Nick C

Stick our heads in the sand until it's too late to do anything, and then panic?

Have you ever considered doing a winter scene? The bare trees and unpainted board already give it the feel for a frosty morning...

The way it's written suggests that it is special due to only signalling one line, rather than due to only having home and distant?

I've not actually got one yet, but I was going to get one of these: https://www.hamodels.net/wheel-bearing-cutting-tool-for-4mm-wagons-coaches.html

What happens if you place it on something flat (e.g a sheet of glass or mirror) and push it? Does it still bind up? It might be worth drilling out the axle boxes and fitting pinpoint bearings - you'd need an axle box reamer, which is like a very short drill that firsts between the axle boxes and drills each one in turn. That's something I need to do with my Hornby ex-LSWR stock for Lyme.

The Martian by Andy Weir was originally self published.

Although as a countermeasure, I was somewhat disappointed at how little the European Railways Association seemed to know about European Railways. They seemed to have plenty of interest in Germany, France, Switzerland etc, but very little about the other 40-odd countries in the continent...

A positive customer service story for a change - I'll post it here as it's cat related. We have a pair of 'SureFeed' microchip pet bowls, which we bought when Clydie was ill and had to be on prescription food. We tried to reprogram his for Benji, and found that it wouldn't work - pressing the programming button simply did nothing. I phoned Sure Pet Care on Monday afternoon, and their agent agreed that it was indeed broken (most likely just the switch), and was still under warranty, and arranged to have a replacement sent out 'in the next few days'. It arrived Tuesday morning. If only all companies were like that...

Yes, I think all the loading gauge measurements use the top of the rail as a datum.

Definitely - depending on the era when it was built, 3' above rail level (12mm) is a good ballpark figure - but earlier ones were often even lower. A surprisingly common feature was a slight ramp mid-platform where they'd been extended, with the extension higher than the original, and the original bit wasn't raised to match.

I think the Wills rodding is overscale, which is why it ends up taking up too much width. Do you actually need an FPL on the loco release crossover? If not then you only need one rod going along the front of the platform. Quite a lot of stations didn't, even in places where it looks like they should have done (i.e. where the points are partway along the platform) - e.g. Lambourn, Abingdon, Clevedon, Bodmin, St Ives

An obvious change would be to say that the 'exceptional hardship' defense can only be used once - which sounds similar to the system @kevinlms describes in Victoria. That'd instantly prevent the people with 60+ points at least.

Might any of the diagrams in this PDF be of any use? Page 99 onwards. Source: https://dickthesignals.co.uk/home/heritage-signalling-information/index.html Edit: The LNER document on the same site has several diagrams for Tyer's 1-wire 2-position instruments - I don't know how similar the two makes were in terns of the wiring...

The red one is one of the rebuilds - you can tell by the little triangular fillet at the bottom of the body side.

There is a similar thing at Alton, MHR, for when it is running under auto-working (i.e box closed) - the driver puts the token into a specially adapted token machine, and then removes it again, and this tells the system that he is ready to depart, setting signals accordingly.

That's nearly as good as this one, in Paris:

The meows can probably be translated to "Human, what are you doing in that hole? Come out and feed me!"

It is indeed, there was an article on them in one of the recent MHR news magazines - they were sold to raise money for the purchase of the 08 used to rebuild the Alton section. Said 08 has just been fully overhauled and restored, and is now looking very shiny.

The signal looks great, your skills with the 3D printer are excellent, and really show how to incorporate modern tools and techniques into traditional modelling.

The solution to that is to keep looking after you find it. That also has the bonus of convincing everyone around that you are truly mad, and thus stopping them from bothering you...

It's the same in many hobbies I think, especially the sporting ones - when I used to be more involved in motorsport it was clear to see the difference in attitiude between those who had spent many thousands of pounds on their cars, and were thoroughly miserable because they'd only come third, and those who had spend a few hundred, and were having a whale of a time despite ending up 23rd. Even better when those in the second group came higher in the results than those in the first, because they actually knew how to drive properly...

But then there'd be pages of debate as to whether they're wearing the right colour of lycra for the era portrayed...

Ventnor never had an engine shed, and the turntable wasn't used to turn locos (there wasn't one at the other end of the line), purely as a loco release to save space - more like a sector plate that just happened to have it's pivot in the middle. Bembridge also had one, which lasted until the end as there was no space to replace it. In both cases locos were always stabled at the main depot at Ryde.

The problem we have with holidays in the UK is the cost - We've looked at it a few times over the last few years (pre-covid), as there's plenty of bits of this country I've never really explored properly, and it's always worked out far more expensive than an equivalent in central or eastern Europe - and in one case, a forest holiday here worked out more than a fortnight in the Caribbean, even including the flights!

That doesn't sound easier than quickly knocking up a bracket!