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You would like to think that it would be spotted wouldn't you? But if you trawl through RAIB reports you will find a concerning number of cases where things aren't seen. Its actually quite difficult to spot a locked up wheelset from a signalbox, here I've got freights going past at different speeds (about 40mph in on direction and about 70mph in the other). Even for the slow one I have to go on the balcony to get a good view of the wheelsets, and to see that they are going round, which is helped by the fact that the axlebox cover on the wagons down here rotates with the axle. The 70mph trains you get very little viewing time and its very difficult to see whats moving and what isn't. Then add into the mix the fact that you might have other things going on in the box (phone calls, other trains, and windows that can't be cleaned) then its a lot harder than you think to see whats going on... Andy G

The question that My daughter wants to know the answer to is this: Is Liz Truss now ever likely to be re-elected as a MP? I don't have an answer! Andy G

I have to agree with Phil here, maintenance isn't seen as sexy, just expensive, so something that can be lived without. Just fix it when it goes wrong.... Interestingly the only time remote monitoring has affected things here was when a point motor was detected as being slow and likely to fail. They swapped it out, and less than a fortnight later that new machine was failing to go over.... but that wasn't detected by the monitoring! Andy G

But don't under-estimate just how much it would cost to have a power feed to the location would cost.... a couple of years back our Parish paid 16K for a feed to a lampost, and I was quoted £1k to have a feed removed from a house.... Andy G

I'd go and buy a Tesco big chocolate birthday cake.... around the edge is a clear plastic strip which you could cut to fit, and you can enjoy the cake at the same time as fitting it! Andy G

On the Highland section of the LMS, there were at least one engine in each of the larger HR classes (and sometimes more) that continued to wear HR green either until they were scrapped or until the 1928 painting scheme came about, often going from green to black, missing out the red stage. Although having said that, Inverness did like the LMS red scheme, and turned out locos who shouldn't have got it in red, even after 1928.... Andy G

Well, Jidenco instructions aren't the best.. I'm doing a HR tankie at the minute, and frankly its actually easier building it as you go without the instructions.... Also expect to make lots of bits yourself and find some of the parts don't fit anyway! Good luck.. Andy G

A proper tail lamp.... Using built in tail lamps wasn't permitted until the late 70's at the earliest (mainly because they are difficult to see from the signalbox in daylight... Some of the 37's wandering around with their original tail lamps still are......) Andy G

The lack of heating pipes may be down to the fact that heating flexibles were often removed outwith the heating season, so may not have appeared on the reference photos... Whats more interesting is the mention of the supply of hinged headcode discs.... From the photos it is clear that she only ever carried the small LMR discs that sit on the lamp irons (like 10000 and 10001 did as well), not the hinged ones that the pilot scheme onwards diesels carried. Another bit of sloppyness? Andy G

GPO 700 series telephone bells are of two different types in the same phone. This is to get the right tone, but means that if used on their own you will get two different rings, handy for each end of the block shelf. Somewhere I've got loads of them, but your problem is that they look nothing like the ones on your original block bell, that is low and wide, these are tall and thin.... Andy G

How about having the overhead line as a model of one of the early 3 phase AC ones? That way you have two contact wires and two pans on the roof. Something like this : https://www.rhune.com/fr/ (this is a wonderful rack railway, the locos are over a century old and make a wonderful grinding and whirring noise, well worth a visit!). Then you have the complete path for that section of railway independent from all the rails. 3 phase is more common that you think, it wasn't used much here, but around the world it was. AndyG

Here we are 23 days into Truss-world, and lets look at the achievements: The first 12 days didn't achieve much sadly, but the following 11 days she has overseen the tanking of the economy, a telling off from the IMF and a determination that her policy is right, and reals out the same answer to every question about the now tanked economy, in that 'I said I would make the difficult decisions' Thats not bad work for 11 days is it? Has any PM achieved so much so quickly? One hopes that the Nutters that thought they could 'Trust in Truss' are still happy with their decision... Its a shame that Rishi isn't going to the Tory conference, he could wear a shirt with 'I told you so' on it... Andy G

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/cat-who-loves-sneaking-into-school-gets-portrait-taken-on-picture-day/ar-AA12m5zC?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=23c40b4b5e77492596c80ff80167d648 Andy G

The way to apply vinyl was shown to me by a vehicle wrapper... A plant squirty bottle full of water with ONE drop of washing up liquid in it. Make some reference marks on the surface you are applying too, and then spray that surface with the water, and then apply the vinyl to it. You can then float it into position, and when you are happy, squeegy the water out. Use something like a credit card lying almost flat to do this, holding the vinyl so it doesn't move. Pull the water towards the edges, and Robert's your Mothers Brother... Andy G

Derek, It might be worth contacting NU-Cast partners. I'm not sure if the K's single went to Nu-cast, but if it did, Dave might be able to find the kit and spin you some of the chimneys. The moulds might be a bit tired, so there might be some flash.... Andy G

There's a Mk1 at Hayle Station in Cornwall, which we stayed in about ten years ago. It keep its compartments and was well converted, even though the heating struggled a bit! Would go again. Andy G

Correct. The GPO was a bit twitchy about security of the mail, and this was an adequate way of securing that. What is little know is that often the coaches would have to be turned at one end of a journey to keep the gangways on the correct side for coupling to other postal vehicles when the service joined other TPO's. Andy G

I was with Powershop, who had an absoultly brilliant website that showed you useage graphs for either days or months, and you could troll around to your hearts content. They were taken over by Eon before the first round of companies collapsing, and we were moved to EON Next, which has a crappy website that shows you next to nothing. Interestingly they are recommending I change my tarrif at the minute. My present one will cost me £730ish a year, but their recommended one is £1380ish...... How daft do they think I am? I do meter readings each month and the wife pays them, which is fine. Meanwhile I've bought next door (tiny cottage, just big enough to give a spare bedroom and office to us) and have been dealing with EDF. I did all the things you do when you 'move in' like a meter reading and setting up an account. I also asked for the meter to be removed (We've got solar panels so feed the 'west wings' consumer unit from ours). I got a date for the removal of the meter, smack in the middle of our continental holiday. I phoned up and told them that we needed a new date, and gave them the dates when we would be back, and was told I would be emailed with the new date.... Meanwhile a bill arrives addressed to the owner/occupier between two dates next door. I phone the customer services people and explain the situation and give them the previous owners details, which they put on record, and I'm told to ignore any other letters. Get back from hols, to find a message on the answer phone from the engineer who had come to remove the meter on the original date, so check emails, nothing there. Go next door, and there is a another bill for the previous owners, so I phone customer services and explain, and ask for a new date for the meter removal. Again told that I would get an email with a new date, and to ignore the letters. A fortnight later a letter from a debt collection agency drops through next door. So I call customer services, the first person has a bad internet line, which drops me out. I call back and asks what the issue is and I start telling him, in an annoyed tone that I want to speak to a manager, so he puts me on 'hold' which turns out that he just hung up on me! Cue a Google search for complaints, and finally after working out how to get through their auto dialling system, I get to speak to a nice lady in complaints who can see that I've provided all the details for the previous owner and promisies to sort it out, contact the debt agency to stop the letters, and as its their fault gives me £30. She also arranges an appointment for the meter removal as she can see the booking system (the plebs can't see the system, it has to go to a 'bookings office'!). A fortnight later I get another letter from the debt collection agency, so I'm straight onto the complaints dept, re-open my complaint, and the girls says that the address and account details for that old account need updating and she'll get that sorted..... The lad turned up to take the meter out, but couldn't understand why he was just removing the meter, until I told him. Nice lad, but he worked for an agency, not EDF. Three days later I get a letter through the post to tell me that the engineer is coming and will need access. It was dated two days before the appointment (which was a friday) and arrived on the Monday....... Yesterday I had a letter from them advising me that my bill will rise over winter, which is interesting, as I have no meter and cannot get electricity from them... I wonder if I'll get the £400 quid from them still? At one point I was wondering if my pigeon French would make me more understandable to them.... I'm just waiting for another threatening letter or a pair of baliffs to arrive now. Andy G

Interesting last two posts Chris... 387 110 that you saw at Brighton was a real pain in the bottom when it first started coming up the Lynn Road. Coasting into Littleport Station from Ely, it would pull arcs from the overheads, which no-one would believe me about! In the end I got hold of a number for Hornsey Depot, and reported what was happening to them. They pulled her in for a looks and couldn't find anything wrong, so sent her out again. She was still arcing, so I called them again. She was pulled in again, and they had a really good look, and discovered that the pantograph head was crippled and wouldn't lie flat against the overhead..... The Second group of photos show a pair of 387/3 units, which have only just only just started to come up here. 301&302 and 303&304 have been working in pairs and this morning 1G09 has just been our first mixed unit with 305 and 123. The /3 units have funny colours on and around their doors, the /1's are green, and the /3's are a weird bluey colour (which might be the same as the blue on the /2 red units, but its difficult to tell! Andy G

Stewart Ingram of this parish has a re-magger, and offers its use at the price of return postage of the motor to him. Andy G

I fear that the answer to your question is probably NO.... Its really sad that it appears that our nation is so poorly educated*. I'm not blaming the teachers here either, SWMBO is a teacher and she spends some frightening amount of time planning after school and at weekends trying to do her best for her pupils. But again it is the fact that Education appears to be a political football, that has downgraded it? I find it hard to believe that each school has to find its way to pay for everything from the teaching staff to the energy bill from its own budget, that seems to get smaller year on year. Why can't we actually invest in our schools? * Actually are they poorly educated, or is it that we have lost the value of education across the board? And I agree that we will be getting a baby boom next year. Was there a spike in the birth rates after the 3 day week in the 70's? Andy G

Yes Rue's body profile is somewhat iffy from memory, but that seems to be his policy, just design something that vaguely looks right, and then when you point out the errors he just says 'its a scratchbuilding aid' or ignores you, rather than re-visiting and correcting errors. He seems to be about quantity not quality... Andy G

I have to say I'm really impressed with those in the money markets at the minute. To show, collectively, that a policy decision is iffy at best, in such a specular way, so quickly is astonishing. Its quite a feat! But is it actually part of a plan by Doris and her cronies? Now she's PM, she's now got a PM pension for life, which will tie her over for a bit. But for added security, now she has bombed the economy, presumably share prices in all sorts of companies are now dirt cheap (I'm guessing here, as I don't follow the stockmarket) so she and her cronies can stock up on their favourite shares at a discount. Then when the next government (or perhaps they will have a strike of conscious, and come up with an idea that helps everyone) comes in, and the economy comes back, they will make a mint. A really big case of insider dealing? As for the future, the big issue here is overpopulation. The world needs to introduce a policy of only 1 child per adult. So as soon as you have had one, both parents get sterilised*. We shouldn't be having families of 3 Plus children now (and certainly not second or third families of two plus). Sadly covid hasn't actually reduced the global population by very much. (I'm looking at this from 'Mother Earths' position, I do find it quite tragic the deaths and misery that Covid has inflicted to people across the world, a truly frightening period of time to life through). Until population growth is sorted, I fear that everything else is a sticking plaster. Andy G *who has had one child and no cannot have more (through his own choice).

I believe that Mercury tank rectifiers were used in a lot of the early 25Kv electrics in the uk. Andy G

And if its a modern day layout, you'll need big patches of rust showing through, or the structure painted a mid green colour (the colour of modern epoxy treatments). Andy G