richardw1970

That's the sort of thing I have in mind and pretty much matches my thinking, even has the right number of tracks😀 I like the addition of the short fixed piece, hadn't considered that.

I am starting on my first, quite small, O gauge layout and currently working on the design and am pondering the fiddle yard which also acts as the station throat. My initial thoughts were for a cassette based system as I don't want to be handling the stock more than necessary but wonder if that's a bit of a pain for shunting etc when the cassettes would constantly need moving from one track to another which made me consider a sector plate but space constraints mean it would be a single track so the stock would then need handling regularly again. To this end has anyone any experience/design of a sector plate that utilises cassettes on it so that you get the easy swinging between visible layout tracks and the benefit of minimal handling of the stock off scene? Thanks

That sounds even worse than Newcastle-Leeds at 35mph with 4x142's that needed tyre turning!

Thanks, could see how busy you all were so didn't ask in person on the day!

A magnificent layout, despite following it on here I really wasn't prepared for the size! Really does look like the real thing even though I only drive over it with the modern rationalised layout. One very minor bit of constructive criticism was that loco's pulling a train do not have the tail lights on but a few did yesterday, there should never be any red lights apart from at the very rear of the train. With the fantastic attention to detail on everything else this minor change would complete the picture.

That beats the one I was going to mention, Taxi from Newcastle to York at Midnight, driver said he was about to go home after a 12 hour shift but couldn't turn down a York when it was offered!

It has been horrendous on weekends in/out of Leeds, York & Manchester with shoppers and drinkers for at least the last 3 weekends let alone next weekend!

Platform 1 has been prohibited to all traffic for at least the 13 years I've been working in and out of Hull but there have been rumours recently that it is going to be revived.

But they probably still have the same harsh ride!

I have no recollection of the area in the time period modelled as I lived in Suffolk then but it is all instantly recognisable to this present day driver over the route from Leeds to Brighouse. Superb!

I hope there will be animated Golems 'working' the winch/hoist mechanism?

This is a catch 22 situation though, if the unit reports low fuel and GA left it in traffic until it shut down it would block the line somewhere and cause huge delays so they avoid that risk by taking it out of traffic to fuel it causing cancellations. Neither situation is good but I'd rather be cancelled than stranded in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully this will all settle down as the teething troubles are resolved and the units can stick to their booked diagrams, also experience will be gained as to the actual mileage that can safely be achieved between fuelling which may give GA control more confidence to keep sets in traffic if the set reports low fuel? In my own experience I have had Pacers/Sprinters run out of fuel due to disruption taking them off booked diagrams and control loosing track of mileage since last fuelled, no low fuel alarms on those!

Interesting seeing the recent photo's of 745's all seem to show running with rear pantograph in use, the Hitachi units passing through York always seem to use the leading pantograph. I know at one time it was thought best to use the rear in the hope that if anything damaged the rear one the front one would have passed the problem area undamaged. The reasoning I was given up here for the opposite was that it is better to use the front one so the driver gets earlier warning of any overhead damage. I can see logic in both methods, just seems a little inconsistent for two modern trains to take the opposite approach to it.

Very true, when Transpenine got their new 185's they were too heavy to run at SP speeds so are slower on some routes than the 158's they replaced.

A lot of us drivers are reluctant to use sand for acceleration to keep it in reserve for stopping as we have no way to tell how much sand is left on a lot of units. Some modern units actually inhibit traction sanding once the sand level drops to a certain point.