Nothing salacious...

Llanbrynmair has become the first exchange to offer ultrafast broadband to all subscribers - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn8ydz5818no

Apologies for wheeling this old chestnut out again.

BT are telling me they are about to upgrade all of our network to ultra, mega, whatever fast interweb as we are all moving to voip phones. No sign of it as yet though.....

Meanwhile in the north east, some people are finally getting mains electricity https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn7ynkmlp25o

They got sick of waiting round here and did it themselves via B4RN, so we’ve had gigabit for something like a decade now. Years later, BT upgraded the local cabinets to fibre and made a big song and dance about it to zero applause or uptake as it was too little too late and we’d all escaped BT/Openreach’s clutches by then.

Welcome Llanbrynmair anyway, and yay privatisation!

We've had fibre for some time - Welsh assembly paid BT / OR to install it, the thinking was seemingly that ... we've nothing else

Sadly in the news for less positive reasons.

Emergency services are at the scene after two trains crashed.

Network Rail and Transport for Wales (TfW) said the crash happened between the 18:31 BST service from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and the 19:09 service from Machynlleth to Shrewsbury, at about 19:30 on Monday.

The crash happened near Llanbrynmair, in Powys, and the line is closed while emergency services work, a joint statement from the operators said.

"Our main priority is the safety of our passengers and colleagues," it added.

The lines between Machynlleth and Caersws are also blocked, TfW said, and Dyfed-Powys Police has closed the main A470 trunk road in Talerddig advising drivers to avoid the area.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y0yg7m8meo

Hopefully everyone OK.

Without meaning to sound flippant in anyway ... it's a good job it wasn't a week later when the trains crashed as the A470 is being completely closed for 6 weeks and a 70 mile detour instated. No access for any vehicle including emergency services on the stretch between Carno - Llanbrynmair.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ry-service

Looks like it's going to be closed for a couple of days.

Was it Carno side or Mach side?

Was it Carno side or Mach side?

Train? Llanbrynmair

which side of LLanbrynmair is the train crash I mean?

Not one for gawping myself, and speculation is a dodgy thing, but reports say that it was actually at Talerddig. There's a loop track there for trains to cross. The train from Shrewsbury was probably meant to stop in the loop to allow the train from Mach, which would be arriving/waiting on the single line to the west, to enter the other track of the loop. The Shrewsbury train may well have failed to stop and entered the single track colliding slowly with the other train. There used to be 'trap' points at loops to prevent this happening but they were removed when radio signalling was introduced. There were also reports during the day of slippery rails along the line. TPWS/ETCS automatic systems help the drivers control the trains and which should have controlled the stopping of the Shrewsbury train, there's no physical 'signals' on the line. Once he starts sliding there's not much the poor guy can do about it though. The line is extremely steep at Talerddig - up to 1 in 52 in some places - and the loop is at the summit. Seems the point of contact was half a mile beyond the loop, which is quite a slide. The Shrewsbury driver managed to leave his cab and warn passengers who could try to prepare themselves. An unfortunate coincidence is the rail treatment train (leaf removal etc) was apparently due later in the night, which might have helped prevent it. The recent issue at Salisbury was similar. Sadly someone died in this instance .

Note that air ambulance(s) attended - showing their worth yet again.

The BBC article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y0yg7m8meo stated it was by Talerddig so the Carno side