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Have they just left that dumpy level there?

In the case of the one in Bristol, they have been, for the last three or four years at least. But the Council of the Merchant Venturers, which still has a lot of clout in Bristol, have more or less torpedoed it. If Liverpool can do it, why can't Bristol?

Really? If people didn't go around empire-building, perhaps there wouldn't be so much of the competition that leads to catastrophic events such as the two world wars. Here's a little nugget for you; the Lancashire textile industry, which took off after about 1810, relied almost exclusively on slave-grown cotton from the southern states of the USA, until 1861, when the supply disappeared overnight. That cotton, transported around the empire, destroyed, in one example the domestic textile industry in India. One philosopher has pointed out that the people who actually manufactured the cotton only differed from slaves in that they weren't bought or sold; but they were, and are, just as disposable On western parliamentary democracy; you mean like the one where even in 1914 in the UK, only 40% of adults had the vote (not just women; there were certain male workers who still couldn't vote)? Did anyone actually ask the peoples of Africa, India and Asia whether they wanted this democracy? Or the other things that went with it? Most of our former colonies appear to be one party states, and some of them quite oppressively run, for the benefit of Western and Chinese corporations

The one marked "Somewhere on the GW" has upper-quadrant signals throughout, and the one facing the camera has a lattice post. Is that a football ground Floodlight pylon on the right? If so, I reckon it's somewhere near Burnden Junction, Bolton

"Go on, son; open the valve" "Which valve, chief?" "Any F*****g valve1"

Re-Rainhill; you can't have been that far from where my brother and I were

No, I meant between, say Calvert and Bletchley

That's because, in the late 50s, most of the lines in the West Riding became part of the NE region. The boundary on the Standege route was, IIRC the Northerly tunnel portal

While we're getting some excellent coverage of what's happening around Bletchley, is there anything going on anywhere else along the route?

We'd had the three-masted rig for at least a hundred years by the 18th century; in fact, most vessels still had two (brigs and brigantines).

Dillard and Clark: Southbound Train

Oh, yes! A groundbreaking programme

"The last train to Blackpool" by Stanley Accrington - another folkie. Very poignant.

C3532: You don't often see outside link motion.

Generally correct; on the suction side of the main sea water circulating pump would be a pipe coming from the ship side, with a valve attached, in theory at least, to a branch on the ship's hull. Branched into this was the emergency bilge suction, with a normally closed valve. If you had a serious water incursion into the engine-room the two valves could regulated to keep the level from becoming dangerous, or to allow the water to be cleared. On some ships, these valves could be seriously large; 20",24" or larger pipes weren't uncommon. These valves could take a while to open and/or close if they were manually operated. It was the inability of the crew to open the emergency bilge valve at all, and to close the ship side valve when the main condenser suction pipe burst, that caused the loss of the s.s. British Ambassador in early 1975. She was a fully laden 42 000 ton tanker

I think the original spec was BG, FO, 7 x SO for the Newcastles, and 6 x SO for the Yorks, but, as you said the number of carriages gradually reduced; I think they ended up with 4, hauled by a 31. That said, in 1980, the service had to be improved as people deserted the railway for the M62; and it was an improvement. Prior to that, we had LHCS to Newcastle every 2 hours, with the Trans-pennine units doing the other hour to Hull

It's in a few of the photos around Plawsworth . You can see it for miles in any direction.

You must have heard the Watneys joke

To be fair, the other one we are allegedly talking about is not a minister.

I think JohnofWessex was more referring to competing routes, and the sheer number of stations in certain towns, when he was talking about wasted money. Why, for instance, did a town the size of Oldham get three stations more or less in its town centre, and another two not far outside; especially when two of the three companies operating into a town not far away (Stalybridge) agreed to jointly build a new station in 1885?

It's not that uncommon to see a small runabout-type car being towed behind some of the larger motor homes on the motorways today.

Reading some of the stuff on this page in particular, you would come away thinking that railways are only used for commuting, and business journeys. If my experience of the 0845 - ish Stoke - Euston via every station down the Trent Valley one Saturday morning a couple of years ago is anything to go by, it isn't!

Sounds like you are almost getting a taste of old-school seafaring, when a trip lasted for any time between 8 months and two years

That sounds similar to the "Professional" third and second engineers that I sailed with, when I was at sea. Either didn't want the responsibility of the next step up, or couldn't be faffed with trying to pass their tickets, for whatever reason. They were, however, goldmines of "job" information. By the time I finished, given the shrinkage in the fleet, they had all gone.

Wouldn't like be on there in an East wind in winter!