Weekend Variety (Sunday)

fbb Gets It Right! (unusually!)

The mystery tank wagon arrived yesterday and it was, indeed in a bashed Hornby box with a label for R227.

But, as your genius blogger modestly surmised, the wagon in the  box was not a Hornby model! Shock horror! Again as surmised, a Hornby R227 looks like this ...

... and even looks like that inside its original box!

What the seller had selled and the buyer had buyed was one of these; an Italian made Lima HO Shell tank wagon ...

... but fitted with Triang Hornby couplings for sale in the UK market.

Ironically Lima was later bought by Hornby and it's original Italian made UK models still find their way into the current Hornby production; but NOT the continental HO products.

This was a private sale sent with real genuine stamps as postage ...

... and fbb suspects that the seller did not know what was in his box!

Puzzle Picture 1

These were collector shoes that drew 12 volts current from the central rail of a Hornby Dublo 3-rail train set.

Puzzle Picture 2

Two young actors, Spencer Banks and Cheryl Burfield, were the stars of an ITV Science Fiction series called Timeslip, broadcast in the early 1970s.

They also appeared in the blog, pictured in year 2000 and the present day. 

A newly married fbb did not consider it appropriate to watch a children's TV series; although,  perversely, he always watched Dr Who!

The Way To Worry Waymo

Waymo s a brand of autonomous car, running as expensive Taxis in 'Frisco. 

So what happened?

It will have cost them plenty, but illustrates how easy it would be to disrupt a city's traffic using a flock of  confused "idiot waymos" as bait! The taxis turned up together, blocked the dead end and could not turn round!

And DDOS?

In essence, the techies at Waymo base had to disable the technology in the area and, probably, manually rescue their cars.

Criminal acts are not to be condoned, but Mr Walz's "prank" does illustrate the vulnerability of the technology. 

There are plenty of on-line posting about Waymo passengers being unable to get out of the car, and cars gong round in circles or just stopping in the middle of a road junction. As they said of the first "horseless carriages" ...

... "They will never catch on!"

Surely A Coincidence?

It is hard to see how the criminal element in our fractured society should decide that a nationalised SWR was easier to rob, vandalise or scam just because it was nominally in the thrall of UK government. This is especially true as the state ownership is currently a financial nicety - nothing has changed. 

fbb suspects that some back office clerk, anxious to preserve his/her employment, has been over-punctilious with his crime statistical analysis.

Conspiracy theory, anyone? Maybe an aggrieved deputy assistant to an under manager's deputy is angered at nationalisation and seeks to disrupt the process?

Cross About The Crossing

Since 1882, a chain ferry (a k a floating bridge) has carried Vectensians and their vehicular transport across the River Medina between East and West Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

The most recent ferry was hooked to its chains in 2017 and has been an utter disaster since. The ramps did not lower properly at high tide, leaving drivers stranded on board and brave passengers removing shoes and socks and paddling to shore!

Local comment is that the island's newspaper should headline when the service IS running rather than the more frequent occasions when it isn't. In 2022 signs on the approach roads were installed that could be illuminated remotely, so frequent were the closures.

But now this headline appears.

Since the current new-build arrived, there have been accusations, counter accusations and counter counter accusations.  It was the builders'fault; it was the designers' fault, it was the Council's fault for not specifying correctly, it was the Council's fault for not checking build progress; it was Mr Putin's fault; even it was the passengers' and drivers' fault for being so lazy when they could go by bus or drive both taking the long way round via Newport!

Now all the Council has to do is find the money to buy a new one.

Good luck with that, folks!

Tomorrow, hopefully, we seek some sanity in Denmark.

But maybe not?

 Next København blog : Monday 3rd Nov