EddieB

I'm guessing that you've found subsequently that "13" was 99 5903-2, reverting to its final (1918) Nordhausen-Wernigeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (NWE) number. (From 1898-1918 it was NWE 18). Quite surprising, as it did run with both DR insignia/number and NWE 13 in 1982 The photo of the shunter at Ostbahnhof is intriguing, as it appears to be in private ownership - industrial or perhaps a depot pilot. It looks like an LKM V18 or V22 (both DR class 101) - do you have a record of its number?

I won't cry for you...

https://delveintoeurope.com/heydrich-assassination-site-prague/ If you've got transport, then a visit to Lidice (in the Kladno district) rounds off the evil of Heidrich with the brutal reprisal carried out there. I visited when the site narrative was full of Soviet propaganda. I wasn't aware of the film Anthropoid - worth looking out for (though I remember the one where Kenneth Branagh plays Heidrich).

I must admit that that wasn't the result I was hoping for - it doesn't bode well for the season to be another RB runaway. Credit where due, I thought Gasly did well to finish in the points. Valtteri will be keeping the Mercs honest for another year. A solid start for Sargeant - carry on (geddit?) like that and you'll outscore Latifa's total points haul before the season reaches half way. Is it me, or does anyone else hear Fred Basset as the Team Principal at Ferrari?

Fascinating, Phil. Did you visit the spot where the car was ambushed and Heidrich shot?

Apparently something of a problem in New South Wales, with the 80 class (diesel) having a similar body and colour scheme to the 85 class (electric). I've wondered whether similarities between "our" 68 and 88 classes have ever caused confusion. The saddest story was related in the US Trains magazine. At the end of WW2, US engineers were helping to restore the Italian state railway system. A siding had been isolated to allow work on the OLE. However a signaller mistakenly set the points for an electric loco, whose pantograph bridged the isolation gap into the siding. With no warning a man working on the overhead was electrocuted and dropped to the ground dead.

No. You'll recall that a party of taggers were hit and killed by a train while working on a piece of vandalism several years back - they were friends from well-off families. While the do-gooders are looking into social deprivation, thousands (if not millions) are spent in policing (including helicopter hours) trying to stop this dangerous and unnecessary pastime. Taggers should be apprehended and made to pay for cleaning/repainting every instance of their criminal actions.

Doesn't seem right, but it seems the phone pics are at least as good as those taken on a "proper" camera!

I agree with Moxy that the Spanish loco is 1706, not 1705. One of a pair of 0-6-0 locos built by Sharp Stewart (b/ns 1222/3 of 1860/1, not Cail) for FC de Almansa a Valencia y Tarragona (AVT), originally numbered 21 and 22 (later 45 and 46). They became Norte 1705 and 1706, but only 1706 survived into RENFE ownership, becoming 030-2003, before withdrawal in 1947. The picture shows the loco is later form, with a more substantial cab. As Moxy says, FC de Ponferrada a Villablino no. 5 was built by Baldwin (BLW 52658/1919) and is preserved at Museo Ferrocarril, Ponferrada. The two locos at the Warsaw Railway Museum are PKP 2-6-0 Oi1-29, Schwartzkopf 3450/1905 (ex-KPEV Elberfeld 319, 2110, PKP-A Oi1-7, DRB 37.171) and 2-6-2 Ol12-7, 2-6-2 StEG 3849/1912 (ex-kkStB 429.195, PKP-A Ol12-43, DRB 35.817). The latter was later moved to the Skansen at Chabówka. CP E169 was originally Minho e Douro 409 (Henschel 8916/1908), now restored and plinthed at Vila Real (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@41.2953488,-7.7390479,3a,75y,211.49h,75.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sP8IqqwKfCj5Hz7A3VAhmWQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192). The T18 type in Turkey is one of eight ordered from Henschel by the Anatolian Railway (CFOA), delivered to TCDD in 1925. The location appears to be Istanbul-Haydarpaşa (the terminus on the Asian side). (I cannot make out the running number).

It's important to remember that until 2007 Eurostar ran into Waterloo, and traversed conventional trackage to/from the Channel Tunnel and stock moves to/from North Pole depot. Here's a photo of 37602/37604 working through Kensington Olympia with barrier vehicles in August 2001. (I had noted the same set up at Clapham Junction a week before - I don't know if they had stayed put in the meantime, or whether they had shuttled back and forth). As noted the leading vehicle has a fairly dim "headlight" - I suggest that although it would meet the later RSSB standards (revised 2004 - but not my area of expertise) greater visibility would be desirable and so the headlight arrangement of the locomotives was changed.

After last week's disruptions, Chiltern services appear to be running between the West Midlands and Marylebone "normally" this week.

It's an 0-8-0T built by Vulcan (Stettin), works no. 2907 of 1913. In the 1960s it was acquired by Steklarna Hrastnik (Hrastnik Glassworks), and is preserved as their "SH-1". I think it was put on the plinth in 1994 - shortly after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Here's a photo from 20 years ago - a rather foggy day! Regarding the transporter vehicle that overturned - I think it is this 24-axle monster registered to Zagrebtrans in Croatia: Uaai-z 33 78 9964 900-4. Due to its specialisation, it frequently operates into the surrounding countries. Here's a view (partly obstructed by a more recognisable electric loco) from Komárom, Hungary in 2018.

Good video, but had you noticed that the shot of oil-burning 01 523 departing was followed by shovelling coal onto the fire?

I can only agree. There have been plenty of "villains" over the years, but nearly always they had redeeming features - be that mercurial driving technique (AS), feedback into car development (MS) or conduct away from the track (SV). Max has nothing to offer than a sense of entitlement, puffed up by Horner and the rest of the RB management team. Maybe the best chance this year would be if Checo's simmering resentment boils over and starts to pull the team apart - but I think the mature Checo knows better than the bite the hand that feeds him. I really hope that the Mercs are competitive, so as to be able to take the fight to Ferrari and Red Bull. Aside from Lewis getting another chance at the title stolen from him the year before last, we've waited a long time to see George deliver what we knew him capable of. Of course I'd also love to see another team enter the upper echelons - McLaren to be sure - but I can't see that happening.

Breaking news - the greatest footballer (of the greatest team) has passed on. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42751517 Given the news emerging during the World Cup, not unexpected - but still sad.

There is a full account of the line and listing of its locomotives (in Norwegian) in the book "Glemte Spor" (= "forgotten tracks"). Electrification was present from the beginning (1913) and such steam locomotives as were present in the pre-war period were small tank locos or fireless types. During the war years there were times that it wasn't possible to run the electric locomotives over the line - which implies that they continued to operate for most of that period. There is no reference to importation of steam locomotives at that time. I have no link (the newspaper report is behind a paywall), but a news item appeared on the NJK website last October that nine tank wagons had been lifted from their watery grave. ("Ni tankvogner har i løpet av sist uke blitt heist opp fra sin våte grav").

Straying slightly off-topic (but staying with Mora), I note that the surviving two broad-gauge Garratts and a vintage electric E-1003 were towed from Llerida to Mora yesterday for restoration.

Due to their slow movement, all Llorises, including the slow Llorises, have a specially adapted mechanism for defense against predation. Their slow, deliberate movement hardly disturbs the vegetation and is almost completely silent. Once disturbed, they immediately stop moving and remain motionless.

“Some 40ft in diameter” according to GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY ENGINE SHEDS PART ONE - Stratford, Peterborough and Norwich Locomotive Districts (CHRIS HAWKINS AND GEORGE REEVE). Given that it was removed in the early twentieth century that might be as precise as can be ascertained - hopefully there is a historical record somewhere. The book has a list of turntables as at 1900 and 1932. Ongar is confirmed as 40ft in the 1900 entry (and had gone, of course, by 1932). Apparently a decision was taken to remove it in 1917, by which time it was long out of use (replaced by an arrangement of points, the turntable had been relegated to the end of a spur). The actual date of removal is unrecorded, but had gone by 1920 (though, as noted, it was absent from the 1919 system maps).

The Chinese classification system utilises two prefix letters that generally refer to the wheel arrangement (though different classes having a given wheel arrangement may be designated by more than one set of letters). These may be a Chinese term, but a fair few are borrowed from recognisable English/America terms. For example ‘KD’ referred to 2-8-0s (KD-6 the USATC S160), is clearly derived from “consolidation”. Amusingly the 2-6-2 classes had the prefix ‘PL’ from mispronunciation of the term “Prairie”.

...Not to forget Perez 1.0.

The Japanese in Tokyo knew something, but not what had hit Nagasaki until much later - the bomb took out lines of communication. It was other factors that created the inevitability of surrender - not least how the Soviet armies were slicing through Japanese forces in Manchuria and advancing on Japan itself.

Knockout football is often a game of fine margins. Look at the three quarter-finals that preceded "ours". Had the first French goal been pulled back for the fouls (plural) on Saka, had Kane scored the penalty - who knows? We might have been fractionally behind with our starting XI, but we had a stronger bench - which could have turned the initiative had the game gone to extra time. Frequently the "best" teams have fallen to "inferior" opponents (of course such terms are subjective) - think the 1970s Cryuff/Neeskens Dutch side, the Portuguese generation that preceded the current one, or the now ageing current Belgian team.

You don't have to be in the penalty area to score - as France showed yesterday. Perhaps you're thinking of netball?

That’s good to hear. By contrast, during a visit to Kundasang (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundasang_War_Memorial) I encountered a group of young Japanese who were anything but. I guess it’s about education - when both sides fail to teach the truth.