RJS1977

<<< My 009 micro layout's official title is 'The Seaside Layout', I don't know whether that's ungeographic enough to count, but its unofficial subtitle certainly is - 'Where Seagulls Dare'!

You're lucky that a gull didn't swoop down and steal it!

Indeed, I'd been training one specially....

I don't doubt, not least as, at the last time of my passing through Reading last month, there is still a fairly large hole between Reading and Maidenhead. 

Jim

It's been there for 175 years or so. It's called Sonning Cutting....

I wondered that, but that 2nd barrier looks to be low, perhaps it's already bent? Question is, where is the train? One day the elephant is going to get hit!

Is it a 'User Worked Crossing' (or whatever the Indian equivalent is?), in which case the barriers presumably would always stay down unless lifted by the user?

 I also have found by experience, that Range Rover is actually an anagram of 'knob head', sad considering I worked at Rover back in the day.

Yes, but remember that the 2nd and 3rd generation Range Rovers were designed by BMW....

There is certainly a stretch of broad gauge track still in use at Didcot.

Not in use at the moment, as Firefly and Iron Duke are both out of ticket - and apparently some way down the overhaul queue.

Just a thought - if Iron Duke had been built to Scottish Gauge, would it have been "Irn Duk"?

At least they abolished their odd ball gauge, long before a certain other well known railway did so.

In fact, Brunel's gauge wasn't phased out of usage until 1913, not 21 years earlier as usually quoted.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_gauge

There may have even been a stretch of 7' 1/4" in use up to the turn of the Millennium. When I first moved to Reading in the late 90s, the Environment Agency had a large warehouse-type building just west of Reading Bridge. Behind it was a stretch of track with a travelling crane on it. One day, whilst browsing through some old magazines, I spotted a letter where the writer alleged that although the crane was marked "Gauge: 7 feet", he had measured the track and found the gauge was in fact 7' 0 1/4", and speculated whether this was the remains of some hitherto undocumented GWR siding. So when I next had opportunity, I headed up the Thames Path armed with a tape measure..... to find the crane and warehouse all gone, and a shiny new office block under construction :-(

But there's keeping in the middle lane because there's other traffic in the left lane (sensible, normal) and there's hogging it, ie not moving over when it is safe and practical to do so and when there is other traffic behind wishing to pass (silly, selfish, reduces a 3 lane motorway to a single line of traffic trying to all pass in lane 3), and for the IAM of all people to suggest you should strike a balance between the two is in my opinion rather poor, even if it is just an editorial piece, they should be above that.  

 

Sorry, rant over!

I think what it probably meant is that you need to ensure both that you're not cutting someone up when you move in a lane, but at the same time you're not holding up anyone behind you in the lane you're in.

That said, provided you're doing 70 (or very close to), there *shouldn't* be anybody catching up with you!

Not particularly sad to see it go, but sad for Andy and others involved in setting it up that it didn't work out the way they had hoped.

Personally I hardly ever used it - even to look at. Perhaps I was doing things wrong, but every time I tried to view it there were only a dozen or so items listed, and they seemed to hang around, so I lost interest in it pretty quickly.

It seems to me that what's needed is something with the simplicity of the old Classifieds, but with the protections of the Buy and Sell page (at least for items over a certain value). One option would be to have 'Buy and Sell Mk 2', but also retain the classifieds section as a 'front end', with classifieds containing a link to the relevant B&S page. That way you still get all the user-friendliness of the Classifieds, and people can post their questions/answers there (which should prevent the seller being asked the same question umpteen times) , but the protections of B&S remain.

''...the delicious patina of Loren...''

 

 

Oh, Doctor, I'm in trouble....

Personally I've never been a big fan of the idea of a 'national speed limit' simply because there are many stretches of road on which the NSL applies in which it is impossible/highly dangerous to do anything approaching 60mph. Yes, I know the speed limit is a maximum, and motorists don't have to drive at that speed, but a driver doing 50 on a country lane where anything more than 30 is extremely foolhardy is not actually breaking any laws (except perhaps reckless driving, which is more debateable than the yes/no of exceeding the speed limit).

The B road between Pentlepoir and Saundersfoot goes to NSL within a hundred yards of the junction with the A road through Pentlepoir, yet in the next quarter of a mile to the station, there is nowhere where 30 could be safely achieved, and approaching Saundersfoot station "SLOW" is written in the middle of the road round a double bend and through an arched overbridge signposted 'oncoming vehicles in middle of road'. No reason why the 30 limit through Pentlepoir couldn't remain in place until after the bridge.

This isn't quite 'Driving Standards' but what is a driver to do when faced with what are at first sight contradictory signs.

Brampton signs.jpg

These are just leaving Brampton (Nr Huntingdon) heading towards the A1, I think they're actually signs put up by a community roadwatch group, if they are then someone ought to have a word with them about where they're placed.  As you can see on the other side of the road there is an 'entrance gate' with the village name sign on, a big '30' speed sign and just to my right an illuminated speed indicator. But why place them below a national speed limit sign ? there are correct '30' repeater signs only 200 feet before these.

 

And before anyone asks I was stationary with no traffic behind me. 

The signs with 30 on them are the speed limits, the things above them are banner repeaters....;-)

Discussion with one of the OHLE project managers at Maidenhead yesterday produced suggestion of 12 car 387s replacing the peak time HSTs to/from Didcot from late September, which presumably throws up HSTs to displace some 180s for Grand Central? Not sure when they're due to be cascaded but can't be far off. Presumably 387s will take over Reading stoppers from around then too which will start to allow Turbos to head further West.

Interesting suggestion around Bedwyn service posted above, depending on how many IETs could be used for this, plus the Oxfords (which should be 387) I'm starting to wonder how many times a service that was once an 8 car HST and becomes a booked 10 car IET is run as a 5 car IET vice 10 car. It will happen at some stage and passengers are going to love all these new shiny shorter trains...

On the other hand, 8 car HST develops a fault, service is cancelled.

One of the two IEP sets fails, the service is run with a shorter train.

I know which I'd rather have.

"We apologise for the inconvenience".... :-)

Would that be the Triang-Minic model by any chance? I remember them from an old (~1968) catalogue. IIRC there was the civilian saloon and also one with a flashing light on it. Fire Service? Even when I was quite young I thought the Super Snipe was an interesting choice for a mainstream toy manufacturer.

 

Yes, that's the one - standard version without the flashing light.

It's unlikely I'll be there either this year as it clashes with the next round of the London Undergound Random 15 Championship, and having missed two rounds and failed miserably in the third I'd really like to get some points on the board! I suppose if the start turns out to be Manor House or Finsbury Park or Archway, then it might be possible to get there for a couple of hours, but I'm not really sure the ticket price would justify such a short stay.

Funnily enough, no. AFAIK it was still the Humber Super Snipe and still had the 3-litre Rootes engine. Quite popular and long lived too. I see far more Super Snipes here, even now, than I ever did in the UK.

About the only Super Snipe I've ever seen is about three inches long, electric and runs on a grooved road on my father's layout!

Is it possible that the Pecketts shunted vans within the exchange sidings, whilst the 'fireless' loco dealt with those areas of the system where smoke would not have been allowed? 

Flour was probably brought in by both road and rail (possibly even by canal- where's the Kennett and Avon in relation to the works?). Much would have been of local origin, as high-gluten, imported, flour isn't required for most biscuits. There's a lot of cereal growing nearby.

The fireless locos replaced the Pecketts and were found all over the factory network, including the GWR sidings alongside Napier Road.

A branch of the K&A canal passes through the middle of the factory site (now between Homebase and the Prudential). If you look closely at the retaining wall on the Homebase side, some bricked-up windows from the factory buildings can be made out.

 

 

Edit, re. Fat Controller's post: my focus is the pre-Great War period. The Bagnall fireless locos arrived in 1932. Perhaps they took over from horses in the parts of the factory live engines weren't allowed to go, or maybe somebody did a risk assessment - or there was an accident...

 

 

I haven't come across any reports of an accident on the site, but yes, the Bagnalls were able to go into parts of the factory conventional steam locos couldn't reach. They also had lower operating costs as only one member of loco crew was required rather than two.

^^^

Where was that picture taken? It looks like a narrow gauge track on the left.

Poppleton Nurseries? ;-)

CK didn't mention England....

CK's from Cornwall - which is south of Haverfordwest!

Since my original post, I have seen the 'Related Products' ads pop up on a lot of other websites (including BBC!) so not an RMWeb issue as I first supposed.

Historic ones, maybe the Mary Rose? that got used to being under water and got dragged out.....

If that's a criteria, then perhaps PS Medway Queen would be a better choice (has sunk at least three times IIRC!). Not a Warship as such, but she took part in Dunkirk.

Came from Haverfordwest to Paddington yesterday.  Saw one location with extensive mast installation, with some hangers, and I think I saw at least some earth return wire, then a very long gap, miles and miles, before seeing any more.  I reckon it must have been SWANSEA, tho' I was half asleep at the time.. .

Yes, Malliphant sidings at Swansea has its masts installed.

Fitting magnets also means that the locos can activate reed switches if any form of position indication is needed.