Andy Y

I was sad to hear that Keith (reddiamond) has passed away very suddenly - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/31432-keith-wright-reddiamond/page__pid__330063?do=findComment&comment=330063 - although I didn't actually know Keith our condolences are with his family. RIP.

Very realistic; the poor girl's about to topple over and faint having seen the the 2011 price tickets.

That's just perverse! I was thinking of doing something very simple for this year (as we can't expect everyone to keep churning out small to medium sized layouts. A 20" x 11" diorama?

Thank you to everyone who has taken time to vote for the entrants, there have been over 700 votes cast for each of the entries in the respective categories which is a fantastic level of interest from readers and members. Therefore any plaudits gained from the results should be highly regarded as illustrating a high level of peer recognition. Thank you to each of the entrants for taking the time and trouble to document each of the entries and interact with the membership in the process. I'll look forward to seeing a number of these entries in the flesh in due course but ahead of that I'd like to add my personal thanks to the participants. Anyway, enough of the opening speech. Operational Interest Category Well done to M Graff for his M - K & Eastern RR entry which took first spot by the most slender of margins. I had to look at the calculations to 3 decimal places to call the photofinish with a score of 3.965 to the runner up spot at 3.960 in eldavo's 'Waton'. The top 6 in the category are shown below: Visual Interest Category Well done to eldavo for taking the first place in the visual interest category with Waton with 72% of the votes being in the 4 or 5 mark. Superb work Dave, well done too to RBE with the runner-up spot for Outon Road. Prototypical Interest Category Eldavo strikes again in the prototypical interest category achieving a high degree of operational interest on a layout giving a nod to a real-life location in Water Orton. Congratulations to RBE for the runner-up spot in this category too with Outon Road. Overall winner Unsurprisingly with such broad appeal eldavo takes the overall prize with Waton, a superb credit to a 2mm offering which has caused many readers to question the scale. I shall be arranging for a trophy and presentation to Dave in recognition of his hard work, documentation of the project and entertainment. Worthy congratulations to RBE and Will Vale for taking 2nd and 3rd spots overall. An .xls file with a breakdown of the voting is available to any participants wishing to see the data in more detail, please drop me a PM if you'd like this.

Merry Christmas Tim and Maddy. I do wonder what the neighbours think when you've been planting flags in piles of snow and taking snaps. Wonderful.

I was waiting to see this happen in its native land, lovely snaps Chris. It'll look even better with some magic muck on it and a rake of 16 tonners.

Unfortunately I can't move galleries so it may be worth creating a topic with links to reference material?

Duly moved.

Following some sensible lobbying I'm pleased to provide a forum area dedicated to UK Std Gauge Industrial Railway modelling and prototype information. If you have any existing topics you wish to have moved into this area please reply to this topic with a link to the topic you wish to move and I'll take care of it for you.

It's good to hear that people are now getting their hands on BP. Following the information from Barwell that they hadn't yet arrived I know there was substantial effort from many members of staff working flat out to get the BPs into their wooden boxes and out to the retailers for Christmas. Sometimes when I see criticism directed toward manufacturers it's frustrating when I can see their side of going the extra mile to keep customers and retailers as happy as possible and keep their business turning over, all happening quietly behind the scenes. If those people hadn't dug in behind the scenes there wouldn't have been BPs this side of Xmas.

Thanks Ron, your info and source provides something more meaningful than the maps in this case.

According to this map - http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.dft.gov.uk/hs2-apr-00-dr-rw-04001.pdf there will be a link from HS1 to HS2 without running into St Pancras. The plan does not show any chord from St Pancras to the HS1/HS2 link. Based on the plan through running should be possible but I'm sure any TOC would be twitchy about not including a London stop.

Interesting modelling proposition - Birmingham International Interchange with monorail - best done in T gauge I think.