Audi, Now and Then.

I went to Swindon Works in early 1980 as part of the service crew of GWR Castle 5051 Drysyllyn Castle after restoration at Didcot after being rescued from Dai Woodham's scrapyard at Barry. It was it's first foray onto the mainline after restoration for the purpose of weighing, to ensure even weight distribution by adjustment of the springs. Here it is standing proudly outside A Shop:

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The food in Swindon's canteen was sumptuous, a view probably influenced by the fact that we'd been working throughout the previous night! This was all in preparation for the tours to Stratford-on-Avon (Phoenix and Sunset) in January which were to be the last for the GWS's 10-coach GWR Vintage Train. Before that we had a running-in trip to Oxford with the Vintage Train. After running up to Oxford tender-first, the driver was instructed to return at maximum speed to see what the loco was capable of. Sleepy Oxford was certainly woken up that morning; we reached 70mph at Culham, still accelerating but then caught up with a rattler (dmu to non-railway types)! I was on the footplate!

From Audi to the GWR!

RAB
Excellent stuff. My Grandad was a GWR driver, on the Bristol Temple Meads to. London Paddington expresses in the late 30s early 40s. Steam railway engines, they really were (are) Vorsprung durch Technik. In my mind Concorde is in the same class. Bit biased, I worked on the prototypes at Filton. Witnessed the first Filton built Concorde take off. Bent the street lamps, near the end of the runway, when the throttle was opened!
Mac.
 
Sorry that my, and @RAB 's remanicences seem to have stemmed the (somewhat meandering) flow of this thread. So, I thought a bit about the 700,000 solar panels. Now, I don't know how big these panels will be, but based on a conservative estimate of two sq mtrs each, plus space for access, 700,000 such panels would cover an area of more than a square mile. Then there's the infrastructure, a huge number of inverters, (panels generate low voltage DC, which needs to be converted to high voltage AC close to the panel to minimise cable losses. The immense power to be collected, (multi Mega Watts), will require a huge transmission network.
I can't see how that level of investment could break even, let alone show a return.
This is without the cost of building the strip mill itself.
Mac.
 
Excellent stuff. My Grandad was a GWR driver, on the Bristol Temple Meads to. London Paddington expresses in the late 30s early 40s. Steam railway engines, they really were (are) Vorsprung durch Technik. In my mind Concorde is in the same class. Bit biased, I worked on the prototypes at Filton. Witnessed the first Filton built Concorde take off. Bent the street lamps, near the end of the runway, when the throttle was opened!
Mac.
I never realised but there is a few of us aircraft engineers amongst the forum members ..I worked for a while on the experimental side at westlands helicopters ..?
 
Add my military career plus 30 years aircraft engines including Concorde Olympus engines.


Ah Wan Wing Too that famous Chinese fighter aircraft..?
 
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Interesting thread, back in the 90s I was SM at JCT600 Wakefield, our customers were frequently people who didn't want to be seen in a rep-mobile, generally doctors, teachers and other professionals who saw Audi as a thinking person's German equivalent to Volvo or Saab, current Audis leave me cold.
 
Interesting thread, back in the 90s I was SM at JCT600 Wakefield, our customers were frequently people who didn't want to be seen in a rep-mobile, generally doctors, teachers and other professionals who saw Audi as a thinking person's German equivalent to Volvo or Saab, current Audis leave me cold.
Agree on both counts.
Audi have become what they once demeaned.
Mac.
 
I never realised but there is a few of us aircraft engineers amongst the forum members ..I worked for a while on the experimental side at westlands helicopters ..?
I was a COBOL programmer at the time, not an aircraft engineer!

Actually, Barnes-Wallis retired in 1971 so the above statement is not quite true. My mother also worked there during the war for Vickers; she was there when it was bombed by the Germans.

RAB
 
I’ve now got two of the things, so when tell friends that I don’t like Audis you can understand the old fashioned looks. But the only other Audis I’d give garage room would be the ur-quattro and first series R8.
 
I was a COBOL programmer at the time, not an aircraft engineer!

Actually, Barnes-Wallis retired in 1971 so the above statement is not quite true. My mother also worked there during the war for Vickers; she was there when it was bombed by the Germans.

RAB
I had to look that one up Rab cobol new to me ...we never stop learning ...?
 
I’ve now got two of the things, so when tell friends that I don’t like Audis you can understand the old fashioned looks. But the only other Audis I’d give garage room would be the ur-quattro and first series R8.
We had a couple of ur Quattros over the years red one and white one the former had the digital dash they were not that expensive at one time if we only new ....now very expensive especially the short wheelbase ?..also had an early Audi 80 Quattro the square shape ...really liked that one drove beautifully..
 
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