Andy Hayter

I am going to disagree with you. Not because you have written anything that is factually wrong but because I think you are looking at the problem in the wrong way. You are quite right that water is a bad way to extinguish a liquid fuel fire like this and I hope we are all aware of the consequences of putting water on a chip pan fire and would never use it. I have however worked all my working life in the petrochemicals industry and have seen the consequences of fires in for example tank farms where many thousands of tons of such flammable materials are stored. I can assure you that in almost every case very large amounts of water are consumed. But this is not to extinguish the fire but to contain it - to prevent spread to adjacent tanks. What we have in a carpark such as Luton is many hundreds of small storage tanks. Each contains an amount of flammable hydrocarbon. In the event of a fire - and before the fire brigade can attend, you need to contain the fire to ensure that personnel in the are can evacuate and avoid spread as far as possible. Ah he says but water will spread any spilt fuel. Indeed it might but really quite locally in the first instance. In most cases even when a fire is well alight the majority of the fuel will still be in the tank up to the point where it explodes due to pressure build up in the tank (due to heat) that cannot vent quickly enough. The tank splits the fuel escapes - mainly as gas in the first instance and ignites causing the explosion. In a worst case scenario this is when the sprinkler kicks in but reality if there is enough heat to cause an explosion you would hope it would already be working before the first bang. Burning fuel will likely have been sprayed around onto adjacent vehicles and in any scenario the burning vehicle will be radiating a large amount of heat putting adjacent vehicles at risk of their tanks heating and exploding - giving a chain reaction. The burning fuel from the first explosion on the adjacent vehicles will cause any flammable components to burn - bumpers and panels in many vehicles. However with a sprinkler system the fuel that is burning is washed off before panels can catch alight - and yes it will spread the burning fuel but the amount of fuel will be really limited with much of it consumed in the explosion and immediate fire or even still in what remains of the tank - yes really. Further, the water removes heat from adjacent vehicles so that their tanks do not reach a temperature where they are at risk of explosion themselves, which is the principle of using water in a refinery or chemical plant tank farm. There is no chain reaction and the fire is localised and ready for the fire brigade to tackle. So the system does not put the fire out but it does contain spread by cooling those vehicles immediately at risk.

Yes but in the light of the Liverpool fire and the recommendations, to build a new carpark without fire prevention features might be considered as negligent in a civil court. I can see the lawyers having a field day with this: Which car started the chain of events? Should their insurer bear the entire cost? Why was no sprinkler or similar system installed? Does that constitute negligence on behalf of someone? Who is that someone? Architect? Builder? Planning Authority? Airport administration? Department of transport? Someone else?

No flu jabs here in France for at least another week. It is a good idea to tailor the timing of your jab to your lifestyle. It takes 5 weeks or so for the jab to reach its peak effectiveness (ie for the antibodies that you produce in response to the jab to build up). Thereafter the antibodies will slowly decline. Anyone who is vulnerable or is in close contact with someone who is vulnerable would be advised to get jabbed as soon as possible. Likewise anyone who is gregarious, works with lots of people, travels a lot or is a member of several different clubs. For those however who are more insular, it can be beneficial to delay until 6 weeks or so before any major mixing event. This will likely be Christmas and or New Year for many but it could for instance be going to a big model railway show*. This means your peak protection will coincide with your mixing with the most people. * So anyone going to Warley, now is the time to organise your jab.

No longer I am afraid. The town sign* disappeared so frequently that the village decided to change the name to Fugging - pronunciation nearly the same . * Perhaps not appreciated but these signs as well as indication the name of the town/city/village, they also indicate the start of the speed restriction zones in built up areas.

And there was me thinking it was the new modellers currency: The Deltic Purchasing Unity - as in for example, the car broke down and it cost 3 DPUs for the spare parts.

@iL Dottore Obstwasser (literal translation fruit water) - the result of distilling fruit wines

Rather better than a more recent PM who studied PP and E at Merton Oxford.

Who knows if the model is aimed at collectors or not - probably no one outside of Maerklin's marketing. If your comment is based on price, then I have to advise that continental models have always been significantly above UK rtr prices - despite the screams of "too expensive" every time a new model from Dapmannby arrives. Maerklin have always been even more expensive than the average and that delivered price to Australia actually sounds cheap compared to prices in Europe but VAT removal accounts for that. To put the price in perspective I am currently fighting off the urge to purchase a REE 2-8-2 at a discounted price of just shy of 500€ (425 GBP). REE are a bit more expensive than Hornby Jouef but generally cheaper than Maerklin. Those are European prices for models sold to run and not especially aimed at collectors.

For those on the continent wanting a Hornby P2, Pierre Dominique have them on offer this weekend. https://www.pierredominique.com/art-84815-locomotive-vapeur-class-2002-eal-marischal-avec-tender-lner.html https://www.pierredominique.com/art-98691-locomotive-vapeur-class-2007-prince-wales-lner.html https://www.pierredominique.com/art-84814-locomotive-vapeur-class-2003-lord-president-avec-tender-lner.html 235€ each - I think Lord President is out of stock with Hornby.

My thoughts completely, but the recommended Pink Fir Apple is anything but floury. AS it happens it is a variety I grow so I will give it a road test. What could go wrong? Given the last few weeks, probably everything. Well the jury has delivered on the thoughts of Pink Fir Apple as a chip potato. Just don't do it. Not disgusting but there are plenty proper potatoes for this duty. Par boiled and then deep fried. Tasty but chewy and did not melt in the mouth. I will concede however, that if perchance you boil too many pfk pots and have some cooked ones in the fridge the next morning, they do slice up and fry well for breakfast. But chips? - No, no, no and thrice no - that's 6 nos.

My thoughts completely, but the recommended Pink Fir Apple is anything but floury. AS it happens it is a variety I grow so I will give it a road test. What could go wrong? Given the last few weeks, probably everything.

Congratulation on tomorrows event @SimonHMT

The talk of catering brings me to warn of what happens in France - or at least at the few exhibitions I have visited. (Exhibitions are infrequent and even many big shows are only held once every 2 or 3 years.) Around lunchtime it seems to be common for everything to stop. The exhibition is still open but all - or at least most - of the exhibitors go off together for lunch.

Thinking further on this, it may well be that casks of whisky were shipped for bottling local to the customer as a means of reducing theft in transit. It would be relatively easy to lift a bottle or a case; much harder (but not impossible) to tap a barrel for the equivalent amount of spirit. @jamie92208 is quite correct that "new" barrels for the distillery were anything but new and there was certainly a traffic from port to distillery with empties. Other cask traffics would I think involve the importation of wines and spirits from abroad - brandy, port, sherry and quite possibly clarets, hocks and other wines. Beer, we know, did work on a return barrel basis but many of these would be smaller and on generally shorter trips, I suggest, than a barrel of whisky for bottling at the other end of the country. But I return again to the question of whether whisky casks were returned. On the basis that the "new" barrels were imported because of the qualities of the contaminants soaked into the barrel and what those contaminants impart to the spirit, can a barrel be reused to give the same quality? Probably not but I will accept that such barrels might be used for lesser qualities.

Today whisky is bottled locally (relatively). Was that not the case in pre- and grouping periods? And further, would empty barrels be returned? Plenty of new ones to be had then as now.

Actually that is pretty irrelevant since whatever does run well on filthy track will soon have crud encrusted wheels and will then no longer run on filthy track.

Not on the Pennine way but it is on the coast to coast walk along the length of the wall, so the point is well made.

Are you sure? Many clarifying agents are based on animal products and so the beers are not even vegetarian.

No of course the Chinese do not paint the interior for nothing. But if they do 100 in an hour - which I suspect is close to the truth - the extra cost will be of the order of 7p per wagon.

Yes, Mazak aka Zamak melts but not in you household oven. Crystallisation temperatures are around 400C, so you are going to need a Furness going to at least 500C. I think that probably means the other questions are irrelevant.

Well I agree with your use of the word magnificent. What a model.

It is perhaps important to remember that lead based paints were quite resistant to many fungal attacks, so even if the paint faded/darkened/was partially washed away, the residues would resist a lot of rot based fungi. Important with wood based substrates, less so with metal where the attack would be corrosion/oxidation. Even here it is possible that red lead (Pb3O4)might convert by oxidation to the black/grey lead dioxide (PbO2) and so provide some protection to iron. Given the range of oxides of iron, few of which are in any way pure, it may be that iron oxide paints can do a similar job.

Yes as I posted earlier with Srbija and Hrvatska, Slavic languages can use "r" as a pseudo vowel. The Croat for a square or place (as in an address) is Trg, which I struggled to pronounce correctly according to a Croat I was teaching some English to. My pronunciation (probably close to terg) was it seems something rather rude.

Sounds like Covid. Hopefully a very mild dose but it does give you the excuse to not help the mayor or his adjutant out for a few days.

A degree of over-sensitivity on your part perhaps? It is very common for nations to have their own names for countries and cities. You might be surprised to find out what we and the locals call: Bergen - Mons in Belgium Genf - Geneva Breslau - Wroclaw in Poland Koenigsberg - Kaliningrad (Russian enclave) All of the above are German names for the places named. Edimburgo is Spanish for a place you might be able to guess in Scotland but where did the "m" come from? As for Hrvatska, I doubt most non-Slavic speakers could pronounce it let alone realise it is Croatia. Ditto Srbija - Serbia. Some of the name changes are undoubtedly due to pronunciation problems. But you touch on one of my bug-bears with "Marsez", where I assume the "z" is supposed to represent the "s" that does not exist in Marseille.