Out of Retirement - Discussion thread

[jcf]

 

[Rheged]

Suppose the UK manages to keep a stock of Saladins and Saracens in reserve (it's a lot easier to store vehicles in the UK than it is aircraft) and then drags them out of retirement for Iraq/Afghanistan etc...?

Slat armour and anti-IED 'tables' on the rear should do nicely.

Or to patrol the wall when Scotland votes independence and leaves the UK? 

Hadrian's Wall brought out of retirement then?

There is a huge chunk of Northumberland  a fair bit of Cumbria NORTH of the wall.  Look at a map of Britain.....you will see that there are parts of the islands of the Hebrides SOUTH of Berwick upon Tweed!!

[zenrat]

Isn't there a chunk of the wall in Newcastle?

I used to always wonder, when driving North up the M1, where "The North" officially started as no matter how far you went it still appeared on the signs as if you hadn't got there yet.

[Rheged]

Isn't there a chunk of the wall in Newcastle?

I used to always wonder, when driving North up the M1, where "The North" officially started as no matter how far you went it still appeared on the signs as if you hadn't got there yet.

There's quite a lot of Wall in Newcastle, and I'm sure that our Geordie representative could be eloquent on this!  It's even under my mother in law's house in Carlisle.......she's not allowed to dig more than 1 metre down without getting a full archaeological team on site.

As to "The North", this is what a philosopher of my acquaintance calls a "Nebulous Concept".  It all depends where you live.  When I lived in Carlisle, people regarded anywhere north of a line drawn between York and Lancaster as "North" .  Manchester  and Liverpool get upset by this, as it puts them in the Midlands.  Many people in the south regard anything north of Watford Gap services as "The North"  and I do know people in Southampton who say the north of England is anywhere above the line of the M4.

It's all a matter of relatives (and where they live) as Einstein nearly said.

I would also refer you to a road sign portrayed in that magnificent diorama of   THE TRACK ROVER  https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=26984.msg416612#msg416612  with its comments on the enigmatic road sign  HADFIELD AND THE NORTH.

[kitbasher]

I used to always wonder, when driving North up the M1, where "The North" officially started as no matter how far you went it still appeared on the signs as if you hadn't got there yet.

Starts at Finchley.

[tigercat]

According to some it Starts at the non Watford Gap Watford .

Would an alternative  Green Godess fit the theme ?

[Nick]

According to some it Starts at the non Watford Gap Watford .

Would an alternative  Green Godess fit the theme ?

Seeing as the Green Goddess fleet sat in storage in Lincs for decades barely seeing any use, then yes.
Or do you have another vehicle in mind? Ex-WW2 ladder trucks fighting fires in the 1990s? 

[kitnut617]

and I do know people in Southampton who say the north of England is anywhere above the line of the M4.

I'd say that's a bit too far north     I'd say anything above town, in my case that would've been Poole   

[NARSES2]

As far as I'm concerned the North starts on the far side of the Thames  As for Manchester I almost convinced a resident of that fair city that it lay in the Midlands. It only just lies in the northern half of the mainland UK, had him quite worried for a while 

As for Hadrian's Wall being basically in England ? That's why we have the Antonine one we can always use if and when necessary 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall

[Nick]

I have an idea for a steam loco sent to the scrap yard in 1964 and later found in the 1990s under a pile of junk. Restored and put back into service on a preserved steam line. Wearing a new/retro style livery.

What do you think of this?

[Rheged]

I'm with you on this, having already suggested  certain BR steam locos in current liveries.   DRS liveried Garrett, anyone ?

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=drs+livery&FORM=HDRSC2  DRS livery

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=garrett+locomotive&qs=CustomSearch&pq=garrett+loco&sc=8-12&cvid=9D35537DF3254302A6B66214BDEDD594&sp=1&form=QBIR  Garrett loco.

[Doug K]

It's all south to me 😉

Isn't there a chunk of the wall in Newcastle?

I used to always wonder, when driving North up the M1, where "The North" officially started as no matter how far you went it still appeared on the signs as if you hadn't got there yet.

There's quite a lot of Wall in Newcastle, and I'm sure that our Geordie representative could be eloquent on this!  It's even under my mother in law's house in Carlisle.......she's not allowed to dig more than 1 metre down without getting a full archaeological team on site.

As to "The North", this is what a philosopher of my acquaintance calls a "Nebulous Concept".  It all depends where you live.  When I lived in Carlisle, people regarded anywhere north of a line drawn between York and Lancaster as "North" .  Manchester  and Liverpool get upset by this, as it puts them in the Midlands.  Many people in the south regard anything north of Watford Gap services as "The North"  and I do know people in Southampton who say the north of England is anywhere above the line of the M4.

It's all a matter of relatives (and where they live) as Einstein nearly said.

I would also refer you to a road sign portrayed in that magnificent diorama of   THE TRACK ROVER  https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=26984.msg416612#msg416612  with its comments on the enigmatic road sign  HADFIELD AND THE NORTH.

[Weaver]

I would also refer you to a road sign portrayed in that magnificent diorama of   THE TRACK ROVER  https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=26984.msg416612#msg416612  with its comments on the enigmatic road sign  HADFIELD AND THE NORTH.

Never fails to amaze me how people remember that one: thank you.

Sadly the snow has yellowed on the diorama, making it unexhibitable without provoking coarse comment. One of these years I'll get around to revamping it, at which point I may even fix the spelling mistake...


All of this stuff about "The North" is perfectly simple:

Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside, Derbyshire and the northern bit of Staffordshire are in the North West Of England, despite being south of Cumbria which is the most north-westerly county of England south of Scotland, while Northumberland, Durham and Tyne & Wear are in the North East Of England despite being just south of Scotland like Cumbria and north of Yorkshire which is as far north as Lancashire, Cheshire et al and therefore south of Cumbria. The only logical conclusion from this is that Cumbria and Yorkshire are not in England at all...

<ducks and runs...>

[jcf]

   ^^^^^^^

[NARSES2]

I have an idea for a steam loco sent to the scrap yard in 1964 and later found in the 1990s under a pile of junk. Restored and put back into service on a preserved steam line. Wearing a new/retro style livery.

What do you think of this?

But to tweak it a bit. How about during one of the oil shortages of the period a still nationalised B.R. bring it back into service to run on one of the cross-country routes ? You could then have them trawling museums and preservation societies for more of the lovely old things