willjmitchell

Does anyone have any experience fitting lighting to LS Models coaches? I have tried a number of different lighting kits (Train Tech, Rapido, Layouts4U) but none of them fit between the roof and the chassis on my CIWL sleeping coaches. I don’t particularly want to perform invasive surgery on my coaches; I think i’d sooner just forego the lighting altogether. If anyone has any suggestions or tips I would be very grateful. Many thanks, Will

What are the chances of Hornby fixing some or all of the production/quality control problems in the latest production run? I have just pre-ordered a full rake with the black ends costing [gulp] more than a grand and I am hoping for no massive, visible capacitors and perhaps a slightly more detailed interior. Am I being too optimistic?

I’m gutted it didn’t work out with DJM but pleased Hornby are putting this out. Have to say, it doesn’t look anywhere near the standard DJM was targeting though. Why is the UK OO market so far behind the continental HO?

I’m sitting on yet another 5 coach service from London to Bristol, the 1630. There are no seat reservations, first class has been declassified and they are saying that any passengers with seat reservations who have been left standing can apply for compensation. In fairness to the Guard, or ‘Train Manager’ to use the parlence of our times, he has been very apologetic and said this is happening far too often. Indeed it is: on my journey to London on Monday it was exactly the same. On that occassion the Guard explicitly blamed Hitachi for not supplying the correct train. Whoever is at fault, it’s an absolute shambles. When is this likely to be sorted out?

Completely agree. The FGW mark 3 interiors are an absolute disgrace. I haven’t ridden an 800 yet but I’d be very surprised if it’s worse. The high seat backs of the mark 3 engender claustrophobia and the vile purple colour scheme combines with the strip lighting to make things as uncomfortable as possible. Still, at least there was a buffet car.

Great discussion and very topical. A few observations of my own: 1. Lighting plays a significant role, and it’s been getting gradually worse (brighter) over time. Most modern train interiors are tortuously, unnecessarily bright. FGW’s mark 3 standard class, for example: try getting some sleep in one of those! You need something thick to cover your eyes from the combination of the garish purple colour scheme and the unforgiving fluorescent strip lighting. To me it’s akin to sitting in a moving hospital waiting room. 2. Seating and the layout of the seats: Working in concert with lighting to make your journey as uncomfortable as possible. Even intercity coaches now have more comfortable seats than most trains. And woe betide if you were looking forward to a view, unless you fancy examining some plastic panelling in forensic detail to pass the time. 3. Incessant announcements. DING . DING . Some operators are worse than others. I once rode a Virgin Pendolino from Euston to Glasgow and it was honestly reminiscent of Guantanamo. Announcement after announcement after announcement. Some human, some automated, often repetitious and coming before and after every single station stop. Looking to get some rest or enjoy peaceful contemplation as you watch the countryside glide by? Not a chance, unless you happen to have effective ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones turned up to the max. But don’t forget to take your personal belongings with you when you leave the train and did you know the buffet car serves food and drinks? 4. Branding and gimmicks: Nothing like a Virgin train to make me want to poke my own eyes out in disgust at the patronising and infantilising gimmickry aboard their bloody trains. You wouldn’t flush your goldfish down the loo now would you! 5. The general sense that the railways have lost their way. BR produced some decent interiors and there’s no reason why we couldn’t do better today. It’s surely not beyond the wit of man to provide a comfortable seat and line it up with a window. There really aren’t many excuses for this mess. I strongly believe rail’s trump card is comfort, and yet train interiors and onboard amenities have been salami sliced to the point where it’s actually more comfortable to drive or even take the coach. It’s as if we’re looking to compete with Ryanair in a race to the bottom. And it won’t end well for the railways.

Hi Edwin, Appreciate your responses. Attaching hereto a letter from Lord Berkeley to Chris Grayling which estimates that the Phase 1 costs are spiralling towards £50bn. Regarding the M1 corridor, it would almost certainly save a lot of money compared to tunneling under the Chilterns, money which could perhaps be better spent elsewhere. Regarding cross country services, I suggest they are supposed to cross the country, rather than terminate in the middle, requiring a change of train and station in Birmingham in order to continue a journey. The HSUK plans seem to me to be more holistic and better thought-through. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on them. Regards, Will

Whilst I am massively in favour of building a high speed line in the UK, HS2 seems to me to be poor value for money and sub-optimal in too many respects. As some contributors have already observed, the line will operate at or near full capacity from inception. There is therefore little or no room for growth in future. Our neighbours in France now wish they had four-tracked the Paris-Lyon section of the LGV Sud Est as well as the LGV Nord; we appear not to have learned from their mistakes. Journey times between most of the UK’s major cities will not be improved by HS2, a damning indictment of the line’s London-centric design and poor connectivity to the rest of the national rail network. As the team at HSUK have argued, a better route, using the M1 corridor with spurs to Birmingham and Liverpool via Manchester would not only reduce journey times to and from London but would also provide a proper intercity network akin to that of Germany. But surely the most egregious design flaw of all is the specification of terminus stations in Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Who in their right mind would build a terminus station nowadays, except in a coastal city? Unfortunately it seems that the HS2 juggernaught cannot and will not be stopped. But it has been interesting to watch as the various drawbacks of the design are brought into focus as they collide with reality: HS3; HS4; HS5; the specification of both classic-compatible and captive trains; a newly-proposed circuituous route serving Stoke; the provision of tram services to connect to a station located in the middle of nowhere; straightening the WCML north of Preston despite the excellent performance of pendular trains, to name but a few examples. All of the above are illustrative of the muddled thinking of HS2. £100bn on a line which gets us to Manchester and Leeds but few places beyond. It’s a travesty.

great suggestions - thanks Mark.

The Brawa Rheingold coaches look beautiful. Does anyone know how I can work out whether the coaches are full 1:87 scale length? https://www.brawa.de/en/products/h0/wagons/passenger-coaches/45916-rheingold-express-train-coach-set-drg-5-unit/

Thanks Edwin for your detailed responses. I suspect you are correct that this is possibly more of a political problem than a practical one. Had Ryanair or Easyjet encountered similar problems, I doubt they would still be trying to find a solution years/decades on. It just goes to show how transport policy is so absurdly flawed.

Mike - all your points are good ones, but I just can’t help thinking there has been a lack of ambition at Eurostar. It seems to me there is no issue with demand for long distance rail services in Europe. The TGVs are full, the Eurostars are full, the ICEs are full and the German cut-price London Special tickets always sell out quickly. Take-up of the new ES services to Marseille and Lyon appears to have been very good, and I fully expect the forthcoming Amsterdam service to gain a big market share. Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Geneva, Stuttgart and many other cities could all be reached in under six hours, which is still competitive with air travel when you take into account all the inconveniences of flying. I also think we’re going to see a resurgence of the continental City NightLine sleeper services under OBB’s stewardship, not to mention our own sleeper services in the UK which are going from strength to strength, despite the abundance of cheap flights. I for one will always try to avoid air travel within Europe unless it’s absolutely necessary, and I think many others are coming to the same conclusion, especially now that you can book tickets all in one place using Loco2. I also expect the unfair subsidisation of air travel by national governments and the EU to come under greater political scrutiny as concern for the environment grows. John - I agree about the challenges of building a representative high speed layout. I too have been trying to start a collection of high speed models in HO and OO. So far I have a Rapido APT-E and a Fleischmann ICE BR407. I have ordered an APT-P from DJ Models and am looking for a good quality TGV. I would welcome any suggestions! My preference is for DCC sound models with all the bells and whistles. Cheers, Will

Thanks John for kicking off this thread. I too am very interested in high speed rail. I think it still has a lot of unexplored potential despite being a relatively mature technology. From an operational perspective, I am susprised and saddened that there are still so few direct high speed trains from London to cities on the continent; Eurostar’s expansion seems to have happened at a snail’s pace. I firmly believe there are thousands if not millions of people who would gladly swap flying for a high speed rail service to cities a far away as Berlin, Vienna, Milan and Madrid, even if it were more expensive than flying. All these destinations could be reached overnight by high speed sleeper trains, making good use of the european high speed rail network at night. And the beauty of rail is that you can really go to town on passenger comfort and amenities and, of course, the journey is city centre to city centre, avoiding the need for arduous and stressful transfers. I’d be interested to hear if anyone knows of, or indeed are themselves, modellers of high speed rail. Lots of HO and N guage models exist of course, but I am yet to see a realistic high speed layout of an LGV.

Mr Tilt, please can you provide a little more info on why the joint module idea was a total non-starter? It seems like such an efficient design I always wondered why it didn't catch on. I keep expecting to see it on a modern train one of these days.. Cheers!

two further videos have been posted with the train moving. the sound is fantastic and the running mechanism looks super smooth.