bimble

Done a bit of driving the last few days (900 miles since Friday) and something that I saw a couple of times was on a busy motorway the person in the middle lane realised they weren't going to make it past the vehicle they were trying to overtake before their turn-off and after passing the /// warning board decided to brake hard to pull in behind them.  Ignoring the fact that the reason they hadn't made it past in the first place is that the traffic was heavy and that now everyone behind them is also having to brake.

You've had a good minute to get into the correct lane and you've waited until the only way you can make it is to cause issues for other people...

4 hours ago, Captain Cuttle said:

And i think Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri are the nearest stars to us. Makes you wonder how many billions of galaxies are out there.

After the Sun which is the nearest star to us...  now, where's my coat?? 😉

7 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Specially when he could have put one ladder straight up the centre and worked directly off it.

Looks like he's putting up the facing (you can see them hanging down the righthand ladder) so a single ladder in the middle wouldn't allow him to reach either end to trim and fit.  What he needs is scaffolding that would allow him full access to the wall and be harder to fall off that the structure he's currently on.

34 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Chilterns Tunnels...

A report elsewhere (Paul Clifton - BBC transport correspondent) says that Florence was due to break through today.

However, the "ceremony" due to be held with the Rail Minister present, was cancelled.

Presumably re-scheduled for early next week?

 

does this mean they're delaying the breakthrough for a delayed photo op?  So when people wonder why HS2 ends up being late and over budget... 🙄

11 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

This idea of saving money by changing the design so that HS2 connects to the slow lines, rather than the fasts, is just compounding the insanity of decisions that have already been made.

What next, descope the HS2 train fleet, so they only run at 75 mph ???

.

They could run freight on it then... that'll open up a bit of capacity on the West Coast mainline 😂

Just watching 'Capricorn One' on Legend... where elements in NASA fake a Mars landing to not lose funding

rules in different countries (in this case UK & Australia) can be different when it comes to mobile phones in cars.

3 hours ago, Derek 19B said:

I was once told the time changes at 02:30. Not sure if it’s correct.

it's done at 2am; and it's done at the same time across Europe.  So 2am here, Ireland and Portugal, but 3am for Spain through to Poland, Norway & Sweden, 4am for Finland, the Baltic countries and Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, & Greece.

Though there are talks about the EU dropping the clock changes because the further south you live the less sense it makes.

On 14/10/2023 at 17:16, spikey said:

 

What on earth is that square grey platform thing sticking out from the pavement?  How does  a stopping bus deal with that?

looks like it's separating the taxi rank (which the car is parked in) from the bus stop (where the photograph is taken from), probably to prevent taxis from encroaching into the bus stop area

I suppose part of it is how you see RMWeb, as the experience, or part of the experience.  I came to RMWeb looking for a model/railway forum, knew nothing about BRM (apart from possibly seeing one in WHSmith).  Adverts have always been part of forums as they pay the bills without direct payment from members.  Now I'll be honest, none of the benefits of Gold Membership I would use.  I'm not a reader of BRM (I'm sure it's a wonderful magazine and all, just not interested), and I'm not a reader of digital magazine (so the archive isn't of interest), and the other benefits such as increased PM/image storage are things I don't need.  So for me the question becomes 'is £50 a year to get rid of pop-up ads worth it?'

But what it does mean is that my time on the forum, even to use it as a resource is dramatically down on what it was from before.  Adverts I don't mind, but pop-ups and especially auto-playing video pop-ups annoy me to the point where I don't know if I'm going to come back.  I've already stopped coming here when at home because the smaller screen on the laptop made it annoying.

I don't know how much  a subscribed member who has all these ads thrown in their general direction make towards the upkeep of the forums, but if there was a Silver Membership who's only benefit was no pop-ups for a few quid, sign me up as interested. (and I don't even mind the ads at the side, literally pop-ups and auto-playing video pop-ups)

I'm not going going, but the annoyance is greater than the joy for now so I'll see you in a bit.

I have a slight variation on the theme, where I have the dropping top banner, and the regular ad areas on the right hand side... but all of them are blank white with no actual ads in them!  I've not changed any settings in my browser or use an ad blocker, but I'm assuming ad areas without ads don't help raise revenue for the forum.

This might be the ad people playing with settings after prompting...

On 17/09/2021 at 18:21, Nearholmer said:

But, it’s a not insignificant stroll (an hour walk according to the TfL website, although that does seem a bit slow to me) from London Bridge to Victoria, so do they fit the “two stations close together” criterion?

it's only a three mile walk, and surely three miles counts as two stations close together?

13 hours ago, cliff park said:

When I worked in the tech department of a high school we had lots of problems with photos of projects stuck into folders then having to be sent away for adjudication. On arrival lots of the photos had come free from the folders. After experimenting we found that of all the available brands Pritt Stick was the best and lasted the longest. Eventually, about 3 years, even they dried up, but that was paper on paper.

In three years Andy's about five layouts down the road! 

Amazed at your work rate, don't think I've done any work on mine in bout six months... 

Does remind me of the speed the DPD driver who'd double parked and blocked Pratt Walk in Lambeth ran back to his van when an escorted car with four police motorbike outriders with blues & twos pulled into the street...

16 minutes ago, melmerby said:

It's already got a 180 ton diesel, two auxillary tenders and it's support coaches.

How much more does it need? I wouldn't have thought 7 empty hoppers would make a lot of difference.

It's an official UP loco, they may well have tagged them on as they needed moving... 

8 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

Can't it stop itself? ☺

Sure, but as it's designed to haul +3000 ton trains at 60mph up hills a few extra wagons to help braking aren't that much of a difficulty for it, and every little helps

1 hour ago, Welly said:

I've just ordered myself a copy of Nightwatch just so I can see for myself - I expect the book will be different and I hope I can get into it!

The tv series is more based* upon the early books 'Guards! Guards!' & 'Men At Arms', though the villain Carcer is from the book 'The Night Watch' as is Captain (though he's only a sergeant-in-arms in the book) Keel.  

* - I say "based", the story ideas of a dragon, Carrot coming to the city, Detritus & Angua, the meeting of Lady Sybil; the actual plots of the books are wildly different.  Cheery Longbottom was introduced in 'Feet of Clay'.

8 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

If it discharges its load it will be really stuck!

Maybe it's the Highway Agency's sneaky way of infilling some more bridges...

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

Who was the indeterminate foppish character who seemed to occupy an Igor role? 

 

I think you're talking about Cheri.... the dwarf.  You wouldn't have recognised her by the lack of beard... and lack of lack of height.

It's like someone was given the budget & rights to write some fan fiction... but set down a very different trouser leg of time to that of the storylines we're used to.  An original story would have been fine, but what got me was the characters having nothing in common to how they are in the books, with the exception of their names.

There was one incident, for example, that suggested that the script-writers certainly hadn't read 'Men At Arms'

Quote

The doors shattered.  A six-foot iron arrow passed Carrot and Vimes and removed a large section of wall on the far side of the courtyard.

A couple of blows removed the rest of the gates, and Detritus stepped through.  He looked around at the assembled Assassins, a red glow in his eyes.  And growled.

It dawned on the smarter Assassins that there was nothing in their armoury that could kill a troll.  They had fine stiletto knives, but they needed sledgehammers.  They had darts armed with exquisite poisons, none of which worked on a troll.  No-one had ever thought trolls were important enough to be assassinated.  Suddenly Detritus was very important indeed.  He had Cuddy's axe in one hand and his mighty crossbow in the other.

Some of the brighter Assassins turned and ran for it.  Some were not as bright.  A couple of arrows bounced off Detritus. Their owners saw his face as he turned towards them, and dropped their bows.

Kinda reminded of the BBC adaption of Christie's 'ABC Murders' from a few years back where they totally rewrote the story, including having Japp die and Poirot having been a priest...

The entire series has been on the iplayer for a while.  The Pratchett estate has distanced themselves from this production, and having watched it I'm not surprised why.  Apart from the names there is nothing in common with the books.  Even the character of the characters is totally different.  There is no similarity to how the city is run in the books (the guilds, the Watch, the Unseen University, Vetinari), there is no suggestion that the books have been read in detail and the timelines of the stories followed.

If you're expecting anything like the books you will be disappointed.   They obviously had a decent enough budget, they had the rights to Discworld, and I can only assume that the scriptwriter got themselves the vaguest of character descriptions and then made their entire own world/story up.

At least the Sky films tried to follow whichever story they were adapting, but this...

Was over at Watership Down at the weekend photographing an archery event when I spotted this little fella, snuffling vigorously through the undergrowth!

On 02/05/2021 at 15:39, CameronL said:

If we had seven kingdoms we'd need seven royal families. That could be a good way to use up the spare parts in our own royal family. Give them a kingdom of their own each.

Don't see why, I mean, Queen Elizabeth is the monarch for more countries than just the UK.  Fifteen more according to google, 'Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.'

17 minutes ago, 9C85 said:

As for Azumas, people will be sentimental about them by the time I get to go on one.

Only those who don't remember anything better...

with 66s in use across Europe the mainstream European H0 manufacturers might well start making them. Marklin have some in H0 for a very pretty penny!