreeing with general jack, fair enough, but then you's are not daily commuters.

jdcarra wrote:... Back to Saturday, I also drove to the town in a Transit van, probably past you, still slippy on bits, but then vans are a bugger anyway, especially white ones. My concerns are for our community, we and our familys have to travel that road on a daily basis, not on a one off visit. Agreeing with general jack, fair enough, but then you's are not daily commuters.

JD, No doubt, I wouldn't like to commute this route daily either, in such conditions.

But how often is it like that ?

bakbjerg wrote:Bu perhaps it's just because your blessed with milder weather here, so you never get used to snow, and especially not driving in this stuff

JD, the above says it all. He's hardly had time to get a clean pair of boxers out the packing cases and already he's an expert on the driving capabilities of the locals.

Same old Same old

Away and snap some photo's

I refer to comments of 'Spangles' with respect to comments made by 'bakbjerg'. I dont believe the comments are justified because Bakbjerg has recently moved to Kintyre from Scandinavia. People who have experience living in climates where the winter temperature is on average -20 degrees c would normally gain better driving experiece of the winter conditions compared with the Carradale driver's and find it easier to cope better with the conditions. It is fact that the more experience one has of winter conditions the better one can cope.

DRUMLEMEN1 wrote:I refer to comments of 'Spangles' with respect to comments made by 'bakbjerg'. I dont believe the comments are justified because Bakbjerg has recently moved to Kintyre from Scandinavia. People who have experience living in climates where the winter temperature is on average -20 degrees c would normally gain better driving experiece of the winter conditions compared with the Carradale driver's and find it easier to cope better with the conditions. It is fact that the more experience one has of winter conditions the better one can cope.

Thanks DRUMLEMEN1, my coment was typed with a smile, but not taken like that. But I really think that one of the blessings living here is the fact, that you don't get that much winther here.

bakbjerg wrote:

jdcarra wrote:... Back to Saturday, I also drove to the town in a Transit van, probably past you, still slippy on bits, but then vans are a bugger anyway, especially white ones. My concerns are for our community, we and our familys have to travel that road on a daily basis, not on a one off visit. Agreeing with general jack, fair enough, but then you's are not daily commuters.

JD, No doubt, I wouldn't like to commute this route daily either, in such conditions.

But how often is it like that ?

Bakbjerg

Just PM'd you.

Cheers
jdcarra

general jack o'niell wrote:, that was the winter before sweltered was born so he has never seen real snow.

Actually the day we left Lochinver to come over here on holiday in 1998, we had to go via lairg, and the snow in places was over 10 ft high at the roadside. There was nearly 3 feet of snow in Lochinver.