PatB

I am reminded of another Perth incident, when a kids' water playground (basically, lawn sprinklers with ideas above their station) was opened as part of a fancy waterside development in the city centre. Because it was the usual Perth half-arsed, cheapo bodge job, badly designed and constructed, and signed off in a hurry to meet the Minister's packed ribbon cutting schedule, it had numerous problems. Chief amongst these was that, after a week or two, the water was found to be harbouring assorted nasty microbes that thrive in a hot climate in damp conditions. Rather than admit they'd botched the whole thing, there were serious proposals from the powers that be that children entering the play area should be forced through a bleach shower so they wouldn't contaminated the water. I'm pretty sure the whole thing was quietly torn up after only a few months, and is never to be spoken of again.

And, on a related note https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-22/bite-victims-warned-stop-bringing-snakes-to-emergency-department/103752506

Because Perth is conveniently situated within walking distance of the surface of the sun most of our buses are sealed, airconditioned boxes, largely to avoid the necessity of hosing out melted passengers at the end of every day in summer.

That'll cost a fortune in Peco track rubbers.

Looks suspiciously like Brian Monaghan getting a bit arty with a RotM c1980.

Back when JuniorB was in kindergarten, they had a school trip, which I can only admire for its genius and simplicity, consisting of herding all the kids onto a bus, taking them to the depot and through the bus wash, then back to school. Exciting (for 5 year olds), cheap, and the kids were kept contained at all times when off school premises.

Currently 22 quid. Doesn't actually seem too bad for a Dublo Deltic. It's not like the original Dublo paintjob was particularly complex to reproduce, so it could be a nice piece for someone not totally obsessed with originality.

I've always thought the Ratio loco kits were a laudable effort to offer a loco kit that was as "easy" to put together as a plastic rolling stock kit, for a relatively affordable price (metal kits being expensive). Unfortunately, in practice they seem to have showed why conventional loco kits were/are how they were/are.

I've used Molotow, and other "street art" paints on (legitimate) mural projects and been very impressed. They stick like crazy to pretty much anything, with no more preparation than a blast with a pressure washer, and seem to last very well. I recently drove past one of our projects that's now 8 years old, and it's still looking good. The colour choice is excellent, too, and includes shades that don't appear in more "conventional" ranges. Well worth a look.

Interesting. I admit that it's been some time since I bothered to look at Oz retail pricing, as it had always seemed to follow the usual Australian situation, for any goods out of the mainstream, of poor range and swingeing markups. Perhaps the distributors and retailers have caught up with the Internet era and are adjusting to the realisation that their markets are no longer captive, and it's better to have a small cut of something than a larger cut of nothing.

Although given typical Australian model railway pricing, and the cost of shipping back to the UK, someone is going to have to really want them.

Indeed, I have long suspected that there may be insufficient harvestable energy, and other necessary resources, to sustainably provide widespread powered personal transport at anything above the level of an ebike.

It's not a completely daft idea, and, given a degree of user discipline (so not in public service, then) isn't as uncivilised as you might think. Google "composting toilet" or "dessicating toilet". Such systems are becoming increasingly popular on boats, where discharge of waste is becoming similarly unacceptable, and where a traditional marine toilet dumping overboard also carries a significant risk of sinking your vessel if it goes wrong or is misused.

Well, in a way it is, at least anywhere with plentiful water. The basic chemistry of electrolysis is neither complex nor new. The tricks are obtaining the energy to split the water molecules, and then compression and storage of useful quantities without (a) blowing yourself up or (b) wasting most of it by leakage.

I gave up on the RAC here when I realised that their patrol guys knew less about my vehicles than I did and, yes, were likely to actively endanger expensive electronics. The towing service was handy a couple of times, but as my vehicles have become newer and more reliable, the necessity has dropped off. If I were to chuck the annual subs into a pot, I'd easily accumulate enough to cover a (massively overpriced) private tow on the rare occasions it might be needed.