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We’re regularly getting KCS engines here in Canada now with the CPR - KCS merger. (Still haven’t seen an engine in the merger colour scheme yet.)

You obviously didn’t work on IBM360s 😋. Errors were reported as a number, which you then had to look up in a manual (unless it was one of your own regular mistakes, in which case you knew it by heart!). There were several where the manual gave information of the form: 16 - Error 16 has occurred

Completely agree. However - the rules they have to administer? 😡🤬

What word or phrase would you use instead? (Serious question.)

I am very conflicted about the liveries that owners of preserved locos use on their possessions. Should they only appear in colours they themselves appeared in “in service”? Or can they appear in any of the liveries that any member of the class appeared in “in service”? Or can they appear in any of the liveries that any loco belonging to the same company appeared in during the time that the specific preserved loco was “in service”? Or can they even be painted in a completely fanciful livery? Owners of preserved locos while they were in service (I.e. railway companies) could paint locos any colour they liked. Why should owners of locos in preservation (heritage railways or individuals) not be able to paint them as they see fit? Basically, I think owners, having spent time, money and effort on their engines, can paint them whatever colour they like. I (we?) don’t have to like it, but unless we’ve contributed in cash or kind, what we think is irrelevant. Just to say (and this is a much wider subject), I have problems with the overall concept of “preserved” railways. As I’ve said, I really appreciate what owners and volunteers put into them. But they don’t ‘preserve’ what I remember from 60-65 years ago. I grew up with mostly Fairburn and Standard 4 tanks on a fairly intensive suburban service. Beyond a few weeks out from a repaint, the predominant colour of those engines was “dirt”. But they were kept in good mechanical condition and did their work well, occasionally quite spectacularly. I don’t see any preserved railway preserving that (and, of course, I can see why not!). This is not a rant. It turned out to be much longer than I originally intended. I accept that there are many different views, and all equally valid, based at least in part on people’s experiences. But, having written it, I’ll leave it here and go to bed. I expect to have been well roasted by the time I wake up tomorrow.

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/4000629740980691237/image?q=cat+tee+shirt+destroyer&client=safari&hl=en-ca&sca_esv=59bcec2abd4eef4d&cs=0&prmd=isvn&biw=800&bih=414&dpr=2&prds=cid:4000629740980691237,cs:1,pid:8360708980616204700,sgro:iv,mvi:0 (The bits at the edges, at least.)

But it has carried that livery far longer than it carried black. And others of the class carried green. So which is its ‘normal’ livery? 🤨

Puppers - is the surgery offering trials of blood pressure medication in co-ordination with a manufacturer?

I don’t know how much time you’ll have, or what you’ve already thought about doing/seeing, but a drive down the Keys to Key West is (in my opinion) a great experience. And large parts of the road are on the route of the former Florida East Coast Railway’s Key West Extension: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Railroad

Here’s one that happened in the US. It even got a snappy nickname! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX_8888_incident

There was a similar arrangement here in BC with enlisted men in the Royal Engineers (“sappers”). The Royal Engineers were the biggest British Army presence here in the early days of European settlement. At the end of their enlistment, they had the choice of paid passage back to the UK, or a grant of land here. By profession, these were people who had been continually employing skills needed to clear land, build on it (sheds even!) etc. so many chose the second option. Like monkeysarefun says about the convicts in Australia, enlisted soldiers would never have had any hope of owning a similar amount of land in the UK.

If you ever make it to Sint Maarten in the Caribbean, you could relive that childhood experience - with bells on! https://www.google.com/search?q=sint+maarten+airport&client=safari&sca_esv=878803a7177fd1a4&hl=en-ca&tbm=vid&prmd=mivn&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi31MnhqMiEAxXCLzQIHa2LCisQ_AUoA3oECAQQAw&biw=414&bih=714&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:583cfb83,vid:GqVjD3nBSQg,st:0

I walked through the pedestrian tunnel there with my dad several times as a young child in the 1950s. It was still in regular use then. The last time I walked it was in the early 1970s, when it was almost derelict. We went down in the dusk. The lighting was really poor. Looking down from the top of the stairs in the north rotunda you really couldn’t see the floor - you were just looking into a black pit. So many of the glass panes in the roof were broken, pigeons were using the building as a roost, and they were just arriving for the night and flying around inside. The tunnel itself wasn’t in too bad shape. Overall, it was a pretty eerie experience. The pedestrian tunnel at the Whiteinch tunnels isn’t much better, though cleaner. It’s lined with smooth, glazed tiles, which echo every sound. It’s a reflex action to keep looking over your shoulder to see if someone’s following you - the tunnel is not busy. And the tunnel is on a continuous vertical curve so that for some distance around the bottom you can’t see either end. The ‘vertical’ joints in the tiling aren’t truly vertical - instead, they’re at right angles to the floor at their base. This has the effect, when you come in sight of the entrance you’re walking towards, of making you realize you’ve been aligning yourself with these ‘vertical’ joints and are now actually leaning backwards by several degrees!

Can someone please make, and commit to maintaining, an authoritative index of the various lists being kept on this site, what causes peoples’ names to be entered on these lists, what the sanctions are for appearing on them, and how (if at all) a person may have their name removed from a list.

Small pigs were introduced to the islands of Hawaii by the first human inhabitants, and larger ones were introduced later by Europeans. With no predators, feral pigs have become a problem. I’ve seen figures that say there are more wild pigs on Hawaii than people. In some areas, the hunting season for wild pigs is year round.

During the evening rush hour, the guys putting up and taking down those boards certainly earned their money!

Having described our search earlier this week for Seville oranges to be used in making marmalade, here are the results of the making: (One more batch still to go.)

As used in the game “Polish Roulette”. - Three players each take a bottle of Polish vodka into a room - Each player consumes the contents of their bottle - One player leaves the room - The remaining two players try to guess who has left

I have watched an animal walk along the top rail of a neighbour’s 6 foot tall yard fence. The rail was a 2x4 timber, with the 2 inch dimension horizontal on top. The animal was an adult black bear.

Good thinking, Batman!

Here’s one effect of her forthcoming concerts in Vancouver: https://www.victoriabuzz.com/2024/02/swift-sails-bc-ferries-adds-22-extra-sailings-for-taylor-swifts-vancouver-concert-dates/ 22??!! and they’re not small boats: https://www.victoriabuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/bc-ferry.png

Discussing the difficulties of repeating the Apollo moon landings in the present day: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/world/moon-landing-attempts-challenges-scn/index.html

I thought I remembered the introduction featuring an A3 crossing the pointwork at the east end of Newcastle Central.

Growing up in the west of Scotland, my first sight of an “unrebuilt” Bulleid light pacific through Axminster on a holiday in August 1963 was notable (not to say vaguely disturbing! 😳)