The Modelworld Project

[Captain Canada]

Our road trip to the job site this summer will be approx. 3200kms on road, plus the ferries

[rickshaw]

Our road trip to the job site this summer will be approx. 3200kms on road, plus the ferries

How close to the Pole? 

[NARSES2]

....but the biggest problem is that most motorways run N-S  or to London ( yes the M4 is E-W but...)
the fast A roads tend to be very busy and even they have a nasty habit of suddenly deciding to go through a town centre, just to snarl you up, and get you good and lost.

Exactly, the result of typical 'London-centric' thinking on the part of our road 'planners'. 

I know what you mean Kit but most UK Trunk routes have been there far longer then there have been roads really. All about getting to and from the capital by the king and his cohorts. So you can't really blame the planers for that. Nowadays and for a while back it's the protestors rather then the planners who are to either blame or not dependent on which side of the transport/countryside debate you are on. Me ? I blame Beeching  Although that is with a huge, huge amount of hindsight.

[Steel Penguin]

I will add one I remember ( at least im certain I do) the initial shape of the motorways  )(  is due to someone getting a map of the uk putting in pins of where the major citys were  and dipping it in soapy water, the resulting bubble walls follow the most efficient way of joining the points together,  the citys in question ( again I think) were Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff and London.  with the short cross join coming in at around  Birmingham,  with the extra M ways being slowly added since.  Now I cant remember where I saw this, it was either something on the OU at silly oclock on a sunday morning,  or it was one of the Jonny Ball shows...  but..  and my Goggle-fu is not up to finding anything.

[zenrat]

...and of course as any reader of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens will know the very shape of the M25 forms the sigil odegra in the language of the black priesthood of ancient Mu, and means "hail the great beast, devourer of worlds".  The thousands of motorists who daily fume their way around it's serpentine lengths have the same effect as water on a prayer wheel, grinding out an endless fog of low grade evil to pollute the metaphysical atmosphere for scores of miles around.

Additionally, a friend of mine told me in the early 90's that at certain points on the UK motorway network (all the same distance from London) there are sections with unusually concentrated clusters of overhead lights for no obvious reason.  Sections with no slip roads, no surrounding houses and particularly no bridges crossing over the motorway.
He claimed that these sections were built with the extra lighting as they were to be used as launch sites for US nuclear missiles that would be moved from Greenham Common, Upper Heyford etc via the motorway network to these points at the outbreak of war.  The lights were so they could see to set the things up for launching.
My arguments that 1) the motorway network is bad enough without refugees fleeing the cities 2) well lit sections of motorway make lovely targets for strike aircraft 3) placarded loads were not allowed through the Dartford Tunnel and 4) if an unemployed electrician knew this then in all likelihood so did the Soviets who would therefore have these coordinates locked in all fell on deaf ears.  Mind you, he also told me his phone was being tapped by Mi5...

[scooter]

Mind you, he also told me his phone was being tapped by Mi5...

Was he fond of tinfoil headgear as well?

[Rheged]

Additionally, a friend of mine told me in the early 90's that at certain points on the UK motorway network (all the same distance from London) there are sections with unusually concentrated clusters of overhead lights for no obvious reason.  Sections with no slip roads, no surrounding houses and particularly no bridges crossing over the motorway.
He claimed that these sections were built with the extra lighting as they were to be used as launch sites for US nuclear missiles that would be moved from Greenham Common, Upper Heyford etc via the motorway network to these points at the outbreak of war.  The lights were so they could see to set the things up for launching.

I read somewhere (possibly a Guardian or New Statesman article)  that these areas were planned in the late 70's as Harrier hides and/or air strips for Jaguars.  I assume that they were not built until the 90's due to the speed of decision making in MoD.

[PR19_Kit]

BAC actually did fly a Jaguar onto and off the M6 motorway nr. Preston just before they opened it to the general public. Doing anything like that on the western side of the M25 would be impossible now as the GATSO gantries are so close to each other you'd not even get a Gazelle down in the gaps between them!

[lancer]

BAC actually did fly a Jaguar onto and off the M6 motorway nr. Preston just before they opened it to the general public. Doing anything like that on the western side of the M25 would be impossible now as the GATSO gantries are so close to each other you'd not even get a Gazelle down in the gaps between them!

That's where the plasma torches come into play....

[PR19_Kit]

BAC actually did fly a Jaguar onto and off the M6 motorway nr. Preston just before they opened it to the general public. Doing anything like that on the western side of the M25 would be impossible now as the GATSO gantries are so close to each other you'd not even get a Gazelle down in the gaps between them!

That's where the plasma torches come into play....

Hehehe, nice idea. 

Reminds me of the situation in south west Holland in the 80s-90s when they started to plaster the country in GATSOs. The province nr Vlissingen decided it was having nothing to do with GATSOs and every single one was either chain-sawed off level with the ground or 'tyre-bombed' by having a large tyre dropped over it and then set fire. Inside a month there wasn't one working GATSO in the province! 

[I used to go to Holland via the Sheerness-Vlissingen ferry and drove past many of the wrecked GATSOs en route to my customers elsewhere in the country, which is how I know about this.]

[TallEng]

Would that be The Olau line Kit?
The Olau Hollandia and Brittania where indeed the dogs dangly bits for traveling between BFPO and England :thumbs up (they had stabilizer)
Good prices too
I always wondered why in the mad rush for the Ferry we never got nicked for speeding by the Dutch Fuzz!
(They used to drive Porsche 911 Targa's) 

Regards
Keith

[PR19_Kit]

Would that be The Olau line Kit?
The Olau Hollandia and Brittania where indeed the dogs dangly bits for traveling between BFPO and England :thumbs up (they had stabilizer)
Good prices too
I always wondered why in the mad rush for the Ferry we never got nicked for speeding by the Dutch Fuzz!
(They used to drive Porsche 911 Targa's) 

Regards
Keith

It certainly was, without doubt the BEST cross-Channel ferry service, and ruined by sheer bloody-minded unions. The owner of the line said 'Stuff you lot' and shut the whole thing down!

I could tell a tale about being stopped by one of those Polite Porsche Targas too.