cunningduck

But I’d prefer a 185 to a 150 from Scarborough to Liverpool!

It’s made it to Greenock, £6k to go to Greenock???

Do I dare ask why coal was carried in ISO containers?

Well I had my first experience of an 800 last week from Bristol to Paddington. Overall I was very impressed, I couldn’t tell whether it was running on diesel or electric (much as that embarrasses me!), the seat was comfy, luggage space adequate, trolley sufficient (and appeared 3 times over the journey), and it rode fairly well! I rate it as better than an HST because it didn’t lurch sickeningly as it started, didn’t have random drafts from the vestibules, had nice toilets and didn’t make me jump out of my skin every time another train passes...

Rant doesn’t entirely apply to the Glasgow’s Riverside Museum, where I spent at least 3 hours looking at (over 100 I’d guess) ship models!

I think that Glasgow/Edinburgh to Exeter/Bristol/Southampton are all profitable, judging by the amount of services per day and passenger loading as when I’ve used them!

Mostly yes, Scotrail is set up for units of 3, most DOO screens (on platforms) are spaced for 3 or 6 coaches. All electrics were 3 coaches until the 385s and 380s turned up with 4 coach sets in the order.

A particular shame, as the 385 I experienced recently was swift, comfortable (seats and ride) and very impressive. It was ugly though!

I’m sure that’ll make the marshalling at Edinburgh/Carstairs easier for all involved! Does anyone know where that photo is taken? I didn’t think Polmadie shed went as far as the BabcockSwietelsky maintenance shed at the far end?

We haven’t found out that anybody else used a defeat device yet, I don’t think we can conclusively say nobody else fitted one.

They didn’t cheat the test, they just followed the letter of the law, not the spirit. Perhaps it is the regulators fault for setting a test that can be foiled?

I can’t help but think that at Franchise assessment time DfT may have looked at the “best” franchise, seen that it is over-optimistic and bound to fail. However since the Virgin West Coast debacle they may have had to award the franchise based on their own specified criteria, which I don’t think would include a clause along the lines of “don’t award the franchise to someone that is relying on Network Rail not to deliver so they can get bailed out”. Therefore they're tied to the best franchise according to their own criteria, which may not be the best franchise...

The set was seen being moved north on the A1 last night (around Grantham). Does anybody know where it’s going?

I’m not sure it’s a cool thing to say given how much bad press these things have received, but that looks excellent! Perhaps it’s all down to the photographer?

Best International EMU Hiding Place 2016?

Ticking boxes and the Nuclear Regulatory framework in this country are two very different things.

If those are your concerns the I would refer you to the literature that each Nuclear Site Operator can provide you with to demonstrate their adherence to Nuclear Site Licensing Conditions, which (amongst other things) will demonstrate how they ensure security of their site.

I think SMRs could be a long way away, given that nobody has built any commercial power generation SMRs yet.

There isn't enough space around Portsmouth Harbour station due to the tight harbour entrance and congested shoreline (because I don't think the space next to HMS Warrior is big enough/accessible enough) and a displacement vessel would need a dredged channel to Ryde owing to the shallow approaches (very shallow).

I'd argue (strongly) that if you know enough to make such an accusation, you should know not to make such an accusation. Besides, judging by the article, I think CAF are more interested in a servicing and logistics (stores warehouse) facility than assembly.

Given that bridges in Grantham now all seem to have had a large green piece of heavily anchored steel placed in front of them, this shouldn't cause much of a delay (or what would the point in adding the armour?).

Do those MTU4000s require replacement already? It's surely less than 10 years since they were installed?

Probably driven by an EU emissions testing regime that bears precious little similarity to actual driving, and hence creates vehicles which produce low amounts of CO^2/km under a specific set of circumstances (a low revving automatic shuffle to top gear at 40mph with the engine just above idle) but could be an awful lot better at real world driving (using more than the 1st 2000rpm of the engine's rev range!).

Great photos! It's impressive how you've captured the length of each trainset.

Great news, thanks!