runs as required

Probably explained by this: I worked for Norman & Dawbarn (of "what form shall we make the BBC Television Centre ?" fame) The consultancy of architects, engineers, planners, based in Brixton made its name advising the Southern Railway on its airline business (as part of Airwork). Gatwick emerged from it, as did Shoreham and lots of Empire airfields and flying boat stops until the 1970s. (I got a PPL with them in E Africa) Its biggest misreading of the CB White Elephant was forecasting Swanley as the successor to Croydon rather than Heathrow. It resulted in the Southern hugely over investing in sidings just south of the Otford/Maidstone East branch junction east of Swanley station - eventually obliterated by the far more land-hungry M25 junction.

An interesting post above by Johnster on the Standards I was an Architecture student in Liverpool at the time many of the diesel 'boxes' were on the drawing boards . I had charge of the student Society lecture programme and we I lured designers along twice on "The Modernisation of British Railways" (remember that?). Misha Black, we thought afterwards, modelled himself on Raymond Loewy - priding himself on designing anything from a streamline steam loco, via Studebakers to domestic irons. MB too was scathing about the Deltic (prototype) and all the WR Hydraulics down to the Warship (which, in slides, he showed how his studio had just scaled the DB loco down to fit WR clearances). He criticised the North British locos as visual disasters and l leaked views of the Hymek as "modish". I suppose I was always biased about Deltics (like the rest of his student audience) because they were built in Liverpool and Newton le Willows. Three years later I watched a very de-glitzed dignified two tone green squadron service Deltic race horse being named Pinza (always my fave afterwards) from the mezzanine office windows over platform 1 at Kings+. All in our office (R&D Group) went over one lunchtime to view a brand new Western in desert sand at the buffers at Paddington. We were critical of 'car styling' that failed to scale up adequately. The high gloss sheet metalwork reflected light like the reflections off a choppy coarse fishing pond. This is well captured in a painting by Christine Pulham of a maroon Western.

Existing public transport in West Midlands cannot be described as integrated in the way London has been fortunate to have survived since Deregulation. Were I Mayor, it would be my highest priority. Car parking has always so far been regulated by charges. In my view car use should be regulated by metering and monthly d.d, based on roads used.

I think such pontifications on future scenarios are vital for keeping up morale in lockdowns. In WWII I can remember clearest my Grandad, a post worker at Mt Pleasant just north of St Pauls not coming home for many nights while on Fire Watch. Between action 'pontification on future scenarios' was how they spent boring hours of waiting. Dad too had the task of keeping badly-burnt airmen' spirits and hopes up while waiting weeks between skin grafts. Again 'pontification on future scenarios' was a favourite pastime. I still have my 1940s PuffinBooks with optimistic crystal ball visions of the future. My six pennorth on HS2: is that it will be considered 'shovel ready' to go ahead - but maybe shorn of the Central London and Brum portions. So that (like after WW II) the Property Developers.will swing into post-panD action adjacent to Euston to offset costs - Remember how Property Development enabled the Ludgate Hill rail overbridge/Holborn Viaduct terminus line to be 'undergrounded' . There will more uses than simply offices that will be competing for the land flanking Euston. And West Midlands Integrated Transportation will get heavy investment - along with rail rather than road linkages northwards. dh

Aesthetically Cox/Riddles Standards (an early example of 'branding'?) to my eye, always had too much of the "stylist" arty-farty designer look about them (like Misha Black's Westerns with their little peaked caps compared to the ECML Deltics). The Standard 5s had nothing like the easy balance of the Black 5s (Coleman ?) especially from the front where the boiler and smoke box looked total lost in that over-deep running plate raking down to the buffer beam. I always wondered why they had to bother with a new version. dh

Um ... is not the aristocracy ... or even the monarch a lot of the time nepotistic ? And as for the PR of China - it follows the old Confucian principle of the Emperors; with the Red Army to protect it from the People. Engineers are prone to sill being militaristic. When I worked in a joint ‘Corpy’ office with engineers - they all jumped and stood to attention by their drawing boards whenever the City Engineer walked in two or 3 times a week.

... Stay-set and Brunatex shampoo and H Samuel 'Everight' Watches - reminds me of potholing (long) week-ends camped by Ribblehead viaduct watching A3s piling downhill (up) on fully fitted freights just before midnight - at least one axle box on fire. dh

Can you visualise the height of a door + architrave ? Yes! Turned sideways (making a square) ? ... um ..No dh edit That is why it is much easier to draw a standing figure than a reclining figure - for you all practicing being Pre Raphs

Apropos posts above my last one: Can anyone explain clearly to this O.F. how Germany was economically able to progress from total despair, humiliation and near Soviet revolution, via Weimar, then total collapse of the Mark, to re-armament and military and apparent technical European supremacy by 1938 (Peace in our Time). Obviously politically there was previously unimaginable totalitarian bullying and ruthlessness. However, economically it seems to me to have been achieved within 5 years, neither by Austerity, nor by New Deal/Keynesian alternatives. dh (DNR)

Agree completely. The bulky (all for50p !) doorstop wasn't the point of the post. Whoever Dr B-Ching is (I bet you know) was making the point that the whole chaotic Merry-go-round of Franchising could implode economically as an outcome of Covid-19 if we wish. - without the need of 'buy outs'. It surely would mak e sense if the new line plus its extensions could be fully integrated with a national network from the traffic controllers' viewpoint with easily understandable interconnections and fare structures on our phones (via free apps) from the customers' passengers' side. dh (DNR) PS One of my favourite bedtime reading tomes is the reprint of Cooks Continental timetable for 1914 - try Liverpool Central to Kampala via Brindisi

Dr B-Ching in yesterday's Private Eye I thought this relevant here for integrated through running, fares and timetabling as it gets up and running , but full version posted in the Covid-19 - The silver lining (Positives!). Stay safe dh (DNR)

In your Cambrian 'neck of the woods', wood'nt that have been sent packing by Welsh Nats (as in Macbeth)?

Another Jowett - probably early 1930s Wife's Great Aunt Louie is beside her husband EdgarPrior sitting at the wheel. Both were keen rock climbers, members of the Rucksack Club. But Edgar came off in the Lakes; badly injured, he died later in Manchester Infirmary. His death was to prove a turning point: his fellow club member the famous climber surgeon Wilson Hey of Manchester Infirmary brought about the use of morphine in Mountain Rescue before WWII though it was not legitimised until 1949. Aunt Louie was a dauntingly austere character They'd left their house in Chorlton-cwm-Hardy to Manchester Infirmary (not anticipating the post war NHS). Twice a year she'd announce she'd just had another telephone call "Asking whether I'm dead yet". So the grim old Victorian house slowly fell to bits while she ascended to Kinder Downfall every week until she died in her nineties - when at last the house plot got re-developed. Her oft repeated mantra was copied by my wife "Do I want it ? Yes, but do I need it? No! ... which in truth has protected us from bankruptcy. Aunt Louie discovered I was frightened of spiders and forever tried to lure me into a smartly green painted garden shed where she spent her daylight hours . She had a deal with Manchester Docks where she rescued Tarantulas escaping from the banana boats. They all had names and lived with her in her jungle - once the Jowett's garage. dh

Bizzarrini gialla e Bits di naughty Gesture con la mano sinistra ! Vero?

Clip from today's Private Eye : As As an oldie who enjoyed his Whole Line Timetable - all for 50p, I can see the sense in an integrated railway system dh (DNR)

Brilliant subject! Came too late to Tyneside (1976 from Africa) to catch steam in Shields (though we rented originally adjacent to the colliery line from Backworth north of the Tyne, and I loved the sound of the NCB locos at night slogging away slowly up/down to the Northumberland Dock). Wife worked at the Marine & Tech till 2004 - she started Social Care and Counselling courses there within a seriously macho Catering Department, ending up as College Counsellor to lonely overseas Marine students. I enjoyed her objecting to the lowering of the College pass mark to 40% while on the Examination Board there. When asked why she was the only one objecting, she argued that Deck Officers ought to be far more accurate in their navigation! The Harton line passed close by the new College site in Westoe Village (the old one became a pub on Ocean Road) and I was fascinated by the way the busy line slipped so silently through downtown Shields. Looking forward to your modelling of that - so like the NER might have been to York. Latterly the resort was famous (like Whitley Bay) as the Scottish Riviera during Glasgow Fairs Week though since the closure of Westoe colliery the sea front has been very skilfully reconstructed using EU money by a Brexit voting population! Best Wishes dh

Oh dear! I think I may have been guilty of that. I asked a question about how far east old GW steam (ie not LT owned panniers) worked. WR panniers used to work widened lines to Farringdon in my day (when working at Kings + in early 1960s), could they have once worked onto LT&S/GE joint via Bow like the GW electrics to Southend ? I note the big GW goods shed is accessed via a head shunt on the RCH map . [That earlier inconclusive thread I recall also discussed pre-grouping companies working to their subterranean goods sidings below Smithfield Market ] dh

If its Hilda style Cheesecake you are after, may I recommend this https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/mar/27/ukraines-railroad-ladies-in-pictures I like the green tiled roof, balcony and steps lady’s box best. dh

I thought last night's NT U tube screening of 'One Man - Two Guvnors' in that genre (the rewrite of 'The Servant of Two Masters' ) very uplifting dh

My daughter sent these to us which may amuse: https://www.sadanduseless.com/recreated-art/ https://www.sadanduseless.com/happy-killing/ one of the re-creations is a John Martin (painted in Newcastle/Haydon Bridge/London according to CA passim) dh

Ah ! Quite brought a lump to my throat this (late 1950s ?) pic. My last - and current - pair of Vibrum soled* Bogtrotting Boots bought at the ex-army store on the ramp down to the Turner Memorial at the back beside the Midland station. All buses terminated/called on the station approach during Well dressings week when the TM area in front of the crescent was closed off. edit This might be of interest to some It is a composite panorama I drew for wife's mother and stepfather after they moved from Buxton (just above the L NW station) to Norfolk to be near my sister in law and young family. StepfatherTommy Litchfield was from Peak Forest, an LMS signalman since the late 1930s until retirement in the 1980s It returned to me from hanging in their living room. I tried to draw as in the 1950s from in front of the Town Hall (but forgot the old Empire Hotel) dh * they were/are absolutely lethal on wet upland 'pavement' in limestone districts .

Mebee too late to wish you an NZ "Many Happy Returns", but a virtual sea-side resort deserves better than a Welsh goat in a window box . I see it is National Unicorn Day on 9 April apparently somewhere in the virtual universe - so time enough yet to conjure it up (being a unique-corn there will be only one) to chase off into the ether.

So the Midland station not Vic (by date, being pedantic).

Doesn't quite ring true to me. Isn't it a Renault (by its wheels)?

As someone who did 'station improvements' (i.e. wrecking what would now be highly regarded ornate Victorian detailing) at two city centre Sheffield stations) it would have been more interesting to Know which you referring to !