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Can you not disable the stop/start function? I’ve rented a couple of cars in the UK with the function and have immediately looked up how to shut it off.

Recommended as a standard defence move, or else a handful of pennies with some projecting between the fingers - a cheap knuckleduster. (Though I’m sure that would have done just as much damage to the hand.) Drivers would bring the fire extinguisher if needed. I never needed to do anything like that, but I knew crew who did.

Polmadie got its Clans in late 1951/early 1952. It got its Britannias in 1954. The Clans were in regular use for some time after the arrival of the Brits and were still there after all the Brits had been transferred away. I don’t think the presence of the Brits had much effect on Polmadie’s use of its Clans. I agree Haymarket and St Margaret’s didn’t seem too keen on keeping the Clans that Polmadie (and Kingmoor) sent them. But it’s been recorded, and mentioned a couple of times in this topic, that Kingmoor tried to have the Polmadie engines transferred there rather than have them withdrawn, so Kingmoor would probably have taken them if offered. Just reading about these engines at Polmadie and remembering other allocations, it just seems that the shed didn’t feel it had much need of Class 6 steam power. It had also had Class 6 Jubilees at various times, but its last ones had gone to Corkerhill by (I think) early 1960. However, it kept its Class 7 Scots almost to withdrawal (2 went to Corkerhill for their last couple of months). None of its Class 8 Duchesses was transferred away after 1958, and those that went at that time were replaced later.

Bristol Lodekka FLF - 70 seated, 8 standing. At pub closing time on a Friday night, the two crew could be the only reliably sober people on the bus, and the poor conductor/conductress was in the middle of it. The driver at least was in an isolated cab (though expected to provide aid if required).

I have had those notebooks in my hands, and have seen the page where Darwin first mentions what became his theory of evolution. (Before anyone starts calling the authorities, it was 40 years ago, it was in a secure room in Cambridge University Library, and I was employed there at the time!) It’s not impossible that they could turn up within the library. Mis-shelving is a real problem in libraries, and there are over 130 miles of shelving in that library. In another large library I worked in, there were regular checks for that. Usually, a book would be a few inches out of place, sometimes a shelf, even a bay of shelves out of place. However, books were occasionally found shelved on the wrong floor. Having said that, the odds are that they have been stolen. They (or at least the text from them) have been digitized, though. That project was in progress when I handled them.

I don't know about Costco in the UK, but Costco in Canada do their own brand of jeans, still with 2 inch waist increments, but odd numbers of waist size. So all (?) other manufacturers produce jeans with waist sizes of 32,34,36 etc. Costco do 31,33,35 etc. [Edit - I have to correct this, and apologize to everyone who has read it. It’s not the waist size that is in odd inches - it’s the inside leg measurement, which isn’t so unusual. I buy these jeans with 31 inch legs because 30 inch in other brands are up around my ankles, but 32 inch fray on the ground at my heels. I apologise again to anyone who may have rushed off to their local Costco on reading this post. (Note to self - it’s not just railway information you should check before posting.)]

I’ve never met anyone who admits to have seen “The Rise and Rise Of Michael Rimmer” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Rise_of_Michael_Rimmer It starred Peter Cook, and included many other well-know British actors/comedians/satirists of the 1960s. The critical reception was not good: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/jun/30/television.comedy. However, individual sections (it was basically a collection of skits strung together) were brilliant, and overall it was very prescient about future trends in politics. It even had a referendum with a two-option question and far-reaching and significant results!

Groats had been around for a long time before 1835. I think those dates are the last years there were any minted. Wikipedia says there were groats in circulation in Scotland into the 20th century - I know my gran kept at least one. (That’s a groat, not a goat! ) And the half-sovereign. My gran had some of those, too. (Edit - since when have emojis not been allowed?)

And the Dutch tell jokes about the Belgians, and the rest of Germany tells jokes about East Frisians, and the rest of Canada tells jokes about Newfoundlanders ...

Earlier discussion of duties for the whole class: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/23890-standard-class-6-clans-operations/ Basically, the Polmadie engines were used on Manchester and Liverpool trains. Once those were dieselised, there wasn’t much work for them, though one regular duty was the daily pickup goods on the Gourock line until they were withdrawn at the end of 1962.

Yes, what you’re saying applies pretty much nowadays. But I think the era and location (era especially) will have a big influence on what could be modelled - in general, the earlier the era, the more industry to be modelled. There is still lumber traffic originating from various place in the mountains of BC (and there are many more mountain ranges than the Rockies) . And there has been, and can sometimes still be, mining of metal ores , coal mining, smelting of ores, farming (cattle, fruit and wheat in different places), even ice harvesting(!). I can’t think of any remaining rail-connected metal mining operations, but the Sullivan mine, supplying the Trail smelter, lasted into this century. Coal is still mined in a big way in the Elk Valley, and has been in various other places in the past. The Trail smelter is still in operation - at least some of its ore supply now comes from Alaska, though not all the way to the smelter by rail. There were several other smelters in southern BC in the late 19th/early 20th. century. All are long closed, though their slag heaps are still very obvious, with that of the Grand Forks smelter being ‘mined’ and transported by rail from a transload, for the industrial production of abrasives. And ice harvesting? Before the advent of mechanical refrigeration, the US Great Northern used to cut the ice for its fruit reefers in a BC lake and run trains of up to 100 cars south to Wenatchee in Washington State, for the ice to be stored underground for the coming year’s traffic. I can’t see that the OP has specified an era and area yet. I’m guessing it will be present day or close to it, probably CN or CP. All I was trying to do with this post was to show that there certainly have been other, more varied, possibilities in the past, sometimes quite recent past.

I can’t even get foam earplugs to stay in my ears.

l remember seeing a picture of the bunk cars used on construction trains on the Canadian Pacific mainline across the Prairies in the 1880s - they were three storeys high. I thought “How did they get those under bridges? Oh, wait ...”. A couple of decades later, the Grand Trunk Pacific mainline (now Canadian National) was built across the Prairies further north. They had a standard plan for laying out new settlements on the line - same number of streets, same street names, same orientation with respect to the prevailing winds etc. They could do that because they were building on unsettled, flat land.

I won’t quote posts, just reply to some points I’ve read over the previous pages. - walking on rail lines. It wasn’t too unusual here when we first came to Canada nearly 40 years ago. The lines weren’t fenced and the traffic was generally slow, noisy freights. There was plenty of warning of approaching trains. Even railway employees weren’t too worried about it. I was out for a walk one night with one of my sons, who was about 6-7 at the time. We stopped to look at a train which was sitting at the exit from a local industry, with the crew getting off and crossing the tracks (CP mainline) towards us to go to a restaurant for a meal break. The engineer said to me, pointing to my son, “Take him across and show him round the cab.” I did not do so! Things changed when the West Coast Express (commuter rail) started running. More fencing went up, and people gradually realized that these trains were quicker and quieter than freights. It took some time though; one teenager was killed, walking on the track with his back to the traffic and with his Walkman plugged in, and I was on a WCE that went into emergency because of a mother and two young kids walking on the track, backs to the traffic. - crossing against lights. Generally, people are good about not doing this. There’s still the problem of unguarded crossings, though. I have actually gone over a crossing in the situation where that semi was hit by the reversing locomotive - where a train was stopped close to a crossing with the crossing lights flashing and no barriers. (That doesn’t happen much, if at all, now. Someone, crew or dispatcher, appears to have the ability to turn the lights and bells off, and re-activate them when the train is about to move.) In the case where I crossed, the engineer waved me on, plus he had several thousand tons of train behind him and would probably have taken about a minute to get to the crossing after restarting his train. - trains blocking crossings. They will sometimes split trains on running lines if they are going to be across a crossing for a long time, or the crossing is on a busy road. I’ve seen it done for a 5 minute stop, though maybe the crew thought they were going to be there longer. The conductor drops off at the crossing, when the train stops he uncouples ahead of the first car in rear of the crossing and the train draws ahead to open the crossing. When it’s time to move, the front of the train backs up, the conductor couples up again and the train moves off.

What I remember about the sounds of Leyland PDs was the unusual tickover. The engine would rev up, then slowly die away, rev up, slowly die away ...

Standard position for the sand dome on North American steam locomotives: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/314266880230844273/ It seem to make sense: - easier and quicker to fill single large container than several small ones (see picture in link) - storage over a heat source is likely to keep the sand drier, and freer-running - depends on size of dome, but potential to hold more sand in total than in several small sandboxes

Apologies if these have been posted before.

Previous versions of this forum used to number posts within a topic. It was easy to say “Already discussed - see post#xxx above”. You can see that in some older posts in long-running topics, but without post numbers, the information is now useless. (Not a criticism. just an observation.)

‘British Railways Illustrated’ did a two-part article in January/February 2006 on ‘The Perth Black 5s’ (there was a maximum of 75 shedded there, at the end of 1950). The February part contains a photograph which I think is relevant. It shows the 9AM Perth-Euston on the climb to Beattock, headed by two Stanier 5s, with 44924 of Perth as the pilot. The caption says that this train was usually powered by two Carstairs 5s. However, if either the down train carrying newspapers from Manchester, or the down West Coast Postal was late into Perth (which implies those were powered by the Carstairs engines used on the 9AM), Perth shed would to have to provide substitute(s). If the engines for the 9AM arrived in the early hours of the morning, and left at 9 o’clock, a spotter would have to have been up pretty early to record them during their short turnaround on Perth shed! Incidentally, there’s no date shown for that photograph, but 44924 has the early emblem on the tender.

It’s a collection of spotters’ notes from shed visits. Here’s the home page: http://shedbashuk.blogspot.com/ And here’s the information for Perth(South) shed, which was the only Perth shed at the time you’re interested in: http://shedbashuk.blogspot.com/2016/01/perth-south-1938-1967.html

I thought the Royal Highlander was worked by a Crewe North Duchess and crew from Crewe to Perth. It would appear to have been in the 1950s, but looking at the “shed bash” website, it seems only Kingmoor Duchesses were making it regularly to Perth in your timescale.

My son, who is a mining engineer, says he’s ridden on a mine train at 1800 metres below surface in a gold mine in Northern Ontario.

I’m not sure what you mean by “in this condition”, but here’s one in Eastern Scottish colours, but with the full company name, in 1970: http://www.sct61.org.uk/etb963a

I obviously missed that earlier discussion. I’ve done a search and found it now. In this case, I do believe Wikipedia, since I have several of those glass beer containers in the house. And no, I did not vote for the Orange One - as a Canadian, I did not have a vote in the US election.

Perhaps you should eat something as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growler_(jug)