Adam88

I was out one evening recently and i met a chap with a large, friendly-looking, stout, leg-at-each-corner type of dog whose breed I did not recognise. I asked him what it was and he said: "Labrador-Refrigerator cross".

Of course 'solid as a Swedish tank' is only a relative expression otherwise it might not have bent so easily!

Our first car was made by Austin of England.

... or go for a pizza.

You can save a lot of money following a taxi home.

Regarding high costs in Switzerland there are some fundamental exchange rate factors. When I first visited Switzerland (albeit as long ago as 1970) there were about 10CHF to the GBP. Now because of the relative strength of the Swiss economy and numerous devaluations and inflationary pressures on the pound the two currencies are almost at parity (1.1:1).

I often saw him solving problems at the Manchester Christmas show.

Various pugs spring to mind too.

In my whole life I have only ever once been to Australia and was taken aback every day by our government host solemnly apologising for having taken land, rights, etc from the aboriginal people. That was in 2017 and there was definitely no reference to HMQ.

There's no doubt about when the GPO built this telephone exchange and who was king at the time. I've just returned from our parish church where muffled peals were being rung, a most moving tribute to Her Majesty.

I have a friend who is a keen accordionist. If we're lucky he'll bring it along to various events. If we're even luckier he won't play it.

Speaking of Switzerland I spent a few days there last month including a visit to the transport museum in Lucerne, a trip up the Zermatt line and to Neuchâtel. On certain days in the summer the local tramway society is allowed to run its vintage metre gauge tramcars on the line along the lakeside from the city centre to a terminus 8Km away at Boudry where they have a modest but active museum. No fare is charged but the hat is handed round. A very pleasant day indeed. Electric car 73 (1922) and trailer 143 (1897, rebuilt 1914 & 1964) Horse car No 1 of 1894

Was that done using Templot?

I last wore a suit in Nov 2019 just before lockdown and needed it last month to wear at an old friend's funeral only to discover too late that the moths had got to it. Moths know no boundaries.

Early Risers - just a load of old buffers really.

Sorry to hear that you've both been infected by the dreaded lurgy, it can be most debilitating, I had it at the beginning of June and it knocked me for six for three or four days and then about ten more days to get back to normal. I dread to think how bad it might have been had I not been innoculated. That apart, I had penned an observation about Le Continent which I thought I'd lost in a textual black hole but it re-emerged this evening. I think we've touched on this before but the lack of cabs for the Crampton's enginemen is amazing. In 2022 Paris-Strasbourg takes a tad under 2hrs by TGV. In 1852 it would perhaps have taken 6hrs in all weathers. Just imagine how awful that double dos-et-dos Crampton would have been to drive and fire. Well today my travels took me to the German railway museum in Nuremberg and of course they have their own Crampton, Phoenix, this time most sensibly fitted with a cab. I am not running short of railway interest on this trip but I must pace myself. I next plan to back-track geographically and revisit the Lucerne museum, I only ever went there when I was 15y/o so it qualifies for a return. I will finally be spending a few days tramping on high ground and if I need a mountain railway or so to cross a few contours then so be it. Here's Phoenix offered as a warm-cabbed cheer-up.

I'm on holiday in Europe and my rail interest is being satisfied by my visiting a number of museums only one of which I've been to before. Yesterday I was at Mulhouse to see various French items including, of course, their splendid Crampton, Le Continent. This and everything else there really made the journey so very worth while. Taking these snaps and one or two others was a real cheer-up! PS unlike our own NRM at York there were no kreaming scids, bliss.

I can never decide if these are white cows with black ends or black cattle with white middles.

Regarding Modern Image and the like, the old Light Railway Transport League used to feature a great deal of harrumphing if anyone should dare to mention trolleybuses - transport of the Devil to some.

My copy of "North London Railway: A Pictorial Record" published by the HMSO for the NRM in 1979 has a number of similar photographs but not that particular one. One which shows 4-4-0T No 40 appears to be taken at the same oh-so-clean shed gives South Acton as the location. That picture has nine bewhiskered railwaymen but possibly not the same ones. No date is given.

That won't work. Hanging actually keeps folk off their toes.

Very interesting and certainly new to me. I don't recall seeing this man first time round or even knowing of him. I also liked his contemporary comments which he finished on.

I can tell that Joseph Paxton didn't give't any sort of inspiration here.

You beat me to it. I too was going to comment on the cleaning pattern, I've sometimes seen it referred to as tallowing although I cannot imagine tallow was ever used for this purpose. Many years ago someone published a piece in 'Backtrack' by a man who had been tasked with preparing and cleaning an LT&SR 4-4-2t for an exhibition, almost a lost art. I must try and look it out. In many years I have never seen such a finish represented on a small scale model locomotive - I think it would be very difficult to do and would certainly not find favour with the unholy "lets make our models as filthy as possible" brigade.

Do these sorts of vessels ever appear in Lloyd's List or are they too humble? I once spent an afternoon in a reference library thumbing through old copies of LL for something I was interested in at the time.