AndyID

There are a lot of speed limit signs on side roads here that are not enforceable. For example the road at the end of our little street is posted 25 but the legal limit for that sort of road is actually 35. The lower limit could only be enforced if there has been a professional (and expensive) traffic study conducted by the county, and there never was.

6 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Well, they had to get something positive out of the destruction of their fleet, even though had taken several goes before they finally got him!

 

 

Sounds rather dull....

 

And the problem here is they do not deliberately introduce bends in the Motorways just to keep you awake like they do in the UK.

4 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

The only tunnel i use round there is the Kennedy Tunnel. 

 

Mind the speed cameras and don't let the "in 800 yards keep left" instruction fool you.  Just means you're not turning off the motorway. 

 

Keep heading towards Breda and Luik till you get to the Eindhoven exit. 

 

Yet to see a train on thd bit next to the railway ( when we're heading westwards across Europe) 

 

On that leg I also like the instructions from the nav, " keep right and bear left". 

 

Basically pick the middle two lanes and go left. It's a bit like a Peco code 75,  3 way point. 

 

Such fun at 5pm on a weekday. 

 

As long as you know which towns you are heading towards it's a doddle, just the crazy Dutch drivers to avoid. 

 

Antwerp and Ghent are two cities we pass that one day we hope to visit properly. 

 

Today's Poznan weather looks a bit drier and sunnier so far 

 

Family coming to dinner today and then a walk to the in laws for birthday cake ( nephew's) and some vodka to wash it down. 

 

Can't have too much ( vodka that is)   as I have a dentist appointment at 8am Monday. 

 

I hope they don't get out of the wrong side of the bed. 

 

Andy

Gordon Bennett!

I can drive 750 miles from here and make one right-turn 🤣

5 hours ago, BR60103 said:

A quick look at my world map shows that Glasgow is level with Belcher Island in Hudson Bay. It is farther north than Flin Flon but level with Dawson Creek.

It is north of all of Ontario except a small tip. 

The Scottish islands are about on a line with the southern border of Yukon territory.

(anyone not Canadian will have no idea where these places are. Most Canadians have never been there either.)

 

The Shetlands are about as far North as the Southern tip of Greenland. I grew up (alternative opinions are available) in a house built on a drumlin in Scotland. They were formed during the not so distant ice ages.

One of the best ones is the quite recently recognized https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods

That would have obliterated this property.

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

When we lived in north Germany we were once setting out for Switzerland when Jill asked me why we were heading south. I replied that it was because Switzerland was south of Germany, to which she said, "Oh, I thought it's in Scandinavia."

 

Dave

A lot of people get a bit confused about this stuff. For example Glasgow is as far North as Moscow and New York City is further South than Barcelona.

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Just watched Beyond Paradise.

 

 

The continuity was a bit poor when the starring 4575 class loco, morphed into a Pannier tank and then back again!

 

Completely ruined it for me.

Relax. They were both green weren't they?

I've also been congratulated here for speaking pretty good English :)

13 minutes ago, pH said:

Possible if it was Scotland to Scotland. For example:

 

- Utter He-brides to the mainland

- Dunoon to Gourock

- Yoker to Renfrew

 

or, in former times

 

- Partick to Govan

- Old Kirkpatrick to Erskine

 

Etc., etc. …

😁

I went to school in Paisley with a guy who lived in Renfrew who had never been further North than  Yoker :)

I was born at home in Renfrew. My mum used to put my oldest brother in the pram and walk down to the ferry. She bought a ticket and sat on the ferry for an hour or two while it chugged back and forward across the river. 😄
 

46 minutes ago, pH said:

Nothing to do with research. To many people in North America, UK/GB/England are completely interchangeable terms. It can really tick off those of us who came from UK/GB, but not England.

Not just North America. On one occasion a very English taxi driver in Oxford asked me if I'd had a rough crossing on the ferry coming over from Scotland 🤣

Not just hippos.

https://news.yahoo.com/lifestyle/-whales-drop-giant-poop-204925781.html

4 hours ago, pH said:

 

The best, though, was the clip shown behind the description of Lenin’s embalmed body being removed to Siberia as German forces neared Moscow. Apparently, the train carrying the body was headed by a GWR Castle. Who knew?

 

Re-gauged no doubt.

1 hour ago, skipepsi said:

?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_Hungry_Hippos

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

This is a rant!

 

TfW has stated that they cannot run a Wellington to Shrewsbury shuttle service because there is no way of changing from the up line to the down line at Wellington.

 

What do they think this track formation does then?

 

 

Wellington also has up and down loops and a bay platform. (Although it does face in this direction.)

 

Behind the photographer is a facing crossing that leads into the Donnington freight terminal.

 

Surely a DMU could run past the crossover and reverse, or if TfW are worried about the train running  on up the line and reaching the collapsed embankment, then have the branch as the route set passed the crossover.  It would also remove the train from the main line, whilst the crew change ends, although there's no through traffic to contend with.

 

The station is just out of sight around the bend.

 

I can only presume that this decision and statement was made by a suit and not the railway operations staff, because this was the sort of situation they used to revel in and show a lot of pride in continuing to operate a service under the most trying of circumstances.

 

Now it's close it down and hire in a bus!

 

Crewe on Saturday, by car!

 

Unranted🤣

WBankers

38 minutes ago, petethemole said:

I've just watched an old movie on YouTube that TheQ might find amusing, re the history of radar.  It was Radar Secret Service, a b/w B movie from 1950, about the use of radar in crime detection.  I never knew it was so far developed then that it could produce a TV quality image from a vehicle mounted set!  Not to mention Uranium 238 being transported in an ordinary van.

Unless you ingest or inhale it, 238 is pretty harmless. It does emit alpha particles but a sheet of paper will stop them 😄

I just saw a post where the owner of a couple of Scottish golf courses was referred to as "Comb Over Caligula".

Nice here at the moment. Over 60F for the next few days. The thin contrail is heading due East, likely out of SeaTac.

15 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear does seven a day on most days now - and different colours too.....

That's rather too much information.

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

That would be quite possible here as it would be from magnolia to magnolia.  
Tony

 

Not jonquil then? I'm disappointed.

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I'm really pleased for you that the cataract removal was a great success.

 

When I had mine done, I found that not only were the colours more vivid, but white was white once more, and not a colour similar to Fresh flour!

 

I'm off to the chop shop later on this morning, and I must remember to ask if they will trim my eyelashes back again.  They grow quite quickly due to my glaucoma medication, which is not to bad in itself, but add the lubrication drops I use for the dry eye condition, which are somewhat oily and I end up with a sort of light crust over the lashes which does detract from my appearance somewhat.

 

Although my head cold seems to be on the wane, the cough remains (as per usual) and I appear to have  developed a touch of Sinusitis  on the rhs of my face. and around the eye socket.

 

Undoubtedly, cake would help, but I've not had any this month!

Yes, I was thinking the lights were needing replaced because they were going a bit yellow, but it was my eyes . I only had one eye done so far and the difference between them is amazing.

5 hours ago, pH said:

Relevant experience yesterday, while resetting the clock in the car to account for the change to daylight saving time:

 

- As happens every six months, relearn the sequence, through several menus, to change the “hour” figure on the clock.
- Decide to try to do it ‘automatically’, by Bluetooth from a cellphone. Never done it this way before. Connect the phone successfully, but answer one question wrongly, don’t upload relevant information, time does not change, and I can’t find the way back to answer the question differently

- Go through the manual process (with several wrong turns as usual) to change the “hour” figure
- Due to the length of time since first starting the process, have to reset the “minute” figure too. 
- Success!

- Driving the car later in the day, realize that I’ve somehow managed to hide the digital speed readout during the process.

- Have to learn a new sequence, through a different set of menus, to recover the digital speed display.

- My wife suggests that next year, instead of changing the clock in the spring, I put a post-it note on the dash saying “add one hour”, to be taken off in the fall.

The Post-it note is a brilliant idea. We let them "autocorrect" in Spring because they are always on summertime.

That works really well for me when I go skiing. We are on Pacific Time here but most of the places I go to are on Mountain Time which is an hour ahead.

It's also a no-brainer for the two seater because it only comes out of the garage in summertime. 

7 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Er no, she has a point.

 

Technology is  now very intrusive. 

It beeps, it steers it brakes 

 

It has no idea what it is doing half the time and is quite frankly, in all thoses cases, a dangerous distraction or function. 

 

Other things that used to be manual are electric and so flippin' inconvenient, like handbrakes

 

If I park too close to the house so I can't get the bin past on bin  day, I get in, take the handbrake off and roll forward a couple of feet. No need to start the engine, and all the rigmarole that is nowadays ( just in case you are incompetent) and run it for 5 seconds.

 

If it should break down,  it can be pushed / rolled out of the way.  Not with an electric brake.

The police turn up and close the road while they wait for the recovery truck to drag it  onboard, flat spotting the tyres in  the process. 

 

Basic controls are moving into touchscreen menus; want the wipers on? Too hot? Too cold?

 

Start scrolling through menus whilst looking at the dashboard not the road, or pull over to do it.

 

Buttons and levers are instinctive and can be operated  by touch, no need to look. 

 

Do I need the car to beep and tell me I've turned the wipers on? I know I have, I did it and I can see them moving. 

 

Some tech is useful and that is the unobtrusive stuff you talk of, tyre pressure monitors, reversing sensors and cameras, engine management and so on. All good stuff to assist in efficient running and safe operation of the vehicle. 

 

Suddenly jamming the brakes on cos you are going up a steep hill and it thinks you are about to collide with the road, steering into oncoming traffic  ( and then beeping frantic warnings) because the road is a bit narrower and you are getting close to the kerb to avoid that traffic, beeping to  warn you of the parked car you are passing, making you instinctively look down at the very time you should be looking up,  is not.  

 

It's some of the unobtrusive she doesn't want.

 

She likes a few simple buttons and levers to operate the basic controls.

 

Simple is good ( might explain why she married me 😁) too much technology is not.

 

Doesn't want cameras, Bluetooth and so on ( though I suspect she may convert with some of these once she starts using them) and certainly no TV in the dashboard. 

 

The more I see of modern cars, the more I'm inclined to agree with some of what she says.

 

Andy

6 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I heard something on the radio the other day saying that Construction and Use Regulations may soon mandate such controls being via separate switches and not through menus.  How they have ever been (a) permitted legally and (b) considered a good idea by an automotive engineer, is beyond me.

Speaking as a former digital engineer wot done that stuff I can tell you.

1. The bosses love it because it's much less expensive to manufacture.

2. It's much faster to design and requires very few engineers.

3. You can rush the development and get it "good enough" and if you cork it up you can always fix it with a software update.

1 hour ago, BR60103 said:

I'm not sure have absolutely no idea what difference is if you measure using the AC settings.

 

You'll get an error in the reading. It's quite complicated to obtain true AC readings and inexpensive meters cheat a bit by assuming the AC input is a pure sign wave (which it quite often is not) and rectify it to produce DC, then add a fudge factor to compensate for the voltage loss across the rectifier.

Crikey! I just discovered I've been posing rubbish on RMweb for nine years 🤣

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

SNCF  coaching stock was the same. 

 

Jamie

Clearly they were unaware of Billy Connolly's solution for the problem.