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There’s something mildly disturbing about sitting on a warm (Pre-heated) toilet seat. Though I do like their heated mirrors in bathrooms.. no condensation on them after a hot shower.

As soon as this started in January, I bought masks. My wife thought I was mad, but ive been here, seen it before. We bought gel a few weeks ago, and some basic medicals to last for a few days if we do get sick. (Nurofen etc) for the fever, tissues, lemsip and other usuals for a throat infection plus some other things recommended by the Wife's parents (who are both Doctors with 30+ years experience). Last week we did the toilet roll shopping. ive Turned it into a game / a competition with our child to try not to touch things you don't own, with your hands.. its fun not scary. Weve started using gel etc.. its hard to get yourself into a new routine.. my weakness is touching my hair... but prepping now gives time to adjust if / when we reach that critical point. I really don't like being ahead of the trend, but I have reacted to this all the way so far as Ive seen it first hand before, it is not always “just flu”. Whilst theres no cure, and most will be mild, its still a lottery and it doesn't harm yourself to not prepare, have basics and change your lifestyle to protect yourself... in 2003 I was blind sided, no supplies, not even aspirin.. if this becomes a big event, no one will protect you, not the NHS, not Boris, people are going to have to self manage for the most part, even some quite serious cases where you wake up, find you are bed ridden not wanting to drink, unable to go to the bathroom, delirious seeing images coming out of the walls, unable to lift your hands or even move a pillow, looking at a ceiling not caring, not sure if your asleep or awake, feeling dehydrated but not caring, peeing little amounts that are black, shivering one minute sweating profusely the next... i mean soaking wet pillows, that you just lie in because you cant be bothered. You can feel your heart beating like its going to come out of your chest, even your neck is beating. Later your not sure if your breathing at all. Not caring if a tv is on or not, only realising someone is in the room until theyve gone..Tissues.. i didn't need then a my nose was fine, but my throat was cardboard, occasionally coughed blood. I believe Chicken broth saved me.. warm or cold water, Ice all hurt my throat, so did coke. Chicken broth was very soothing, I think the fat lined my throat and gave me that inital energy to start moving again... thats my theory anyway. I went to the Dr’s but they found nothing, I went down as suspected SARS. I recall an insane back ache and after getting back on my feet I felt great, though my chest hurt, initially quite hard, if I walked too far, which steadily improved over days, I had developed an insane appetite and oddly started liking olives for the first time, a legacy I enjoy today. I was still in my Big hard untouchable 20’s at the time. I was later told I was panting like a steam train... they had no idea the irony of my hobby interests. I thought I couldn't breathe at all... that was scary, but I strangely didn't care either. Even my criteria above did not qualify to be able to go to the overcrowded hospital and needed to look after myself as I was told i’d probably recover.. 3 days later I did, but its given me respect for ”a cold” and to maintain some cleanliness at times like this. if its unavoidable, so be it, i’d rather be more comfortable than I was last time. But if theres chance to avoid it for a few seconds effort and few quid expended.. i’ll take it. Selfishly I am hoping my past exposure might help my immunity this time.. ive certainy never had any cold like that since.. My fear is my wife and I being sick at the same time.. we have only 1 elderly family member in the UK, 250 miles away, who is really in the “at risk” group for this virus, to look after our daughter.. in a repeat of the event I went through above happening to both of us, i’ve not yet figured out what to do (suggestions please). But if the UK does start going “viral”, we may leave the country to the wifes parents ahead of this as theres a much bigger family on their side. Their opinion is if it takes off in the UK, the UK will be isolated from the world and they aren't sure they would be able come to help, despite being Doctors as travel restrictions generally affect all. btw, wife’s parents advice to managing this... good sleep.. catching this when already fatigued really doesnt help.. thats their theory on why they think that 30 year old Dr died in Wuhan. But what do I know.. i’m alarmist, it wont happen to me, it only affects old people, its just a cold, UK is prepared, were British, it wont happen to me, it wont spread..

its been the end of an era for 37/4’s quite a few times, from a quick scan I recall it was the end of an era.... Scotland 1989 North West c1994 Scotrail (again) c1996 North West c2000 Fort William 2006 Cardiff c2005 Barrow 2015 End of Preservation 2015/6 Barrow 2018 Anglia 2019 Cardiff 2020 When 37/4’s were withdrawn first time around I remember 37418 arriving at Bury and running its first train in preservation 2009...Until it returned to Colas in 2016... several 37/4’s are “unpreserved”. if they figure a solution for toilets in a dbso who knows they might yet comeback again... I cant imagine the DRS37/4 fleet going unnoticed by another TOC thats buying aggressively,

These Afro 4000’s are a fantastic saga. sit back and enjoy a night of light reading, written with South African sacarsm. Headline news in South Africa for years, corruption at its best. ive been reading the headlines on this for 5 years. https://www.fin24.com/Economy/SA-gets-high-powered-locomotives-20141201 (no one in SA knows where this amount of money comes from, when the train company takes several months to replace stolen OHLE that it says it cannot afford to replace). R2,600,000,000 (£127m) Paid in advance. 70 locos.. including 50 x “dual” versions like a class 88 (By comparison the DRS deal for 34x class 68 Built at the same time/factory was £45m). No one measured their height. https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/safety-body-releases-report-on-prasas-afro-4000-locomotives-2015-12-03 13 locos from 100 delivered In 2014/15. 7 still new at Vossloh plant in Spain for 5 years now. 0 Dual versions delivered (pictures suggest 1 built). Despite being out of gauge, banned from use, 1 was somehow written off in an accident, on a high speed passenger service. https://www.arrivealive.co.za/news.aspx?s=3&i=18300&page=rsr-preliminary-investigation-report-of-prasa-shosholoza-meyl-derailment-in-kimberley-(northern-cape) oh and the onboard systems are in Spanish.. https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Investigation-is-derailed-as-Prasas-new-trains-only-speak-Spanish-20150831 The rest are pretty much unused, unmaintained for 5/6 years. Mileages on some where just a few hundred miles. They are basically Euro spec Vossloh Euro 4000’s on Cape Gauge bogies, but over height for cape gauge use. The EMD engines are reportedly banned from re-import back to the EU as they fail emissions. Whilst several countries have cape gauge track, their European gauge height precludes use... A few South American countries (with US gauge height) might be able to use them. Prasa got the contract cancelled, indicated collusion, corruption and that alleged Swifambo was a front company for Vossloh. Since then theyve moved to wind it up and been following the money since. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-06-now-officially-just-a-front-prasa-tall-trains-supplier-seeks-to-dodge-r2-6bn-claim-because-he-wasnt-a-real-bidder/ Other entertainment included the CEO of prasa going, and his CME (who had no qualifications), and later did a runner, before being brought back. https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/fake-prasa-dr-daniel-mthimkhulu-loses-bid-for-leave-to-appeal-r57m-judgment-20191206 The first auction last year saw them fetch around £20-40k each, presumably something happened to that sale and they are trying again... https://www.railjournal.com/africa/prasa-afro-4000-diesel-locomotives-to-be-auctioned-off/ these ones seem to be at £340k each.. That sounds hopeful to me. I think the end game for these will be another “deal” in South Africa, or perhaps spare parts for say Israels Euro 4000’s, (not in the EU), unless some deal is made with the Manufacturer I’m not sure how much use they will be to a new buyer. Not too sure how willing support & maintenance from the Manufacturer will be, the legal fingers haven't finished pointing yet and Prasa wants its money back, trying to squeeze Swifambo’s CEO to squeal on the deal, and if it turns out he did, that could yet reach back to Spain, so there could be more rounds in that fight yet. As for the money... this article lists houses, farms, estates, olive groves.. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-03-03-gravy-trains-r500m-from-failed-prasa-locomotives-deal-fraudulently-funnelled-to-trust-private-accounts-and-properties/ I was trying to get a model resprayed of one of these in HO. Sud-Express models wont touch the Prasa version. I cannot get the transfers made. The locos themselves are a co-co version of a class 68, but with class 66 (EMD710) engines, as Euro spec, they are out of gauge for UK.. so they wont be coming here, even if standard gauge bogies could be sourced.

Ive had to leg it over that footbridge many times. dingy, cramped and a bit weird being at an angle but easier than the sub surface exit at the north end, which iirc had barriers then you had to wander through to the corner of the old main entrance to resurface at platform level... and then reenter the barriers. Never remembered any ticket barriers on it, which was good as I recall some occasions I wasn't sure my “london terminals” ticket was the right one or risked being swallowed before my journey was completed.

E3001 (class 81) is OO.. indeed its spot on accurate to a Bachmann class 85 chassis, just needs a few mods to fit. The detail on the class 81 is excellent, even down to wheelset detail. If that tooling survived it could still stand to its peers today.

I’m glad you are right. I there submit to you the virus has ended, that UK cases wont reach 1000 ? i bet you don't take that bet, will you ? The rise has been slow, that down to panic, fear, self preservation leading to most cases turning themselves in.. rather than continuing to walk the streets. However.. the %’s are growing...

Is the WHO Virus ID .. for Bulleid Virus 21C123 by any chance ? https://www.bulleidsociety.org/21C123/Pictures/Preservation/21C123_OVS_Nameplate.jpg looking at my layout I think I’ve had Bulleid virus, pacific strain for quite sometime and its spread to all areas of my layout. Do class 33’s cure it ?

I’m not defending that, but the mistake was costly... however they rectified it, at their cost. Question is will we make the same mistake...namely: ignorance for too long.

This philosophy should apply to all jobs.

Perhaps they are fitting traction tyres to the next set so it can pull something... ducks, runs for cover, only joking...

I tried that url, it redirected me here..

The only thing you need to know, that explains all the excitement is.. They drone like Deltics.. very loud.

Dont forget theres economies of scale here... The Dapol Prairie, Mogul and Manor could in theory share commonality of a chassis..., and mogul tender too. Hornby could in theory put a Manor body with the Grange... though imho Dapol could win out immediately on the wheel design, and the mogul looks to have a more accurate Green than Hornbys BR/GWR green track record on GW locos. Bachmann I think would be out of the bunfight, unless it was a decade or so in the future, or a skunkworks project. but tbh I think Dapol have this to themselves... glad they've done it, I got to hold their mogul at Warley, I love their chassis and their use of more accurate wheels, including tyre tread thickness... It was kind of predictable, I had an in depth conversation about manors at Warley, it kind of fell into it from a discussion of the mogul and I left feeling very informed, which made me assume they've already done a ton of research on Manors.. which presumably wasnt just for fun. But again.. i was really impressed with the Dapol mogul.. so I know I will be with the Dapol manor.

Ok i’ll go left field... any evidence of GWR to Manchester Exchange ?

Shapeways has a rather nice 3D printed model, fits on a Bachmann C class chassis.

I’ll be first to say the pricing looks predatory.... £135 for DCC ready.... That might turn away competitive threat, as well as doing their own sales no harm. 7819 in BR lined black... exactly as I remember it on the Cambrian in the late 1980’s.

Has anyone got a decent side view of the 45 ? the absence of the angled body side strengtheners, highly visible underneath the grills is quite a big one for me... even Mainline got that right. I did not notice them on the TMC sample..

22 sold, 12 left on ebay... so in around 2 weeks since release, 2.2% seem to have passed by ebay, of 1500. Thats not a lot, and theres no more coming from where they came from, so I’d expect that remaining number to fall... 6 of the 12 are auctions and will drop off in a few days.

This was the last time I saw 150002... May/June 1988 Saw 15001 in Taunton in May last year, and again in Swindon in October 2019.

Went out did a bit of shopping this weekend, I can see mass panic has hit Sainsburys, costco and boots... no disinfectant wipes or gels at any we tried, zilch anywhere. As for costco, I saw people taking out van fulls of toilet rolls and water... clearly carpet baggers are stocking up to take advantage, and I mean literally hundreds at a time yesterday. I was in London on saturday, quite a number of mask wearers (lets face reality these 30 odd cases in the Home counties this weekend are London workers who waited till weekend to goto the Doctors).. I suspect next week Londons going to have to face reality... am I wrong.. in 7 days we will see, But still, toilets of the various london pubs.. just cold water, no soap but most blokes come and go without washing hands.. I saw Asia in 2003 and the huge efforts it took to kill it, and reading the stats you can see places like Hong Kong have learned lessons, theres a rapid wake up call coming here.... if you look at the spread pattern elsewhere, it doubles daily every day for approx 10 days until containment starts, and the slow extends to double every two days etc there after until the halfway recovery mark... so its not inconceivable that by next weekend were looking at 800-1000 cases, a city like London could be much more like Wuhan very quickly... London aint Lombardy... Wuhan spread by 1million leaving for CNY, 8 million Londoners commute every day. i’m in London tomorrow, I will be wearing a mask (dont care what you say), I will take hand gel with me, I will clean the desk and chair before I sit at it, I will take my own lunch. I managed all yesterdays journey from door to door without actually touching anything I didn't own (Wallet, phone and credit card) .. no buttons, handles, escalator sides etc... its easily possible... trouble is I’m just one a population of 8.9million people, most of whom just dont care, a hospital system that has no chance of handling anything but a minor outbreak.

Thanks, Ive looked there before, though I suspect its archive is incomplete, when looking for other events... look for various prangs to class 21/29... but theres surprising few incidents in Scotland listed here to correlate. Looking through this rekindled memories of that Dinting derailment too ! - I remember my dad saying thats it the line is finished and they wouldn't reopen it.. of course they did.. just for 4 months. picture here (not mine from Flickr url). I dont know if theres a Bolton Evening News archive online, perhaps I can try there. it could be my knowledge of the event is wrong, I was very young, but pretty certain it was Bolton.. the memory is vivid and my father I know mentioned it several times prior to the Eccles crash a few years later, which was considerably more horrific, and of course Summit Tunnel.

2bil/Hal, Brighton Belle, 395 all use a motor bogie. As does the railroad modern image. to be fair, its not the drive, but the pickups / quality of wheels/contacts as well as weight that makes a lot of difference in performance.. Ive some great running motor bogie’d models, but drive shafts, flywheels etc are better, especially when surrounded by a solid metal block. But my guess the APT will have a solid metal block in the centre power car, with motor and shafts in there... its relative price is quite attractive, I dont know if that means theres economies in that however... i found the Azuma a bit “railroad” for its price.

dont worry, Show us a picture, on here, someone will find a flaw in it for you.

Lets get 87002 in CS first... thats been a very long wait, though as its been repainted now I guess, if others are to go by, it will suddenly arrive soon. 86101 is also in Intercity Swallow livery too. if 90001 / 2 do the same, and with 47828 too in Intercity livery, lets assume a mk3 set could follow... its quite an interesting time coming for mainline railtours... if they do an Intercity mk3 set.. sone as intercity pullmans would be nice ;-) in other news in 28th March will see the first class 58 working in the UK in 18 years ! What we need now is a mk2 set with Regional Railways on one side, NSE on the other to give extra fun!