KingEdwardII

It might be legal, but probably unsafe. Goodness knows what utility services are present under the road - gas mains, water mains, sewers, electricity cables, communications cables, etc etc. Slice into one of those and you'll be liable...if still living. Yours, Mike.

That is rarer than you might imagine. The general case is that the verge belongs to the adjoining land owner - and they are responsible for it - trees included. In our village, the verges commonly contain ditches for drainage. The landowner is responsible for maintaining the drainage in these ditches - the only bits belonging to the highway authority are the culverted sections under roads at junctions or under pavements. So I have the joy of maintaining the ditch in front of my house, including the piped section under my drive... Yours, Mike.

That was already crumbling by 1819 due to the effects of industrialisation hoovering people away from rural districts into the booming towns - which gradually had its effects with the 1832 reform bill and later the repeal of the corn laws. Put simply - money talks and the money being generated by industry began to talk with a very loud voice. So much so that Robert Peel, son of an industrialist, became PM in 1834. Yours, Mike.

No, we all do... ;-)

Indeed, which made "Airplane!" such a hoot. Yours, Mike.

One thing that cannot be said of HS2 is that it is "doing things on the cheap". It is stupendously expensive because of political cowardice in the planning stages which has resulted in unnecessarily large amounts of tunnelling and other similar costly features. Yours, Mike.

It's more of a small Hall class - effectively a Hall with smaller wheels. Grange class was still Red route limited like the Hall class, whereas the Manor class were deliberately Blue route classification by design, by being lighter weight. Hence the Manors ran on the Cambrian main line Shrewsbury - Aberystwyth, where Red classification engines could not go. Yours, Mike.

I think the answer can be "both". First, I think that it is usually necessary to be able to control each turnout individually - not all moves follow a strict pattern, especially if shunting. You could imagine having a route for each and every possible move, but this could add up to a very large number especially where you have a large number of turnouts. Routes are good for handling the common moves, especially those involving more than a couple of turnouts - they cut down the number of actions you have to take. Yours, Mike.

That is the point, I think. The implication is that branch line trains don't terminate/originate at the station. This tends to happen where the "branch" is a substantial route in its own right, served by trains from somewhere further up the main line. There are a number of stations of this kind along the south western main line from Waterloo - in general the trains run to/from Waterloo for both main & branch and you don't have bays. This line has a lot of stations with 4 tracks but only 2 platform faces, on the outer "slow" lines. This is simply because the line is so busy that it is undesirable for trains to stop on the fast lines - only major stations like Woking and Basingstoke have platforms on all 4 tracks - and even at Wimbledon where there are platforms on the fast lines, they are locked out of use most of the year, until the tennis arrives, with its hordes of visiting fans! Yours, Mike.

One of the other gases to consider is Acetylene. Before the advent of electric arc welding (mostly post WWII), Acetylene was the main gas for welding equipment. Acetylene is not only flammable but also explosive in the wrong circumstances. Acetylene cylinders were certainly around from WWI, from the sources I have been able to read. Yours, Mike.

Something ghastly in either concrete or sheet steel - or preferably both!! ;-) Yours, Mike.

Now that does sound a bit like the debates over painting KEII blue... Yours, Mike.

Yes, if the case has melted like you originally reported, I suspect all is not well with the motors concerned and some new ones will be required. Yours, Mike.

One thought is that something may be preventing the motor from reaching the end of its travel. If that is the case, then the internal switch that turns off the power to the motor at the end of travel will not operate and current will be passing through the motor continuously. Whenever this has happened to me, usually due to some stray object on the track, I hear a continuous buzzing sound from the motor, which is a warning to turn it off. It is certainly necessary to install the motors carefully to ensure that they can reach end of travel in both directions. Yours, Mike.

I think that the restored King Edward II looks great in blue - the decision to use this colour was controversial at the time, but the loco itself makes a very persuasive argument in favour of the choice. Yours, Mike.

Moving or closing a public footpath generally requires an application to be approved by the relevant government minister. Within the last 10 years, an attempt to reroute an awkwardly sited footpath in our parish failed, while a different rerouting of another footpath succeeded. It can be a bit of a lottery. The number of local objections to the proposal counts quite heavily, to our surprise. Yours, Mike.

Interesting to see the use of cable stays only during the construction phase of the viaduct - it is a well known permanent approach to building complete bridges - perhaps the Millau Viaduct in France is the most iconic example. I assume that the individual segments get tied together internally and once the span is complete between all 3 piers, then the cable stays get removed. Nice to see some excellent engineering. Yours, Mike.

I certainly do. I always prefer a package delivery via Royal Mail, based on my experiences with them and with numerous other delivery companies. RM are reliable and generally deliver when they say. The worst aspect of some of the other companies is that if they are unable to deliver a package to my door, then I have to trog half way across the county to their depot - the RM office in my local town is close and convenient, by comparison. I have also never had RM misdeliver a package, something not true of some of the other companies. On the other hand, some of the other companies do have excellent apps with tracking capabilities - DPD is one of the best, not only showing the location of the courier, but also indicating how many stops before they get to me. RM don't have anything equivalent. Yours, Mike.

I think that the answer to this question is a simple "no" at least for UK models. Motorising coaches and wagons is certainly possible - then adding DCC control to them also possible. However, at the present this is most certainly a DIY effort, from what I have read. Yours, Mike.

Things may be more complex than that. I was fascinated to study the pattern of rail travel in Bicester over the past 15 years or so. Bicester has 2 stations - Bicester North and Bicester Village: the first is on the Chiltern main line from Birmingham to London while the other is on the line to/from Oxford - at the moment (before EWR is complete) the lines meet just south of the town. Both stations have services to London Marylebone - and they appear to cost the same. 10 years ago, most travel was from Bicester North - then there was a steady transition so that most travel is now from Bicester Village. I am sure that improved services to/from Bicester Village are part of the story, but it is still the case that the services from Bicester North are faster than those from Bicester Village, by up to 15 mins. I suspect that a large part of the story here is the availability of car parking - there is vastly more car parking in a short distance of Bicester Village than is the case for Bicester North. As always, you have to look at the entire journey to understand what influences folk. Yours, Mike.

I just can't see a major rail project in the south being politically acceptable anytime in the forseeable future, no matter how much sense it may make. Yours, Mike.

It means Port Talbot is now a glorified recycling works. New iron & steel is no longer smelted in the UK. Yours, Mike.

Yes indeed, but that is the recommended quickest route - in and then out of Wales again. I drove it myself when motoring home returning from a cruise which ended in Liverpool. Yours, Mike

That's part of the job description. Cricket commentators have made it into an art form on the radio... Yours, Mike.

Well, that is a part of the route. The Cardiff - Newport section in South Wales is already electrified. It's the yawning gap between Newport and Chester that would be the problematic (& expensive!) part.