Nick C

1 hour ago, Tim Dubya said:

"LSWR Carriages in the 20th Century" is a case in point, it was £999:00 on eBay from a couple of vendors.  I then found out that some of the content I wanted had been published in either The Constructor or RM in the early '70s, which I fortunately tracked down on The Magazine Exchange for a couple of quid each (two mag articles).  Sometime later I found a copy for £35 in Oxfam Books in Bath, so had it away.

 

I got my copy for £25 from a second-hand stall at an exhibition a few years ago - that was one of those "don't think, just buy, before someone else does" moments!

1 hour ago, Jonboy said:

Our GP’s have an E-consult you complete if you want an appointment that’s asks lots of questions, the surgery triage it and sometimes prescribe, recommend a pharmacist or arrange an appointment with a nurse or Doctor.

(If you call to make an appointment for a new condition the receptionist just completes the same form on their screen and it goes into the same triage queue).

 

This was great when I was trying to get treatment for psoriasis related issues as you can upload photos, no hanging on hold for hours etc etc.

 

When I caught a flu-type condition recently, that felt rather like the bronchitis I had a number of years back, it was absolutely torturous.

Ours has that too - great for some things, terrible for others, as it entirely depends on whether the issue you've got fits in with the questions (and possible answers) it offers.

Will be good to see 'Daisy' again - I'm helping Mark & Chris with Merstone & Ventnor West on Saturday, and I believe we're right next to you and Ropley.

That sounds like a major flaw in the company's payment system, nothing to do with either their name or the bank's two-factor authentication. The bank's side of the payment system won't care what their name is as long as the account numbers match. 

I'd be steering well clear of said company and keeping a very close eye on my card statements if I were you. If you trust the company, phone them and let them know there's a problem with their web payments.

Two-factor authentication is about making sure of who you are, by combining something you know (i.e. your username and password) with something you have (your phone) - or occasionally something you are (e.g. your fingerprints) - it reduces the risk of interception as to impersonate you an attacker would have to breach two different things, in this case your PC to get your password and your phone to get the one-time code.

59 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

some used to turn up with a set of wheels fitted with non road legal

race tyres and swap them over for the day .

Which has the added advantage of ensuring you'll have the original legal tyres to drive home on afterwards...

55 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Totally off-topic, but I've just learned something about heraldry after seeing that photo - that insignia changed in 1993 to put the white square top-left (as shown by the fourth and rearmost aircraft) as the colour of the charge (in Poland's case, the eagle - white) is more important than that of the shield (red).

Somehow this thread seems like that sort of place where such persnickety would be appreciated!

I hadn't spotted that all four island ones are now available, that's impressive! 

28 minutes ago, Reorte said:

As someone without a mobile phone and with no desire whatsoever to get one I fully sympathise, and I get very angry about anything that worked perfectly well without one that gets shifted to needing a mobile. It's just a case of a provider trying to be as cheap and nasty as possible (if that's all there is, I've no problem with it as an alternative, nothing wrong with choice).

 

That said, depending on your ordinary phone provider, it's possible to send a text message to it and it'll appear as an automatically read out voice mail. Still not really good enough though.

Normally I'm with you on avoiding change for change's sake, but when it comes to cybersecurity, sadly it's not a case of "it worked perfectly well" - everything on the internet is subject to constant attack, and you really don't want someone else getting hold of your medical data...

It doesn't sound like they're stopping PC logins.

It's a pretty standard way of doing two-factor authentication. You either need a mobile phone to accept a text message, or some other way of generating the code such as an authenticator app or physical token - requiring users to have either of those is likely to cause more upset, wheras the vast majority already have a mobile, or some other way of receiving SMS messages.

Probably the only item of Stroudley rolling stock to gain BR livery, S3370, the Isle of Wight horsebox, rarely moved from a siding at Yarmouth for the last few years.

Does anyone know of any photos of the other side to confirm whether the lettering was in the same place?

9 minutes ago, Skinnylinny said:

Oh, I think I see what you mean - there wouldn't be any movements from the down platform across 3 unless it were reversed, so the FPL on 4 only needs to lock 3 in the reverse position. Very smart! 



I am a little worried that one port in tappet 5 (that's on row B when normal) will be rather too close to the dog on the green bar - this could allow the following sequence of lever movements (that I don't want!)

Starting all N
3R
5R
3N (while 5R!)

 

I must say, I'm glad I'm not doing this for a living!

I believe in the prototype they're arranged so that the pitch of the locking bars is sufficiently different to the throw, in order to prevent that.

42 minutes ago, Skinnylinny said:

Hmmmmm, I was *hoping* to allow simultaneous arrivals and departures, but I would definitely rather avoid conditional locking! 

So something like this? 


(I realise I've done the lilac bar in sort-of the opposite way to usual, but that's to avoid clashes with other ports in the same tappets).

The only niggling thought in the back of my head now is "Should 5 be locked normal unless 3 is reversed?"

Thank you so much for your help, @Nick C!

I've just realised that it is possible - 20 doesn't need to lock 2, because 3 being reversed would do so - so you can have inbound movements on both lines simultaneously. 

Yes, 5 should be locked normal unless 3 is reversed, in order to trap the down yard. As you don't have a facing move over 3 when they're normal, you could remove the notch there on the green bar and extend that - so 3N locks 4N and 5N, either of those reversed locks 3R?

For 20 there's an easy way and a hard way. If you're not worried about allowing the concurrent move from #2 to the down platform, you can simplify it to locking 3,5&14 both ways, and 12 & all the other signals normal. Otherwise you start getting into conditional locking...

18 minutes ago, Skinnylinny said:

I've tried to arrange levers that mutually lock/unlock each other fairly close together, while still having them in a logical order for the signaller. I'm still not finished yet, but I think I'm getting pretty close. You can see there are quite a lot of very short locking bars. 

 

The orange locking bar is annoying me because it's blocking an entire row. It might end up being placed "upside down" atop the pink top bar, freeing up the row for the locking of lever 20. There may well be errors, but the plan at present is to print the whole lot, test it, and then edit as required, as the brain fog has been hitting lately.

If you moved 10 onto 6 or 7, the lighter-purple bar would be shorter and so the orange one would fit next to it?

2 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

I have been looking at what sort of paving the paths to the front doors of the Godolphin Road villa would have been and Google shows this for 2009 before the villas were done up:

Might this be original? a diamond tile pattern to the edges with some form of textured paving block between? Has anyone seen similar elsewhere?  I know the Victorians used these: https://www.hadley-reclaimed.co.uk/paving-stones-slabs/diamond-pavers-1/ for example.

The gatepost stone certainly looks aged and has a nice cruciform top.

The Victorian terrace I used to live in had a diamond pattern path like the ones on the left there. Each tile was 3" square iirc, and the whole path around 3' wide (the full width of the porch)

1 hour ago, JZ said:

This morning at Worcester. Probably a good ¼ mile from Henwick crossing.

What's the betting that van turns out to be stolen...

Quote

Along with their passion for swing music, [Sir Rod Stewart] and Holland bonded over a love of model railways.

 

Sir Rod's face lights up when the subject is brought up. "There's not many places you can go, especially in the music world, and talk about model railroads for a few hours and send each other pictures."

 

"What Rod hasn't said there," picks up Holland, "is that we do speak for several hours and exchange pictures about details, because it's a study of landscape and architecture."

 

The discussions to plan their musical collaboration were quicker and simpler. "When it came to talking about the record, I would say we'd probably spent 10, 15 maybe 20 minutes.

 

"I'd say, 'What about this song?' and he'd say, 'Great', and that would be it. Not much of a discussion. We'd just go and record it. Railways we'd take the time over."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68449163

2 hours ago, RobAllen said:

Looking at the signalling diagrams for Burnham-on-Sea and Bridgwater in Harman & Parkhouse's Pictorial Atlas, the home signal seemed to be a little way out from the station. Burnham-on-Sea diagram has "237 yards" noted next to the signal, and Bridgwater has "25 yards", but I don't know where they are measuring from. Maybe from the signal box?

As such, somewhere on the curve seems plausible, but I wonder if it would be more visible inside the curve or on the outside?
 

Distance is usually, as @RailWest says, from the centre of the box.

A signal on a curve would usually be on the outside, to make it easier to see.

1 minute ago, 57xx said:

 

Yes, I get that which end of the slip is being operated to form the crossover, it's on the diagram. 😉 It was the visualisation of the blades leading into the yard I was missing. Put on some better specs and it dawned on me, I'm getting it now.

 

As an operational thing, what safety measures would be in place to prevent a movement from the loop (moving right to left) across the cross over if the hand points are set incorrectly? Is that the shunting signal?

Hand points (except some modern designs) are generally trailable, I.e. you can go through them in a trailing direction when set incorrectly and the wheels will just push them across. Do that on controlled points however and you'll do a lot of damage! 

1 minute ago, Downer said:

The point is, I haven’t had any emails, and I’d like to know when I should start worrying about that.

You should be able to check the status by logging into the website too, and looking under "my orders" - it tells me the date of order, shipping and delivery:

Quote

Delivered

Hide details

March 1, 2024

This shipment has been delivered.

Out for delivery

On its way

February 29, 2024

Confirmed

March 2, 2023

Submitted

March 2, 2023

11 minutes ago, Downer said:

As I imagine a lot of people are starting to wonder where their banana vans are, maybe Accurascale could undertake to let us know when all the preorders have been sent out, and give us free rein to panic.

If it's any help, I had three emails from them yesterday to let me know that mine had been picked, packed and shipped, followed by one plus an SMS from DPD this morning with a delivery time. 

[edit] I ordered mine in March 2023 - as they've said they're all processed in date order. [/edit]

As for the vans themselves, I'll echo @gwrrob's comment above - plus the best packaging I've ever seen for a wagon (or pack thereof)...

Now to think of an excuse for a train of Bananas on a branch line terminus...

25 minutes ago, RailWest said:

Maybe, for a start :-)

 

What period are we talking about please for the model?

 

Some random thoughts:

• provide an Up Advanced Starting
• move the Down Home closer to the facing point
• provide a shunt signal FROM loop over release crossover onto plaftorm road?
• would they have upgraded to a 'yellow' shunt anyway , for that and/or the one by double-slip?
• Down Distant signal - admittedly off-scene - probably worked originally, but 'fixed' later.
• if the 'industry' is a private siding, the some sort of boundary gate would be provided, tho' probably not bolted from the SB as the siding does not feed directly onto the main line.

I'd assumed mid-30s going by Rob's photos of his stock earlier?

• Up advanced would probably be off-stage, assuming the change in colour marked the scenic break - same with the Down Distant.
• The reason for pushing the down home back is to allow a loco to run-round without going outside it (and thus needing to occupy the section), but both variants are found at similar LSWR termini (There aren't any similar SDJR termini to compare with!).
• Shunt from loop over the release crossover doesn't seem to be a commonly signalled move (again using LSWR examples - Swanage is the only one I can see)
• I'm not sure when yellow shunts became common, a red one would do just as well, but would then need to be cleared for access to the industry (though I'm assuming Rob isn't planning on working shunts anyway...). The closest example is Lyme Regis, but that has a separate trap and the shunt positioned for that rather than for the slip, so access to the kickback doesn't pass the signal.
• Rob's already drawn a gate on the siding. I'd imagine it'd just be padlocked in real life.

Something like this