Zomboid

From what i know, you wouldn't usually have a return conductor in an autotransformer system, those are particular to booster transformers. You could have an earth wire and an auxiliary feeder though, i believe.

Why would that preclude having an earth wire?

Armour Yellow will never date I find it hard to believe that CN noodle is as old as it is, too. BN green has aged very well though, that's true.

Burlington Northern were pretty green, and that looked... Striking. And the pre-noodle Canadian National green was pretty nice (I think PRR also called their colour green, but you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference next to black). But we've never had anything over here worthy of mentioning in the same paragraph as ATSF warbonnet. Which wasn't green in any sense.

Saw a green turbo at Reading the other day, thought it looked pretty smart in the full new livery. Not the most exciting colour scheme, but smart. HSTs will be around on GW for some time yet, the Plymouth line Hitachis won't be showing up for quite some time yet, quite apart from the routes which are getting electrified.

I "finished" the kit (well, that's probably true in one way or another), and placed it in position. A couple of pics showing the view across a few cars to the factory/warehouse/generic industry. Also in shot, a couple of new tank cars I bought at the Seaboard Southern show 6 weeks or so ago. I think we can all agree that this looks highly Californian... (Oh well, there's always next time...). "overview" a lower level view showing the seamless joins on the building. Might be a bit draughty in there, notwithstanding the lack of a back wall... ACL car looks a bit weathered in this, but that's just the poor quality of my phone camera. Looks quite nice though... I've got a plan to improve the loading platform thing on the right, which involves junking it and using the rest of the kit to build something better...

You planning on including a multi storey car park or something?

I can't say that electricity was anywhere near my mind when I saw the huge W. I too thought it was just an update of the old shirt button logo.

You should just add the gore and see if anyone comments...

I definitely prefer the truss girder, but I've never actually been to Sheffield, so... Not sure what the high level siding achieves, it looks a little "fill this gap with track", and unlikely at that angle from the high level main line; where is it served from? Does a single 4 wagon siding add any play value? I very much like what you're creating though.

I really like the train arriving scene. The bridge looks just a little bit on the low side to me, a couple more mm in height would be my suggestion.

I was going to wade in with something similar to that, but yours is better than my idea...

I remember that Sodor Shenanigan...

Oh, is it 4 tracked some distance towards Salisbury then? I was thinking 2 platforms before the junction, but if that's a mile into town then clearly not...

The location just after the divergence seems a bit silly (though understandable due to the car park). It would seem to me that putting it before the routes split would enable it to be served by trains on both the Exeter and Westbury lines, and those services would probably be enough, at least to start with. I suppose they could end up building 4 platforms at some point...

Like it. I'd suggest modelling a derelict trackbed between the lines, maybe with some potted plants (like I'm remembering from Bournemouth/ Exeter Central, but which may not be there...) under the canopies.

And 66s are not particularly small pieces of machinery. Another good comparison is this, of course https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5005/5355175714_946ac494fd_z.jpg

Didn't they put class 70s onto wagons for transportation to the docks?

Planning any more Lego scenics?

Looked like good modelling to me. There's a talent to creating a believable scene, and that's more important to my mind than whether buildings come out of a box, a kit or are scratchbuilt.

No idea whether its authentic Sheffield or not, but I like the girder bridge and would use it there if it were my train set. I'd say that in Sheffield, steel bridges ought to be commonplace... The cutting approach looks really good, even in mock up form.

I don't like the diamond there personally because it just looks like a contrived arrangement. Move the top crossover to the left of the diamond and you'll create something along the lines of a scissors, which is a bit more believable. And actually your flexible option isn't that outlandish. I'd go with that if it were my train set. The simplified arrangement is what a real railway company would build, though.

I'd look to ditch the diamond and replace that with a crossover as unravelled suggests. I'd also try to use large radius switches for that which will look a lot nicer as a train snakes across. But there will be crashes. They are essential for small children, they certainly were for me. Just don't let them play with anything fragile.

I imagine most parts of the old Empire had a lot of British (designed if not built) equipment. I guess it's just a matter of exposure. Don't know how bothered I'd have been if I hadn't had a weekly magazine telling me about steam trains wheezing across Patagonia and modern Scandinavian electrics (as well as a healthy diet of UK trains). At least as worthy of attention as British Rail was.

So here it is, according to the "World of Trains" part set that I spent my pocket money on in the early-mid 90s, this is the design which came second (sort of) to the eventually chosen class 60. I like it more than what they did build, though I like that too... "World of Trains" was money well spent, as well - it's what made me realise that there's an awful lot of interesting railway beyond the shores of the British isles; South America and Africa in particularly have some fantastic systems (I love me a Kenyan Garrett)