NGT6 1315

That can only coincidentally sound similar to Death Star, can it not? 🤭🤣

Also a rad performance in its own right... You may be able to tell how much of an earworm this is for me currently!

My dad had two of these during the 1970s. I bet the real fun came with the R5 Turbo, though!

As practical cars go, a school mate had a 1st gen Twingo back in the late 90s. It didn't have many frills but tonnes of space. With the rear seat folded down, you could actually haul a lot for a car of that size. His example also had the large sunroof, which was pretty nice, too. And the short body overhangs and excellent visibility made it easy to handle in urban areas!

That is an issue here as well. I guess without parking assistant systems, SUVs and similarly large current vehicles would inevitably bump into pillars or other parked cars when manoeuvring in older parking garages every single time! I myself was never fond of reverse parking until we got the Prius in 2016, which was our first car with reverse camera. The Corolla we have now has a full auto-park assistant, though I usually can manage manually with the aid of the sensors and rear camera. That kind of equipment is an innovation I deffo welcome!

I presume they'll be hideously expensive in Singapore!

Yes, Electrotren. The one thing that looks a bit off is the pantographs, or their geometry when raised, specifically. That might just be down to the third party parts I presume they’re using, though. The H-shaped mounting frame does seem specific but the arms and head look a lot like Sommerfeldt to me. I wonder if I could hack something together from that frame and LS Models uppers…

Mitsubishi are still present here, though a lot less prominently than in the 1980s and 90s. I've seen a Hyundai Staria around here recently. That, too, might be a competent car but the front end is, shall we say, daring, to my mind anyway...

MAZINGER! Something for @jjb1970, I'm sure! As it is, 269 601 has actually been restored to this livery, even if with a lighter blue. It remains operational, too.

Tbh, I think it’s a pity that MPVs have declined in importance! I can see why the Alphard/Vellfire polarizes with its styling, but I gather it’s right comfy. That is something where it might score with me, if it was sold here. Styling-wise, I’m not terribly fond of the current Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson personally, even if they are competent cars otherwise. Moaning awl. I seem to have had dreamed strangely, but I cannot remember anything specific. Enjoy whatever you got planned… 👋

The most recent Pursuit Special, innit? 🤣

Moaning awl. The usual caffeination routine is still ongoing. Annika needs to stay at home after she threw up in the early morning for no reason we could identify yet. She seems all right now, though, and is playing up in her room. Here's hoping it's not a bug I might yet end up contracting, with a view to next week and my stay in Gotha... It's fairly dull today but supposed to get to 20ish degrees by the weekend. I wonder if a barbecue might be in the cards!

Putting shrimps on the barbie and gettin‘ only the shells to eat! 🤣

Anyone to have undergone dental surgery like that will always have my sympathy, no questions asked! I still shudder at the memories of when my wisdom teeth were extracted. I was wearing dental braces at the time and the wisdom teeth eventually were found to jeopardise the effectiveness of the braces, so they needed to go. Wasn't nice to not be able to really eat anything for a couple of days, or to wake up on a blood-stained pillow due to post-op bleeding. Yeah, right, I'm stopping already! 😱

Just…wow. I cannot get this out of my head currently. I think it expresses sorrow on one hand but also angry refusal to surrender. Perhaps that’s why…

Evening all. Was actually quite pleasant outside today, but only as long as the sun was out. It does get chilly rather quickly once it clouds over or gets dark! I can confirm that the front loader we have has concrete ballast blocks, even if encased in plastic. Thinking of everyone under the weather…

To complete this thread‘s title: I’m finding I’m getting less and less willing to keep my mouth shut opposite injustice, abusive behaviour, idiots and timewasters. This past year has contributed a lot to that, specifically!

Goosebumps.

Gotta admit the RailAdventure livery fits pretty much all stock rather well! It‘s also funny that the 43s are marked with D-RADVE. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing them around here now and then! (RailAdventure did present two of them during a publicity tour through Germany a while ago, I should add.)

Double, no, triple cringe! 😵

I'm currently rearranging my static display areas, if you will, so on the topic of Talgos... I also have a 354, which itself was a further evolution of the 353 with yet more power and 200 kph top speed. I cannot help but think the 353 and 354 in particular remind me of soap bars, visually. Those are fairly recent Electrotren models as well, re @jjb1970's comments. As it is, I refitted the diesels with DCC sound last week! And this was a limited edition of the LS Models 193, with €100 from each sale having been donated to humanitarian aid for Ukraine. And two additional political liveries, if you will!

Yeah, Renfe as a European railway buying Japanese-designed locos seems quite unusual to me for the time period they were procured. Then again, this business relationship started during the Franco era, so I suppose it might have had at least something to do with diversifying sources for political reasons. The earliest of these classes was the 279, or 7900 under the old numbering scheme, which were bought in 1967/68. They were followed by the 289 (8900) in 1969-72, whereas the 269 and 251 first arrived in 1973 and 1982 respectively.

Warning, R-rated* content follows! It may not be immediately obvious but in many respects, the 352s had West German V 200 underpinnings. As did the subsequent classes 353 and 354, which you could call evolved versions of the same family. I do like those Talgo diesel locos, quirky as they looked! (* R as in rail, of course! 🤭)

I need to second this apology!

Moaning all. Recaffeinating! Phone boxes have gotten much rarer here, too, and are planned to be phased out completely by 2025. I'm reading there are about 12,000 left at this time but they no longer accept coins and phone cards. Compact mobile phone repeaters are to be installed in place of about a quarter of these, apparently. Generic congrats and commies as appropriate. 🤝