Arun Sharma

and WW2 aircraft wrecks as well.

It seems to me that EWR, as a line which essentially could link all the radial lines [passenger and freight] coming out [West to North-East] of London, should fundamentally be regarded by DofT in the same way as a railway version of the M25 albeit a few miles further out. For that reason alone, the climate vulnerable line between Didcot and Oxford might also be considered worthy of four-tracking?

As the designer and owner of some of Phil Radley's later 4mm kits and most of his 7mm road and rail vehicle kits, it has taken just about a year to identify what belongs where from his estate. This is no reflection on Phil, simply what could happen to any of us. At some point soon, I will examine the 7mm scale kits that have been returned to me and see which are either in saleable condition or which need some additional items to bring them up to spec. I don't suppose that the forum administrators will look terribly kindly on me publishing a list [with/without prices] on this forum somewhere down the line. However, give it a couple of weeks and send me a PM if you want a list e-mailed to you.

The centre cab diesel loco by the turntable looks like an ex-DB one. Class V60 possibly?

One possible method of almost forcing through Phase 2 of HS2 would be to accept that the current Houses of Parliament require major refurbishment and that pro-tem both Houses should be moved to say, Manchester or Leeds together with whatever civil service personnel need to physically move in these days of secure Zoom and Teams software. I suspect that would do wonders for the currently stillborn 'Northern Powerhouse' and remove at a stroke the London-centric view of HMG at present. It might have some interesting effects on house prices across the country as well!

66083, 66143 and 66079 were in the line up at Didcot yesterday evening. 66079 looked to have been freshly repainted complete with silverish exhaust.

Given recent proposed alterations to the scope of HS2, are they likely to have any effect on the progress of E-W rail?

I picked up a copy of that flyer as well - The show is at the NEC on April 27-28 next year and called "Key Model World". However it is sponsored by Key Publishing and the flyer suggests that all forms of modelling [possibly not semi-clothed ladies however] including railways and plastic kits will be present. Key do publish the Hornby Magazine as well as Airfix Model World so that might be a clue.

I heard it today on BBC Sounds and agree that it went down well. The following speaker [68 year old lady from Warwick] appeared to believe that no further infrastructure projects of any kind should take place in this, our green and pleasant land....... Didn't we know that there was a climate emergency?..... Well, it takes all sorts! Rather interestingly, the point was made that Euston to Crewe was agreed by Parliament and presumably only Parliament can repeal the Act which authorises it - and certainly not merely by a whimsical diktat from the PM.

Thank you for that Woodenhead - It made my day!

Disagree - I think those clouds are pretty realistic

I did manage to photograph one of the heritage/Private Hire trams in Vienna whilst looking for the still extant pair of concrete flak towers in the Augarten Park in the NE of the city. Tram 4134 was racing past Franz Josef bahnhof at the time. I could hear it long before actually seeing it. Note that it has a long bow collector rather than the more modern types of pantograph seen in the other pics.

Prague has a somewhat greater range of car types though the basic workhorse is still the Tatra T3 in basic or modernised forms. Prague 9113 is a Skoda 14T, 8014 is a Tatra T3M and 6921 is a rather old, probably unmodified basic T3. Prague 8255 is another Tatra T3 but one which has been modified with a low floor as well as some deeper side windows. Prague 9077 is a Tatra KT8 D5R.N2P variant. Additionally, there are a couple of older heritage cars in both Prague and Vienna that seem to be available for hire and tours around their respective cities. Wenceslas Square [actually a very long rectangle] also has a couple of old cars parked halfway down which have been converted into a cafe though still wearing their old livery.

I had reason to revisit Prague and Vienna this week and managed to take a few photographs of trams. Vienna 776 is a Siemens Type B [Long] articulated set whearas 30 is a shorter Siemens Type A. Many routes in Vienna still employ the power car and trailer units such as this one of Trailer 1509 [together with unidentified power car] at Quartier Belvedere in SE Vienna.

The underframe is currently being populated with the various battery boxes, chokes, radiators and transformers. The resin parts have been glued in place but there are some lost wax brass tanks, oil filters and brake cylinder/actuating arms that need to be soldered in place in the empty space on the right, nearside [as you see it on the screen]. The underframe is just sitting [rather than secured] on top of the upside down body. The resin boxes are glued in place using Devcon 5minute Epoxy. Adhesion is enhanced by drilling some holes in the contact area [both on the part and through the metal underframe]. If required, further support can always be given by drilling a hole though the metal underframe and gluing a pin into the part through it. Such 'drilling and pinning' is often used when dealing with resin parts. The electrical compartment side louvres are also now in place.

And here is 323 221 on Saturday 17 Jun 23 with Regional Railways branding arriving at Sutton Coldfield with more visitors for the DEMU Showcase in the local town hall.

OK - Whoops!

It hasn't. See comments by Staionmaster, others and myself on the topic of level crossings/signalling distances on this line 07-09 March 2020. The topic is regularly raised.

The seating unit for this car has been 3D printed commercially using an ABS filament. Although it has a somewhat rough surface, it can be sanded smooth easily and it is a small fraction of the price of printing the two types of seats individually using a SLA material/process. Next step is to smooth the surface, prime and top coat this seat unit.

Adrian Shooter's personal favourite unit was eventually named after him:

I've now just added the cab front castings - these are mainly lamps, lamp irons and various MU connectors. All were generated as 3D prints and then cast in brass via Birmingham's Jewellry Quarter. The next stage is to add the side louvre castings once their moulds are done [they will be resin castings from 3D printed masters]. Since this is solely a test build of the etches and check for casting fit, I am not too concerned about populating the cab interior as those parts don't require holes to be drilled in the etches.

This link still works

One feature seems common to almost all of the fly-through videos and that is the presence of 'Attenuation Ponds'. What are these for?

The underframe of this particular vehicle is especially complex but fortunately it was well photographed during its conversion to overhead power pickup and those photographs have allowed the full complement of boxes and cylinders to be drawn in 3D CAD. Once printed, a trial set will be stuck underneath. It should end up looking something like this underneath:

The basic bodyshell of the test build has now been completed: