Ron Ron Ron

I'll bet it was. I'm still surprised that photos and video are still sparse, considering these units are now out and about, or to be seen at Old Dalby. Here is another video, showing both of the first trains at Old Dalby. They appear exactly 9 minutes into the video, but there's no movement.

Thanks Richard. Is that the first or second one? .

Considering the Cockroach's ability to survive extreme life threatening environments, it might be an apt description.

Some of the Villa players didn't turn up at all. Arsenal definitely a class above and played very well, a superb team effort all round, but it was made far easy for them by a Villa side who have looked awful for most of the season. Villa were denied one define penalty though and a cast iron free kick right on the edge of the box, which could easily have been given as a penalty instead. The ref gave nothing for either though. I don't think it would have altered the final outcome, but it leaves a bitter taste for the Villa players and fans all the same. I'm looking forward to next Saturday nights Champions League final now. It should be a definite cut above today's match. .

You can never have too many lights. It could end up like one of those Christmas Tree imitating HGV's you see on the Motorways at night. .

A Strange Visage indeed. .

The badge engineered Citan (Kangoo van) was said to be a quick fix to get into the small van market. They outsource the smallest engines for their smaller A & B Class cars. 1.5L diesels from Renault and 1.6L petrol from Nissan. .

While all car manufacturers source components from all over the industry, I rather doubt that particular claim.

The anti-corruption authorities must have been waiting a while to get them all in one place, so they could arrest them. About time too. Let's hope the investigations have been thorough and diligently carried out, so that these crooks can be properly dealt with. Where does this leave Qatar 2022? .

There certainly are, including a big one..... Gatwick (several station expansions and redevelopments - currently having more platforms built) Southampton (rebuilt, brand new station - on-airport - with inter city and regional train services) Southend (brand new airport terminal and a brand new station alongside it) London City (DLR - light rail + nearby Crossrail station due to open in 2 years time) Also...

What, with the money they are given from Westminster to subsidise their spending?

The improvement has been more than minor, but that is not the sole reason for the reduction in flights in that specific market. There are many other reasons. BA have been losing money at Gatwick for many years and have been scaling down some of their services from there to UK domestic destinations. For years they ran 7 flights a day to Manchester from LGW, but after gradually reducing them over recent years, have now stopped them completely. Purely to save money and nothing at all to do with rail competition. The London City - Manchester flights (5 a day, up to 7 a day during the WCML upgrade disruption) were directly affected by the WCML improvements. The operator VLM was taken over by CityJet who stopped the flights in the face of the improved rail services and rising costs. BMI (formerly British Midland) ran 7 or 8 flights a day from LHR to MAN. Load factors were fairly high. They were taken over by BA in late 2012 and the flights stopped. Virgin Little Red replaced them with 4 flights a day, purely to serve interconnecting passengers feeding into Virgin Atlantic and Delta (Virgin's owners) flights through LHR. The costs of operation were too high, average load factors too low and they pulled the plug after 2 years. Nothing at all to do with rail competition. BA Regional (sold off to Flybe many years ago), ran 2 flights a day between Stansted and MAN. They didn't really attract much custom and were stopped after a year or two. BA LHR - MAN. As you say, now down to 9 flights a day, from 12 a day only a couple of years ago. At the peak there were 14 a day. The reasons for the decline are manyfold..... LHR has lost a lot of connecting traffic from Manchester, due to better alternatives. Most notably the Emirates services from MAN via Dubai, providing a wide range of connections to the Far East, SE Asia, the Indian sub-continent, Australasia and the Indian Ocean islands. Emirates run 3 flights a day from MAN, one of which is an A380 and one of the others is also an A380 on some days now. The others are all big B777-300's. A hugely popular service. Etihad also compete in this market with 2 flights a day by large wide-bodied a/c, as do Qatar airways. These services, along with Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific (both providing onward connections through their hubs) have taken most of the market that formerly routed via LHR. Similarly, the traditional European hubs like AMS, FRA and CDG, providing an alternative to LHR, have all increased their traffic from MAN. Westbound, there has been a steady growth in direct flights from MAN to N. America and the Caribbean, cutting out the London airports. There has also been the recession, reducing some business travel, but for BA, one of the big factors has been that they've been losing money on purely domestic tickets and have been reducing domestic flights at LHR and transferring the slots to more lucrative long haul flights. Hence the recent reduction to 9 flights a day. In summary. Improved rail competition has had some impact on London to Manchester domestic flights, but a far bigger factor has been changes in the airline marketplace and LHR's role as a connecting hub from MAN. .

The SNP are using HS2 to further their own ends. The only interest they have in HS2 is using it as another example to demonstrate to the Scottish people that the nasty Westminster government treats Scotland with a lower priority etc, etc. Sneaky tactics, just like NS offering Ed Miliband the hand of friendship (offering the possibility of an alliance or coalition), which was solely aimed at damaging the labour vote south of the border. Yes we are getting too political. Best leave that side of the discussion. .

HS2 Ltd have been going for a few years now and employ a large number of people, including many highly paid specialists. As an organisation it appears to have grown like Topsy, with all sorts of Strategist and project management type jobs. Amongst their currently advertised posts, they are looking for a "Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion", a "Select Committee and Witness Manager", a "Parliamentary Intern-Euston, plus many others. Staff employed is well over 800, with several thousand more job posts to be filled. The wages bill will be costing tens of millions already. HS2's share of costs (not counting any other DfT or parliamentary costs) was £176 million for the year ending 31st March 2013. Two years on and with a larger organisation, it'll be interesting to see what the latest accounts say. .

Sorry that's wrong Edwin, in the case of Newcastle, where there have only ever been a relatively few flights to the capital per day. Compare that with Manchester, where prior to the noughties WCML upgrade and the introduction of Pendolinos and Virgin's HF timetable, there were over 20 flights a day to 4 London airports. Those WCML service improvements have reduced the number of flights, but there are still many more than to Newcastle. .

Nobody is saying the trains aren't full. There are quite a lot of people using the trains, but as a comparison with other long distance regional links with the capital, the numbers are much smaller (e.g. less than a quarter of those to/from the NW and a third of those to/from Yorkshire & the Humber).

The SNP are playing this one nicely, from the perspective of their own agenda. They knew that the likelihood of an extension to Scotland was either light years away, or not on the cards at all. That's why they made a lot of the HS2 subject prior to the election and will now play this to their advantage. If we were to go back to the NR study, which kicked off the HS2 discussion, it clearly stated the diminishing returns if the line were to be progressed beyond the original objectives. The business case used was far more grounded than the fairy tale nonsense that was created when "HS2 Ltd" were put in place. It's also worth pointing out that passenger volume between London (and the SE of England) and the NE and Scotland, is relatively minuscule in comparison with the capital's links to other UK regions. e.g. London & the SE to Scotland represents about 0.3% of all UK rail journeys. .

Maybe the annual announcement and catalogue should be replaced with a rolling 5 year plan, with an update to the 5 year plan announced each year. The catalogue would then cease to be an annual catalogue of what they intend to have available within the next 12 - 18 months and would represent their future plans between publication date and up to 5 years from that point. You could say that's what it has now become.

Funny, but a rubbish attempt to recreate a Javelin to look like a Class 800.

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Real Time Trains shows it ran again last night and is timed for tonight as well. Arrives at Tallington Jct just after midnight.

ScotRail have ordered AT200's, not AT100's. .

Thomas SOLD OUT ??? Is this the new "Exeter"? IT'S AN OUTRAGE !!! I shall be writing to my MP immediately.

A nice Italian Panatone may be more to his liking? .

I am truly amazed at the amount of interest shown here in this particular subject. I could say it but I won't........ Anyway.... Well maybe because it's a children's toy and the notion of it being some form of "hobby" seems faintly ridiculous, perhaps? Personally, I think it's hardly likely to be a product aimed squarely as a toy for very small children, except where there may be some other influence such as a railway modelling parent or grandparent. We all know that they'll reach a stage where they'll consider playing with TTTE as "baby'ish and then along with other toys, Thomas will hit the dustbin, or end up being sold off cheap just to get rid. That age is getting younger and younger and even many parents these days, consider it "not normal" to be playing with toys like this past age 8 or 9. Thomas has its place, but if you want "amazing new ways of getting children into model railways", I would most definitely be looking elsewhere. Judging from this topic thread, I think along with many others, you probably are......? Ron .