Titan

Does it actually need upgrading? I have a mainline class 56, Took it to a friend of mines layout and we hung all of our Hornby Merry go round wagons behind it, a total of thirty wagons IIRC and it handled it just fine, so I would expect it could handle a scale 36 wagons unless you have some significant gradients/sharp curves. It has a six wheel drive bogie which helps.

It's a good question! I expect it has more to do with how hard you press the loud pedal. I imagine a large electric motor producing low bhp is proportionately more efficient than a large ic engine producing low bhp. Could be just a slight penalty due to the extra weight.

I feel sorry for the people that decided not to take the risk with Ryanair and so booked with Monarch instead...

Well I suppose that is Mr O'Leary's Pilot shortage solved! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41464934 Wonder if that was what he was waiting for but they just lasted longer than he thought?

I think all it was was blinds removed and black plastic with white translucent dots stuck to the glass, the bulbs remaining as was to provide the illumination. I think the mod just cost a pound or two per loco - plus a few minutes labour. Much cheaper than having to maintain the blinds!

I think most stock would be out of gauge too, particularly as regards height due to the OLE - there is a lower minimum contact wire height compared to the rest of the network.

I would like to say he has gone to a better place, but how is heaven going to top this?

Who told you they were not? I believe the Tesla, and possibly others, have the batteries spread out under the entire floor of the vehicle. This not only frees up considerable interior space, but all that weight low down gives it a very low center of gravity, which results in superb handling. There is a limit to how much you can integrate them though, since batteries are far from a fit and forget item at this stage of technological development and will need to be able to be replaced if required.

The number of times I have been stuck on a Birmingham-Derby train waiting just outside Derby for a St Pancras-Derby train to pass would suggest if there is they rarely use it! It was getting silly, our train would pull up just short of the London road bridge on time, and then wait until we were 10-15 mins late!

That is changing fast. And when you include queuing to pay at the till a refill for a petrol/diesel is very difficult to do in under 10 minutes, that is from leaving the motorway to joining again. An 80% charge, can be done in under 20 minutes and take most evs over 100 miles. Which is just enough time to have a cup of tea while you wait - something you can't do whilst refueling a petrol/diesel.

I kept meaning to get some signs made up for my layout...

I gave up asking hypothetical questions. I mean, whats the point?

One of these would probably be rather useful: https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/reciprocating-saws/cat830862

There are add ons for your browser of choice to enable you to see the photos normally.

Had a timber framed garage to demolish when I moved in. Done using tow rope and car, then loading the remains in a trailer and off to the local recycling centre. When I needed a mini digger to dig out the foundations of the drive, bought an old one off ebay, did the job, painted it, then sold it for about four times what I paid for it...

I expect there will still be crossovers at the south end of the station too. The end result will be that the service to Nottingham will be able to depart without conflicting with other moves. At the moment trains cannot arrive simultaneously from St Pancras and Birmingham, and simultaneous departures are only possible if the arrivals from both Birmingham and London are blocked. I think the new layout means that all trains should be able to arrive/depart from the south without conflicting with anything else, apart from perhaps the Birmingham to Nottingham service which would have to cross over at the south either on arrival or departure. Presumably if crossing over on arrival conflicts with something then crossing over on departure can be done instead, so there should be scope for minimising conflict there too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKUBAgUUyIg What is even more remarkable is that despite being a one off, it was in service for almost 20 years - longer than some class 55's managed, and not only that it was in frequent use, being called out over 2000 times in its career. And had a reputation for reliability and dependability it would seem. Go figure as they say!

I suspect there is no difference in the gearing between class 37 and 55. The bogies seemed to be pretty much interchangeable - most preserved Deltics had their bogies directly swapped with class 37 and they are still rated at 100mph, and the class 37's that got the Deltic bogies are still 90mph. The usual 90mph max for the class 37 probably has more to do with different field weakening for the motors and reducing maintenance costs - the bogies and motors take a lot of hammer at 100mph.

The boxes just get switched out with the signals lowered and the boxes either side connected to each other, creating a longer block section. Nothing new, has been done for well over a hundred years so that signal boxes can be unmanned when traffic is light. Still, lets not waste an opportunity to bash Network rail eh?

Since when has holding the record for being the fastest in the world at something not been a claim to fame? Presumably you think Concorde has no claim to fame as the fastest passenger plane? Does the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier also have no claim to fame? Or how about the longest* in the world? And the conjugated valve gear was pretty ingenious, even with its flaws. It was LNER's flagship loco, etc etc. the list goes on and on. If that does not constitute a claim to fame then what does? Care to give examples? Perhaps this is a classic case of putting down to suit an agenda/opinion no matter how wrong it may be... * non stop run - twice!

[pedant] Edward actually [/pedant]

And bearing in mind that they are quite capable of taking innocent people with them too.

What next, Halal pork?

Reminds me of a story that was told somewhere on one of the Hornby APT threads. Someone was on a demonstration stand at an exhibition carving up APT bodies to make intermediate trailers. An aghast onlooker exclaimed "If you knew how much those were worth you would not be doing that!" To which he got the reply "Since I bought these three sets two weeks ago I know exactly what they are worth!"

I thought these were supposed to be finescale?