cctransuk

As an aside - my local pub here in Bodmin, 'The Hole in the Wall', has just been awarded Cornwall CAMRA 'Winter Pub of the Year', and 'Cornwall Pub of the Year'. Despite what it says outside, DON'T go expecting food - just superb beers, ciders and wine and bagged snacks. The building is a former debtor's prison - think Dickens' "Little Dorritt" - and features a windowless bar with a perpetual fire - plus a stuffed lion in an alcove off the courtyard! Atmosphere - we've got it in wagon-loads here in Cornwall! CJI.

After a period of closure, The Maltsters has re-opened. I have it on good authority that the Sunday lunches are still superb. CJI.

Living in Bodmin - though not particularly familiar with the detailed topography of the station area - my impression is that some major engineering would be required to build the chord. Indeed, had it been practicable, I suspect that it would have been built. CJI.

....... I thought that you could only go to Newquay on an all-inclusive coach holiday; I can't imagine why else you'd go there! Anyway, Newquay is to become the northern hub of - 'The Cornish Metro', tah-rah!!! No, really - HS2 money! A vital link between Newquay and Falmouth, which will transform Cornish public transport, (and cost silly money)! As an interviewee memorably said on local TV - "Why anyone from Newquay would want to go to Falmouth, and vice versa, is beyond me"! CJI.

Doh - don't you just hate it when that happens? 😡 ..... and, no - I hadn't noticed that, either. CJI.

For a short period in the 2020s - shortie HSTs to Padstow from Exeter? CJI.

In which case, it's just as well that Wadebridge got a bypass - the town traffic in summer is quite bad enough without the railway! However, I prefer your scenario over what was bequeathed to us. CJI.

BR WD liveries - black - with one of two crests. WD - not so sure - but a niche market. In other words - much the same as the 2-10-0. Cast bodies - abandoned in the 1960s in favour of then-superior injection moulded plastic; now re-invented to compensate for the adhesion lost to endless electronic gubbins to make models chuff and smoke. CJI.

Given the volume of traffic converging on Padstow / Rock / Polzeath in the summer, a Park & Ride service a la St. Ives would be a viable proposition, IMHO - but only as a 'preservation' operation. Running from Boscarne Junction - the current end of the line for the B&WR - to Padstow could command ridership figures to rival the Festiniog & Welsh Highland Railways. There is adequate land adjacent to Boscarne Junction for a P&R carpark - indeed, there is already a limited facility for the Camel Trail. Moreover, immediately adjacent, there is an excellent family pub - the 'Borough Arms'. The site of Padstow Station is a soulless car / coach park, which could readily be transformed back to its original purpose. HOWEVER - the fly-in-the-ointment is two-fold : - i] SUSTRANS had the Boscarne Junction to Padstow trackbed converted to the Camel Trail - and this is a deservedly popular walking and cycling trail. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no realistic possibility of the Camel Trail and a reinstated railway co-existing. ii] the trackbed through Wadebridge has been extensively repurposed - think housing, a Co-op supermarket, a now-vital link road, etc. (The station and goods shed buildings still exist, however). I'm afraid that it is a case of 'If only there had been a little foresight' - but, too late now! The Wenford Bridge Branch - again, a distinct possibility as a preserved railway - think Beattie Well Tanks or small ex-GWR 0-6-0PT / 0-4-2Ts, and converted brakevan chassis for passenger accommodation. But - once again - SUSTRANS got there first, and we are too late! A very great shame, and opportunities lost! CJI.

After this winter - rose-tinted? - blindfold, more like!! 🥺 CJI (Bodmin).

Sorry - but IMHO there is no need for a new WD 2-8-0. I judge my locos on performance, not on features (which may, or may not, be necessary). My WD runs superbly - once I had found the random short, generated by a trapped wire. It seems that, nowadays, models are judged on whether they have the latest innovations - be it cast bodies or whatever. If a model looks like the prototype, performs like the prototype - what more do you want? Ahh - sorry; a model with little inherent mass, so that a multitude of electrickery can be crammed in to give chuffing and smoke - hence the 'necessity' for a cast metal body. I know - grumpy old man! CJI.

Obviously - but, nonetheless, not a general purpose design. Rather, a specific design, for a specific purpose, requiring exceptional design criteria. CJI.

Weren't they originally intended for Chunnel trains to the Continent? CJI.

Blimey - that was a quick turnround! CJI.

I think that we've got the point that you don't like it - so don't buy it. It's not big and clever to use 'over the top' stuff like this! 🤔 CJI.

There was a time - not so bad nowadays - that, if you walked into a pub in, say, Blaenau Ffestiniog, the conversation instantly changed from English to Welsh. But that was in the time of 'Come home to a living fire - buy a cottage in Wales'! 😀 CJI.

My understanding is that it was a driver-training loco, pending the introduction of production AC locos. CJI.

I have, in the past, resorted to brass wire dowels, drilled through the aluminium sides into the whitemetal ends. Once filed flush they are invisible, but seem to help in preventing flexing / cracking of the corner joints. CJI.

Just as well they didn't know any better in those days! I suppose that such arrangements only started to give problems when someone twigged that they ought to! (Accident waiting to happen, and all that). 😀 CJI.

Here we go again - I thought that we'd both agreed to leave this alone! Identifying oneself has nothing whatsoever to do with proof - an alibi can be proof of innocence, but not the mere act of producing a document to identify oneself. It is impossible in the present world to exist without a means of identifying oneself - a variety of means of doing this currently being required. It is simply far more efficient for both citizen and authority if a single, universal document is used. Nothing to be frightened of! CJI.

Not being any kind of expert in such matters, I merely repeat what others, far more knowledgeable than me, have published. CJI.

Scepticism is fine - but I have yet to see a reasoned argument, or a quoted case, which shows the above pro-card argument to be a fallacy. Bring 'em on, I say! CJI.

Thanks to a fellow member, I can advise anyone interested in the factual background of the PALVAN saga, and subsequent efforts to remedy the problem, to read the article in the April 1966 edition of 'Modern Railways'. CJI.

This is all very well, but the accident report (above) seems clear to me in that the uneven wheel-load problem, which caused extreme ocsillation and rail-jumping, was the basic design error of having heavy doors on diagonally opposite corners. Poor loading could be a factor, but were the derailed wagons not empty? CJI.

Anything to do with the Snailbeach Railway or the Glyn Valley Tramway? CJI.