Pete the Elaner

I am pretty sure that Norris would have struggled to pass Verstappen. We have all seen that catching is a lot easier than passing, unless you have the Honda (sorry, RBPT) engine in the back. Norris was on much newer tyres, so their pace difference was partly due to tyres. I hate to see safety cars interfere with the race, but Verstappen has benefitted from them far more times than he has lost out. It is not 'strategy' either, unless you arrange WHEN an incident will being one out, We saw in Singapore '08 that this can be done & who knows if it has been since? That is 1 reason I do not like them interfering. It seems Verstappen had an issue with his car late in the race. That would almost certainly be from when he mis-judged a corner & rode the kerb, removing a bollard in the process. I do not care who it is, leaving the track should be penalised in some way & this seems like a 'natural' penalty.

Good luck. The choice of 100ohm speakers is extremely limited.

You are right. I forgot that. My 3 are all the earlier 8 pin models, which were poorly designed: not enough space for their own decoder to fit (& Hornby consider themselves as a manufacturer who does not usually consider customers fitting a 3rd party decoder). Speaker location was suitable only for a 2d speaker, which does not exist. I read that the 21 pin version introduced more problems that it solved too.

An amusing sarcastic comment sir! Their 56 has been bettered by Cavalex & their 60 is about to suffer the same fate. Their 90 & 31 have been bettered by Bachmann, while their 50 & 31 are about to be bettered by Accurascale. They even gave Heljan the opportunity to have 2 cracks at the 86. As far as D&E are concerned, Hornby have lost their way with premium models. Competitors seem to be leaving the budget market to them though.

Metal pan which maintains contact with the contact wire would be No1. More lighting options. I can understand corridor lighting options, but that is not something I would make use of. What I would find useful is the ability to turn off front or rear lights for when working with a train. DCC control of the marker light would also be desirable.

Being at the top of any sport is surely an unsustainable mindset for most people. You need to put the rest of your life on hold to achieve it. We all have hobbies. A sportsperson at the very top cannot because somebody else will & they will be at the very top instead. He must have accepted that he cannot win the title in the current Mercedes so maybe he has figured he can ease off for a while & enjoy other things in life, then switch his focus back to racing once he is in a position where it is possible again?

I don't think this is usually a good idea. Decoders are different & buying DCC fitted includes the manufacturer's choice of decoder, which can be an unknown (my first fitted loco contained Hornby's original bad decoder which had been discontinued several years previous). Bachmann have changed suppliers & their decoders have been inconsistent as a result. It has not always been possible to simply re-blow these either. The same is true of sound. Manufacturer's have made some poor choices within their sound projects which don't work as well as those from dedicated sound vendors like Legomanbiffo, Paul Chetter or YouChoos.

If Trevor has taken them, you will have some awesome photos.

I notice the goods shed has been shifted along to almost the end of the siding. I always question this. Unloading 4-5 wagons in a train requires shuffling them. This is a bit of a pain which is great for a layout if you like shunting, but a real pain in the real world where things needs to be done. Moving the shed along a little (which would be more typical from the plans I have seen) allows more of the train to access the goods shed by simply pushing it further down the line.

It does. I have looked at Newport Pagnell which, for those unaware of it, was on a small branch from Wolverton. The line was 4 miles long with 2 intermediate stations, so single track all the way. Newport Pagnell station had a goods yard beyond the passenger station. The platforms themselves held about 4 coaches, but fitting it onto a 15' layout in OO was about as small as I felt it could go without looking compressed, but you may feel it can be squeezed a little more. There was a book about the branch with some useful photos. It will be out of print but you may be able to find a copy if the station has any potential for you.

That attitude from the police sounds about right. A few years ago, I got off the train after work & witnessed somebody trying to break a bike lock with a hammer & bolster. Somebody was watching him, so he hovered around having a quick bash now & again. I stayed around to support the observer. He called the police & they insisted that they could not send anyone even after he replied "if you come now, you will catch him". The police station in MK is less than a mile from the railway station & traffic is rarely a problem. There seem to be some crimes for which they do not bother with.

Muir of Ord (just W/NW of Inverness) is on a passing loop & trains run on the right through the station. It felt strange but was consistent with the platform information signs.

I have not been there for years, but I used to live near Kirby Cross, in Essex. Services always used to call at separate platforms there too & the platforms/tracks look ok, so I am sure they still do. Most smaller stations like this are unmanned so it would be confusing to have most use the 1 platform then another unexpectedly used the other one without staff there to tell passengers to move across before it arrives. It is also good practise to keep operational lines in regular use where possible.

Another vote here for Gaugemaster. Their controllers give good performance throughout the speed range. Go for their cream coloured range. The black ones are feedback models, which are still good but some motors do not like feedback. They also offer a lifetime guarantee & you will not need to find your receipt for them to honour it. You can find used equipment cheap if you are patient. I found one of their handhelds for sale at a show for £3 last year. It was a newer model too. Their guarantee made this a risk-free bargain.

And also remember that red has a tendency to fade more noticeably than most other colours.

It looks right, but the resistor would need to dissipate a lot of power. V=IR P = VI = IR*I = I^2 * R R = 1.5 so R^2 = 2.25 I = 3 2.25 *3 = 6.75W. That is a big resistor, or a matrix of smaller ones. Either way, it is a waste of power.

I drove over the line at Mursley last week. I knew the track was in place but I also saw a red signal.

Why worry at all? Their geometry is the same, so no compatibility issues there. They are more reliable than insulfrogs. The only difference is that they do not auto isolate, which many view as a disadvantage but I do not. Having dealt with poor contact from point blades, I never rely on them to make contact anyway. I would be happy with a mix of uni & electro. Isolating & re-feeding after every point would make them operationally interchangeable & if I wanted the frogs live, wiring them would be exactly the same process for both types.

You have a DCC decoder in there. A blanking plate is just that; a small plug with some of the pins soldered together. If you are happy with the way it runs, then leave it in place. A DCC fitted loco can run better on DC than a fitted one. This may sound bizarre, but at low speeds, there is a very low voltage between track & wheel. A DCC fitted loco needs a little more voltage to get going, so this gives a little more push across the wheel/rail connection. A feedback controller or one with a pulsed output (like an H&M one on half wave rectification) can damage the decoder.

There are some times when a cleaning block is simply impractical anyway: Some tunnels are inaccessible. It is not always possible to build them with removable tops. Overhead wires are very fragile (unless you make them overscale). Running a cleaning block on track below them is likely to cause damage. I have also read that IPA can attract dirt because it is a polar chemical. Contact cleaner is designed to provide a clean electrical connection. Surely that is exactly what we are looking for?

I know less about the others but the advantages of the NCE are: It is popular. Many of us can answer questions about it, both online & at local clubs. I feel this is a very underrated point to consider. It is modular. With a Powercab, you only pay for the basic kit & if you want something extra (programming track, USB connection for your computer, upgrade to 5A), you only pay for the component you want. If you were to upgrade it to have the same features as a Powerpro, you will not be paying much, if anything more than buying the full Powerpro to start with. It is well featured: You can access 4 digit addressing, 28 loco functions, you can feed it commands from a computer or mimic panel. Like most things, you adapt to it; using the benefits & finding the ways around the limitations without actually realising they are limitations.

It is unfair that cars sometimes need extra 'regulation limited' components or expensive rebuilding. I understand and accept why the limits exist so would not like to see their removal, but it does show why the rules have become complicated. With regard to the Alonso/Russell incident, it is worth noting that the stewards did not accuse Alonso of doing it intentionally, but merely that his actions were erratic & therefore dangerous. It is virtually impossible to prove or disprove intent, so the rules are deliberately written to not require it. This is not the same as claiming the stewards stating it was unintentional. There is no need for them to get into a debate in what they considered his intention to be, so they will not comment on it. Not publicly anyway.

I think that they were making a point to their own team that their car is well down on pace.

I had a colleague with a similar attitude when we were given a bonus. It was a good one, something like £3k. Him: "Not worth anything. The taxman will take most of it" Me: "Er, about 30%, which will still leave us with £2k each. I'll welcome that thank you." The government does seem to be leaving a huge mess for the next one. "Square One" will be a huge improvement over what we have now.

The stewards disagree with you. Their ruling indicates that drivers should be racing & that suddenly slowing is an unfair way to trick those following. The stewards opinion is more important than that of those of the (average?) viewer. I have looked through the F1 sporting regs but guidelines on acceptable racing practices seem to be elsewhere. I do not believe in 'etiquette' & 'unwritten rules'. The rules should define everything which is allowed & stewards (or umpires/referees in other sports) should never have to arbitrarily decide on something not covered by the rules.