Derekl

If you are thinking of Ernest Marples, it was Marples Ringway, responsible for much road and motorway building in the period. He was said to have sold his shares, but it was rumoured that he sold them to his wife! (Possibly not true). He seems to have been a character. After his stint in government, he fled to France owing a small fortune in unpaid tax

I always try an read any material that exhibitors post on the layout - interesting to see what they think they are portraying and usually helpful. I am not sure that I have seen many others do so, though. Properly done and as suggested above, an AV display could be just as, or more, interesting. Worth a try, I would have thought

Second the above - the PowerCab comes with two cables, a flat one and a coiled one. It is tempting to use the coiled cable as it looks more the part, but it only has 4 cores, not the 6 required for the PowerCab to work.

I have UV film on the windows of my shed for the same reason. I found it quite easy to install. It is invisible once fitted and has no visible effect on light levels. I haven't noticed any fading on any colours, but it may be that it is early days yet - I have had it for about 18 months.

It does look suspiciously like a press release from Sunways (who make the panels) with a small amount of editorial added. It doesn't look to me like the editorial bit was exactly searching, but I suppose we will see.

No - the figure for developed space in England is 8.7%. I have lived in Manchester, York and Birmingham and have travelled around a lot, so am reasonably familiar with what it looks like, and I don't recognize your description. That said, I can see that you are not open to argument, so feel free to believe what you like.

I was commenting on the statistics, not on potential use of green space. A fair amount of the unused space is not "green". I would agree that it is important to keep green space for many reasons.

Looking at the ONS figures, it is 2% of the land in England that is built on, which would be buildings only. The figure for the UK is 1.4%. The Gov.UK figure for developed land use in England is 8.7%. While flying over southern England certainly gives the impression of a fairly occupied area, there are quite a lot of gaps (consider, for instance, the South Downs, running just inside the coast a few miles south of here). There are large areas of open land in northern England, in Scotland (particularly the Highlands) and in mid Wales. So there are plenty of empty spaces, although one doesn't, of course, know how usable they are. I should mention that your comparison with 2% failed pixels or body scarring really has nothing much to do with it - ridiculous comparison.

No, not really. If you have the misfortune to be in a train (as passenger or staff) that falls down an embankment for most reasons (that is not, for instance, a meteorite hitting it) the railway operator is going to be liable to compensate those injured or the families of those killed. Whether the driver was incapable or not is irrelevant; the railway's duty is to carry the passenger (and train crew) safely - if the train crashes and a person gets hurt or killed as a result, they generally haven't done so. (The train crew, if any, responsible, obviously have a more difficult case). Although I have no specific knowledge, I guess that people injured and the relatives of those deceased will have pursued claims against BR even in the early 1970s. The level of compensation won't have bankrupted BR (as they were supported by the state in any event), but also because the level of compensation for fatalities was quite low (and remains so). There were other accidents which must have been a bigger hit.

You quoted the Irish record of the legislation - I simply pointed to the English record (but, I agree, the act applied to both). In any event, section 6 of the 1844 (which required all lines to have the one train a day at less than 1 penny per mile) act was repealed in the Cheap Trains Act 1883, which effectively retained the concept but used the duty system to encourage provision - the railway did not pay passenger duty on the all-stations train with a fare of less than a penny per mile: https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=670 See the repeal provisions at the end. Note also, that this act did not apply to Ireland. Now, I suppose, we have to find out what repealed Section 2 of the 1883 Act......

The whole of the 1844 Act is here: https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=58 And yes, it dis require all railways to run at least one third class train on all lines: see Clause VI (and enjoy the language....)

The difficulty is less to do with the legal system and a lot to do with the reluctance of juries to convict for serious motor offences. "Death by dangerous driving" is an offence triable by jury. The maximum sentence now is life imprisonment (maximum was 14 years until 28/06/2022). Juries have historically been reluctant to convict for motor offences carrying heavy jail sentences ("there but for fortune go you and I" seems to have something to do with it), which is why the result for motoring offences is often relatively modest sentences. There is a much wider argument here about the effectiveness of jail sentences as a deterrent, but I am not going there.

Why didn't you ask DCC Concepts for advice on cutting and soldering? Or did you and they didn't have any useful ideas?

The "pick-up" is through the axle bush to the chassis, om one side on the loco, the other on the tender. You may be able to see the insulating bushes on the wheel/axle joint on one side, which tells which is which. Alternatively, use a multimeter if you have one, or battery and light bulb. The "failure" is most likely to be the connection between loco and tender which will carry the current from the loco chassis to the motor in the tender - see Johnster's comments above for checking that. Alternatively it may have been a wire which has come unstuck over the years (although my recollection is that is unlikely).

"The bike is a favoured means of transport to social functions as I can relax about drink/drive laws" Just bear in mind that being over the limit on a bicycle is the same offence as driving when over the limit. If caught, you lose your licence to drive, although I agree that it is less likely to happen and you are much less of a threat to others on a bike than in a car.

A chap called Frederick Winterbotham published a book "The Ultra Secret" in 1974, based on his recollections from RAF intelligence experience, but without access to any documents. It was later, in the 1990s, that far more information, including documentation recording the activities in detail, became available. So not really surprising that I didn't now much about it in 1981/2

Quite - that was the point I was making - perhaps I should just have said "wash your hands thoroughly soon after touching". There may be people reading this who were unaware. But I agree, it is going to need a fair amount of exposure to lead to do damage.

I have a big lump of lead from which I cut little pieces off (taking lots of precautions, for obvious reasons) and put those wherever is convenient - end vestibules usually works. I paint them over wherever they are. You can also use liquid lead, from Squires or Eileen's Emporium - this is not actually lead, but is reasonably heavy. You would need to find somewhere in the underframe to park that so not visible on a sideways view. Eileen's Emporium advertise sheet lead for sale, which might be convenient, but I haven't tried it. I imagine i isn't lead, although if it is, one has to be a bit very careful.

I weight coaches to about 150 gm, which seems to help running. I don't know if it will sort this out, because there may be other problems, but it is worth a try. And presumably someone will come along to tell us why 150 gm is wrong, but you will then have to take your pick.

The BP museum is well worth a visit if you have the opportunity. I took advantage of the annual ticket to have a two day visit (although separate weekends). In my previous life I was a solicitor and in 1981/2 I had a case for a claimant who had an accident in Milton Keynes. Came on for hearing in Bletchley. The court sat in a prefab building which i am pretty sure is now the cafeteria at the museum. I had no idea of the significance of the place (I am pretty sure it only became public in the later 1980s). It was pretty basic as courtrooms go but convenient for the station. Even better, of course, we won.

Breaking both rails won't help, since the 4TC will conduct through either rail. You will need to move the break to a position just behind the loco and ahead of the 4TC, so that it doesn't bridge the gap.

My subscription copy arrived Thursday, not that that is of much help to you

The German seems to mean three axle covered goods wagon, which is what it looks like.

I had a wax build up during the lock down (I get it intermittently). I dropped olive oil from the kitchen supplies into the ear before going to bed. After a few weeks, after bits of the wax had dropped out, eventually it all cleared.

Poor analysis on your part - the article is about the influence of the banking system on British politics - offshoring and a comparison with elsewhere may well be useful, but that isn't what the article is about.