RJS1977

Finally saw my first 70 at Cholsey yesterday (didn't get the number...)!

Instead of widening the Down platform, thus blocking the vacant Down line, wouldn't it make more sense to slew the track across so that the now-vacant Up line is available for redoubling in future.

As you say, most of the pieces of the jigsaw are in place - I'm not sure any further announcement is needed. Paddinton-Reading will be electrified as part of GWML so no new Bill is needed - all that's required is the way the contract's drawn up for the operator as regards timetabling and rolling stock. Even if the DfT only proscribe services to Reading in the operator's contract, with the wires in place, should the operator decide to extend services to Reading, they may well be able to do so off their own initiative.

I was thinking more about passengers coming from the east (Axminster, Yeovil, Salisbury etc) - it's a long way round to go into Exeter just to catch a bus back out again, especially as the bus station isn't near either railway station (IMO Stagecoach/Exeter Council missed a trick when Centrak goods yard was sold for redevelopment a few years ago). Also if as previously suggested any services on the line were extended to Crediton or Paignton/Plymouth, it would be easier to change to a bus at Broadclyst than Exeter.

Interesting thread! Just a few thoughts of my own: Chard Junction: It's always puzzled me why this station hasn't been reopened. As the platforms are still extant, the trains stop there anyway (to pass) and tickets are sold on board, it would take little more than the driver opening the doors! It *may* not get many passengers, but as an (almost) free station, it wouldn't need many! Seaton Junction: Yes, it's in the middle of nowhere, but if the Seaton trams were to be extended back there, I could see the station being reopened as an interchange for visitors to the tramway (a la Smallbrook). And it would then potentially open up a one-change service from Seaton to London. I could also see Broadclyst/Cranbrook being "for Exeter Airport" with a connecting bus link (or even, if the airport expands, a terminal close to the station). Of course, the whole line would probably have been doubled by now if the DoT hadn't had a last minute change of mind about the length of SWT's franchise in 2001!

Just out of interest, what type of motor bogie does the Javelin use? Could this have been/be used in the VEP?

Re electrical connectors. I haven't tried it on a VEP, but here's something I discovered with an HST a while back: If you take the metal surrounds off the outside of a pair of 9-way D connectors (i.e. so you're just left with the plastic centres that contain the pins), they will just fit inside the corridor connectors. Obviously painting the D-connectors black helps disguise them, as does extending the corridor connectors using folded paper.

I'd hang on for a few years before doing D of C.... You wouldn't want to do it then find if it comes over here in a few years that you've got something wrong....

....closed because "there were not men of sufficient faith in Canterbury"........ Gutted to have only just found this thread and thus missed the Wallingford question as I'm a CWR volunteer and as well as having travelled the line many times have also taken numerous photos from the bridge! One thing that has changed over the years is that the steel sleepers are gradually being replaced by concrete (every 4th sleeper each year!). And another thing to have changed in the area since 1973 would be the erection of Agatha Christie's memorial in the churchyard immediately behind the photographer.....

I've a vague recollection of seeing some at Chicago O'Hare in 2008.

Glad you enjoyed it!

As regards the extra details, I'd prefer it if they were sold as "extras" rather than included with the loco. That way the models themselves would be more affordable to people who wanted to buy them but didn't necessarily want (or could afford) the details. This would of course include the younger enthusiasts.

I used my Clipper (sorry, not a Safety Minor as previously stated) at a show on Saturday. At first I was surprised at how fast my locos were running (including one on a Dapol 14XX chassis), but switching the higher resistance in series brought them down to much more realistic speeds - indeed it was possible to crawl one of the locos!

Reminds me of the time I heard Graham Norton on "Just a Minute" talking about "How to Become a Thespian". He started off saying something like "If you want to become a thespian, you have to wear baggy cardigans and listen to kd lang CDs," then on being challenged said he'd misheard the question!

Did some experiments with my father's Duette and Triang controllers and a Bachmann 03 today. I was surprised to notice that the Duette's slow speed wasn't as slow as I remembered - I think the lowest I managed to get was a scale 30mph. A little on the fast side, but not ludicrous! I didn't try using the half-wave rectification. With the Triang, minimum speed was approx 15mph. I will do some experiments with the Safety Minor when I get home. So no, not as good as newer controllers but not complete lemons either! I did try using an H&M Walkabout when operating a friend's layout at the Abingdon show - pretty good controllability until I picked it up the wrong way round by mistake!

My father and I have between us owned three H&M controllers - a Duette, and two different types of Safety Minor*. As second hand controllers go, there's not a lot wrong with them. OK, they don't have the refinement in control of some of the more modern electronic controllers, but I don't think it makes them bad controllers. We've got some locos with Bachmann mechanisms in them and they're still capable of slow running on the H&Ms and even the 1956 Triang controller that came with my father's Princess Elizabeth trainset when he was 12! (I've been known to not quite turn that one off and look down a few minutes later to find our Bachmann 03 inching its way along the goods sidings!). No, not quite as refined as the modern electronic controllers but a lot less to go wrong on them too, and what there is to go wrong is often easily repairable. The older of the two Safety Minors (a variable transformer type) suffered a fatal failure when the carbon brush on the transformer finally expired (hence the past tense reference in my first sentence) but the others are still going strong after many years' use. On the other hand I have a twin Gaugemaster controller where the least-accessible transistor has blown, giving a permanent full voltage to the track! Guess what I've replaced it with....

Not sure what type of wagon it is, but the concept reminds me of the advert on page 40a of the latest RM - a firm will build 'railway carriage' style railway rooms on road wheels that have fully road-legal lighting and can be towed (e.g. when you move house). The mind boggles - could this herald a new era of model railway exhibitions held in fields where everyone just turns up with their trailers and open the doors?