Lecorbusier

My understanding was that if your job was defined as a profession you were held to a higher duty of care towards the general public than the standard caveat emptor (Buyer beware) under english common law. I know that as an architect if I express an opinion which might be acted upon (irrespective of the relationship) then I can be held liable for the outcome and sued accordingly. So any comments that could be construed as uttered within a professional capacity (even within a social setting) need to be carefully considered - professional liability is much more onerous than standard liability. This comes with a legally protected title and in the past a protected fee scale (removed by Thatcher in the 1980s) suposedly ensuring a disinterested level of service.

Value is such a curious concept. What is a model railway or a collection of stock worth? In some ways insurance is the most simple form of valuation - so long as it relates to replacement value .... ie what would the estimated costs be? But even here it starts to get complicated where irreplacable items are concerned .... items with a history/no longer available/the maker is no longer alive etc etc. Then of course we have the value as dictated by the market ... we all know that this is no real judge of intrinsic value - in fact values can fluctuate massively from week to week and things of real value become worthless over night! ... as an example my Uncle was an Artist and art is subject to the vaguries of fashion - so one decade his paintings would command high prices where as in the next or previous they became hard to sell at all - the paintings hadn't changed. Of course now that he no longer paints they are in limted supply and have become assets which can be traded. What about personal value or emotional investment. What a minefield! ....and of course money is such a narrow and silly way of defining value .... as they say about the money men - they know the cost/price of everything and the value of nothing (though I have met many who were extremely discerning, whilst at the same time being sanguine about the system within which they worked!). Hey Ho!

It's also clear that as you go up the scales with weights and stresses increasing so too does the level of robustness/engineering required and with it the cost .... My VW gearbox is £1699 - Horses for courses as well!

Having Watched Tom's video on assembling the gear box .... 20mins with speeded up working and elements done off screen .... I can see this being daunting for a beginner. Having it done for you as part of a commercial opperation ... £30 plus? For a non beginner... a good option.

What is the cost of the DJH box in kit form without motor? I note Chris at High Level is now offerring his own range of smaller motors .... for £9.50 a pop ... does anyone have experience of them? .... beats £27 - £30!!! Using these you can escape at £25 ish for box and motor

What a strange Gearbox discussion we are all having? From what I can gather the DJH offering is very good and simple to install .... tick. A little on the large side so perhaps only suitabe for larger locomotives? Some say pricey. Perhaps more robust than the High Level? High Level Gearboxes are very good and have a significant range of combinations and can be configured to suit pretty much all applications. They take a touch more skill to put together (though perhaps not if you buy the DJH box in kit form for the lower price - though can't find this option on their website?) On balance they also appear to be a cheaper option when comparing like for like? So two excellent options .... horses for courses perhaps? ... with a dose of personal preference and wallet size. Voila!

That depends on what you think telly is for ... education or entertainment. Initially it very much served as education and betterment with an emphasis placed upon such things. I would suggest that since the 1980s there has been an increasing emphasis on entertainment and ratings and a systematic dumbing down and cutting of non profitmaking elements ... coupled with this has been the consistant rise of commercial competitors to the BBC. A perfect storm if you like. I am not one who subscribes to the necessity for conformity and linguistic correctness outside the classroom ( the 19th century (I think) French rigidity in the rules and purity of their language is seen by many academics as having been a limitation). As the standards and norms change in society as a whole, it is unsurprising that this is reflected in the present offerings of the media. Would I like the BBC to return to its former remit ... ?

For me it has to be High Level. The DJH offerring is simply too large and inflexible ... Rolls Royces are after all big and heavy luxury cars! With High level I can usually find an arrangement which will fit and a gear ratio that suits ... even when I have to accommodate a battery as well in a loco as small as a Johnson 1F. Horses for courses maybe?

Pulling capacity is an interesting area (as is battery life) in the realm of radio control. As everyone is aware, battery life between charges is a consideration. The way Protocab are going seems to be to link charge life to coal/water capacities on the controller display (as far as steam loco's are concerned). The idea is that - like on the prototype - driving style can be monitered in relation to relative fuel/water (battery) consumption ... will be interesting to see how this develops over time (it is all still in the pipeline!) On haulage capacity, as we know different classes had differring capabilities. With battery power a far wider range of motors become available than using DC/DCC - (small and large/Powerful and less powerful) - across the voltage ranges. Given the increased choice of power options, maybe the ultimate goal would be to have power related to prototypical haulage capacity? Presumably in this scenario you would also have to engineer the weight of the loco such that wheel slip occurred once a given weight of train had been reached? You would also have to standardise the weight and free running of the stock. Not sure if any of that is at all feesible .... but it is an interesting thought experiment. I suspect you would run into problems relating to the none scaleability of mass and inertia?

If by that you mean that it is open to misunderstanding or misinterpretation I could not disagree. However if both the nuance and meaning are clear and concise, then I tend to be more relaxed.

During the recent test series against Pakistan they have been playing archive recordings of lunchtime discussions from the past ... the two I listened to were Peter O-Toole and John Cleese ... both in conversation with Brian Johnstone. Very entertaining .... but also very much period pieces which to my ear tipped ever so slightly into Parody. No doubt if the discussions were contemporary they would have come across stilted & odd! I like accents and regional variation ... I enjoy idiomatic english and the myriad of local ways that grammer is 'twisted and butchered' from a purist standpoint. That said there are certain accents which I find jarring and unpleasant, which I think in the end is down to taste. I have recently been watching some of the early Fred Dibnah offerings on Youtube ... in purist terms he certainly 'butchers' the queens english, and I suspect even at the time there was an element of self parody in the programmes ... but for me they are of considerable merit none the less and I appreciate the regional richness of sentence construction and vocabulary. God save us from bland uniformity. Of course, one person's treat can be another person's poison.

I may be way off base ... but I suspect that what many who find today's spoken world somewhat painful might actually want, is a contemporary updated version of a past, which chimes with there own preferences (prejudices?) .... and in reality they might find a return to the days of yore not exactly what they have selectively remembered. I find it facinating how often I return to something I enjoyed in the past to find it markedly differrent from the memory and often jarring - not always, but often.

A counter position .... I do find when viewing News etc from years gone by (the year that was), the presentation now sounds affected and stilted to the point of parody.

if he had ... would have been more like this... bye bye quaint pretty buildings-hello heroic modernism

Way back when, I promised to post a video clip of my Johnson 1F running using the Protocab system. Work and life I'm afraid got in the way of me finishing the installation untill this weekend gone .... anyway, better late than never. Here is some rather amateur footage of it up and running prior to dismantling ready for the paint shop.