Comments on: Tube thought

By: dsquared

dsquared — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:41:00 +0000

I’ve just realised that I made a terrible error above; King’s Cross is on the City Branch of the Northern Line and Waterloo is on the Charing Cross branch so you would have to change at Bank and take the drain (or go two stops North to Camden Town and change branches) if you wanted to go from KX to Hanoi. I hope nobody got lost.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 22:02:00 +0000

the pompous Dsquared, who let's be honest doesn't hold back from placing his inane musings on others blogs

Wow, does he, Eric? In comment boxes open to the online public?

In comment boxes on "others blogs"... SHOCKING! TERRIBLE! OUTRAGEOUS! ETC....

By: dsquared

dsquared — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:56:00 +0000

Since I am the arch apologist for all things unpleasant I will take this opportunity to say that I am pretty sure that Stan’s point of view was grossly misrepresented and that if Eminem had just bothered to constructively engage with him and understand the root causes of his behaviour then things would have gone much better. I obviously wholeheartedly condemn drunk-driving and murder but society was responsible and Eminem does bear some of the responsibility.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:51:00 +0000

Eric, your relationship with dsquared increasingly seems to be like that of ‘Stan’ with Eminem, in the latter’s song of that name. It all ends in tears so be careful. Perhaps John could play the role of Dido.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:02:00 +0000

Yes the Vietnamese have those too; I’ve got some wonderful photographs taken in the main repair garages. On the other hand, Vietnam Airlines has now got rid of all its horrendous Tupulovs and replaced them with brand new 777s so you can’t say that capitalism isn’t good for something.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:00:00 +0000

They do, and the good folk of 275 Railway Squadron (V) Royal Engineers TA spent some time putting the line from Umm Qasr to Basra and then North towards Baghdad back in order. Lots of Chinese engines.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 10:25:00 +0000

The railways of Vietnam were, of course, strategically extremely important during both WW2, the revolution against the French and what the Vietnamese call the American War.

I don't know anything about the Iraqi rail network; do they have any?

By: JohninLondon

JohninLondon — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 09:57:00 +0000

The overnight express from Madrid to Paris used to be fun. It stopped at Irun on the Basque coast to change the gauge of the wheels under the carriages.

You used to be able to go 150 miles by train from Lagos on the Algarve up to Lisbon, then across.

By: Tim Worstall

Tim Worstall — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 09:48:00 +0000

Not sure about Braganca Lisbon Seville. Many stations in Lisbon…not all even connected by hte metro.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 09:04:00 +0000

The reason I shouted "trainspotter" at the pompous Dsquared, who let's be honest doesn't hold back from placing his inane musings on others blogs, is this superb example of his "expert" knowledge that turns out to be bullshit.

However, I know quite a bit about guerilla wars, because 1) I was the research assistant for a book about Vietnam and was present at a large number of face-to-face interviews with senior commanders on both sides, and 2) I spent the period 1976-1998 as a civilian target for the IRA's mainland bombing campaign.</em
Posted by dsquared · August 29th, 2004 at 3:40 pm

To be honest it was only a guidebook to the country's railways, but the section on the history of the country got completely out of hand.
Posted by dsquared · August 29th, 2004 at 9:33 pm

From Crooked Timber.

Priceless.