All posts by Tony Blews
Grim Up North
It can be hard at times to define where The North is. Luckily, back in ancient times, two noted geographic scholars, William Ernest Drummond and James Francis Cauty, published a justified tract, listing places that were in the north,
Here I shall explore that work in full.
An Illustrated Guide to the Funicular Railways of Great Britain
The latest inductee to The Library of Cool is “An Illustrated Guide to the Funicular Railways of Great Britain” by Amy Bartle.
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Intelligent Listening For Beginners
Back in 1987, Chris Boucher created the TV series Star Cops, and accidentally foretold everything about your daily life.
All of Merseyrail in One Day
A while ago, 2017 to be exact, I started working on a plan to visit every Merseyrail Terminus in one day, passing through every station at least once. Originally I planned to start and finish at Southport, while on holiday, but plans changed and I was going to try again in April 2020. Then Covid hit.
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Pizza Maths
Ordering a pizza used to be a hassle. Hunt down the leaflet, phone the number, recite the order, get them read in back to you, tell them your address, get them to read it back to you, put the phone down and hope for the best.
Now in the modern world, the apps make it all so simple. There is only one real dilemma left in the process… What size pizza gives you the best value for money?
DX Commander RF Goggles
In which Callum McCormick (DX Commander) receives his prototype RF Visualization Goggles…
Model Villages, by Tim Dunn
After saying that there was a need for a list of all the Model Villages in the UK, I was alerted to this book, by the nice @MrTimDunn himself.
Amerton Railway Steam Gala, July 18th 2021
Its been about two years since our last visit to Amerton, so we went up there for the 2021 Steam Gala…
Blackpool Balloon 710
710 was built in 1934 as open top streamline double deck car 247.
During WWII, all 13 top toppers were given roofs, to enable year round use.
Originally, it probably looked a lot like it’s sister car, the later 706 Princess Alice. Alice had also been enclosed, but was rebuilt as an open-topper following a collision: