Regularity

4.76mm would be ok…

That’s because modern block trains are longer than the Victorians ever imagined.

One of the consequences of “common carrier” status seems to have been having goods yards able to cope with the most outrageously possible traffic flows, rather than something a lot simpler. If nothing else, it could serve to provide storage space for the extra rolling stock required to meet potential on-demand needs.

Oh, I wouldn’t (personally) go that far south… ;)

I prefer to think of myself as a Middle-Anglian, but I suppose it’s pretty much the same.

Looking in the mirror again, were you? I’ve told you about not doing that before…

That’s just my developmental age: my physical age is a few multiples (including a fraction) bigger than that…

Yeth, and I’m only thixteen…

We’ll just have to thuck it and thee…

Culture is shaped by the worst behaviour a leader is prepared to tolerate, or indeed to engage in. [Credit to HR Star, who are concerned to get the message out there.] Having lost (long ago) decent MPs and seen Ministers reigning, the current Conservative regime elected a “performer” (top? Possibly- it’s not just the cream that rises) and have let him play fast and loose with, well, virtually everything, which has created a toxic culture in Downing Street. A bit the GOP putting Trump forward as “Presidential”. The gutless, shameless tolerance of such people is merely part of the culture.

So. Here’s a “thought experiment” for you. Is Essery wrong, or is Essery right but the HMRS didn’t know about the oxalic acid? Compound’s ouija board. It’s a bit like Schrödinger’s eponymous cat, except it needs some form of seance.

Where is the NRA when needed, eh? Perhaps that should be the argument put to them?

Even easier, get off a train at Liverpool Street (in “The City”, and walk a hundred yards or so into Tower Hamlets. you can go from top to bottom very quickly.

They didn’t even get it right: 2C1 for a pacific is correct, but not 21C…

It shows how far we have fallen as a nation: the usual act of a failing dictator (and let’s face it, BJ does act like one, with complete disdain for anything other than his own selfishness) is to find something populist to divert attention away from scrutiny. Putin: tries to annex Ukraine. The Argentinian Junta: invade the Falkland Islands. BJ: creates rumours of abandoning a worldwide standard of measurements.

Did someone mention “Dinsdale Piranha”? ;)

One would hope not, although I suspect it did happen… A slightly cynical doctor I worked with in the 90s noticed that hospitals usually got a repaint just before becoming NHS trusts. Meant the expenditure wasn’t going to come out of the new organisation’s budget…

Hear hear!

I wondered about that, but I could see a problem or two in that some of the levers are also used in sequential pulls for the other direction, and there might be problems satisfying both requirements. Or maybe I am talking out of my hat - anything likely to have been installed or revised post about 1900 is beyond my reading.

Wasn’t that for the 3-cylinder version, generally used on the LTS?

It was the lettering. Some formulation of oxide, I think. Possibly more expensive/dangerous than normal white. I think it was more a case that it didn’t fade, rather than it didn’t get dirty - I could have worded that better.

MR wagon lettering was in a dirt-resistant paint formula, so remained clearly visible, especially as the wagon bodies became darker with age.

That’s come out very well: nicely detailed without and ribbing.

Some people go to very strange extremes to avoid that cliché: https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2022-05-25/four-injured-after-bus-loses-roof-in-bridge-crash (Thankfully, no serious injuries.) More frivolously, our host is in well-known company - James Bond doesn’t like the trope, either:

There’s rather a lot in his blog: