Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 September 25

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September 25

Train station lockers

In a number of works of fiction (TV shows, movies, etc.), there is a plot device where someone hides something valuable in a locker at a train station, airport, gym, or similar public venue. My understanding is that these lockers are made available with a minimum of formality and often on a cash basis. I've never used such lockers, so I was wondering if the depictions in the movies are accurate? Can I actually go to a train station, get a locker for cash, store something in the locker, and then come back weeks or months later and still expect it to be there? I would think they wouldn't allow long-term storage, but I don't really know. So how do such lockers really work? Dragons flight (talk) 00:09, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

See the answers here: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2011_December_30#Railway_Lockers_.28in_films_at_least.29. StuRat (talk) 00:15, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

To add to that a little bit, they were once very common, but they started disappearing after 9/11/01. And it wasn't just train stations - the Mall of America used to have them. Very handy for temporarily shedding winter coats and the like. I think they had a short-term time limit. The train station ones were typically longer, as I recall. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:43, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

In terms of the time you can leave stuff, the staff at the location will have a master key that unlocks all the lockers. Periodically they will open the lockers and remove whatever's in there, then either dump anything unclaimed or store it for a while (depending on the service agreement). The period between openings varies, from something like 24hrs in a swimming pool or leisure centre to a month or more at other places like train stations. Barcelona Sants railway station will allow you to leave things in the locker for up to 15 days. I suspect this practice is more common in Europe than the US - certainly it's prevalent in Sweden, where the booking hall of Stockholm Central Station has lockers on almost all of the walls. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 08:23, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

In the UK we used to call them Left luggage lockers. --TammyMoet (talk) 09:03, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

They used to be very useful, though as I recall you could only leave things for 24-48 hours/ Most of them disappeared in the UK in the 1980s because of the tendency of people to leave bombs in them. -- Arwel Parry (talk) 18:50, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Or because of the fear that people might leave bombs in them. They are really useful for people travelling around by train. In the 90s I was in a French station and the lockers had been closed in the Vigipirate anti-terrorist alert. Luckily the ticket office staff were willing to look after my bags informally so I could walk into town rather than spend hours in the station. (But also in the 90s I spent a very pleasant afternoon in Rouen station, an excellent and cheap meal in the brasserie and then reading a paperback - Proust? - from the bookshop while watching a group of teenagers apologising to the cleaners for littering, which their UK counterparts probably wouldn't have. France just is generally good.) Itsmejudith (talk) 22:14, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

I've never used one but they have them at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne, which was only (re)built after 9/11. I flew in to (*) Melbourne from Sydney recently, and after I got to the station I had a 90-minute wait before my train left for my home in a nether part of the state. I was tempted to store my luggage in a locker and do some walking/shopping in the CBD. In the end I opted to stay put and have one (or more) of those coffees Melbourne is famous for, and finish reading the book I'd bought at the airport on the outward leg, A Dictionary of Idiocy by Stephen Bayley, which, I might add, is 4R (Required Reading for Ref-desk Regulars), along with Do Ants Have Arseholes?.

[* Author's note: Not "into Melbourne" - that would really have been a 9/11 scenario.] -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 22:09, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

It is not only train stations. They have them at Schiphol airport, but at €6 per day (max 7 days) for a small locker they are quite expensive considering most passengers will only use them for an hour or two. Astronaut (talk) 18:08, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Car identification

What kind of car is this? It's from season 9, episode 12, of Cheers. I've looked at the Internet Movie Cars Database but they don't seem to have it pictured. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 06:22, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

To me it looks like a 1973-1979 Honda Civic: [1]. StuRat (talk) 06:44, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Yup, that's it. And, because it has indicators below, rather than above, the bumper, it'll be from either 1978 or '79. See http://www.1stgencivic.org. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 08:18, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks!! Dismas|^(talk) 09:00, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Resolved

Some of those cars got 50 miles per gallon. When I hear them brag about a current car that gets 30, I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:03, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Ah, but they didn't have Bluetooth. Any car without that was obviously totally crap. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 21:40, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

yeah, but they had 8-Tracks. So that's a fair comparison. --Jayron32 21:51, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Like-wise, diving any car without a Taipan hiding under the seats it totally boring. --Aspro (talk) 21:58, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Au contraire, diving a car would be one of the most exciting (and terrifying) things imagineable.  :) -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 01:50, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Diving in one of these would be perfect! Dismas|^(talk) 01:59, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

They got 50 miles per gallon (more like 40, actually) because they were built out of aluminum foil. No airbags, and a collision with a flyswatter could be fatal. The safety features in modern cars add quite a bit of weight. Looie496 (talk) 16:14, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Such cock, if you're meaning to excuse (especially) USian gaz-guzzlers for their profligate habits. Airbags were not common until the 1980s. Neither they, nor ABS, add any significant weight whatsoever; neither do crumple-zones. --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:22, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

It's not the crumple zones that add weight, it's the non-crumple zones -- the rigid cage that protects the passengers. In the old Civics, the entire car was a crumple zone. I just looked up some numbers: the weight of a current-model Ford Focus is right around 3000 pounds. The curb weight of a 1975 Honda Civic is given as 1495 pounds. Looie496 (talk) 17:07, 26 September 2012 (UTC)