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Pyramid* · 07-12-2010, 08:58 AM

.... myself and 4 of my staff were stuck on the M8 from L'Ston to Newhouse from 10.20am yesterday, didn't get home till 9pm with one staff member not getting home at all, having to abandon car to go walk to relative's home!!!

Here's a piccy of some of us (in the orange hi-vis vests) starting the long trek from the Harthill Service Station back to our cars!

Hard to believe that this is Scotland's main link between Glasgow and Edinburgh!!! But there it is.......... the tracks you see are from more robust vehicles going up the slip road to the actual service station - to stay there instead of be on the motorway. The rest .... well... see for youself !

Thought some of you would get a good wee giggle at it!! Not funny at the time though.

30stone · 07-12-2010, 09:01 AM

Jeez how come you were coming back at 10:20?

Did you get told to go then it get called off?

Thats a long ol time hope they payed petrol costs etc.

Pyramid* · 07-12-2010, 09:07 AM

Some staff started at 7am and 8am shifts... I left my house (35min journey usually), half way there blizzard started - got to branch at 9.20am.... and realised quickly if we didn't get out quick, we'd have problems.

Realised too late ... clearly !! By the time we got all the drivers / head office/ customers informed, was the back of 10am and we shut up shop.

Best part was: very snowy when I started - but the roads were perfectly clear, and I mean perfectly. It started snowing about 8.15am, and didn't stop snowing till around 4pm.

Great fun eh!

30stone · 07-12-2010, 09:13 AM

Darn thats unlucky..

Im only 50 - and hour walk away from work probably hour and 20 mins in snow, so last year i was walking in 6 inch snow at 6:40 am to get there for 8 and having to walk home at 5.. lol

But allow being stuck in my car for like 11 hours.. im not sure i would have had enough petrol to get home, dont usually have more than half a tank.

Claymores · 07-12-2010, 09:31 AM

It looked very bad just on TV last night Snowball - hope yez were prepared with enough warm stuff. My worst this year so far was getting stuck in the hotel car park after a night-out in Edinburgh.

The car park was at the bottom of a steep hill, and there was just no way my wee car would go up it in the morning, no matter how many pushed. But at least it was a hotel, so we just had to book another night in the hotel then go drown our sorrows - not exactly the same sort of hardship as you!!!!!

Pyramid* · 07-12-2010, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mistletoe-Kiss

Darn thats unlucky..

Im only 50 - and hour walk away from work probably hour and 20 mins in snow, so last year i was walking in 6 inch snow at 6:40 am to get there for 8 and having to walk home at 5.. lol

But allow being stuck in my car for like 11 hours.. im not sure i would have had enough petrol to get home, dont usually have more than half a tank.

There were folk running out of fuel, and having to double up in other people's cars....the only good thing is that I'd fuelled up before starting out. ........

Walking in snow is some work out, that's for sure!!! LOL

Pyramid* · 07-12-2010, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Claymores

It looked very bad just on TV last night Snowball - hope yez were prepared with enough warm stuff. My worst this year so far was getting stuck in the hotel car park after a night-out in Edinburgh.

The car park was at the bottom of a steep hill, and there was just no way my wee car would go up it in the morning, no matter how many pushed. But at least it was a hotel, so we just had to book another night in the hotel then go drown our sorrows - not exactly the same sort of hardship as you!!!!!

There's a Premier Inn at Newhouse - which was gridlocked as all the routes into North Lanarkshire were totally at a standstill for hours (apparently the M74 around Hamilton hadn't moved all day) - the hotel had people sleeping in the restaurant and were hunting out old duvets / pillows etc!!! I passed the it and was in two minds whether to bail out and go in ..... but another 2 hours and I eventually got home (well... after having to abandon my car up the road and walking the rest of the way).

I spoke to guys just up from the Hotel whilst I was waiting in the tailback, they'd been in the same position coming down from the Forth Road Bridge...they started off at 9am, and I was talking to them at the back of 7.30pm..... that's how long it took them !! Just crackers, !

Completely mental !!

Lee. · 07-12-2010, 01:34 PM

Geez! That looks bad Pyramid

I had a friend stuck in that yesterday too..

We left Crieff earlier than planned as we heard they were having to close parts of the A9 but it was fine.. The M90 was scary though.. never been on a motorway and been unable to see any of the road before. It was a complete whiteout!
However, although we had a few scary moments, your M8 experience must have been awful!
It came down so fast didn'tit?

Pyramid* · 07-12-2010, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by happyland

Geez! That looks bad Pyramid

I had a friend stuck in that yesterday too..

We left Crieff earlier than planned as we heard they were having to close parts of the A9 but it was fine.. The M90 was scary though.. never been on a motorway and been unable to see any of the road before. It was a complete whiteout!
However, although we had a few scary moments, your M8 experience must have been awful!
It came down so fast didn'tit?

Ha... funny enough, when I was sitting bored out of my tree... I thought.. hey, wonder how the Perth trip went...I thought you'd be stranded (and after us 'laughing' about being snowbound at the Hydro!

It wasn't fun, let's put it that way. Quite literally, within about an hour of it starting.... that was it, no one going anywhere and continued snowing till about 4pm.

Was the weirdest thing seeing the motorway like that and with empty vehicles, people wandering about , having snowballs fights etc!! Mad!

Crimson Dynamo · 07-12-2010, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowball

.... myself and 4 of my staff were stuck on the M8 from L'Ston to Newhouse from 10.20am yesterday, didn't get home till 9pm with one staff member not getting home at all, having to abandon car to go walk to relative's home!!!

Here's a piccy of some of us (in the orange hi-vis vests) starting the long trek from the Harthill Service Station back to our cars!

Hard to believe that this is Scotland's main link between Glasgow and Edinburgh!!! But there it is.......... the tracks you see are from more robust vehicles going up the slip road to the actual service station - to stay there instead of be on the motorway. The rest .... well... see for youself !

Thought some of you would get a good wee giggle at it!! Not funny at the time though.

how on earth could you not drive on that road as it has hardly any snow?

Lee. · 07-12-2010, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowball

Ha... funny enough, when I was sitting bored out of my tree... I thought.. hey, wonder how the Perth trip went...I thought you'd be stranded (and after us 'laughing' about being snowbound at the Hydro!

It wasn't fun, let's put it that way. Quite literally, within about an hour of it starting.... that was it, no one going anywhere and continued snowing till about 4pm.

Was the weirdest thing seeing the motorway like that and with empty vehicles, people wandering about , having snowballs fights etc!! Mad!

To be honest, if I hadn't been working this morning, I would have just stayed another night!

Our schools reopened today, which I think is kind of mad. I kept my two off though.. it's bloody awful to walk in and I know I'm probably bein a paranoid neurotic mum, but I'm terrified of snow/ice/icicles falling!

There's lead guttiring falling off some bioldings because of the sheer weight on top of them.. scary stuff.

Anyway, I'mglad you got home safe and sound. I take it it's a few days off for you??

Fetch The Bolt Cutters · 07-12-2010, 02:39 PM

im so childish when im stuck in track

i just get really fidgety and start making stupid noises like muuu!

Pyramid* · 08-12-2010, 08:58 AM

How it looks 2 days on...... (courtesy of today's Daily Mail) - a stretch of compacted and hardened ice that the coucils simply cannot get shifted.

a view from the opposite end of where my original photo was taken

complete death trap stuff.

Pyramid* · 08-12-2010, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

how on earth could you not drive on that road as it has hardly any snow?

LOL! I know... we really have a wee bit of a cheek really..... ach, anything for a skive !

Just re-read your comment... you surely went being serious.....??? The tracks were the only tracks on the entire motorway.... going up to a service station where 4 wheel drives drove up to sit there instead of sitting on motorway. You don't think hundreds of people just decided to have a massive camp out on the M8 for the sheer hell of it !! LOL

Claymores · 08-12-2010, 10:15 AM

What really ired me during the original 'big falls' of 27/28 Nov was the smartasses in 4x4s.

Down the M9/our regional dual carriageway, it had essentially become a set of single tracks down the inside lane which everybody was managing to follow in convoy at about 30-40. It was really quite a breeze so long as you didn't stray outside the established tracks.

Then you'd get the occasional a-hole in a 4x4 belting down the outside (still covered) lane. When one of them passes you end-up in total white-out as all the stuff is thrown on your screen in his wake, and it also throws lots of crap onto the established tracks.

Although it's wrong, I have to admit to feelings of shadenfreude when I later saw one 4x4 with it's nose pointed into the ditch about 10m from the carriageway, and another lying on it's side right on the verge.

Pyramid* · 08-12-2010, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Claymores

What really ired me during the original 'big falls' of 27/28 Nov was the smartasses in 4x4s.

Down the M9/our regional dual carriageway, it had essentially become a set of single tracks down the inside lane which everybody was managing to follow in convoy at about 30-40. It was really quite a breeze so long as you didn't stray outside the established tracks.

Then you'd get the occasional a-hole in a 4x4 belting down the outside (still covered) lane. When one of them passes you end-up in total white-out as all the stuff is thrown on your screen in his wake, and it also throws lots of crap onto the established tracks.

Although it's wrong, I have to admit to feelings of shadenfreude when I later saw one 4x4 with it's nose pointed into the ditch about 10m from the carriageway, and another lying on it's side right on the verge.

HA! funny you mention this: there was a Land Rover who had got up to the actual Service Station - now up there, there is an 'exit' route, away from the motorway up onto a remote lane leading to the nearest town. This Land Rover driver and passengers began the "We'll get through no bother, we'll squeeze by the cars blocked here (in the service station).

Result? 40 minutes later, having got well and truly stuck in over 2.5 foot of snow.... he then had to do a 3 point turn - which actually ended up in about a 78 point turn, ...... to get back into position to drive to the same spot he'd where he'd boasted, "No problem.... with a smirk on his face".

Aaahh....... times like that are wonderful to witness, and it's hard not to watch, grin then walk away with the word, W@nk3r in your mind!

arista · 08-12-2010, 11:49 AM

Glad you took some photos
and great you are out of the Snowbound zone.

Keep On Keepin' On.

Pyramid* · 08-12-2010, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arista

Glad you took some photos
and great you are out of the Snowbound zone.

Keep On Keepin' On.

ah...not quite. Car currently stuck (bliddy hired car as well, costing money!) in a pile of snow where I had to abandon it the other night. As I'm at home, currently not classed as uber emergency (which is totally understandable), need to wait till the real emergencies, people breaking down in middle of nowhere etc, all get sorted. Hopefully today......am sure if I kicked up a fuss they'd put me higher on list but I doubt thats entirely fair to do that......

Josy · 08-12-2010, 12:12 PM

I just read the army are coming in to break up the ice on the main roads, because the snow ploughs keep breaking down.

Josy · 08-12-2010, 12:14 PM

We have more snow forecast for 6 tonight too but it's just meant to be a light flurry (thats what they said on Sunday night though)

Pyramid* · 08-12-2010, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~HO~HO~HO~

I just read the army are coming in to break up the ice on the main roads, because the snow ploughs keep breaking down.

yep, was on the news last night, unbelievable. And that twat that calls himself Transport Minister, had the audacity to say that they didn't know about the weather due on Monday morning (despite the BBC forecasting and right at 'morning rush hour too') - said they were unprepared due to lack of accurate forecasting - yet they issued out information saying all main road links were serviced and would be fine..... aye right!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~HO~HO~HO~

We have more snow forecast for 6 tonight too but it's just meant to be a light flurry (thats what they said on Sunday night though)

Not more....NOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo !!