Mike Storey

Great to see a Southern themed layout at last Andy! Looking forward to this. I hope it lasts more than a week or so......

Not in London - where I was working with them from the mid-70's into the late 80's. Once they started using Morris Minors, then Escorts, they were already using Panda car style liveries, and then white livery with orange bands for the Cortinas/Granadas and then the Skodas. Their biggest issue was whether it was legal for them to use the blue light to incidents, which most of them did anyway. I am not sure when this was made strictly above board! I agree the use of the BTP badge did not start happening until the 80's.

A short video of the customised Silver Lady in action - something I cannot usually take myself, so my daughter filmed whilst my grandson operated it. Unfortunately, on this run, the gas kept going out, which it had not done on the two previous runs, and there is no chuff noise this time, but my daughter did not film them..... You will notice the damage to some of the buildings and other problems, due to the spate of storms and then many weeks of scorchio. I will repair them over the winter. https://www.facebook.com/501088100/videos/598159245296968/

One of the two current leadership candidates is the EX-chancellor. So no reason for the current caretaker bunch not to make a decision. But why do they need to do so? Phase 2A is effectively approved, so the only decision needed is whether the procurement process meets the policy directives of the Treasury - run of the mill decision - which means this really is a country without a government right now.

Good detective work - your career was not in vain!!

I presume you mean the day Hrotheweard's army was destroyed by Duke FitzOsbern?

I think everyone gets it now. Can we move on to some more pleasant exchanges please?

I am no expert, but SNCF Fret uses an "open" network system, primarily getting all the info it needs from transceivers on each loco and vehicle, relying primarily on GPS, to calculate just about anything it needs to know for operations and maintenance purposes. From the little info available about it, it appears to be in a constant state of upgrading, so I am not at all sure what it started as. Perhaps someone on here will know.

New Brompton is exactly right, for that was the original name of Gillingham station (not just Brompton)! Good name, but is not very recognisable to anyone unfamiliar with Kent geography. Maybe New Brompton, Kent (or Medway) or something like that?

No BR markings of any kind on BTP vehicles, just standard livery for the period as for their county brethren, except they used the BTP badge/insignia, in place of the county badge or wording.

On Luton, it is no longer a village but part of Chatham, and Luton Arches (where I used to live in the 1970's) is nowhere near Luton, just at one end of the long Luton Road! On using any name from the Isle of Sheppey, that does not appear to be what the OP wants. It is a great layout, and I am sure the changes you are making will make it even better.

Good decision on the re-naming, as I could never quite work out the reason for "South Sheppey" (Harty Bridge!!) The station design is much more like Gillingham, although with a bay rather than a true third road. Some of the other aspects, such as the gasometer and the steel shed are more at home on Sheppey. A new name will be a difficult choice, but may I suggest "Medway East", or similar? (You need it be west/north of Sittingbourne/Shepway, because virtually none of the Queenborough/Sheerness traffic went near it.)

I also would not worry about the station signage, if you base it on Hebden Bridge. All the signs are in the style of the Lancashire and Yorkshire (white on black) since it was completely renovated in 1997. I know that is somewhat later than your sectorisation period, but Rule 1 applies, and gets you out of some fiddly changes between periods.

"RJE" ???

It is odd. The line is still shown on EWR maps both on EWR's site and NR's site, but is nowhere mentioned in the text. The "Review" promised last Autumn does not appear to have reported yet.

Marinex, Foster Yeoman and Thamesport are the primary freight customers for the Isle of Grain, involving aggregates from Scotland and from dredging the Thames, (currently) concrete rings for the Thames sewer project from Lincolnshire, and the odd few container trains, but I think the latter are few and far between now (any better info someone?). It has been estimated that the line generates one train an hour somewhere along its length (Mon-Fri) but I doubt that somehow, these days. I cannot find any link to a definitive WTT for freight in this area. Someone will come up with one, no doubt!!

They may be able to get around this and run 5 car trains, by allowing one car to extend each end of the platform at Portishead. That is certainly allowable, under the ORR rules, for a through station (so ok for Pill) but it would require special dispensation to be undertaken at a terminus, and would require the platform to be relocated from what is presumably the original plan. On the face of it though, the difference in cost between a three car platform and a five car is negligible, amounting to a few hundred thousand pounds (using modern modular construction). There would appear (from Google Earth) to be no gradient problems or special earthworks needed for the longer length. Out of £152m, it seems to be a strange concession. It would appear that this was agreed due to the slow recovery of passenger numbers from covid (which is actually less and less true), but as this does not open until probably 2026, that hardly makes sense.

I have no idea, but Tata Steel seem to believe in it, along with their brethren in the Netherlands, along with many other European steel makers. Perhaps you could look it up?

Just thought you'd all like to know that Portishead now has the green light, funding-wise anyway: https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2022-07-29/portishead-to-bristol-rail-line-back-on-track-after-securing-funding?fbclid=IwAR2W6CDoQZmZczVWfaffD9IaB-LWkASLs6tfO6k3RKCRq6xFExRq_YfZg2I

I don't think "we" can decide. As long as Transport for the North continue to use the term, then we will have to.

But Dragonby, and the associated Santon, closed in 1981! Just as did nearly every other remaining workings around Scunthorpe, bar one. Hydrogen - you forgot to add the words "electric arc or", obviously not deliberately, I am sure - is already being explored for steel works in Germany and Poland, where they believe they can produce green hydrogen commercially. Just not in the UK. Your Unicorns are far closer to home.

I don't where you get your info, but most of it is plain wrong. Large scale iron ore mining around Scunthorpe ceased in 1981, with just one small surface mine carrying on until the early 90's. The case for the Whitehaven coal mine is highly dubious, especially given the planned mass conversion of steel plants to Electric Arc processes, part of which you describe below, or to using hydrogen, neither of which require coking coal. 85% of Whitehaven's output would almost certainly go abroad, according to the steel maker's own federation, which sees no need for the Whitehaven mine for its industry. Cans for Heinz would most certainly not be its largest customer! The conversion of old steel plants to electric-arc does make me laugh, which is being done now to secure carbon capture by 2050. The UK had one of the most advanced such plants in Europe, at Sheerness, but it withered and died some years ago, partly due to the rise in the price of scrap metal. But Sheerness is not "northern" is it, so does not count.....

I and my wife were on that trip too! (Courtesy of my brother being a driver for Eurostar). It was certainly eventful.

What?!! Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and York???!! Run-down?? Do you get out much?

Not sure if this has been posted before, but it is a fascinating cab ride all around Bletchley, including the old flyover, in order to make a stock move during engineering works.