Quote from: Steven B on January 19, 2026, 08:56:23 AMDo both.

 

...maybe...

I agree about Windows 11. Mrs Papyrus's new(ish) laptop came with it installed. She's got used to it but I find it very messy, so I'm sticking to 10 on my laptop. Hers also came with Copilot, which was very intrusive but we've managed to disable it.

Can't agree about the Met Office app, though. I think it's really good! Every feature I want, but much clearer and more readable. You can please some of the people some of the time!

Cheers,

Chris

You've got plate and pipe wagons there. Tube wagons were usually shorter (refer to Farish Tube wagon).

As well as metal pipes, the pipe wagon could also be found loaded with casks of beer, aluminium slabs or crates of "stuff" for the military.

The plate wagons would normally carry metal plates - a low stack of thin card painted a steel colour would work. They'd also be used for a wide range of other loads, as mentioned above.

You'd find both in engineers use - sleepers, concrete cable troughs, signalling equipment, oil drums, gas bottles etc.

You could of course run them "empty" - a bit of left over wood packing and a couple of bits of sewing cotton for ropes would make for an interesting alternative.

Thank you Bob. That's cheered me up a bit. It even has some web cams of nearby locations so I can have a guess myself what the weather might do ( always important in Norfolk which is definitely a bit strange!)

Quote from: Bob G on January 19, 2026, 02:39:34 PMand these things - large toilet roll holders 

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsplate/e1567b63

I always thought a 'long low' was something a moo cow did

Quote from: alypar11 on January 19, 2026, 02:34:08 PM

Quote from: port perran on January 19, 2026, 02:22:17 PMAnd whilst on the subject, what about the updated Met Office weather app? What a mess they've made of that.

Absolutely agree. It's awful. Can't keep the forecast I want as the main one, it insists on telling me what I need, and where's the long range and videos. Absolutely awful. Anyone have better app recommendations?

I just had the very same rant about the new Met Office app. I've now installed yr.no on my PC and phone. Try it. It has graphs, tables, and err... facts and figures!

Bob G

Windows 11 has bits that are OK and that I appreciate however some bits are driving me up the wall - especially CoPilot which is trying to embed itself everywhere. I call it Clippy 2.0. Many may remember Clippy as a failed attempt by Microsoft to introduce an assistant back in the days of Windows 3.1.

CoPilot pops up asking if it can be of help at the most annoying of moments. And one cannot easily remove it as its embedded in Windows. In personal editions you can switch it off. And corporate admins can turn it off in corporate licenses if the corporate license has a paid CoPilot license - however otherwise it is really hard to stamp out - and what's worse is just when you think you have suppressed it using various tricks and fixes, Windows gets an upgrade and its all reinstalled again....

Unfortunately although I can dual boot to Linux there are things I need in a Microsoft environment but not their AI. And I am not anti-AI- I use both ChatGPT and Perplexity however they serve at my (dis)pleasure. I even allow Google to use it for search sometimes (although I have removed that as default since its summaries are often wrong and I am perfectly capable of defining my own refined search terms... ). Truth is, edge embedded AI is my day job - but its a different kind of AI and not thed half cooked slop producing tools.

Rant over (for now...  ).

Thanks Bob

I rather like the look of that toilet roll holder 

It seems that I could put just about anything on those wagons.
Watch this space.

Cheers
Martin

Hi Martin

Plate wagons were used for odd loads, like cable drums, bits of machinery,

tube steel https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brplaterunner/e21e731b4

Gun barrels https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lnerplate/e1023a3c2

Other wagon bogies https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brplate/e3d98bf49

and these things - large toilet roll holders 

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsplate/e1567b63

The world seems to be your oyster when it comes to loads.

Bob

Quote from: port perran on January 19, 2026, 02:22:17 PMAnd whilst on the subject, what about the updated Met Office weather app? What a mess they've made of that.

Absolutely agree. It's awful. Can't keep the forecast I want as the main one, it insists on telling me what I need, and where's the long range and videos. Absolutely awful. Anyone have better app recommendations?