woodenhead

I somehow think we will be expected to buy our own tests and do them in the safety of our own home before venturing out, not at the point where we have travelled several miles and arrived at our destination. Which does beg the question, how will someone know that the person claiming to be free of Covid is free of it?

Apols, had been reading the politics news and it was in my mind when I got to this thread.

Except the technology doesn't yet exist, it is a hope hence the moniker 'moonshot' - they have to develop the capability and they cannot even manage at the moment. They are blaming people for asking for tests as the cause when the Government has been actively encouraging people to take said tests so they get their numbers up. Testing continues to be a mess.

Now I don't want to get all political but this order in England comes at an advantageous moment for the English Government, just as talks with the EU begin to collapse and actions that it concedes are against international laws are planned, then it bans all groups greater than 6 people rendering all and any public demonstrations illegal. That said, they are correct this is the time of the year when viruses spread but that is always typical of Universities opening and schools returning - but this is an open ended ban on groups of people meeting unless it is work or the gym. If this is going to keep us all safe, why didn't they just do this back in March and not close down UK PLC.

Must have got the liveries mixed up with the T3 they will be doing next

It is the drinking culture that is trying to be curbed - though I might then say 'Good luck with that'

Given every similar mass protest in the past has seen police massively outnumbered, how would you expect the police to arrest everyone, identify them and then fine them? Then add in some of the understandable anger some of those people felt towards those in charge, think how it might have turned out. Also there was no noticeable spike two weeks after the protests.

Use the aggregated results from previous years, the results were pretty solid over several years and for steam age models will give a clear picture of what should sell. The only new prototypes to add to the list will the very modern trains and there is a group of companies now very focussed on this to keep the main new contemporary models coming to the fore.

Given the latest restrictions are aimed at stopping 20-30 year old from socialising (i.e. drinking, generally not socially distancing and mixing) in large groups and allowing the police to enforce it then a potential model railway exhibition in December isn't a target of the legislation. The Government would be shutting down the gyms, curtailing use of public transport again and also applying restrictions in the workplace if the risk was that great outside of the target group of this new order.

Do they still call them that? I remember when they were first introduced, the team that worked for the bank's merchant services installing these were just down the corridor from me. A big change from the old manual swipe machines and three part (customer, merchant, bank) vouchers

I must be old, but not that old haha

A lot of people seem to think it is important to remember where you were when Kennedy was shot. Was this in case of arrest where a mysterious person in black demands you to prove you were not on the grassy knoll?

TV was once three channels and it turned off transmission when it had nothing to show - today loads of channels with nothing to show but they continue transmitting. Okay I accept one person's rubbish is another person's top gripping reality factual life in a co-op late at night in the Shetlands gripping TV. FM radio was once the new thing and music in stereo sounded cool. Interestingly some DAB stations, music ones, actually broadcast in Mono to reduce bit rates and allow more channels.

Or a small ramp so they take off, about the height of a racing car so they sail over the crossing car. All things they have tried on Scalextric I am sure so there is engineering precedence

I was watching that Mugello video and I thought of a good way to spice up the races - a crossroads!! The drivers who can time their arrival at the crossroads so they don't have to stop will surely be the winners, those that stop will get longer lap times. What could possibly go wrong?

I've never said it is, but things will be different for the foreseeable future and many exhibitions will be denied suitable premises to host whilst schools, colleges & leisure centres cope with restrictions placed upon them.

That it will cost us as punters more to go has to be something we have to take on the chin perhaps as the price of accessing something. As has been discussed already, the likelihood of a lot of vulnerable people putting themselves into a risky situation where they get nothing in return is low to nil so something else needs to change and be factored into the costs. For a lot of model railway clubs I think the time of the annual exhibition to raise some funds are probably gone for the foreseeable future, it is the commercial operators and big exhibition players who are going to carrying the torch into this new world with some small single room exhibitions running where only localish people will be the main visitors.

I fully understand your position and sympathise, an exhibition needs everyone to want to be there otherwise what's the point.

Perhaps with less exhibitions and using formal exhibition spaces the time has come to consider a paid element to the stewarding and factor that into the entry price. I'd pay more, I expect to, so why not reduce the risk by removing those roles which currently are covered by the unpaid vulnerable volunteers. Maybe Warners and Model Rail's publishers could work together on ticketing solutions based on how they currently sell for their exhibitions - one solution to fit all exhibitions regardless who is providing the exhibition so there is a one stop shop to control purchase and flow of people. Again the cost of which can be absorbed into ticketing prices.

People voluntarily get onto a plane or train full of people, they are sealed units which can lack fresh air - a exhibition hall by comparison has fresh air and high ceilings, you're not sat next to the same person for a hour or more. The owners of a venue will be glad of the business, they will be proper exhibition spaces not schools as we're all pretty much agreed such spaces are out of the question for the foreseeable future.

And probably no special promotions either - no Bachamann or Dapol grab em now stands like we see at Warley. Purchasing from other stands should be no different to picking up fruit, veg and other goods at a supermarket - commonsense just needs to prevail.

If we can get on a train or a plane with a bunch of strangers then we can meet up in a large hall with a similar bunch of strangers. I don't think the barrier to an exhibition is a vaccine, it is as @TEAMYAKIMAproffered, it is when enough exhbitors and traders are prepared to stage one and I am happy to wait for them to be ready.

My theories on this would be an element of Darwinism and people taking the risks seriously and developing tactics to avoid full blown contact. It took time for the virus to penetrate communities and people didn't recognise the risk early enough, this allowed the virus to penetrate deep into those communities especially closed ones like care homes where not only were people close together they were vulnerable. First thing we did was isolate everyone with lockdown so the initial bow wave of infection would be broken up though it would still take time to fully be realised. Then when we did begin to mix we did so in a manner more appreciative of the risk. And maybe the virus is weakened by these factors, masks are stopping us getting quite a big a dose, we're all keeping our hands clean and being mindful. It puts light at the end of a tunnel.

Your job was done as soon as KR Models mentioned The Fell. You've brought us a lot of pleasure over the years with the output of these polls.

Sadly in the world we live in today, there is only room to be a pro mask wearer or an anti mask wearer, despite the fact most of us are somewhere in between, wearing them because we need to but not really wanting to. You're Left or Right, Wrong or Right, Good or Bad, With us or Against us. Whatever became of 'Live and let live'