pm today: the Dorset/Somerset Air Ambulance was at Warminster (arrived from Swindon), the Wiltshire/Bath aircraft was at Semington (came from Swindon - Refuelling at home base ?), The Great Western aircraft was at Swindon. Busy day !

As a 78 year old I must confess that I do, at times, get a little weary of the calls for various clampdowns on "old" drivers. I have had cataracts in both eyes and a detached retina - yet my vision (unaided) is 20/20 (or, as we must say now, 6/6). Oh - and a clean licence. Yes, the coroner was quite right with his comments over these tragic cases. However, he could have made a stronger case to save far more lives by calling for a ban on under 25s from carrying passengers for a considerable period after passing the driving test- just to name one action. There are plenty more.

Looking at the graph below (from Gov.Uk)................and perhaps being somewhat simplistic, it might appear that you have to reach the age of 86 before you become as dangerous on the roads as a 17 - 24 year old. It seems that I am roughly 3 times as "safe" as a 20 year old - tell my insurance company that !!

"Air today, gone tomorrow" ??

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cze1l76lkp4o

One has to ask: "why didn't they.......................

Back in place !!  (Today's Telegraph)

You don't have to go to Cornwall to see those - we've got them in the park in Warminster !   

There is a lot of co-operation between the various air ambulances as a matter of course.
The Wiltshire Air Ambulance was in Warminster a couple of days back, the pilot was saying that they had been very busy of late. He had already been from Swindon to Bristol and had managed 2 mouthfuls of his lunch when they were called out again.
When the helicopter came in I thought it was the West of England one - but the Wiltshire (& Bath !) one is now sporting a new "paint job".

The pilot kindly powered up the electronics for the internal photo.

I wonder when someone will tell the Government that .........

Very large obituary in today's Telegraph.

Likewise ...........

Before I went out on Saturday to photograph the Cl 37 double-headed excursion, I checked on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website). It showed the train as being between Southampton and Romsey - so I drove out to meet it. I checked RTT again when I parked - it now said that "this service was cancelled - due to a problem at the depot (MU^▸ (Multiple Unit))"  but...........further down the page it showed the train as "arriving" at Salisbury !  I started to get really worried until it finally showed up about 5 mins late.

It is still showing as cancelled on RTT ...........so please ignore my photo, I was obviously hallucinating.

Passing Norton Bavant this morning en route to Shrewsbury - sounded even better than it looked !

Please don't further denigrate the word "engineer"  !

Are 5 car IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) capable of Cardiff - Portsmouth ??  Quad mode: OHLE^▸ (Over-Head Line Equipment (electrification via catenary)), 3rd Rail, diesel, battery 

Exactly, just another inane, stupid comment from an "expert" ....................which brings to mind Ed Millibland (sic)