rodent279

I'm not sure most of "the public" are bright enough or well informed enough to do anything other than read & believe the guff they see printed in their chosen daily rag, or broadcast on tv/radio.

12% of what? By volume of sales, or by revenue?

What do they call it? Dead cat? The country is littered with dead cats currently.

The D@!|¥ M@!|. Nuff said.

It's much the same as asking how much the Werrington flyover diveunder cost compared to if the GN&GE had been mothballed. Even if it had been mothballed, there are so many level crossings on the March-Spalding section (roughly 1 per mile I think?), that it would have involved a boat load more work to restore than just fettling up the track. As it is, the line is so far gone that it would be a total rebuild, you might as well just build a totally new railway.

You'd still have to double track it, the single line section was in place in the mid-80's, and although the second line remained in place, it was nowhere near fit for reuse. So, some drainage works apart, most of what is being done would be necessary anyway.

I'm not holding my breath on either of those two scores.

Another non-GW one for your delight & delectation, Leighton Buzzard was a small 2 road shed that was a sub-shed of the much larger Bletchley (1E), some 6.25 miles further north.

Playing devils advocate, how common would classes 28xx/42xx/72xx be there? 😀

What's the current situation of Britannia? I've tried Royal Scot Locomotive & General's website, but it is impressively uninformative, no actual news and very little information, just series of links to each locomotive that turn out to be blank pages, apart from the inevitable "follow us on Facebook" link.

What's the first thing you expect to find when you walk into a bar in the heart of Madrid? That's right, a nameplate off a GWR Star class of course! This is from 4016, no idea whether it's an original, but it looks convincing enough. The bar was called Bar Santa Ana, in Plaza Santa Ana, Madrid.

Here's a rubbing I did of 47580's plate. Not sure when, but I'd guess around 1980/81, probably at Liverpool St.

Here's "Earl Mountbatten of Burma" when it was on 33027. Photo taken at Norwich Crown Point open day, 24.09.1983.

Thought I'd already posted this, but obviously not. NS 1501, the former 27003, in the NS Spoorwegmusuem, Utrecht, 20.10.2023.

A question for the professional signalling engineers on RMWeb. When a signalling layout is being revised, and signals are repositioned, a signal sighting exercise is done, aiui. This I assume (correct me if im wrong) is to ensure that drivers have sufficient time to:- see an adverse signal respond to it the train has sufficent space to reduce speed to the desired level by some predetermined point in advance of the signal all the above taking into account "worst case" possibilities such as wetrail, some brakes being below par etc. My question is, once the scheme is approved and implemented, are live trials run, under a line posession, with trains to determine whether the signal positioning is correct, and trains can to to a halt, or to whatever control speed is required, in the space available?

So what happens when a TOC is merged/demerged into or out of another? How are drivers all placed on a level playing field? Or are they? Are there drivers out there still on T&Cs dating back to the first TOCs set up after privatisation? As an aside, one of the unspoken aims of the original privatisation of BR was to reduce the power of the unions, yet they seem to be if anything more able to dictate terms now. (Any diehard union members please don't take that the wrong way, it's just an observation, not an anti-union rant).

Could the class 68 + Nova 3 sets be used on Edinburgh-Aberdeen-Inverness?

But even MK was half baked-wasn't it supposed to have a light rail or monorail system?

Having just come back to backwards Britain after 5 days in the Netherlands, the contrast with the UK in general, the Marston Vale line in particular, could not be greater. Everything is clean, everything is integrated, well thought through & works*. Cycle lanes are proper dedicated two lane affairs, in some cases on each side of the road, not the weedy half-footpath, half-cycle lane we get over here. We stayed in Den Haag, and visited Scheveningen, Utecht and Dordrecht (and Zuiderpark parkrun, the main objective of the trip). The car was driven from HoH to the Holiday Inn express in the Hague, and stayed in the underground car park until it was time to go back to HoH for the boat. Everything else was done by public transport, even parkrun, which was a 5 min walk & 15 min tram ride. I got the impression that traffic in the cities is about 15% private car, the rest bus/train/tram & bike. Cars seem to have equal priority with bikes, pedestrians & buses and trams. I thought Britain was only an hour behind Europe, but no, its more like 40 years. *There was one bus that didn't turn up at Utrecht on our way to the Spoorwegmusuem, due to lack of drivers. We waited 40 min, but hadn't realised that 3 other buses could have taken us there, plus there is the train shuttle to Maliebaan as well! So that is down to our own ignorance as much as anything. And I'm aware of the problems with the Dutch HSL and the Fyra trains that had to be returned- but at least they got the darn thing built!

But where's the incentive for LMR (or whoever runs it currently) to develop business for another incoming operation?

The engine on the far left looks interesting as well, a 2-4-0 0-4-2 with outside frames, large coffee pot dome and no cab to speak of.

One imaginary railway that is rationally possible is a line from somewhere on the Far North line to Ullapool. I believe a line was planned, but never got beyond the planning stage.

I think simplicity and cheapness. That's the answer to most questions in the UK.

How about a kind of battery banker? A self-contained battery traction unit that would work in multi with the rest of the train to push it out of the station& through the tunnels, but drop off at the end of the tunnel section & work back to the station, unmanned, to be recharged?

Not strictly an 08 I know, but a close relative, so no apologies. Former WD machine, then NS no. 512, stands in the rain at the NS Spoorweg Museum, Utrecht. The museum is located in the former Utrecht Maliebaan station, and a shuttle operates along an electrified spur, linking Maliebaan to the main line into Utrecht Centraal. The shuttle is well patronised, takes about 20 min, and includes reversal at the mainline connection. Maliebaan is about 2km in a straight line from Centraal, but the train ride is probably more like 6km. The museum is well with a visit, we had about 1½ hours and that was nowhere near enough. Amongst others, EM2 no. 1501 "Diana" was there, along with several UK built steam locos. Imagine an electrified shuttle being retained to take passengers from York station to the NRM!