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Gordonwis

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  1. Could I politely suggest that if you are posting about trains on the other side of Switzerland from Romandie, that you post in a separate thread. Because my 70 year family connection with Romandie has very sadly now been broken by the death of my late Uncle, I am most interested in your updates from Suisse Romande - a region I have been closely associated with for all of my 64 years on this earth - and where the railways are much less commonly visited and talked about by English speaking enthusiasts than further East in Switzerland, but I believe a study of the Bernina - much more visited / photographed / reported upon by the same enthusiasts demographic, IMHO really belongs in a separate thread. Just an idea: perhaps you could split this thread into two ongoing threads 'Romandie' and 'beyond Romandie'
  2. It should just be clarified that at the time of the photo the border at Bad Schandau was between the DDR and Czechoslovakia. Also, the source says 'around 1965' which matches my guess that it is 'mid 60s' rather than late 60's. It's a great photo, I would not have thought that a BR ferry van would have been circulating 'intra-Warsaw Pact' as early as the mid 60s, although I did see such a van in Sopron (Hungary) marshalling yard in 1985 (being passed by a Hungarian steam loco!)
  3. One each of 1st and 2nd class 'new' 2020 livery N gauge Fleischmann EW4 from Scograil at Ally Pally today
  4. HO scale TeII from the collection of the late Ian Thomson being sold today on the French Railways Society stand at Ally Pally. Some parts need refitting but great stuff for £45 when it is my secondary scale
  5. As someone who travelled frequently to family in Ferney Voltaire for 60 years by various means, the inception of the even just the first bit of Paris - Lyon HS line and thus the creation of Paris - Geneva TGV services in 1981 (when I was living in Peterborough) made it possible for one to travel from not just London but a few places north of London to Geneva in one day for the first time. The fact that this 'high speed bonanza' was not taken to advantage by Britain is an indictment of this country's transport ( and other) policy over decades and decades. Sadly the Thatcher government's security and safety paranoia put paid to any sensible train services (nightstar and cross channel locals included...) being introduced , because of the ridiculous rolling stock technical requirements and refusal to make border / customs arrangements simple. Put bluntly, it is absolutely ludicrous - and has been since the inception of the Channel Tunnel, that there is no direct train service from London to Geneva. It was the most blatantly obvious opportunity when the Channel tunnel was built given that: Geneva already had a ready made platform with customs hall and facilities into which a train from London could have been run. Geneva is crammed full of English speakers and expat Brits There are about 10 flights a day just from London - every one almost always full The erstwhile London - Bourg St Maurice Eurostar proved that a similar train to Geneva could easily have been created with the right political will. For the last few years I have been dealing with the legacy of my uncle's vast railway photo etc collection, such that I am still taking items from my house back to Geneva (to the AGMT tramway museum ) - I did two trips in 2023 and have one trip coming up where I will be forced to do my now usual thing - a 5am taxi from home to Gatwick, fester at Gatwick then plod along the taxiway in the giant queue of morning flight departures; Easyjet to Geneva. On both my trips in 2023 I left my office near Euston thinking how nice it would be to be able to amble after work over to St Pancras and arrive in Cornavin the following morning. .
  6. Here are the Busch cheapies on my layout Chamossaire at ESNG last September
  7. The other problem with Mafen signals is that the 'nicest' aka most 'imposing' ones (ie the multi aspect and combined 'home and distant' versions) are between 30 and 60 quid a pop. One reason why I went with the dummy Busch ones (pack of 12 for £15 from a discount retailer)
  8. I did in fact mention the Kyodo Lemaco signals in my post on Tuesday. I prefer them to Mafen because you can actually see them (!) but getting hold of them now is very hard, hence my decision to use cheapy plastic German signals modified
  9. Yes, the red end was added for visibility in the latter days of the all green livery on RBe 4/4 . If your layout is set in the mid 1908s to mid 1990s, a red end version is fine .
  10. I agree to a certain extent. Even a blast furnace needs a certain level of tidiness around it, not just grime, for the sake of efficiency
  11. I had a Mafen N SBB signal but found it too delicate for my layouts that need constant moving to a storage shelf. I also felt it was too small (in some cases overscale in N can help the brain to compute what it is seeing) so I use more of the old Lemaco Kyodo version. However, to save money, I have gone the cheap way recently by using the German dummy signal pack (Busch 5850) and cutting a tiny pieces off each signal face and adding a white surround to make them the 'Swiss style'. In the most basic scenario, a few main signals, main and distant signals and distants planted at the key locations will make the layout look OK. In the meantime, some of my [too] many Swiss phots with signals visible signal on three-track Lausanne - Geneve at Chambesy The 'home' main plus distant signal for Twann station, June 2022
  12. I highly recommend not skimping on the cost and getting the pukka Mafen N-Train SNCF 25kV masts .
  13. Had not so far been tempted with this 'at today's high prices' having owned a whole range of artisan efforts at the Picasso in N gauge over the years, but seeing one close up on Lionel Barbier's (Trains 160) stand at Wemfal Lille on Saturday (9 March) and having the opportunity to buy it on site was too hard to resist.
  14. All in the title. There was a new Arnold 14100 in the vicinity of this layout (unsurprisingly) but last seen in bits on Trains 160's table (hmmm...)
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