Budgie

I know nothing about the area, but if people don't want a footbridge, would a subway work?

4 hours ago, Night Train said:

Love the hooters.

3 hours ago, 45156 said:

It seems that all the major open air museums are now offering a year's admission rather than a daily one.

I don't blame them. "Let's go to the xyz museum today. The ticket price covers admission for the whole year," so they go once and never go back again. 

13 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Your tentative name has already been used by an RMwebber called Kipford for his model, based on Kemp Town, which has had success on the exhibition circuit. That may or may not matter!

If you can't use Brighton East, can you use East Brighton?

Another one from across the pond:

2 hours ago, D3489gibson said:

 Genesis's (genesi??)

If you want the Latin plural of Genesis, it is Geneses, strange as it may look. However, in this country we speak English, and the English plural is Genesises, which looks and sounds even stranger.

9 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Is that the same Arnold Ridley who played Godfrey in Dad’s Army?

He also played Doughie Hood in the Archers, for those who, like me, are old enough to remember that long ago.

6 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Would another run of 66789 from what is essentially the same tooling be justifiable?

Yes, if it makes a profit.

23 hours ago, The Johnster said:

'In a farm near Beattock nobody wakes

but a jug in the bedroom gently shakes'

 

I would hope to see the jug included on an exhibition model, gently shaking...  Have to say that line gave me goosebumps when I read it in school, and still does!

I would hope the music would be playing while that poem is being recited at the exhibition.

2 hours ago, Hobby said:

Isn't that the same one as at the one at the top if the page?

You're right. Sorry.

I've just seen this glaring example of level crossing stupidity.

htpps://tinyurl.com/4ah4a72r

6 minutes ago, BachelorBoy said:

 

Dots are something new for rivet counters to count :-)

 

 

It'll drive 'em dotty!

5 hours ago, big jim said:

... got within a few miles of the house only to get a call, the MOD train I left in kineton yesterday still had the single line token on it, as agreed with the signaller, but they needed it putting back into the token machine at fenny compton to take a possession on the line and couldn’t do without the token in place so I had to drive back to kineton to collect it and return to the machine! 

Don't knock it. It is good that we have such safety systems. I've just been reading about that awful train crash in Greece.

There's been another crash at a US level crossing with no gates and flashing lights, this time in Texas, and the lorry driver died. There are several videos of the follow-up on YouTube. Search for Fostoria and yeterday's date if you want to see them (remember they write the date differently in the US, yesterday was 021323).

49 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

On holiday  ?  Hmm…an interesting observation . Yes I know all about coal houses and back lanes and tin baths hanging on nails in the backyard..and Aberaman too.Well so I should as my mother was its very first District Nurse under the newly created NHS and Dad the hon.Secretary of the local rugby club. I grew up there in the forties and fifties. Not your average holiday resort though. For a change it was Barry Island,Porthcawl or Mumbles ( via the Vale of Neath ). No cars until my early teens to widen the horizons. My cousin up yonder …Ceinewydd…tells it too.His dad my mother’s younger brother,looked after the pit ponies in the area. Tondu being a centre for them.

 

The house and street I grew up in is little changed since I left .But the landscape has. Its ghosts still remain 

 

 

Basically, we went there for a month (teachers' holidays) to visit my mother's parents. Their house at the top of George Street was the base from which all our activities started. Day trips to Barry Island when the weather was good, and stuck indoors playing cards when it was pouring with rain. And, of course, visiting all the relations (and there were a lot of those).

On 12/02/2023 at 15:04, eldomtom2 said:

Frankly in America you're lucky to have half barriers. Or lights.

Here's an example in Iron Mountain, Michigan:

You don't have to fiddle around with steam locomotives. Come to think of it, the Milwaukee Road had some 3000 v. DC electric locomotives in 2B+B and B+B wheel arrangements, which they used by just coupling enough of them together and inserting them in the middle of trains for assisting wahtever was on the front. I've got a brass model of one somewhere.

When I used to go on holiday in the 1950s and 60s to Aberaman (near  Aberdare), my grandfather's coal was delivered to outside his garden gate on the access road behind the house. It was just dumped there, and he organised people to carry it down the garden to the coal-house for him. (It was a long narrow garden, mostly used for growing vegetables, and the plants he was growing for the flower show.) I didn't get involved in that until about 1962, because I was too young, and my Mam thought I would play with the stuff and get myself all dirty. I also remember that those people who didn't have back alleys behind their houses (not very many people like that) had their coal unceremoniously dumped on the pavement outside their front door, and they had to carry it through the house. Horrible dirty job. 

19 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Would British modellers accept this sort of approach in N if the models were sold at these prices? The real key to these prices is economies of scale, but Japan has a sort of virtuous circle (large market - higher production, costs amortized over much higher sales - high quality and very attractive prices) and part of their product strategy is prioritising running qualities and overall impression on a layout, spending money where it makes a difference for those who run their models.

 

I would.

On 30/01/2023 at 00:05, Michael Hodgson said:

Who's Jesus ?

Isn't he a Spanish or Latin-American footballer?

48 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Made from a diferent batch of plastic ?

Or a different batch of paint?

On 21/01/2023 at 08:48, rockershovel said:

I think we're coming back round to the central limitation of a thread of this sort. Steam traction ruled the rails for well over a century and during that time, pretty much anything that was feasible was tried, or at least examined. 

 

The 4-6-2, with varying numbers of cylinders became established as the paramount "fast passenger" type, with the 4-6-0 holding its own under specialised conditions.

 

The 0-8-0 became established as the generic "heavy freight" type, developing into the 2-8-0 and subsequently developing into the 2-10-0 during the last flourishing of steam. 

 

The 4-6-0 became the common "mid range" type for most duties over a long period of time.

 

The 0-6-0 flourished for a long time before being displaced by the 2-8-0 on main line freight and the 2-6-0 or light 4-6-0 for minor lines

 

The 2-6-2T and 2-6-4T established their utility for heavy suburban or branch line traffic, which didn't require and couldn't accommodate articulated types such as the du Bousquet 

 

The 2-8-2 was fully explored (by LNER) and shown to be capable of anything the 2-10-0 or 4-6-2 could do, and more besides but the network simply didn't require, or couldn't cope with locomotives of that size - so the 2-8-4, 4-8-2 and 4-8-4 behemoths of last-generation US steam (or French steam, to a lesser extent) weren't required. 

 

The 0-8-0T became the ultimate heavy shunter, with 0-8-4 and 4-8-0 variants in small numbers leading long careers.

 

Specialist banking locomotives appeared in very small numbers (and personally I'd feel that a tender version of the SR Z class, possibly with a semi-articulated Engerth type tender, would have been the ultimate all-purpose banking loco - anyone care to photoshop THAT?). 

 

Articulated types never really rang any useful bells. The Mallet didn't fit the loading gauge, particularly the compound types. The Garratt had a niche success with LMS but didn't justify itself at LNER. The Kitson, or Kitson-Meyer MIGHT have been the ultimate "Valleys heavy ore train" loco but never got the chance, and I suspect that getting a Kitson type layout into the loading gauge might have been a considerable challenge. 

Has anybody thought about putting a rack between the rails and a pinion on the locomotive for the steepest section? Or could they have used a stationary engine with cable haulage as on the Pwllyrhebog incline?

10 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

However they need to look inside the car in order to ascertain whether it is in neutral and the handbrake is on - indeed they may even need to waggle (or ask the driver to waggle) the lever in order to check.

What lever? My car's handbrake has a switch to put it on; that switch returns to its normal position once you let go of it. To take the handbrake off you depress the accelerator. 

2 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

I thought IKEA was on Croydon Tramlink* ....... have all our 'new' tramways got one ?

 

* Former Croydon 'B' Power Station site - only the chimneys remain.

I would expect IKEA to have more than one shop, and it is quite possible that more than one of them is pretty adjacent to a tramway.

For those who might be interested, here's an update to the Collegedale incident of a few days ago, including a view showing what that huge beam was going to be part of. The bridge it was going to be part of is indended to replace the level crossing.