Gerald Henriksen

Not specific to your requested models, but interesting news about O scale that I posted in a more appropriate place: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/125369-interesting-proto48-o-scale-news/?p=2820615

"A Fresh Look at O Scale" Next year (August 2018) brings the 50th O Scale National Convention, with the slogan "A Fresh Look at O Scale" The organizers are putting a lot of effort into re-invigorating O Scale with what amounts to a re-launch of the O Scale Convention along the lines of the annual NMRA conventions. One of the big speakers will be Tony Koester (see next section) The convention will be open to all - they are reaching out to all the various O Scale communities (3-rail, 2-rail, narrow gauge) - plus aiming to be welcoming to both newcomers and people interested from other scales. They also hope to make extensive use of social media to both create awareness of the convention and O Scale in general. Terry Terrence, co-chair, spends the first 20 minutes of Model Rail Radio #134 discussing both the convention and the current state of O Scale: http://www.modelrailradio.com/ Convention website: http://2018oscalenational.com/ Proto48 & Model Railroader Tony Koester is preparing a project layout serious for Model Railroader in Proto48. The series won't appear for at least a year, but the layout will make its debut at the 50th O Scale Convention prior to publication.

Or a spare diesel to push them over the hills. Or, for tourism, in the summer a steam engine. Create a viewing stand along the hill and sell tickets.

There is no If. This idea is dead in the water under the current leadership in Washington. Which isn't the same as saying it is entirely dead, because GE and other manufacturers will be doing the research for when government changes and it become more likely, though a lot can change in the intervening years to influence future legislation.

Just a heads up for any VIA fans who may be interested. Rapido has posted to their Facebook page a picture with the caption "Nothing to see here. Move along, please." The photo looks to be a top shot of the F40PH-2D in production at their factory decorated for the special VIA Canada 150 scheme. No announcement has been made yet, but given that it is in production there could be a limited time to get one before the sell out if they are popular so anyone interested may want to start saving. Example of the prototype (City names vary by unit I think): https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtlwestrailfan/35609112722/in/pool-3181375@N24/

Jason has posted a video of his visit to Rails of Sheffield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ2QHmk5xFc

In addition to the 1916 map linked above here are links for the early 1950s: http://maps.nls.uk/view/102904585 http://maps.nls.uk/view/102904567

To get back on topic, just how big is the log / spine car market? My uneducated impression was that logging was either by road or water and so was surprised to see BC Rail mentioned along with logging, and a little bit of searching online hasn't turned up much information (likely a bad sign for a prospective model, but I maybe searching incorrectly). Was it a significant volume for BC Rail, and did it travel off BC Rail property?

While I won't argue that is part of the problem, I don't know that it is really all that significant. Large parts of the US don't have basements, and even those that do the basement is no longer up for grabs. Most houses for the last 20 years have come with finished basements, and older homes often have the basements finished for extra "house" space. Combine that with the move to cities and in large areas, despite the McMansions, people are actually living in tight spaces (maybe not as tight as the UK, but tight for the US. But you also aren't competing in 7mm with a 3 rail toy, so it was easier to create a market for more mainstream models. That is one reason why I think if anyone wants to have a go in North America at creating larger than HO with detailed models market S would be better as the 3-rail S has pretty much died already I believe leaving no market competition. (it also helps that you have a lot of extremely small prototypes - there is nothing like the Class 08 or the short 4 wheel wagons to model over here) [edit spelling]

On Rapido's Facebook page for their latest RDC announcement someone asked them about doing anything in 2 Rail O Scale and their response was: "Never say never but not anytime soon. Sorry." I suspect the biggest issue would be the lack of a large enough market for a Rapido style model given the complete dominance of 3-rail O (which I believe is all the hobby shops in the Toronto area carry except for special order). If there was to be a gamble on a scale other than HO/N I could maybe see S being a candidate given there is at least some quality S scale modeling happening of Canadian prototypes, but even that I would consider highly unlikely.

My understanding (at least from a North American perspective) would be: - serviceable - loco works but is stored out of use due to a lack of demand - unserviceable - loco needs repairs before it can return to service

Except the port is also owned by Omnitrax and they shut it down last year.

How do you run a rail replacement bus when there are no roads? Anyway, it is Omntrax's problem. When they took $40 million in government money (half Federal, half Manitoba) they signed a legal agreement to operate the line until Oct. 2018: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/omnitrax-contract-ottawa-1.4230972 And another article indicating Omnitrax may not be able to get out of their obligations: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/omnitrax-bound-by-law-to-fix-rail-lines-to-churchill-experts-438468313.html

Walthers: 1) new series of officially licensed UPS products (both modern and 1990's) including trucks, trailers, buildings. Starting Sept 2017 2) 50' Exterior-Post Mechanical Reefer - all new tooling based on CB&Q prototype - similar to others - offered SF, CP, BN, EL, Milwaukee, PFE (UP & SP) - 1960s to 2000s - Nov 2017 - $28 3) 39' Trinity 3281 Covered Hopper - Completely new car from rails to roof - based on later production prototype 1990s to present, 7 side panels (2 narrow, 5 large) - UP-CMO, CSXT, GACX, NS, TILX, First Union Rail-WSOX - Dec 2017 - $28 4) Thrall Rebuilt 40' Well Car - all new model - based shortened Thrall 48' well cars in service 2003 to present - Feb 2018 - $30 5) Jordan Spreader - totally new model based on Model 2-200 Spreader-Ditcher-Snowplow - positionable wings & moldboards can be raised and lowered - Railroad specific details - BNSF, SF, CP, Pennsy, SP, UP, MOW gray, Yellow-Unlettered - Feb 2018 - $90

Remember that the dynamometer car is a) a Rails of Sheffield product and b) a specialized item with limited sales potential. While Rapido would be more expensive than Oxford (I think it is also fair to say even Hornby and Bachmann would be more expensive) the price for a Rapido product with the sales potential of something like the Mk3 would likely be very different. It also might be worth waiting to see what exactly Oxford delivers given their so-so track record in model trains so far.

Well, obviously Bachmann is making the DBSO, but there is no way Bachmann could justify the cost of tooling up a powered version of a non-powered prototype, particularly given how few they would actually sell.

There is also another factor to consider - is it possible to relieve the overcrowding short of pricing customers off the train (or some external influence that reduces demand)? If you could provide more stock (is there space on the network to accommodate it?) it is just as likely barring any external influences that all that will happen is more people take the train, thus bringing you back to where you started. In other words, the question isn't so much how to relieve overcrowding as in the London area at least that isn't going to happen. The question is how to move the people around as needed to keep the London (or other areas as applicable) economy working.

Given the amount of money being spent - government subsidy, fares, and the provision of government money for capital projects - I don't think it is fair to say that the railways are being run on a shoestring. The issue of whether the necessary investment is being made is another topic but it is fair to say that a significant amount of money is being invested in capital projects (whether that money is being spent wisely is open to interpretation). Extra carriages is something that has changed over the years, but is not unique to the UK nor is it relevant to the overcrowding issue. Having spare equipment in sidings is by definition something that is only applicable to occasional demand occurrences whereas the issue that the new policy is aimed at is the chronic daily overcrowding - an issue that by its nature would have permanently emptied out those spare sidings should they exist. I have no ideas about the numbers but certainly the impression is that there are likely more seats moving around the network today than anytime in the last 20 years at least, thus the real problem is likely a network capacity issue. Which is not to say some trains wouldn't benefit from an extra carriage or so, but the limitations in platform length, siding length, signal blocks, etc are all combining to mean the government is currently or will soon face the laws of physics, and thus facing some very unpleasant choices.

New Athearn announcement - NS SD60E just announced on Facebook, details on Athearn website tomorrow (Tuesday Aug 1). Genesis line SD60E with all LED lights, normal NS roadnumbers/paint scheme as well as the special 911 number/scheme. For now the previous SD60 models remain in the RTR line.

New announcements from Rapido: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1101318906379&ca=81c7eb55-76a6-4e73-988a-cbcb37426cdd Highlights - RDC-2, RDC-3, RDC-1 (including new roadnames), Santa Fe's rebuilt RDC-1 / RDC-1m as a pair, Display Cases (in stock now), and a couple of more items and updates.

USA - government in Washington DC, business in NYC, Boston, SF. Canada - government in Ottawa, business in Toronto, Montreal

Brief article about electrifying in Denmark (with caveat written by Siemens): http://www.railengineer.uk/2017/06/08/electrification-an-alternative-approach-from-siemens-in-denmark/

Coming in the future from Bowser: GMD GP38-2 (CN & CP) and GP9u (chopped nose) https://cprailmmsub.blogspot.ca/2017/07/news-from-bowser-gp38-2-and-gp9u-being.html Highlights of the interview - the GP9u and the CN GP38-2 have been measured, the CP GP38-2 to be measured this month.

Airlines also have the advantage of a formal check-in process that allows them to fill any empty premium class seats (via free upgrades) if they are worried about too many economy passengers showing up. At the end of the day offering some sort of premium class of service, whether it be Business, First, or something else, is about maximizing revenue at the cost of sacrificing passenger numbers. While this works okay with flying it falls apart with train services that are overloaded and where passengers can easily see empty seats. What it also likely means, hence the comments in the BBC article about it being done at franchise time, is it will change the revenue capabilities of the franchise, hence will either mean higher standard fares and/or higher government subsidies.

Bowser has shown CAD pictures on their Facebook page for GMD and EMD (Canadian and US) versions of the SD40 Tooling to commence shortly, with full details (advertising and ordering info) to come in a month or so.