pete_mcfarlane

I predict a time, not so far ahead, when I'll go to an exhibition and see a layout operated entirely by models of one-offs, prototypes and other oddities.

Certain sections of the modelling community seem perfectly happy with this approach, and probably think it's odd that some people have layouts with lots of identical rail blue class 47s on them. I guess that a model of the Leader would appeal to them (assuming they don't spend all their pennies on Blue Pullmans first).

At least the cyclist incident answers the questions about how quickly a damaged bus can be removed from the busway.

Last weekend a collision between a bicycle on the busway and a guided bus occured. Luckily no-one was hurt but I do wonder why the bus driver didn't stop in time?

Given that buses don't have seatbelts and potentially have passengers standing, I'd have thought doing a full emergency stop at 56mph is likely to send people flying and cause them injuries.A normal brake application, sounding your horn and then hitting the cyclist a more pragmatic option - for starters you only have one inured person sueing you.......

I still use virtual workspaces on my Linux machine: on Linux it's been a standard feature for 20 years.

Now there's a blast fromt he past. It's a feature of all X Windows GUIs and started out on proper Unix workstations way before Linux appeared. I have seen an app (but I can't remember what it was called) that makes Windows behave in the same way.

I've got a work laptop running Windows XP with the display extended to an external monitor running at a different resolution, and haven't encountered any major problems. The only bit of Windows software that seems to get confused by being moved from one screen to another is the terminal Services client, but nobody outside of an IT department will want to use that.

I did have a problem with my Windows 7 PC at home, where it wouldn't clone screens between the graphics card and a small USB connected monitor (the maximum resolution of one was smaller than the minimum resolution fo the other) and had to extend the display. This seems to have been fixed by a recent patch.

I'd imagine most of the drivers would want their electric/hybrid cars to play a prerecorded lecture to the rest of us on how we should all drive electric/hybrid cars to save the planet.

I think there should be the word "alleged" in the title of this topic. The UK still has the concept of innocent until proven guilty^1.

1. Does not apply to those writing gutter press headlines.

I do like those flats. I might have a go at living in them, to see if you really can manage without servants!

How are you getting on with your N gauge EMUs?

Actual the shoe beam isn't that far out - the ones on B4 bogies are nowhere near as big as the great chunks of wood on the older units. Take a look at http://semgonline.com/gallery/class421_07.html

The EPB/CEP/VEP comparison is interesting as it shows that none of these models sits at the same height on their bogies!

Still confused as to why there are no windows in the corridor partition. Are Hornby effectively saying that their Chinese toolmakers aren't up to doing something that Triang managed 50+ odd years ago?

"aged and a little warn" adds a certain charm to the ad, too.

As does:

My biggest annoyance on trains is not phones, but people who play music through the speakers on their phones. The music is invariable really bad dance music, as Chavs only listen to cheap dance remix albums they've bought/stolen from Tescos.

I'm in favour of Judge Dredd style summary executions for these people. Throw down your mobiles and prepare to be judged!

No company in this day and age would instruct a third party organization to "act on its behalf".

Indeed. Many companies use third party call centres and other such suppliers to do work for them, but it's always branded as the original company (all those Indians with pretend British names who so many companies make you talk to these days probably work for a third party call centre supplier and not for the actual company you phoned).

Anyone "calling on behalf of ....." is probably dodgy and nothing to do with the company whose name they are using.

Another good sign is them asking for bank/credit card details. If they are a company you have an existing relationship with and make regular monthly payments, then they'll have these already and don't need them again unless they change.

As for the "Hello Mobiles" pretend Vodaphone reseller - their website is http://www.hello-mobiles.co.uk/ and mainly consists of attempting to get your contact details through a dubious "win an iPhone" competition. There's also some pidgin English for good measure!

If you are not deep into the Apple world then you will get better functionality from any HTC phone and for a fraction of the price. But your friend won't wow over it, because HTC sounds more like a sexually transmitted disease.

The good thing about a huge banner like that is that it hides how few people are standing behind it!

The petitioner wants "the railways across Britain to be re nationalised and merged into a single organisation".

Isn't that what we've got at the moment - the railways are state owned and run by a single organisation called Network Rail. The trains are a different matter.

Takes pedantic hat off and ducks for cover.......

I don't think the Southern Pride kit is available at the moment - it has been listed as not in stock on their website for several years along with the CIG and BIG. The only other options at present are a conversion based on the etched MJT sides or a cut and shut job with Mk1s.

If Hornby use the same motor bogie they've used in the ex-Lima models, then it has 2.5mm diameter axles. Alan Gibson do suitable rewheeling kits for EM and P4. I've used the EM kit to rewheel a Hornby class 73 in OO gauge with no problems.

As for the solid partitions, I wonder if they originally planned to mould them in clear plastic and then print the partitions, smoking signs etc on?

We got off in the centre of town as we wanted to get a drink and have a look around. We then found it extremely hard to find the guided (but by now not guided) bus to the rail station. We decided to walk there (it seems to be further than it used to be!) because I wanted to see the new island platform being built.

Cambridge railway station seems to get further from the city every time you walk there. Presumably this is a result of the usual problems with Victorian worthies not wanting the new fangled railway in their city, so the station had to be built in a field outside the city limits.

Then came the most frustrating part. We had hoped to take the guided bus out to the other side of town to Addenbrookes hospital and Trumpington park and ride. There was no mention at all of the guideway on the bus stops outside the station! We waited for half an hour without seeing a guided bus, There were loads going to Cherry Hinton and a few going back to the city centre.

Sounds like they haven't addressed the biggest problem with buses - they depart from hard to find bus stops which are seemingly located at random, and there's little help given to occasional passengers who aren't familiar with all this. On light rail systems you have clearly identified and signposted stops (you can't miss the raised platforms for starters), decent signage and information systems. All of this you could apply to a bus based system if you wanted to without massive investment.

There certainly was a book about railways ghosts published in the 1980s. I remember going to a talk by the author - I seem to recall a story about a ghostly Deltic. Personally I don't believe in ghosts.....

No explanation for what they both felt was ever forthcoming.

It was Bolshies smugging machine guns using a "ghost train" as cover! (As in Arnold Ridley's "The Ghost Train", in case you're wondering what I'm on about!).

One option might be to use the corridor connectors with integral doors from the MJT cast ends: link here. Hopefully the Hornby ones are separate mouldings.

Is it that the corridor connection door is moulded on the same plane as the cab fronts, rather than being set lightly forward in the gangway, if you look at the pictures it seems that the front plane of the door lines up with the plane of the 'cowel' that sits over the body half of the Gangway connection.

 

I could, of course be talking absolute tosh ?!?

I'd agree with you - this makes the corridor connector look deeper than it actually is and contributes to the slightly odd look. Now who wants to do a new etched door....?

I think the airhorns are a bit malnourished, but they are easy to replace with decent turned ones.

It looks like the *sample* blue one in the pictures is suffering from the same problem as the Maunsell coachess - the end footstep has been glued on wonky!

Interesting pictures, but I did laugh at this caption:

In this extraordinary picture, the double-decker bus is still visible amid crumbling tarmac and bent girders

Girders? I think they mean tram rails.

I've long worked on the principle that important local news from where I live will be in the national news and papers. If it's not in there, it's probably not important.

This saves me from the usual crop of wierdos campaigning for bypasses, slagging off the NHS because it took two hours for A+E to look at their childs's sprained wrist, and bemoaning the fascist police state that has fined them for doing 37mph in a 30mph zone instead of exclusively hunting down child molesters.

For £10k I'd expect the description to have some full stops in it!

I looked at a Bendini system motor generator he built that appeared to charge batteries , with more power out , than in, the proof based on a clamp induction meter!!

Going OT - I'd not heard of Bendini motors before, so had a fun 15 minutes reading up on them. Clearly the chap has found a way to bypass one of the fundamental laws of physics

Good question Ian.

 

I'd say they look like BR suburbans, EPB trailers or a Thumper. I don't believe Hornby have any of these in their forthcoming range.

Those are the forthcoming LNER suburbans coaches.

Can the prototype work in multiple with production power cars? I know it ran with production trailers in the mid 1970s as per the photo on the website.

They could spot could hire it out to TOCs...........