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The Night Mail


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4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I suppose if you are designing a camper van or a mobile home you start with the kitchen sink!

 

Last year we were looking at motorcaravans as Aditi was beginning to despair about whether or not we would ever be able to go on holiday again. We decided against it for all kinds of reasons. One of the big design possibilities for such vehicles seems to bed locations. Some didn’t look easy to access the loo once the van had been set up for sleeping accommodation. I wondered if some methods required leaving by the drivers door and re entering the side of the vehicle. I am sure if we had got as far as visiting the showroom the salesperson would have thought we would have been plumbing obsessive as I would be asking about the loo and Aditi the shower facilities. 
When buying cars I think they like you to sit in the drivers seat and admire the dashboard. I have consistently asked if I can see the boot and sit in the back seats. 

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6 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I was wondering if the various stickers on it are in one of two categories:

1. Police Aware

2. Have you been in an accident that wasn't your fault?

 

Dunno, cos'

(a) Bear can't read Arabic, and

(b) The place in the background is a Gas Station - and those (along with Refineries) are classed as a big no-no when it comes to photographs - even from the outside.  So this Bear wasn't stickin' around.....

Incidentally, I was once told that at one time the death rate on the roads in Saudi Arabia exceeded the birth rate.  If it's anything like Kuwait then I'm not surprised; on my first trip I had a Dodge Charger :yahoo:- sadly without Daisy Duke though - on subsequent trips I had a big Toyota 4x4 (which was small by the US Pickup standards) in the interests of self preservation.

 

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

@jamie92208: "Is this your vehicle, sir?"

@Dave Hunt: "No, but I own one just like it."

 

Not quite as classy but I recall the first time I went to the big Tesco in our newly-acquired grey Vauxhall Zafira. Coming out of the store with the trolley: "now which one is mine?" There were dozens of them, or so it seemed.

 

Bear once had a hire car that I parked in Tesco's car park; when I came out I couldn't remember what I was driving, so I had to wander around the car park pressing the key fob until I saw a car where I could make the indicators flash....

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On 15/11/2021 at 07:18, polybear said:

 

Bear has his Chrimbo prezzie all sorted:

Airworthy English Electric Lightning T5 for sale

https://www.historicandclassicaircraftsales.com/lightning-t5-zu-bbd

Oh look, it's a two seater too.  You too could have a ride (on production of oodles and oodles of cake), safe in the knowledge that Bear is driving....

Or perhaps an airworthy Vampire?  £100K, to you, sir....

Airworthy de Havilland Vampire T11 for sale

https://www.historicandclassicaircraftsales.com/vampire-t11

 

 

Bear has a brace and bits that were Grandpa Bear's, though the bits have seen much better days (and are of a somewhat strange design that don't lend themselves to easy sharpening).  Bear built numerous go-karts with the aid of those (not a thing you see anymore - I can't remember the last time I saw one).

 

 

Woodworm?

 

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I am sitting in the local(ish) Community centre having just had my Covid booster jab. Apparently a common side effect is the trots. I hope it isn't a rapid reaction otherwise the captive audience might get a tail twirling display. And I then might not get invited back. 

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2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Dunno, cos'

(a) Bear can't read Arabic, and

(b) The place in the background is a Gas Station - and those (along with Refineries) are classed as a big no-no when it comes to photographs - even from the outside.  So this Bear wasn't stickin' around.....

Incidentally, I was once told that at one time the death rate on the roads in Saudi Arabia exceeded the birth rate.  If it's anything like Kuwait then I'm not surprised; on my first trip I had a Dodge Charger :yahoo:- sadly without Daisy Duke though - on subsequent trips I had a big Toyota 4x4 (which was small by the US Pickup standards) in the interests of self preservation.

 

 

Bear once had a hire car that I parked in Tesco's car park; when I came out I couldn't remember what I was driving, so I had to wander around the car park pressing the key fob until I saw a car where I could make the indicators flash....

 

Been there done that more times than I care to admit too thank you

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7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I hope you left it in the same parking space.:jester: Or is someone still wondering how their car moved from one side of the car park to the other.:scratchhead:

Be amusing if someone pops up and says" that's what happened to my b****y car!"

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Many years ago I managed to upset a mate by unlocking and starting his Lotus Cortina with my Krooklock key.

at about that time I had a Humber Sceptre, every so often going over a bump the Ignition Key would fall out of the dashboard mounted Ignition Switch, leaving the engine running, that worried a few passengers ...   

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42 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Now if they could just reinstate the whole line to Plymouth, it would create a diversionary route should the sea wall at Dawlish ever suffer a wash out again

 

Now that's a novel thought which you can find dissected to the umpteenth degree elsewhere on RMWeb...

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Gloomy, gloomy, I'm afraid. As per various news threads:

 

-   There was heritage activity on the line so it wasn't upgraded from full 'abandoned after Beeching' status for the £45m

-   The immediate service is every 2 hours, rising to hourly next year

-   The line is broken and built-on in places at the Plymouth end

-   The bit shown on today's news was single track

 

So: muted good news, not the dawning of a glorious new era.

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42 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Now that's a novel thought which you can find dissected to the umpteenth degree elsewhere on RMWeb...

It's not an uncommon  pastime for various local action groups to suggest that lines are reopened.

 

In many cases the old track beds have already been built over or converted into roads which really puts the brakes on such a scheme.

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42 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

It's not an uncommon  pastime for various local action groups to suggest that lines are reopened.

 

In many cases the old track beds have already been built over or converted into roads which really puts the brakes on such a scheme.

 

The big, big mistake after Beeching screwed everything up was to allow the land to be sold off.....:angry:

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13 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Swapping a Tornado for an F18 would probably get noticed.  The stick would be on the wrong side for a start.

 

I think you are confusing the F18 and the F16, Bear. The F18 has a conventional setup with a central control column and throttles on the left and as for being different from the Tornado, the later F3s had an identical stick top to the F18. The F16 differs in having a side stick on the right-hand side but the idea, whilst having a slight benefit at high G, suffers from the fact that should the pilot suffer an injury to his (or her) right hand then controlling the aircraft would be nigh on impossible. Hence it has not been favoured for subsequent types.

 

Dave

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1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

It's not an uncommon  pastime for various local action groups to suggest that lines are reopened.

 

In many cases the old track beds have already been built over or converted into roads which really puts the brakes on such a scheme.

There's been some housing development on the trackbed in the Tavistock area, though not enough to make a bit of compulsory purchase prohibitively expensive, and several bridges demolished. The big ticket item would be a new crossing of the West Okement valley if the original Meldon viaduct could not be reused.

 

Pressure for reopening from Bere Alston to Tavistock has been going on longer than any for Okehampton. The road into Plymouth is poor, very busy in the peaks and horribly prone to thick fog. Reinstatement should have been a no-brainer twenty years ago.

 

By comparison, Okehampton to Exeter is mainly dual carriageway along the A30. The bus takes an age, but only because nobody has ever had the wit to run a direct service.

 

Don't even think about the remaining 16 miles from Tavistock to Okehampton until you see Plymouth commuter trains in Tavistock.

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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47 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Does any one want to buy an F35 on the cheap for £350,000?

 

It's cheap because it's missing the canopy and ejector seat.

 

Buyer will be required to collect from current location.

 

You'll have to beat HMG to it though - they already paln to recover it, which is unsurprising cos'

(a) It'll no doubt have all the very latest kit on it - that HMG would rather didn't fall into the wrong hands, and

(b) It'll be nice to know what went wrong...

Slightly before my time (but only just), but I believe there was an aircraft lost that was deemed too deep to be easily recoverable - the word was that it was depth charged instead

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There's been a group in this neck of the woods campaigning for yonks to reopen the line to Nantwich and Crewe but they blithely ignore the supermarkets, housing estates, roads and business parks that have been built on the old alignment. The biggest drawback, though, is that it would be resurrecting part of the GWR!

 

Dave

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