RJS1977

Precisely. Whatever the railways do, the media will spin it to the worst possible angle. If NR weren't electrifying the line, and introducing a new generation of diesels instead, the media would be full of people wanting to know why the railway wasn't being electrified.... And of course if NR were to demolish the masts and replace them with something else, incurring costs and delaying the project, the media would be saying that the project is late and over budget (even more so than already!).

And also (for the purposes of converting when you think you might make a mess of it), rather expensive. Fortunately my repaint of a Heljan Class 14 came out all right, but my heart was in my mouth when I started it,

Older models may not be fetching the secondhand prices that they used to, but bearing in mind their original retail prices I suspect they'll still sell for more than they would have cost new. e.g.my Hornby 101 cost about £5 new - it would probably still fetch at least a tenner on a 2H stall, and my father's Lima Western cost him (I think) £13 when it came out. There will always be a market for the older models (remembering that even now only about 50% of layouts are DCC) as there will always be those who can't afford the top-notch models. In fact,the only thing stopping me buying up more Lima models is a lack of siding/shelf space!

"A foul, a foul - a plapable foul..."

Wouldn't it be more sensible for the monitors to be off most of the time, and only on when there is a train in the vicinity? i.e. coming on when the approaching train is a few blocks away and going off once the train has cleared the crossing and the barriers are up?

It also means that there will be very little benefit to me in my bi-annual (or is it biennial? - once every 6 months anyway!) trips from Reading to Tadworth via Reigate - I was rather hoping the increased freqency might make the bus connections better, but evidently not!

Presumably because of the Hornby Dublo connection. As regards diminishing secondhand values, one thing which does seem to depress secondhand values is when a manufacturer brings out a new super-detailed model and a lot of people upgrade from the previous version. Until Bachmann brought out the Blue Pullman, Tri-ang/Kitmaster BPs were as rare as hen's teeth with a price to match. As soon as Bachmann brought theirs out, I could barely go to a show without virtually tripping over the older models - sometimes as many as 6 on one stand! In fact, often the biggest interest for me in the manufacturers' announcements of new models is which second hand models may soon become available more cheaply!

Saw a Mk1 Escort in very fine condition (though not so sure about the lime green colour!) in Farnborough this afternoon,and was passed by a Mustang later in the day.

Strangely,neither is listed in the Modeller...

Unfortunately it's a bit big to stuff into the back of a Harrington Legionnaire coach..... Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea... erm...

There have been a number of increases in maximum permitted bus lengths over the years, which have led to increasingly long buses on the roads. To take the Routemaster family as an example: When the first prototype, RM1 was built in 1954 the maximum length was (IIRC) 27' exactly. RM1 had a blanked-off front end with no visible radiator grille. When the maqximum permitted length was extended to 27'6", RM1 was fitted with the now-familiar RM radiator grille and subsequent Routemasters followed suit. In 1961, the maximum permitted length was extended to 30', allowing the 72 seat RMLs and RCLs to be built, distinguishable by the extra small windows half way along each side where a 2'6" section was added to the design with an extra row of seats. By the time the first RMs were being withdrawn, the maximum permitted length had been extended again and London Transport produced 80-seat RMEs (Route Master Extended) at 32'6" long by bolting together sections from two withdrawn standard RMs. Since then the permitted length has continued to increase, hence modern buses (including of course the New Routemasters) being much longer than even the RMEs.

However, given that Heljan models seem to have only very short production runs, I wonder if the Radley models will reappear at some stage in the future....

You really don't need to star out the word "half" you know...

Gummm-droppp!

Had a closer look at NGB1 (W6) today - it is clearly somewhat lower than the W4, with a cut-down chimney, cab and dome.

Choice of livery: W4 - the H&P livery shown in the blog, If they did a W6 - or if one's easily convertible from a W4, then dark green for NGB1 (if anyone wants any photos of NGB1, let me know and I'll se what I can do!)

There is the story about the driver of a funeral limo who jumped when one of the passengers tapped him on the shoulder during the journey. Turned out he normally drove the hearse... And there was a case in West Wales earlier this year when two hearses bound for different funerals passed through the same roundabout within a minute or so of each other, with the inevitable result that the limo (which had been separated from its hearse at the previous set of lights) wound up at the wrong funeral!

One of my father's "duties" when a funeral takes place at the church my parents attend, is to stand behind the undertaker's trolley as they load the coffin in and out of the hearse, to stop the trolley rolling down the hill into the village! Though all this talk of funeral misadventures reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMzvo8s5sv8 Edit: Come to think of it, isn't that the hearse in that clip the type you were just talking about? Edit 2: I've just spotted what looks like it may be a Mk1 Transit minibus in the clip as well!

The thing I find most amusing about the "pig business" is it seems to be the people (generally,not necessarily on RMWeb) who normally claim not to read the Daily Mail and that nobody should believe a word printed in it seem to be the people who now believe it when it publishes something somebody told Lord Ashcroft a friend of theirs says they saw David Cameron do ;-) (I post this as a humourous observation rather than a political point).

6240's plates survive on display at Coventry station (I discovered them when attending the RMWeb bash last year).

Don't forget though that successive generations of cars are often bigger than the previous model - the current Fiesta is considerably larger than the Mk1 Fiesta!

I'm sure if there had been anything like that wrong with my father's first Sierra, he wouldn't have had another two (though I think only the first one was a 1.6, the others were 1.8s). Crossing the Welsh mountains and the Preselis with three passengers, a dog and a boot full of luggage didn't seem to cause them any difficulties. OK, so we didn't set any land speed records but there was enough to get to the speed limit with some to spare - what more do you need?

I guess that's a generational thing. Whilst I enjoy spotting the 50s/60s stuff in films & TV, it's the late 70s/80s stuff that was around when I was growing up - my father had three consecutive Sierra estates - so they're the ones that really bring back the memories for me! Of course the downside to classic car spotting in vintage TV is seeing what would now be valuable cars coming to an untimely (and often firey demise at the ends of chase sequences etc). I read somewhere that an American classic car enthusiast watched the Laurel & Hardy film "Two Tars" and was in tears when he realised how many millions of dollars worth of car got damaged/destroyed! Still, even that's preferable to watching something like "The Royal" where classic cars which had clearly been well-looked after for many years were also known to come to a dramatic end :-( Incidentally - watching the second episode of the current series of "New Tricks" a while back had me puzzled - on the offchance is there anyone "in the know" on here who knows whether Gerry's Stag really was destroyed in filming or if clever camerawork/ a scrapper was used? The fact the actual explosion wasn't shown made me think at first that it had been spared a violent end, but the next scene featured a distorted Stag apparently on fire. I even went as far as going on the DVLA website to try to find out - the car is listed as having passed its MOT in April but currently SORN, which doesn't really answer the question!

And of course 315 feet is longer than the length of the Wright Brothers' first two flights added together!

Arguably even the 70 limit is too high given the length of barriers approaching underbridges on the motorway. Measure the quoted 315ft* 70mph stopping distance back along the motorway from the road/river/railway which passes underneath and you will be way in the rear of the barriers so a vehicle coming off the motorway at 70mph in the wrong place is likely to wind up on the road/railway below and potentially cause an accident (as at Great Heck). * Yes, I know the 315ft figure was worked out for a Morris Minor or some such, but a vehicle coming off a motorway on the approach to an underbridge will be travelling downhill. The 315ft also assumes tyres and brakes in good condition and an alert driver.