Great Western Coffee Shop

No doubt someone will say it is all my fault for putting a mixer in it, but it seems GWR have a batch of Bells whisky miniatures which are impossible to open.

On three occasions recently - one on the sleeper and twice on an HST - I have been served with a bottle which despite trying every trick known has resisted all attempts to open it.

On the sleeper the customer host and I went through all 12 bottles on board and we couldn't open one.  This week on an HST we went through ten bottles before we found two we could open.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/bells.jpg)

Anyone else had this problem or get any tips for getting them open?  We tried tea-towels, running under the tap but not clamping it between the teeth.  ;D

Lisa usually succeeds in opening difficult bottles using the "pass problem to partner" method.

I've had problems with the Gordon's miniatures from GWR buffets too.

Have had to resort to using back teeth numerous times!

Reminds me of my exasperated mother telling me as a seven year old that she was "fed up to the back teeth" by something or other I had done. 

With the innocence of youth I made things a lot worse by replying "but you don't have any!"

Now some decades later I'm also in the same position.  ;D

I suggest you write to Messrs. Diageo at once and make your dissatisfaction known. You never know; they might send you a case. I'll PM you my home address for my share ;D

Whoever would be quite so critical as to say so?  :o ::) :P

Seriously, though: I think you need to separate the body of the cap from its security collar first - otherwise, you're just going to strip the thread on those screw caps, due to their extreme thinness.

Any sharp blade applied carefully to break each of the small links between the cap and collar before attempting to unscrew the former should solve the problem.

You will then be able to pour the spirit into a tumbler and add the inappropriate mixer of your choice.

Cheers! CfN.  ;D

Yes officer, I'm carrying this blade because I have trouble opening bottles of whisky on a train.  ;D

I was thinking more of the customer host having access to something suitable in the galley, rather than you walking around wearing a cutlass.  ::)

I find that in cases shuch as this it is most usefull to avail oneself of the most usefull gadget known to man The Swiss Army Wife !.

Due to an unusual infection in my wrists and elbow, I am on medication for two years, entailing 15 tablets a day. Unfortunately they come in 'blister' packs, which I don't have the strength to push open. Unless my wife is on hand, I sit there with a little penknife painstakingly and slowly cutting out each tablet. Laughable, really. And any bottle (and sadly not alcohol until July 2018) is an insurmountable challenge. A tin of sardines requires a screwdriver through the lift tab, and a solid bash with a hammer on the handle to lift the business end, having taken care to protect the surroundings from the inevitable splash. . .

Crown caps....On purchasing two bottles of Doom Bar on a XC service today the ladies said that she would open the second on her way back through. Of course my drinking was quicker than her selling/trolley pulling....
I was never going to risk the teeth but found that getting one of the pointy bits of a 20p under the edge of the cap worked fine... yay

I have a bottle opener key ring for just such 'emergencies'.  ;D

Indeed - rather more appropriate than the Captain Pugwash approach, I think:


(https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5402e23ce4b0a7034afad3a2/t/569e09f32399a350066def37/1453197813151/)

 ::) ;) ;D