Nick C

So was the dedicated possession simply a way of allowing both trains to be in the same block section?

13 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

The point is that the typical customer is a tourist with kids, and their safety has to be taken seriously.

 

And more to the point, a tourist with kids who has probably never seen a train with manual doors before...

I think it looks good having the whole thing open like that - there's so much detail inside that it's good to be able to see it all.

21 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

The window spacing of the All-Steel shouts 'First' to me - it's far tighter on the 'K' class.

 

Operationally, we have a main line propelling move without any specific accommodation for the Guard ....... fully vac. braked so fine from that point of view but is the chap who's nominally in charge of the train travelling on the - very comfortable - cushions or is he slumming it on the footplate !

I'd have thought he'd be in the leading vestibule giving handsignals to the driver?

18 minutes ago, The Pilotman said:

How do you convert decimal currency into a Scottish city? I’d love to know. 

Don't be silly, this is RMWeb - he's converting it into Scottish Locomotive engineers...

4 minutes ago, Reorte said:

I have a problem with the whole idea of having to prove who you are being seen as an ordinary, everyday part of life.

 

Is it so hard to understand why someone would find the idea fundamentally distasteful?

 

I've noticed quite often that people seem to often find it a bit confusing whenever someone isn't keen on something but it's not because of practical considerations, and I do find that a little strange. There's a lot more to life than practical convenience!

 

I understand your distaste, but I think you're directing it at the wrong thing.

The need to prove who you are is already totally ingrained into our society, with many things you cannot do unless you have an appropriate way of demonstrating that you're entitled to them (e.g. driving, travelling to other countries, accessing the money in your bank account, gaining entry into certain places, and so on). We have passports, driving licences, "proof of age" cards, credit cards, company IDs, and so on and so forth. Whether for better or for worse, modern western society simply wouldn't work without people being able to prove who they are - we simply have too many people.

The presence or absence of ID cards doesn't change that, they are simply a way of proving who you are, not the reason for it.

14 hours ago, Reorte said:

It's nothing to do with paranoia. I don't fear misuse of them, but ID cards are a seriously, seriously messed-up concept.

I don't get that - if you're not worried about misuse, what possible objection can you have to having a consistent, secure means of proving who you are? 

It's got nothing to do with treating people as criminals, and more about consistency for proving that you're old enough to drink, able to vote, who you are to the bank, and so on.

Mrs C has one, as she's a citizen of an EU country. She finds it utterly baffling that in this country we can 'prove' our identity to banks etc using something so easily forged as a utility bill...

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

maybe the line should consider splitting into two halves, or even thirds… its a very long day to go Pickering to Whitby, when many may be happy with a two hour round trip that only goes part way, and back.

I've heard quite a few things suggesting that around 30-45 minutes each way (so around 90m-2hrs total journey time by the time you've included the break at the far end) tends to be most popular amongst 'normal' visitors - long enough to be worthwhile, but still short enough to stop the kids getting bored. 

22 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

They can still sell the £49 for the hardy, makes it look a bargain against the day return, which of course doesnt include a return visit in the future.

Arguably Goathland is the goto place for tourists anyway, so your simply giving them what they want.

We went to the Eden project a few years ago, and they offered two options, either the standard day ticket or the "as many visits as you like in a year" option - I can't remember the price difference but it wasn't much, certainly a lot less than two days, and gift-aided as it counted as a 'membership' rather than a 'ticket' - so they got the extra 20% on top.

1 hour ago, roythebus1 said:

The builder made the six foot way too narrow, probably 20mm between running rails instead of 24mm. I suspect something may have been amiss if the original track plan was done to 16.5mm gauge.

If the original plan was done to 16.5mm and later changed to EM without any alignment changes, presumably the 6ft would be 2mm narrower - assuming the alignment is based on track centres?

10 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I have long suspected that while they do make a profit, the margins are not that great.  It is unfortunate that the railway press is so uncritical and unquestioning; they frequently print four-page photo spreads of a railway's "enormously successful" gala weekend, while a small news item on page 17 reports that the same railway is losing money hand over fist and is selling off assets to fund something that should be normal maintenance.

The GM of the Spa Valley has posted some fairly candid discussions on cashflow over on National Preservation - the basic gist being that their last gala made a small profit, but the various kid's tv-show-branded weekends make quite a bit more, and normal running days can often result in a small loss. It seems to be the dining trains and other 'specials' that make the best money.

48 minutes ago, big jim said:

I’ve got him to order a full set of tyres for it just to be safe, the guy I got it off has offered me a couple of replacement partworns which I’ll probably take ‘just incase’ but I’d feel happier with him having 4 decent ones fitted, also booked it in for tracking 

Always good practice to get the tracking done when changing tyres anyway - with the state of our roads these days pretty much every car needs it doing!

15 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Chabowka station is now just a shadow… only the locals stop there. Even the line to Nowy Sacz has been ripped up. Buses to Rabka Zdroj for now.

 

its a 90 min drive to Zakopane now, so rail is playing catch up still.

 

But the stock is now new… not many EN57’s on this route now, and not many EU/EP 07/08’s either.

 

I also went past skierniewice last week but thats looking like a derelict abandoned site… stuff is scattered around there but nothing looks restored or presentable.

 

Chabowkas steam operation is to Osliec this year instead.

Shame the EN57's have gone, I rather like them! I suspect the general public don't though!

The last time we went there, the whole line was shut for the aforementioned relaying, and we ended up on a minibus all the way from Krakow to Sucha Beskidska...

4 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

Basic 205s were a bit harsh, but the XS had much better sound insulation and seats, bigger brakes and an 85bhp, 1.4 engine, sort of a half-way-house to a GTi but better balanced (I drove both and wouldn't have swapped). I kept it ten years and regularly towed a half-ton trailer with it. Only time it missed a beat was when the filler cap vent got blocked and air-locked the fuel tank!

 

The friend who bought it followed up with a 106 Quicksilver (also a 1.4) but neither he or I were all that impressed. I replaced the 205 with a 206 D Turbo, that I also kept for a decade, then a 207sw that I never took to and sold on within three years. He currently has a brace of 206s, a 1.4 Sport and a GTi; the former running on the 6x14 second-hand aftermarket alloys I put on the 205 ten years before his 206 was built!

 

For the past five years, I've had a 2013 Skoda Yeti CR170 TDi, and that's staying with me while I have breath in my body!

 

John

The 205XS was a popular choice amongst my student motorsport club in the early 2000's - you could pick them up for a couple of hundred quid, and they didn't rust like a lot of contemporaries (though they were somewhat renowned for electrical gremlins!) Also being under 1.4 got them into a lower (and therefore cheaper...) class in quite a few events, as well as being a lot cheaper to run and insure than the GTis...

On 11/03/2024 at 10:00, Farang said:

Driving home I found the road layout with all those roundabouts a bit confusing.

If it's any consolation, most of the locals do too - the big Brighton Hill roundabout had just finished a two- year "upgrade" and has been constantly in the local paper ever since with people bemoaning it, largely because the lanes shown on the signs don't match the road markings!

13 hours ago, didcot said:

A neighbours cat tried to bring a dead rat through the cat flap. The cat wouldn't let go and the rat was so large it wouldn't go through. It was entertaining for a few minutes. 

Last year Benji managed to catch a Pigeon, and tried to bring that in through the cat flap...

4 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

If you read mech eng or aero eng, even more scarily, you would probably have been taught by me - I have been there 27 years!

I was over in ECS doing Computer Engineering (2/3 computer science, 2/3 electronics, as we used to joke at the time...) - I knew quite a few mech and aero students though.

Funnily enough I was just looking at that same cover thinking I'd read it this evening! 

I didn't know that you were at Southampton Andy - I studied there (rather scarily, 20 years ago...)

4 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Travel from Shepherd's Bush to Ealing Broadway by train in 1 hour 20 minutes

If you want to know more about the journey from Shepherd's Bush to Ealing Broadway by train, look no further!

The average journey time from Shepherd's Bush to Ealing Broadway by train is 1 hour 39 minutes, although on the fastest services it can take just 1 hour 20 minutes. You'll usually find 6 trains per day travelling the 4 miles (6 km) between these two destinations. You'll need to make 2 changes along the way to Ealing Broadway. You'll be travelling with Thameslink, London Overground or Southern on your way to Ealing Broadway, as these are the main rail operators on this route.

Any reasonably fit person could walk it in less than that!

18 hours ago, MJI said:

Family barges are quite cheap to insure for young drivers as not the usual purchase,

Agreed, it's always been like that, as insurance is all done on numbers - very few young people drive big cars like that, and those who do tend to be more careful (as if you're the kind of young driver who's going to drive like an idiot, you're not going to choose a 'luxobarge'), so there's very few crashes.

A friend of mine found this when we were learning to drive back in the early 2000s, and bought a Volvo when everyone else had Fiestas/Novas/106s etc - he was paying about half the insurance that everyone else had...

H & A models had a big stand at Southampton, with kits etc. I'm not sure which other shows they do though.

13 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I went to the Basingstoke show today - an interesting selection of layouts, as always - and spent some time chatting with various acquaintances.

 

I was dismayed to find that, as far as I could discover, there was no-one selling plastic wagon kits, apart from a very small number of Cambrian kits of hopper wagons on display on one stand and some Slaters O gauge kits on the C&L stand. This I find fundamentally puzzling. there was no shortage of stand selling plastic kits for scenic items - buildings etc. - many at least as complex as a wagon kit, if not more so. So, if folk are expected to want to buy these, why not wagon kits?

 

In a jaundiced mood, I might say that our hobby is largely no longer 'railway modelling' but has become 'scenic modelling' - this is something I find with the commercial magazines too. 

Didn't Kernow's have any? I know they stock Slaters, Cambrian and Parkside, but didn’t look through their stand yesterday.

2 hours ago, chriscleveland said:

Hi Nick you should have said Hi always good to meet people who follow the page in person. There was nearly always someone from the railway in front of the layout yesterday l. Good to talk to a few of them and had a long discussion with the wagon group team who are at the show too as well as others who have helped get the layout into a good place. Hopefully some networking may help for some of the upcoming projects. 

Yeah, we did have a bit of a chat while you were shunting the yard, but I forgot to introduce myself! I was the one in the green Watercress Line fleece operating Merstone behind you.

Good to see Ropley today. I did note at one point at least three MHR people all watching!

18 minutes ago, brightspark said:

Daisy had a good day today. The little 48DS shunted up and down all day with no problems

 A few people had a go and we have a new high score with the train still ending up in the wrong siding. 

But it doesn't matter about the score, it was the fun we had getting there.

I look forward to tomorrow and perhaps see some of you.

 

 

 

 

Happy shunting.

Good to have a natter this morning, though I never did get the chance to come and have another play!

1 hour ago, NIK said:

He was an armed policeman and all his family were armed police.

He died surrounded by his family.

I thought it was that his whole family were armed police, except for his grandfather who was an armed robber,and died recently, surrounded by his family...