Northmoor

Marvellous film, hopefully something similar is shown to staff today. Two things I noted right at the end; (i) 86s with yellow ends wrapped round to the cab door and (ii) a toilet flushed as the train speeds over the camera! That's what lineside staff used to be breathing until much too recently.....

Last time I surfed the Railway Heritage Register Carriage Survey, it appeared that a lot of the Carnforth scrap line was scrapped late last year (I think like the PCVs, many were retained for their bogies alone). One outcome of this was that there are now only three Mark 1 sleepers remaining in existence.

Corrected your typo. Otherwise it sounds like our two countries have agreed that we both like Orange Squash.

My (perhaps selfish) concern is that if/when WCRC's luck runs out and there is a fatality on a steam railtour, the knee-jerk reaction will be to ban all heritage stock from the main line. You can be certain that if the Bullied Pacific had been running a minute earlier at Wootton Bassett, we wouldn't be having this discussion right now because there would be no main line steam to discuss. Oh and CDL is only difficult to fit to vacuum-braked stock, it's relatively simple where you have an air supply for the brakes, so use air-braked stock. I'll hazard a guess that fitting air braking to a steam loco is cheaper than fitting multiple VB carriages with CDL. Vacuum brakes were last used by service trains with the withdrawal of the last 1st Gen DMU; it is non-standard, very few people are trained on its operation and compared to AB its performance is known to be deficient (or at least the stock fitted with it underperforms compared to later AB stock). It won't be long before the RSSB force it to be abolished in main line operations.

Most (survivable) air accidents are during the take-off or landing phases. Take-off and landing speeds of airliners are higher than most train services ever get to, so any accident is likely to be violent, hence why overhead luggage lockers click shut. I can maybe foresee trains on HS2 being designed with overhead luggage lockers instead of a shelf. It is noticeable that racks on modern trains are notably more "restraining" of luggage - you almost have to lift it up and out, which is difficult for the short, elderly or infirm - but then even the 10mph Cannon St crash generated a lot of human/luggage injuries.

Indeed, after the Old Dalby trial many erroneously deduced that passengers would have been fine because lots of windows were unbroken. Unfortunately much of the interior was at the leading end of each coach, so most of the occupants would have been crushed or received serious blunt force trauma.

I saw Jeff Healey play live in 1993 and claim my £10.

Some may complain about 'Elf 'n' Safety but I consider the fact that in most years now, not only are no passengers killed but no-one dies working on the railway either, to be something worth applauding LOUDLY.

That is exactly the attitude that BR took for a very long time, which made it Not Their Problem. Finding that a victim had alcohol in their system because they'd had one post-work Friday evening drink, made that person to blame in BR's eyes. It is like a child running out without warning into a busy 30mph limit road and being hit by a car doing 33mph; the onus immediately passes to the car driver. It is not reasonable.

My first bike was an ETZ125. Something rugged to learn on but a third of the price of a CG125 at the time. It eventually got sold with some charging fault but it owed me nothing. I knew my statement might provoke; perhaps I should have said "a fair few of" rather than "most" British bikes? However there do seem to be plenty of pretty poor bikes (and I know the very good ones are gorgeous) that people throw money at. There are also plenty of dreadful Japanese bikes from the 1970s and 80s but people don't seem as nostalgic about them. Badges sell bikes like any vehicle.

I've often suspected that had most classic British motorbikes been the product of another country, almost no-one in Britain would still ride them.

KCC website says the last one was on 31st March. Damn, the ferry was on my to-do list for this year. I remember us calling in at Tilbury Riverside once in late 1985 - no photos, it was a very dull evening - but I remember it being much like the photos above, grotty and deserted. We probably visited because it was where Dad arrived back in the UK in about 1952, after his family had lived in Nyasaland (now Malawi) for a few years.

I overheard several comments yesterday about the ASLEF strike, to the effect that "they're all paid too much anyway". I find most people only complain about the pay of others when it's more than their own*. Personally I don't complain about what sportsmen earn (many do); if someone is prepared to pay them that, good luck. In such roles - in fact in any role paid significantly more than average - you are paid for the value you add, not the work you do. The problem is that as society, we don't put sufficient value on some roles like nursing. Of course the Law of Unintended Consequences may apply: if you were to make nursing relatively well-paid, would the wrong sort of people be attracted to it? *My own nomination for overpaid profession is the Project Manager. Good ones are worth the money, but I have met far too many who have no understanding of what they are managing, spend most of their hours moving numbers between spreadsheets and have to defer to someone else to make any decisions based on that data. So they're actually data administrators, but that doesn't sound nearly as important, does it?

I remember something similar that showed a huge proportion of violent prisoners (or those imprisoned for violent offences) had a significant zinc or magnesium deficiency.

I was also on this (for the first time) yesterday. While they are a Not-for-Profit company, so far this century, Hastings Diesels have managed to fit CDL as well as retention toilets, TPWS and GSMR (multiple iterations), modern headlights and a PA system. Interesting that they felt able to recover the costs of all of this on a train that only goes out half a dozen times a year, with overwhelmingly standard class tickets and no premium dining to earn the money back. I do hope that the politicians invited to become involved in this debacle quickly realise that WCRC are taking the proverbial.

That sounds like Rick Jolly, the only serviceman to have been decorated by both sides after the Falklands Conflict.

When I was a kid a neighbour tried to sell a van he didn't own (knowingly, it was hired). He went to jail. The NYMR management might want to consider that.

Is that a 190A-3 as accidentally delivered to the RAF in 1943? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Faber

Hopefully the surgery was painless and successful?

When I worked in defence procurement consultancy, when a certain contractor had won yet another huge deal we used to refer to them having "invoked the French Maids Outfit Clause".

While a proportion of society - often it has to be said, the older generation - objects and complains about Diversity and Inclusion, this is exactly what a well-structured and delivered D&I policy sets out to achieve. If you have a diversity of backgrounds, you are much more likely to have diversity of ideas.

As GDPR would mean that the party could be fined up to £1500 per breach (so that's £1500 multiplied by their membership) or 10% of their turnover, that could have worked out quite expensive.

The more I have learned about Edward VIII over the last few years, convinces me that Wallis Simpson did Great Britain a monumental favour.

My charity sector professional relative who I mentioned earlier could have written that article, although I know they didn't. Their boss is a respected public figure, rightly honoured for their achievements leading high-profile campaigns and good causes, but they sound an absolute PITA to work for.

Years ago my mother volunteered at an Oxfam shop in West Wales. She eventually lost patience - as I think several other volunteers did - at being told by the Area Manager, turning up in his company car, what must be prioritised for sale (and what donations should be discouraged) even though the experience in the shop was that they should do the direct opposite. It was the early days of Oxfam becoming a Big Charity; these behave like Big Business in every way except for actually pocketing the profit. Another close relative has spent most of their career in the third sector. My own career has been roughly 50/50 in the public/private sector and some of the behaviours they have described by charity staff would absolutely NOT be tolerated in either.