corneliuslundie

And still parroting out that "freeing up £36billion for other transport schemes" rubbish. I m a y live long enough to see it but I doubt it. Jonathan

That would make a great model, especially those chimneys. Anyone fancy a challenge? (a bit far from Wales for me). Jonathan

An interesting horse box in JVol1196. Any thoughts on identity anyone? Ans a surprise (to me anyway) to see big LMS locos at Cambridge, since the LMS services reaching the town were pretty local services . Or would the goods trains have come from Bletchley? Jonathan

Is that Midland or Rhymney though? Jonathan

Nice. I never managed to visit the Blonay-Chamby line when I was in the area so great to see some pics. Jonathan

Seeing that view of the long viaduct, I am surprised that the residents of the nearby housing complex didn't demand a tunnel instead. Sshh - don't suggest it. Jonathan

Thanks for the Dent photos. I can see why it attracted David Jenkinson. Interesting containers on the first train. Jonathan

Re what JIB1970 says about government handling of transport, hardly surprising when the transport portfolio has frequently been seen as the last stop before the Chiltern Hundreds. Whatever the party, we haven't actually had any very bright transport ministers for as long as I can remember. Jonathan

They could have cleaned the loco for you when they stole the 47. J

At that period probably an open carriage truck. The Cambrian had two but of course you would want one from the other end, GWR or LBSCR. Jonathan

Yes, and a compartment for those nasty smokers. 5 ft 6 in. between compartments for the lower orders, 6 ft 5 in. for the smokers, and a couple of nice basket chairs in the saloon. Plus luggage space and a lavatory of course. Ideal for taking the family yo Traeth Mawr, with the Brougham on a flat wagon at the end of the train of course. Jonathan

I am sure I have read about an Up passenger train stopping at Appleby to pick up milk tanks, as the comments at the time was that it was a very unusual move for a loaded passenger train. So are we talking about different periods? On the other hand, I have just looked up the Appleby photo on David Jenkinson's book and it shows an Up "parcels" train, albeit one with nothing but milk tanks and a brake vehicle. The caption suggests that it collected most of the milk at Appleby. So perhaps my memory is failing me. Jonathan

Just a caution. And It is to me as much as to others. We are in danger of infringing the rules again by getting too political. However much the actions (or not) of the politicians annoy/worry/frighten us, we need to keep off party politics. Or just vote for the Raving Loony Party. Jonathan

Paul, you missed one: the family J

"Surely if something is worth doing, it's worth doing properly! " I am not sure I have ever seen that in any political party manifesto. Is it in the standing instructions to civil servants? I rather suspect not. Jonathan (cynic, surely not)

Nice to see some uniformly liveried rakes. And the Motorail train is well loaded. Jonathan

No Pendolinos. No problem. Hornby has just announced the answer: Jonathan

It is always great to see your long shots of the S&C, putting the railway in the scene. Jonathan

But did they allow for the current very wet weather? One hopes so. Jonathan

So they are not really building HS2, but GU2 - to supplement the Grand Union Canal. Seriously, I wonder how much the recent weather will have caused delay and increased costs, including things such as cutting sides slipping etc. Jonathan

Agreed, they seem to be six wheelers, and no normal tank wagons would be in a fast passenger train anyway. Jonathan

I think it is time this thread was renamed "Everything you ever wanted to know about wagons - or didn't know you wanted to know". All fascinating stuff even when completely irrelevant to my modelling. Jonathan

Perhaps there is scope for TEFL courses for the workforce of the contractors building HS2, (there, almost back on topic). Jonathan

I spent six years in Kosovo and tried to learn the local version of Albanian, but everyone wanted to speak to me in English. I was there to teach English so not surprising. But German is now becoming much more popular as a second language in both Kosovo and Albania. But we knew a South Korean family and their small children were perfectly competent in their own language, English and Albanian. And when I was doing my TEFL course I had a tame student to work with. Her son had come to England at the age of five and within not much more than a year he had gone from knowing no English to being top of his class at school (in English) for most subjects. One problem in the UK is that we start teaching foreign languages far too late. But this is not much to do with HS2 where I assume that English will be understood (but probably not Welsh of Gaelic). Jonathan

I am afraid that you are right about industry's unwillingness to train people. Everything is about the bottom line at the end of the half year, not the long term. We even see it on the railways where it is much more common to poach drivers from other companies than to train your own (with a few notable exceptions). But it is a much wider problem. One part is the "academisation" of so many training courses, three years in college rather than most your time on site and a short time in college to do the theory bits. This is partly the fault of industry for accepting it but also because the academics have pushed in this direction. There have been several attempts to get training back "on the ground" such as NVQs but they have mostly gone the same way, And government doesn't want to pay either - such as replacement of grants by loans. A classic example of the stupidity is training of nurses (which has also got far too college based). It was announced that grants were being abolished, and within six months the government of the day (I can't remember which party was in power) was complaining of a lack of new trainee nurses. What a surprise! But it is all part of a society where we know our rights but not our responsibilities. ie every man (of woman of course) for him/herself. Rant over, sorry Jonathan