woodenhead

Saw the oral surgeon today, it was just an extraction, he didn't need to do any packing or stitching. Was in and out in 15 minutes and didn't feel a thing apart from the obvious pushing/tugging. Hopefully this is the end of the extractions.

The broken tooth that my dentist couldn't remove has been removed by the oral surgeon. Was he efficient - appt 11:45 and I was outside again at midday. Excellent with the needle, careful with the tuggy/pushy bit and best news he said he saw bone between the cavity left by the extraction and my sinus so unlikely to have punctured the membrane. Said if I notice anything odd in a couple of days I can go back to have it looked at and if necessary stitched, but he said 90% of these sorts of extractions don't break the membrane so I should be fine. Taken a couple of paracetemol ahead of the final bit of the anesthesia wearing off. So glad this tooth is out, it's been 4 years or more of anxiety trying to keep it in when it really needed to come out. My fault entirely, but the three dodgy teeth are now all out so everything is good.

Yeah, plenty of conversions before nationalisation, wasnt there a big push after WW2? Apparently it's Vera Lynn that's trialling it first https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2024/04/yorkshire-railway-announces-partner-to-convert-steam-locomotive-to-oil-burning.html

It's an interesting conundrum - I agree it doesn't feel authentic but as they explained, no more UK coal, imported coal is getting expense, harder to source the right stuff and then there is moving it when the world is moving away from that sort of transportation. They are not limited to one sort of oil, it can even use vegetable oils in the solution being proposed so lots of options and plentiful UK supply and if waste product helpful too. Ovoids don't appear to cut it unless you are investing in specially made ones for steam loco use and that might be a dead end or even more expensive. Then there are the running benefits over the moors as much less risk of fires being cause as no cinders dropping. I guess it's this or a lot less steam running, more diesels and potentially more engines sitting idle meaning less and less time spent maintaining them to the point they are no longer able to run.....

How would they be opened in an emergency?

lol is it Alstom now. Maybe I should stick to BREL Litchurch Lane, safer. 😀

If we are getting esoteric. How about some narrow gauge, OO has it, 7mm has it so why not for TT too. Could call it TTn.

NYMR looking to convert their steam to oil.

Yeah, it was a little tongue in cheek

Bombardier need some work…

I guess if you create the opportunity then in the words of great showmen "They will come". But whilst it's great to make Blaenau a destination we have to then also make Llandudno / Llandudno Junction a destination too, one that will attract tourists to come and the rejoice in the delight of a heritage journey to Blaenau where there are lots of attractions waiting to be visited. Sort of I guess on the lines of these big cruise ships arriving in port and fleets of coaches waiting to take the passengers off on day adventures. Because it's no good having it all set up at Blaenau if the tourists have had to leave London at red eye o'clock to get to Llandudno for 9am to begin a 1 hour heritage journey to Blaenau to catch a coach to go zip wire across an old quarry. I don't see that happening, so you also need people to want to experience North Wales and especially Llandudno to create the market for Blaenau to tap into. Not sure Llandudno is that untapped market presently.

You don't look a gift horse in the mouth as they say! A commissioned item is covered by the commissioner unless Kader agree to take a risk, so if a Rails or Kernow come to you and ask you to produce x model and they are paying for it then it's good business because it's not your risk, it's theirs and Kader will have their profit from the endeavour which feeds into their bottom line. It's then down to the commissioner to sell the stock they paid for not Kader's. If all your work was commissioned and paid for life would be so much easier for Kader.

Not to mention as ECTS as it creeps northwards from London - it might not get everywhere but you can imagine there will be limited lines where steam will eventually be able to operate without ECTS. The A1 project are spearheading the design of the ECTS application onto a steam locomotive, they were also meant to be then fitting it to a WCRC/RIley Black 5 and an LSL Black 5.

According to the KWVR who own 45212 it is air braked.

Some might say too wide, but that's another story for another day 😀

Can. But I would not say it's the most reliable method, from past experience the curved points did not always perform as they should when it comes to electrical transmission to the blades. I power the frog and use Cobalt IP Digitals.

Going off the current 3 hourly interval timetable and the fact the train does not hang around in Blaenau then perhaps there is a gap for a heritage train to go to Blaenau before the 10:30 service and return later, to allow the patrons to then visit the Welsh Highland before returning. You need need to berth & service the train somewhere at Blaenau and it assumes there would be enough time for a decent trip there and back on the Welsh Highland otherwise what would be the point.

Depends on your starting point I guess - good teeth are easier to maintain than ones that have taken a battering. I believe I look after them now, but as a child I had to wait until a peer at secondary school commented on the state of my teeth to make me realise I was not doing something lots of other people were and my parents had not taught me this even though I had had to have a milk tooth removed under sedation. Don't look after you teeth early on and you pay the penalty later, both my children have good teeth through to adulthood so I hope they don't experience what I have.

The station, there is the south face of the bottom platform, there is a track there but it looks rarely used now, the face is fenced off from the station. The goods yard and coach sidings are long gone and concreted over, but perhaps there is a little space for a small servicing facility either at the station or around the periphery of the old goods yard. Nothing easy here though, you need the will of the local councils to support it, you need NR and TFW on board and you need to find someone to provide traction and coaches (CDL fitted). Then does it have the wow factor of the Mallaig run, does it have something that will draw in tourists, if not then it will fail quickly and badly.

It made 6.3% profit EBITDA, whereas in 2022 it made an operating loss. Cost of finance has increased significantly and it's still writing off assets which has eaten all that profit. So the plan for 2024 will be to stabilise the borrowing and increase revenue to create a bigger EBITDA next year.

There is a spare platform face at Llandudno Junction so no need to build anything new which would only balloon any costs and condemn any attempt to provide any sort of heritage service down the line to Blaenau. But I would guess the most complicated conundrum would be paths and operation like for example passing places with the TFW services and handling at Blaenau without interferring with the existing service. I wouldn't even contemplate going up to Llandudno itself.

How the world changed

Is that Linda Lusardi advertising Travellers Fayre - a different form of muffins

I had two teeth out last year, seeing an oral surgeon tomorrow for another one out, it's too close to my sinus for my private dentist to want to risk. Only had a couple of weeks wait for the NHS appt with the surgeon so they may see you faster than you expect. I did notice that private fees jumped massively after lockdown, having a tooth out was £65 before Covid but is now £125 and more expensive than a filling. But my own anxiety about the extraction meant I did not seek help until I was absolutely paranoid all my teeth were coming out last year (they weren't) and I finally agreed to what the dentist had been suggesting for years - remove the two infected ones. This latest one isn't infected by I managed to grind out both sides of tooth around a filling leaving basically a tooth capped with several fillings which kept coming off. I finally admitted defeat last month and asked the dentist to remove it after which the willpower I had been using to hold it together broke and the various fillings on it fell apart in my mouth. In terms of pain, I lived with pain through Covid not through the cost but the fear of the extraction which in the end was nothing.

They would not sustain it for long and they won't spend a penny in Mallaig - the area needs tourist traffic not penny pinching enthusiasts.