Joseph_Pestell

Given how far it is from the station to the town centre, a metro would have been a very good idea.

Well they were out on Sunday! I doubt if they could cope with the rain and winds that we have had since. While out mowing on Sunday morning, I did see some very small beige coloured butterflies that I don't recall seeing before.

I don't see why goods should be a problem. Firstly, van trains could be handled in passenger platforms during the night and off-peak. But apart from that, should not be difficult to arrange things so that goods train arrives in a platform road; pilot loco shunts train into headshunt (parallel with hidden sidings or even part of fiddleyard/traverser) and then back into goods warehouse, coal drops, or whatever.

I would recommend you try and find a copy of Alan Jackson's book on London Termini. Originally published in the 1960s but reprinted since. On the Monopoly board, all four stations are LNER, presumably some sort of publicity arrangement. As already mentioned, although the LT&S used Fenchurch St it was a GER/LNER station by virtue of the GER taking over the London and Blackwall Rly. London is not particularly unusual among big cities in having a lot of termini, Paris and Vienna being good examples although two of the Vienna stations have been merged in recent years.

To scale, I suspect it's a bit wider than that. But 16cm will probably look OK on a layout. Maybe worth knocking a bit off the width of the building to keep it in proportion.

Well spotted. Rare but not so much of a "looker" as the Manta GTE.

Those figurines are stunningly well detailed. Very reasonable for the price especially when you consider that we used to call this company All Bl**dy Expensive.

I don't think that these have even been done in 1:160 N or 1:87 HO. Would surely be a good seller on the mainland. Looks as though it may be a bit difficult to get them round setrack curves.

Origin of this box? It looks like some of the boxes in Wales. Not sure that I like the stone courses but could be interested in a brick one.

If the building is 9cm wide, an island platform would probably need to be more than 15cm wide. There has to be a minimum of 6ft between the platform edge and any fixed structure (buildings, railings, lampposts, etc). 6ft x 4mm = 24mm x 2 = 48mm. Of course, 9cm + 4.8mm is only 13.8mm but that minimum measurement rarely applies. You would normally expect at least 10ft which would give a platform 17cm wide.

Have I missed it? There does not seem to be a link anywhere in this thread to Simon's Shapeway shop.

Just found this thread from a link on thread about 7mm Y25 bogies. Sensational stuff!

Is that still www.kursbuch.de? Edit: Yes, it is. And that is still showing "something odd" going on. The journey times are 3 hours plus. Even the traditional route was only 90 mins and I think it is about 40 mins on TGV. The options are better than shown on the SNCF site (one suggestion involves departing from Montparnasse!!!) but still something not right. Will have to suggest to Abi that they go the day before if possible. Snag is that she wanted a lot of friends to be able to get there and a Friday will make that difficult.

Any attempt to increase speeds on the Brighton main line would cause capacity issues due to the double track bottleneck south of Three Bridges and the stations on that stretch that stopping trains have to serve. But that is just as true for any solution that uses a double track route via Lewes. Quadrupling the line would be very difficult in places, particularly Balcombe Viaduct, so the best solution would probably be a new dedicated high speed line following the route of the M23 and A23.

Mail order has always been important to them. Francis also does a lot of exhibitions which is why he is closed at weekends. US HO is his personal interest. There are other zeroistes in the region but no clubs that I know of with an O gauge section.

It looks to me like engineering works blockade with coaches from various points around Paris to Reims TGV station. But as mentioned, the various SNCF websites are fairly poor. I did wonder if there might be a delay in opening reservations but surely one would open reservations for a busy weekend before others.

Oh dear! The windows still seem to be wrong.

A new "micropub" is about to open in Bournemouth at 10 Queens Rd, Westbourne - so just a few yards from the site of West Station. To be called All Hail Ale. Met the owner this morning and it sounds like it's going to be a good place with an interesting range of beers. He plans to have a "bottle shop" as well downstairs.

I think Pete Harvey has some on his Shapeways shop. If it's not Pete, search around a bit on Shapeways. I know they are there somewhere.

Looks as though it may hold the Guinness World Record for biggest bike shed.

It's a bit easier these days with new manufacturers able to show 3D CAD renders and pre-production models. We get a much clearer idea of what the final product will look like. I am more concerned with the financial stability of any new entrant.

For a 3ft gauge line, I think that there is a good case for 1:100 on 9mm. For metre gauge, I would prefer 1:120 although I take Simon's point about fitting steam loco mechanisms into small bodywork.

Trains available on Friday 11 but not on Monday 14 or Tuesday 15 (a public holiday). So it looks like a blockade.

I have just been contacted by a friend in Aus who is trying to arrange a journey from Paris to Reims on 12 August. She has been onto SNCF website, as I have now, and there don't seem to be any trains running from Gare de l'Est - whether by LGV or conventional route. Various other odd routes (e.g. via Dijon) are proposed. Have we missed something e.g. bookings by sensible routes not being open until 3 months before? Or is there an unparalleled total blockade of Gare de l'Est for some reason?

I was actually thinking of something based on the Cromford & High Peak. This double benefit had not occurred to me.