hayfield

1 hour ago, Nick C said:

For a more direct comparison - comparing identical spec Vauxhall Corsas (SE Nav)

 

Electric - 1455Kg

Petrol - 1165Kg

 

That's a 290Kg or 25% difference in otherwise identical cars - but the EV is still less than most SUVs...

Round here most EV are either SUV' s or similar size

3 hours ago, admiles said:

 

Absolutely but the percentage of vehicles that are EV's is still relatively small. As that increases the problem also increases.

Not where I live

15 minutes ago, Nick C said:

I have to say I wouldn't put too much faith in a study that didn't actually carry out any real-world tests (see the next paragraph after the one you quoted...)

 

I agree with your last comment - all the studies I've seen so far are only comparing new-with-new, and usually make so many assumptions or omissions as to be utterly useless...

Nick

I think in this case its an experts view on known values.

Will my Nissan Micra do more damage than a vechial 3 or 4 times heavier?. We all know the answer and with known information available to an expert, it would be quite close to the correct figure, real world will give the exact numbers

12 minutes ago, admiles said:

 

Ok, remove the HGVs from the roads.....bit of a problem there.  There's no getting away from the fact that EVs are heavier currently (better battery technology one day should change this) than the equivalent ICE powered car. More weight does more damage to the roads. 

Agree HGV's are normally bulk delivery, more like ban the school run and make the little ones walk with their parents as we used to do 

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Myth. See:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/25/are-electric-cars-too-heavy-for-british-roads-bridges-and-car-parks#:~:text=Extra weight from electric cars,add to road maintenance costs.

From which I take that the additional wear from heavier private vehicles is small compared to the wear from commercial vehicles such as HGVs and PSVs. 

 

Before condemning EVs, consider the trend towards larger ICE vehicles such as SUVs. 

I was referring to pot holes within the first few lines 

"The Asphalt Industry Alliance has claimed that smaller roads could be vulnerable to increased pothole formation, "

Within a few paragraphs

"Heavier vehicles mean there is more friction between tyres and road, and more stress on whatever is below the car. That means roads deteriorate quicker. Academics at the University of Edinburgh in 2022 calculated that there could be between 20% and 40% additional road wear – think potholes, the driver’s bane – associated with battery vehicles compared with internal combustion engines."

Hardly a myth

As for carbon emissions, I would like to see the difference between buying a nearly new small petrol car verses a brand new average size EV, as far as total affect to global warming.

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

The road surfaces feel like another case of dropping proper routine maintenance, something that's plagued all areas of the UK in recent years.

 

I'd argue that that aside the road network isn't unfit for purpose, it's the amount of traffic that's unfit for anything. No point in increasing road capacity unless there's also some plan (and not of the control freak variety) that results in a stop of the growth of traffic, otherwise you're just caught in an endless vicious circle that leads to an ever worse country to live in, with ever more and larger *?@£ being built over it in an endless game of catch-up.

One of the problems that causes these issues is that insufficient funds are available, we all dislike paying tax and whatever government is in power never likes raising taxes especially in the run up to elections.

Secondly bigger heavier cars and lorries cause more damage than smaller cars and lorries, again the problem could be in our own hands in that these heavier vehicles perhaps should be paying more into the pot to cover the damage they cause

Thirdly the determination for net zero or being green by dropping oil propulsion to electric propulsion is flooding the roads with very heavy electric vehicles, which have the unfortunate trait of wearing out the roads quicker than lighter petrol/diesel vehicles

Simply by solving one issue we make another. Perhaps we all should look in the mirror at what our actions do to others ? 

The difficulties I have had with some of the Bricks** were totally down to human intervention and not Templot, having drawn up a crossover using Templot automated crossover facility, its only takes slightly more effort to make it 3D printable than producing a brick** for a single turnout .  The main issue is that this project was started as Templot producing a 2D plan and had two people indpendantly working on it over several months plus changing the size of turnouts. Sorry if I seem to be making it look much harder than it should be

** Brick(s) is the terminology for each printable section

Brick 5 under way

Looks like I can join you for last week in that my standing charges are £3,35 for 7 days, last week my net cost was £2.68 for the week, the week before was £5.10 but the first day of that week was so bad the net cost for the day (sunday) was £2.76

This past Sunday was quite good and as I stated  we used 4.9 kwh of our own production which must be one of our highest days ever of using our own produced power.

Yesterday was also interesting, a day of heavy wintery showers at times but still ended up producing 9.6 kwh from , 2.5 kw system, peaking at times at 2.42 kwh during cloud free times, with peaks of over 2.3 kws between 11:30 and 15:30, boding well for the summer

4 hours ago, Dominion said:

Big locos certainly look good and run well through the Finetrax 1:7 slips. I believe in Templot t for a double slip the blade tips start one further timber towards the centre to allow space and clearance for soldering to the tie bar arrangement and for flange clearance. Single slips could be one timber closer to the V crossings, and that maybe the default for a single in Templot. Wayne’s singles use the same spacing as the doubles. Initially I was wondering if it was worth extending the blades on the singles somehow, but the only solution would have been to do a lot of butchery or start from scratch and Wayne’s just are too good for that :-)

3 hours ago, Dominion said:

Sorry Martin, Templot is a wonderful resource. 

Tom

Tom

Its very easy to get terminology wrong, I seem to do it all the time. Likewise we are always talking about switch and crossing angles when we talk about turnouts, so its an easy mistake to include it into the conversation  about slips. Then when you get erstwhile sources talk about points, when in reality they are talking about turnouts. Lets face it when I was young turnouts purporting to be scale were classified in Radii not sizes. But I guess at times in various subjects we all fall into similar traps

The problem lies in RTR turnouts where the tip of the blades terminate between timbers, which is totally non prototypical. The problem is that even manufacturers at times get it wrong, I brought/was supplied a timber Diamond fret described as EM/P4. Simply it cannot be both as Martin explained. Certainly for EM gauge it was too long if you wanted both Vees supported on timbers.

I think sometimes the more we learn about a subject we realise the less we know.

Wayne has done a super job with his kits and as you say they work very well. I don't recognize Templot moving the length of switch blades, but I guess this may be something some modellers do to make life easier. Flangeway clearances are usually set by the modeller with most setting them to gauge requirements rather than to scale 

Thanks for contributing, that's how we learn from each other

Yesterday was the third very good day in a row, these 3 days averaged 10.5 kwh per day

The other thing was that we had family and a friend round for Sunday lunch, will the oven on plus dishwasher and I was 3D printing all day, resulting in us using4.9 kwh of our own production plus nearly 6kwh of exports

The value of our total consumption was £2.80 our net cost was 71p (both figures do not include the standing charge) not bad for early April

Today has been quite poor weather wise. But by lunchtime we still produced 3 kwh

Before I start I must emphasize that in its basic/normal form Both Templot and Templot 3D are very user friendly and easy to use

However I have been asked to help someone with their new layout, this started out with assisting with a Templot plan with tidying it up in a 2D format

One area I had not paid too much attention is restricting partial Templates plus sometimes pressing save too many times 

Anyway after mastering the easy part which was printing basic turnouts and plain track, which is very easy I have been learning how to print a layout with many templates, which involves separating the plan into printable sections, which in Templot are called bricks

Here are the first three bricks plus a section which will be spliced in, as I made a couple of errors on 2 adjoining bricks. (Quicker and cheaper than printing 2 new bricks).

Brick 4 is now printing, took no time in making the brick then creating the print file. It took longer for the print bed to warm up. Anyway I can get on with day to day chores in the knowledge that at mid afternoon another brick will be printed.

Now to set up the resin printer, just need to recap on setting up the machine, then use the raft of chair file Martin kindly prepared for me (and anyone else) to use

James

Thanks just what i needed and as always just in time.

Two months have passed since my last update, the resin printer has not printed anything yet (waiting for James video to be released or revisiting his previous videos. But I have been enjoying a phase of building/finishing two Springside locos

On the FDM printer I have been developing my skills. At one end of the spectrum making a template in Templot can be very easy, likewise FDM 3D printing is also very simple. On the other hand making a set of multiple templates into a layout plan can at times be challenging with some formations.

Well I have been approached to assist someone with their layout plan they designed. Mostly due to my own understanding of how Templot 3D printing works it been a steep learning curve but also an enjoyable exercise

Due to the size of the print bed the track plan has to be printed in sections, in Templot 3D these sections are called bricks. This photo is of the second brick and part of a crossover, the two right hand long timbers are each made from 2 partial templates. Unfortunately they are out of register, it is a test print and I stopped it early (error missed during a late night bit of work, plus a small laptop screen.

Thee revised brick is now printing and as you can see the two long right hand timbers now match each other.

As for templot 3D printed track minor updates have been released making the job of printing easier and the risk of poor prints less. Martin is a genius 

I have also expermited in increasing the scale to 7mm. The results are very promising

Anyway I have hopefully overcome the obstacles that prevented me to print the more demanding bricks and once I have a few more bricks printed I will need some chairs 

Steve

This is totally understandable and something which is going on in many clubs all over the country where members are getting on in age and having heavy large layouts.

Perhaps in the future the North West will have their own Pendon where enthusiasts can just come and admire and enjoy this very special layout, with another or two equally ground breaking layouts.

I feel privileged to have seen it at least twice and was looking forward to seeing the sound version, please thank all involved for giving so much inspiration and just shear pleasure over the years

Good luck on the next phase in the layouts journey

ps

So glad the stolen locos found their way home. 

2 hours ago, Sjcm said:

yes, but did he actually pay 2-5 pounds for a wagon individually or is that what he valued it them as part of say a big 300 pounds joblot? he may have even paid less per wagon but needs a "bottom line" figure to work out where to set his profit.  He's sold those 3 unboxed Hornby wagons for 12 pounds each and claims they cost 10 pounds total so that's 26 pounds profit, but then he gave the buyer free postage so that's 21/22 profit. then you have his ebay fee's and  business overheads. At 12 pounds a wagon they were unlikely to have flown out the door so could have been up for weeks. Worth the effort?  perhaps, but a lot of work if you add in his time.

The trouble is the public look at gross profit, just because the item has sold for double the price may for the private seller mean 50% profit, but for the business seller once all overheads are taken into account (including unsellable and damaged items) after all costs (postage, packing materials, transport costs etc) will be a fraction, then there are NI payments and taxation. Not as rosy as some think

7 hours ago, BWsTrains said:

 

Except only available thru the Scale Societies, none of which I'm ever going to join. Pity really given the growing interest in Code 75 even if at more modest OO Gauge.

 

Is there an opportunity here Wayne?

 

 

 

C&L sell their own variation to the public

EMGS show (Expo EM) is on the 11th & 12th of May Exactoscale parts will be on sale to all who attend the event, or make friends with an EMGS member or two

19 hours ago, Nick C said:

Do you glue those on? I tried using them  on mine and found it really difficult to get them to stay in place - this might of course be down to my ham-fistedness, but I ended up breaking or losing several...

 

Alternatively can anyone recommend any other insulating fishplates that might be easier to use for code 75 Bullhead? The Peco Bullhead ones are good for conducting joints, but they don't do an insulating version...

I have never had any issues with them once the track bases are in situ, the Exactoscale ones are stronger but may be slightly overscale. 

Please note these fishplates are fragile and will depend on both track bases being firmly stuck down, they are functionable but requires a soft touch until the glue on the track bases set. Once you get used to the method of using them they are fine

One very easy and very good looking is to use either Exactoscale or C&L plastic (H shaped) linked fishplates, these form firstly an important isolating function but also a very prototypical looking fishplate which rail joiners fail to do.

These can also be used to join rail sections, but insulate the rails from each other requiring dropper wires for electrical connectivity. These plastic fishplates can also help to disguise gaps left for expansion

Cast brass linked fishplates can be brought, but I would not rely on them for electrical purposes, etched brass fishplates may be a more economical alternative

As for the joint at the knuckle, a quick dab of solder may hide the join 

Certainly things are hotting up and even on days when the sun is intermittent reasonable amounts of generation are being made. Also now the 2nd quarter rates are operative its only 10,25p difference between import and export prices installing batteries become a luxury or less of an investment. in fact investing in more panels would give a better return on investment

Historically April is the first of the decent months averaging nearly 9.5 kwh per day, this month is already up to 6.6kwh a day

My illustration quoted over the first five years I would benefit on average 61p per day. Its been double that per day so far this month and looking good for the months to come

1 hour ago, kevinlms said:

Everyone has woken up to Ten Hag's system.

If you drag the match out until a lot of extra time is needed, then they will collapse in a heap!

If the stadium had a watch which stopped and started on the referees whistle, then the game would go on a very lot longer

Though over the past week several games had little or similar stoppage time than was the norm prior to the new rules, since the world cup. But we see the officials unwilling to learn from other sports. example as in rugby when the referee indicates he is playing an advantage and then indicate when the advantage is over. IMO a much better system

Managers on the other hand look to exploit anything that would give their team an advantage, Impact players for second half substitutions. Now it seems we are going back on what is a foul, or rather when a foul is not a foul simply on the amount of force used. Or when is shirt pulling not a foul.  

I have just gone to an item which did not sell, used sell similar (not relist), had no issues with AI, now in a save to later format

I also went to an item which had sold again selecting sell similar, when editing no AI interference 

The way I create a listings, which is to find something similar and edit the listing by altering all relevant information/details. A lazy way of doing things but saves a lot of time

1 hour ago, Mark said:

The last few listings I have done wouldn’t let me write anything other than edit the cringe worthy AI blurb. If I wrote my own it just refused to save it! 
 

Mark

 Mark

That sounds strange, about two weeks ago I went to one of my sold listings, pressed sell similar and was able to create a completely new listing by editing the old one, something I always do

Have you got any stored templates, this may also be an alternative

3 hours ago, Bucoops said:

 

It looked a lot better after a wash - but it also made the rust VERY visible! It's currently in a queue for restoration down in Bristol.

 

I have both owned and driven worse back in the late 70's and 80's

I dip in and out of this thread mainly to cheer up. Looks like a barn find to me, but then what do I know (not much!!) Dry dust rather than grime that outside items grow

Saab's not been made for years, a collectors item

On 04/04/2024 at 08:42, phil-b259 said:

 

Energy costs: Smart meter left woman, 87, scared to turn on heat - BBC News

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckk77v4wvr0o

 

Older article

 

Smart meters: Almost three million still not working - BBC News

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-67591320

Its a great pity  that firstly we have to endure in my opinion miss/lazy reporting, then people fail to read it,and make their own opinion on the facts, 

Taking the second report first

Nearly 3 million people with faulty meters, of that under 3 million units 2.750,000 were turned off, all that means is they were not in smart mode, not faulty !!! When my smart tv is turned off its not faulty but just turned off !!

Less than 250,000 meters were faulty, which I guess when there are probably 20 million in operation is not a bad ratio. But then how many of these smart meters have a fault on the smart box or are they just faulty meters ?,  I have been told the same meters are used for smart and non smart installations, which explains why so many are turned off

The first report is very disturbing, and when you read the report fully it has nothing to do about the smart meter ( which when checked, all meters were working correctly)  but it highlights that in this country need energy advice. The report would be much better if the title had it highlighted this, which when reading the article fully was seemingly the real issue, especially as reported the meter was working correctly 

When smart meters are used properly, they could (and should) have shown up the issue long before a major problem was caused. Firstly in June last year, when she received a bill of £600 despite the warm weather something is clearly wrong, why was the bill so high was the question which should have been explored. This should have set the alarm bells ringing.

Secondly look at the date on the bill which is shown to be January!!! and much lower than the summer bill. This is one of the highest cost months of the year so everyone should expect high usage, Looking at the bill Gas usage, it looks very low (when it should be high), where as electricity looks very high *.  Sadly the report misses the real issue of why the July bill was so high !!, which was the catalyst that started the sad state of affairs 

Then reading on the lady was using electricity to heat the room rather than gas (which is four times less expensive)  unfortunately this was compounding the issue .

The problem was not the smart meter but the energy provider not understanding what the customer was asking (Why is my bill so high in June, and presumably after) Clearly the lady spotted the issue in June, but when did she contact here provider, elderly people should be treated with an additional duty of care as they are with financial products. There is a lot more to this case than is reported and it seems, she would benefit with some advice about using energy. This a reminder to all of us in an advanced age (myself included) if we are concerned about anything ASK. The worst thing to do is do nothing

Octopus Energy said although both Mrs Bowen’s old and new meters "have been working correctly", they would do additional testing on the device. So it was clearly not a faulty smart meter, plus we have wiped her £305 account debt

*(I had the opposite issue and it took me ages to get British Gas to check my gas meter, as it happened the smart feature was working correctly but the dumb part was faulty)

Thank you for allowing me to use my brain actively this morning, which apparently is good for my brains health