woodenhead

On the topic of card machines, I have not noticed Sainburys, Aldi or Asda sanitising card machines after each use - they are being sanitised but not per use. You wouldn't need to sanitise if the card was used contactless either as there would have been no physical contact between the machine and the card, only chip and pin adds the degree of contact.

I wonder how many other nasty illnesses have reduced as a result of better hygiene and less physical contact since covid came on the scene. Certainly it has helped the sexual health practitioners but that's another story.

Cardinal Fang, bring me the bus for the bridge

Well they sound similar to me, but maybe that's just the Paxman bit.

Which in truth is how our legal system works - there is a basic contract that the vast majority of us will follow the rules as set down and respect the police for enforcing it when we err. We have consented to that contract and it's why the police do things the way they do and why it felt very odd for them to be out telling people off for being at the seaside early on in the outbreak. The minority who flout the rules also to a certain extent accept the rules as well, they turn up to court, take the fines, take the prison (well maybe not quite so by choice) but may well flout the rules again when free. The Government we vote also abides by rules and one of those is to protect the general population from harm and manage the economy. It is these current rules that is making life for the current Government very hard - where does the line between those two very different objectives lie. Not sure if even a constitution would resolve this current conundrum. So back to your point, yes it would be very easy for the British people to overthrow any government, we just have to choose en-masse to do so and declare the government no longer has our consent. I think though for this to happen would take something very dramatic as a catalyst as so far we've shown little enthusiasm for change. Of course we may have been influenced to live with the status quo.

I was reading today that the Oxford vaccine didn't work on monkeys, they still got and passed on the infection. However, what they were pleased with was that it stopped the damage to the lungs and pneumonia. So whilst they are still looking at it as a vaccine it appears perhaps it won't be, but it may stave off the worst impacts of the virus.

They're just a HST in wolf's clothing. Actually, made me think, the HST is a type 4, it made a wonderful screaming sound until they put in a bus sound decoder. The one I am thinking about had a much more macho bass sounding engine note and had the looks to match, and given the thread we are in, any other diesel loco would be an honourable mention only.

It would make an interesting experiment to exist in a society where people vote for what they want the society to look like and rather than have a ruling government we have a set of institutions that are there to deliver the outcomes that the people have decided upon. In our current political regime we vote for the party who make the most inviting promises to society but whilst they have then the mandate to deliver those promises never do so in the manner it was expected. In the past voting on such a scale would have been difficult, but with secure IT (the people would surely vote for that) then we could live in a world where we vote for a set of defined societal benefits knowing the true cost to society at the outset.

I think Phil wants to spend less time on the pessimistic side of the street, we all do, if you watch the news it is wall to wall Covid, just like last three years were wall to wall Brexit. I think the media has found itself in a place where it has to have one thing to talk about - the complexities of life are now lost on news media and it needs one beast to poke, eat and regurgitate. We're not all at an imminent risk of death, Covid is not like that, we are living in a world distancing to keep our health service & society functioning. Hopefully, we are over the worst and as time goes by things will continue to improve, it may probably never go back to how it was in all areas but we will get used to it and adjust, that is nature. Anyway, blimey, isn't it windy today, I've got a queue to go stand in shortly

I am hopeful for Warley - I guess this may depend on what sort of money earner it is for the NEC - they are probably going to need to have less on at the same time to improve spacing - the actual hall is usually only two thirds used so it could actually spread out to deliver excellent social distancing. However getting to and around the NEC may be the kicker, but we can wait and see. Peterborough is a stretch for me, I wouldn't drive and that leaves just the East Midlands service from Manchester, the time spent on the train being the issue. It will be nice to be able to travel again, but equally I am enjoying the fact there are less people out and about, can't last forever though can it.

Sir, you are truly a learned gentleman.

Combine the two and get a powered wagon. https://www.railwaygazette.com/freight/self-propelled-wagon-prototype/40181.article

I had to go to Google to decipher that passage

So many type 4s to choose from but I'll go with the one and only class 40. I think we know the winner of the type 5, why even bother with a vote.

A student looking at this might take a different opinion, that perhaps you have missed the point of why many go to university Open university and distance learning is a perfectly suitable means of education for many people. But for many when attending university, the living away from home and developing social skills are a very important part of the experience. How do you develop the bonds and friends for life when you're not even leaving your bedroom in your parents home. I don't disagree necessarily with the stance the universities have taken because for the very reason people go to university is also the very reason why they could be hotbeds for spreading covid in those environments and not everyone at univerisity is a fit 18-21 year old. But I can imagine a lot of people deferring their attendance until they can go back, this could be disastrous for the local economies around the universities - rental sector, shops, pubs, clubs, venues and the universities themselves.

I think 2 metres because people will find it harder to estimate 1 metre so you pick a larger number knowing people will be closer than that but probably still 1 metre away. Queuing into Sainsburys would bear out my theory as we don't tend to stand that far apart. I went to B&Q last Friday, went at 5pm, shuts at 6pm, the only queue was for the tills.

@Ben A the RMWeb massive is beginning to eat itself over this announcement - please give a morsel so they go back to discussing the models and not dissecting every word each of them use.

Hornby Mk4 GNER coaches - it's up to you to decide if they are of sufficient quality - a lot will say no, some will say absolutely not and some will go Mwah. People are hoping that Cavalex can still turn out new Mk4s still having pulled from the race to deliver a new 91.

Given the GWR worked with the LNER out of London on the GC and the LNER was actively pursuing electrification on Woodhead to overcome a similar problem then I could imagine something very similar to the EM1 design being built for or at Swindon.

Class 37/0 Blue, central headcode, bufferbeam cowls intact covered in Welsh coal or in a triple hauling a certain South Wales ore train

Milford is also a siding now, Google Streetview still shows the loop, but if you drop on the station a Google user uploaded an image in June 19 that showed the loop had been lifted with a 175 at the platform.

This is the indirect impact of the virus as everything that couldn't be done this year but needed to be is shunted into space where it can be accommodated. And a recognition that travel will be impacted in a number of ways for some years to come. There could be more delays yet as uncertainty about second waves causes people to keep future plans fluid. Better safe than sorry from a financial perspective, a risk of a venue that isn't ready, accommodation shortages or excess cost due to proximity with the Commonwealth games all sound like a recipe for disaster. I hope they got their deposit back.

Gonna be a class 76

Had a night to contemplate how much of the room this loop has taken up - I mean I had the warnings when I put the two baseboards together (original plan was end on joins to create 8 foot length with tight radius curves). Originally when I got this room I wanted two terminus stations with a loop in between so trains could leave one station, use the loop as the running section and then exit onto the other terminus. Whilst this loop is rather different to what I envisaged it is still a loop for continuous running with two exits which were to go onto a bigger loop around the room but now I think perhaps I come back to the original scheme of two termini of a preserved line. A bit of re-organisation of the room required as well.

As of today I don't have a wife called Eve but I am left with a 4 foot erection in my office after an evening of screwing. It is rather larger than I expected - somehow I have built a 4x4x4 open framed cube with some N gauge track on top, not only that it has points that operate at the flick of a switch and trains can be isolated in sections. However due to it's size and allowing space to reach all corners in case of need I may revise the plan to go screwing all around the room.