Broithe

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.

More pictures have come back from the chemist. And he's found this video.

Done. There is no No Preference box for the O Gauge loco category - and then it let me vote more than once in the 00 wagon section...

It's easily done - I recently had a job to stop two doors clashing - the handles were chipping the paint - one was a fire door, so the closer actually stopped that hitting the other door, when it was closed, but the other door was 'free' and kept knocking the paint off the fire door. All it needed was something like one of those sliding bar things you sometimes see on cupboard doors and folding bureau desks, but a bit more substantial. Luckily for both of us, as it turned out, the elderly customer didn't have the internet on hand in her new flat, so I had to wait until I got home to search for a suitable item. I decided to Google an image search, to find a strong-looking one, but I couldn't think of what the 'official' term might be. My first guess was 'door restraint' - this was a mistake. About a quarter of the images involve young ladies tied to doors, definitely without adequate PPE...

This - https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/rolling-road.html - ?

If you're local, or have access to a local 'agent', there may be an 'evacuation plan' on display somewhere - this is the one at Ballybrophy - it'll be based on a current layout plan and, thus, could be expected to be using a fairly recent layout. That one is from 2009...

To be honest - Phew! I can eat again for a while....

Widespread rumours have started that it's not just the UK at risk, but the entire world. Expect announcements shortly along the following lines. Elon Musk to run Locomotive Drive Train Development. Bill Gates overseeing DCC matters. Jeff Bezos controlling Distribution. People weren't too concerned about Genghis Khan when he first started out with a few mates - but, once he got going...

I'm not at all attracted. In fact, I think the concept is a bit repulsive...