rogerzilla

I'd guess the cost is excessive. "Oil" in this context normally means the filthiest, cheapest "bottoms" from the refinery, known as bunker fuel in the shipping industry. It has to be heated with steam coils just to.make it flow.

Oil firing would put me off going. It has an unpleasant smell and, at some point, hopefully well away from any houses, the fireman has to clean the tubes while the loco is steaming. The resulting black cloud is not a good advert for preservation.

I REALLY miss the on-train brunch muffins from the 90s. The train coffee was terrible, so I always bought that at New Street, but the muffins were in the buffet car. I spent a summer working in Derby and was getting breakfast expenses because of the early start.

I wasn't that bothered about seeing it but some people may have booked gala tickets for that reason. Oh well, it's all in the small print!

Swindon is pretty grim. The newish platform 4 is ok (if uninspiring) but the main platforms 1/2/3 are awful, with a very weathered GWR canopy, a scruffy main building and the legendary "we've stopped caring", Railtrack sensory garden, which ended up as a few desiccated weeds and was eventually reserved for BTP because, well, crime. https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11868464.sensory-garden-at-train-station-makes-way-for-police-base/ I'd also nominate Bristol Parkway because it looks as if it was built in a weekend and designed to last a year or so. Mostly corrugated steel, and utterly hideous.

More generally, if the layout isn't too large, join all the track and let it "float" on the baseboard. Check for any kinks or separating joints and ensure it's all unstressed before fixing it down. For large layouts, at least get any continuous-run loops done in this way. Sidings can be treated separately.

The SVR website says it won't be running at next weekend's steam gala. Must have teething troubles.

I only have a car licence, so 7.5t is my limit! I agree air brakes are rather impressive.

The other factor in the Abermule collision is that the train crew that took the wrong token were not keeping a proper lookout. The station staff realised the error before the train was out of sight and tried bouncing a signal to attract their attention, to no avail. It also seems they didn't see the oncoming train at all, as they kept steaming until impact. The crew of the other train certainly did see what was happening, and survived by jumping out at the last moment.

It was quite a few years ago, but about 20 years after they became compulsory for cars.

The last time I hired a big lorry (7.5t) it didn't have seatbelts. When a vehicle exceeds a certain mass, it isn't going to stop fast enough to throw you through the windscreen.

Probably repackaged locksmith's graphite like mine!

My only two criticisms of my Gaugemaster DS are: 1. The wiring terminals are too small for really fat bus wire 2. The colour scheme looks like something from a 1950s Magnox power station.

I bought a DCC fitted Bachmann L&YR tank a couple of years ago but I only use DC for OO, so I fitted a blanking plug and it ran in the opposite direction to all other locos. Yes, the simpler DCC interfaces are subject to Murphy's Law and you can fit them the wrong way round!

Yes, most annoying that Rapido put Satan's snot on the class 28 as apparently it slipped too much when they tried a sample without them. Ironically, the prototype was known for its impressive tractive effort (and unreliability, and windows that fell out, and smoke, and burning down Barrow shed).

Anyone else use this on bogie pivots and pinpoint axles? It can turn a coach that drags into one that almost runs for ever. I take the axles out, put a tiny amount into the holes, and refit the axles. Works well on "N" gauge, where coaches can easily be draggy due to the low weight.

The more I hear DCC sound at exhibitions, the less I want it. You can't get anything other than a tinny sound from a model loco. It could be argued that sound "scales" and would become tinnier, but that just reinforces the fact that it's a model. N gauge sound is particularly weak.

Don't they include them in the box? They usually do for their Pacific locos with the same rear truck, although few people can use them except for display purposes

I don't think typical model railway curves permit any kind of sliding axle like the prototype had, since the truck is outside-framed. R2 on OO is a 36.5 yard curve, and the tightest curve the new build P2 will negotiate is 125 yards - dead slow. So you need flangeless wheels (wrong) or a swivelling pony truck (also wrong).

To be fair to Hornby, a swivelling rear axle would be just as wrong as flangeless wheels. A Cartazzi axle has sideways movement (and self-centres using the loco weight), but it doesn't swivel. The average model coach or loco bogie doesn't work like a real bogie, either.

"Lake" is a general term for a type of pigmented paint. Crimson is hardly the word I'd use for such a dark colour, although there is indeed something slightly pinkish about it.

I was just starting work in the Birmingham area back in 1990 and remember the "Tamworth Triangle" series of deaths which finally gave central locking the push it needed. Prior to that, doors were left unlocked for safety reasons (locked doors had led to additional deaths in train fires) and the technology for central locking wasn't there anyway. Interestingly, alcohol was considered to be a factor in the Tamworth Triangle accidents, as it was the right kind of distance from Euston for passengers to become comfortably inebriated. I don't know how boozy WCR excursions are.

I thought ELF/ULF had fallen out of use now?

I finally twigged on Friday why Swindon has a Frobisher Drive intersecting Raleigh Avenue. Who says railway modelling is a waste of time?

We go to Zell am See most years. I'm always pleasantly surprised by the number of loco-hauled trains. We took the train to Salzburg last year and saw all sorts of interesting locos on the way, including something a bit like an overgrown BR class 17. I like the older 1144 locos with the portholes in the side.