DavidH

I think it was Chris Pendleton for his North Shields layout, but it doesn't have a web presence, as far as I can see.

I think people will be nostalgic for Pacers - they're the last trains in mass service in the UK where you can get a quality of ride that the Victorian 3rd class passenger would have experienced, and those 4- and 6-wheel coaches do quite well in various railways vintage weekends ... ;-)

I've never heard about any ban, but I've seen photos of BR standard vans on ex-Southern lines around London in various books - e.g. Southern Railway Reflections: The London Area (Silver Link, 2005), on p25 there is a picture of a BR standard van in Wimbledon Yard, dated 20/8/65. On p72 there is another van in a coal train hauled by a Q1 at Chessington South, 5/9/64. Other vans pictured are the similar LNER brakes, as well as SECR, LBSCR, pillbox, Queen Mary, and a few LMS examples on inter-regional freights. I know these are not North Cornwall, but I've only got a couple of books about this area, and they're not much use for pictures of freight trains (I've had a quick look through both). I assume the pillbox design appeared all over, but I'm sure someone here knows more about specific allocations.

Another couple potential practical jokes that would cause mayhem: Sell someone a ticket, and within site of ticket desk arrange have ticket checked. Ticket check person now refuses entry because the ticket [hasn't been dated correctly/has the wrong discount/is for the wrong show/isn't a priority ticket]. Tell customer if they have a complaint they have to go to the complaints desk, sited just inside the door. Flatly refuse to allow them through the door until the ticket has been correctly changed/dated/etc. by complaints desk. Launch a much sought-after limited edition model, allow queue to build up to a nice length, then announce over tannoy that entire stock has been sold to eBay collector before show started.

Refuse to allow pensioner discounts, in fact, charge double to anyone who complains about its lack :-) Advertise yourself as wheelchair friendly, then make all the gaps between layouts just slightly too small for a wheelchair to pass anyone looking at a layout. Install the wheelchair ramp to the step below the top one on the way up to either the cafe or the toilets. Have the cafe run out of milk and chips at 11.59am on Saturday. Don't get further supplies in until 4.50pm. Arrange the gaps between stalls so that the thinnest stallholders get the largest, and the ones with the erm widest loading gauge get the narrowest gaps.

Except for the probable fact that many of them believe exactly the same: longer trains are the answer; no one outside of London and Birmingham will benefit; it's a waste of money; teachers etc. will have to be sacked ... But I don't blame them all sounding the same: it's pretty standard behaviour nowadays for lobby groups to make sure as many people are given briefing sheets (even if they exaggerate and make up "facts"). It's great when it's something you personally believe in, but if you don't it doesn't automatically become an evil conspiracy that should be stopped. This is the point of government though. Long-term planning about things that will benefit the country. We can't stay still, we can't prevent development, and I'm afraid change is inevitable. You've just got to trust that out of the arguments for and against (heard in more reputable places than a radio phone-in!) are listened to by sensible people, and that the final decision is the best one. One hopes, anyway.

Or they are keeping quiet while they thoroughly research the problem, and come up with a costed and sensible plan to deal with the models. It's the trouble with the internet world, everyone wants a reply immediately. In the non-virtual world, people have to talk to each other, have meetings, come up with action plans, submit them for approval ... and so on. A lack of any comment is regrettable, but maybe they don't wish to seem to commit themselves to any particular line of action? Anything that anyone says will be picked over ad nauseum on web forums anyway, so if I was a company, I'd probably err on the side of saying nothing until I was sure what the problem was and what I could afford to do about it.

In the end-on photo of the the two models, isn't the Hornby model a little behind the Bachman one? Perspective is making it look smaller.

(to Coldgunner) I get the picture! Sometimes, it's best not to respond to provocation ...

I wonder if we should be fair to these people though - I'm as puzzled as you seem about people who insist on their booked seat even though there are others around that are available, but ... not everyone is a regular user of trains and may not be aware that you don't usually get moved by the ticket inspector - assuming there is one, and assuming you're not just moving to another reserved seat. They may be more used to airlines. And some people (young or old) get quite anxious if they don't get the seat (or service or whatever) they booked. (Some people delight in being cussed, too.) And people can be quite territorial - you're in their space ... I argued once, when I was palpably in the wrong, and was moved by the train manager. I eventually gave in to my nagging conscience and went back to the person whose seat I'd been in and apologised profusely ...

It annoys me too when people use their phones in the quiet carriage ... Perhaps the question should be, do we really need quiet carriages? I can see the point behind them, but the consequence of them is that too many of my journeys end up with me (and I bet more than few others here) being annoyed and tetchy, and should you remind someone, there's a good chance that that person in turn will be angry, hurt, defensive ... So all the quiet carriage really does is promote conflict, and rather than promote relaxation - so maybe we should look to abolish them (and along with them all the other petty little rules and regulations that allow us to become annoyed at other people who don't follow them), and in the process, maybe our journey/lives will be a little more noisy or chaotic, but on the other hand, provide us with few opportunities to get angry with each other. Maybe.

Well, not me, but I know someone who nearly got conned a few years ago by "BT Wholesale" offering them reduced rates on their phone - got as far as the person asking for bank details, when suspicion kicked in - "Why do you need my details, I'm with BT?". "We're not BT". "But you said you were ...".

If I understand the story correctly, the Leamside route is only mothballed, and has never been officially lifted. Yet there's a lot of it missing ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3044669.stm (Story about a former track worker being jailed for stealing more than 2 miles of track) I always wonder what Network Rail are going to prevent cases such as this - they presumably can't afford to have 24-hour security on disused lines. If the line is possibly never going to be reopened (the Clipstone example and I suspect, sadly, Leamside too), I just wonder whether they should lift the thing themselves, first.

My penn'orth ... I think he's an idiot, but there are a lot of them about. I wouldn't report him because I don't like the idea that we're all to be encouraged to turn into a nation of grasses. Is someone looking after a child that isn't theirs? REPORT THEM. Do you suspect someone of claiming a benefit they aren't entitled to? REPORT THEM. Is your neighbour's car untaxed? REPORT THEM. Is your neighbour a JEW? REPORT THEM. Besides, I'd be very VERY angry if I found out one of my friends had dobbed me in for something like this. If I've broken a serious law (robbery, assault, murder I suppose), and if I was stupid enough to mention it on Facebook, then I'd deserve everything I get, but bragging about leaping or thinking about leaping a crossing barrier ... seriously? If you feel that strongly about it, challenge the guy. If you can't talk face to face or over Facebook, then I'd argue he isn't worth having as a friend. I know there are many here who will immediately disagree with me on grounds of e.g. the trauma to the train driver, etc. But every day people do damn stupid things - I shake my head when people go charging around at high speed in their cars in urban areas, for instance - but if we're going to start automatically reporting people because we have a suspicion that they've been stupid ... where will it end? But that's my opinion. I know many will disagree.

I have long found that it's pointless having a debate with someone who says global warming is not happening. I say it is, I point to the scientific evidence; they say it isn't, and point to other scientific evidence. It's like arguing about religion: fine if you want a good debate and don't mind getting heated, but you both end up being far happier if you talk about something else

Now, that all strikes me as very sensible. I'd far rather be visible doing a job like that than potentially invisible and solely relying on drivers' alertness. Not all safety measures are uncalled-for.

Did the texts mention that accident specifically? Periodically I get texts asking why I haven't tried to claim up to - and I think it's also £3000, which is why I ask - for "injuries". Touch wood, I haven't even been involved in a car accident, so this makes me wonder if these are random texts and they just got lucky with you!

I guess it's to protect their heads from banging against rocks if they slip on or near one? I've slipped backwards whilst climbing very low rocks near water and clouted the back of my head on one of them. Thankfully no damage done, but it could have been nasty. The other hazard could be if they look for rocks at the base of a cliff (I just know you're going to say that there aren't any cliffs...!). The university has a duty of care (well, I assume it does), and if a preventable head injury should befall one of their students, then they are going to get hauled over the coals for not taking steps to prevent it. I reckon that health and safety that gets out of hand or is misunderstood by people who aren't properly trained or briefed is a far greater hazard that the sensible application of precautions such as this.

I suggest that the retail industry in general has done a very good job at training us to want everything "yesterday" ...

Merely playing Devil's advocate here (and speaking as someone who can't afford a nice house in a country area), I'd wager that if house prices in the Chilterns were "blighted" and fell dramatically, this may well actually be welcomed by people born in the area who can't afford a house in their "desirable" village or town of birth. If prices fell a lot, then I'd be very happy to buy a "blighted" house next to HS2 ... Our farmer with the B&B - well, he/she is likely to be running the business for another, say, 20-30 years before retirement. The railway will be serving the needs of the country, with luck, for a century or hopefully more. There will be upheaval, there will be pain, there will be unhappiness; and in a short time it will be largely forgotten, and people will have moved on and built their lives somewhere else. Like we do.

Hi Ray, This should help you: http://www.semgonline.com/coach/sets.html It gives divisions or specific routes. Cheers, david

A friend who has built up a huge eBay empire selling consumer electrical items and low-priced items uses different accounts for his different types of sales. Early on in the process he said he'd observed that once his feedback reached a certain level the number of bidders started to fall (and hence the final prices of items went down) - his take on that was that people largely preferred to shop with people who didn't look like businesses, whereas once you reach feedback lists of several thousand (or whatever the figure was), it's rather obvious that you are a business. So he'd start a new account, buy a few items from people to get the feedback up a little, then start listing items on it. I'll add the caveat that since then eBay has changed somewhat, and there are a lot of small businesses on it now, so the way people shop on it, and their perceptions, may have changed.

Cases are rarely as simple as they appear. Two things want me to make further enquiries; I'm sure I've missed other things worthy of enquiry. 1. Can you pay a company that's in administration? But then, why didn't/couldn't the railway pay him a staged payment before the company went under? Was it solely because of the WHR/FR work that the company went into administration, or does this serve to distract from deeper problems? 2. But if he's got a lorry to park across the crossing, does that mean he's got a second company? The railway may have declined to take the matter further to avoid (1) making a difficult situation worse and/or (2) to avoid wasteful legal bills. I wouldn't draw any conclusions on the guilt or otherwise of anyone from the statement. I should add that I know nothing of the case other than what is in the newspaper article, have no connection with the railway, and know no one involved.

Funny! I was at both over two consecutive days. I was camping just outside Beddgellert, and wanted to walk to the station - at least I had an idea of where the railway should be! Blaenau still looks as unwelcoming as ever.

I was at Beddgelert a couple of days ago - the Garratt's hooter echoing in the rain through the woods and across the hillsides was decidedly atmospheric ... and there were plenty of people travelling or just stopping to photograph. But one thing - Beddgelert village appears to have no signs whatsoever to show which direction the station is. Strange? Or does the village not want the railway? (I half remember that there were some objections to the line's rebuilding.)