WTAF? I have a whole range of truly obscure sockets and screwdriver bits for our Repair Cafe and I have never seen anything pentagonal (neither a tool nor a fixing needing that tool). This tool is evil and/or slipped through from a parallel universe and needs to be destroyed with extreme prejudice.

I found some more yesterday, at Newcastle Central platform 3.

I am going to do something more formal (if unofficial) about this in the autumn.

Well, you know I love a heritage artefact at a railway station, so thank you very much for this. Another station which has air bricks of the same pattern is Knaresborough, so I guess they must have been a North Eastern Railway standard fitting.

#9-series - No.32, Class 465/9
Thirty-four Class 465s were given a /9 classification when they were refurbished, fitted with first class seating, and allocated to outer suburban routes rather than their previous inner suburban role.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categor...

#9-series - No.31, Class 455/9
The 20 class 455/9s had various technical differences from the rest of the fleet, including relocated heating equipment, some being fitted with thyristor control, and a couple of trailer cars having testbed plug doors.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20...

We are *trying* to keep #Orkney a secret… (admittedly hosting the excellent Island Games during a week of shockingly good weather was an own goal, but, y’know)

Wow! I love it!

<shocked face emoji>

I have since discovered that not everyone can do this, nor (as all my classmates will also be able to do) work a smartphone with their non-dominant hand. It’s a very useful skill, and I doubt very much it’s on any national curriculum anyone has ever devised.

Interestingly, I hadn’t interrogated that thought process until you prompted me. So, thank you.

Yes, I did think of it as humanoid despite the fact it is really quite unlike a ‘typical’ (allowing for the vast and glorious range of human body shapes) human in form. That was why I posted what I did. I wouldn’t have done that for a Roomba-type robot.

I was about to suggest that they must have been in need of a visit to the Total Perspective Vortex, but then realised that such magnificent indifference means they might be immune anyway.

Yes that’s true. My rough idea would be halt = a stopping place where we’re not putting up anything other than a bus shelter and TVM and there are no staff based there. Station = enclosed waiting room, some sort of staff ticket retail presence. There would, of course, be awkward edge cases…

#9-series - No.30, Class 423/9
Converted by Connex in the late 1990s to work inner suburban services, 19 4-VEPs had their compartments removed (leaving behind very strange bench seating) and First Class seats declassified, becoming 4-VOPs.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:42...