Joseph_Pestell

Swanage have one and painted it teak! (Yuck).

A limited extent, yes. But when your main justification for privatisation is "competition", it is perverse to remove what little there is. Round here (e.g. Wincanton), there is some potential for people to make the choice between FGW (Bruton) and SWT (Templecombe). SWT usually wins on better service frequency. There is also the small matter of Paddington being in the middle of nowhere. So end-to-end journey times can be better and more reliable via Waterloo.

I would rather have the plum and split milk of London & South Western. And maybe some push-pull trains on the mainline so we can have some light green locos.

I have found this morning's TV reports quite confused and I have been unable to understand the exact relationship between First and MTR - and which will really be running the franchise. But surely the whole point, we were told at the time, of privatisation was to offer competition. With First in charge of Great Western, this award has removed competition.

SWMBO used to commute from Andover to London. One of her regular fellow-travellers came from Crediton each day. He must have liked being on the railway because he later resigned from his London job and started a second career as a ticket-office clerk.

Can't say that I am looking forward to the inevitable disruption that this franchise change will cause. And I would like to have seen an award for more than 7 years to enable more investment. I don't get the impression that Salisbury trains are running at full line speed so perhaps some scope for improvement but 11 minutes does look improbable without new trains and/or electrification.

I've never tried it in bottled form but it is certainly a lovely pint on draught. I've not done it yet but one can visit the brewery each Friday evening when they open as a micropub.

In my experience, Jack Russells are sneakier than that. If they want to bite, they do - and without a warning.

I agree that he is a fool to himself in that there are people willing to help him and he is not accepting that help. He has a fairly good e-commerce website but clearly does not know how to input the information about stock. He does have a warning - in bold red lettering on the index page - that people should not send money until he has confirmed that the item is available. Have people asked and been misled? If so, that is clearly criminal. Edit: I note also that other parts of the website are not getting updated such as upcoming exhibitions.

Sorry, but I won't be persuaded on this. I don't have a particular problem with blue steam locos. A4s are good although I prefer Great Eastern shade. And blue is also fine on diesels and electrics, both UK and elsewhere. It just does not suit a King and I suspect that it would look wrong on any taper-boilered loco. Worldwide, not too many railways opted for blue for steam locos.

Interesting how many people like the blue livery on a King. I think it is abominable.

Very possibly true. Certainly the business model would need to change with more internet sales. Difficult to justify the costs of new tooling, but in a case like this there should be some scope for existing kits sold at a much lower price than current RTR. I am thinking particularly of more common wagons - perhaps sold in packs of 5.

You may well be right. That said, I know of some far worse cases that have not resulted in criminal prosecution, so I would not be optimistic of making that stick.

Keep in mind that any defended County Court action will take place at the defendant's home court. So it would be best that anyone wishing to start an action as an example on behalf of the rest of the hobby, lives locally.

Better that the tow gives way than that it tips the car over as well. That's what happened just in front of me on the A303 a few years back. As cars get more and more powerful, I often see trailers and caravans at speeds in excess of 80mph, one recently doing close to 100mph. Do the drivers not know how feeble the wheel bearings are on most trailers? Or do they simply forget that they have something hooked on the back?

I don't like to rate that as "funny" because it certainly was not to the caravan's owner. But being honest, I did laugh.

120 x 9 = 1080mm; 100 x 9 = 900mm. So arguably better to use 1:120 scale as track gauge is marginally more accurate and it should be a bit easier to find other railway related accessories.

I think that you should be able to find some but they will be from a supplier who specialises in architectural models. So probably not very detailed and probably only modern ones whereas you presumably want something more retro. Edit to add : http://www.diorama.fr/voitures-fr/voitures-tracteurs-vehicules-1-100.html

If someone were to bring a small claims court action against this chap, the judge would certainly be interested to know that people have sought to help the guy but he has refused that help.

Are these available on Shapeways, Simon?

Just the usual penny-pinching, I think. They could have gone for a Canning Town type solution. Another factor could have been a wish to extend to Thamesmead. But then they realised that no one wants to go there and they don't want to let the residents out.

I am pleased for him. A 17-step procedure to close doors sounds quite impossible to verify properly. Indeed, if applied properly, would a train ever be able to depart? I have not been to Birkenhead for many years now but I do recall visibility there being quite compromised.

With only eight teams left in it, 33/1 should be decent odds. But with five matches to play well in, I agree with you that it's a bit mean. That said, bookies odds are the result of money being placed, so some punters are clearly going for it. There's a bloke in Cheltenham who needs to lay about £15,000 at those odds to make back what he lost on a favourite yesterday.

I think that you are probably right about that. But correct size would be so small that I wonder if worth having at all.

Not when I went to school. 4" = 1.33mm and 7" = 2.33mm. That red stripe certainly looks too wide.