Garfield

Looks great, Fran! CSX and Norfolk Southern both tried to mount seperate takeovers of Conrail (direct NYC heritage), but ended up with a compromise deal where both companies split Conrail and its assets between them.

Yep, as the others have said it's an expansion joint.

Wow! Surely it's only a matter of time now before we see some of these locos together in a lash-up.

Yep, I think it was originally meant to be a temporary arrangement last year when there were some track upgrades taking place in the Paris area, but its still the case now. Bercy is a LOT quieter... no TGVs About Corail... all long range services are under the 'Intercités' banner now. 'Téoz' was scrapped a short while ago.

Nice! Have to say I love the En Voyage livery... it especially suits the BB67000s. Any time I travel behind a Sybic, though, it's always one in the old béton colours. I'm not complaining, though! Meant to say... one of the things I miss about not getting Clermont-Ferrand trains from Gare de Lyon anymore is that Bercy doesn't have station pilots - the train reverses into the platform. At Gare de Lyon they have older electrics that bring the coaches in, the loco in charge of the service hooks up, and the pilot waits until the train has departed before whirring off to its next duty. A nice opportunity to see some older motive power...

Do you have the Jouef Sybic? Stunning looking model...

You couldn't just enjoy the joke, could you?

Belfast Central must surely earn the title of 'Most Inappropriately-named Station on the Island' award. Central it ain't...

It's in the Île-de-France region, not all that far away from Paris. Speaking of which... I'll be getting some French loco-hauled action this week when I travel from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand. It's usually a Sybic that's in charge of the trains on this route. For years, the train departed from Gare de Lyon, but last year switched to Bercy. It's not as grand, but the route out of Paris now involves travelling by some marshalling yards, normally with long lines of decommissioned locos occupying some of the roads and some 'locotracteurs' pottering about.

Gotta love the lightning bolt livery!

This TGV was being transferred to a new depot and had to travel via an unelectrified line. A CC72000 class loco got the job of hauling it... [video=youtube_share;F6KiKXTh_14]

With bleeding fingers, Rich. With bleeding fingers...

Not sure about using it as a coping mechanism, Rich, but the moves were certainly inspired by the condition... especially in that song. Played bass in a Rory Gallagher tribute band for a while. Trying to do Gerry McAvoy's basslines justice was tough enough without having to move about the place as well!

Funny you should post that OMD track. I was in a shop the other day and there was a Gregorian-type song playing in the background. I thought it sounded familiar... As for dancing... Ian Curtis certainly had the moves: (especially from about 1:30).

Just the one Heljan crane, Dave?

That's OK - we're equally floored by your modelling!

Haven't seen it, Rich. Have you got a link?

I remember seeing a thread on RMWeb about the design and manufacture of the pillars for the station roof. The metal framework is breathtaking...

A simply stunning EM gauge layout... [video=youtube_share;-owQJYHUv4s]

This is an off-topic area, so anything goes (apart from politics and religion)!

Sorry Fran... couldn't resist a bit of a wind-up there!

Just had a laugh out loud moment... Sky Sports are reporting that Alex McLeish has been installed as an early favourite to take the Liverpool job!

Fran's source was right, so! I'd have to disagree with you about Dalglish... being in charge of Liverpool for the club's worst league run in almost 60 years isn't the kind of stride they're looking for!

I agree that this issue has raged on long enough and shouldn't be dragged up again, but I have to take issue with the last part of your post there. Suarez was found guilty by a committee appointed by the FA of making racist remarks about Evra - that's why he received an 8-game ban. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/dec/20/luis-suarez-patrice-evra-racism http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/999477/luis-suarez-banned-for-eight-games-by-fa?cc=5739 http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11669/7404047/FA-reveal-Suarez-ban-reasons I'm not doing this to antagonise - just to state the facts.

Complete farce of a situation... O'Neill was doing a fantastic job at Villa, but Lerner wouldn't give him any transfer funds, so he left. Then Big Eck arrives and he's given money to spend. Anyway, McLeish is a free agent again and so is Heskey, so some poor club somewhere out there is in serious trouble! In other news, Ruud Van Nistelrooy retired today.