Fenman

The last list I saw, while making it clear the service pattern wasn’t finalised, showed both Cambridge flyers and Thameslink services calling at the new station. Has that changed? Paul

That’s a bit harsh. He’s north of Snettisham, which is ~15 miles from his nearest Tesla charger, while Thetford is over 40 miles away and not on the way to anywhere he’s likely to be going. And, despite what those city folk seem to think, there’s more to Norfolk than Norwich: Norfolk is huge — roughly 70 miles east-west; that fine city is tucked over on the eastern side. It’s a long way from there to, say, The Walpoles on the western boundary. Even the local councils agree there are insufficient public charging points in Norfolk. Paul

Apparently, despite being one of the world’s richest women, the Queen’s house at Sandringham is among the 5th most deprived, while the local “millionaires row” is 3rd most deprived. Conversely, a gas-fired power station and the UK’s largest paper mill are both among the most deprived. As you note, this really doesn’t seem to work for rural areas. Paul

Why on earth are you spending 30 minutes in a supermarket?! I can only imagine you're dawdling away your life there... In and out, man, in and out as fast as you can. They're hateful places. If I can't do the whole thing in less than 10 minutes (including self-serve check-out -- till assistants are usually painfully slow) I consider I've got very sloppy. Paul

No, that’s just making excuses. The mantra for communication professionals is (or should be) “if they haven’t heard it, you haven’t said it” (there’s even a text book with that title). Paul

It would help if they employed people who could write English: ”In those areas such as Paddington / Reading / Didcot Parkway / Oxford / Bristol & Exeter local areas / Cardiff - Portsmouth and around 75% of Plymouth - Penzance services will continue to operate.” Setting that aside, this situation is horrible. And a good example of why a bit of diversity in fleets would give a bit more resilience. Paul

The Judith Edge ES1 is a really delightful model, so it surprises me no-one has done an RTR version. The NRM Collection in Miniature would be an obvious place for it. Obviously this is not an ES1, even if they say it is... Paul

You do remember this topic has the words “no politics” in the title, right? Paul

I think we’re surprisingly close to that: both Tesla and Lucid claim they’ll shortly launch cars with ~500 mile ranges, and even staid old Mercedes is promising >400 in its new S class EV. I think for 99% of us those figures are ludicrously high. The number of us that will *ever* want to drive 500 miles without stopping for a break is minuscule. Even for the tiny fraction of us that does, buying all that capacity for an exceptional event is incredibly inefficient— a bit like arguing that, while I normally live alone, my family comes to stay with me for Christmas so I *must* have a house with at least 12 bedrooms and a dining table that seats 20. EVs will never suit every single person’s current lifestyle better than an ICE (eg, range, the absence of private property on which to instal a home charger, or the capacity to tow a 3 ton trailer). But for the vast majority of us even among the existing first generation of EVs there’s likely to be a car that does pretty much everything we need. The fact is, in the long haul you’re either going to have to accept the best that is available or change your lifestyle. My “perfect” ICE car has never been produced; I’ve always had to accept compromises. You’ve presumably been lucky enough to get exactly what you want until now, but it’s something EVs (currently) don’t offer. I’m afraid the world has changed around you. Just as I deeply regret the passing of restaurant cars on trains to and from Norfolk, that time has gone — or for ICE cars, by 2030, will be gone for new sales. 2030 still gives the market plenty of time to get close to what you want or to offer other ways to provide it (eg, Tesla’s fast-charging network maybe being opened to other cars; new cars get an 800v architecture and fast-charging; etc), and it also gives you plenty of time to adjust your lifestyle. Paul

You write that, but it turns out we were utterly incompetent at holding it secure... Paul

Yes, quite right, the first thing *everyone* looks for when buying a new car is just how old-fashioned it is. Personally I won’t buy any new car that isn’t steered by a tiller. And don’t get me started on these new-fangled inflatable tyres — just more needless complexity and something else to go wrong. As the great Margaret Atwood wrote: ”Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” Paul

And neither of them are large, densely-populated, urban areas (Stirling district stretches up to Crianlarich and Tyndrum, and across to Loch Lomond)...

I can understand it in the densely populated urban areas but ... wee Clackmannanshire? Paul

Possibly, but I used it to support a couple of local restaurants. In total I paid them what I normally would have, just more of it was a tax-free tip. I wanted to help them make up some of their losses, and I’ve been lucky compared to many so it didn’t seem fair for me to get tax-payer subsidised meals. Paul

1 April? Paul

What's today's date, again? Though having written that, one of the big Middle Eastern airlines has installed giant screens in a first class suite that otherwise would be windowless, on which is displayed a view outside the plane (or anything else you fancy from the IFE). Paul PS: Exactly 6,000 posts, Ron Ron Ron? You are a very prolific man!

The 442s were designed for one specific route -- the ex-LSW greyhound-racing track Weymouth-Southampton-Waterloo -- and BR made fantastically efficient use of cascaded electrical equipment from the EMUs they replaced, making them very cheap. They were a step-change up in comfort from the REP/TCs they replaced, the shocking silence inside the coaches being just one of the obvious improvements. ISTR they held the world speed record for 3rd rail stock for many, many years. But being designed for one specific route they later struggled when put onto others, each also requiring expensive refurbishment work. Each time they were moved it felt like an emotionally-driven attempt to hang onto them even though they weren't really suitable. I loved them, but even I was mystified by the most recent decision to refurb and reallocate. For me, it's a sad day that they are now going to the scrappies. But they've had more than one unexpected reprieve in the past so they've done bloody well. And let's not forget they are now well into their 4th decade, so it's not as if they've had stupidly short lives. Wessex Electrics: RIP. Paul

“Southern Ireland”? Really?! It’s been an independent state called the Republic of Ireland for +/- a century. I can’t imagine what motivates you to use colonial terminology for one of our closest neighbours. Is Scotland next, to be called “North Britain”? Paul

One of the five coaches was 1st class, with a mixture of compartments and a small open saloon at the driving cab end. AIUI originally the small saloon was supposed to be 2nd class but before launching the trains they decided the compartments on their own didn’t give enough 1st class seating. The Wessex Electrics were great trains, though after multiple refurbishments today they’re a pale reflection. Paul

Renault-Nissan, which owns Dacia and Lada, recently announced the rebirth of the Lada Niva. Looking again at the 1970s version — a simple, 2-door, go-anywhere vehicle, based on Fiat designs if I remember right — I rather liked the idea of that sort of styling simplicity, though when it is relaunched hopefully it will have a slightly less Spartan approach (safety, ride and noise levels need to be improved; it probably needs to be either EV or at least automatic; and air conditioning wouldn’t go amiss). Then again, it’s still for sale in some markets for the princely sum of £11k. Artists impressions of the possible look of the new version seemed to me wildly over-designed in the modern SUV way: squashed-trainer-with-odd-bulges. Anyway, just as we used to laugh at Skodas as the ultimate terrible car (or was that always a Trabant?), times change and brands develop. Paul

Which is of course true. But surely the answer is not “let’s keep burning irreplaceable raw materials until they just run out”. That strikes me as equally fatuous. Paul

Women have never been expected to wear a tie, though I suppose in those days they weren’t expected to be CEOs, either. And in my experience, most men’s taste in ties is about as poor as you can get: often shiny polyester, and with some sort of “novelty” pattern that they think is humorous. But isn’t. Thank God we don’t still live in those days. Paul

Aston Martin (seriously!)? Though a big chunk of that — not a majority — is now owned by Mercedes. I can’t think of any others. There was a time when the London taxi manufacturer, Manganese bronze, was the largest British-owned car manufacturer, but that was taken over by the Chinese. Paul

With this report about tax and subsidy changes I’m now not at all clear what government policy is. Support ICE cars? They were doing so well, too, with the adventurous 2030 sales ban on ICE cars. Paul

Quite right. It’s why I think it’s essential that the military is privatised as soon as possible... I would suggest NHS management of the current vaccination programme demonstrates that not all public sector management is run by feckless incompetents. BR certainly didn’t strike me as worse-managed than most other British large-scale private-sector companies of that era, and in some respects it was pretty good (R&D, development and launch of bargain-basement HSTs, etc). Paul