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That sounds a bit like when a football referee runs towards an on-pitch fracas with their whistle in their mouth, and their hand in their shorts pocket (where the card wallet is kept)

Oi! It certainly was, as was her bacon-rib soup when you came home from a football match on a cold winter Saturday evening. I always found that anything that mum did involving fruit also involved sugar rationing, or so it seemed.

March was another similar one; it's been said that going from Ely to Peterborough, you fairly boxed the compass, with South, North, East and West Junctions within barely three-quarters of a mile, two level crossings, and Whitemoor Junction off to one side of the triangle formed by it and East and West. South and North are still open, because of the level crossings, there is less than 500 yards between them.

You're aware that most of the energy in steam is imparted to it when it changes its state from water to water vapour, i.e the latent heat of vaporisation? Heating the water from ambient temperature to the boiling point for the pressure required adds some energy; superheating adds some more, but not as much as is added when the water is changed to "dry" vapour. You must also be aware that if you expand the steam in a cylinder, it gives back some of the energy as work; not much, I know but some. The effect can be, if the steam is not superheated, but containing water droplets (saturated) If enough energy is taken out, some more of the steam might condense into water in the cylinder. By superheating the steam, enough energy can be lost without the condensation problem, and it was found that once you'd done this, there was little point in adding more energy; that is, it was a waste of coal. Would higher-degree superheat also involve a larger superheater, with the attendant weight penalty?

Thanks for warning us!

I think the GWR handover point when going to Manchester was Warrington, via the Chester and Birkenhead line, in which they had a stake.

The other problem might be the axle loading on the driving wheels. You will be aware that, if you increase the boiler pressure, you would have to increase the thickness of the boiler shell plates, for the same boiler diameter; the boiler diameter used on most if not all, of the most powerful locomotives was over 5 feet, which would almost certainly mean the next plate thickness up, if you increased the pressure by as much as 50p.s.i. The track used on most main lines in the UK seems to have meant a self-imposed limit of 22 tons axle load; and several classes reached that limit. Besides British engineers were a pretty conservative lot when it came to new ideas; look how much time it took for pressures, boiler diameters and so on, to reach the levels they did between the wars. Lastly, was there any need for locomotives that powerful in the UK? This topic has been discussed to death in the Imaginary Locomotives thread. I've just seen that KenW has been saying more or less the same thing while I was typing!

The worst case of that I've heard is of a coachload of Stoke City supporters who rolled into Manchester for a United match a few tears back. As you, they were having a pre-match pint, when GMP surrounded the pub, bundled them back on the coach and sent them back to Stoke under escort. The Football Supporters' Association lawyer got them £20,000 compensation, awarded against the police. A bit O.T. to illustrate the point.

Happens in the UK, too

I thought he had a notional majority of 1 or 2, if the DUP went with him, never mind adding the 7 Sinn Feiners, who don't take their seats. Remember that Labour have an MP suspended, and also half a dozen or so refuseniks.

Isn't the definition of a straight line "The tangent of a circle of infinite radius?"

Yes, quite an ordinary salary for a junior or middle managerial position in most parts of the country, I would have thought.

That first one, at The Cross, is brilliant

Go on then? At our level (Northern Premier League Premier division), I reckon it probably averages £300-£400 per week. Indeed, you hear about semi-professional players not wanting to go full-time because their part time football wage plus normal salary exceeds any full-time football wage they could get. Remember also that the vast majority of non-league players aren't on contract, and only get paid for football from August until the end of April.

I don't know where £1 million comes in Gateshead terms, but I reckon that's about 3 seasons' turnover for us.

A very good analogy, that!

Someone did, about 30 years ago, IIRC. It featured in Model Railways.

On your first point, the English FA have been trying for years to rid the National League System of reserve teams of clubs higher up the pyramid. For instance, not that long ago the first division of the Eastern Counties League was about 33% reserve teams from their premier division, and clubs further up. I think the Hellenic League was similar.

If you think that's bad, you should have even more sympathy for any of the six clubs in the borough where you live, who not only have tp put up with United and City, but some of the others you named. As one of our directors says, would you rather sit in Spoons, or the Organ, say, in Stalybridge, have a pint or two, stay warm and watch football on the TV, or walk up Mottram Road in the freezing cold and wet and pay £10 to watch what hasn't been very good football over the last few seasons?

Yes, that's correct; I'll ask my MP, next time i see him, what actually happens. I believe it is that incoming MPs actively seek out another who is likely to vote in the party in power, and they mutually agree not to pass through the lobbies if the the other can't. What i don't know is if the 'pair' carries on over several parliamentary sessions as long as both MPs are still sitting.

English votes for English Laws? Any way, take out the speaker and tellers, 7 Sinn Feiners, 10 DUP, 56 Scottish, and I dont know how many Welsh

Monckton Coke Works; is J3875 looking towards Felling, or the coast?

Yes, it has, hasn't it? I wonder why?

Macca?

Who told you that? A perfect example of lies, damned lies and statistics.