Metr0Land

On reflection I did wonder if BMW were being total shysters or if it may be something to do with the £40k cutoff point for Vehicle Excise Duty in the UK. Any car over £40k now has to pay an additional £355 pa on top of the £165 for the first 5 years. I nearly fell foul of this when ordering my next car. I guess you could say someone who an afford £40k overall can afford an extra £1 per day for 5 years but I've no idea what this will do to trade-in prices when 2 similar 2 y/o whatevers on the forecourt, might have very different VED's for the next 3 years.

Nephy and Spangle are trying to sleep their way through it, as they do most things....

The F-104 pic seems to have piqued your interest so here's a few more. 40+ year old slides take a while to clean up so I can't do many at a time. Belgian FX20 Yeovilton Sept 74 Belgian FX99 Greenham Common July 83 CAF 104790 Mildenhall August 80 Tiger colours CAF 104761 Greenham Common June 81

If you want military adsbexchange.com is better (though nothing in Fairford area at present). Click on tracking map and then click on the U button at the top (not sure what H and T buttons do). The presidential 747 was at 1200 ft over Soham before it turned for Mildenhall presumably the 757 will do the same if following same track.

Presidential 747 82-8000 just crossing Belgian coast, will be over England soon. (Vice?) Presidential C-32 (ie B757) 09-0017 curr over Luxembourg. E-4B 'Doomsday' 747 was at Fairford, no sign of one in the air. Edit: 747 dropped from 21,000 to 14,000ft in last few mins. Heading for Mildenhall?

Spitfire MK356 and Hurricane LF363

A line up from an airshow of yesteryear to tide you over, Lakenheath Aug75

Or even this: St Pancras International by Greg, on Flickr

Have you got the camera set to record rather than play, and with the tab on the casette set to protect (ie play only)?

I should have mentioned in my post above that the Kuga MHEV is wonderfully smooth in terms of changeover to/from ICE, the only time you get a slight clunk is if you come to a complete stop and ICE cuts in or out.

I guess it depends on the car. I bought a Ford Kuga MHEV 11 months ago and am delighted with it. It has 2.5L petrol engine. The petrol does cut in at 18-20mph BUT when cruising cuts out a lot so you can easily do 40mph on the flat on the electric once you've mastered the technique (ie knowing where and when you can ease off the accelerator). The computer choses which mode is best between electric and petrol. MOSTLY when driving around Carmarthen it stays on electric. The first few months of ownership were warm weather and I was averaging 58mpg - approx 40pct of mileage was electric and 60pct petrol. By the end of winter I was down to 53mpg split 37/63. As I've now done approx 8,000 miles it's slower getting the average mpg up, but I'm now at 55.3mpg split 40/60 again. Not sure if I'll get up to 58mpg average again by autumn due to several months cold usage but fully expect to get at least 57 by end summer. It's very hilly here but has been warm of late. Yesterday I got 87mpg going to Carmarthen (15 miles mostly downhill) and 57mpg back (mostly uphill) averaging 72mpg which is quite typical in summer for me. My dad had one of the Z cars type Zephyr 6's with 2.5L engine and it was almost impossible to get 30mpg, so to me getting 55mpg or more from a 2.5L engine still feels insane. In fact I'm so impressed, and new car delivery is so lengthy I've already ordered a PHEV version for delivery manana. This is supposed to give 35 mile range on solely electric and there are plenty of test drives on youtube of Kugas (and Escapes in North America) where people have proved this for themselves. If you have a high proportion of drives which are 35 miles are less, you can get some incredible mpg values for the PHEV. I personally know of someone who's getting 160mpg 'cos his partner is the primary user with a daily commute <35 miles. Also if you do a longer journey and completely flatten the battery you still get about a third of your remaining miles on electric due to the wizardry and regen braking. I've had this confirmed by friend and also check out ecodriver on youtube who compares cars like for like on the same 75Km/46 miles circuit. For myself the calculation seems to be that I need to get 102mpg from the PHEV (which I fully expect) to recoup the difference in list price between current MHEV and PHEV over 2 years, with petrol at £9 per imperial gallon. Obviously the equation changes with price of petrol and the term you apply. With the MHEV the electric driving is free of course. With the PHEV it's tricky for me. With the PHEV it's desirable to keep it topped up after each day's usage. I have solar panels and the PHEV only needs a 13amp supply to trickle feed the top-up. Even once I've got the car I'm not sure I'll ever be able to determine how much electricity I'll be paying for as against free electricity from my solar supply, but whatever it is it'll be cheaper than petrol!

L1 67778 departs Mantles Wood with a train for Aylesbury. The sidings here never reached anything like the hoped-for levels of traffic.

...and indeed other countries' presidents

Photo stated to be 3-3-68 E6004_nrPettsWood_3-3-68 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

Cheltenham Models have R40013a with different running numbers for £79.00 https://cheltenhammodelcentre.com/coaches/Hornby-r40013a-br-class-370-advanced-passenger-train-2-car-tu-coach-pack-48301-48302/p-r40013a

I don't know if you can get Fairy Power Spray in Switzerland but that's something I've used in the past

Apologies if we've had this (I don't think we have but haven't been following this thread for a while)

Not silly at all, they are a big part of our lives and give their love freely. I have a couple of rescue cats and love them dearly but at certain times I still miss the cat I lost in 1991 and indeed my dog who I lost when I was a teenager (in the 60's).

The Day Before You Came - ABBA

Out Of Time - Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds

999PC ?

IIRC these rush-hour only variants lasted until the May94 timetable change. Never heard them called 4COM before. The ones I'm thinking of were 2EPB of 416/2 type. Just checked a bit of my video from early May94 and 6263 and 6271 def had some compartments with red stripe.

Top Gun trailer in Lego

It still gets an annual visit from NR's 150 as seen 06Aug21

Within You Without You - Peppery Fabs