Broithe

Oh, now, that's really unfair. Should be at least two months, even for a first offence.

It's vaguely in the style of what Dunamase would have been like before the alterations..

I think it might be a bit more frequent than that - I seem to remember a photo with a submarine 'shopped' into it just a few years ago. I was thinking that it would make a nice diorama for someone who doesn't like wiring or making 21mm track. Here.

My understanding of how it works is that the magnet induces magnetism in the (presumably soft iron) parts of the couplers. The couplers will both be of the same pole, as their magnetism is induced from the same source, and, thus, they will repel each other. They can each only swing to one side - and, as they are necessarily facing each other, this means that they will swing in opposite directions, away from each other, thus uncoupling.

Mmm, an interesting destination in a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon. Apparently, Ballymun gets other references, too - if you want to make a rather specialist kids' layout, beyond the inevitable Thomas one...

A friend went to Albania in the early 1980s, during the Enver Hoxha times. A bit like going to North Korea now, but even more cut off from 'us'.

A bit of extra time to stay eating and build up my strength is OK by me. It can wait until Lent, as far as I'm concerned.

Rolling it to the kerb side can increase the excitement potential for pedestrians and cyclists. A separately-mounted beam requires substantial support, to avoid that coming down and adding to the danger. There's usually no simple, cheap and complete solution. There are often competing "owners", who may have different perceptions of the problem to them. In the one on the A51 above, it might have been 'better' to drop the road surface a few inches and forget about it, but that was a Highways issue and Network Rail 'owned' the problem.

They've done this one - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.879697,-2.1106227,3a,63.4y,290.68h,90.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suEiVvGFkOFfE3HugUaRFLA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 - near me a few years ago. It's only just 'under height', but it's out-of-town and so the speeds will be higher. I don't think it's been hit yet. With a skew bridge in this direction, though, you've also got the (slight?) possibility of rolling the impacting vehicle onto the opposing traffic. Using the bridge abutments is cheaper I suppose, though, than building new remote supports for a separately located sacrificial beam, although that could be arranged to be orthogonal to the impact direction.

Right, they arrived today - two hours after I did - perfect timing! The timing is good in another way, too - I note that my genuine Lisduff ballast has nearly disappeared in the last ten weeks - I'll be making a mix in the morning for a test run. Others have commented on the healthy weight of the box and it certainly is a 'solid' product - it was odd, though, that the green box on its own felt slightly heavier than when the whole lot was in the brown outer box. Guessing the weight of a held object can be very subjective.

I got stuck at the Alexandra Road lights this morning - I was turning left, but it all stayed red whilst this went on, so I took the opportunity to get these rather poor pictures. I did try to count the wagons, but I nearly fell asleep - there were lots...

Automatic, nosing in a bit fast, hit the throttle instead of the brake... ... then kept pressing the 'brake' harder... At a guess.

The term 'railcar' can confuse some people.

When I take over, all smoking restrictions will be suspended on every February 29th, just to remind people every four years of just what it was like. I was probably smoking the equivalent of about five or six a day, but at least I didn't have to actually pay for them.

There is this odd one near me, where the southbound side has about five feet more height than the northbound carriageway - both sides were originally the standard 'full-height', hence there being no height indications. The southbound side was dropped to allow transformer transporters to use it - usually in the middle of rush hours... https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.9019984,-2.1585535,3a,75y,173.07h,93.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sa_zuu1gSdHEmK59GYfdaxw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 We also have this one - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.7895133,-1.9951013,3a,75y,44.29h,93.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBXb9onOlxXhGlhtr9fAlJw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 - which, entertainingly, is actually on a bus route.

You would imagine so, on both accounts. I understand that you can, at a price, use a satnav that has a height allowance function - it may be that not everybody wants to pay for it. Also, the 'height' of some bridges, with an arch shape, is based on passing through it between marks, if the marks are there. The demolition of the motorway bridge in Kent a couple of years ago happened because the truck was on the hard shoulder, it would have passed under, if it had been on the main carriageway. For a 'standard' truck, the height may be fairly well known, but, if you've just nipped out to pick up a digger or a loaded skip, it may be a bit more work - or a guess. Another possible problem for some people is the imperial/metric confusion that can occur on these islands. There can even be problems where the height, where the road dips below the bridge, may be based on a vehicle length that can be shorter than the odd thing venturing through it.

Quadruple engine failures do also occur, although rarely, of course. The World's Biggest Glider incident must have been quite exciting at the time... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9 Nothing is certain.

As much as I spent my early years surrounded by aircraft, I've never seen a 747 close to - the nearest would have been around 1980, when I ventured to the lofty summit of Arderin and one sauntered over fairly low, presumably running into Shannon, perhaps? Other than that, I may never have seen one under 25,000 feet. Maybe I never will now... They were a massive leap forward when they first arrived on the scene, but that is fifty years ago now - nearly half-way back to the Wright brothers..

We shall see - or not... https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/1008/1170210-bridges-lorries/

Well, I've decided to give up waiting for the clearance sale on these now... No need to rush posting them, I won't be there until Tuesday next week.