Phatbob

Sad news, but hopefully the Warley MRC will be able to go back to the the future* and run a most excellent smaller show, as they did in the past. *"The future" to go back to in this case being the Harry Mitchell Centre IIRC. 😉

Nothing wrong with a bit of whimsy on a model railway, but some of us would like to blag some more of the "genuine" versions first, given the aleged paucity of production slots, if that's okay. 😉

** Class 71 sound chip should have a whistle too IIRC. I'm pretty sure they had a whistle rather than air horns, at least "as built".

Because EFE belong to Bachmann and they don't want to advertise the opposition? When I were a lad daarn saarff (Croydon) "boosters" were what became the class 71s and the Hornbys were always the Hornbys.

When I were a lad you could get a tram down into t’town, buy three new suits an’ an overcoat, four pair o’ good boots, go an’ see George Formby at t’Palace Theatre, get blind drunk, ‘ave some steak an’ chips, bunch o’ bananas an’ three stone o’ monkey nuts an’ still ‘ave change out of a farthing. 😉 (with apologies to Tony Capstick) In other news I have now collected my EFE BR green Bulleid Booster loco from my local model shop, Grimy Times model railways in Warrington. Bench tested and it runs very smoothly, straight out of the box. Good low speed control and maximum warp speed is about what it should be to scale for one of these locos. There's a good weight to it and it's all wheel drive, so although not tested with a long train yet, I'm confident that it'll manage a scale length train on Star Lane. Very pleased with it. Just need to fit the goody pack, Kadee couplings and then it can go into the queue for weathering before the next exhibition. 🙂

Fantastic phot, thanks for posting. FYI, loco looks to be 20001 and the headcode is, I believe, correct for a Victoria to Newhaven boat train. HTH

It didn't. A bunch of airline managers trying to run a railways led to all kinds of poor decisions being made from day one. By example, the abysmal Client Specification for the rolling stock still leaves their sucessors with problems. Not least XC with four coach Voyagers with only three coaches worth of seats and no luggage space. :-(

IIRC Virgin lost XC in 2008 because Arriva put in a better bid. Also, IIRC Virgin were excluded from the second re-letting of the WCML franchise because they would not honour the pension requirements in the new contract.

Have a cool Yule and happy New Year everybody.

Can I add a Mark 1 BFK to that list please?

Mystic Bob predicts that yet again my annual whish for a DCC giraffe car will again go unfulfilled. 😉

Depends, of course, on the period you're modelling. They first appeared during WWII, so for self-evident reasons there were no regular boat trains to and from the south coast! I have no idea if they worked troop trains though. Perusal of my own library would seem to indicate that old school mixed goods trains were their bread and butter work throughout their lives. Post-war of course they got a bit more glamerous work on Newhaven boat trains. In the blue era I remember seeing 20001 all bulled-up for taking Little Liz and Phil the bubble to Epsom Downs (actually Tattenham Corner) to watch their geegees at The Derby. ;-)

I would like Dapol to produce their newly tooled 00 class "baby warship" as D6334/5/6 as delivered in plain green WITHOUT the yellow warning panel, pretty please.

These rules? 😊 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents Can anybody honestly claim to remember all this lot? 😉

Yes, we have the ambassador's suite at the Purple Palace. 😉 Okay then, two twin rooms. 🙂

Thanks for that, really helpful. One mnor point, E46, Star Lane is steam era, but most of the motive power is 3rd rail electric, just in case that's anybody's particular area of interest. 🙂

It's a blood good question. I'm not aware of an EV fire on the Channel Tunnel, but I've not reseached that question. I also don't know enough to speculate as to whether an EV fire (car or small van) is a worse case than an HGV fire (much larger vehicle with more fuel). Any fire safety experts out there?

I've been using the interlocking foam mats for years now. Thoroughly recommended by my knees and ankles! ;-)

Only after Father Christmas brings him a bigger car to transport it in I would imagine. 😉

A stationary loco left unattended in Liverpool? 😲 It's a good job that steam locos don't have hubcaps. 😉😂🤣

IIRC, the worst case fire accident identified for the Channel Tunnel was a freight shuttle entering the tunnel with an HGV already on fire. Also, IIRC, this has happened twice and nobody died because the systems in place worked. On the second occassion some of the truck drivers were admitted to hospital suffering the effects of smoke inhalation, but that was a bad as it got. A summit tunnel type fire is not going to happen in The Channel Tunnel as all sorts on inflammable and haxardous goods are banned. HTH to relieve anybody's anxiety about using the Channel Tunnel.

D6317 with headcode boxes but no yellow panel. HTH https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p661346788/h5A80A63A#h5a80a63a

One side only Sir. Published drawings confirm this. HTH.

My spies tell me that there are plans afoot to make the Sydenham station kit available in the new year. No further details available at this time, so please don't waste your time asking. 😉

As a punter, when a train splits on route, having each unit in a different colour scheme would be positively beneficial. "Front portion" easy to spot when it's a different colour to the "rear portion". :-)