Nick C

14 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Hmm, I have a sneaky suspicion that the historical society in question is actually just James and Colin...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68423991

French satirical newspaper published every 29th February...

1 hour ago, RobertFrench said:

My first post here, so apologies if this is inappropriate.

 

I’m also planning to model Cranleigh Station, and was over the moon to discover this thread which contains a ton of useful information.
 

BUT. 

 

It’s quite hard to interpret some of that information without the embedded images, which appear to have been swallowed by the internet. Is there any way to recover them, or could some kind soul ( @Nick C ) possibly repost them?

 

No worries if it’s not possible - the thread’s 5 years old after all, but I thought I’d ask.

 

Thanks,

RF

Hi Robert,

I can't find the diagrams I drew at the moment, I'll have a look on the old computer when I get home, see if I've got them still - unfortunately most of the images here were lost when the previous hosting provider had a crash. 

The earlier posts were referring to the Pryer drawing in this book: https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/Bookstall/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_71_67&product_id=116 - worth getting a copy if you're interested in the line as it's only £7.

The Global Association of International Sports Federations have a pretty good definition, in my opinion:

Quote

 

GAISF uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:[1]

• have an element of competition
• be in no way harmful to any living creature
• not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)
• not rely on any "luck" element specifically designed into the sport.

 

On 05/02/2024 at 22:44, Erlestokemanor7812 said:

Dragging this thread up from the grave again, I don't suppose you ever found that photo did you? Long shot I know... 🤣

There is, or at least was when we went there in '22, at least one photo on the wall in the Alness Heritage Centre - if that's any help?

Partial photo on this page too: https://www.fofnl.org.uk/newsletters/20May/20may24.php

and here: https://www.fofnl.org.uk/fne80.php

22 hours ago, StuartMc said:

It's just coming up for a year from when I decided to pop down to the nearest preserved railway to me (The Colne Valley Railway, just over the border from me in Essex) with a view to volunteering in some capactity. I ended up meeting a lovely chap, Derek, who showed me the signal box and after a few months of practice and study later, I became qualified to run it myself. I would heartily reccomend anyone with a railway interest of any sort should also pop along to their local preserved line and find out what you'd like to do.

As a fellow heritage railway signalman (coming up to 4 years now since I qualified, so still a relative newby too, compared to some of my colleagues with 50+ years...), I'll assure you you're going to have fun! You'll soon find you get annoyed by badly-signalled layouts though ;)

22 hours ago, StuartMc said:

 

Is it just the way the diagram is drawn, or are none of the points covered by the track circuits? Or is that another of the 'in progress' things?

3 hours ago, chiefpenguin said:

As someone else said - heat pumps will be the next "problem"area.

Apparently insulation is another one - with all sorts of falsehoods being told to get people to pay more than they need to...

21 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

The irony of a dairy free option . . .

 

of a cow 🤣

What's wrong with that? Someone can be lactose intolerant but still like good food...

33 minutes ago, Graham T said:

And it would have to be at least 1 m from any boundary.  And "made of non-combustible materials" according to Which...

IIRC that's an 'or' rather than an 'and' - but again that might vary by council & size...

99% of normal garden sheds are both within 1m of the boundary and made of timber...

Could always build something adjacent to the garage and use both ;)

3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

No, it isn’t, but it’s still cheese, and is therefore incapable of being bad.  
 

There is no aspect of human endeavour that cannot be improved with cheese.

Admit it, your name is really Wallace and you live in Wigan?

3 hours ago, johnofwessex said:

Interesting suggestion here,

 

https://news.sky.com/story/officers-should-be-allowed-to-ban-drug-and-drink-drivers-at-the-roadside-police-chiefs-say-13077983

 

Given the nature of a Drink/Drugs test I cant see why it should not be adopted, after all my neighbour's Driving Licence was taken away on medical grounds so why not the same for Drinkers & Druggies?

I'd have thought doing so at the point of being charged would be better? I know the difference between the two is only a technicality, but less chance of some expensive lawyer arguing about it...

8 hours ago, JustinDean said:

I’ve built a few garden recording studios for clients - photos below of the last one I made. 
There’s a few considerations, some already pointed out. Permitted development within Planning restricts you to a structure covering up to 15m2. The shed below is 5m X 3m. Anything above that requires planning permission. 
Mount it on a concrete pad. 
For walls I used larch cladding over timber lathes. DPM layer over OSB board all mounted  on 2x4” stud frames filled with Kingspan insulation and joints finished with aluminium tape. Inner boarding could be any decent hard sheet that will take screws etc for mounting stuff. 
Floors had exactly the same treatment. Stud, Kingspan, DPM, then OSB board. Insulating fibre boards went on top followed by electric underfloor heating in the form of a roll out mat. This stuff is cheap to buy, easy to install and most importantly cheap to run! Laminate floor went over that. 
Same construction for the roof only the topside I used one of the new rubber sheet systems which is glued in place then trimmed. Decent ones are guaranteed for 50 years. Guttering to make sure water is carried away from the building.

That's how I'd go about it. On the planning side, as usual with such things there's a lot of "it depends" - between 15m2 and 30m2 can also be allowed under permitted development but might require building regs approval. Check with the local council first!

1 hour ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 The one I saw was working the Krakow to Wieliczka branch service, which had been a full EN57 EMU set a couple of years earlier on one of the ADL Polish trips.

That's been a full 3-car modern EMU every time I've been, as an extension of the Airport service.

12 minutes ago, sjrixon said:

Certainly do..

 

I used mine for 3 years, daily without issue. The advantage with the Dunster one I had, are the walls are insulated themselves, it's part of the design. That goes for the roof and floor too. I also followed their guidance in treating the wood with some very expensive wood preservative. No issues with opening and closing doors in those 3 years.

 

I had an oil radiator on an Alexa controlled switch. Means I could flick it on an hour before I wanted to use the room, nice and snug, even during the snow.

Wheras the major disadvantage of the Dunster one I have is that the wall aren't sufficiently insulated - they claim they are as part of the design, but 44mm of wood does not give enough insulation to be of any use in a UK climate, and the nature of the design makes it impossible to add any more - wheras a framed design can have 100mm of PIR all round.

It's cold, it's damp, the roof leaked until I replaced it, the doors stick. Whether the original owner used the right preservative I don't know, but I really wouldn't recommend anyone buy one.

4 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Thanks for all the advice gents.  Lots to think about!  I will need to do plenty of research when I get onsite before I commit myself.  

 

@Nick C, do you have any idea how much the building expands and contracts by?  I'm wondering about having the layout free-standing on adjustable legs.  So it would fill most of the space up to the walls of the structure, but not actually be attached to them.

I've not measured it, but when one of the window frames in mine was sticking, it opened up a gap of several mm between adjacent planks, and the door catch has to be adjusted by a similar amount each season to get it to lock properly. I have my own layout freestanding like that, but I've had to build it out of much heavier timber than I'd otherwise use to prevent warping, and run a dehumidifier in there all winter to stop damage - and I can't work out there in the winter as it's too cold, and costs too much to heat it.

Bear in mind that their £5k doesn't include the concrete slab, any insulation, any fitting out (electrics etc), a decent roof covering (It'll probably come with felt, but that's crap) - just the timber and windows/doors - so you're going to be talking £7-8k by the time you're done.

Much better to build one yourself as @Harlequin says, then you get exactly what you need - there's a few threads on here about it, and loads of YouTube videos.

12 hours ago, Graham T said:

Something like this would be rather nice, space (and funds) permitting.

Don't. Just Don't. Seriously, avoid such buildings like the plague.

We have one, built by the previous owner. Yes they're quick and easy to put up, and no doubt great as a 'summerhouse', but they have a major flaw for our purposes - you can't insulate them properly, which means hot in the summer, cold and damp in the winter. Because of the interlocking-log design, you can't attach anything to the walls as they need to be able to expand and contract as the humidity changes, and while they claim that 44mm of timber is a good insulator, it isn't. I've added 50mm of Celotex to the floor and roof of ours, which helps a bit, but it really needs the walls lining too, which is impossible.

If you want a shed, build a proper one, with timber framing, vapour barriers, full insulation and external cladding - it'll almost certainly work out cheaper than that anyway, if you do the labour yourself.

15 hours ago, hayfield said:

If you have paid for a system and the contract stated the HEIS guarantee would be supplied I would take this up with the installers

Not much point if they've already ceased trading...

I quite like this alternative set of suggestions from Count Binface...

I don't think REPs, TC or VEPs had them either, at least not that I can see from flicking through a couple of books...

The Yellow/Blue livery suits the EN57s well, I've only known them in the Red/Grey livery. Mrs C's family live near the Krakow-Zakopane line so I know it fairly well, but a lot has changed in the last decade, including three new curves to cut out the reversals at Płaszów, Sucha Beskidska and Chabówka.

10 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I've not forgotten about you, just doing a bit of revision on Saxby and LB&SC matters.

Regarding the double slip in the siding I found two sketches on John Hinson's signalbox.org website albeit trailing onto the running line.

 

They were at Horsham Junction c1900 and Leatherhead in 1927.

 

Re-orientated and converted to your numbering they would look like this:-

 

That only works if the two pairs of switches at each end of the slip are separately controlled though - I believe that William is using RTR pointwork so they'll be on a single tiebar?

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

They were beginning to get a bit smelly.  They recommend you give cats a bath every month or two.  It's been a lot longer than that since we last got out the cat shampoo.  Snowdrop was much more accepting of being scrubbed than the others, and she's sitting on my lap now.  They all forgave us once they'd been towelled dry.

I'm with @Harlequin on this, I've never heard of giving a cat a bath! They do it themselves about a dozen times a day, and ours certainly aren't smelly!

The closest we've ever come to that was when Bonnie tried to jump on a freshly painted fence and got paint on her front paws - she didn't take kindly to being grabbed and having her paws washed!

31 minutes ago, Edwin_m said:

Gizmo seems quite happy to go out in the rain, possibly because his hair's so long that the water probably doesn't get to his skin very much.  He's has recently taken to asking to be dried when he comes back in.  He might not mind a bath but we've never tried.  

Benji occasionally likes to be dried when he comes in from the rain too!

On 17/02/2024 at 20:14, Lacathedrale said:

 

A few thoughts...

• Points 7 would probably be a hand-point in real life as they're in the sidings.
• You then only need one of 22/23, which would apply to either road depending on the lie of 7.
• The pilot siding crossover doesn't need FPLs as there's no facing passenger moves in either direction.
• Crossovers commonly would have had separate FPLs for either end. You don't need to lock trailing moves (and it was often disallowed by the locking), so crossovers 1 & 5 would have separate FPLS on either end. The others all only need them on one end. 
• The exit signal from the loco siding would be at the toe of the trap point - you've drawn it much further to the right.
• The Brighton appear to have been prolific providers of shunt signals, as I discussed on Linny's thread the other day, 22 at Littlehampton prior to the SR's resignalling. While the SR would have had just one (32) for all movements back in from the up main, I think the LBSC would have had more - it seems like they had a pair at each facing point!
• As others have mentioned, a bit of renumbering is needed. 
• I'm not sure what signal 18 is for? You wouldn't have a shunt-ahead on an advanced starter, it defeats the point. 17 should be a train length clear of 32 so that a train can draw up to it to shunt across without the section in advance needing to be clear.
• I'd also expect an outer home for such a busy station, but that'll be off-stage, 440 yards prior to inner home to allow for a clearing point.

The water there looks surprisingly clear - I'd expect a lot more blood!

What did the poor things do to deserve such torture?

On 15/02/2024 at 19:02, meatloaf said:

That was my first thoughts tbh. Imagine paying £600+ for an O scale 73 only for it to die 7 months later

 

You're covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for 6 years, regardless of the claimed warranty length.