Dunsignalling

Fair enough for the one loco, perhaps, but where do you stop with a class of that size?

I went through my magazine stack some years ago, filleted out the articles I thought I might need, and neatly filed everything away in those loose-leaf sleeves. Even those have run riot two decades on, and now I'm thinning the files! I've been very struck by a few things 1. How often the same subjects get covered, I found half a dozen treatises on representing thatch in model form and kept the two I judged I could manage. 2. How much had been rendered redundant by widening availability of good RTR equivalents. The article on making a Brighton Atlantic by cutting and shutting two Tri-ang B12 bodies is definitely only a curiosity since the Bachmann one arrived! 3. It's amazing the new materials, techniques and technology that sneaks up on one and how much of the stuff we once used by custom, and the ways we used it, has been superseded by better, or easier (but seldom cheaper) alternatives. John

Pre-satnav, I used to just list junctions where I would need to change road number, and tape the list to the steering wheel. John

So you can presumably time-limit the activation to avoid overheating. Much safer! I'm planning on replacing my unused #309s and using the Rapido ones throughout the new layout if I can source enough of them in time. John

The real things were made by Sony and branded as "Sony Walkman".

Very easy to overdo things, and make the loco look like a wreck, though.

Fine, but BR changes were spread over a number of years. Anybody who wants to be sure of what went on when, as well as where, will need to do a little personal digging.

Easy; just operate the Kadee one off a two way toggle switch that latches one way and is sprung the other. I have an old (Tri-ang era) Scalextric transformer dedicated to uncouplers but they do get hot if you forget to turn them off....

The accessory pack includes all the bits, irrespective of livery. I don't think it fair to expect Hornby to provide a list of when all 800-odd locos received AWS, or other changes. It's surely up to purchasers to find out if everything they are adding is appropriate. Always supposing they care! John

Big advantage over the Kadee electromagnet is the aperture is easily created using a 44mm holesaw. The Kadee one needs a rectangular hole fretting out with a jigsaw, but is only intended to be energised when in use. Kadee's biggest permanent magnet can be mounted on a hinged flap under the baseboard, though the surface needs to be fairly thin.

Yes, but the choice for many was between a fast main line journey followed by a leg or two on the tube via the Western or a stopping service to Salisbury and semi-fast to Waterloo via the ex-LSWR route, albeit with much of the time deficit recovered by being closer to where you needed to go on arrival. In my pre-railway employment I had regular meetings at two locations in London. For one Paddington was almost ideal and [for] the other a total pain. I had on-train prep to do with colleagues from Plymouth so it was unavoidable though we occasionally changed at Reading! Now the HSTs have gone, I base my choice on the comparative comfort levels of SWR 159s and the new pointy jobs of FGW. The 159 wins and it takes around 30 minutes to get to Taunton anyway. John

However, the difference in the way revenue from a ticket to Waterloo was apportioned if it was bought at the branch terminus or the main line junction, would tend to distort any revenue-based decision made on the future of the latter, and indeed, the whole line. Where closures (not just of branches) really cost the railways (away from metropolitan areas), came after the event. Once people started buying, taxing, and insuring cars out of necessity, customer behaviour adjusted to the new circumstances. Sticking with the Lyme Regis example, the logic of doing six and a half miles of a 30 mile journey to Exeter or Yeovil in something that cost money even when idle, and buying a train ticket for the rest, just didn't stack up; and many abandoned rail altogether. FWIW, Lyme Regis had a decent bus service even before the branch closed, (and the makings of one when it opened) and only had one (sparsely used) intermediate station so it's a bad example in several respects. John

I go prepared for both, but will usually use card payment if offered, so I have cash available for later if necessary. The relevant clause of Murphy's Law states you will find something you've been searching for since the year dot, on a "cash only" stand, five minutes after you have split your last twenty..... John

I had it happen once, with a #46 (longer version of the #5, no longer made) but the coupling had been salvaged from a wagon written-off after falling onto a concrete floor, and re-used on its replacement, so I gave Kadee the benefit of the doubt. ☺️

I became pretty disciplined about keeping to my chosen theme when Hornby were going through their "Southern Region" phase some years back. There were times when my pay couldn't quite keep up with their release rate! I also go for ex-LMS if it worked over the S&DJR and some GWR (mostly if I saw it at Yeovil). The only thing that definitely rules out a loco purchase for me is a number beginning with a six...😇 Lately, Hornby has played into my hands there, and I've been able to catch up with my earlier Southern omissions via the pre-owned market. I have developed a bit of a weakness for cute little industrials, though, and I'll plead the fifth when it comes to wagons....