Nick C

I notice this a lot when I visit my in-laws in Poland - Polish cuisine involves a lot more fats than ours does, yet they have far less obesity (according to Wikipedia, the UK is 36th on the list, they're 69th)

Well done Jim. I think with any major change of habit it's the first few months that are the hardest, once you get into the new habits it should get a bit easier. The better weather we're starting to get should help too, more incentive to get out for some exercise if it's sunny...

So sorry for your loss. We had that same awful decision with our Clydie two weeks ago, it might have been possible to continue treatment but it would have only prolonged the suffering, he had clearly had enough. When it comes down to it, their quality of life is what really matters.

Not so helpful if you've got a platform at the start of the journey but not at the end! Most guards I've seen use, as you might expect, the one closest to them at the start - which can be awkward if they end up with the opposite platform at the end...

Which is why you should always use the council's official rights of way map if you need to know for sure... The Hampshire one is pretty good, interactive and showing information about each RoW. The island one doesn't seem to be...

I've found a good source of loco photos these days is to simply stick the running number into a Google image search! It doesn't always work, but often throws up something...

All this talk of outside bogs, sinks etc, the GWR must have been very lavish with their provisions for branch line signalmen - on the LSWR the bobby would just have to use the station facilities. (Though I presume stuff would be provided in the more out of the way boxes)

There is also a lot of bureaucracy around the vaccine in Germany - many of the Polish workers there are going home to get vaccinated as it's easier than trying to get through the German system...

Sad to hear that Harold's partner has fallen ill. I've only bought one modratec frame, but I found Harold to be incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, always replying to emails next-day (noting, of course, the time zone difference...) and replacing an incorrect part very quickly.

Thanks - our posts crossed in the ether!

At a guess, because 100 is released by 99. It'd also be interesting to see what the arrangement at Edgeley Junction was - would they have a lever to provide the release? Or is it interlocked with the block in some way, like you'd normally see for a section signal?

Interesting! There's a pic of the relevant bit of the diagram on Flickr here. Also unusual in that each end of all the crossovers are worked independently.

I agree - it definitely doesn't have that Drummond feel about it - I'd say it's too short, and the lip looks too big. Edit - there's a fairly good pic of 258 at Basingstoke shed here: https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=69&product_id=738

Ok, parhaps Appls wasn't the best example, but there certainly seems to be a thing these days about 'brand' being more important than quality, service etc. The issues you've listed above are, quite frankly, utterly shocking for a product that is being sold, and priced, at a premium level - more on par with what would be expected from BL in their later days - and even worse if they're being accompanied by the after-sales attitude mentioned in earlier posts. If I'm ever in a situation where I can afford a new EV, I certainly won't be looking at Tesla based on that.

That's what happens when you sell a product based on hype and 'brand' rather than quality. Just look at Apple - they can, and do, get away will all sorts of things, and their fans will still come back the following year to stump up another grand on the next new model...

Not only that, but production capacity has plummeted as factories were repurposed to produce PPE...

You can see why, very bad design. We've got a similar, but less dangerous one here - they've just re-done one of the roundabouts and added lights and spiralling lanes - but one of the lane signs for traffic already on the roundabout is clearly visible to joining traffic - and I've seen several people get confused as to which sign applies to them and get in the wrong lane, leading to a couple of close calls - especially in the wet when you can't clearly see the road markings. It doesn't help that there's no advanced lane signs on that particular entrance, so traffic taking the 2nd exit straight across doesn't know that it needs lane 3 (1&2 being 1st exit only, and the usual mistake being people in lane 2 wanting to go straight) Another one they've done on a couple of these traffic-light-roundabouts is signing each exit as a separate junction - so you see a sign with lanes marked left, straight, straight when really it should be left, straight, right, taking the roundabout as a whole - you don't want people changing lane mid-roundabout.

Apart from the obvious dig at Hattons and the like, the rest of this is showing that Hornby have actually been thinking about what the bulk of their target market actually need - and remember, we are only a small part of their market - most of it comes from the trainset/Airfix kit/toy market - and for those buyers, customer service is vital - grandad has bought little Johnny a train set for Christmas, mum who knows nothing about trains wants to get some accessories to go with it, they need someone who can help them to choose something appropriate and compatible, which online-only retailers certainly can't. They're also the kind of people who are going to be swayed by things like a neat, well laid out shop - while rummaging through piles of stuff in a rabbit warren might be great for us, it doesn't tend go down well with 'normal' folk.

I met the late Mr Young a few times - a somewhat interesting character, who certainly knew what he was talking about when it came to long-distance rallies. I took the photo used to illustate the CityRover in the projects section of that book...

Not from here, they were all too high going over. I looked a couple up (which is how I know where they were going), but didn't note down the airlines

Given the location and direction it may well have been heading for Lasham - they've been storing planes there during the lockdown and rotating them every so often.

So what you're saying is, this thread is too quiet and you need more points of discussion?

Given the wind we've got here at the moment, I think the umbrellas are futile.

No, but it did have a coal fired power station, an M7 famously came to grief there after falling down the goods lift to the W&C...

Agreed, it seems that various combinations of soda, citric acid and white vinegar seem to be able to replace almost all of the nasty chemicals used for cleaning.