Oldddudders
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Posts posted by Oldddudders
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In my mother's youth there was a joke about the impossibility of abolishing the Second Chamber (i.e. House of Lords) because of the number of Liberal peers.....
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4 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:
Since the pandemic and the cancelling of all the franchise agreements and their replacement by management contracts, the operators are paid directly by the government in the form of their costs plus margin which is a puny 2%. Which is why it's proving almost impossible to attract bidders when contracts come up for renewal. Would you want to run a business for such tiny return?
No doubt this gloomy environment is affecting all the TOCs. I became aware a few weeks back (from a member of XC traincrew at Plymouth) that my former colleague Tom Joyner had quit as XC MD. When people like him - as former traincrew - jump ship it's probably holed below the waterline.
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A late friend feigned never to recall pub names, and would always identify such as "The Old Boot & Socks". Imagine his delight when he found a wine-bar near London Bridge called "The Boot & Flogger".
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1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:
I normally drink Prosecco rather than Champagne but if someone presents me with a bottle of the latter it seems churlish not to get stuck in.
Sound thinking. Prosecco tends to be a bit less alcoholic than champoo, typically 10.5% rather than 12.5%, and is certainly more affordable. I buy sparkling Saumur, costing about £3.60 in my local Lidl, which is made by the same methode traditionelle as champoo, and has the same % alcohol. I think it has more depth to the taste than Prosecco. I have never seen sparkling Saumur on sale in UK supermarkets.
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30 minutes ago, Steadfast said:
Talking with a friend we reckon Newey is Aston bound, and possibly what has kept Fernando there for the future? It's known Daddy Stroll made Adrian a big bucks offer at one of the earlier rounds.
I suspect money is not the big draw for someone with such a history of success and thus £ reward. He will be more influenced by the best offer of facilities and investment in the ultra-high-tech kit needed to succeed. We know, for example, that Williams has been under-investing for years, may now be catching up. He would be unlikely to choose such a team, despite his scope to take them further up the grid.
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On 19/04/2024 at 22:14, GrumpyPenguin said:
Nobody does "ugly" like the North Americans !
Google "Coffin feedwater heater" images.
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I have a little knowledge of horses and can say that as herd animals they react to each others' moods, hence mass-panic here, and as flight animals they run from the unknown if feeling threatened. That they ran into vehicles and damaged themselves is no surprise, as they really aren't very bright - my 6-month ownership of a donkey revealed he had twice their intelligence - so all the stuff they had already learned about traffic, streets and vehicles simply had no bearing on their behaviour. I hope their scars, mental and physical, can be healed soonest, but the former will take longer, I am sure.
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4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:
I visited Basildon hospital on Friday for a test. Basildon hospital is enormous but being built on a narrow site the buildings are long and narrow. I had an appointment at the Urology department and the (verbal) instructions to find it were complex. I got as far as the correct floor but couldn't remember whether it was turn right or left when leaving the lift. So I asked a hospital porter and he said he was going there so I just followed him. He told me to take a seat outside an anonymous door until I was called in. There was a lady also waiting there who was called in and she came out just before the time of my appointment at three and I was left sitting there on my own. After about twenty minutes as I hadn't been called in I knocked on the door and I was asked to come in. I said I had an appointment for three but the lady who was in there said she had no more appointments so she asked to see my appointment letter. Then it became clear, I'd been sent to the pneumology department. Fortunately I was on the right floor but at the wrong end of the hospital, the department I wanted, urology was about a quarter of a mile away. I eventually got there half an hour late but they weren't to worried about it but the patient who would have been after me went before me.
I bet you were pi**ed off.....
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Actually, this is sad. I am no Red Bull fan, and their domination doesn't do anything for me or the sport, but they are what they are, very good at C21 F1. Newey is that peerless human - a gifted creative with supreme tech capabilities. He thrives, like many other creative people, in an environment that is tranquil, stable, single-minded. If, as we are told, Horner's unwise woman-management skills have burst the bubble, I see that as sad. Whether the power struggle is really the root cause of all this, including the claims of the indignant lady employee, we may never know, but it does the sport no favours.
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I've always liked the idea of German bingo - acht und achtzig, zwei dicke damen!
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I note an informed quote in the CNN report :
“It’s absolutely a wake-up call,” said Rick Geddes, a professor and director of Cornell University’s Program in Infrastructure Policy. “The people who were building the Francis Scott Key Bridge never really contemplated ships of this size. It wasn’t their fault – they just didn’t have a crystal ball.”
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You Shouldn't-nuf Bit Fish - George Clinton
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1 hour ago, rodent279 said:
I think you'd have to be at least 30 to have experience of slam door stock in mainline service, at least 40 for that stock not to be CDL fitted,
I think classes 411, 421 and 423 were all cheerfully serving Kent less than 25 years ago, and plenty of kids went to school on them. I am not aware that any had CDL fitted.
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6 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:
What you require is an aural auger
If you put the handle into a power drill, and with the correct alignment, you can go from one ear right through to the other side without withdrawing the tool.
Something about that process doesn't augur well....
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2 hours ago, meil said:
Yes but they just do not get it do they? The ship may well have crashed into the bridge but the cause of the bridge collapse against such an obvious hazard that translates into a high risk (because of the consequences) is firmly down to the inadequate pier protection and therefore the owner and operator of the bridge.
You cannot have a totally inadequate protection against the blindly obvious risk of ship contact and not be implicated in the cause of the bridge collapse.
I was under the impression that having a pilot on board a vessel with a master and crew was to ensure the ship went pretty much where they directed it, in this case through the designated channel between the bridge piers. Since the power failure on board was the sole cause of the vessel failing to behave predictably, that comes down to its fitness to sail, which is the responsibility of the owners, no doubt delegated to the master.
After more than 40 years of doing its job to everyone's satisfaction, to suggest that the bridge design was wrong is unlikely to succeed in court. The designers of the WTC did not seem to be pilloried for failing to make the structures proof against a C21 aeroplane. This is much the same.
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A 159 at Dawlish? I am sure in 2004 I travelled on exactly that class from Torquay to Waterloo.
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3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:
To be or not to be. William Shakespeare,
To do or to be. John Paul Sartre
Do be do be do. Frank Sinatra.
I recall reading that on a 4-SUB compartment wall. Underneath a dismissive reader had added "Pseudo-intellectual crap"
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That is a most impressive homage to the original, which we are lucky to be able to still enjoy, albeit sadly without rails. I travelled across by train in the early '60s, and by (hired) bike in 1997.
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have you seen this? A little late for your interest, but includes a scene or two that might help.
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I do wonder whether Usher wagons went to Walworth Road sidings, known for their coal-drops, in LCDR territory. Certainly in my early-70s Croydon Control days, the greeting "Battersea Yard - morning figures" preceded a list of holdings which invariably included Walworth Road.
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Re: Person I Knew - Bill Evans
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9 minutes ago, gwrrob said:
To misquote the late great Cyril Freezer, a spam in bright pink with yellow spots livery is still a spam.And, in this case unfortunately, a rebuilt spam. Whatever reliability improvements rebuilding procured, they lost the essential Bulleid-ness.
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25 years after I adopted DCC, my only bolt-on to running trains is to operate points via DCC, and then only where it really adds convenience. But for those with the interest in doing so, the sky is the limit in terms of what DCC can do. It really can be all things to all modellers - subject only to the budget issue, which is significant in the present climate.
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The Night Mail
in Modelling musings & miscellany
Posted
Couldn't find it on Tesco online store. Brut v demi-sec is entirely a matter of taste. But on the odd occasion I bought demi-sec in error it was a matter for regret, so I am a true Brit.