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RJS1977

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Everything posted by RJS1977

  1. I agree - there often seems to be less movement on DCC layouts owing to the time taken to identify the loco and find it in the list on the handset. If you've built the traditional "oval with storage loops at the back", you really do not need DCC, and it makes operating the layout more complicated! If the layout is wired for analogue, all you need to do to run a different train is to change the points in the fiddle yard and this will direct current to the correct train. If you're running DCC, you still have to change the points, but then you have to find the loco on your handset.... Don't get me wrong, I think DCC has a place on big loco shed layouts like Old Elm Park, but for most other layouts it's overkill.
  2. No problem with the Voyagers I was on on Saturday (0715 from Reading, 1813 from BHI). Rather than the pre-pandemic timetable of half-hourly services with single units from Reading to Birmingham, with BHI served hourly, the pattern now seems to be for an hourly service made up of two units coupled together, so there is double the capacity serving BHI than there used to be.
  3. Once again, thanks to the Warley Committee for putting on another great show! :-) I went in at 9:15 on Saturday and left at 18:00 and I'm not sure I saw everything! However (and this is by no means the organisers' fault), I was disappointed by the lack of movement on a number of layouts, despite repeated visits to several of them. On at least one layout I'd looked forwards to seeing, each time I went past the operators seemed to be having a committee meeting to decide what to run next! Fortunately there were plenty of other layouts such as Copenhagen Fields, Bron Hebog, Bijao, and even Binns Road showing how things should be done :-)
  4. Legally, I don't think they can do that without notifying the owner first.
  5. I know of at least one railway where a loco turned up unexpectedly (on a lorry) because a Board member invited it without consulting the rest of the Board, and left the railway before it arrived! It was several years before they found out who owned it....
  6. Looking at the floorplan last night, it seems to be quite different in some ways from the traditional arrangement, with Squires and the demo stands having been moved from the bottom left corner to top right. My usual technique is to go straight along the top to the far corner (avoiding the scrums at the big stands near the entrance), go round the show and visit Squires near the end. Might have to consider changing that.... One tip from the floorplan though - if attending on Saturday with an advance ticket (9:15 entry) you have just under 9 hours to see the show before chucking out time. Quite conveniently, the pillars supporting the roof divide the hall into 18 squares, so it works out at a little under 30 minutes per square on average.
  7. Similarly the top end of the FR is substantially different to how it was originally built. However sufficient of both lines remains that I think they can still count as "preserved".
  8. Personally I would say that the VoR, the Talyllyn and the Ffestiniog all have the ability to run locomotives tha are original to the the line, pulling coaches original to the line (both looking as close as they can do to how they would have looked in pre-preservation service), along the line that they have historically worked, which is about as close to preservation as you can get. The Isle of Man railways (at least for now) also fall into that category.
  9. I did a similar project, modelling the VoR's bridge over the Rheidol from wooden lollipop sticks.
  10. I think perhaps alongside this is the possibility that (particularly in a safety-critical area like heritage railways), there is a lot of mandatory training needed to operate safely - not just the technical things like passing out as a guard, driver, etc, and PTS, but also things like manual handling and safe working at heights, and consequently training for "soft" skills like people management tends to get overlooked. Of course there are also a great number of differences between managing volunteers and managing full-time paid staff, so available management courses may not necessarily be suitable anyway.
  11. It's always sad to hear of fallings-out at heritage railways. What I will say though is that volunteering on the C&WR was one of the few things that kept me going mentally during the dark days of the pandemic. As someone who lives alone, lockdown and the early post-lockdown period was a very difficult time for me, with all social activities suspended other than through a computer screen. As a non-driver, the ban on public transport use also limited me to only being able to go to places I could walk to and from. Volunteering on the C&WR (being largely outdoors) was one of the first activities to restart when restrictions began to ease, and so as soon as transport restrictions lifted sufficiently I was up there every Saturday. (At the time, I was still quite wary about personal contact - particularly with people I didn't know - and was also struggling to find masks I could wear comfortably for more than about half an hour, so the 30 minute ride to Wallingford on a near-empty bus was for a while the furthest I felt comfortable travelling). Being able to spend time with friends (and indeed make some new ones) whilst doing something useful and productive (in contrast to my job at the time, which was neither...) was an absolute Godsend. This was also the period during which the Maidenhead canopy was being rebuilt at Wallingford (taking advantage of the enforced line closure), and whilst I wasn't directly involved in its reconstruction, seeing that progress week by week was another psychological boost.
  12. I understand that there has been some through working from the ELR to Metrolink for engineering purposes.
  13. I believe they stopped running several years ago.
  14. In the (first) "Toy Stories" episode where they re-lay the Barnstaple-Bideford line, he says he's had it since childhood.
  15. Quite a few children use the Reading-Waterloo line to attend school in Winnersh. Also a lot of children use the Reading-Guildford line to go to school near Farnborough North - see the discussion about Farnborough North Level Crossing in the "Level Crossing Stupidity" thread.
  16. The trouble with Santa events of course is that they can only happen at Christmas. Some years ago there used to be a "replica" Ivor the Engine doing the rounds. Sadly, as Ivor isn't as well-known as Thomas, I don't think it was quite the crowd-puller it was perhaps expected to be (and of course there aren't any standard gauge steam railways in the "top left corner of Wales" for it to run on), although of course the licensing costs were much less. Gradually its bookings dropped off until it effectively became a permanent resident at the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway who continued to run "Ivor" events until its certificate ran out. Since then its owner has sold it elsewhere and it has since been back-converted into an ordinary Peckett.
  17. Just watched the James May episode. The "model railway" side of it was excellent, but the commentary and prototype film clips - oh dear! I'm surprised at someone like Pete not knowing the difference between a diesel loco and a DMU (the class 29 is NOT a DMU!), and several of the "DMUs" shown on film were either loco hauled stock or EMUs. Overall though, it's been a great series and I hope we can see more like this.
  18. As I understand things, GWR/Network Rail are quite limited in terms of what signage they can erect at Paddington, owing to the listed status of the main station.
  19. Sorry, I have to disagree there. I can think of a number of heritage railways that have some sort of "destination" at the end or partway along. K&ESR has Bodiam Castle. Swanage has Corfe Castle or Purbeck Mineral & mining musuem, or Swanage itself if going the other way. Torbay & Dartmouth has Dartmouth. WHR has Caernarvon (including castle), or on shorter journeys Beddgelert. NYMR has Whitby and Goathland etc. Vale of Rheidol has Devil's Bridge waterfalls etc Whilst I can see your point about people not wanting to pay admission prices as well as train fares, that will obviously vary from passenger to passenger and not all "attractions" necessarily charge an entry fee. Note also that both Bodiam and Corfe Castles are National Trust properties, so NT members don't have to pay an admission charge. It could well be that there are (or were) passengers visiting the neighbouring attractions that wouldn't have done so had the railway not been there. Up until the pandemic, lines were often working quite nicely with the "attractions" at the end, and indeed the attractions often offered a justification both for getting the necessary permissions to open the line, and in some cases for grant funding. We need to be very careful in saying that heritage railways do not offer a means of transport and are more like a fairground ride. Currently heritage railways (other than those entirely within museum sites like the demonstration lines at Didcot) attract 0% VAT precisely because they do offer a transport function. However since the pandemic, a number of railways have attempted to cut costs by only offering tickets on particular trains (so you come straight back on the train you went out on) and/or closing intermediate stations, and no longer issue single tickets. This prevents visitors from visiting the attractions along the line, which both discourages some visitors from coming to the railway, and reduces the amount of money visitors spend in the local economy. It then becomes questionable whether those railways are still providing a transport function. I for one would hate to see HMRC decide that this is the case and start slapping VAT on heritage railways.
  20. The reason winds blow around depressions rather than straight into the centre is also due to the rotation of the earth - the Coriolis effect.
  21. Portillo also has the advantage of having been a Transport Minister many years ago, so it's entirely natural that he should take an interest in the rail network. It should also be remembered that (particularly on the BBC) there are very strict rules in the UK about allocating any air time to serving politicians that could be interpreted as giving them political advantage at the next election. Personally, I'm all for seeing (current or serving) politicians (irrespective of flavour) exploring their personal interests (hobbies, family history, etc) on TV. So often we see so much of the adversarial side of politics that it can be easy to forget that they're people!
  22. Yes, the construction of Francis's layout could have been spread out in segments over several episodes.
  23. "The ship was disguised as a train, to make the train sea-worthy it was done up to look like a boat and painted to appear like a tram." - Seagoon "All rather confusing, really" - Milligan
  24. Watched it just now. Quite interesting from my own perspective, as not only did I visit Pete's Leamington Spa layout a few years ago, two weeks ago I took a layout to the B&WWMRC exhibition (at Greg's invitation), by train, via Sydenham station!
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