Hey Rachel

[Rachel]

olroy2044 said:

As is obvious from my posts, I am a diehard airplane buff. But my affection for machinery encompasses anything that pops, roars, whirs, clicks, shakes the ground, goes fast-------whatever? :-) Roy

Hi Roy. Nice to see a new face posting.

Perhaps it's unusual for a girl, but I've always loved planes and trains. I get a few odd looks when I turn up at some of the rail open days with my camera.

[Rachel]

Thank you Stephen .... very interesting.

I'm afraid my memories of an "integrated, publicly owned British Rail" were of an underfunded run down system that the government really didn't want to spend money on. That was what it's last years were like here in East Anglia. At least with privatisation we got some new trains and some new money invested. I'd admit that it's by no means a perfect system now being too defragmented and in many instances badly run.

[Rachel]

I'm sure that you are right Stephen but I still think that many people look at the pre-privatisation railway with rose-tinted spectacles . We still get a lot of hand-me-downs though Perhaps I just remember the good days of the Britannias and the early mainline diesels (Progress by Great Eastern!).

I don't think that we will get the kind of government that you want They all tax us to the hilt but there is never enough money to spend on worthwhile things.

Unfortunately I can't afford to travel on the trains anymore. OK, I can get a cheap deal to London but anywhere else costs a fortune.