Herr Dienstleiter

Thank you ... does that mean that the Ashford stopping Eurostars are the older units?

My wife's journey home was lengthened by two hours last week because a non-stop Eurostar had to be reversed to Ebbsfleet when the drive realised that he was about to go through Ashford International instead of over the avoiding line viaduct. The Javelin my wife was travelling on also had to reverse back to Ebbsfleet to make room for the Eurostar's shunt. I don't understand why the Eurostar could not have just gone through Ashford - slowly no doubt - and rejoined the correct route at the eastern highspeed junction. What am I missing here?

All you have to do is to nominate someone ... how about Mr. Pritchard for instance ... the person has to be continuing in the role for which they are commended and the relevant selection committee will take references for the individual. The committee will not respond to the nominator but the practice is to decide yes/later/perhaps and keep decisions under review; e.g. an MBE who then does something else disctinctive might be considered for a promotion in the Order. Nominations can be made by public bodies, chartered instiutions and by individuals. Dr Mrs Dr is an OBE, it was a lovely outing to go to her investiture.

Can anyone please tell me the measurements of the Roco Cl 80 shunter chassis: wheel diameter and axle spacings? Thanks, David.

I had a similar issue in one place on a short stretch of hand-built track also solved by an extra power feed, there were no fishplates involved - I cofnnect each section directly to the supply. I can only conclude that there was something up inside the rail itself, some anomaly in the metal perhaps caused during manufacture: perhaps if I knew something about crystallisation in metals I could come up with an answer!!

Let's hope that it lasts a little bit longer than Ebbsfleet Halt ... just down the line from the proposed site.

When I grew up in Highbury the track was still visible (early sixties) some cars laid over there to start the morning services apparently.

I am sorry that I have not come to this thread sooner but the post from Melmouth pretty much describes my position. When I had my H0e layout Molln-an-der-Steyr I had a class 2095 bo-bo diesel on it to work the freight trains - the Steyrtalbahn never had the class because of a critically weak bridge at Waldneukirchen, it might have survived in commercial service had the bridge been strengthened. Mine was painted green (all the rest were orange or orange/cream) and when challenged by someone who knew the Austrian ng I would solemnly explain that it was the unique light weight 2095/1 ... ... My present line was never built by the OeBB (sadly) though it is a postbus route. All my locomotives are numbered consecutively from the end of their class series 298.45, etc., apart from 2091.06 which the 'history' books say was scrapped after an accident whereas we all know it was repaired and sent north to the Muelviertelbahn to work out its days. The high level of standardisation on the Austrian ng means that my line is entirely accurate apart from the little matter of its actual existence. Molln was only more accurate in the sense that it was an actual place and I had photographic evidence for everything on the line ... but I wanted to try my hand at something different in the same thematic area.

The trouble is that is that if any of us know anything about a particular area we will soon be catching the set designers out ... the marriage scene at the end of the BBC's Pride & Prejudice adaptation, otherwise wholly admitable, for instance, shows a cross and lights on the altar. OK? No. The Privy Council Legal Committee was still ruling altar lights illegal in 1890s. Ecclesiatical dress is rarely portrayed correctly and railway modellers are amongst the worst offenders. Professional interest, d'ye see. (The Revd.) Herr Dienstleiter

I would be interested to know how you calculated the crank and lever throw lengths - it irritates me that I do not have working point indicators on my line, which is otherwise correctly signalled, any information would be very helpful. I work in 0e, by the way.

Extravagant. Something extravagant. With lots of twiddly bits.

Love the cardboard Tower Bridge on the Stobart layout ... worth it for that alone. Not.

Hobbytime of West Wickham ... another sad loss ...

That's the funny thing about it ...nobody seemed to notice my hand emerging or the total lack of reality 'back stage' - is that about the semi-theatrical side of building a convincing layout? I forgot to mention that the doors in the spud factory do slide back and fore so it is only when the spuds need removing that they are open.

Sliding Doors: In a way it is a shame that you decided to have all the wharehouse doors shut: the potato factory on Helfenberg has a pair of operable sliding doors and when the wagon loads of spuds arrive, the doors are slid open and the spuds (fixed inserts of course) are removed from the wagons - I was always surprised at how very few people noticed this being done at exhibitions. The wagons would then be drawn back out, miraculously empty and loads passed back to the south end operator for further use.