Catkins

I hope it's not going through Kent - Both Southampton and Eastleigh are in Hampshire!!

I'll be honest here and say that most of my reading these days is magazine based, but I do have a few books that I like;- The Railway Detective series by Edward Marston. Rebus by Ian Rankin. A good standby is anything Sherlock Holmes or Inspector Morse. And I did grow up reading Red For Danger, and similar tomes, and I developed an interest in Engineering Biographies. That book about the Tay Bridge sounds interesting.

if it's docked at Southampton, is it being commissioned at Eastleigh? And before some wag says it, I don't mean becoming an officer in the armed forces !

That is a result of well intentioned - but poorly drafted - euro-legislation, enacted on car manufacturers that are ran by bean counters. (see my comments in the third paragraph) That was common to any car that was sold in Scandinavia, the Scandinavian countries had a law that required some sort of road / driving lighting when the engine was on. On the subject of car lights, and why things seem to take a retrograde step, I am of the age when cars were built by engineers and had some common sense applied, for example a car of the late 70's / 1980's had two rear foglights and two reversing lights - common sense for if one bulb fails the other one still works. Now it seems that cars are built by bean counters and every piece of common sense is costed, and removed, most cars now only seem to have one reversing light and one fog light - if a bulb fails what happens? And the car designers are putting form over function now, you only have to look at the rear of the Ford Focus, or the window / waist line of any JLR product to see what I mean. Anyone know of a good Mark 2 Ford Granada saloon for sale?

Headlights might be good, but there is no guarantee that the drivers will use full beam - I've seen some people in newer cars with the daytime running lights not even realise that they still need to put the lights on in the dark! there are a lot of idiot drivers out there!!

Could it be going to get the re-designed drivers windscreen fitted?

I always remember the following rules:- Rule 1, It's my railway, I'll run what I like with what I want. Rule 2, see rule 1

My first though is that it isn't a beam, but a gate-runner.

Nice picture, where did you get the picture of all the police car liveries from?

i am a little excited with these announcements. I'm kicking myself though, I've recently got the Bachmann GBRF 66 "Evening Star" @£140.00 But I will get the GBRF Large Logo blue 66, and I might see about a small rake of Mk2Fs to go with it. I really like the look of the Ruston 48DS, but I'm wondering about the match truck. All in all a very interesting set of releases from Hornby. Now can we see a similar range of OO/1:76 scale vehicles from Oxford and Corgi??

That's my bi-annual birthday trip, 1st class 8hrs one seat.

I've not seen the remake, but I have got the original on DVD - and although I am a 42 year old, 'rufty-tufty' truck driving bloke - I can't watch bits of it without getting emotional. There was an interview with the author's grand daughter in last weekend's Daily Telegraph 'Review' section, and she comments that only one thing was changed in the story, and it wasn't the level of reality.

Going back to the H.A. Ivatt / GNR Pacific, would it be possible to extend the firebox over the rear drive axle, in a similar fashion to the Gresley Pacifics?

There was a (un)feasability study to see whether it was possible to put a pacer on bogies, with the inner ends on an articulated bogie. I think it got to the stage of the costs outweighed the benefits.

Who owns Barrow Hill? HNRC could possibly be considering heavy overhauls (Component Exchange) on the locos that are on hire to the TOCs. From what I can remember of Worksop is that it is a relatively modern depot equipped for type 4 traction. The other thing to consider with Worksop and Barrow Hill is the ease of road and rail access for the sites. Wibble moment - DBS are putting more 60's up for tender.

I to was saddened to hear of his passing today, and I never met him, but I always considered him to be an honest person. The world will be a slightly dimmer place without Sir Paddy Ashdown.

I can confirm that the make and model of coach in question does have the drivers seat at a lower level to the passenger floor, as is evident from the wing mirror on the right hand side of the coach.

We are going to have to disagree on that point. My father died 18 years ago, and I occasionally still feel the loss now - until it happens you never know how you will react. I actually went to work on the day my dad died!!

Easy one to answer, it's a Signal Cabin.

That looks Fugly!! And with a fixed frame from the cylinders to the cab fall plate, offers all the dis-advantages of a 9F, with none of the traction benefits. I think it would be ideal for the Highland Main Line!

Edit to Rockershovel's post And to think that once upon a time there was a railway route that ran nearly parallel to that road, and the A14 across Northamptonshire.

I thought the Nitric Acid tank cars were painted white, with an orange band on them. looking at the main photo, cars 3 & 4 seem to be remarkably clean for tank cars, and given the nature of some acids, could they have been marshalled in the middle of the rake so that there were some barrier wagons protecting them?

I've heard the opposite, that is if a bridge is marked at 13' 6", it will more likely be 13' 4" as a result of any road resurfacing work that has been done. Consequently, my TRUCK sat nav height is set at three inches less than the truck it self.

I would say that a jail term is far too harsh for the incident, I can see a mitigating circumstance - The recent loss of the driver's father. There is however no excuse for not seeing how low the bridge actually is. I would have disqualified him from driving for 12 months, and removed his vocational licence for longer.

That is down to the operators in the control room, and unfortunately they don't seem to be as smart as the motorway. My issue is when you can use the hard shoulder as a running lane, but then it suddenly becomes an extended slip road for the next junction - common around Birmingham.