Nick C

DAS also laid under the platform, and painted in a light greysih-brown shade. I've also added a path running up to the platform (which will need a board crossing from the front), and some more grass - the front now all has the first layer. Of course when I bought the matchpots for painting the DAS, I forgot to get something suitable for the sky on the scenic breaks (and currently non-existant baseboards) I then tried running a loco along it - I had to scrape away a lot of the first crude ballast, particularly at the end closest to the camera...

There were plenty of P+P sets used on through routes as well - the Castleman's Corkscrew being a good and reasonably local example.

If that's the case, then I wonder if it's feasible to capture that faulty strain, and introduce it into other areas, in order to then eliminate the Delta strain elsewhere? (I'm not an epidemiologist, so I dn't know if that's even possible...)

We've got the same type of boiler, and had it serviced a few weeks ago - the engineer did everything from the front or underneath (or outside, to check the flue)

76xxx BR standard 4mt?

I've got a set of tracksettas you're welcome to borrow if you want, not the full set but includes the ones around 36"

One I read about a while back was that the batteries for the Toyota Prius were made in the US - but the cars themselves were assembled in Japan - so the materials were shipped from China to the US, made into batteries, shipped to Japan, fitted to the cars, then shipped back to the US again. I don't know if that's still the case...

I've found that even with just building a practice plank (see Hurst Lane Halt, below) - seeing some scenics actually appear, even in just small patches, has brought back my enthusiasm comapred with just seeing a huge expanse of bare baseboard. So much so that I've dug out an old 5' x 18" baseboard from the garage for a sheepy-style cameo layout...

I'm going for the halfway approach for mine - bullhead flexi, with kitbuilt points. For me, the geometry of a B7 looks much better than even the large-radius Peco, and the new BF kits take all the hard work out of making pointwork. Definitley agree it's a personal preference thing though, and there are several threads on here that show just how good the Peco track can be made to look with a bit of effort.

Though of course the Dutch do have a big advantage when it comes to cycling - their country is flat!

If you want to see the real benefit of them, just look at @big jim's "Slim Jim" thread...

Only if you look at it, as many people seem to do, in a binary fashion (cars vs no cars). Look instead in a pragmatic way, cars where needed, no cars where feasible - we've had pedestrian zones in towns and cities for decades, why not extend these a bit further? Barcelona has done it with their 'superblocks', Ghent City centre is largely carefree, and a neighbourhood of Amsterdam has shifted all it's roads underground. But it all needs joined up thinking. People won't, can't, give up their cars without a viable alternative. And for most people, the message shouldn't be "give up your car", but instead "use your car less".

Look where the first cat is looking...

I've pointed that out at least twice in this thread before (July '19 and September '20, according to the seach box). It is, of course, made even worse by the fact that the majority of the new EVs are big, heavy SUVs, which of course have more tyre wear and road damage than an equivalent hatchback or estate... Using cars less (particularly, using cars less in crowded urban areas) should be a higher priority, but of course that doesn't suit the agenda of selling more cars... It needs big improvements in public transport and cycling infrastructure, so that people have a sensible choice - from where I live, in a fairly typical mid-size town, there's no safe cycling route to the town centre & railway station. Taking the bus is an option, but takes nearly as long as walking, and costs £3.90 each return - more than the cost of three hours in the town's short-stay car parks, so it's no wonder that most people choose to drive.

What I did for the two I've built so far (done in situ as they are slightly curved): 1. fit the crossing 'dry' 2. cut & position the rest of the rails 3. solder the feeders to the switch and stock rails 4. remove the crossing, solder the feeder, refit with glue I've got some more to do now, I think I'll vary that slightly by sticking the base to a fresh copy of the Templot diagram rather than gluing them down to the baseboard, just to make soldering the plain rail feeders easier.

And isn't that, really, the whole point of our hobby?

Yeah - the maximum distance for mechanical points was either 150 or 180 yards at that time, later extended to 350. I'd imagine that a mechanical release on a ground frame would be allowed much further. In later years it'd either be connected to the box or replaced with an electrical lock. By the time of colour light signals they'd probably be motor worked if they were too far from the box.

Looking on the Scale Link website, the Romford/Markits axles are listed as 18.0mm - will their wheels still work well on modern EM (18.2mm) track? I'm in a similar position to Amanda in that I'm also looking to build my first EM loco - currently putting off buying anything while I read Rice's treatise on chassis building...

Yeah, it's definitely very useful - I've used it a few times getting to and from Poland. My personal favourite being his tip for getting from Brussels to Prague for €29 (which I then combined with a sleeper from Prague to Krakow, also very cheap) He deos seem to be sponsored by DB though, so will sometimes suggest using their website to check or buy tickets where a local operator would actually be better (e.g. Krakow to Zakopane on the Poland page - he doesn't mention the main PKP site at all)

I had a similar problem with a batch of wagons a couple of months ago, in that case with Humbrol matt varnish - I guess the tin had been kicking around too long. They're currently sitting on a shelf waiting for me to decide what to do about them...

I think that would have been mainly down to the distances involved - in those days, the limit for mechanical point operation was much lower, and so the release crossovers were probably too far from the box to be operated directly. Therefore they'd be operated by local ground-frames, but would need to be interlocked with the signalling, and so the release from the 'box. Both points would be operated by the same lever in the box, so perhaps that's why it's not shown seperately. If you've still got loco-hauled workings, I'd expect it to be kept, in order to allow run-rounds without occupying the block section.

I've got a 4575 that I bought cheaply to practice weathering on, if you're interested? It's been badly weathered by the previous owner, I've not yet got round to stripping it off and starting again.

Looks like the yellow and grey wires go to the motor, and the two black ones to the pickups. If you don't want the DCC chip, they're all you need. Unpick the black tape, cut and strip the ends, and connect yellow to black, grey to the other black, and test - if it goes the wrong way, swap. Once you're happy, solder them and re-tape.

But that's the whole point of the exercise - they want to get rid of the peaks and even out demand.

I've just found the WHO figures, and you're right, 48k in Germany in the last 24 hours - 42k in the UK. Only beaten by the US on 88k, then Russia 40k, and Turkey next on 24k...