Loconuts

Why did you buy these items at full RRP when you knew you could buy it cheaper else where, you knew the price at the time as it was marked on the package.

I agree with the sentiment viewed in this post, but is it not the same with all the 'newbie' manufacturers. Errors abound with their new models because the people designing these models are inexperienced and lack knowledge of the chosen prototypes. They source information from the wrong sources, not very diligent with the information they have. As an ex-designer in manufacturing the time to check things out is at the CAD stage basically as it does not cost much things right, not to do it at the EP stage when everyone is screaming it is wrong. One small supplier I know of got caught out by this, supplying photos of the first EP model which was wrong from top to bottom and did not represent the prototype. They had to go back to China and have it retooled at great cost. The second EP,s have now arrived and it still has errors, why as they had the correct information from the start of the project. The answer is they did not double check the CADS against the information they had, something engineers are trained to do. In my final years of working for a living I came across the CAD Technician, these guys were wizards with CAD packages but were not Engineers, in other words they could draw you pretty pictures but could not engineer them so the item would work. They were also cheap to employ, are these the guys producing the CADS for these small manufacturers? These small manufacturers should use experienced consultants who know their subject, Dapol are using Richard Webster which has resulted in a vast improvement of their newer models. There are plenty of guys around who have retired and are experts in the hobby who would no doubt like to earn a little bit of pin money advising. OK it will cost a little bit extra on the cost of the model but is much cheaper than the cost of retooling, even at Chinese rates.

A friend of mine used grey primer on a LMS loco followed by Crimson Lake, result a nice fetching shade of pink. Rule of thumb is red oxide under warm colours and grey under cold colours and always do a sample before hand.

You were obviously using a Cornish steam powered Sat-Nav.

I like that, very rustic.

Thanks guys, this has all been very interesting stuff. I must add that I served 4 years as a Town Councilor and during my 4 years I was on the planning committee. Plans were passed to us by the District Council with their recommendations on the plans and why, we on the Town Council made up our own minds on the applications and sent our recommendations back to District. There were no bungs made to any Councilor in that 4 years I served. However all the Councilors were local Towns people who had pride in their town so every application was scrutinised in detail. Of course we had to watch out for any councilors who were members of the funny handshake lot. One of the biggest problem we had to deal with was the purpose of the building mods, a lot were going to be used as business space although the plan would say domestic accommodation. Being locals we had a good idea as to what was going on and caught many of them out. The other ones that were worst were small builders say developing a small piece of land with housing, always trying to cram a quart into a pint pot, a lot of these plans were unworkable, the other one was to put in for a number of 2 or 3 bed small houses and then coming back for retrospective planning changing the build to 4 bed detached houses. I can say that all the plans we passed were sympathetic to the surrounding area, however I believe that things have all changed in the last two decades. All I can say to people like Horse who are not happy with their councilors you can change them every 4 years.

Then I suggest that you give your local Social services a ring and inform them of that fact. Unless they are registered as habitable property they are breaking the law. Also it would be interesting to see what use they got planning permission for and did they put in a change of use application. If they are renting out these out these buildings may be a friendly call to your local HMRC office would be in order. I would bet they are not paying tax on the rental income.

You want traffic lights come to Poole, the home of the traffic light. We have Seimens traffic light division in the town and prototype lights spring up all over the place. If you can think of a place to put lights they will appear.

One day of visiting is enough. Only one place worse is Basildon, Essex, Half a day is enough!

Plenty of sheep in the USA, they have one for President! Seriously though in Colorado they used to take the stock to the Mountain pastures in the spring and have a roundup in the fall. This is not only cattle but also sheep. The D&RGW railroad had standard stock cars for cattle and double deck cars for sheep.

Are our planning regs outdated or not. The example I quote is, if I purchase a semi-detached house and pay the premium for being a semi and not a end of terrace only to find that my neighbour puts in plans to build a separate property on the end of his property and thereby making my property a end of terrace property and causing a loss in value. His intention is to sell both properties and make a quick buck. Before anyone asks, yes his plans were approved even though they did not comply to several building regs including over development of his land.

Commit suicide?

This is also due to current police policy (Informed by a member of the Police) to charge an offender with the more serious charge knowing they will plead guilty to the lesser charge. This is due to this bring in revenue for the Government. In the days when a person was charged with driving without due care and attention and the offender challenged the case in court resulting in the case being dismissed it cost the police and CPS money in costs.

I like the static grass, who's brand is it?

I would be happy to give up driving if I could, too many idiots on the roads these days with a me first attitude. When I had my Landy I was treated with respect from other drivers, I wonder why?

Having spent many of a year sailing the Broads, shooting the Potter bridges and making it around the bend at Horning without losing the mast, you still cannot beat the South Dorset Coast and the New Forest.

on strike again

Fox hunting is still going in much the way you say, on private land. How do I know, well my niece regularly rides to hounds and they are not drag hunting.

We have had that one in previous posts, there was not any at that time, it was not like BR in that period. Labour was cheap and the railways employed cleaners. People took a pride in those days unlike our present throw away society of today.

Tim Farron looks as though he would be more comfortable sitting on his tractor chewing a length of straw. (from a ex-LD councillor)

Trump got in because people rejected the Washington political bubble, 'Bexit' happened because people rejected the London political bubble, the French presidential election result was because the people of France rejected the Paris bubble. There are a lot of people who live outside of the M25, something our politicians seem to forget until election time and they want your vote. Loconuts

I was basing my observation on old photos and also a report commissioned by the Forestry Commission which was the subject of a Country File program recently. The report stated that the number of broad leaf forests have shrunk over the years whereas commercial forestry had increased. As we know commercial forestry use pines not native to this country Generally the report states we are not planting enough trees to replace those that have been lost including commercial forests. One picture I saw recently was a photo taken from Lodge Hill just outside Abingdon in 1912 which showed a town within a wooded landscape and it was compared to a present day photo from the same spot, 75% of the trees had gone. The other thing is that in the early part of the 20th century farms were not mechanised and therefore fields were small and surrounded by hedgerows, these hedgerows had trees within them. As farms became more mechanised and the machines got bigger these hedgerows got ripped out along with the trees. This action is the cause of some of the flooding we experience. True new trees are springing up along the routes of old abandoned railway lines where they have been turned into cycle ways/footpaths. I could ramble on with countless examples of where woodland and trees have been removed and never replaced. All I was trying to state is that the countryside changes over time. Loconuts

Agree with this sentiment, the common market was a UK idea in the first place by Winston Churchill but the political union was backed by Germany and France. Anyway I think this topic has gone off track, local elections is the title of this topic and we should stick to that and forget Bexit, what is done is done and not keep having reruns of the referendum until the remainers get the result they want, it is a bit like the Scots keep wanting a Independence referendum every few years until the result falls in line with SNP policy.

I am sure Martin and his crew have done a lot of research but one thing that does concern me is the lack of trees. At the turn of the century we had a lot more trees in this country compared to present day. Back in 1974 I spent an evening with Roye England looking through some old photos of the Vale area and the number of trees that were around was noticeable particularly along the lanes. A lot have gone due to modern farming methods, building, road safety and desease. I myself witnessed the effects of Dutch Elm desease in Oxfordshire and the removal of stands of elms, they were never replaced. Loconuts

This is not quite true, from my days of doing commissioned work I made sure there was a legal and binding contract in place before starting work. There were two requirements that the commissioner had to supply. One being a deposit of 30% or a kit of choice and a legal contract. If a customer changed his mind during the construction period all he got back was either his deposit or a replacement kit. He had no right to any research or work that I had done for his commission unless he paid for it.