Where Worlds Collide

Those of you who have been watching the news, and live in the UK will know we had another fatal rail accident on Friday. Seven people died when London to Kings Lynn express derailed at 100mph.

Now the dust has settled, it seems the cause was a faulty set of points which moved under the train, and the cause of the fault looks like inadequate maintenance. And the cause of that seems to be the fragmentation of responsibility following privatisation, with a maze of contractors and subcontractors all passing the blame around.

To anyone on continental Europe reading this – Don’t privatise your railways. Not only will services deteriorate, but it will cost lives as well

Of course, I do have to point out that despite all this, rail is still far safer than going by car. The sort of measures that would reduce the 3000-a-year death toll on the roads are politcally impossible, things like strict enforcement of speed limits, black boxes on all cars and not giving driving licences to those who are psychologically unfit to get behind the wheel of a White Van.

Haven’t said much here lately – but I have bought a new scanner – so I’ll post a couple of pictures from my Cornish holiday

The signalman at Lostwithiel passing the single-line token to the driver of a loaded clay train bound for Fowey

The weekly Penzance to St. Blazey oil tanks at Par, just about to run round.

Well, the on-line games continue. An adventuring party have returned to the city in some disarray, having to explain how they managed to lose all their red-shirts, meanwhile the one who thinks he’s to blame suffers from large amounts of angst. Over in Calbeyn, the Anthill has caught fire.

Meanwhile, the other adventuring party get closer to their goal, having eliminated the guards.

A long time since any updates, because I’ve been on holiday.

After a couple of days RP-ing at Gypsycon with the people from Dreamlyrics, I headed off for a few days in Cornwall, staying in the Mount Royal Hotel in Penzance, just above the station. Regrettably there are no longer any class 37s in action this far west, but the 47s are making a final stand.

Another weekend, another railway exhibition, and Minitrix have declared all-out war on my bank balance. Not content to bring out those grain hoppers, they’ve now re-released the Swiss Euro-City coaches, and They Must Be Mine!!

Overall the show was a disappointment, though. Far too many traders, especially box-shifters, and not enough layouts, especially modern ones. Not as bad as Doncaster, but nothing like as good as Nottingham.

I have just virus-scanned my brain using the Human Virus Scanner, and it appears that I’m infected by the Prog Rock virus. As if I didn’t already know that…

Why is it that as soon as I move into a flat conveniently situated for work, they decide to move offices leaving me with a 70-minute commute?

Still, it has meant my reading time has dramatically increased, now I’m reading on average a book every week-and-a-half, which means I’ve had the chance to re-read Lord of the Rings after seeing the film. (See Mark Rosenfelder’s comments about film and book – I find myself agreeing with much of what he says)

Of course, being a railway enthusiast, a commute out of Manchester Piccadilly has it’s attactions; I’m seeing the last stand of the Virgin Cross Country 47s, and even more venerable 43-year old class 101 DMUs, of which half-a-dozen or so are still running on services to Marple or Rose Hill, including the green-liveried one known as ‘Daisy’.