Broithe

I'm essentially in the same position - mine is fourteen now, but running beautifully. In that time, it has had both front callipers stick, a pair of rear dampers and a ball-joint - plus three sidelight bulbs. I don't do a lot of miles, in fact this car has only ever once gone over 250miles/400km in a 24 hour period once in all that time and it almost always ends up back at home, so an EV range would be generally OK for me. Plus, having had a motorbike in the days when most garages were shut at night and weekends, range anxiety is not a great fear for me.

There may be people who 'go EV' for 'green' reasons, whether they are true or not, but I suspect most people do it for essentially economic reasons. 'Liquid fuels' are likely to get steadily more expensive and, on the Big Island at least, 'clean air' zones are proliferating, making driving in the larger cities a steadily more complicated business, if you want to avoid a fine for being spotted by a camera and not paying the charge, if you even know there is one. There will only be more and more of this. Older vehicles will be steadily charged more, by various means, whether we like it or not. The pressure will steadily increase, though, for some people, the threshold may still be a long way away. It's a matter of considering where you are in the whole scheme of things. Less transport is a very significant thing, if you can do it. When I started work in the 70s, few people really needed to drive to work, most were within three miles - I know few now who don't need transport to get to their workplace and, in the UK, there is great pressure to end the 'work from home' fashion. It was always my mission statement that I was not going to 'pay money to go to work', but that would be seen as odd now. As for the 'throw-away society', I live near The Tip when I'm on the Big Island and, when I go there, I almost need a blindfold, or I would be hurling myself into the skips on rescue missions. The sheer scale of what is flung away is startling. When I had a proper job, I had a (completely unofficial) twice-daily skip visit - the stuff I rescued was remarkable - people would actually come to me and ask if I had rescued things that they now wanted again, sometimes just days later. The maddest thing I ever came across was doing a few trade shows at G-Mex in Manchester. An old railway station with about two acres of floor. Twice a week it would be carpeted in two colours, stands and aisles. At the end of each use, after the weekend show or the mid-week show, it was all pulled up and skipped, and two new different colours went down for the next lay-out. I'm still using some of the grey carpet that I got from that skip - "Take it all!", is what I was told when I asked if I could have some.

I, and possibly a good few others. like to see the fiddle yard for many reasons, not least of which is the opportunity to see all (or most) of the stock that is available, if not actually in use on the scenic section at the time. Also, the various arrangements that people use for interchanging stock can also be a great interest, some can be quite ingenious, keeping the size down, but not suitable for the 'real' part of the layout. In an exhibition setting, a passing viewer may get a better sense of the whole possibilities of the layout than he might by a watching few minutes operation via the scenic section. having seen other stock in the yard, he may make a point of passing by later, in order to catch it in use. However, it is your layout.

In the days when I was still using trains on the Big Island, "events" were fairly regular, especially in the evenings and at weekends. It was my practice to consult calendars of sports fixtures for some guidance on the risks, but mistakes could still happen. On a few occasions, coppers did eventually intervene, but always "locals" from wherever we happened to be. With the advent of mobile phones, it should be a lot easier to arrange interventions - in the old days, you had to rely on the train staff to do it, and their general policy seemed to be to avoid escalating matters by intervening. Despite living near a WCML station for forty years, I've never seen a BTP officer on a train - in fact, I've only ever seen two, and they seemed to be in the station simply because a foreign dignitary was arriving to see his son at a nearby helicopter training establishment.

The Flying Banana.

And the language difficulties...

Ireland is reasonably well-placed for wind energy - lots of empty space and wind - and much less reluctance about onshore wind than in the UK. Currently running at 68% 'renewable' over the last 24 hours. http://smartgriddashboard.eirgrid.com/#roi Most of that 'renewable' will be wind. It's also noticeable that there is a far higher proportion of solar-powered road signs in Ireland than in the UK, where most electrified signs are mains-powered, even new ones*. There's lots of potential to wean off fossil fuels as technology changes. There will always be the "it's not 100% reliable, therefore there's no point doing any of it" brigade, but we have the An-225 going over today - a hundred years ago, it was "all broomsticks and teacloths and you would never get me in one of them"... * I was painting a fence for someone only a few years ago and there was a School Crossing sign nearby, mains powered, with flashing amber lights for the appropriate times of day. I was amazed to see that the timing was not automated, but a bloke drove round all the signs in a battered old Fiesta and turned them on and off individually - if he remembered... This also involved stopping and blocking the traffic at each of the lights during the peak flow times of each day. I imagine that it still goes on like that - madness. Technology steadily improves all the time - back in the 80s, a cordless tool was hardly worth the bother - these days, I rarely plug a mains one in, unless I'm doing something 'serious'.

On its way again. https://www.flightradar24.com/ADB3982/29a6920e

All Scales Matter.

The whole thing is a multi-faceted problem. A significant factor in the 'industrialised' corruption is the way some nation's financial sectors facilitate it, whilst ringing their hands.

Park 'em up at Hazlehatch?

Information is power.

32 now...

That is exactly how this place works. It's almost a documentary.

Models flaunting themselves in front of the vehicle and draped over the bonnet - like a Motor Show in the 1970s. Great news, though. Probably a better bet than a Deltic-powered E Class.

I imagined a Turfburner with a couple of Deltics flung inside....

I think now that there are two models on that line - a CIE E class and a Superdeltic (Designed but not built), rather than one 'mythical beast', as I first read it.

It seems to be an issue of the odd use of a comma, when the Q Kits list has been separated by full stops elsewhere - the unbuilt proposed loco was not an Irish thing at all...

What is this legendary E class that is mentioned ^ ? Maybe for another thread?

I've found somebody actually selling coasters - might come in handy whilst you're still in the design phase? https://railwayposters.co.uk/products/rail499-southern-railway-for-sunshine-at-home-or-abroad-coaster

That article contains the phrase - "one of the cranes also had a cameo role in the 2002 film Reign of Fire, an apocalyptic action fantasy set in 2020 Britain" - sounds more like a documentary from our current perspective... Not mobile, but this still exists next to the canal in Tullamore.

Reports of disruptions do seem to have become more common lately - whether that is a reflection of an increased incidence of events is another matter.

I remember being promised Eurostars stopping in Stafford. They even printed timetables. It would have been possible to go to Avignon and back on a Saturday, with three hours there in the early afternoon - if it had actually happened, of course.