RJS1977

I think the wagon that takes Alan Tracy's sofa to Thunderbird 3 is an Airfix Loriot...

Yes, TPTV had to pull quite a few strings to get it! ;-)

I think less of an issue for first generation DMUs (which have been out of frontline service for some time). However even there some passengers might be disappointed having turned up expecting steam and paid a premium fare for the privelege. I agree with Northmoor - people do not want to pay a premium fare to travel on the train they were using every day two years ago,

To me, I think it depends a lot *how* they are used. Some steam railways used to run an "early bird" diesel service (usually for a lower fare) first thing in the morning while the steam loco was still being warmed up - I have no problem with a Pacer being used for that, if advertised as such. I also have no problem with a situation where there are two trains running alternately, one steam and one diesel, as some railways do, again if it is advertised as such. Nor do I have an issue with a Pacer being used to *expand* the timetable, for example if a heritage railway is making tentative steps towards running a genuine regular service in addition to its heritage services (something which I think both ELR and KWVR may have the potential to do). What I would be more concerned about is a heritage railway regularly using a Pacer to replace its steam operations, especially if not advertised. (Accepting that there may be occasions when a late substitution has to be made for operational reasons - although in the current age, that should again ideally be notified on social media to avoid disappointment).

In fact, until a couple of years ago, the newest item of stock on the Isle of Wight was the standard tank on the Steam Railway - which was nearly 20 years newer than the 1938 stock on the Ryde-Shanklin line!

Let's not forget that from the mid-80s onwards, Mark 1s formed the mainstay of the coaching fleet on many heritage lines, but Mark 1 based multiple units continued in front line service on the national network (particularly in the SE) until 2005.

You need to start with high resistance and work down - putting too low a resistor in series may well damage the LED. You need a 1K resisitor to run LEDs off a 12V power supply. Most multimeters have a resistance setting which you can use to find out the value of resistors.

I usually just cut a piece of 12V LED strip to length and use that (mainly because I've got a lot of offcut!), though it's perhaps a little on the bright side.

I don't recognise that station, but obviously it's one I've been to. Morden?

But those new 65 year olds won't have the same memory of HD. They certainly won't have had the experience of seeing brand new HD locos in the toy/model shop's window and hoping a parent/grandparent buys it them for birthday/Christmas. Whilst I have some sentimental attachment towards the Triang brand (largely due to my father's items), I was born several years after the Triang name ceased to exist (at least in the model railway market). I doubt Hornby's recent "Triang" models are aimed at me....

Surely marketing is about understanding what people want and selling it to them.... ;-)

The trouble with the Hornby Dublo range is that it is aimed at people who had HD first time round. HD production ceased nearly 60 years ago, so its target segment is over 65s or over 70s. They're not going to be around forever. If Hornby is to survive long-term, it needs to be growing the market in younger age ranges, with more affordable models. Not saying there isn't a place for the "nostalgia market" - as a way of raising funds to support development of new items for the lower end of the range - but it's only really a stop-gap solution.

The line was built by the East London Railway Company, which was under the control of four "main line" railway companies, plus the Metropolitan and District Railways. Apart from a short period from 1906-1913, at least some of the passenger services were operated by the Metropolitan for most of the line's existence, until the line became part of the Overground network. So in that sense, it had been part of the "Underground" for a very long time, however ownership of the infrastructure was only transferred to LU in the 1990s.

Thanks for the heads-up. Until recently I managed a team of employees, most of whom were based in Lateral House. Back in February, one of my team left to take up another position, so I went up to Leeds to see the team and we had a leaving meal at the Midnight Bell (well recommended!), and so I must have walked past that building (the MB's sign can be seen in your photo). The day ended with my leaving Lateral House with only about five minutes to catch a train from the far side of Leeds station - and making it!

Looking on the Tube Challenge forum, it appears that the Labyrinth route was based on the 2009 record of 16:44:16. By the time I first started looking into attempting the Challenge back in 2015, the daytime Olympia service had already been withdrawn, however there are ways to modify the route to get it to work. A video of the route can be found at https://youtu.be/jL4hhBnjznI

I hope Tim doesn't mind my correcting a slight error in that interview: Tim: No. I’ve left that for my old friend Mr Geoff Marshall. BUT! A secret I learned about doing it came from the artist Mark Wallinger, when I interviewed him for this series. He designed all the labyrinth tube art (the circular “mazes” you see on the wall somewhere in each station) and he numbered them 1 to 270. Turns out that if you follow them in order from 1 upwards, that is the exact route you need to take in order to do the Tube Challenge. That is the mark of an artist who loves his subject. Following the labyrinth numbers was one of many ways of completing the old 270 stations network. However this particular route became impossible when TfL reduced the number of weekday services to Kensington Olympia to a handful in the early morning and two in the evening. The route taken by Andi James and Steve Wilson, who were the last people to hold the record for the 270 station network (15 hours 45 minutes) is known only to them and they're not telling! Ironically there is a somewhat bizarre situation concerning the current record for the 272 station network. The first time to be set was by Adham Fisher in October 2021 (20 hours 4 minutes). Although Adham collected all the necessary evidence, and Guinness were happy that he had visited all the stations, they refused to recognise his time as it was much longer than Steve and Andi's time for two fewer stations. Guinness then said they would not recognise any times longer than 16:30. Following that, at least half a dozen people (myself included) have set times faster than Adham's, but none of us took the necessary evidence for Guinness as we weren't aiming to beat 16:30. The fastest unofficial time is 18:23:19, just beating the previous fastest unofficial time of 18:23:46. I aimed to beat that time but just missed out, taking third place with 18:30:32, having agonisingly seen the clock tick down on the approach to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 with only Terminal 5 to go! Guinness have since relented and decided to accept Adham's time after all, although it is now the *slowest* time anyone has completed the 272 station network in! I, and five other people have beaten the Guinness World Record, but none of us have the evidence to prove it! I may well have another attempt at some point (not necessarily for the Guinness Record, maybe just to beat the fastest time). If Siddy ever changes her mind, I'd be happy for her to join me!

Isn't that made by Dapol now? ;-)

I'd suggest that there is plenty in the "back catalogue" that could be reintroduced as part of Railroad if priced appropriately, particularly from the ex-Dapol range - including the J94 Austerity (a preservation stalwart!), the "old" Terrier and the 14XX. As I've said before, for Railroad really to work, it needs to have at least an express loco, a medium-sized goods loco and a tank loco plus appropriate rolling stock from each of the Big 4, and equivalents for the BR steam/transition era, rail blue, and onwards. Ideally as many of these as possible should have identities of locos that are represented in preservation (and ideally, "in ticket" and can be ridden behind). I'd also suggest that perhaps the "Railroad" name is a little tainted by association with the "train set" end of the range - Railroad isn't just for children, it's also for adults on lower budgets. I'm not sure what an appropriate name would be though - needs to be something that says it's the basic range without saying it's the basic range if you see what I mean!

Interesting to read though that this time last year the IPA called East West Rail "unachievable", but this year it's described as "potentially achievable."

Here's an idea... slightly tongue in cheek. How about Hornby make the loco mechanisms, and Airfix make the bodies as plastic kits?

I'm not arguing whether or not there might be a correlation, merely that if anyone in their 70s or 80s inhales asbestos fibres now, they are likely to die of something else first.

I suspect Ebay really don't have the capacity to vet every item sold on there to confirm whether they are safe to use or not. Arguably the responsibility for ensuring that users of H&M controllers are warned about any potential dangers lies with Hornby, as the current owners of the H&M name.

On the other hand, if many of the people using Duettes are now in their 70s or 80s, something that may cause health issues 30 or 40 years down the line isn't really going to be a problem for them.

But surely they could get business for Britsh firms by getting on and getting HS2 completed....

So just to check I understand this correctly, am I right in thinking that: Book 1 includes any locos or rolling stock that were purchased by the Cambrian up to and including 1892. Book 2 is anything that was purchased by the Cambrian (or passed into Cambrian ownership, like the original VoR tanks) after 1892. So items that passed to the GWR at the Grouping could appear in either book, depending on when the Cambrian first bought them? And that any subsequent modifications to locos/stock bought before 1892 will also be in Book 1?