johnofwessex

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/apr/16/wed-wait-all-day-for-a-train-america-by-rail-in-pictures-justine-kurland

Try again!

https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...n-america-by-rail-in-pictures-justine-kurland

Some interesting pictures and views of US Railways - and a small boy

Casper thought living in a van was normal – that other mothers loaded sheet film at highway rest stops

Bit like being married ............

A few years ago I re roofed my log shed with Onduline which was easy to work and unlike felt should be good for many years 

For what its worth my brother has a log cabin garage he uses as a workshop which is heated - or cooled by a heat pump

I remember having a discussion with a LT Engineer about crashworthiness.

I suggest that the issue now isnt the ability of the stock to withstand a crash, its the ability of the passengers to survive the impact.

I would imagine that in the case of the nuclear flask test (Think Hixton) the crashworthiness of the MK1 stock would be irrelevant 

There are many issues and while I dont want to declare 'open season' on chavs, my view is that if you attack people or steal their stuff and end up getting a kicking, tough, dont go wailing to the law

20 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Out for a chug through the countryside today on our motorcycles we found ourselves filtering through traffic and up ahead is a VW Golf with clouds of armpit smelling weed smoke coming out of the windows. 

Coming into the next town on our round trip we pass a Ford Focus, different car, same problem, both drivers oblivious to what was going on around them.

 

It occurred to me that dropping a grenade into the driver's footwell might wake him up.

 

For about four seconds anyway...

Has it been reported?

Whay was the 1938 pooling of PO wagons?

I thought that the entire point of PO wagons was that the owners controlled them.

Police?  More like a job for The Inspector of Lunatics, or is Broadmoor missing an inmate?

Where did the photo come from 

If so has it been passed to the Police?

2 minutes ago, 30801 said:

Go big or go home.

Hium, Certainly illegal 

Many years ago when Waverley was (mostly) run by single men who remembered paddle steamers as they were the Lavvies could have done with some improvement.

It wasnt until the Chiefs wife refused to spend more than two hours on the ship that the message got over loud and clear and the situation was improved.

So yes thats the sort of problem that you can get if you done have someone with an outside view 

9 hours ago, Captain Cuttle said:

Where are heading to?

If its Big ladies perhaps Evans?

I wonder if either an extra 156 on the Scotrail services between FW & Mallaig or an extra daily service could be organised

In case anyone cant see it the email to contact NP is 

natpres@mail.com

PM me and I will contact the Mods, it has happened before.

Let me know your username & email address

Crewkerne was given a set of signs spelt Crewekerne.

No prizes as to where the signs were made!

47 minutes ago, Neil said:

 

I thought I'd do some fact checking, turns out that the UK is safer for both passengers and staff than a good number of developed countries.

 

.................................

Fascinating figures.

Interesting to see how much safer the UK is compared with Western Europe never mind anywhere else.

Scotrail seem 'on the ball' about the 'tourist' potential of their routes and have opertated steam in the past.

Clearly its not impossible for some sort of 'Tourist Train' to be operated by them either directly or on their behalf.

In the long term I do wonder if it might be possible to produce some sort of 'Tourist Stock' compatable with both historic and modern traction but I suspect it wont be cheap

2 hours ago, Gareth Collier said:

Never at the sharp end and answerable to none.

 

The missus was driving back from her fathers from Peasmarsh to Eastbourne a couple of nights ago and upon reaching Battle met diversion signs pointing her towards Hastings due to roadworks which had closed the A271.

 

Following this route sending her initially in completely the wrong direction she finally passed through Bexhill and reached Little Common where she was met with more road closure signs, the A259 between there and the outskirts of Eastbourne.

 

At this point her local knowledge ran out so she gave me a ring so I sent her south towards Cooden where she could use the old route along the coast but upon arrival it was also closed for roadworks so another phone call from an increasingly frustrated wife.

 

Back to Little Common and this times north along Peartree Lane (I used to live there so know all the backroads) but half way along it was also closed for roadworks. In tears now I became a remote satnav and managed to guide her back to the A269 at Ninfield where it turned out that stretch was clear until it meets up with the A271 which was just beyond the section that was closed.

 

A 50 minute journey took over 2 1/2 hours and the galling bit was a bit of thought from the planners could have sent you a couple of miles down a country lane from Battle to Ninfield rather than the ridiculous route that just took you to another closed road.

 

I guess it's because it's nearly the end of the financial year so the county council is using every penny it has left of their roadworks budget but to close virtually every route between Hastings and Eastbourne from 8pm onwards with diversions that don't work was ridiculous. It was obvious the none of the planners knew of the other works hence diverting you towards them.

 

Anyhow, it's not the fault of the guys doing the work but unfortunately they are the ones visible and cop the drivers frustrations at the incompetent planners.

AFAIK if thetre is a diversion, certainly on A Roads it has to be over A Roads hence some very long diversions for relativley minor road closures

9 hours ago, geoffers said:

For several years I worked with "operational" Army Air Corps AH64 Apache helicopters. The airbase also hosted a police helicopter unit (Eurocopter EC135). The police pilots and crew were known to say they wished they sometimes had an Apache. to play with.

 

On a different subject regarding road works etc. I find it difficult on the odd occasion on a narrow road inhabited with plentiful parked vehicles (usually legally) to judge which are parked and which are queueing especially when several of the parked and queueing vehicles are white vans. Got a mouthful yesterday in the Cambridgeshire Fens from a "white van man" in such a scenario. 

Its a pity that there isnt a rear daylight running light' because that would indicate if a vehicle was 'l;ive' not parked

11 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

The vehicle involved in the incident mentioned above was stolen so confiscation would not apply. Some people drive around in cheap bangers without bothering with tax, insurance and MoT and to whom the vehicle being seized and crushed is an acceptable risk when it is worth far less than what it would cost to insure. Also those sort of people are unlikely to have a licence or are banned from driving.

There are other things that could be siezed and crushed...............

2 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Have you been watching American YouTube where police try to shoot out the tyres from moving police vehicles?

 

I would have thought that the last thing you want is stolen (aren't they always) vehicles, with a driver who has been shot at the wheel = total insanity! Your 'solution' is potentially worse than the crime.

While there would be oportunities to shoot at moving vehicles, the Cambridge example being a case to point I suggest that the main use of guns would be to persuade the driver to turn the engine off and get out nicely rather than attempt to ram Police Officers/the public/vehicles in an attempt to get away

2 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 And after each stop the damaged police vehicles need expensive repairs or in a bad case replacement ,

say 3 at a couple of thousand for repair and no write offs , if this happens several times in a year that

all comes out of the budget and not insurance , so next year the police part of your council tax has to

be raised cue howls of outrage about how ' we never see a policeman ' .

 

So do you still want them to play dodgems with a several £30,000 or more cars ??????

 

 Written as someone who worked for the police for 34 years as a mechanic , so I've seen it from inside .

 

 

 

My suggestion is to attempt to reduce the number of chases because of the risk they pose to the public