martin_wynne

hi. the prototype switch opening is 4.1/4" = 1.42mm for P4 for EM and 00-SF the recommended opening is 1.75mm which can be set using a 20p coin as a spacer. for standard 00 the recommended opening is 2.0 mm. martin.

thanks for all the comments on plug track. apologies for my one-finger lower case typing. i have severely injured my left arm and it's the best i can do at present. why rectangular plugs? the default recommended option at least for 4mm and above is that you DON'T slide the chairs on the rail. the chairs are fitted in the timbers FIRST, which means the rail isn't there to align them. the rail is then dropped onto them, and the loose jaw part is inserted to clip the rail into place. round plugs would not be large enough to contain the deep slots needed for the loose jaw pins. the chairs clip into the timbers with a click, and this is much easier to design with rectangular plugs. no glue is needed. plug track is just one man's idea. a lot of folks seem to like it. but now that 3d printing of track is taking off i'm sure others will be coming up with different ideas. there is a lot more information about plug track on the templot club forum. martin.

Thanks John. Here is James's video: Martin.

Hi John, "A" switches have a sharper 1:24 deflection angle, which makes them unsuitable for running lines. An A-6 is far more prototypical than a B-6, but is found only in yards and sidings. A B-6 is rare on the prototype, but is a good modeller's compromise. It's the shortest turnout which can be used in running lines and look the part, and the gentler 1:32 "B" deflection means a B-6 turnout can be curved within reason if necessary. An A-6 turnout can't be curved much, if at all, except in the contraflexure direction. If you wanted to make the shortest practical curved crossover in running lines for example, it would have a B-6 turnout on the outside, and an A-6 turnout on the inside. I think Wayne has made the right decision for 00/EM, given that if you want a short turnout he already does an A-5. A B-6 will be more useful as an in-between size from the B-7. No doubt the Scalefour Society have chosen A-6 because they don't yet have an A-5 in P4, and might have chosen either of them. cheers, Martin.

Are we even sure it will be a railway? It would make a fine dedicated fast trolleybus way, with hybrid battery buses diverting off to serve local towns. No need then to go anywhere near Euston. Instead of taking the through traffic off WCML, why not take the local traffic off instead? It's already been announced that some of the mythical "saved" money will be spent on buses. Martin.

That's making more work for the moderators than if you were left free to correct it yourself. I've been running a web forum for over 20 years and I have never locked anything yet. Very occasionally remove or edit stuff. Martin.

How does locking it in place prevent that? Unwanted content should be removed, not locked in place. There is no reason why Warners should have any material hosted on their servers which they don't want there. Just delete it. Locking a topic prevents those who have contributed to it from updating or amending it with new or corrected information. The internet is awash with utter rubbish and if you own an internet server it's important to make some effort to prevent Google indexing the rubbish for 100 years. Martin.

If it was thought young folk would affect the result, there would be sensible choices. They have all grown up with brains undamaged by tetraethyl lead. They are not as daft as they sometimes look. Martin.

The most important station they need to get to is the polling station. If a few more young people did that, and governments knew it, we wouldn't be in the present mess. Martin.

Save your friend. Fly a drone with a red flag.

No-one is under the slightest obligation to read it.

Final RAIB report published today: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-122023-collision-between-passenger-trains-at-salisbury-tunnel-junction It seems RAIB can do all that careful investigation work, but not notice a typo in the name of their PDF file! Yet again I can't post this in the original topic because it is locked (sigh). That makes 3 topics now on the same subject. Martin.

RAIB report published today: https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/report-11-slash-2023-two-trains-in-the-same-signal-section-at-south-wingfield Martin.

Remember all those branch lines built for double-track, but only ever laid single-track? ... ... Martin.

If it's only OOC to Birmingham does it need to be double track? If it's fast enough to get from one end to the other a single track shuttle service might do. That would leave the other side of HS2 free for trolleybuses. Remember them? All-electric vehicles long before it was trendy. You could have a whole fleet of them, diverting off HS2 to serve local places along the route without needing to build stations or interrupt the Birmingham trains. With the addition of a battery, there would be no need to string up wires in local places, they could run into existing bus stations and connect with existing local bus services. Which would remove a lot of the local traffic from the WCML, leaving paths free for trains to Manchester and the Frozen North on the original tracks. Martin.

James Walters has just released his review of the low-cost Alkaid printer:

I don't understand about the "saved money" from HS2. Speaking personally, I have saved myself £1 million pounds already this week by deciding not to borrow it. Martin.

Presumably there would be no problem with sewage discharges if storm water didn't enter the sewage system. Why does it? Why can't rain water go straight into the river/sea? What do other countries do? Martin.

I'm a confused traveller. Please help. At present I can get a train from home and arrive at Birmingham Moor Street. I walk across the platform and get a Chiltern service to Marylebone. Which looks like London when I get there. Or I could walk across the road, instead of the platform, to Curzon Street. And get a super fast service to Old Oak Common. Where is that? Is it London? Martin.

Hi John, I made some 7mm timbering bases a few years ago but I haven't made any resin chairs in 7mm yet. I'm just about to do that now that I've got some proper code 131 rail to measure. Previously I was using the Peco 0 gauge rail. I've been wary of starting the 7mm stuff because I know it will be a total distraction from getting on with the plug track programming. I've also got some Code 250 bullhead rail and I want to make some Gauge 3 track. I've ordered a bigger FDM printer for that. It's all coming at me too fast at the moment. Especially today with my phone system in a mess. cheers, Martin.

Hi, It's not some day, it's doable now for turnouts and crossovers. Any scale, any gauge, curved to any radius, any size of turnout. Templot is free, you just need the printers, a bottle of resin and a reel of filament. And some rails of course. 🙂 But -- REA BH only so far. Not yet any GWR, flat-bottom, diamonds, slips. But tandems soon if I get the half-bolted chairs done. But the main thing missing is -- no instructions. Writing them will be a massive task. But there are moves afoot on the Bexhill West youtube channel to help with that. At present it's all doable but you have to read through many pages of stuff on the Templot web site to find out how. cheers, Martin.