Some of the footage coming out of Tibet/Nepal is almost unbelievable.

I enjoyed that post, Pete. Was familiar with where standard gauge came from but didn't realise 'quite' how old it was. The postscript is that alternatives have been tried - Brunel 7 foot on GWR and lots of narrow gauge railways (2' 7"? something like that anyway). Broad gauge didn't catch on because you can't have such tight corners. And I guess narrow gauge only makes sense where the twisty topography justifies a journey that will be more rickety, with the edges of the carriages well wide of the wheels.

Just got an email from the club ...... advertising The Tumeric Company. You couldn't make it up.

Definitely the city. I have no doubt that RK’s narrow blockers are city folk out in the ruralities.

Of course, both require common sense and politeness. In other words, there's no hope

RK - exactly the same issue of having to queue and idiots thinking they shouldn't be expected to queue and thus causing a blockage. I'll let others argue whether you get more selfish idiots in cities or the countryside.

It’s more about counterfeits than speed of access. Plus the reader will be supplied some data from your device which can help the club track individual’s purchase habits.

Ref. road widths. This is interesting. The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates designed the U.S. railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular Odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So, who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. In other words, bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification, procedure, or process, and wonder, 'What horse's ass came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. Now, the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice that there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit larger, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important! Now you know, Horses' Asses control almost everything Explains a whole lot of stuff, doesn't it?

Until the beginning of last week I didn't appreciate what a digital ticket entailed. It was only when "the menace" posted he didn't have a smartphone and probably couldn't go that I looked into it. I wrongly assumed it was just like an e ticket that you either show on your phone or print off. Maybe it's just me but if I made that wrong assumption then others might too. The club are quite happy filling the OS with fluff but less so about something important and relevant.

Not sure how a contactless card reader and a QR scanner differ in speed of access. Main stand at PL has both and seems to work okay. Not having QR reader merely inconveniences customer as they have to bring smart phone - QR gives them choice of phone or paper ticket.

When I was stewarding at CC it was us manning the turnstiles. They had physical contactless cards then. Millwall used a similar system.

I think "narrows" has a different definition from parked cars making 2 way traffic impossible. They are prevalent in rural villages where buildings were constructed in the time that horses were the common mode of traffic ...

With good old paper tickets and pay on the gate stuff clubs had to pay turnstile operators and people don’t like to pay people anymore.

RIP Joe Dillon - thoroughly good bloke!

Every football club in the world managed without the internet, let alone digital tickets, 30 years ago. As Naz says, it was easier when there was a big terrace behind the goal and people paid cash on the night. Would have been much easier and much more suitable for our visit.

93 bus for me assuming i can download ticket

RK - yes we do, all the SUVs parked, legally or illegally, making many residential roads into single lane.

It's very :scaleable" Carsh

Will they be giving out paper maps to get from the station to Craven Cottage as well?

With respect Fulham run a much bigger operation than Dorking do

Nick D, I agree, a club can easily run a low cost ticketing process by just sending the QR code out. Dorking do this, they don't do printed tickets and fans can choose whether to print them or just show the QR code at the turnstile. You still need a smart phone to do the latter of course

I wonder how much of this ticket fiasco is down to Fulham and how much is our own naivety. Luke seems so laid back. Even now the club have not pointed out what a digital ticket is and it's ramifications. If they did at least supporters would have the opportunity to prepare, like download Google Wallet and make sure it works. Many will think yiu just click on a link and that is that because that's what their emails keep saying. The ticket office have done nothing and expect supporters to find out for themselves, assuming they even appreciate the ramifications themselves. They are keen on pushing us down the digital route for everything (hence the surcharge for a physical season ticket card).

Looks like Fulham have finally started getting going, because my accreditation has just been approved by them

It has all the makings of a right ticket mess tomorrow. Makes me long for the days when you just turned up and paid on the day.

There’s a narrow outside a primary school in Ewell - last time I saw two cars both trying to be first to the gap, one of them ended up on its roof…. Now they’ve got a “school street” instead (actually it’s in addition…) - massive signs, cameras, and big fines if you drive down that road at certain times of the school day (drop off/pick up hours…)…