Sorry state (non-Cov)

Hi all It won't take many incidents like "can you believe this!" to ruin the preserved railway's reputation. What a "mistakatomaka"!

Fans of Warwickshire County Cricket Club will surely be saddened by this news

Find them

15 year olds!

Hi MR, As if that news cannot get any harder to cope with, the latest quote is . . . "Two 15-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and remain in custody".

A council paid £43,000 in compensation and legal fees after a child got a splinter from sitting on a park bench. Croydon Council made the big payout after the youngster got injured on a playground bench in one its parks in south London. The child needed surgery after the incident and the local authority paid out the whopping sum. The claim is one of 1,600 made against Croydon Council since 2014, and according figures obtained by the London Evening Standard, total £6million. The largest payout was £181,000 when someone tripped on a pavement which was damaged during council improvement works. The local authority also dished out £81,000 when a man jumped over gates of a car park because he thought they were locked - and broke his leg. The list of compensation and legal fees for the council and claimant which were included in the overall total for each case was released under the Freedom of Information Act. A spokeswoman for Croydon Council told the newspaper: 'Where appropriate the council will robustly defend claims against it. 'In this case (of the child's splinter) it was deemed by the court the claimant should receive damages of £2,760, and we abided by this decision.'

Here in Brighton we have a gay parade, and they charge about £18 to walk in a shopping street that normally costs nothing.

Is it me? What's wrong with the world in 2017? The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has begun disciplinary action against its chief executive Jonathan Ford for saying the next Wales manager could be "foreign", but "definitely not English". The FAW has set up a three-person panel to investigate a BBC Sport Wales interview in which Ford said: "We have always favoured Welsh people because arguably the passion is there. "Somebody said this earlier, Welsh most definitely, foreign possibly but definitely not English." Anyone hurt? Anyone offended?

Hi all Railway death in Cornwall My parents lived in Bodmin in the sixties & seventies, about as central & away from the coast as you can get in the county. I often heard stories, as well as knowing that folk did use the railway lines as walking home routes. This is the first instance of someone using a main route, the line from Plymouth to Penzance if that is what this tragedy turns out to be. A reminder of the perils of walking on railway lines. Lostwithiel has a branch line where trains still run to Fowey. I have seen folk using branch lines as walkways in Cornwall. The branch line takes off from Lostwithiel station, running at the side of the main line for a few hundred yards, before diverging along with the river. Who knows what happened regards this nineteen year old, who sadly lost her life.

Hi all With all the worlds gloomy news, to add to it, I thought that I recognised the huge former mill building fire in Manchester yesterday. It was a cotton mill, acquired by Courtaulds in 1964. Stalybridge, former Courtaulds Cotton Mill destroyed by Fire

"Britain has taken leave of its senses" - article

Very sad; Steam Loco hits car. The driver of the Merc appears to have ignored the siren & flashing lights, which were fully working. M&GN Joint Railway Society 5 hours ago "Today the Y14 was involved in a collision with a car. All crew and the car driver are OK. The Y14 appears to be OK bar a scratch on the buffer beam. The car is not OK. We do not want to discuss what has happened until we have a full report."

I was working in a signal box on a heritage railway when I received a call from the police to tell me they were attending a report of train hitting a car. Fortunately nobody was hurt in that incident either, but the first thought that went through my head was "Have we killed somebody" (in a less polite form). My training then kicked in and the railway provided a professional response, which I am sure the M&GN also did. My thoughts are with all those involved. It just goes to emphasise that Heritage Railways are not "Train Sets" and should be respected in the same way as main line railways. Peter.

Just to be clear - this was on the North Norfolk Railway

What the . . . . ?