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I’ve always understood that Horwich did not design the ‘Crab’ from scratch. Instead, they took the design for a Caledonian Railway 2-6-0, which was quite advanced at the Grouping, and modified it to fit the loading gauge of English constituents of the LMS.

You’ve probably seen the first part of this - I had. But the last line was new. I grew up with Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now there’s no Jobs, no Cash and no Hope. Nothing better happen to Kevin Bacon!

US equivalent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Health_and_Human_Services

I saw that Derby-Leeds game live. I thought Lee was completely justified in what he did. It doesn’t really show in that video, but Hunter had split his lip, either with his fist or shoulder. Lee was going off reasonably quietly till he put his hand to his face and realized just how bad it was. There was also a lot more, some of it quite funny, that happened around the sending off involving players other than Lee and Hunter which isn’t on that video.

An interesting side effect of no large family gatherings for Christmas dinners is that the demand for large turkeys is way down. So much so that stores are not stocking as many as usual, and processing plants apparently aren’t taking any more from the turkey farms.

“Are you sure there’s still rails here?” https://www.railpictures.net/photo/757500/

Translink, the transport system in Greater Vancouver, runs several “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer” buses each year: https://images.app.goo.gl/B8no774MKjZJBP649

We use ours in the same way. It’s very appropriate for Thanksgiving here.

I presume this is now a record of a historical artefact. That is the same dinner service as we have, given as a wedding present many (many) years ago. I can’t remember ever seeing it in use anywhere else before, in the UK or after we moved here.

I used to work in downtown Vancouver, and the office had a clear view to the east. At certain times of the year, soon after I arrived in work, the sun would rise behind Mount Baker - it could be quite spectacular.

Those people are free to do what they want with their own lives - the major quibble I have is their resulting use of limited resources like health services. But what I do object to strongly is their putting other, more sensible people at risk by their antics.

Choose the right Great Western Railway to model, and you can have lots of different colours of engines: https://www.railpictures.net/photo/493812/ https://www.railpictures.net/photo/726966/ https://www.railpictures.net/photo/582751/ https://www.railpictures.net/photo/538970/ The railroad is now owned by Omnitrax, so engines in the colours of many of their other short lines can be seen at various times on the Great Western.

On an IT “service quality” course, we were asked how we felt we should perform with respect to users’ expectations. The commonest answer was, as you might expect, that we should exceed them. No, said the instructor, you should meet them as precisely as you can. Once you start delivering beyond expectation, that standard becomes the expectation, and doing precisely what is requested in the future becomes unacceptable.

There’s a process called ‘rail banking’ in the US which accomplishes much the same thing as you’re talking about: https://www.railstotrails.org/build-trails/trail-building-toolbox/acquisition/railbanking/ There have been ‘mothballed’ routes put back into service. BNSF brought the ex-Northern Pacific route over Stampede Pass in Washington State back into service after several years out. It hadn’t been railbanked, but did need a huge amount of refurbishment.

What happened to the rest of the train behind?

Shotgunning a beer means something different here - something like a cheap ‘yard of ale’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgunning

Growing up, none of our kids liked Christmas cake. After a gap of a few years, my wife decided to make Christmas cake again this year. We asked our sons if they thought any of their kids would like it. One said his definitely would not. The other said he didn’t know about his two year old, since he’s not really been ‘exposed’ to that kind of food - they’re more into savoury cooking than sweet. On the other hand, he said his four year old would love it. The actual quote was “He’d probably want to eat it for breakfast!”. So a small cake went off to them. They ‘FaceTimed’ us last night as they brought the cake out for dessert after their dinner. Both the kids hoovered up their piece of the cake, followed by a small piece of my wife’s shortbread which had also been in the parcel. My wife is greatly gratified!

I remember being told that alcohol imbibed that way had a greater effect than the same amount drunk in the usual way. I’ve never tried to prove or disprove that. Has anyone else?

This morning, I got vaccinations to complete a course of shingles vaccine and a course of bacterial pneumonia vaccine (one in the left arm, one in the right). The arms are starting to hurt and weaken now. I’m going to have problems lifting anything this evening - like a fork to my mouth!

I first heard of it being used around Gloucester for the Holbeck ones.

The 44738-57 batch were sometimes called ‘gorillas’ because of their head-on appearance.

How about modelling this? V2 at Swindon with a WR tender? https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/LNER-and-BRE-and-BRNE/LNER-post-grouping-locomotives/LNER-4-6-0s-and-prairies/i-Xp8cRTF/A

There’s a bit missing in that story. Shields depot wasn’t in operation when the first stage of the south side electrification was energized. Units had to be hauled to Hyndland for maintenance, as you say, over the unwired City of Glasgow Union line. The locos originally used were ex-Caley 0-4-4Ts, which had Westinghouse brake gear. When the Scottish Region ran out of those, they brought in ex-Caley 4-4-0s, again with Westinghouse equipment. Those engines were 54463/65/502, which ended up as the last active 4-4-0s in Scotland. When those were withdrawn, D8085/6 were fitted with air brakes for the work.

I don’t know how much you want, but it is available to buy. Google “Bondic”.