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Concorde I guess, amazing engineering which strictly speaking should not have happened but it was in a time when pride in your Countries abilities mattered. Favourite flown in……Shackleton, no doubt……RAF St Mawgan back in the late 60’s, never forget being in the observers bed under the nose and lifting off just before the cliffs drop away, never forget that feeling

It was……

I suppose Maj on board eating her cheese sarnies already?

Or maybe they did use Blu Tack

Sent mine back too soon I guess.

I know what you mean, but in fact although what they did was illegal also what they did was pretty much harmless, there was little other traffic around at the time and they never bothered anything else around them, they were “just having fun” but don’t get me wrong, they shouldn’t have done it but at least they didn’t act as total t1ts, they knew what was going on around them (it appeared) apart from the unmarked car on the hard shoulder…….it was the kind of incident I would think the Police would have had some very hard words about rather than throw the book. They we’re being very silly boys rather than driving badly, if you get my drift? I still had a laugh as we passed them though

It looked from those drawings that the gearbox itself splits (they’d have trouble actually making that casting otherwise) and I was speculating they may have used the front half of the gearbox which appears to have bearings for the prop shaft within “jury rigged” just to attach a prop for show.

Unfortunate looks to say the least, but in actual fact a very nice car to both drive and be driven in.

Bobbling back from Worcs this week we decided to plod along in the 1st lane at 60 mph on cruise, just upping it to 65 to pop past the occasional truck (although on Boxing Day going up there there were none of course, that WAS an easy ride), coming back along the M5 just north of Brizzle a rather nice looking Porsche 911 of very wide proportions passed us in lane three……nothing in lane two of course but just then another very wide Porsche looking a bit more “juicy” tucked up next to him in the second lane, for a few seconds they drove adjacent to each other and having obviously eyed each other up started to disappear very quickly with lots of noise having lead footed it in both, they were getting out of view as the one in the second lane just managed to get the advantage and get far enough in front to pull over into the third lane in front of the other Porker, then all brake lights and drama as on the hard shoulder was a unmarked car with all the blue and reds flashing, they slowed right down and he pulled off the shoulder as we got to him and disappeared to obviously have a little word, sure enough a good few miles further up they were all there on the shoulder having a little picnic I assume?

Presently common commercial systems are about 3 metre accuracy, it was made this accurate quite a few years ago on request to the US Government from various manufacturers. As you say best accuracy is down to a few centimetres, reserved so far for guess who?

Probably the front half of the gearbox with the prop shaft and bearing assembly then?

Typical truckie, too busy watching football on the phone Just kidding…..really.

Thinking about it though, isn’t there a gearbox between engine and prop, may have just that installed? I assume this as never been under the hood of a Spit, just drooled over the noise.

They may have jury rigged a prop bracket in the bay, nothing looks worse than a Spitfire with no prop on display

I assume you mean the brochure not the Cortina? I have a box with quite a few motor show launch brochures tucked away somewhere, I do remember the big thick book Citroen gave away in Paris with the XM launch, must have cost a fortune, a real “coffee table” book.

I was working on the EU Eureka Prometheus project back in the 80’s and early 90’s, Jaguar being a major member was working on autonomous (actually, really radar cruise and Lane control) vehicle control, it was very early days but it worked….after a fashion and very, very scary on the A127 the Jag had excellent brakes but applied them far too late for comfort, as I said scary! We did have a plastic engine for the Fiesta though, that worked well……I say plastic as that was the selling point to the EU but in fact it was a mix of the highest tech materials loosely called “plastic” back then. I used to love being at the cutting edge of new tech, never a dull moment and always a long day

Very true, but of course owners (most I would guess) who have firebox flicker want to see it and the cab being lit by it while it is going around on the layout, the only time you could ever see “firebox glow” on a real steamer was at night, and then not that often of course, not so many want to run Locos in the dark just to see the flicker. Just another compromise we modellers use to make our enjoyment better?

Errr…one of the red lamps isn’t working

My mobility scooter is the on road 8 mph type, but it was purchased solely for me to be able to still access our beach as the hill we have to negotiate is a lane wide enough just for a transit van and part of the SW coastal path, it’s only about 80 metres to the beach but now I just cannot walk that far, my machine is a twin motored version which it needs to get up the hills here, my small portable (in car) scooter won’t even get off our drive onto the hill! I have of course insured to scooters, mainly in case I cause damage to anything rather than it being pinched, but as for registering our local police man who lives further up the hill and we know well advised me not to register it as it will never be used on main roads, literally just on the coastal lane, I would have been happy to (although the plates would look daft on it!), it is an off road type with about 7 hp from both motors and a range of 30 miles which is sort of wasted here! I just took his advice…besides the local magistrate lives here as well One of our neighbours has a boat which has retractable wheels (very James Bond’ish) and arrives at the shoreline and then proceeds to traverse the beach across the boat ramp up the lane to his house…….he has no tax or road insurance at all

It isn’t classed as a road vehicle because it doesn’t need seat belts, ABS, crash test results etc etc, an 8 mph mobility scooter/ wheelchair is classed as an Invalid Carriage to ensure separation from an identical vehicle (which many are) which cannot reach 8 mph or have road legal lighting. It is a distinction between mobility aids rather than between mobility aids and road vehicles.

I did not know that, excellent.

If the model will be plastic then I am perfectly happy to adapt it, far easier than on a cast metal body that’s for sure.

Exactly what I have done with a couple of my road vehicles on the layout, it looks far more real with a bus at a stop to have the door open and people waiting to get on or a van (in my case a painters van) sitting close with rear door open parked close to a couple of workmen “doing what they do”. And why would “collectors” be averse to some of their fleet on display with doors in the “boarding” position, unless of course most serious collectors really spend most of the day on their knees pushing their precious models around the carpet

4 mph versions are mobility scooters or wheelchairs, 8 mph versions are classed as invalid carriages (although there are true wheelchairs also capable of 8 mph but both must have road legal lighting to be used on road) non are classed as motor vehicles. All types can be used on footpaths, which includes pavements and footpaths which are public rights of way. The legislation is clear.

No ambiguities, an 8 mph mobility scooter (invalid carriage officially) can be ridden on a pavement or footpath but must then be restricted to 4 mph which all can be switched to by the rider. When used on road they must be capable of 8 mph and be equipped with road legal lights.