SamThomas

Can carbon fibre be recycled ? & if so is it cost/environmentally effective (as an example wind turbine blades cannot be recycled when at the end of their service life). & I would suggest that EV's need to look like conventional cars to be acceptable or will they have to look like ;

Interesting............ Nothing about my comment to impose a weight limit, possibly rendering the expensive works unnecessary. I don't know because I don't know the local area & what alternative routes are available for heavy vehicles. NH may be legally allowed to apply different rules but are they morally allowed to ? Are they being responsible to our heritage ? I can legally drive a 44T truck through a small village with centruries old buildings at the speed limit (whatever that may be), but I don't because, to me it neither morally correct or responsible. It may be just one bridge in this case, but what about the next one & the one after that ?

The NS Series 1200 OHE's had big noses, the Sprinter EMU's had noses, also the SNCB Serie 21/55 & others had short noses.

Dungrange has answered the question regarding CV's. The Roco SNCF loco is DCC ready & looks like it has been fitted with a Lenz decoder. You could return it to analogue DC only by fitting a blanking plug but, if it's reunning well then I would just leave it. In any case, as you have a simple DCC system you could always have a play with DCC on a test track & see if you do actually like it.

There are some diesel engines that are music to my ears (but in much larger vehicles), such as a Gardiner 6LX (straight six), Perkins V8 turbo in a Dennis RS Fire Appliance at full chat, or a Cummins V8 in a Mk9 (again at full chat) and currently a Scania V8 (even a Euro 6 manages to still sound good.

Normally from the trailers though !

DCC equiped locomotives do not take kindly to feedback controllers or HF track cleaners. If a DCC equiped locomotive has has CV's 2, 3, 4 & 5 altered then it may very well behave different when running on straighforward analogue DC. The Fleuschman DCC system you have is capable of setting CV's but cannot read them unless used the Maus is used with a Lenz Amplifier (the black box) - the Roco badged one you have is basically a cut down Lenz one. Allways a market for them though - they are a pretty good starter set. I do like the Roco SNCF Loco. AFAIK Roco Locomotives with 4-digit catalogue numbers will not be DCC ready & will have to be hard wired which involves cutting the PCB board tracks in places. later Roco locomotives with 5-digit catalogue numbers will have the deoder socket type on the box if so fitted. (Not much use without the box though). I recently sole a handfull of unidentified chips on eBay as spare/repair & got a few bob for them.

& unless you know them very, very well, their age. Q - How do you take your wife/girlfriend/partener to take notice of you ?

Truck manufactures advise drivers not to use the exhaust brake if the surface is slippery - the driving wheels can lock up negating the ABS. Unfortunatly, some transport managers (that spend more time driving desks) are gradually removing all forms of driver overides & resetting vehicle systems so that the exhaust brakes are always active on decelleration.

Thanks for the link - interesting indeed - especially quoting the Marylebone Road monitoring which is situated adjacent to a very busy junction where the traffic is stationary for long periods which will concentrate exhaust gases as moving traffic will help to dissipate them. I always used to think that vehicle exhausts on large vehicles should be upright - at least the exhaust gases would be ejected well above head height. The abuse is something you learn to live with - I just roll up the windows & ignore them. We were very popular during the "great bog roll shortage" though - on kerbside deliveries by the time I had got out of the cab & by the tailift there would be half a dozen or so people standing there to see what was on board !

So, you have a vested interest. At the end of the day infilling is erroding more & more of our heritage. In the case we are discussing it would have been cheaper to impose a weight limit on the structure, unless it would mean heavy vehicles could not access certain area's. Would be quite funny if NR came along & said "hey, we've just noticed that we have a right of way under that bridge.

& a number of the original V200's are still running. The original colour scheme still looks good.

Good tip, although personally I have to avoid using them.

I used to have a few "showcase queens" but not now. Some are on display, some are stored (but very easy to un-store & run). Quite a number are on the rails ready to go, I do have too may to have them all in service at any one time. However, I rotate them, I run them & I unashamedly admit playing trains at times.

Not really impressed with the new website, although I'm only looking at the European HO side. Someone needs to check the images on the Lima section though - a number of buffer heads missing ! Maybe I missed it but an "achieve" section would be nice & useful. I do feel that Hornby are losing out on European sales, I get the impression that these models are overlooked which is a great pity - the current offerings from their European HO stable are certainly up there with the other European manufactures.

I see what you are saying but I've managed it myself a few times on different vehicles when being "brutal". Maybe, ABS systems lose their edge on older vehicles ?

My query was regarding the difference in recorded pollution levels over the short term lockdown rather than overall. I used to look at driving HGV's in Central London as a daily challenge & you get to "meet" many terminally stupid people. Was for a well known supermarket until they got fed up with me poulling them up over H & S issues. Indeed, you need a lot of patience & the ability to ignore abuse.

True, but that does not help with diesel - the diesel the experts advised us to change to a couple of decades or so ago. That's why I am very cynical about the experts cureent advice regarding ICE/EV.

Good point - never though of that.

During the "real" lockdown I was still driving HGV's into Central London on virtually empty streets - I certainly don't remember personally that the air was cleaner. Now, if IC vehicles are really the "source of local air pollution in our towns and cities" the air monitoring equipment sited at various points (& around 2m from ground level) would/should have recorded much lower levels of air pollution then I wonder why the figures have not been bandied about by those who wish to promote the demise of IC engined vehicles ? No doubt someone will be along shortly with a link to prove otherwise.

Not a problem for Morris Men !

It is possible to lock all the wheels in a vehicle equipped with ABS - if you brake very hard & all the wheels lock at precisly the same time they can stay locked - that's why ABS will not save you on the ice. Having said that I suppose that on very up to date vehicles they may use an accurate speed reference as well as the wheels, then the ABS should alway work.

That's a very fair point - similar to HGV drivers are taught to postition the truck to "block off" drivers of smaller vehicles if it is not safe for them to overtake if the smaller vehicle's actions would cause the HGV to lose speed/momentum. Similar to bin-lorry drivers - they are taught to sometime block the road on purpose to give the loaders a safe area to work.

Could be very uselful if cycles had identification plates that could be seen by a dashcam.

Changed (AFAIK) because it was not considered politically correct. Our little Island may be considered insigificant by some other countries but the whole word runs on our time !