Rob F

I don't think he is condoning it, just suggesting that it is wrong to tar all the fans of a club with the same brush because of the actions of some idiots. The only time I have been on a supporters coach that was bricked was leaving Pride Park on the night Rob Earnshaw scored the winner for Forest...….

Would you care to enlighten us about the huge amount of success Derby have enjoyed recently?

Strange how perceptions vary. I have been to all the clubs you mention as an away fan and never had the slightest issue at Villa Park. St Andrews, however, at the end of the game was like a war zone and I genuinely feared for myself and my wife's safety.

I was never a particular fan of DJ and found some of the praise lavished on him when he started his venture bordered on the sycophantic, however, it does seem that people are revelling a little too much in his misfortune. I feel for the crowd funders and the loss they may suffer but there is a human element here. I suspect we have an individual here who is under a great deal of stress with great concerns over his and his family’s future. I know his current position is largely self inflicted and some would say he is reaping what he sowed. Maybe. I just hope someone is looking out for him and giving him the emotional support he almost certainly needs.

I am always very fastidious about protecting my mounds.

Thank you, I will give it a try tonight.

I have a Hornby class 67 (R3268) and am having some issues with its running. Once started and above a certain speed it runs fine but it is always very hesitant starting up. It often needs a prod to get it moving and at low speeds it will often stall. The wheels and the track are clean so I think the finger of suspicion is pointing at the pickups. If I apply power to the axles individually there doesn't seem to be an issue so I was wondering if someone could advise me how to drop the bogies out so that I properly investigate the pickups. Thanks

How about protecting the adjacent level crossing with large steel beams to limit the height of vehicles that could use it. The contact wire need then not be so high and the gradient in it would not be so steep, thus preventing any need to modify the bridge at all.

I don't think 'touchy lot' adequately qualifies as 'slagging off' but your response does rather prove the point I was trying, albeit clumsily, to make. I got interested in football in around 1974 when I was 6 and became a Forest fan for no other reason than my sister was a season ticket holder at Meadow Lane and there was no way I was going to do anything the same as her! It had nothing to do with relative success because at that time both clubs were in the second division and Notts finished above Forest for two years in a row. I am in my 31st year as a season ticket holder at the City Ground now and have managed to inflict the disease on my eldest son as well! Football in Nottingham is strange as there is really very little antipathy from Forest fans towards County, and for a good while if County got a good result there would be a small cheer when it was announced at the City Ground. The same can certainly not be said in the opposite direction as a good number of County fans seem to despise Forest with a passion and a highlight of their week is when Forest lose a game. Reds really only see Derby as the local rivals and an intense rivalry it is too. The latest instalment is next Monday evening at the City Ground and both sides need to win the game badly, so it should be an interesting evening!

That may be close to the truth! With the coaches being 26m long and most of the extra length being outboard of the bogies, the end throw will be greater than a mk2 or mk3. Maybe that requires the longer gangways to cater for it.

Is the only difference between pack 1 and pack 2 of the Mk 5As the running numbers?

Is that a snowball fight going on in the car park?!!

Great photos , as usual. What's going on with the middle windows on the TSO immediately behind the buffet in J7071?

Notts fans are a touchy lot.... Maybe something to do with a non-reciprocated rivalry?

You are THE Notts fan and I claim my £5!!

And I think I've got it bad as a Forest supporter! If that is the highlight of the last 25 years for Notts fans it's no wonder there are so few of them...

Thank you!

I am sure I am being dense here, but I can’t get my head around J5651. The train is heading for Skeggy so Grantham is behind the photographer. I thought Bottesford West was the junction for the GN line to Newark but this faced Nottingham, not Grantham, so what is the line in the picture? Rob

Probably caused by lack of lubrication.

Don't worry, taken in the spirit that was meant!

Solid performance by Forest at the sheepdip last night. A makeshift back four handled Derby pretty well and we probably had the best chances to win the game. Also, the dirty Rams could easily have been down to nine men. Given history, I can’t allow myself to be too optimistic about the rest of the season but at the moment the red side of the Queen of the Midlands can at least be allowed a small smile over the Christmas period!

Correction. I have just gone back to the videos and looked at the time stamps. It was 67 seconds from the moment the couplings made contact to the combined train pulling away. So really not much longer than a standard station stop where no joining was required. Longer for the train that was already in the platform, of course.

We do know how long it was because I took the video! It was around 1 minute.

But why does it have to so much more complicated than in Switzerland, not a backward country by any stretch of the imagination. In this video from 0:44 onwards: A train is sitting in the platform, with passengers aboard and the doors released. The joining portion arrives and couples, without stopping, and its doors are released seconds later. The combined train then leaves quickly. What do we have to do that they do not do and what benefits does it bring? Rob

I always remember that Steve Jones, of ‘Electric Nose’ fame, asserted that the nose of the Bachmann peak was significantly too short. Has there ever been a definitive assesment of the dimensional accuracy of the tooling? Rob