GSR 800

It is not necessarily the leaders, often they may have every intention to try curtail illegal mining, corruption and the like, but it is exceptionally difficult if pirate miners can offer several times the wage to anyone the government hires to prevent said illegal mining. Of course there are plenty of corrupt officials, but it is effectively an unfair power dynamic between states and non state actors, and with weak, unstable governments, the vultures begin hovering. (In case it was misinterpreted, I generally mean 8 dollars paid by gov, 50 dollars paid by pirate miners. I'm sure theres cases of corrupt gov officials bribing down the line to shut up people but i digress) civil wars and conflicts are disastrous not only for nations themselves but those around them, refugees arriving en masse putting significant stress on limited services and capacilities of developing nations. It is not single nations at fault, nor single groups, it is a historic trend of developed states and non state actors exploiting undeveloped or developing states.Something of note in regards to biofuel is both India and China have put limits on domestic produce for fear of affecting food security, companies being encouraged to look abroad instead. Now lads, all said and done we must mind the line we're threading towards politics

Generally poorer, notably in this case, african nations that have come out of the colonial era had little in the way of education of a proper civil service, democratic tradition and processes etc (likes of the Congo were dropped like a stone by Belgium with no preparation, there were plans for reform, education etc over 20 years along with more gradual handover but came to nought iirc). This, combined with foreign interference and the 'conflict trap', essentially increasing instability from every conflict a nation goes through, increased poverty leading to more conflict, more poverty, more instability and so on has made it exceptionally hard for many of these nations to develop. The Washington consensus made things a great deal worse for many nations, while the 'Asian Tigers' seemed to benefit, their starting circumstances were different. https://books.google.ie/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3PLqetBxiOEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=the+conflict+trap&ots=PTS3AU9d5C&sig=5JMO-psklAkq8Kr9uZJ1lnjWwBY&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=the conflict trap&f=false As for corruption, having studied the case of the Congo I will give an example. A soldier is paid 8 dollars (the equivalent anyway) by the government to prevent illegal mining. He's paid 50 dollars to turn a blind eye. Comparitive buying power makes corruption very easy. It's also something many poorer nations struggle with when regarding development, ie they want to hire foreign experts (say an irish engineer or tech expert as an example.) It can be very expensive hiring such expertise, as they will expect a Western wage and western standard of living. exploitation is a historic factor, one that continues to this day (if you look at the article i linked it relates to how significant landgrabs in nations such as Ghana and Sierra Leone to grow biofuel crops are at the detriment to the people, but especially the poorest people of those nations) but it is not an inevitability, I use the case of Botswana as my example for developing well following independence, and Rwanda in spite of the horrific genocide there has developed quite well, using drones for medical supplies to overcome infrastructure issues. The question of sustainability is sustainability for who?

Biofuels are no better https://grain.org/article/entries/4653-land-grabbing-for-biofuels-must-stop

The threads name and all..

Some lad with a terrible sense of humour naming it as the turf pellets are no more..Ashtown a stones throw from it too..

Would be quite interesting to know how large the respective markets are (at least considered to be) along with Europe..

I think dummy locos were brought up a long while ago re the 121s, cost compared to a proper model doesn't justify it seems.

Laminates and Park Royals, then we can talk about 6 wheelers I suppose we're getting ahead of ourselves if we start talking about those 6 wheel bogie coaches..

Might be good for confusing some tourists..

With limited space, Mullingar needed some form of fiddle yard on a loop behind it. A large terminus station had been in my mind for a long time but the space required put me off. Two things changed this, the excellent Connolly station in N on this site, along with Minories, a design by Cyril Freezer (and we had Fry) which managed an itneresting terminus design with limited space. While ultimately the design of the station throat is not like minories it is nonetheless and interesting track plan! Regardless the idea of Amiens Central is a simple one, the Phoenix Tunnel being regularly used and more Cork bound trains start there. This will allow for a forray into Great Northern and UTA territory while ensuring the heavier locomotives in the fleet have more of an excuse to run. It seems a Schools class will meet the knife to become a VS so there will be a wait before the Rhapsody in Blue.

Excellent stuff, completely silent and went over that crossover with ease. Can't wait till they hit home turf!

Timetables unless I'm mistaken

Both have their merits, but that pic of the 141s, B145 leading starting a train from Kingsbridge in a Second Glance has kept me tipped to a slight GM bias. Such shows what impressed upon me age 10

Theres only really space in the loco for the motor and the tender body is a solid piece so (unless it was slung under the tender chassis?) somewhat akin to the Woolwich, though those locos have their own long set of issues! Be interesting in seeing the DCC set up and how it was managed..

If i tried that i could well be waiting as long as Leslie did for the 70th! Invest the hundred or so saved and become fabulously wealthy while I wait At the end of the day its a rare type, one that I doubt will ever be produced again for a very long time, and is probably worth far more to someone if they happen to be building a layout of the west cork in the 30s. If you're rolling in a few quid you might as well....

Indeed it is, probably having a hard time to shift them with the import charges lumped on For some recent purchases I've been fine, no issues of import charges, but did get hit with an extra 80 with something large that was sent by courier.

I've a J15 myself, made the exception of the 250 mark I'm usually willing to go no further paying for RTR... but over 100 euro extra for post and import charges for 472..

Anyone rolling in money? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114804659568?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338722076&toolid=10001

Excellent stuff JM, looking forward to the 52 especially. One recommendation would be having prices in euro? Works grand for me

Similar situation with a picture of a Mogul in Second Glance 10 year old me was certain some woolwiches were going around in a light blue!

fairly certain that is the lighter green, having looked at a great deal of the CIE green locos I'm convinced there was some level of lack of uniformity, though a deal of it is down to the photos themselves, lighting, fading etc

the latter pic does a good job of showing how hard the light green is to pin down, with the loco and coach barely in shot looking a great deal for vibrant than the other, which has been faded slightly. Theres the scaling effect of it all for us at 00 gauge too..

I'll be taking my one in black and tan and throw my wallet as far away as possible where its safer.. Good to hear easy roof removal and no fear of breaking clips or the likes, even many steamers are such an arse to get the body off, setting a precedent for high quality in every aspect means rest assured even if the wallets are empty its money well spent.

Aye retail therapy...