RJS1977

I have a feeling I heard that on I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again a "few" years ago.

More likely "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" - it's probably where I got it from!

I'm still not sure it's a good idea putting Oliver Cromwell and a King together. It didn't turn out too well last time.... ;-)

Reminds me of a conversation I heard over 20 years ago when I was scorer for my school's First XI cricket team.

During one of our home games, my school was fielding and most of the away team were sat on the pavilion steps either waiting to bat or having got out.

As the school was close to the flight path to Manchester Airport, the visitors spent almost as much time watching the aeroplanes as the cricket.

As certain airlines had a number of 'slots' at the airport with flights from different destinations, it was quite common to see two almost identical aeroplanes fly over within minutes of each other.

"Didn't that plane fly over a few minutes ago?" asked one of the visitors.

"It must have reversed," replied his friend. 

Atmosphere? Not motor sport atmosphere for sure.

 

With the tight urban corners, and all the safety fences in place, most Formula E "circuits" resemble kart tracks in the middle of building sites. As a consequence, Formula E usually looks rather down market.

 

Monaco has always worked for F1 because it isn't a typical city. Old commercial centres are too "tight" for properly fast racing and don't provide the pizzazz required. That's why all the other F1 "street circuits" are in new cities that have been laid out with much more flowing highways. Even then they (for me) lack atmosphere compared to a proper race track.

 

John

The thing that's put me off going to the London events (apart from date clashes) is the apparent lack of any form of support series. Consequently there's a gap of several hours between qualifying and the race while cars are charged up (and possibly repaired!) when nothing happens on track.

Likewise the amount of 'filler' between races on ITV's BTCC coverage gives the impression there's a lot of time there when the spectators don't have much to watch - or are there other races we don't get to see?

I think "might be possible" is more accurate that "would be possible".  True, looking at the roads north of the lake it looks like something could be done using Chemin des Floralies - the wee link road that the map shows as leading back on to the track from the roundabout at the east end could possibly be adapted, although when you look at it on streetview it's actually two separate car parks at the moment.  

It looks to me as if the area off the roundabout (where the grey car is parked) is accessible directly off the roundabout (the pavement is dropped to street level and there are tyre marks on it). From there it appears to be directly connected to the circuit, with just a broad painted line (or possibly a removable plastic speed bump) in the way. I suspect the link is there to enable amulances, marshalling vehicles etc to access the track and to be somewhere failed cars can be pushed out of the way. Either way though, as you say, it's immaterial owing to the restriction on the number of days' use.

I've just taken all the German names out of my friends list...

 

.. I've gone Hans free

Here comes Hans Bumpsidaisy and his brother's daughter Ann. She's...

Hans' niece, Ann Bumpsidaisy! 

I don't think there is a lot of scope for shortening the lap of the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve.  Most of the open space in the middle of the circuit that would be needed for a short-cut is actually water!

 

 

Also, according to Wiki only two race weekends per year are permitted on the track.  One of those is the F1 weekend.  If Formula E wanted to use the track then whatever uses the other race weekend would have to get bumped elsewhere.

The lake internal to the island ends just to the right of the picture, beyond which there are some internal roads so it would be possible to configure a shorter circuit.

IIRC, next time Formula E head to Monaco, they will complete the full circuit of the track. They had made a sharp left hand turn at Saint Devote (Turn 1 of GP track) and down a little road which brought them out the Nouvelle chicane (turns 10 and 11 of GP track).

 

 

The "little road" (Avenue J F Kennedy) is in fact the escape road for the chicane during the Grand Prix, and a fairly major road in Monaco when there's no racing on (the area round Tabac/the swimming pool is used as a car park the rest of the year, so all road traffic through the tunnel goes up that road).

That said, aren't most of the Turbos built a bit wider than normal stock (hence FGW/GWR have always managed to get a good leasing deal on them as they're too wide to run anywhere else!)? And I seem to remember hearing somewhere that a third train would have been involved in the Ladbroke Grove collision had it not been for the wider track spacing.

I don't know how much further apart the lines would have to be in order to avoid the aerodynamic effect referred to, but even at the 'pinch points' there's still clearly more clearance between the tracks on ex-GWR lines than elsewhere.

I've been told, by someone that ought to know, that speeds on classic UK infrastructure won't ever go much above 225km/h because the aerodynamic forces between two passing trains would dislodge the ballast.  This may be less of a problem elsewhere where the tracks are more widely spaced (though the trains are also bigger) and I guess slab track might offer an alternative solution. 

 

Increasing the track spacing would require re-build of at least half the track, stations, signals and OLE and probably nearly all the structures. 

What about on ex-broad gauge lines?

...or lots of glue.

 

Geoff Endacott

Don't forget the washing-up liquid!

 

My largest challenge now is keeping the dvelopment going. It's too appealing to just play trains.

Yes, my father and I had the same problem with his layout - as soon as it became possible to drive trains out of the main station, up past Goods Junction and come back on the other line, there was always more temptation to 'play' than 'do', even more so once the return loops at each end were completed. That said, the experience of 'playing' led to ideas for further improvements.

I remember seeing a birthday card which stated that progress on Stonehenge slowed dramatically once the first two uprights and a crosspiece were in position because the workers started playing football instead!

 

I sometimes play chess with my eastern european friend. He's my Czech Mate.

 

I like to play chess with old men in the park, but it's very difficult to find 32 of them....

 

 

Maybe the posts about old motor bikes put me in mind of AJS as the make - I read recently they'd had a go at making charabancs at the time of the depression to stay alive.

dh

My father's initials are AJS. No prizes for guessing what type of motorbike my grandfather owned...

Try running with 15 balls.

22...

What about snooker? ;-)

Folk is a single collection of people.

 

Folks refers to the individual members of that collection.

 

From here:

 

"Folks is a collection of individual folk. The distinction being that "folk" refers to a mass or a mob -- It is referring to the collection or the mass itself. "Folks" is referring to the plurality of individuals that make up the mass."

 

So Folks is correct in this case

Or how many elephants can you get in a Mini?

Red Rock cider wasn't red, and had no rocks in it....

Or even IRN-IC!

A certain heritage railway near me has a sign in a toilet cubicle saying something like, "No items [at all] are to be flushed down this toilet". It's a very clean toilet ... shame about the smell from the bins. 

Any truth in the rumour a certain other heritage railway is going to put up a sign saying

"Please do not flush anything down the toilet. Use the hole where the floor should be instead."?

Something I've noticed recently in toilets in a variety of places as diverse as  the office block where I work and on GWR HSTs, is signs to the effect of:

"Do not flush anything other than toilet paper down this toilet."

I'm not sure that's quite what they meant....

Or the person who tried taking a former European Commission President to court:

I fought Delors and Delors won...

BREAKING NEWS

 

A man who took an Airline company to court after his luggage went missing has lost his case.

I could imagine that as a headline on the Two Ronnies!

The smooth lines of the Class 800s mean that they more closely resemble Yul Brynner.

 

Geoff Endacott

Perhaps someone should name a Class 70 after Eli Wallach....