Neil

I'm not convinced that increase in passenger numbers is necessarily down to things that the railway does, other factors I suspect are in play. I'm thinking of the huge increase in house prices in cities, particularly London, which must have led to big increases in commuting. Things like how we spend our leisure time, how affordable or desirable private motoring is will also have a bearing on the issue. The privatised railway companies may simply be responding to increased demand rather than creating it.

While this might be OK for many companies where we would have a choice of buying or not buying I don't think it works for public utilities. I'd count rail (and bus for that matter) as public utilities as for many there's no choice but to use them and they are a key piece of national infrastructure. They shouldn't be a vehicle for wealth extraction. The shareholder thing is also a bit troubling to a leftie like me (yes I know that pension funds are investors) as the principle behind investment is that those with spare cash are able to make more money while those unable to invest pay more than they need to so that there is spare money to hand over to investors. The rich get richer etc. which strikes me as a bit unfair. Without losers there can't be winners so why would we want to benefit at someone else's expense?

I assumed you had Phil, but thought it worth mentioning for others who might just have rocked up on the day with a set of barriers.

Here's a fabulous fifteen minute film full of interest and nostalgia from the bowler hatted passenger on the tube to the clippie on the bus. My favourite moment; the Wallace and Gromit scrub-o-matic seat cleaner at 6:05. Enjoy.

There is a potential problem with this. All is OK if the layout is operated from the front as space at the front of the layout will (should be) factored into the planning, however if operating from the rear the effective front of the layout will be a couple of feet forward impinging into the gangway. This may still be OK if it's in one of those spaces where the layout itself can be pushed back or where the gangway widens out but things don't always work out that way. I feel it would be worth indicating the intention to do this to the show organiser in the hope that this can be worked into the floorplan.

Ah the crane bit. At the moment it looks like it may be as Airfix intended, but the jib (boom?) has required quite a bit of filler so it will depend on a decent finish. I would love to be able to replicate the Dutch example above but I fear that the spindly construction would defeat me and be terribly fragile. I do hope to get the cabin to sit lower on the legs but I would like to be able to retain the ability to rotate.

A further thought. As an exhibitor, there may be a few pertinent questions to ask of the organiser before accepting an invite. Do you provide barriers? How busy (how many through the door per day) is the exhibition? What is the character of the exhibition; is it aimed at the general public, is it a specialist event or is it a bit of both? No guarantee that all risk will be averted but at least you'll have a better idea of what to expect.

Almost eighty pages in; has WCRC become a proxy for a debate between those who take a libertarian standpoint and those who prefer collective responsibility?

They will, but in my experience many small shows don't have them and perhaps don't have the space to have them. Last week I put together the floorplan for Corris Railway show, held in The Plas, Machynlleth, this August (plug) and there isn't the space to have a meaningful show if barriers were used. If we wanted to I don't know where would we source them from. Given that the usual attendance is around the 300 mark over two days then I guess that barriers aren't a necessity. The most impressive piece of damage happened a couple of years ago when a 16mm live steam Darjeeling B class reached escape velocity on one of the corners of its layout and went scampering across the floor. Maybe the public should be better protected from the exhibits.

I'm a little troubled at the direction this thread seems to be taking. While it may be galling to have your layout touched, prodded or leaned on, the responses invoking the possibility of injury or aggression seem to be very much over the top. We can do better than this.

It's been some time since I posted anything of a continental nature here. I have two excuses, busy with my UK layout Northern Town and still to work out if I'm going to alter Vischkaai to better fit the playroom or start again. I still haven't made my mind up but I'm not long back from an excellent holiday in Rotterdam where I saw this lovely crane .... .... and thought that there was a passing resemblance to the Airfix/Dapol dockside crane. A bit of internet shopping and a few hours work with the kit and some Ratio GWR signal box windows and I've reached this stage.

I have had these early Matchbox diecast vehicles cluttering up my playroom for some time now. They are all missing paint and have no collectable value but they may be suitable, with a bit of tarting up, for the smaller scales (N, TT120 or 3mm). If they're of potential use please send me a pm and I'll post them to you. I want nothing for them or for the postage, I'll be glad to send them on if of use. As I'll be paying postage I won't be splitting them up, so it's an all or nothing offer I'm afraid.

Well the clue's there isn't it; when you have respected industry professionals giving full backing to the ORR then it should tell you something about the rights and wrongs of the situation.

Good find Steve; it's truly horrible.

I don't often take layouts to exhibitions (building rather than playing with trains is my thing) but when I do I do so in the knowledge that damage might take place. It might be as a result of transport, self inflicted clumsiness or unwanted audience participation. I try to be careful and I appreciate that others generally are too but damage sometimes does happen. I take the line that I go into the whole exhibiting thing knowing the risks and accepting them; after all I built the thing so I know I can repair it. I once had an an obviously autistic boy lean over a whack the controller up to full; his parents were mortified, far more bothered than I was. Nothing was broken, it was just a burst of enthusiasm in an unexpected direction.