PhilJ W

Off to watch the second part of Billy Connolly's rail trip around America shortly.

Since 2010 the government funding for road repairs has been cut by over 50%.

Yet there are photos supposedly from that time that show all four chimneys. One in particular can be dated from the 1930's, I can only surmise that the photographs have been altered. Its quite possible the owners/builders wanted to show the building as it would be when complete.

Another one to add to Cheeseysmiths list, assume that most other drivers are registered blind as they must be the number of times I've heard of people not seeing a large or brightly coloured vehicle. Many years ago Essex police pulled a car that was creeping through roadworks at 10 mph causing a tailback, when they asked the driver why he was going so slow he produced the documents showing he was registered blind.

Morning all from the land of the Estuary. Car duly collected for repair yesterday and should be back early next week, when it was up on the flatbed the damage was easier to see and it was dented a bit more than I thought at first but its still highly unlikely that it would be a write off, most of the dents are on the door and wheel arch and the alloy wheel is easy to replace if neccessary. The Renault Twingo they have given me while my car is under repair is a strange beast, apart from the horseshoe shaped steering wheel the boss isn't in the centre, gives a strange sensation when driving. Nice to hear from Debs again and a bit of news from Clacton now would be welcome.

Goodnight all.

Its supposedly standard gauge as the box describes it as 'German railway track'. Metric standard gauge is 1445 mm, which divided by 72 should be a shade over 20 mm. However at £7.99 including postage its not too bad. The plastic rails will feature in my model PW yard after painting a suitable track colour. The rails are 14 cm long, 35 feet in 00 scale, does anyone know the usual lengths of a section of rail before CWR replaced it?

I've purchased from e-bay a plastic kit (1/72 scale) for a length of track intended for military models such as rail mounted guns. I'm wondering if I should mention it on the Peco bh track thread. Actually its not too bad, I intend to replace the plastic rails with nickel silver rail. The plastic rails themselves are of flat bottom profile and very near code 75 and actually have fishplate holes in the ends. There are four sections of track each just under six inches long, the gauge is 21mm, Irish broad gauge anyone?

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I had to wait in yesterday morning for the hire car to be delivered only for them not to turn up until gone 1 o'clock leaving me little time to get other things done, it meant I was in however for a parcel to be delivered. Now I have to wait in this morning for my car to be collected for repair. The hire car, a Renault Twingo feels very strange to drive, largly due to the weird horseshoe shaped steering wheel. Which brings me to another point, its a glaring metallic red colour. I suppose thats because the car hire companies take the less popular colours because the dealers cant shift them. Also there is a lot of light grey and white plastic inside which I can't help thinking would be a right mess after a week of the school run. I have to wait in again this morning for my car to be collected but as two more parcels are due for delivery today as well perhaps the morning isn't completely wasted.

Goodnight all.

Some people seem to be under the impression that it was two lanes merging. In fact when you look at the video it is two lanes dividing. At the start of the video you can see that the white line between the lanes has shorter gaps indicating that the lanes divide. At the start of that 'heavier' line there should be signs saying GET IN LANE but caravan man apparently chose to ignore this. Also you will note that early in the video the car in front of the lorry slowed down to let caravan man in but caravan man didn't take the opportunity to do so. When I was commuting by car on the A13 and there was an incident on the QE2 bridge I was often delayed by the selfish idiots trying to force their way on to the slip road at junction 30. The A13 was three lanes wide approaching the junction with the nearside lane marked off for traffic leaving the A13, similar to the lanes in the video, this extending over two miles before the junction. What happened whenever there was a problem on the bridge was that there was a queue of slow moving or even stationary traffic in the nearside lane. Then you would get a second queue in the middle lane sometimes as long as the first queue, all trying to force their way in. And on some occasions some car drivers try to force their way in from the third (outside) lane blocking the A13 completely.

Right of weight.

If you watch the film carefully you will see that the caravan must have come in contact with the side of the truck, this is what turned the towing vehicle sideways. I have been told that the caravan driver received a ban and was ordered to take a special driving test before regaining his licence. The truck driver was exonerated from all blame.

How was he responsible? The caravan driver tried to force his way in to a slow moving lane of traffic across the hatched markings separating the lanes. What he should have done is to have got in lane sooner and queued up like the other motorists. In fact it was reported elsewhere that the caravan driver was successfully prosecuted for careless driving.

I have just purchased a dash cam, I will be installing it as soon as the car has been returned from the repairers. I decided to get one when my door mirror was shattered by an idiot coming the other way, on the way to get the dash cam another car pulled out of a side turning and hit my car. The second driver stopped and exchanged details but the one who broke the mirror needless to say didn't stop.

Another caravan in trouble What gets me is he is clearly in the wrong but still rants at the other driver.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I seem to be lucky with parcel deliveries, the Royal Mail can't be faulted and even some of the ones that a lot of people moan about are not to bad. In fact I'm expecting a parcel or two today and I'm also waiting in for the hire car to arrive and my own car to be taken in for repair. As for passports, mine is a about a year overdue for renewal and I can't remember how I renewed it last time but I think it was by post. I was in favour of I.D. cards as the scheme proposed meant that they would be usable in the EU instead of (more expensive) passports. Thats it for now and I hope you all get over the 'HUMP' day today asap, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Spent time this afternoon sorting out the insurance claim for the car. I am being provided with a hire car whilst mine is in for repair even though its only for a few days. Commiserations to Bob and Baz, its only when they are gone that you wish you'd asked a lot more about the family, its all those memories and experiences that are lost forever.

When we had an organised visit to the Mary Rose a couple of years ago we pre-booked our tickets, just as well as the queue was two hours long. Could be worse, it could be Donald Trump calling you. Another word for the ER dictionary, not that I'm suggesting we type tripe though.

A separate pack of assorted models would be preferable from my point of view.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not much to report this morning but still waiting for the replacement door mirror to arrive so not venturing out until lunchtime after the postman calls. That is a low bridge version, you can see the four abreast seats on the top deck. The Maidstone and District Atlantians that replaced some of the Hastings trolleybuses were of this type. The lower ceiling downstairs made them very claustrophobic.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Just watched a couple of interesting programs. The first was on the Panamanian law firm that was heavily involved in money laundering and tax dodging. I can only hope that the hacker who exposed what was going on covered their tracks well especially as President Putin is involved, the polonium is probably ready and waiting. The second was Dan Snows program on the Vikings, interesting though I thought it was a bit long drawn out, an hour would be sufficient. As others have said, no news from Clacton is good news so goodnight all.

Aren't they the same people who frequent model railway exhibitions with a rucksack and BO.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The coaches you are talking about are one-and-a-half deckers with a raised rear section for luggage. Usually used on airport services when airline passengers carried a lot of luggage. Bristol were the first to develope the low floor double decker, the Lodekka, other manufacturers followed suit, Dennis built the Loline which was basically a licence built Bristol some of which had the Bristol back axle supplied by Bristol. AEC followed suit with the Renown/Bridgemaster not a bad design but being such a specialised type they were not very common. Leyland/Albion made the Lowlander which was an abonimation, basically the front end of a Leyland PD with a low floor back end, the first two rows of seats upstairs were on a box abot 18 inches higher than the rest of the floor with a maximum headroom of five feet. Southend had a few but got rid of them asap and replaced them with AEC's. Rear engined buses are easier of course to make low floor but the Leyland Atlanteans if a low height version was required still had the sunken gangway upstairs at the rear. Rather surprisingly these low height Atlanteans replaced some of the Hastings trolleybuses which were normal height.