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u/DualWheeled

Catwalk on the outside of the bridge at Oxford station
▲ 33 r/uktrains

Catwalk on the outside of the bridge at Oxford station

What is the catwalk on the side of the bridge over Oxford station?

My thoughts

  1. It could be a platform from which a man in a harness could clean the bridge. But the gap in the handrail is on the front, not the side (and the bridge clearly hasn't been cleaned yet this millennium).

  2. It could be to allow workmen on top of trains. But the gap in the handrail is positioned between tracks.

  3. It could be a platform on which a ladder can be placed to allow work on top of the bridge. So why is there a gap in the handrail at all?

u/DualWheeled — 4 days ago
▲ 12 r/AskUK

I was lucky enough in the 2000s to attend two firepower demonstrations on Salisbury Plain. At least one of them was open to the public (I went with my dad), the other I went with my school cadets.

They had a lineup of vehicles to go and look around and sit in, and a grandstand to spectate the main event.

We watched APCs unload into a mock battle. We saw a Hercules land on a ludicrously short grass runway, unload a gun without stopping, take straight back off again, and the gun immediately prepared for firing and fired. An Apache showed off its machine gun and rockets. A pair of jets dropped a bomb on a target. I'm pretty sure we saw a squaddie fuck up a grenade throw because the three of them in the firing trench jumped straight up out of it after he was meant to have thrown it and it looked like it exploded in the trench.

These were absolutely incredible events to watch. Do they ever do these any more?

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u/DualWheeled — 10 days ago