George Leacon

That’s grand, thank you for the detailed reply!

I’m very new to O Gauge - what’s Heijan’s record like with mechanisms / performance / quality control please?

Based on the excellent listing page on your Modern Image O Gauge website, Sprinter (and Pacer!) DMUs - something I’m keen to acquire - have only been produced in kit form by Peter Clark. Any recommendations for a kit building & painting service please?

SEARCH CONCLUDED - thanks to Bill!

I’m looking for the Bachmann / Scenecraft Great Central Railway resin models of the Booking Office and Canopy + Building (so not the subway, stairs or toilet). OO Gauge only. Will pay above retail price depending on condition! Cheers.

Where did you get those fastest lap numbers from Captain? From Wikipedia.... [1985] Pole = Senna 1.20.450 // Race Fastest Lap = Alboreto 1.22.637 [2017] Pole = Raikkonen 1.12.178 // Race Fastest Lap = Perez 1.14.820 In 1985 the New Chicane after the tunnel had not been added yet either, it was a fast left/right flick, although the Swimming Pool section was slower.

Seeing as you asked, it came from Network Rail directly. Forgive my emotional outburst, but I, and others here evidently, find the media assumption that the railway is atrocious immature and tedious. "More Railway Chaos Ahead..." seems to be a default template for headlines. Media outlets in general appear to be enjoying a race to the lowest common denominator, where sensationalism wins the day. But I suppose that is just a reaction to what the great British public want.

Network Rail's response to this latest episode of mouthing off media morons: Network Rail is not cutting down 13m trees. There are approximately 6m trees on Network Rail land, with a further 7m neighbouring that land. There are no plans to remove every lineside tree and colleagues actively consider the natural environment and the impacts of vegetation management on local communities. There is no ‘£800m five-year tree felling programme’ and there are no plans to create one. Network Rail has a biodiverse lineside and wishes to keep it that way. The vegetation management programme is not secret – the policies are available to the public on Network Rail’s website. Every year during nesting season (March - August) we curtail our vegetation management work and only remove trees that are a safety risk or which could impact on the efficient operation of the railway would be considered for cutting back or removal. Before we do anything we have our ecologists carry out a study of the area. As a result, only trees which are a safety risk or could impact the efficient operation of the railway are considered for cutting back or removal.

The point is not the FIA has made an "amazing discovery" (wherever you're quoting that from), its more the recognition that: one, aero has developed thanks to team research and various rule changes (such as the 2017 ones to make the cars faster) to a point where overtaking on normal circuits in normal circumstances is very difficult; two, a "whole package" review is the only way to go from understanding the basic principles to actually creating workable rules that don't have unintended consequences.

Things are different now. These latest changes are down to Liberty Media, and their masterstroke appointment of Ross Brawn as Director of Motorsport & Technical. He's leading a comprehensive FIA/FOM review of the future of F1 for 2021 (current contracts with the teams end in 2020), and these 2019 proposals have come from that research. It's light years away from the Bernie era of short-term wheeler dealing.

Any updates coming soon Captain?

Some people are so picky ;-) Even amongst so many fantastic shots, to me the photo of the GN Hotel on post 17,557 really stands out. The way the structures are properly grounded and realistically weathered really sells it.

This is at Norbiton station (on the LSWR Kingston Loop), on the Platform 1 subway steps.

I think I've seen that somewhere before.

In fairness though, most of today's trains are so quiet that you often don't hear them until they are close to you. The first thing you hear are the running rails singing. It seems like Porter #2 is keeping a look out.