PatB

What about the other end of the line, with the Inglenook representing the approach to a staithe (north-east), quayside (Whitehaven) or end tipper (South Wales)? The actual unloading facility might be a bit ambitious but that could be assumed to be offstage.

Ironically, the last SD1 I had anything to do with had started life as a pov-pak 2000 and gained a V8 towards the end of its existence.

The roadhouse owners across the Nullabor will have worn their hands away from rubbing them all week I reckon.

The guide to secondhand cars in an old (c1959) copy of Practical Motorist I used to have reckoned the A40 Somerset's good roadholding and lively engine made it a "fast point-to-point car", which, even at the tender age of about 11, I thought was probably stretching it a bit, even in those (just) pre-Mini and Ford 105E days.

Indeed, that's a Devon. The 2-door variant was the Dorset. The vans had the short, 4 door front doors and so were also Devon. The Somerset was the successor to the Dorvon and always made me think an A30 had a nasty accident with a foot pump .

Given the enormous coupling rods, is this one of the rumoured "Nellie" powered examples?

Although, as I've said, I have no problem with customers asking if I can do something on the price of a purchase and will make a fair(ish) judgement as to whether or not I will, there is one customer tactic that I've come across that made steam come out of my ears. Elderly lady perusing some of our smaller pieces: "How much are these please" Me (speaking clearly): "$15 each" Her: "I'd like this one please" Me: "Certainly. I'll just wrap it up for you. That'll be $15 please" She hands me $12. Me: "That's $15 please" Her: "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't afford that" Me: "Sorry. Here's your $12 back" Unwraps piece and puts it back on shelf. And she walked off. Now, if she'd asked before handing me the short amount I'd have probably said OK. I'd have got the sale and she'd have got a bit of a discount and we'd both have been moderately happy. However, I was clearly expected to be guilted into cutting the price (there was definitely an air of this being a regularly used tactic) and I refuse to be manipulated in such a way. Maybe that makes me a cold-hearted git. I dunno. Anyhow, we both ended up losing out on that one.

Or the VW might be a K reg of course .

It's a question of priorities. Living from market to market, $30 in the bank beats $40 still in the customer's pocket but my integrity intact. As I said, though, beyond what we actually advertise, the existence or size of a discount is dependent on various factors including, but not limited to, whether the customer asks, whether I judge they'll walk away if I don't offer, whether I like their attitude, whether I'm in a good mood, whether it's a piece that's been in stock for a while. Every transaction gets treated on its individual merits. But the OP was talking about a retail shop, not a kit manufacturer. In any case, at least some kit manufacturers do offer discounts for multiple purchases or sets. Smallbrook Studio spring to mind, with their Stroudley coaches and C19th goods stock.

The UK's not alone in that. Here in Oz, the airports I'm most familiar with are Perth, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. Perth has a not too bad bus service during business hours but not much if you've got a late or early flight, but you do pretty much have to travel via the city centre. A rail link is currently under construction, which might improve things. Sydney's pretty good, with a rail link which, although people like to complain about Sydney's trains, I've always found quite decent. Melbourne has not particularly frequent buses during business hours on weekdays. Outside that, nope. Canberra, though, is, for a national capital, a bad joke. The nearest bus service is (short) business hours only, through an anonymous business park adjacent to the airport. If you don't know it's there, there's nothing to tell you. If you're flight's after about 4pm, the service terminates in a retail park on the other side of the airport, necessitating a lengthy walk along pavementless roads around the perimeter. Still, got to maintain the profits of the operators of the taxis and the extortionately prices shuttle buses I suppose. When I was working in that city and returning to Perth every few weeks I preferred to cycle to and from the airport, leaving my (not very thiefworthy) bike locked up in the bike park. Which was also a well guarded secret, as far as I could tell, tucked away in the corner of a carpark, with zero signage to indicate its existence.

Given that the box seems to have been the main fly in the ointment of this particular CX, maybe it's not such a bad thing that it's forced the issue and will be properly sorted (or, at least, there'll be a counter to bang on if it isn't ).

I'm in retail. I have a significant emotional investment in the products I sell as, instead of being bought in, they represent the end product of rather a lot of frustrating trial and error, quite apart from the physical inputs into each individual piece. I openly offer a fairly substantial discount for multiple purchases. I also, if someone asks if I can do something on the price of fewer items than would automatically qualify, I'll generally knock a token few dollars off in order to get the sale. It is, after all, sales wot pays the bills (as long as I'm not so daft as to sell below cost, which I don't) so, as others have said, I'd rather have 75% of something than 100% of nothing. If someone asks for more off than I'm prepared to give, or if I simply don't like them, there's no discount, and probably no sale, but I don't get offended about it. Folk seem more inclined to accept a refusal with good grace if I explain (in a suitably edited and abridged fashion) how my pricing is worked out. I have a mental script for this tucked away alongside the sales pitch and ready to use when necessary. On the other side of the counter, if I'm making a substantial purchase and the person I'm dealing with appears to have the authority to adjust pricing, sure, I'll ask if there's any possibility of a bit off. That's if it hasn't already been offered, which, from the sort of businesses I like to deal with, it often will have been. I just work on the basis of "don't ask, don't get". Again, if nothing's forthcoming I don't get huffy or subsequently boycott the business. So, no, I don't ask for a discount in Aldi or Bunnings as things stand, because the bod on the till is some poor s%d on minimum wage. If the bod on the till was the MD, OTOH, or even the store manager, I might. As I see it, offering a discount is at the discretion of the retailer. Asking for one and accepting what might or might not be offered is at the discretion of the customer. As long as it's all done in a polite and civilised fashion, I really can't see the harm.

I must agree that, when flying back and forth between Perth and Canberra on a regular basis, I found myself annoyed by those who apparently believed that what looked to me like a full sized steamer trunk was acceptable cabin baggage, and with the airlines who seemed to agree, in spite of there being no way such behemoths would have fitted in the cabin baggage gauges at the gates had a check been required. And that was on flights where checked baggage was a free or very low cost option.

Nice photos but I must put my pedant's hat on and query the 1965 date on the first one. The ad on the back of the bus incorporates the Leyland "roundel". Whilst I'm not 100% on the history of BL, I didn't think the roundel showed up before about 1968. Also, the VW on the opposite side of the road looks to be one of the later 12V variety, with upright headlamps, which also emerged c1968. Indeed, whilst the number plate is too fuzzy to read, at least on my screen, the last letter could even be an H or an M, which would date the pic to no earlier than August 1969 or 1973 respectively. Given the state of the trees, that would mean maybe November 1969 at the earliest.

Having spent my formative years nearby, I think of it more as a coprolite .

Thanks but, given that I'm in Australia, I don't think any EV commercials are yet available to me, new or used. When they are, I'm hoping for a 200 km range, laden, because anything less won't make the round trips we'd need it to do, with uncertain availability of charging facilities at the far end. I suspect that, by the time Oz gets anything like a reasonable selection of EVs, both the range and the in-the-field charging will be easily available. Well, there's this, but funnily enough I don't want an aftermarket conversion based on a Chinese HiAce knock-off. I've seen enough of the inside of both industries to make me not want to touch one with a bargepole.

Sounds a lot more commercially exciting than the Bridgwater I remember from 30+ years ago .

In the late 1980s Royal Mail were using electric converted(?) Leyland Sherpas (or whatever the big Sherpa variant was called) around Newcastle (quite possibly elsewhere too, but that's where I saw them). I don't know how successful the exercise was though. I'm very interested in light commercial EVs. Something equivalent to our current Fiat Scudo would do very nicely for 99% of our usage and would be effectively free to charge, given our already extant, somewhat oversized, PV system.

Whilst I don't have much sympathy for the driver (or the driver in a previous clip who got air in similar fashion), I do think that there probably is a case for investigating roundabout and road island designs that aren't so prone to launching vehicles that hit them at speed. If nothing else, it might save the poor, blameless, b*##@r on the far side of the roundabout from being squashed by 2 tonnes of plummeting metal.

On power tools, things change over time, too. Back c1990, Dad and I bought a pair of Makita cordless drill drivers for use in our landscaping and garden carpentry business. They were brilliant and indestructible. 15 years later, I bought an equivalent Makita cordless for general DIY use and it was rubbish. Gutless, uncomfortable to use and expired quite quickly. Not a patch on its predecessors. I've also got a big Maktec (allegedly Makita's DIY range) router which I was talked into buying against my better judgement. It works but it's not very nice to use. A little Makita router, though, is lovely. The landscaping business also brought me into contact with B&D Professional kit, all of which we found to be excellent (back then), with corded drills and our big 9" grinder all taking severe abuse without complaint for years. I've had a Metabo sander have its paper retaining mechanism fall to bits very early on. Current favourite manufacturer is Hitachi. I've found their cordless drills to be excellent value and very robust. Ditto my 4" angle grinder, which has worked hard for its living at times. As for Dick Smiths, I never bought anything from them without feeling mildly disappointed/slightly ripped-off. I much preferred Jaycar or Altronics, even when DS still existed.

I just think the UK was lucky that the Bunnings venture didn't include their one time subsidiary WA Salvage, whose main purpose was to flog stuff that was too tacky, useless or broken for even Bunnies to sell with a straight face. Their never to be forgotten slogan was "We're not fancy but we're cheap", complete with borderline racist cartoon Italian. Oh dear but they were bad, to the extent that they went bust after everyone in WA had bought at least one item from them and resolved never to go back, thus depriving them of a customer base .

Quite so. There is also a role for the sacrificial cheap power tool when you know that a particular job is going to destroy it or, at least, substantially reduce its longevity. For example, environments with lots of abrasive dust, or adhesive contaminants, will quickly kill even the best tools (and their users, without appropriate PPE, but that's another story), so you might as well let the $10 XU1 or NoNamo junk take the pain and throw it away at the end.

Whilst I very much appreciate the Thanks and Informatives for this post I think I need to point out that the information contained therein is a little (as in near 30 years) out of date. Hope noone's been too disappointed .

I've always loved the Edwardian monsters and their spiritual successors, the aero-engined cars that came along post WW1. Fast, loud, dangerous, exciting and everything else that makes motorsport what it is. I remember being profoundly influenced by reading an interview with Roger Collins(?), the then owner of the 1903 Mercedes 60hp that was (is?) a familiar sight at VSCC race meetings, in which he said WTTE "It cruises at 80 with its motorway sprockets on". Not bad for a car built not so very long after the Old Queen went to her rest .

Interesting to see the Bedford CAs, presumably off to the body builders. I wonder what they became. Ice-cream vans, minibuses, walk-thru vans?