DavidB-AU

This was one reason I think it was sheer genius that Richard Branson gave Diana an unlimited supply of Virgin Atlantic sweatshirts she wore every time she went to the gym. It gave the commentators conniptions and played the paparazzi who had a hard time proving a photo was new.

Ukrzaliznytsia has this morning announced the in house construction of 66 new passenger coaches by the end of the year and the refurbishment of 42 others retrieved from storage, 4 with improvements in disability access. 6 passenger coaches converted for medical evacuation. Also 15 suburban trains will be overhauled.

I would actually put back the kickback siding, if the front of the board was finished as a canal wharf.

D3 639 has returned to the main line in Victoria.

The biggest culprit of shrinkflation appears to be breakfast cereals. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-11/cereal-shrinkflation-price-size-cost-of-living-kellogs/103570246

A suggestion is ditch the engine shed. It's taking up space that could be used for another industry and more likely than not the loco would live at the junction or other nearby major station. In the case of the Newport Pagnell example above, it was mostly worked by Bletchley locos. A branch line terminus probably only needs water at the end of the platform.

Correlation does not equal causation, right?

There was even one of the ex-LMS coaches in WD service abandoned at Dunkirk that somehow ended up in Russia.

I honestly don't see the point of superelevation in N. It sort of makes sense for Unitrack if you're running a Shinkansen around 381mm radius, but for Swiss standard gauge in N following prototype superelevation the outer rail would be less than 0.5mm higher.

The 2900s are also used on infrastructure trains. This one includes the steam loco water tank which is going to Toowoomba for use behind the C17.

Valves and related products such as Nixie tubes are still being made in Russia. The Russian government (particularly the military) is the largest customer. An unfathomable amount of equipment dating back to the 1950s is still in use and needs spare parts. In the 90s the factories discovered they could also sell valves to hobbyists in the West who, by most reports, consider them to be very high quality. I know somebody who owns a Hammond B3 organ and swears that if you can't get NOS GE or RCA valves, the modern Russian ones are the best replacement. That supply has largely dried up in the last 2 years for obvious reasons. Back on topic, in many cases offshoring manufacturing is a false economy. In my day job a frequent supplier of electronic equipment decided to outsource manufacturing to China about 5 years ago. What used to be delivered in a couple of weeks now needed to be ordered 3 months in advance, but prices remained stable for a while. Then covid happened and global supply chains were disrupted, so delivery times became more like 6 months unless you were prepared to pay extra for air freight. Now we need to order and pay up front just to get into the factory's 2025 production schedule!

Driving for 12 hours per day, which is still on the dangerous side in WA!

Australia: You drive for 3 days and you're still in the same state.

It makes more sense when you understand that Bredon is a junction.

You could also have a look at XTrkCad which is free. Slightly steeper learning curve but very flexible. I like the design. It can be operated to a sequence timetable and has plenty of scope for shunting. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and we are all standing on the shoulders of giants.

Something from the past that might give some inspiration is Bredon, which caused some heated debate in the pages of RM back in the day. While some dismissed it as a glorified train set, the scenery was outstanding and it had great operating potential in a small space for something deceptively simple (it makes more sense when you see it as a junction station). What was designed for OO in 6x4 might (just) work for TT in 5x2.5 with a bit of tweaking. Here's the plan for OO Setrack: https://www.osbornsmodels.com/peco-setrack-oo-plan-7--bredon---a-classic-scenic-oval-layout-22372-p.asp There are some pictures of the original layout here:

You could look at something like an NCE PowerCab which is a little over £200. With a little extra hardware and some free software you can use your phone a wireless controller.

I was just thinking "Ian Futers" while reading down the topic. The 7mm Lochside and Ullapool are roughly that size too. Not stabling points but Lochside in particular allows running all of the desired motive power.

Is there any chance it could be one of the British MEDLOC coaches which ran from the Hook of Holland to Austria and Italy?

The discussion (in German) seems to conclude the third vehicle is a measurement car. 18 316 was brought out of retirement by the Federal Railway Research Office at Minden so that makes sense. There was some British stock operated on the Detmold Military Railway (about 50ish km from Minden) and abandoned there when Deutsche Bundesbahn took the line back, but that was in 1948. Is it absolutely certain it's a Mk 1 and not of LMS origin? There were some LMS coaches in WD service abandoned at Dunkirk in 1940. Some of them ended up in Germany and at least one somehow found its way to Russia.