Arthur

Okay then, In Brain of Britain style can you link the following; The surname of a fashion model The crossing of a physical barrier The work of a railway pioneer The phrase 'England's bread hangs by Lancashire's thread'

Eddie/Stationmaster, I'm happy to give multiprinter a shout. I'm away today, if there's no question set by tomorrow morning (Thursday) I'll post one. Arthur

Very nice, I've always liked the functional look of tugs, are they built from kits?

Oh, go on then, you're pretty much there. Yes, Nasmyth Wilson 918 of 1910, 'Maden' and, a surprising fourteen years later, identical NW1419 of 1924, 'Emmanual Clegg'. Both were built for Astley and Tyldesley Collieries just a few miles from Nasmyth Wilsons works at Patricroft. They were used at Gin Pit, Lancashire, to move heavy coal trains up a steep incline to join the LNWR's Eccles to Wigan line. Emmanuel Clegg was not taken out of service until 1958 and was not cut up until 1965. It was said that Manning Wardle 'Katherine' was built for the Earl of Ellesmere's nearby Walkden Collieries 'to keep up with the Jones's. James Nasmyth, inventor, engineer, amateur astronomer and artist, invented the steam hammer, an important tool in the  forging and wrought iron industries. Over to you...

Good answer but no, these were mainstream industrial and as a clue, they worked at a colliery.

Returning to an earlier question, MW Katherine of 1914 was one of only three standard gauge 0-8-0Ts built for industrial service in the U.K. It was said to have had something of 'keeping up with the Jones's" about it's origins. So, name the other two 0-8-0Ts, who built them and where did they work? Purely as a bragging point, not an essential part of the answer, their manufacturer had earlier made their name from inventing and making what item of industrial equipment?

Sharp Stewart

The LMS insisted, despite Beyer Peacocks advice, on certain LMS design features including the coupled wheelbase, axle bearings which were too small and short travel valves and the locos were somewhat of a disappointment as a result. This despite the success of long travel valves and decent axle boxes on Fowlers 2-6-4T. BP, left to their own devices, would have built a thoroughly modern 2-6-2+2-6-2T.

And hopefully not from their upcoming railbus!!

Yes, that makes sense. Interesting idea about a possible drive train.

Blimey! They sneaked that one in! Will it be Heljans first steam outline model?

Gone wrong?, Oh yeah. We've looked after lot's of dogs for friends and because we've got a very large walled garden they can roam it safely. However, a few years back a friend said she was putting her cats in a cattery for ten days whilst she went on holiday. "Oh, we'll have them" volunteered my wife. As they were a very timid pair and likely to be keen to escape it was agreed that we would keep them in our studio, a large but secure room in the garden. All went well for eight days until we went down to feed them one morning and WTF!!, NO cats. The mystery was soon solved, my wife had been down the previous evening to feed them, opened the toilet window to air the room but had forgotten to close the toilet door when she left. We spent two days scouring the area without luck. It was with dread we awaited our friends return, and it was a desperately difficult moment when we had to tell her.  She took it well enough under the circumstances. We borrowed a cat trap and for a week placed it all over the area. I didn't think a cat would ever go in it but we caught a different cat every night, sadly neither of the missing ones. We then got a report of a cat hanging around a house and some woods just down the lane, that night the trap caught one of the escapees. Unfortunately the second cat was never found. We felt dreadful, had we not tried to be helpful the cats would have been fine in the cattery. Still, we have remained good friends despite the incident and they still have the one cat. We still look after dogs so it hasn't put us completely off!

I think it's probably the 1990 TV mini series 'The Civil War', the DVD is available from Amazon. It was one of the most successful series ever made for U.S. TV.

I was watching, and enjoying, the two DCC DVDs with Tony and Nigel Burkin only yesterday. Get well soon Tony. Arthur p.s have you got that 66 on Little Bytham yet?!

I've always thought that myself. Two other good versions of his songs by The Nice are My Back Pages and Country Pie.

I've never actually seen deep fried Mars Bars, they came to notoriety as a Scottish fish & chip shop delicacy, the country with Europes worst incidence of serious heart disease. They're not that common over here. The smaller, travelling, Fair food has long been largely a poor copy of US food. Burgers and Hot Dogs, with or without onions, and ketchup and English mustard. Candy Floss and Toffee Apples. More recently the quality of the burgers and hot dogs has probably improved. At the larger fairs vans selling fish and chips are common. The choice at very large events, Festivals, Sports Events etc. can be considerably wider, Hog Roasts, various ethnic foods etc.

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It's changed now but until a few years back you did not need a special license just to drive a passenger carrying vehicle, no matter how large. As Larry alluded to, the PSV licences allowed a driver to carry PAYING passengers and during the test the driver was expected to demonstrate care for his passengers as much as skill with driving. It's one reason why many semi pro bands bought old coaches, often plating over rear windows, to carry both the band, roadies and gear. Similarly, travellers used them, again because no special licence was needed for that use. The HGV licence was different, there was a 7.5t GVW limit for goods carrying vehicles over which a HGV licence was needed in all circumstances. As I said, the rules are different today.

The BBC puts forward the counter argument to climate change.......!!! You are joking aren't you?

Try again, London to Glasgow express freight service?

Green Arrow, overnight service between London and Edinburgh?

Couldn't agree more Dave, I'm all for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, for making the most efficient use of resources and minimising pollution but simply because it's common sense to do so.

Let's be quite clear here, global warming was not some sound bite the media invented or misunderstood. For over twenty years that is exactly what the green science lobby were predicting. No equivocation, anthropogenic warming was a 'fact', sceptics were deniers. However, when it became clear that, after twenty years, none of the predictions of the rate of warming were anywhere being realised, in fact global temperatures had, for some years, fallen, the phrase 'climate' change' became the new mantra. Any wonder some of us are sceptical?

Reminds me of a former boss, lovely guy, he usually had one eye, but one only, on his diet. One day we were having lunch at a customers canteen. He loads up his tray with a massive roast, loads of spuds, sponge pudding and half a gallon of custard. Big mug of tea. We're paying at the till and he's looking for something, says to the lady without any irony, " Have you got any sweetner?". She looks at his calorie laden tray and says, "Are you effin' joking".