Northmoor

One of the similarly-positioned gems in the Liverpool Poly Engineering block was, "Don't beam me up Scotty, I'm having a sssshhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiii..................

Didn't Wayne Gardner admit he'd crashed on a Grand Prix slow-down lap, because he was, "Distracted by this great pair of t*ts in the crowd"?

I don't agree with some of your posts but thank you for that very reasoned post. If only some others on this and other RMWeb threads had the same self-awareness.

Expect to see it all on boot sales within a 50 mile radius very shortly.

Bit like my mate years ago who went for an eye test. "Can you read the bottom line of the chart?" "What, where it says Made in England?" Or when I did my bike test. "Can you read the plate on that blue car down there on the left, please sir?" I replied with what I read. The tester looked at me like I'd answered him in Norwegian. "That blue car on the left, there", pointing at a car about three car lengths away. I gave the right answer, then "Sorry I was looking at the dark blue one down there" (about 100 yards away). "What, you can read that? I probably couldn't tell you what car it was". Not quite as good vision now, need reading glasses but still pretty clear. I remember reading how Freddie Spencer, 1980s motorbike racing genius, once said how leaning into a corner he reckoned he could still resolve individual blades of grass alongside the track.

Oh dear.

Growing up in West Wales, I don't recall ever reading/hearing about anyone being hit by a train door or falling out of one. Are you suggesting the regulations on slam door stock didn't need to be applied there, only in the locations/routes where there had been serious injuries or fatalities?

Thank you. I know some believe these statistics are "tricked" by fewer passengers and staff not working on the line when trains are running. Well unless the work isn't being done at all, removing people from the risk is a perfectly accepted safety mitigation while (at least pre-pandemic) passenger-journey numbers were at record levels, so that excuse doesn't wash either.

I agree it isn't about demand but it is very likely to be about available capacity, specifically the impact of a failure or most likely late running. Steam loco performance is so far from that now achievable by modern EMUs that if they end up missing their (often very generous) path, they are likely to cause much worse disruption than if that were to happen further away from London. The regular correspondent on Main Line runs in HR magazine has long been obsessed with the idea that steam specials should be allowed to run at up to 90mph to allow margins for recovery. While I suspect this is more to do with his particular interest in fast running - which the vast majority of travelers would have zero interest in - it would also achieve very little as it is the desperately slow acceleration compared to modern multiple units, that causes problems with pathing. Not something that has to be worried about too much North of Fort William.

That is very rapid in considering whether to defend low-lying areas, which is why I believe the plan is NOT to defend the Fairbourne peninsula, one of several such areas around the British coast. If the sea has risen 4 inches in 40 years, the implication is that current sea defences will normally be over-topped several times a year, instead of perhaps once every four years. If I ran the Fairbourne Railway, I'd be looking for a new site to relocate to already.

Probably very realistic then......?

I obtained quite a few OS Maps surplus from Boscombe Down which are normal 1:50,000 Landrangers with all the power lines, wind turbines and communications masts highlighted.

Some people think maps are quite adequate....... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/sailor-using-road-map-to-navigate-is-rescued-710914.html

Agreed, The Death of Stalin is a minor masterpiece. One of my favourite films is coincidentally one which barely departs from the book. In Fred Zinnerman's The Day of the Jackal, the script almost adheres to the book word-for-word.

I've got one, it's from Life-like. I've similar plans for mine.