bimble

22 hours ago, Davexoc said:

I've made use of an HS2 environmetal project already, as have many people, and very nice it was too. Wendover Woods benefitted to the tune of £450k and I saw losts of dogs and their Range Rover driving owners making good use of it. Oh. hang on, won't that frighten the real wildlife away??.....

I was talking to one of the wardens at a wetlands near Bolsover last summer who was looking forward to HS2 passing right by his wetlands as it greatly decreased the chances of them building houses near by, and he hoped they might get an extra lake if they used local materials to build the enbankment it would be travelling on.

Admittedly, one of the few people who were pleased to see us...

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Did you use a stepladder to get that view or are you very tall?  The new bridge has some fairly high sides.

 

It was 2014 and I had gone along to see Nunny Castle going through so I don't recall. I might have used the screen on the back of the camera. Though the ticketing agent did say that the new bridge was too low for the then future electrification as it had been a bit of a rush job, so I don't know if there were remidial works on the bridge since?

Was looking through my photos for something else when I spotted this... three different fonts and four different sizes... doesn't mean you can't number your shed! (Tilehurst 2014)

if that had been in the UK it wouldn't have been a heart... oh no sir!!

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Haven't heard much about the 11' 8" (now 12' 4") bridge in the USA recently. Is it still being hit?

 

yes, though most of the recent ones have been more "grazed", so stripping paint work as opposed to taking the roof off. 

8 hours ago, Wickham Green said:

Could've given the bridge a lick of paint at the same time - but it looks like a nice substantial beam. Personally, I'd have put the beam off the bridge - maybe even at the first road junction - but I guess you'd need permission from too many other parties to do that.

it would also depend if there were places between the junction and the bridge that might need access from a HGV. With the beam at the bridge it's only the bridge that can't be accessed.

13 hours ago, caradoc said:

If the railways were fully nationalised, ie no private sector involvement in any way, would the influence of the DfT be;

a) Greater ?

b) Less ?

13 hours ago, caradoc said:

Although it would presumably mean the end of Open Access operators ?

How would freight companies be affected? Presumably a "fully nationalised" railway could only be considered "fully" if they were brought back into the fold? Are they Open Access in the same manner as Hull or Grand Central, or are they something just a little bit different?

11 minutes ago, duncan said:

Is it a requirement to stop at red temporary lights, read somewhere (can't find it now of course, so could be talking rubbish) ?  Thought it was only permanent ones or possibly temps which an order or something. 

Highway code rule 109 (italics mine)

Quote

Traffic light signals and traffic signs. You MUST obey all traffic light signals (download ‘Light signals controlling traffic’) and traffic signs giving orders, including temporary signals & signs (download ‘Traffic signs’).

1 hour ago, caradoc said:

So, what we're saying is allow motorists to drive fast, ignoring the 70 mph speed limit, because it keeps them and the unfortunate others sharing the road with them alert ?

In all fairness, setting up permanent average speed cameras on the motorway & A road system would be easier and cheaper than trying to retrofit limiters to the 33 million vehicles on the UK's roads. That would also give people the ability to overtake safely and quickly without hitting a maximum allowed speed halfway through the move.

There was the suggestion on the radio this afternoon that one of the reasons they were going after Northern so much today was to distract from the yearly increase in ticket price story...

1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

On the subject of absence of basic competence in government, I’ve just seen on tv that a couple who have been conducting a legal battle to enter into a mixed-sex Civil Partnership, have won their case. I never understood why this was excluded from the original legislation; most other European countries included it from the outset, and very popular it has proved to be. It seemed such an obvious, unforced error in the original legislation, open to a range of challenges; and so it has proved. 

 

because civil partnerships were designed to give the same rights as marriage (until such time that marriage between same sex couples was recognised) to same sex couples because mixed sex couples ALREADY had access to those rights, both through religious and civil services.

In fact, since the introduction of same sex marriages, civil partnerships have dropped to the point where there have been discussions of getting rid of them. To be honest, when this first went to court I half expected the Government to solve it by getting rid of civil partnerships before the case was over...

they've picked some terrible camera positions for showing off the scenery... two inside the cab, one showing the wheels, one either side of the boiler so that's blocking the view, one at the back of the tender so you can't see the track...  I can only assume they've not watched the NRK train journeys (which at 7 & 10hrs are long, but worth it) to see how it should be done.

2 hours ago, russ p said:

https://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/charity-hst-heads-for-warm-storage

 

Seems a shame after all the effort 

warm storage at least suggests they're thinking of doing something useful with it. Or at least haven't decided to just get rid of it. After all, it has good route availability and can keep up with track speeds on the mainlines.

On 20/12/2019 at 20:28, Zomboid said:

Dawlish Proof would most likely be impossible given how bad it can get down there.

Considering the track itself isn't always Dawlish Proof... 

Totally worth the 500 mile round trip! 

Friday was awful weather, drizzle, murky, and then a Trans Pennine service cleared the Edinburgh 200 miles sign by about a second... but it did clear. A quick pop down to Colton Jn while the train was stopped in York and it was just darker... that battle between ISO, shutter speed and darkness. Alas my home desktop stopped working last week so I can't run them through photoshop until I'm back in the office.

Saturday I headed down to Burton Coggles having spotted the location from David F's wonderful photo thread.

looks nicer... and surely repainting doors isn't that hard to do...?? And that assuming that the livery won't be wholly replaced as it is... either way, I'm looking forward to getting soaked tomo as I'm heading up to Yorkshire to see her in real life!

2 hours ago, johnofwessex said:

So peanuts relative to the cost of a truck/driver

 

To say nothing of the cost of a strike

A lot more than the driver keeping their eyes open and paying attention...

Of course, how many members of the general public would even have an idea of who to call in such a situation...? I suspect that a 999 call via the police might be a bit convoluted, assuming that they would consider calling the signaller and not simply dispatching a squad car to the crossing. And that's before we get to the question whether there are emergency telephones at level crossings in Australia...

Discussing with a (non-train) friend who lives in Newcastle about going up to see the LNER HST farewell run and when I showed her a picture of which one the HST was, her response was, "oh, the comfy one." Followed by complaints about the luggage space on the new Azumas (especially if you have a pram).

I have a potential trip from King Cross to Montrose in the early summer next year, so I'm 'looking forward' to seeing how the Azumas are over a long trip...

12 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Never understood why stopping/parking on the RHS is so common in the UK. It is absolutely a no, no in Australia. The offence, I believe is ticketed as the left wheels too far from the road edge - by the road width obviously!

 

The exception is one way roads, which is not a problem as no oncoming traffic to confuse.

Because it's only advisory not to do so, not an actual offence (a 'do not' as opposed to a 'Must Not' in the Highway Code)

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

"Dazzling" doesn't necessarily mean bright enough to affect your ability to see. They can still be bright enough to be a bit unpleasant, having them glare in your face. Just because it shouldn't make any practical difference to the car behind you it's still polite and considerate to not shine them there when you don't need to.

I find it's when you can tell the queue of traffic is moving off because the brake lights are bright enough that you can tell they're on with your eyes shut!

Accident on the M3 this morning (took me nearly two hours to go from J3 to J2), notable for the large number of vehicles who ignored the lane closed (lane 4)  sign to jump the traffic. Including a Royal Mail hgv who must of passed three lane closed signs by the time they overtook me.

Could be worse, they had an article about other delayed projects around the world (including Crossrail)

Quote

In California, another high-speed rail line is late and more expensive than planned. A 2008 referendum approved a $10bn (£7.8bn) budget to begin a rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The project is now $46bn over budget and at least a decade behind schedule.

23 minutes ago, Bomag said:

 

While they may be those that will sit anywhere, you seem to not have considered those with red green colour blindness. Traffic lights are much less of a problem as the order is more obvious; on the 800 it is much less easy to work out if the top or bottom lamp is lit.

Well, that might account for up to 8% of the gents, and 1% of the ladies...

1 hour ago, Wickham Green said:

Back to bridge strikes* : Looked like a VERY near miss at Orpington at lunchtime - no sign of damage to the bridge or curtain-sided artic but SERIOUS disruption to traffic as the truck tried to reverse away up the hill.

 

* Is there a dedicated thread ? :  a search for 'strike' came up with nothing - and for 'bridge' found 27 pages ! 

it was called 'Bridge Bashing'

I will admit, once at Uni my club had an 'A. Plant' at a compulsory Athletic Union meeting because we were short of members able to turn up...