Sir Ray

I found the images of the depot look pretty interesting. Also interesting, looking at both Bing.com & Google Maps images of the area, all views seem to show the depot in full operation - long rakes of tanks on the sidings, numbers of tanker trucks at the racks, and so on. Now, I was reading in the "Changing Face of Plymouth" thread that this facility (along with the Marsh Mills clayworks loading facility) had closed in 2008, so clearly those aerial views are way out of date. The questions I have are: Why did the Esso Bitumen Depot close in the first place? Seemed like a busy facility from the views. I didn't read any reason in either thread so far? Also, is Bitumen the same as Asphalt, the near universal road paving material around here in NY? You'd think there would still be a need for that. Finally, why did the Marsh Mills clay works stop loading? According to the Face of Plymouth thread, that and the Esso Bitumen facility shut down killed traffic on the branch (excluding a scrapyard, which apparently loaded wagons right on the single track of the branch...)

Its summer so in the North East US I have to detour to avoid the Street Fairs (Fun Fairs I suppose in the UK) that crop up around the nice-weather months. Run by Churches, Civic Associations, or Local Chambers of Commerce as a way to raise funds, they usually last about 5 days (Wednesday night to Sunday night), set up in parks, church-yards, parking lots or on the street (hence, street-fair), have entertainment - in my younger days I used to work part-time setting up and breaking down the portable stages that the bands would play on at the fair, and so got to know street fairs very well - and are the place for tweens and young-teens to be seen by their peers (better than the mall even). That said, they had the usual portable rides hauled by trailer (usually some spinning and twirling rides, somtimes a ferris wheel, rarely bumper cars, some kiddie rides like a train or catepillar, a fun house, etc), games of 'skill' (shooting galleries, ring toss, dunk tank, coin-shoveling tables and so on), often (if a church) a 'Casino' tent (not strictly legal in many areas of the US, but oh-well), and other stuff...and of course the food tents/trailers. There was a lot of food common across different street fairs - whether because it was expected by the crowds, or because the same vendors handled the different fairs, or both, I am not sure. I can think of about 8 common food items, and wondered if UK fun fairs have equivalents: Zeppoles - The ones at the fairs are not fancy like the Wiki article, just fried dough with sugar sprinkled on top - no custard or anything else Funnel Cakes Sausage & Peppers (& Onions) - Hated this, as I hate peppers & onions - Sausage on a roll I like, but they always cooked the sausage w/ the peppers & onions - bleh Roasted Corn - Not sure if the UK still uses 'Maize' for ears of yellow corn, but yep, ears of corn roasted on a grill, butter optional but recommended (they dip it in a vat) Corn Dogs - Not all fairs have these, but bascially a hot dog/frankfurther wrapped in a corn-meal breading. Actually do taste rather good Italian Ices - in the past restricted to fairs and to cheap yellow cups with an image of a stereotypical Italian vendor on them, over the past few years lots of store fronts have opened selling Italian ices during the summer. I can't say I'm not sure why, as these stores usually have a line of people out the door on any night with hot weather. Cheese Steaks- Well, this one seems pretty straightforward - YOU'D THINK - Slices of Steak, Cheese, in a Hero. Except - what type of cheese? American, Provolone or Mozzarella, or even 'Cheez-Whiz' - believe it or not, the correct answer is Cheez-Whiz, although Mozzarella is now more popular. How do you slice the steak - slices, or shredded? Do you put butter on (the correct answer, alas, is 'Yes')? Do you put mushrooms and onions on (Thankfully the more common answer is becoming NO! - Without!). Go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and you can start a religous war about Cheese Steaks (and one about Philly Roast Beef too) Waffle Fries - I guess they would be Waffle Chips in the UK? Maybe not. I left out the obvious foods that both UK and US fairs would likely have in common: Cottton Candy; Hamburgers; Hot Dogs; Soft Ice Cream; Toffee/Taffy and so on. So, which fair food are common in the UK that I listed, and which foods are common in UK fairs that may not be in the US (if good, maybe we can convince the 'Carnies' to start offering it here)?

Are you a member of the Straight Dope Message Board? Recently there have been several threads on the SDMB about cover songs, including covers that improve (the 2 baselines being 'All Along the Watchtower (Dylan/Hendrix) and "Blinded by the Light" (Springsteen/Manfred Mann)), and covers that take the song in a different direction - this thread, which should be viewable to anyone not registered (you just can't post). These types of threads are cyclical, and have been done before, but usually there's always something new/forgotten in the previous thread, and I figured you may have gotten the idea from there...

Thank you for the responses, an rather interesting mix of info so far. First, let me re-iterate how common concrete footways (sounds nicer than 'pavement' or 'sidewalks' ) and asphalt-concrete roads (I found out this is the correct term of what everyone else calls 'asphalt' roads - including me), I took the bus this morning (car in shop), and of a 16 mile journey (also looking out the windows at the side roads since, hey, it is a bus. maybe 700ft of footways was asphalt (and this was a cheat - this was a light industrial zone, and a cabinet maker and a plumbing supply house had simply paved the entire areas in front of their buildings as parking lots, so in fact there was no footways) - the remainder I saw was concrete footways and asphalt roads (this is on Long Island, suburban area of New York City). As a rule, 'driveway aprons' and 'corner handicap ramps' - which I guess is what you call 'dropped kerbs' - are also concrete. So, if I have this right, in the UK - tarmac (which may or may not be asphalt-concrete - wiki just shrugged and said 'depends') is quite popular for both roads and pavements, paving slabs are also common (I suppose mostly on High Streets), but more common in the past (come to think of it, I recall as a kid historical buildings used to have flagstones as the sidewalk, but apparently even for these areas flagstones have been relegated to backyard/garden duty (although there are a lot of historical districts in the US, some must still have flagstone walks), and concrete walks, rather uncommon. Speaking of Pavers, in the US when they use pavers the most common is a Hexagonal design, is that a common design in the UK also? Now, I am not exactly sure why concrete is so popular as footways in the US - it is more expensive than asphalt, and requires follow-up after pouring it, but OTOH the crews who lay down the concrete walks are fast - boom, dig up the old walk, lay down the forms and tamp the subgrade, pour the concrete, level the concrete, follow up and remove the forms (our neighbor just had their done last month) - I can see the pouring and leveling with screeds and floats of concrete to be much easier for semi-skilled labour to perform, than to lay and grade asphalt pavements (with mini-road rollers?). And for the record, few roads are build/rebuild w/ concrete nowadays either in the US, although this was the material of choice back in the 1950s-1970s - apparently costs are 3x greater for the concrete, and it takes twice as long to construct than using asphalt. BTW, I looked up images of the Yorkstone paving slabs mentioned, and many of them were so flat and uniform and tightly fitted together that you could mistake them for poured concrete (which I probably did when I was in London) - I guess ones that heaved and were unlevel would be very obvious. BTW, in the US a ridiculously large number of roads are called "Main Street" -now, assuming a High Street is the main conmmercial road in a town, are a large number of these roads also called "High Street"

Another overly broad question of things UK vs US First, I am equating UK pavement = US sidewalk, and defining them as a surfaced public footpath alongside a public road - so paths thru public parks or in peoples backyards/gardens don't count, nor do 'dirt' paths that people wear out walking across the edges of lawns where there are no sidewalks (this is common in more rural areas of the US). In the US, as a rule (and the wiki article about Sidewalks backs me up on this) sidewalks in Urban and Suburban areas are concrete - maybe about 93% or more. OK, the concrete may be patterned or colored (as in moderized "Business Improvement Districts" - notable for brick edgings along the curb and tree planters, and dark green old-fashioned light poles), but it's still concrete. Some places have brick or (more likely) pavers - hexagonal pavers were popular during the 1960s/1970s US Urban renewal era, maybe 2%, and some areas have a strip of asphalt (~tarmac) servering as the sidewalk material - usually in industrial areas or alongside large semi-wild parks or recreation areas. The remaining percent or so, odd stuff like flagstones or cobbles or even wood. So for US sidewalks concrete is clearly King. However, from Images, TV shows and Google Earth/Bing, I gather that much of UK pavements are, indeed, pavement (tarmac) - I have no idea of the percentages. In addition, I assume this is not the case in urban areas like London, and concrete is more common - but is it overwhelmingly common? I was in London about 10 years ago on vacation, and did some walking tours - often starting from the area of Euston Station, but for the life of me I cannot remember what material was under my feet (no, it wasn't dog poo or fast food wrappers). Can anyone supply some educated quantitative guesses on pavement - tarmac vs concrete vs whatever, urban vs suburban? Thanks

After a year and a half of this topic, I couldn't find this question (I tried searching), but I did find one or two youtube comments that agree with me... Is it generally acknowledged (in the rail-fanpress, or even by the general public) that the Class 60s look rather 'angry' anthropomorphically? If so was there any thought to repositioning the offending windshield wipers? (Alhough, if you reversed their direction but kept them top mounted, the 60s might simply looked 'surprised' instead.)

AlcoRS1 is correct, actually this fix was from 2 years ago - going by the YouTube posting date May 18, 2009 , and the posting date on his own web site also indicates May 2009. That said, I will give him credit for really good tracking soldering effort, seeing as how he can readily pick up, transport (and hang on the wall) his layout trackage.

Especially since the show 'Ugly Betty' has been canceled in the United States (not sure if any of the various Hispanic productions/telenovelas are still in production or not) According to Wiki, the Series Finale just aired a few days ago in the UK (I think it was in April of this year in the US - I never watched it, but my mom liked the show).