Joseph_Pestell

I always found Jouef locos could be quite difficult. Actually quite basic but there are parts that can easily be put back the wrong way round. Good engineering design could have avoided that.

Best were Minitrix despite my then inexperience with N.

55 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Halling do some HOm chassis that might fit under a Billiard

https://www.halling.at/documents//Antriebstechnik 20210617-MSkl.pdf

 

Or if you’re after a Billiard rtr Ree models are doing a second batch of their ones in HOm. 
 

 

I doubt if any Halling chassis is going to fit the bill. The Billards have very different bogies, a long, by ng standards, motorised bogie and a much shorter lightweight carrying bogie. But a Halling motor bogie would be a good starting point.

Most classic car shows seem to set the mark at 30 years old.

4 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

I have only just seen this layout thread and TBH I haven't yet read every post, but I've just had a wild thought. 

 

If i was rich enough to subsidise it, wouldn't it be nice to have a two day 'foreign only' exhibition with as wide a range of concepts as possible, not just American HO switching layouts but all sorts of 'different' layouts which the average exhibition attendee never sees. 

 

Not really a wild thought, Paul. There are enough UK modellers doing non-British prototype modelling that it ought to be able to work. But exhibition finances mostly work on the input from a wider public who probably would not visit an overseas show.

Venues have mostly become expensive. But if you could find a venue that was reasonable priced and in a location that is easily accessible, it could probably be done.

12 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

At one time the speed limit on commercial vehicles was 20mph, right up until the 1950's and on solid tyres it was a mere 12mph. Some of the heavier goods vehicles could not even achieve 20mph. The fastest goods vehicles were the Sentinel steam waggons, easily capable of 50mph, faster than many cars in the 30's.

An impressive sight those Sentinels when at speed. Several used to turn up on the HCVS London to Brighton run each May. I do wonder though how good the brakes are to stop them.

Report in the Press a few days ago (forget which paper) about long queues of container ships waiting at sea to dock at one of China's major seaports.

On 31/12/2021 at 20:48, Ozexpatriate said:

One wonders why they don't just market them as "buns" sans croix, and then include the cross as seasonally appropriate.

 

 

A Hot Cross Bun is a quite separate recipe from an "ordinary" currant bun. It has spices and, optionally, candied peel.

Not even New Year yet and my local CoOp has got boxes of Hot Cross Buns on sale.

The buns are not hot. Should I complain?

The label on the box says Happy Easter. The CoOp has clearly lost its Methodist origins. Hot Cross Buns are for Good Friday, hence the cross.

I wonder what the "best before" date is.

Can't answer specifically for these blocks. There will be a technical report on them somewhere.

In general, any natural materials like this actually need to be kept slightly damp. Any number of cases of old cob cottages having whole walls collapse due to becoming too dried out (retrofit central heating).

Another point worth making. These days we expect standardised solutions. It was not so back in the day. The reason that we have differing architectural styles across the country is not just about what was available locally by way of materials. Just as important was the soil/ground conditions locally and how they interreact with the materials.

For those talking of houses on stilts, there are a lot on the East Coast of the USA.

On 15/12/2021 at 11:48, rapidoandy said:

Morning all!

 

I am looking for some help from all you lovely people and I am asking if you could complete a survey about the features and expectations you have for new models:

 

The Great Rapido Model Railway Survey

 

I’m always keen to hear about what people want and our product suggestion page has been very popular. However, I often read comments on pages and forums like ‘ why does xxx manufacturer include/not include that feature’.

 

We are really keen to find out what modellers thoughts and expectations are for new R-T-R models. To this end we have designed a survey that covers many of the topics that will guide us in our future decision making.

 

We’re offering three random prizes of £100, £75 and £50 vouchers to spend with us to those who complete the survey (and who leave an email so we can contact the winners).

 

This really will help us determine the features we design into our new models and the direction we will go in. This really is your chance to have a say.

 

Please don't be put off that it looks like 84 questions! You wont answer this many (depending how you answer you skip various sections) and the ones you do answer are closed questions which are easy to answer and will take less than 10 mins of your time.

 

Please share this with your model making friends, clubs, Facebook groups etc. The more date we can collect the better!

 

Happy modelling!

 

Andy

I have tried to complete the survey but there seem to be some wobbles with the technology.

On 22/12/2021 at 18:46, Oldddudders said:

Cautious optimism?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59758784

 

Milder for most...but not all.

I got a sad wake-up call earlier this week about the ongoing seriousness of this pandemic. The guy who did plastering work for one of my cousins has died from Covid. He was just 37 years old and fully vaccinated.

Have you asked on the N Gauge Forum as well? I think there is someone there who has done this.

I think that it would be difficult to achieve this as you have "drawn" it. Better to use the 20 degree short crossing as well.

On 17/12/2021 at 11:51, JohnR said:

 

I dont think they have rested on their Laurels, have they? They may have the tooling for the Lima Siphon G, but they've never issued it, have they?

It would be a good addition to the Railroad range if at the right price.

On 20/12/2021 at 21:29, 62613 said:

I'm well aware of the service that the RNLI gives; at the end of the bar of every ship I was on, there was a collecting box for them; you put a coin in the slot and it launched the lifeboat down the slip.

 

Having said that, the words I chose were probably the wrong ones. Sometimes I struggle to say what I mean.

 

I have not seen one of those collecting boxes for years. It was a brilliant concept.

I have mentioned this before but it is worth repeating. If anyone is visiting Poole, a visit to the RNLI HQ there is a great way to pass a few hours: entertaining and informative.

20 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

It's not every operator which gets its owner memorialised in a road name.  

 

Roy Richmond Way, Epsom, led to the depot of Richmond's of Epsom t/a Epsom Coaches.  Only recently vacated too after Richmonds finally sold the business to RATP Group in 2012 who in turn closed the traditional base earlier this year.  Since 2003 their bus operation had traded as Quality Line and indeed offered perceptibly higher quality than most other London operators.    Smartly uniformed drivers (even wearing ties on hot summer days) who were polite when spoken to rather than the usual London grumpy shoulder-shrug and driving clean and undamaged vehicles again in contrast to most other London bus operators.  

 

Family and business history here including Roy Richmond' involvement and the origins of the business started by his father Roddy Richmond in Epsom back in charabanc days.  

 

https://eehe.org.uk/?p=61322

 

By "traditional base", I think you are talking about the yard north of Epsom railway station, on the back road to Ewell.

In my time, Richmonds' base in Epsom was a garage on the A24 in the town centre. They caused plenty of traffic congestion as coaches reversed in.

IIRC the Bookham base, on the A246 was redeveloped for housing many years ago.

33 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

 

The latest issue of BRM includes a layout on a narrowboat - might provide some inspiration.

Thanks, I will check that out.

I have no doubt that it can be done in N or 009. And probably in 00 for a Minories type project. Plenty of length, just not too much width to play with.

Wonder if a similar list exists for Harrington's French output. Nostalgic for me as they were the main supplier of coaches to CAT who ran the bus services in Cotes du Nord (now Cotes d'Armor). My parents would hire from them each year at Easter for a school holiday in Brittany, collecting us from Dieppe or Cherbourg. H.R. Richmond (Epsom Coaches/Bookham Coaches) would convey us from Leatherhead to Newhaven/Southampton for the ferry.

After my recent move, one of my tasks is to go through family photo albums and scan some photos to the computer. Will post here again if I find some of the CAT vehicles.

I am not a GW modeller. Indeed all my modelling plans have been thrown into doubt by recent illness and a move into a 36m2 living space (aka narrowboat). But I might just buy one of these, it is such a superb model.

Accurascale seem able to raise the bar with each new model that they produce.

43 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi jonnyuk,

 

The first image shows them connected. We will likely change the plug colour to black to help hide it further?

 

 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

You may find that grey or beige is less conspicuous than black.

As others have said, in this context signals are not necessary. And railways did not usually spend money on anything unneccesary.

I can understand wanting a signal to add visual interest. Perhaps a red disc rather than a semaphore to add to the industrial railway ambience.

On 11/12/2021 at 19:38, HeatonLodge40 said:

Next time it will be far more layouts and the trade - as well as HLJ 

 

This is a good idea.

As much as the public like to see big layouts, it does not encourage them to become modellers unless they too have a lot of space available. Much better to show HLJ alongside some more modest sized layouts that folks can relate to their own spare room/loft/garage. Particularly good to have a small O gauge shunting layout by way of a comparison.

13 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

When you mentioned a two week stint I did wonder how that might go both physically and mentally. I find exhibiting a small layout for a few days quite hard work!

 

I hope when you get the layout back home after this show, you put your feet up for a few days and reflect on what a remarkable thing you have achieved.

 

I didn't think that a layout of that size and with that amount of beautiful scenic work down to all the tiny details could be built in the time frame that you have managed, let alone exhibited for two weeks continuous operating.

 

You have my great respect and warm congratulations.

 

Tony Gee 

I know that there is a lot of automation but I was surprised to find Simon was operating with a very small crew (last Friday morning).

There were spectators along almost the full scenic length of the layout. So not always easy to examine all the detailed work even though I knew what to look for from photos on this thread. I think that many would not see the detailed work in the context of such a large layout.

I was lucky enough to find a space about halfway along from where the view of trains arriving from each end is really lifelike.  

2 hours ago, chrisf said:

 

 

To travel to London by rail yesterday turned out to be a wise decision.  I had thought of driving but what I saw of the M1 from the train made me glad of Thameslink - virtually static traffic at 10 am.  The gathering at the Ace Cafe produced some extremely fine examples of photography, as I had expected.  It is over a year since I last picked up and pointed my camera.  I will take it with me to Somerset over Christmas and see what I can find: morris dancers at Dunster, perhaps.  As the big day approaches I begin to have gnawing doubts that it will all go ahead, given that those who rule us have it in their power to bu99er it up completely.  We shall see.

 

Chris  

Almost impossible to park in London these days for non-residents. And the traffic, everywhere, is awful.

If you don't absolutely need to drive there, don't even consider any option other than the train.