RJS1977

Sorry, I have to disagree there. I can think of a number of heritage railways that have some sort of "destination" at the end or partway along. K&ESR has Bodiam Castle. Swanage has Corfe Castle or Purbeck Mineral & mining musuem, or Swanage itself if going the other way. Torbay & Dartmouth has Dartmouth. WHR has Caernarvon (including castle), or on shorter journeys Beddgelert. NYMR has Whitby and Goathland etc. Vale of Rheidol has Devil's Bridge waterfalls etc Whilst I can see your point about people not wanting to pay admission prices as well as train fares, that will obviously vary from passenger to passenger and not all "attractions" necessarily charge an entry fee. Note also that both Bodiam and Corfe Castles are National Trust properties, so NT members don't have to pay an admission charge. It could well be that there are (or were) passengers visiting the neighbouring attractions that wouldn't have done so had the railway not been there. Up until the pandemic, lines were often working quite nicely with the "attractions" at the end, and indeed the attractions often offered a justification both for getting the necessary permissions to open the line, and in some cases for grant funding. We need to be very careful in saying that heritage railways do not offer a means of transport and are more like a fairground ride. Currently heritage railways (other than those entirely within museum sites like the demonstration lines at Didcot) attract 0% VAT precisely because they do offer a transport function. However since the pandemic, a number of railways have attempted to cut costs by only offering tickets on particular trains (so you come straight back on the train you went out on) and/or closing intermediate stations, and no longer issue single tickets. This prevents visitors from visiting the attractions along the line, which both discourages some visitors from coming to the railway, and reduces the amount of money visitors spend in the local economy. It then becomes questionable whether those railways are still providing a transport function. I for one would hate to see HMRC decide that this is the case and start slapping VAT on heritage railways.

The reason winds blow around depressions rather than straight into the centre is also due to the rotation of the earth - the Coriolis effect.

Portillo also has the advantage of having been a Transport Minister many years ago, so it's entirely natural that he should take an interest in the rail network. It should also be remembered that (particularly on the BBC) there are very strict rules in the UK about allocating any air time to serving politicians that could be interpreted as giving them political advantage at the next election. Personally, I'm all for seeing (current or serving) politicians (irrespective of flavour) exploring their personal interests (hobbies, family history, etc) on TV. So often we see so much of the adversarial side of politics that it can be easy to forget that they're people!

Yes, the construction of Francis's layout could have been spread out in segments over several episodes.

"The ship was disguised as a train, to make the train sea-worthy it was done up to look like a boat and painted to appear like a tram." - Seagoon "All rather confusing, really" - Milligan

Watched it just now. Quite interesting from my own perspective, as not only did I visit Pete's Leamington Spa layout a few years ago, two weeks ago I took a layout to the B&WWMRC exhibition (at Greg's invitation), by train, via Sydenham station!

I was thinking of the British Trolleybus Society....

Having been fortunate enough to visit Pete's layout a few years ago, it came across to me that not being able to see the whole layout was its biggest downside. Although the points, signals, etc, were controlled from alongside the station(s), the trains IIRC were driven from the fiddle yard(*), which was in a different room. This meant that the driver had no vision of the state of the signals and was driving blind. Consequently all he could do was drive the train round the circuit and back to where it came from. Stopping in the platform, or crossing between the GWR and LMS lines were virtually impossible. (*) There may have been some local controls for shunting the goods yard etc, but this was effectively independent operation from the main lines.

Not quite. Neddie built the aeroplane in a garage of Lisle Street (hence wanting to take off from there). Grytpype-Thynne sold him the air to fly it in!

You gotta go "owwww"!

Although having heard many episodes of the Goons, when I read scripts of episodes on the (now defunct) goonshow.net site, I naturally read them in the characters' voices.

Yes, that was the first episode of the Goons that I heard. I was just thinking that had Eddie's layout been set in WW2 rather than WW1, perhaps Minnie Bannister, Henry Crun, Constable Seagoon, and a mysterious figure walking the cliffs with a gas oven (Lady Docker?) could have been included....

Not just the trains - the minic motorways circuit in the "town" section was running very nicely as well.

Even we don't get to access that side of the bridge very often! As there is insufficient clearance between the tracks over the bridge to erect a fence, that section of the branch constitutes a "red zone" that C&WR volunteers need specific permission from Network Rail to enter on foot, usually only when there is a possession on the Relief Lines.

Just discovered that there's also engineering work on both the Reading-Guildford and Reading-Bracknell lines this weekend :-(

As a pedestrian, I would say I feel safer being passed by an escooter than I do by a bike, partly because they make a noise, so I can hear them approaching me from behind, and secondly because they come with integral lights, so I can see one coming towards me in the dark (many cyclists just don't bother to fit lights).

I think either sideis acceptable, although in many cases the platform is on the side nearest to a diverging branch line (e.g. Cholsey, Twyford and Maidenhead all have bays on the up side, Slough's is on the down side, because that's the side the branch is). Where there isn't a branch nearby, I suspect it would normally go on the side nearest the station entrance to make it easier for passengers, although that would depend on availability of land. If the departing train can only go one direction (i.e. up the main line), a single post would be used. if there is more than one possible route, a bracket signal or a single post with a route describer would be used.

I think it came down to economical factors. At the time, it was felt that the reduction in insurance premiums due to reduced fire risk outweighed any cost increase in using oil (IIRC the FR were also able to make use of waste oil from Trawsfynnydd - which was effectively free).

That's one of the reasons that both the Festiniog and Vale of Rheidol converted to oil burners for some years.

Iceland would seem to me to be a good place to make use of fireless locomotives - all that geothermal heat! Just charge the loco up from the nearest volcano....

It's questionable whether the main line into Marylebone would ever have been electrified at 1500v DC - one of the reasons it's the last diesel-operated terminus in London is beacuse the tunnels under Lord's cricket ground preclude overhead wiring and can't be lowered because of the Regent's canal (which cuts through the site of the previous Lord's cricket ground near where the ex-GC line crosses the canal!). However 1500V DC does not require as much clearance as 25kV AC does, so it may have been possible. I do not anticipate there to have been any issues with running 1500v DC overhead over the Metropolitan line, as both systems are DC, and I think it is only AC that causes interference problems. The alternative of course would have been for the GCR to have dual-voltage locos converting from 1500v overhead to 750v 4th rail at Amersham (or possibly further north).

We've still got a couple of "Cholsey & Wallingford Railway" pint glasses for sale at Wallingford station...

Although John is identified as the "space monitor", and all episodes have John on the station, he and Alan worked alternate months on the station - there's at least one episode where Alan is on his way up to relieve John when TB3 needs to divert elsewhere.

I think the wagon that takes Alan Tracy's sofa to Thunderbird 3 is an Airfix Loriot...