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I’ve seen the aurora a few times. The first time was on a road trip through BC and Alberta with two of my sons when they were 10 and 8. We were sleeping in a minivan, myself and one son on the floor, the other son on a bench seat. As we settled down to sleep one night, the son on the bench asked “Why are those clouds moving so fast?”. So we got up and watched for an hour or so. We’ve also seen them here at home a few times, just north of the 49th. My sister has seen - and heard - a spectacular display of Northern Lights while working in Labrador.

Highland Railway/LMS Yankee Tanks on a NBR/LNER branch line? NBR 4-4-0Ts such as the D51s (LNER classification) were used on the Lauder Light.

Let’s not get too carried away yet. Remember the CN-BNSF merger! https://www.stb.gov/Decisions/readingroom.nsf/WEBUNID/9E0BA130B4D48DB1852568B0005B5AE4?OpenDocument The US does not like foreign control of US companies.

But is that Sluff-it, or Slow (rhyming with ‘how’)-it, or Slew-it?

There is a topic here about light railways in Scotland, including the proposed lines on Skye, which gives references to books and other sources of information: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/100647-light-railways-in-scotland/

And 60019 is Stirling southbound (same engine, even!): https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/35/692/

61008 is definitely at Carstairs northbound: https://images.app.goo.gl/C5o1rNUbEaouwLXy5

Night-time operating session on a garden railway: https://www.railpictures.net/photo/766500/

If by ‘these engines’ you mean 60519 and 60522, as pictured in Mad McCann’s post, there are photos of both of them at Hawick.

Arthur’s Pass at the eastern end of the Otira Tunnel?

I’m glad I’m not the only one!

You had a desk? We would have loved a desk! We had to cope in the same way as Younger Lurker - pack everything we needed for the day from home. The standard schoolbag was a wartime gas mask bag. There was quite a bit of room in it, so it was sometimes possible to pack everything you were going to need for the week into it on a Monday morning, though that could lead to a lopsided walk. The only time I remember the showers in the changing rooms being used was if someone had gone down heavily on the crushed ash football pitch. They would be given a bar of carbolic soap and a scrubbing brush and pointed at the cold water showers. I still have small bits of the pitch in my left knee. We did have a cloakroom, though.

I did it the other way round. At six and a half, I moved from a school where we were still printing to a school where cursive writing was already in use. My handwriting never caught up. Having to take handwritten lecture notes at university just finished it off. Before covid arrived, I played soccer with a group of guys originally from all five continents (seven if you count South America and Oceania as distinct continents). The common language is English, dialect profanity.

No comment! https://www.railpictures.net/photo/766389/

This afternoon’s entertainment was fixing angle plates to concrete using concrete screws. Having borrowed an appropriately-powerful hammer drill from my son (my own feeble one was making no impression), I got holes drilled for the first plate. Trying to screw the screws in was not going well till I put some thin oil in the holes - first plate successfully mounted. Same process for the second plate. Halfway through screwing in the second screw - the tip on the Phillips screwdriver snapped. That stopped play for the day!

As mdvle says, searching Railpictures for “BNSF Railway” and “USA - Vermont” (from the appropriate dropdown lists) will get you three pictures. Not too recent, though - they’re from 2008/10/12.

The hole in the backscene is well camouflaged: https://www.railpictures.net/photo/766277/

My kids all learned Quebecois French in immersion programs at school. They have all been to France and have had no problem functioning in French. They did find that their French was ‘looked down on’ by certain French people, though. Apparently, some Quebec pronunciations are archaic in ‘French’ French, not having evolved in the same way as in France. I believe something similar, but on a smaller scale, happened with English on the islands in Chesapeake Bay in the US. Being quite self-contained, for many years after English settlement the language didn’t evolve in the same way as elsewhere and the pronunciation remained very close to the original Elizabethan.

Spoilsport!

This afternoon, I spent 21 minutes (I was staring at a clock, so I know exactly) moving the clock in the car one hour forward. The process combined two things that have been complained about recently in this topic: over-complicated car electronics and ‘summer’ time. ”Before adjusting the clock, be sure to change the combination meter display (colour LCD) to a screen other than the menu screen entering screen.” Aaaaaargh!

“The Portpatrick and Wigtonshire was supervised in three-yearly periods by the Caley and G&SW alternately” (David L. Smith). I’ve also remembered that there was a LNWR engine on the Portpatrick Railway (precursor of the PPWJR) - a ‘DX’ goods 0-6-0 bought from the LNWR. And six of the Portpatrick Railway engines (0-4-2s and 2-2-2s) were designed by J.E. McConnell of the LNWR.

‘Undulating trackwork’? How about this? https://www.railpictures.net/photo/260596/ https://www.railpictures.net/photo/202127/

The UK stayed on ‘summer time’ from March 1968 to October 1971 i.e. through three winters. The effect on daylight hours in winter became more the further north and west you went. In some of the western islands in Scotland, in the shortest days of the year, it was dark till mid-morning. The main push for all-year daylight saving appears to come from road safety organizations. It seems to have resulted in fewer accidents overall (more in mornings, fewer in late afternoons/evenings) in most parts of the UK, but more overall in northern Scotland.

And in Canada. There’s talk that this may be the last time we change here in BC, and we’ll stay on ‘summer time’ from now on, though that really depends on Washington, Oregon and California doing the same.

“The Little Railways of South-West Scotland” only mentions the Lockerbie-Dumfries line in relation to Caledonian access to the Portpatrick and Wigtonshire Joint and its predecessors. There’s no detailed description of the line. One interesting point about that line. When the PP&W Joint Committee was formed, the two English partners were granted running powers to access the joint line. The Midland already had running powers over the whole G&SWR system, so only needed to be granted powers over the CR from Carlisle to Gretna Junction. The LNWR was given powers over the CR from Carlisle to Lockerbie, over the CR branch from there to Dumfries, then over the G&SWR to Castle Douglas. I wonder if a LNWR engine ever took a train over that route? (The whole route - I know about the Webb 2-4-2Ts on the Lockerbie-Dumfries push-pulls in LMS days.)