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Interesting that, in this picture at least, the ferry vans appear to be narrower than the VBA / VGA vans. A drawing would confirm for certain of course.

Interesting that you seemingly could ride in your own (horseless) carriage once it was loaded on to a wagon (or should that be waggon?). Did Motorail miss a trick?

Probably need to look at the times, rather than the number of positions. I could be a second slower than you, but still be next right behind you on the grid if nobody posted a time between the two of us.

J1223 - steam hauling (early) Mk2 stock in blue/grey livery. I can't quite read the number, other than make out it is M followed by four digits. If the first digit is 9, then a brake coach BSO, or 5 for a TSO.

The McLaren, I think we can agree, is a car that requires some development. If the 2019 line up in that team turns out to be Sainz and Ocon, as many are intimating, how well will the car be developed with two young, talented, but relatively inexperienced drivers? I was a little disappointed when I heard that Sainz had gone to McLaren. Can't help but wonder if that will prove to be a dead-end for whomever goes there, much like Williams could be. The intention may be to 'park' them there for a couple of years until a 'better' seat becomes available but if in the interim another 'Max' appears on the scene they could easily be bypassed. Suppose that is the roll of the dice - better to be somewhere in F1 rather than somewhere else, perhaps?

I would be saddened if Ocon was dropped from Force India mid-season for Stroll. As others have said would presumably be of no benefit to Force India, if nothing else. Presumably both drivers have contracts for the remainder of the season and those should be honoured, IMO. Swap them in the the close season, if at all. Of course there are exceptional circumstances, such as injuries or breach of contract, but mid-season changes should be the rare exception, in my opinion.

With reference to J6484 (post 13978), that is some serious pruning of the tree in front of the camera just to get a glimpse of the front of a DMU in the distance. :-)

Ref: Picture C7785 in Post #13933. Which of the various HST catering cars had this branding?

Daniel Ricciardo to leave Red Bull at the end of 2018 - https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/45056366 - apparently. Favourite place for him seems to be Renault at the moment.

This has been considered a few times in the past in order to bump up the number of cars on the grid. There seem to be two main objections: 1. Cost - considering the teams aren't even allowed to bring a spare car to the races these days, to bring a third car, 50% more people to service the car, not to mention employing someone to drive said car would probably put this proposal out of reach to all but the biggest teams. Which leads to the second objection: 2. With individual teams dominating the sport from time to time (Ferrari then Red Bull then Mercedes in the last 20 years) the prospect of consistent 1-2-3 finishes from the same team was deemed not to be acceptable. Yes, other series (rally, Le Mans) have three car entries, and occasionally one manufacturer scores a 1-2-3, but this wasn't wanted in F1. There have also been proposals that the third driver be someone of limited experience in F1, e.g. giving a 'test' driver race experience but how do you define limited experience? With 20+ races in a season someone could drive for 2 seasons and have nearly 50 F1 race starts under their belt. Doesn't sound like a rookie any more. As a team principal, would you put a rookie driver into a F1 car knowing that by the end of that year they would have had to either prove themselves good enough to replace one of your other drivers, be of sufficient interest to another team (assuming you would be willing to let them race for another), or drop back to a non-racing role?

If the brake van developed a hot box and had to be knocked out, then presumably a replacement would have had to be put on the train? [unless there was more than one brake van in the train, or this brake van wasn't being used in that capacity.]

From earlier, how to make the racing more interesting: More mechanical grip. Less aero grip. Tyres that last the entire race. Unrestricted use of DRS.

Interesting that the underframe equipment isn't boxed in like the Mk3s and Mk4s. Or is this fairing yet to be added? Also, possibly because the windows don't come as close to the end as earlier coaches, these seem short when compared to the Mk 3's and 4's. Unless they are shorter for some reason?

I don't think I've seen the large Railfreight logo on the right side of the hopper before. Interesting variation. Should probably look at Mr Bartletts site to see how many of the fleet had this and thus whether I should have paid more attention. The small logo near the top of the hopper and the slightly larger logo a little further down are more usual. Wonder if that particular logo was intended for another type of vehicle, perhaps a van, and ended up on the hopper for reasons unknown.

Pickled Onion flavoured Monster Munch! Don't think I have seen them in Australia, not even in the British shops. A Walkers product, from memory.

Coach F next to Coach K? By my counting K is 11th in the alphabet. How many coaches are they putting between HST DMBs these days?

Kyalami, sometime in the 1970s, I forget which year. The fire extinguisher was apparently found in the car park behind the main grandstand, seemingly having cleared said grandstand in the process. A car stopped on the opposite side of the track to the pits. Two marshals and an extinguisher went to assist. The second marshal didn't make it, nor did the driver of the car that struck him.

With a 17 point deficit and 10 races to go, I think Vettel is already in the position of requiring at least one more non-points finish from Hamilton to close the gap. When they are both on the track and racing well they tend to finish close enough to each other, and with either in front of the other, they normally only take small margins out of each others lead and then the other finishes ahead and so the gap opens out again. If Hamilton finishes the remaining races of the year in the points each time, the championship is his. Yes, I'm calling it this early :-)

Depends if it is a large or small wallaby. :-)

Wouldn't worry about it. Even starting from P14, assuming he avoids the first corner shenanigans, the car alone is good enough for top 4. Bet he isn't regretting signing for another 2 years though.

Where I am (Australia) any collision between train and animal is known as and referred to as a beast strike in communications with control. Partly in case the crew misidentify the animal but probably because some animals may be subject to compensation (e.g. cows, horses, sheep) whereas others would be wild (e.g. kangaroos, camels, dingos).

A little surprised to see locos in service with graffiti on them in Spain on Flickr, but was told by the photographer that (sadly) that is the norm. Freight stock seems to be a magnet for it, possibly due to largely blank sides and being stabled for periods of time. Plus not being full of people...

First of all, thank you for the interesting, informative and at times entertaining thread. It is one of the go-to threads on this site for me. A question about what happens if, as seems to be the case last night, your loco is blocked in by another companies stock. Are you allowed to just jump up and move the FL 66 out of the way, even though it isn't a Colas (your employers) loco, or do you have to seek permission to / give notice that you moved their equipment? If it was a type of traction that you weren't passed out on, would you still be allowed to move it as it is within the yard limits and (presumably) the fundamentals are the same as those types that you are passed for or would you have to find someone that is specifically qualified for that type of traction?

The vacuum fitted hopper looks an interesting oddity. Assuming a catfish (ZEV) / dogfish (ZFV) rather than a small revenue earner. Looking at the hull behind, assume this is low water and we can see the bottom layer of vehicles. Odd that they would be deliberately placed in the water. Presumably scrap was bought by weight and after prolonged immersion in the (salt) water there might be somewhat less when it came to the final cutting.

The pictures of Minfordd were interesting to see. My first thought when I saw the up view was "was it always like that or is this a double line that was singled and the platform moved?" but looking at the picture can see that the platform previously extended beyond the bridge so presumably was always a single line. Both views show that originally there was more railway land on the other side of the line, now fenced off. I was intrigued by the van in the down view, particularly as it looks like it isn't a grounded body but could be on an underframe and therefore possibly on (isolated) rails.