PhilJ W

I would have laughed my head off if the bike that the idiot had lifted over the barrier (approx 1.25) had gone up with the barrier as it started doing. Not level crossing stupidity but on Facebook a couple of days ago there was a short film of a crossing in Eastern Europe with the traffic waiting for the train to pass. An engineering train hove into view moving very slowly, two wagons and one of those track machines called a TRAM, being pushed by a couple of guys in orange high vis.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Like Chris I am a bit of a late riser this morning, the reason is that I had a computer problem last night and again like Chris most of this computer talk goes right over my head. I knew what the problem was but changes to Firefox meant that I couldn't find the usual thing for dealing with it. The problem only needed the history and cookies cleaned out, in the end I phoned the Virgin Media help line and they sorted the problem out from India. Left a message for Deb on Facebook and I hope she'll be up and about before too long. Those of you still in work have a good POETS day and commiserations and congratulations where necessary.

You should try three dimensional chess, I wonder if there is a three dimensional chaturaji?

If you have masochistic tendencies and like chess you should try Chaturaji, thats if you can find three other masochists.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Nothing from Jock this morning? hopefully its because he's getting a nights undisturbed sleep, talking of which I overslept this morning. Last night was club night and our treasurer has been dismantling his layout, that has remained unused in his garage for several years and I was able to acquire some model buildings and other items, some of the buildings I had made for him. Another building that I had made is now going onto a club layout now under construction, this was made almost entirely from bits 'rescued' from odds and ends and offcuts left over from other projects. The building was intended to represent a timber processing plant and the 'dust extractors' were the caps from tubes of glue.

The Nash Metropolitan was designed in America for the American market. At the time it was just as costly to build a small car in America as it was to build a large one so they looked for a foreign manufacturer who was willing to build the cars for them. Several European makers took an interest but Austin was chosen. They were never badged as Austins they were sold in the US as a Nash product later just as 'Metropolitan'. Due to sales in the US not being up to what was expected Austin was allowed to market them in the UK again as Metropolitan.

Goodnight all.

It would be nice to see a R-T-R class 309. An even more specialised EMU model has recently been introduced in the case of the London Underground S stock, whereas the 309 sets have more liveries and can be made up in to 4, 6, 8 and 10 car sets prototypically to fit almost any layout.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. It looks as if the weather will be OK for the weekend as whats left of Hurricane Joaquin will split in two, one half heading up to Iceland and the other half going to the Bay of Biscay. Watching the BBC London local news this morning there was an item on the new research ship 'Discovery' that moored in the Pool of London this morning, I couldn't help thinking that it dwarfed HMS Belfast when it moored alongside. Apparently tours of the vessel are taking place but are now fully booked. Jock, you seem to be getting better but very slowly, I hope that things pick up in the next few days and commiserations and congratulations where necessary to other ER's.

Hopefully mine is coming soon then.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Belated birthday wishes BoD and a happy anniversary to Rick and the missus. Back on the subject of ties, I dug one out to see if I could still tie one, the answer is no I'd forgotten. In my younger days I used to wear a cravat with an open necked shirt in preference to a tie anyway, its a pity that they seem to have gone out of fashion entirely now. I did wear one for a wedding once and received compliments from several people and some of the younger ones asked me what it was. Just watched the final 'New Tricks' episode, nice to see a good series go out on a high, and I wonder if they will do a few specials in future.

The flatbed and low-loader are only in the prototype stages. On the Facebook page it was stated that they and some other models were awaiting production slots.

I haven't worn a tie for years, I think the last time was at my brothers second marriage, about 10 years ago, I just hate the bloody things.

It was the earlier TN7 that I drove, it was hired from B&Q to carry some items that were too big to go in a car. B&Q used to have a small number at their larger outlets that they hired out to customers on an hourly basis. Needless to say that despite being little more than a year old it was showing plenty of signs of (mis)use, no doubt contributing to their rarity today. Present legislation means that although similar vehicles are still manufactured they are not allowed in the EU because of the lack of collision protection (no crumple zone).

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Commiserations and congratulations where necessary. I haven't looked in on the 'driving standards' thread this morning to see who's frothing, the temptation to get the big wooden spoon out is almost irresistible but can you stir froth? I hope Hurricane Joaquin is still going to give us a miss but the weather map for Friday shows it sitting in the Atlantic just west of Killybegs. The event I hope to go to on Sunday was washed out a couple of years ago by bad weather. The show is the Canvey bus museums end of season show, the only place where they can display the buses and larger vehicles is in the lowest part of the island, the museum itself is given over to sales stands and cars and other small items are displayed in the school grounds adjacent to the museum.

No, what you do with it.

It depended very much as to what was put on the V5 documents. If the dealer when the car was first registered conscientiously put the exact engine size, in the case of the Fiesta 1117 cc, the DVLA deemed it as liable for the full tax whereas if the dealer had put down 1.1 litre as was on the badges the car was liable for the lower rate.

Goodnight all.

A grandfather usually drove his 5 year old grand daughter to school. One day he was not feeling too well so his wife drove the little girl to school. That evening the little girl told her parents that travelling with grandma was completely different. When they asked her how it was different she said "Nanny and I didn't see a single ######, blind bastard, foreign prick or ###### (Boris) on the way to school." EDIT the 'censored' word is what you are if you have a caber.

Haven't seen a Honda Acty for a long time. Horrible things to drive with the gear lever sticking out from beneath the seat, changing gear was like trying to stir week old cold porridge. Many of the trucks were converted to trailers by the simple expedient of removing the cab and mechanicals. The rear axle was of the De Dion type with a separate driveshaft to each wheel, just add the A frame and you had a trailer, until it rusted away of course.

Yes, but we are not talking about zebra crossings but some of the traffic light controlled ones where the red light means STOP. When it comes to zebra crossings many people, pedestrians and motorists alike seem to be unaware that the actual crossing is between the Belisha beacons, so if there is an island with a flashing Belisha beacon that crossing is in fact two separate crossings and pedestrians should stop on the island and check that it is safe to proceed.

There are signs of a high pressure system moving in from the east that will hold it back. This will mean dry sunny weather but bl@@dy cold.

Thanks for that Pete. It looks as if its heading for the bay of Biscay, I hope to attend an outdoor event on Sunday so fingers crossed, its either going to be wet or cold according to the long term forecast.

I recall a similar incident many years ago when such crossings were new. An elderly lady went to cross when the 'green man' showed when an off duty police officer had to pull her back. Two cars that were probably racing tried to beat the lights, the ladys shopping bag bounced off the windscreen of the first car making the driver think he had hit her so he jammed on the brakes, the second car then piled into the back of the first. Fortunately there was no casualties except for the two cars which were write-offs, and apparently the insurance companies received the details of the accident they refused to pay out (two two year bans for dangerous driving.)

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I visited the 'driving standards' thread last night and it seems to be drifting back into safer territory, supermarket car parks/parking, all contributors are able to park their cars perfectly every time apparently. On the subject of over tightened wheel nuts, when I had a set of new tyres fitted a few months ago I noticed that the fitter set a torque setting on his air wrench, probably due to the alloy wheels that are fitted to most cars nowadays which can be damaged by 'over torqued' wheel nuts. I must confess to smiling when people talk of laxatives but a few days ago I certainly had no need of them, I shouldn't over indulge with blue cheese as much as I do. Commiserations and congratulations where necessary and I hope you all have a good day all.