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That painting is of a North British Railway engine, and I don’t know what tartan that is, or is meant to be. The other illustration I was trying to find, but couldn’t, was of a Great North of Scotland engine. As I remember it, it was used to pull the Royal train from Aberdeen to Ballater and it was painted in Dress Stewart tartan. Yes, Dress Stewart has a generally white background, which is why it was remarkable as a colourscheme for a steam locomotive.

There have been recent changes here in rules for car drivers encountering cyclists on the road: “The changes establish a new minimum distance of one metre that drivers must maintain when passing cyclists and other vulnerable road users. That distance increases to 1.5 metres on highways with a posted speed limit above 50 km/h.” My questions are: - From which point of the cyclist/bicycle combination to which point on the overtaking vehicle are these distances to be calculated? The answer could mean the difference between 1.48 metres and 1.52 metres. - How are these distances to be measured in real time when the overtaking vehicle may legitimately be travelling at 100kph, with a difference in speed between that vehicle and the bicycle of perhaps 80kph? - What’s the point of specifying such precise numbers when there is no reasonable possibility of measuring to the required accuracy?

I was actually looking for a GNoSR engine which I seem to remember had been painted in a tartan to pull the royal train, but didn’t find it. IIRC, it was painted in Dress Stewart 😳!

Not for much longer if they keep doing things like that!

How do you feel about tartan? https://steamindex.com/media/tartancrampton.jpg

Thornton tunnel runs under part of Burnaby, BC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton_Tunnel It was opened in 1969 to give trains off the (now) BNSF/CN line into Vancouver more direct access to the north shore of Burrard Inlet. If you search for “Alaska Street, Burnaby” in Google Maps, you will see the line branching off northwest from the main line, going underground below Dawson Street. Search for “Bates Park, Burnaby” and you will see the line emerging from the tunnel onto a bridge over the CPKC tracks, then onto the Second Narrows rail bridge across Burrard Inlet. There’s a mid-tunnel ventilation shaft in the middle of a residential area of single-family homes: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/156209-the-night-mail/?do=findComment&comment=4684722

Yes, those years seem to have gone by … just like that!

Jamie, I can’t see any reference to a tunnel of that name. What am I missing? The two articles about the attempt by activist investors to take control of Norfolk Southern and the possible effects on the whole US railroad system if they succeed are very interesting.

I bought a copy this morning. Interesting text and pictures. Beware of the map though: - in the inset, BNSF appear to have taken over the Skytrain system and, presumably, would now be running trains on it. - the major yard to the east of Vancouver on the CPKC is in Port Coquitlam, not Coquitlam. They are separate municipalities. - the location on the CPKC just west of Hope is “Odlum”, not “Odium”! It was the junction for the Kettle Valley Railway.

I may just have to buy it, then!

But some do it on overhead electric lines: https://youtu.be/EKO7Lz8Oj-M?feature=shared See from about 1:50

Here's a document that gives the equivalents for the discontinued Floquil line of paints. Not all are single colours - some require mixing of replacement paints. There are both single colours and mixes shown for Conrail blue: https://www.testors.com/~/media/DigitalEncyclopedia/Documents/Testors/ebook/MRH-Acrylic-painting-guide-post-Floquil-Portrait.ashx (Conrail blue appears on the 20th page of the document.)

A dull morning today at CPKCs Port Coquitlam yards. I saw a crew changeover between a CPKC 'heavy' switcher (it's a flat yard, and some of the trains are very long) and a visiting BNSF road engine. Here are the two CPKC engines being used to switch: SD60 #6245 (ex-SOO) GP38-2 #4435 (non-dynamic, ex-SOO) And the BNSF engine: ES44C4 #8364

Railroad - tick. Landscape - tick … and not very much else! https://www.railpictures.net/photo/855284/

I was in the supermarket this afternoon when the muzak started to play Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”. I phoned my wife, partly to ask a shopping question, but partly to let her hear the song. She said it was quite a coincidence, as she was actually reading about Baker Street in a tourism magazine. No, not Baker Street, London but Baker Street, Nelson, BC: https://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/nelson-bc-horse-race-july-1st-1898 I wonder what Sherlock would have thought of that passing the window of 221B!

Restoration in progress - Chevrolet pickup:

Logical, if you think about it. They can’t do specific number boards for a whole class of engines (e.g. all 686 SD40-2s bought new by Union Pacific plus all those that came from railroads absorbed by UP) when any average modeller is unlikely to need more than maybe a dozen sets at the very most. They don’t (generally) do complete cabside/hood side numbers for a whole class either. In both cases, you get individual digits to make up the appropriate loco numbers. Exceptions to this are cases where only a few, specific engines are involved. In cases like that, manufacturers may provide decal sets including ‘ready made’ decals for cabsides and number boards.

There’s an open shed in a wooded area in town. At the moment, there is this lovely (and lovely-smelling) large block of red cedar in the shed: With this message on it: There has already been one pole carved in this shed. I believe the local indigenous band are using this, in part, to train young members in the required carving skills.

On a local path often used by dog walkers:

I think the third volume may be: ‘Modernity Britain: 1957-1962’. It was apparently later split into two books: Modernity Britain: Book One: Opening the Box, 1957-1959 Modernity Britain: Book Two: A Shake of the Dice, 1959-62

Groats were minted and in use well after the 17th century. Wiki says they were last minted in 1855 and some still circulated in Scotland into the 20th century. My (Scottish) gran kept one - it had a date in the 1850s.

He must have been pi55ed.

Our town used to have an annual week where people could put out at the kerb items they no longer wanted but were still serviceable. At the end of the week, the town would gather up whatever was left and take it to the dump. The first morning always saw trucks belonging to second-hand stores and scrapyards rapidly touring the neighbourhoods. But there were often things worth picking up after that. I don’t know why the arrangement was stopped. And there are garage/yard/moving sales in town most weekends. One son who is now a keen (and, according to those who know about these things, a very good) guitarist got his first electric guitar at a yard sale. It was a really cheap thing and he and his brothers played it to destruction over the years. However, he liked it so much that he bought another of the same model a couple of decades later, just for old times sake.

Try these guys: https://circuscitydecals.com/ They have all sorts of railroad decals, in all sorts of scales. and here: https://www.microscale.com/