Broithe

To my eternal shame, I live about 25 miles away and I've never been on the SVR - I can always go some other time.....

Spectacular bus fire in London today - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31998937 .

Good man - tell 'her' I said you could have an extra shilling this week. It might help somebody find it in the future - like me, for instance....

I doubt they would even let you in. I've had it a few times, but not with actual coppers (yet). One of the problems is that the definition of 'public place' is very woolly here - it can depend upon whether they think it's public or not. It can be impossible for the ordinary person to know if they are in a public place or not, or whether it is a highway or private land - and the 'security' person hassling them often doesn't really know either. I had a part in a film and we accidentally filmed in a non-public part of a shopping area - the bouncer got very agitated about it - we got him to define where the boundary was and filmed on the edge of it - there was no real issue, just him being a jobsworth. I had a bloke run out of a school and tell me that I couldn't take a photograph of it without paying for the right. I was on the highway and he was talking rubbish. I suggested that he write down his (illegal) demand for money from me, whilst I explained the law on obstruction of the highway. This went on for a while - I still have a picture somewhere of him trying to jump in the way of my picture of the building.

This will be very useful to anybody going this route - it might be worth somebody with access correcting the typo in the title heading, for when this gets searched for, as I'm sure that it will for some time to come.

You can find yourself in this situation - it's often about them "being seen to be doing something" and then being reluctant to back down when their lack of lawful authority is challenged. You've probably got rather less of this sort of problem over there. It can be a lot worse than this.

You can get quite a lot of interference over here, in all sorts of situations, from people who will decide that you can be treated as a potential terrorist - http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/04/14/photographers-rights-the-ultimate-guide/ - you can't even directly ring a station here, just national call-centres. It's dropped off a bit in recent years, but you do need to know the real rules and stand your ground.

..and closed again - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-31985102 .

"Sun kinks" were a problem, even with jointed rails, in very hot weather. The straighter the track, the more of an issue it is, you can 'lose' some expansion on bends. There's often an issue with track on bridges, where the structure may expand at a greatly different rate to the track.

There is what could be a weld fillet in the top, immediately above the break in the bottom. I wonder if there has been an extension welded in at some point, and the tensile part has failed, propagating to the weld up the back of the web with the shackle through it? Looking through the gaps in the wheels, it does appear that both sides have failed in similar ways.

Just walk round to the other side of your iPad.

Peco do one.

I looked to see where you were a while back - you'll be lucky if you can get last month's Farmers Journal in colour...

"This is a near miss, that was a far away miss..."

He just needs to be given some responsibilities - and a uniform - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_(cat) .

Just don't rest it on the bomb......

When it's exploded, it's not a bomb any more.

At least they're not ten-ton Grand Slams... Odd that they seem to have been found before, though.. We had a stick on the factory in WW2 and only one really went off, and nobody really knew how many there had been, either. Around 1985, we were digging a pit in the test area and hit an object about 15" diameter, where there was not supposed to be anything - it turned out to be an unknown, abandoned drain-pipe, but it was exciting for a while....

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/news/bomb-halts-train-services-33593/ - Why do they always describe them as "unexploded"? If they had already exploded, then they wouldn't still be "bombs" and we wouldn't be worried about them exploding. Using the phrase "dug up again" is slightly worrying. Note - I have carefully avoided saying "bombs found by the railway in Kent", in case I inadvertently provoked the evacuation of Cork station.....

I was an early adopter of CDs in the mid-1980s, and people often came to my house for a demo, before committing themselves to a purchase. One of my demonstration CDs was a very good steam train sounds one. During one demonstration, the 'target' got up to stand in the centre of the room, for the best effect. A low-loader, similar to that above, complete with steam engine, sailed slowly down the street, exactly in time to the sound-track. Poor chap thought he was hallucinating.

True high speed rail is not something that seems to happen over here - the UK has 68 miles of proper high-speed track. Starting at about the same point in time, China now has 7,450 miles.... The 800s are rated for 140mph, but there won't be many places that they will actually do that for a long time to come.

You need the weather for it.....

Nigerian Guinness is somewhat different to the white man's drink - and deceptively strong - 7.5%. In fact, a 600ml bottle contains more than the UK Government's recommended daily alcohol allowance - so, I always open one before midnight and finish it just into the next day, can't be too careful. The small bottles can often be found in Tesco and the large bottles are available via the internet.

The view from the Space Station today.