Nick C

Exactly - time is limited for many of us - that's why I've been working on my current layout for 6 months already but haven't even built the baseboards yet. I'd have liked to model earlier periods, but having to build, paint and line all the stock and locos I'd need just isn't a practical proposition - wheras it's very tempting to get a short rake of these and a Terrier as a starting point, to add to later when I do have more time.

Spare a thought for those of us who do have a degree in computer science!

The track in the photo is the connection to the 'train story' exhibition building at the west end of Havenstreet. The temporary connection at Smallbrook is a myth that doesn't seem to want to go away...

I've got a Motorola G5 - fits easily in a pocket and despite being a couple of years old, still lasts the best part of a week on a charge (though I'm not exactly a heavy phone user...)

We bought one of those, and also have several water bowls around the house - yet Clyde still often preferred to drink rainwater from a plant pot in the garden...

I'll have a go at drawing it up later and rearranging. It's not a problem, gives me a chance to design something I'll probably never have the space or time to build myself! Any chance you could pm me the full track diagram?

I thought Lancias came with dodgy panel fits!

Something that's not been suggested yet - sell some of it though here! You'll need the "World of Railways Plus" membership to list stuff on the RMWeb classifieds, but if you've got quite a few things to sell it'll probably work out cheaper than the eBay fees - they charge 10% of the total including postage if you don't get one of the "max £1/£3" offers, so you'd only need to sell £800 worth (a handful of locos at current prices) to cost more than a year's one-off gold membership...

Have we had Fleecewater yet? Or how about Shearwell (from Shorwell). Or Tupping (though that sounds more Sussex) I've also just found out that there is such a thing as a 'guard Llama'. Who needs a guard dog when you can have a guard Llama to look after your sheep!

This of course needs a few changes to the pull list - hopefully haven't missed any... 1. P1 starter 2. P2 starter (pull 31) 3. P3 main starter (pull 31, 33) 4. P3 branch starter (pull nil) 5. P4 main starter (pull 29, 31, 33) 6. P4 branch starter (pull 29) 7. Main advanced starter 8. Shunt from P1 (pull nil or 35) 9. Shunt from P2 (pull 31 or 31, 35) 10. Shunt from P3 (pull 31, 33 or 31, 33, 35 or 34) 11. Shunt from P4 (pull 29, 31, 33 or or 29, 31, 33, 35 or 34) 12. Shunt east at 17 points (pull 17) 13. Shunt east at 18 points (pull 18) 14. Shunt from <name?> siding 15. Shunt from middle siding (pull 19) 16. Shunt east at 16 points (pull 19, 20) 17. P1 loop points west 18. P2 loop points west 19. Middle siding points 20. P3 loop points (pull 19) 21. Shunt west at 19 points (pull nil or 19 or 19, 20) 22. Shunt west at 17 points (pull 17) 23. Shunt east from platform loop (pull nil or 32 or 32, 35 or 36) (ringed signal I think, goods starter - or perhaps two, full size arm for starting goods and a shunt for accessing the yard) 24. Shunt east from P1 (pull nil or 35) 25. Shunt east from P2 (pull 31 or 31, 35) 26. Shunt east from middle loop (pull 30, 31 or 30, 31, 35) 27. Shunt east from P3 (pull 30 or 31, 33 or 31, 33, 35) 28. Shunt east from P4 (pull 29, 30 or 29, 31, 33 or 29, 31, 33, 35) 29. P4 points 30. P2 loop points east (pull 31) 31. P2 points 32. P1 loop points east 33. Main crossover west (pull 31) 34. Loco yard points 35. Carriage sidings points 36. Branch crossover. 37. Shunt west from inner homes (pull nil or 32 or 31 or 31, 30 or 35 or 35, 29) 38. Shunt from carriage sidings (pull 35 or 31, 31 or 35, 31, 29 or 35, 31, 29, 29) 39. Shunt from loco yard (pull 34 or 34, 29) 40. Shunt from goods yard 41. Branch P4 home. (pull 29) 42. Branch P3 home. (pull nil) 43. Branch goods home (pull 36, 32) 44. Shunt west at main home signals (pull nil or 31, 33, 29 or 31, 33 or 31 or 31, 30 or 28) 45. Main P4 home (pull 33, 29) 46. Main P3 home (pull 33) 47. Main P2 home (pull 31) 48. Main P1 home 49. Main goods home (pull 32) 50. Main outer home

Agreed, plus the fact that modern airports seem to be designed to make the whole experience as miserable as possible. Pre-Covid, we did a couple of cross-Europe trips by rail - while it certainly took a fair bit longer than flying, it was so much more enjoyable - both by day and by night, as there's something quite magical about a sleeper train, even if you don't get much sleep...

There's a lot of "scene" around VW vans, which of course means lots of money and people who know little about the mechanical side and just go for the appearance. I saw a YouTube video a few months back of a young couple who had bought a nice, shiny T4 camper, with a brand new MOT, from a dealer in Bristol - luckily, they had the sense to take it to a friend for a check-over before they went off anywhere in it. Said friend pointed out that it was a deathtrap that shouldn't be anywhere near a road, and gave them a list of defects half a mile long. The dealer gave them their money back very quickly, while insisting that they knew nothing about it and trying to pass the blame to the MOT tester. I believe they reported both dealer and tester to the relevant authorities, but obviously they were unwilling to say too much in the video as thecase was still in progress at that point.

The 205XS was a popular car amongst my cohort at University (early 2000's), cheap to buy, handled well, usually rust free as they were galvanised, but often plagued with electrical problems... I learnt to drive in a Mk3 1.1, and my first car was a Mk2 1.4S - at 13 years old, it was already as rotten as a pear, but taught me a lot! I found that the Mk3 didn't handle well at all though, higher centre of gravity left it wallowy.

never even heard of it! Will have a look, thanks...

No, but I'd like to - we have some similar purple ones that Mrs C absolutely loves, and wants more of, but we have no idea what they're called to try and find some!

Basingstoke is like that - loads of odd bits of cycleway and shared-use paths, but not joining up, or ending on reaching a major road or junction. I've occasionally considered cycling to work, but it'd involve riding down a very busy 40mph road, and I simply wouldn't feel safe - and I refuse to break the law as some of the other cyclists do, by riding on the pavement. Better to take a bit longer and walk.

Ah, that reminds me - you'll need a shunt or calling on signal under the home to allow that, as you can't use a running signal into an occupied line. I think that would work, but then I'd get rid of the middle link of the three, and route trains from p3/4 to main via the bottom one.

I've just noticed that you've got the ability to run round a train in p1/2 via the carriage sidings, and 3/4 via the loco yard - meaning that either move won't interfere with a train arriving or departing from the other side. Is there room, at all, to move the branch crossover slightly to the left? if it could be the other side of the main-p1 crossover, then you could have branch trains arriving/departing to 3/4 at the same time as main line trains to/from 1/2

No problem - I lived on the island for a few years a kid, and my first strong railway memories were of the IoW Steam Railway, so I've developed quite a fondness for the island's railways.

Work? We've never seen any of them do any work!

Be careful with renumbering as there were plenty of variations. W10 could be renumbered to W8, W11 or W12. W14 in that condition is only suitable for W14 - the other two later locos (9 & 13) both had Marsh chimneys. IMHO the Hattons 4-wheelers look like a decent likeness of the LCDR stock that was sent over in the late 20s. There were also two rakes of Stroudley 4-wheelers, but they went quite early, before the post-32 condition of the Terriers. There weren't any 6-wheelers on the island. Wagons are easy - the new Kernow brake van, and a handful of Cambrian LBSCR opens will cover most of your needs. Havenstreet's platform was built in 1926, and looks like concrete - but without the distinctive ribs, so presumably cast in place rather than brought over from Exmouth. Newchurch had a wooden building, but all the rest as far as I can see, were brick.

Let us assume, for the moment, that the frame is on the side of the box closest to the turntable - that means we're looking at it the same way as the signalman, and avoids confusion... Running signal levers are usually arranged in the order they're passed by a train, and as others have said, at the ends of the frame. Points in the middle, generally in roughly geographical order. So I'd suggest the departure signals on the left, points in the middle, arrival signals to the right, shunt signals interspersed as appropriate. So starters 1-6, advanced starter 7. Then the shunts closest to the station, the points there, the opposing shunts, the outbound shunts in the throat, throat points, inbound shunts, and finally the arrival signals. Light engines from 3/4 to shed would probalby use the same shunt signals as controlled movements to the carriage sidings (some companies used separate shunt signals for each possible route, others used one for many). I still think the home for the branch should be further back if you're not having an outer. No need for any signals at the colliers platform, unless you wanted to do as some light railways did, and have a double-arm signal that's normally 'off', and is replaced to danger to indicate that someone wants to board. Something like this (using LSWR-ish terminology, and assuming north is up) - first attempt, might want juggling around a bit: 1. P1 starter 2. P2 starter (pull 27) 3. P3 main starter (pull 31) 4. P3 branch starter (pull 31, 32) 5. P4 main starter (pull 25, 31) 6. P4 branch starter (pull 25, 31, 32) 7. Main advanced starter 8. Shunt east at 13 points (pull 13) 9. Shunt east at 14 points (pull 14) 10. Shunt from <name?> siding 11. Shunt from middle siding (pull 15) 12. Shunt east at 16 points (pull 15, 16) 13. P1 loop points west 14. P2 loop points west 15. Middle siding points 16. P3 loop points (pull 15) 17. Shunt west at 15 points (pull nil or 15 or 15, 16) 18. Shunt west at 13 points (pull 13) 19. Shunt east from platform loop (pull nil or 27 or 27, 31) 20. Shunt east from P1 (pull nil or 31) 21. Shunt east from P2 (pull 27 or 27, 31) 22. Shunt east from middle loop (pull 26, 27 or 26, 27, 31) 23. Shunt east from P3 (pull 30 or 31 or 27, 29, 31) 24. Shunt east from P4 (pull 25, 30 or 25, 31 or 25, 27, 29, 31) 25. P4 points 26. P2 loop points east (pull 27) 27. P2 points 28. P1 loop points east 29. Main crossover west (pull 27) 30. Loco yard points 31. Main crossover east. [assuming normal is towards p1] 32. Branch crossover. 33. Shunt west from inner homes (pull nil or 28 or 27 or 27, 26 or 31 or 31, 25) 34. Shunt from carriage sidings (pull 31 or 31, 27 or 31, 27, 29 or 31, 27, 29, 25) 35. Shunt from loco yard (pull 30 or 30, 25) 36. Shunt from goods yard (pull 28) 37. Branch P4home. (pull 32, 31, 25) 38. Branch P3 home. (pull 32, 31) 39. Main P4 home (pull 31, 25) 40. Main P3 home (pull 31) 41. Main P2 home (pull 27) 42. Main P1 home 43. Main outer home West box [1] P4 home [2] P3 crossover [3] P3 westbound starter (pull 3) The remaining points would be hand points - either intersperse them in the frame, or have them separateley numbered/lettered.

Has anyone any experience of the above? I ordered a couple of their kits on 14th May, after seeing one on @Barclay's Saltport thread. Had a 'order dispatched' email on the 18th, but nothing since. I emailed him to ask if he had any tracking info, but have had no reply, nor is there any reply on the 'message us' thing on their website. The tracking link in the email doesn't work, instead taking me to some app download page.

So you'll be wanting some Isle of Wight related sheep puns then! Bembridge would lend itself well to your usual formula I'd have thought, as would many of the stations on the Freshwater line.

Remember there are actually two changes that happened at the same time - the addition of charges for stuff coming from the EU was caused directly by Brexit, but there was also the removal of the £15 threshold - that's a separate thing that just happened to be lumped in with the Brexit changes, and is designed to stop the cheap stuff (usually from China) being sent in under the VAT threshold and so undercutting local suppliers - I believe the same is happening in the EU with the 1st July changes there.