Reorte

11 hours ago, Blandford1969 said:

 Investment in fire accross Europe fell last year by 66%. 

Well yes, I suppose the bandwidth from communicating with smoke signals is low.

On 12/04/2024 at 21:41, Hroth said:

Plateways date back to 16c German mining practice. Their tracks were made entirely from wood...

Still a few examples of wooden rails, sometimes with a strip of iron on the top, hidden away - I've seen one or two in long-disused mines.

4 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

As for wasting their time in relation for them wasting yours, that really is cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Just hang up.

Nothing's a waste of time if you don't mind doing it. Some people will enjoy stringing the scammers along. Personally I just hang up, but I can see the amusement in keeping them going.

Personally I think we all need to worry less about saving and wasting time, but that's a separate discussion.

7 minutes ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

In the space or 2 days I had 5 cold calls on home phone from "my local energy consultant".   4 different voices regurgitating the script, So ingrained is the recitation of the script they do not respond to any attempt to stop them once they are in flow.

Certainly a scam anyway.

My car's got a built-in satnav, but I can't say I've ever really felt the need to carry one with me everywhere I go.

37 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

And doors were not unknown to fail when leaned on, causing death or serious injury to the unwary, and of course an open door can kill or seriously injury an innocent platform bystander, so it's not quite as simple as people being "sheltered and becoming useless", or "nanny state", whatever that is.

Because back in the day of course, people were all big and tough and hard, not like us namby-pamby woftee-softee modern types, and didn't mind a few serious injuries or deaths. Hey ho, you know that's life isn't it?

It's all too easy to say "think of others", which I find a problematic argument because it can all too easily morph in to trying to guilt trip someone, no matter the actual level of risk. I prefer to think "how would I feel if I was in that situation? - would I prefer to have that risk to myself?" That of course has its own problems - there are, after all, plenty of people who behave stupidly with a "nah, won't happen to me" view, and for many it's hard to know for sure about things you've not actually experienced, but it at least avoids the attempt at guilt tripping. So yes, in a great many situations I would indeed prefer to live in a world where those risks exist than be surrounded with the solutions to them. Protecting my physical health like that has had a not insignificant negative impact on my mental health, contributing to my depression. There are numerous exceptions of course, I've no patience for taking a simple statement and applying in blindly to everything.

And as I've said numerous times none of this actually means I'm taking WCR's side in this case.

1 minute ago, lmsforever said:

When you think how many years we used these coaches day in day out and thought nothing of it but now people have become so sheltered and basically ueselless  they cant think for themselves and have allowed people who should  know better.  It seems as though the organisations who carry out these witch hunts are representing groups who are totally not in the real world and are constantly looking to make trouble for anyone .Surely  people are able to be safe and be responsible  but we are living in real  nanny state .

Whilst I agree with the general thrust of that, and I've already said that personally I'd quite happily travel on trains with simple, straightforward doors, without CDL, it is a fact that a few people falling out of them every year was fairly usual, so it's not as if this is dealing with a purely theoretical risk that's never actually happened.

Why are we drowning under a barrage of discussions about water storage? Could they please be impounded until further notice so we can get the flow of whacky signs back?

My cat will usually avoid the bathroom, but she has snuck in occasionally, unnoticed, and accidentally ended up being shut in for quite some time.

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I've missed a lot of the preceding pages but irrespective of one's views on risk assessment,  various legislation & regulations, the ORR, the Railway Inspectorate, and downright basic railway safety & common sense, the simple fact is that WCRC have shown over the years a continuing cavalier attitude to such things and have come very close to killing people as a result.  I don't think the leopard is suddenly about to change its spots and its present actions seem to me to confirm that. 

Exactly why I don't support them on this. Irrespective of my views on individual issues they do not give the impression of a responsible company. That's something that would be a concern even if they were apparently doing everything they're told to without complaint (it would just be harder to spot).

Whatever equipment and rules and so on you've got safety's still a concern if there's a cavalier attitude at work - no amount of technical answers will get around that. And conversely I'd be quite happy without a lot of them but with a company that's got a responsible attitude - even if that company complains publically about them.

On 06/04/2024 at 10:48, Captain Kernow said:

Here's a question for all of you who have cats - do any of your cats eat vegetables?

 

We've discovered that one of ours loves eating cooked courgette (cooled off, of course). He loves eating and we now use this to bulk up his food, as it has next to no calories, thus helping us keep his weight under control. The other one, however, can't stand the stuff...

Years ago, when I was still a kid, we dumped some leftover stew in the cat's bowl, and later found the meat still there but all the greens gone.

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Radio Electronic Token Block used on some long remote single lines (like the Highlands) had spring loaded points so that trains always entered the left hand track at crossing places, the radio equipment having superseded physical tokens.  There was no longer a signalman to work the points and signals. Departing trains had to trail through the points set for the other loop, the flanges forcing the points blades over, which returned under spring pressure.  They were provided with indicators (resembling home signals) which confirmed whether the points were correctly set for trains to arrive in their respective loops. 

https://www.railsigns.uk/sect11page3.html    ref 11.48 to 11.51

Aren't some of them set so that the trains go to the right-hand platform instead of the left?

edit - Rannoch, apparently, so the sidings can be shunted without having to manually move and lock the spring-loaded points against their usual direction.

1 hour ago, ruggedpeak said:

... or replace the seats with rollercoaster style seating and restraint systems, would improve things dramatically......

That sounds suitable for some of the track on my local line:

If trains had seatbelts and you had to wear them that might well be the final straw that puts me off using them for good. I already travel by train less than I used to because I find it an increasingly unpleasant experience anyway. I'd rather have the risk (TBH as I've said earlier I'd rather have the risk of things like straightforward doors too, not that that means I'm defending WCRC in this, since as I've said it's their job to follow the rules whatever they think of them).

3 hours ago, 30801 said:

 

It seems to be the last bastion of combustion based smoking. Everthings else is all vape and you walk through giant clouds of Vimto.

Vapes - about the only things that smell even worse than cigarettes.

4 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

A few years ago my dad apparently grabbed my mum to point out the penguin in the field next to their house. It was a black and white cat.

4 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 

What's the X-wing doing in the background on the second picture?

4 hours ago, Krusty said:

The original series, with all its cliches, ham acting and cheap sets was quite funny. It was when they went all solemn and po-faced in the subsequent incarnations that the laughs disappeared.

When they tried for laughs later on they usually fell very, very flat. The DS9 tribbles episode notwithstanding.

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I don't necessarily disagree, but it raises profound questions about the news and whether we should assign much credibility to what is reported.

 

The example I quoted of describing a ship as being Belize flag and UK registered is so egregious it begs the question of whether anything at all in the story was worth paying attention to.

 

Reporting of this incident hasn't impressed, I am generally refraining from offering opinions on the incident (though not completely so) as I have only guesses to offer and see little point speculating. However TV news is about filling schedules and calling a few talking heads to basically speculate and offer opinions. 

 

Where this is especially disappointing is in specialised news sources. I get that the BBC doesn't have shipping reporters but I would expect journals which exist to report on shipping to have reporters with knowledge of shipping, but most don't. 

 

If news wasn't so influential it might not matter, but people form their opinions of the world based on news. 

At least they'll correct things if pointed out to them, and will be in trouble if they deliberately make stuff up.

It's a good point about filling schedules, having to fill more time than ever really doesn't help the standards in the news in the slightest.

18 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Unfortunately the BBC don't appear to have anyone with an interest in maritime affairs, and it shows. They recently kept running stories about a British registered Belize flag ship which is utterly nonsensical. What is perhaps more worrying is specialist maritime press such as Lloyd's List aren't much better these days.

Always been the case with news reporting for as long as I can remember to be fair. Whenever there's a story in a field you're familiar with it's usually apparent that the reporters aren't (and you can't expect them to be knowledgable about everything).

1 minute ago, geoffers said:

On a different subject regarding road works etc. I find it difficult on the odd occasion on a narrow road inhabited with plentiful parked vehicles (usually legally) to judge which are parked and which are queueing especially when several of the parked and queueing vehicles are white vans. Got a mouthful yesterday in the Cambridgeshire Fens from a "white van man" in such a scenario. 

I had an embarrassing moment once when I stopped behind a queue of cars at the lights and wondered why my lane was taking so long to get moving, when the one next to me was going. I eventually spotted that there was no-one in the cars in front of me...

15 hours ago, black and decker boy said:

Are you aware that there was once a more direct route from Crainlarich via Callendar to Dunblane and thence Stirling. It closed in the 1960s after a rockfall. It could no doubt have been repaired but economics meant the services were simplified to what we have today.

 

population of Fort William is a mere 10,000 and Mallaig is under 1000. Oban is around 8,000. The service outside of the tourist season is very much a social rather than commercial basis with very few trains a day.

 

efficiency and cost drive things hence RETB signalling and services which split at Crainlarich.

 

Tourism is heavily linked to the West Highland Way so cutting off trains from that would harm ticket sales and having to run all services individually to Oban or Ft William would increase costs.

 

i think whatever small amount is available for railway infrastructure upgrades has a much better use on higher density lines & services, especially where passenger and freight run together more frequently.

 

the borders railway was perhaps different being a reopening of an existing route and very much (affluent) commuter belt for Edinburgh.

There's a little bit of freight on the West Highland too, the aluminium trains to Fort William. Don't think there's any log traffic any more though (would love to be proved wrong).

46 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

If you want it properly tracked, then it needs to be sent using Tracked 24 or Tracked 48. Paradoxically, these services are actually cheaper than the Post Office Signed For service, you can enter the buyers contact details (which are provided by ebay in an encrypted form that can be copied into the order) and they automatically get notifications when its on the way and due to be delivered as well as full tracking.

 

There are still sellers that insist on using (and charging for) the inferior 'Signed For' service but the Tracked services are the ones to go for.

Is this actually Parcel Force? I had a package last weekend which had been sent by them with IIRC Tracked 24. So I could see the van right at the top of the track to my house on that. Shortly followed by an email saying "your package has been taken to the Post Office" (without even saying which one, although it gave the post code so I could find out).

1 hour ago, frobisher said:

 

Plus in quite a few places on gov.uk they do conflate the two with one being "commonly known as" the other.

It's true that people do commonly refer to VED as road tax, so it makes sense for gov.uk to say that. It's not claiming it's accurate but it does mean that people who are reading it know which payment they've got to make it's talking about.

31 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Thats your assumption not mine.

 

If people dont pay road tax (ved to pedants), your not using your car* on the road, unless you know something I don't ?

 

but once paid, you can use as much of the “free” public road network as you like.

Including those parts of the road network that don't pay for themselves and never could...

On the railways Beeching's been mentioned, but I don't think it's all that controversial a view that, even if you put aside the erroneous assumptions made (e.g. not accounting for the feeder traffic from branch lines and assuming people wouldn't just stay in the car rather than driving further to a station) more lines should've stayed open than did, even if the economic case wasn't quite there. But it's also not a particularly controversial view that there were plenty of lines that couldn't and shouldn't, as unfortunate as that was. The right balance should've been, again (IMO) economic factors certainly having a big part to play, but not being the only one.