Vanders

DB968001/D8233 lurking in the background in the 4th picture, I see!

Bunnings is so over. The next 'overseas retailer buyout' speculated on at present is which UK supermarket chain Amazon might go after.

Well with Asda + Sainsbury's merger on the cards, and Tesco being as large as it is, that only really leaves Morrisons & Waitrose. I'm sure John Lewis wouldn't mind some cash right now from the sale of Waitrose, either.

Ah yes, the "temporary" metal flyover, which turned out to be less temporary than the gyratory system that replaced it...

I'm not sure how much is left at Bath Road.

Literally nothing, unless you count the short (few hundred yards) of track that used to lead into the depot, opposite what is currently platform 13 at Temple Meads. There's still a couple of decrepit points in it, I guess...

Lawrence Hill was still handling bagged cement up into the mid-80's, along with the more usual presflo bulk traffic and I think possibly still handling the occasional 16t mineral to be tripped up the branch to Avonside?

The Midland Bristol - Bath line. It basically became a (very) long siding all the way from the junction at Bristol Temple Meads to Bath Gas Works

It seems pretty clear to me that they completely misread how Homebase fitted into the UK marketplace and instead of playing on the strengths of that they walked into almost head-on competition with Wickes and B&Q (with a dash of Jewson and Gibbs & Dandy thrown in for good measure).  Not clever management to say the very least and as ever the poor s*ds working in the retail frontline get a personal hammering as well.

Absolutely. Homebase were never competition for the likes of B&Q or Wickes; two entirely different concepts. With some overlap I can see how Wesfarmer might have been confused, but only if they completely and utterly failed to do their homework, which obviously was very definitely the case!

2+2 seems like a lot of engine for the weight. Unless you dragged the trailing power car with the engine off, and just used it like some sort of overly-large DMU, I guess.

I'm not an expert on steamers by any stretch of the imagination, but if the frames are from Rocket then it's Rocket. The frames have always been the "identity" of the loco, which is why Flying Scotsman is a bit more tricky...

RM still has a letters page too.

RM letters tend to be people noting things in the magazine, rather than an exchange of information, or at least the majority appear to fit that mould.

The Belgians are far, far, better than NR at this sort of thing and they plan stuff in great detail in order to keep the railway working while massive schemes are being constructed and introduced - oh, and all the train service changes for such work over there are published well before the minimum 6 MONTH publication window proscribed by UIC rules. 

Of course we know it would be possible to keep the station open during the work: but of course we also know it would cost "too much" money...

I suspect that biggest changes have, mostly, been in the materials we use & the electronics we have access to. Aside from that, many of the basic techniques remain the same, just perhaps with higher fidelity?

Are these the final changes required to close & demolish Bristol Power Box (and re-open access to the old train shed)? Is that even still the plan, anyway?

There was one of the competion/challenge programs on TV a couple of years ago. One challenge as to fit an assorted range of parvcels in a big container(van?) , and it was very difficuly.

"Packing Problems" are an entire class of mathematical problems, it's that difficult.

The thing, the Royal Mail somehow manage to process & deliver thousands of small (and weirdly shaped) items every day. eBay items tend to be particularly poorly packed. I fail to believe that any postal service or courier would be incapable of handling a few hundred small boxes a week.

I just watched it this evening (Amazon Video) and I admit, I clocked the Mk1's immediately...but honestly, how many people would? If I'm honest the clearly modern buildings, complete with glass balconies, in the background of the beach at the start of the movie rankled me more.

I wonder if Cambridge Analytica have yet managed to crack the various codes such as P4, OOSF,  and J27 that keep on appearing or if they have determined the social significance of a debate about  OO and 00?   And are they ranking opinions about Network Rail and train operators on the basis of threads on RMweb in order to give DafT the criteria for their future errors.  plans.

I heard they were doing okay until they got to the 3mm thread about 12mm vs 13.5mm vs 14.2mm gauge and the AI algorithm gave up and deleted itself.

So Hornby hiring Cambridge Analytica and using our data to bombard people who prefer Bachmann with adverts and misinformation is definitely fake news, then?

The office building is finished at long last! Tomorrow I shall ‘plant’ it on site.

That looks fabulous! How did you do the ivy, in the end?

Well...the downpipe itself is 3.5mm brass rod, the pipe coming into it is bent round to 90 degrees and cut off flush with the wall and then just soldered on. The joint knuckles are kitchen foil laminated to double-sided tape, cut into strips about 2mm wide and then two lengths of very very fine Slater's micro-rod stuck onto this to represent the ribs. Then cut into 12mm strips and wrapped around the rod and held on the back with a blob of superglue. The actual fixings I expect will be plasticard with plasticard cube bolts. Hope that helps!

I can only fully respect anybody who puts this amount of thought into the construction of something as seemingly as simple as a waste pipe. Excellent work!

The short answer is that it is cheaper for Hattons to have standard size boxes and pad it out with bubble wrap than to sort through a selection of pre-used boxes to find one that is just the right size.

Perhaps, but it would also seem to indicate that they need one or two smaller standard sizes.

Is it that bad...?

Imagine someone took your favourite author, completely missed the humour, character development, or point, and then tried to write a book about it.

I've not read Eoin Colfer's book

Don't.

The blogs haven't been updated yet, but Nigel Black's Flickr has been. The Pway/Extension blog has now been updated. How about this!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gwr_permanent_way_photo_log/40000619324/in/photostream/

A huge round of applause for a cracking job by the GWSR & BAG, I think!

Both The Grand Tour and Top Gear are improving as they find their feet.

In the case of Top Gear you can tell that the presenters are starting to become closer to each other and the humour is playing a bit better between them as a result. Matt LeBlanc is starting to feel a little more natural, although Chris Harris still seems to be overcompensating for being in front of a camera. I think everybody will be glad if Eddie Jordan never shows up again...
 

As for The Grand Tour they seem to be listening to the audience. They've dropped The American, they've brought back celebrities racing in a car. I'd like to see more reviews and single host lead pieces, but hey-ho I may not be the majority here. My biggest gripe remains the terrible "Eboladrome" track, but now they've brought in a new track for the celebrities I'm hoping they'll just switch over to that one for test drives, too.

Just order more class 66s , job done

What, with the 100% tariffs on American made heavy goods and steel thanks to the trade war? I don't think so. No more EMD, GE, Wabtec...anyone know what the latest in Chinese high-speed 16 cylinder traction diesel engines is like?