Steadfast

A throwback to the heady days of 2019, uploaded to Flickr a couple of days back. At the time, with a trio of 60s working in the area, this wasn't a particularly unusual sight, you just needed to time it right. 60044 in the background has been run round and is ready to depart for the quarries (I think it's 6V62 Southampton - Whatley) and 60039 is stabled after a day's shunting the yard. Despite most of the overhauled 60s looking the same when they left Toton, by this time there was quite a few little variations, such as the branding. 60044 has had the Schenker removed, leaving a small DB logo, whereas 60039 has been rebranded with a DB large logo. 60024 was the other 60 working off Westbury and the quarries, in what turned out to be their swansong in the area. Sadly, something never to he repeated. Jo

Have you considered using Excel? Loads of guidance and tutorials online of how to do things in it, and I know you can use it to create a random number generator. You can also hide or lock content, and create a clean looking worksheet for use by operators, with the clever bits hidden on another worksheet. Hiding or locking that sheet means data can't be deleted or formulae broken accidentally. Jo

Two completely different and incompatible braking systems. Vacuum brakes use a vacuum to hold the brakes off, an increase in pressure causes them to apply. Air brakes use compressed air to hold the brakes off, a reduction in pressure causes them to apply. Both are fail safe, should a train (and consequently the pipes) part, air rushes in or out respectively, applying the brakes. Some vehicles are dual braked, and are fitted with both systems, like the 47 posted above. If modelling a wagon in the TOPS era, the third letter of the code will tell you what it's equipped with even if you can't see the end to see the pipes. These TTAs are air brake only. TTV would be vacuum only. Most other letters are dual braked or piped. Stolen from Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_carriage_and_wagon_numbering_and_classification A:Air brake only B:Air brake plus through vacuum pipe D:Electronic control E:Electro-pneumatic brake F:Vacuum brake (AFI equipment) [AFI: Accelerator Freight Inshot - a rapid-acting vacuum brake[3]] G:Vacuum brake plus through air pipe (AFI equipment) H:Dual brake (AFI equipment) O:Unfitted (handbrake only) P:Unfitted with through vacuum pipe Q:Unfitted with through air pipe R:Unfitted with through air and vacuum pipes V:Vacuum brake only W:Vacuum brake plus through air pipe X:Dual brake (air and vacuum) Y:Unfitted (Civil Engineer's self-propelled stock) Z:Automatic brake of unknown working order[3] Jo

Also European Rally Championship from Hungary and Otago Rally in NZ Jo

For such a small component change, it's amazing how much more "proper" the class 18 looks once fitted with the BMAC clusters. Jo

Nice pair of 37s Jules, I always liked green 057 on the yellow coaches. 37254 was repainted from Intercity to Colas in March / April 2017. I've got a Farish 37 ready to repaint into Intercity...when I get around to it! Hope that helps Jo

It's just a cosmetic piece of thin steel, only a few mm thick, flimsy enough that it makes a loud noise when you hit anything or drop a coupling. Jo

Thank you Accurascale for not calling it an air dam! One if those phrases that really grates. Jo

Weston-super-Mare is on a single line but has a loop and two platforms. Trains can use either platform in either direction. Both lines have the same limit of 25 mph, so there is no slowing to diverge over pointwork. The limitation (as I recall slightly hazily from memory, it's not something that directly affects me but was an interesting nugget of info) is that London IETs turn back in the longer of the two platforms, so if there's one of those sat waiting, everything else will use the other platform. Jo

Whilst firmly post National Power, the 59/2s also have worked off Margam in EWS and DB colours, working the Murco oil trains from Robeston. When not needed for this, they also turned up on steel trains, particularly the trips between Llanwern and Margam. Jo

Quite, it makes you wonder if it'd be easier in the big picture for them to get on board with pretty much the entire rest of railway, fit air brakes to their kettles and run the CDL off the main res pipe as all other air braked BR loco hauled CDL does. Several mentions have also been made across the 60 odd pages of this thread of the electromagnet system fitted to the Swanage DMUs and Chiltern bubble cars before they finished. They have the benefit of on board engines able to supply rather more electrical power than a BR 1960s dynamo can manage. Again not impossible, but another hurdle to overcome if not running air brakes and ETH and using the standard BR system... Jo

Depends if you're pre or post 2005 😉 Jo

Almost... would need the horn grill and lamp bracket changing too. Jo

Another one where I watched the highlights on YouTube, just under 20 mins worth on the Sky F1 YouTube channel. As others have said, not bad behind the Red Bulls. As for Ferrari dropping the wrong driver - absolutely, and I think it's mad that they're dropping either of them to be fair. They've kept each other honest the last few years. Jo

To be honest, other than the buffer beam area, 66001 and 002 are pretty much standard bodyshells now. 001 had the lamp bracket moved, and both have the revised horn grill. The class 59 style bufferbeam arrangement is unchanged, apart from 001 having two tie downs removed to allow the tripcock equipment to be added. For comparison, 002 still retains all tie downs Looks like the model is missing the small rows of 4 black holes either side of the draw gear, I guess that's simple enough to add if you're keen enough. Jo