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Some surprisingly exotic cars had cart springs, the Ferrari 250GT (including the GTO) and as late as 1966 the Maserati Ghibli.

I very much doubt that any airline has "placed firm orders" for this thing. More likely is that they have reserved delivery positions, which is exactly what happened with Concorde. Only BA and Air France eventually placed firm orders for Concorde, all the other airlines merely payed a deposit...

As anybody who watched Gerry Anderson's UFO will know, driving a vehicle while facing backwards is no big deal!

In terms of size I imagine that nothing will beat the previous incarnation of Birmingham Snow Hill in it's dying days.

I don't know how many times it has to be stated that the GC "London Extension" never reached London. Access to it's meagre four platform terminus was via the Metropolitan Line, with the later option of the GW/GC joint line via High Wycombe, which route was nearly ten miles longer to Leicester...

I suspect that many of the current pro-Palestinian protesters doing the rounds at the moment are the same bunch of anti-everything anarchists who jump on any bandwagon.

If you are going to turn old air force bases into airports, how about turning Elvington into Yorkshire International. 10,000 foot long runway and enormous apron (both courtesy of the USAF in the fifties) and more aligned into the prevailing winds than LBA.

The only train manufacturing site in the UK is at Derby. All the others are assembly operations using bits made elsewhere. Basically they are big sheds which could easily be repurposed as carpet warehouses or similar.

Not having seen the programme, I'm not sure where the character was supposed to have come from, but passenger shipping services from West Africa operated by Elder Dempster Lines did operate to and from Liverpool. East Africa services by both British India and Union-Castle operated from Tilbury

One wonders whether HST cab crash worthiness would have been better if ASLEF hadn't insisted on cab side windows and a bigger windscreen. Was any consideration ever given to adding a protective steel reinforcement to the cab? If you want to race a 1960's car like a Mini Cooper or a Lotus Cortina...

A popular misconception. All take offs and 99% of landings are performed manually. Autoland systems can only be used at the relatively few major airports with the highest category of landing aids, and even then are rarely used. Pilots have to maintain their flying skills.

Surely the whole problem with the idea of automating trains is the constant advance of technology. Any kit you install will be obsolete inside ten years, so there will be nobody to maintain it and no spares available. You would be ripping old stuff out and installing new stuff in perpetuity.

If you have enough clout you can avoid the "problem" of having buildings listed. The owners of Heathrow Airport were allowed to demolish all of the 1950's central area buildings (Queens Building, Europa Building, latterly known as terminal 2 and the original control tower buildings) without a...

Exactly so. Which is why the idea of everyone getting rid of their cars in favour of driverless cars/pods that can be called up at a moment's notice would never work. My car is full of my junk that I don't want to lug around with me whenever I get out.

The 737 long predates the current rail transport operation. The basic aircraft was a 1960's design, derived from the fuselage section previously used for the 727 and 707. Originally the entire aircraft was built in Seattle, but it was then decided to build the fuselage at what was then Boeing's...

There are many examples of stations being named for the nearest "important" settlement rather than the one they are located in. A classic example is Elstree on the Midland main Line, situated in what was an unimportant place called Borehamwood and named after the nearest village which was (and...

References to boat trains are for trains running to Tilbury Riverside for passengers to embark from Tilbury Landing Stage. P & O and Orient Line ships to Australia sailed from Tilbury, as did some Cunard North Atlantic services. Some ships which sailed to the Royal Docks for cargo handling...

I'm talking about in the 1950's, before the areas around the airfield were developed.

The best option would have been to have developed Filton, adjacent to rail and road links and with an 8000 foot long runway.

I remember one year being on holiday in Cornwall and using Tesco in Helston. A couple of years later we went back and called at Tesco but felt slightly disorientated. In the intervening period they had built a new, bigger store on the other side of the car park and demolished the original one to...