Joseph_Pestell

Good weather is bringing out the interesting cars.

Our neighbour has been out and about in his vintage cars over the weekend but my favourite is the pristine 1969 Alfa Guilia saloon that I passed near Cranborne this morning. White with red and green racing stripes. Nearly 50 years old and running beautifully unlike the 17 registration Renault Megane waiting for the AA man.

This does not sound good at all. But I have to agree with them that Hornby can't carry on as it has.

There has been a real failure (and not just in the last five years) to make the most of the iconic brands that they own, both here and overseas.

As for the way in which they have treated their UK retailers in the last few years, don't get me started! I am surprised that there are any retailers still willing to do business with them.

The problem with this suggestion is the rail over road bridge immediately to the east of the station (which the platforms may have continued over in the past based on photos) was rebuilt after the line was singled as a single track structure. Thus for the second platform to be returned to work, total bridge reconstruction is needed. Moving the signals and getting rid of the extended platform (which I believe is of a modular construction and can be removed relatively easily is peanuts by comparison although obviously they will add to the 'total cost' of such a project).

 

In short there is no business case / very poor BCR for such works, a situation that won't change unless said bridge requires renewal and the powers that be chose to make the replacement double track again.

I had never noticed that this bridge is now single track. If they do ever replace it, hopefully they will do the job properly and give decent road clearance height as well.

We had two of those orange tips yesterday in the orchard. Had never seen one before. Very noticeable with that blue body.

Working 1:160 scale trolleybuses?

http://letraindalain.free.fr/galerieTGV.php?numserie=TGV%20Divers

Much as I like the Citroen H for its great versatility, this is the Citroen van that I would really like to own.

Before privatisation you could undertake fairly significant journeys entirely within Devon on the appropriately named "Network SouthEast".

And long before that, the London & North Eastern Railway would happily convey you to that well known North Eastern destination of Wales.

Endless examples come to mind. London & North Western to Swansea/Llanelli.

I rather like that. If something similar was available for the Fiat Scudo (or its Peugeot or Citroen siblings) I'd be seriously tempted as a publicity vehicle for the little pottery that MrsB and I run.

I don't think that there was anything of that sort of size in the Citroen range back then. It went straight from the 2CV van to the H, nothing in-between, unlike Renault who had the Estafette.

I think it might be possible to recreate a 2CV van replica from a Berlingo although it would need a lot of bits moving around.

D'you think there might be a market for replicas of this in future?

In a word, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Given that the rail franchising system works around Train Operating Companies, South West Trains is a much more accurate name than London & South Western Railway.

And will they use a separate name for the IoW?

Agree that this is so far an early Spring. Vines are probably about two weeks ahead of where they are usually and some of the early variety cider apple trees starting to blossom.

Not seen many butterflies yet (don't know the name but they are all lemon yellow) but an unusually high number of bumble bees.

To judge from the amount of noise in the early morning, more birds than usual too.

It's impossible to know for sure, but I'm reasonably confident someone at Peco takes a peek at this thread now and again.

And indeed others on RMWeb about the same subject.

I also know that some contributors here have been in contact with Peco about various aspects of this product and are privy to some of Peco's thinking. It would seem that we can take that illustration as being the basis for their tooling.

I think Foggieloan would have been a great name for a Scottish layout.

Like the buildings and the GNoS loco and coaches.

6 out of 6 now, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39414201

 

Pity WHU can't copy that, and Arsenal away tonight.

 

Rob

The six includes the CL match. Five in the premiership.

But the article you linked to gave me the info I was looking for which is ONE. Shakespeare is the only manager to have won his first five premiership matches, the previous record having been four.

Five wins out of five in the Premiership is pretty remarkable. How many other managers have done that in their first five games in charge?

And a CL qualification as well.

A 1-1 draw at Old Trafford would usually be seen as a good result. But yet again, we let a win slip in the last minute. Happens too often.

Are those points, like me, unhinged?

I couldn't possibly comment!

Photo does indeed show proper blades. If we can just persuade them at Beer to add that extra sleeper under the crossing, it will be a pretty decent product which will be well supported (although I would still much prefer prototype geometry)

Having spent many childhood holidays in the CdN plus a whole school term, I shall have to look out your Amazon book.

How many base model Mk. I Cortinas are left? Very few if any I expect.

There is one quite local to us. See it out fairly often.

Thanks Northroader, was googling to see if any of London looks like Birmingham, but strangely to no avail which I think I knew anyway! Have even considered cladding the low wall at the back with brick and doing something similar with the big bridge. What is the general consensus?? Or am I panicking??!!

I think that it would be a pity to waste the super work that you have done with those stone walls. Better to relocate the prototype.

Self-interest, of course, but I think that there is definitely a case for doubling westwards from Wilton.

In theory, single track plus loops is adequate for the timetable but it can soon go to pot. And even when it is running to timetable, you can get stuck waiting at Tisbury on the loop for quite some time.

With the expansion of Gillingham, that is no longer going to be such a good railhead for many due to road traffic issues. Doubling would open up the possibility of reopening Semley (for Shaftesbury) and Dinton. When they were closed in the 60s, very few people commuted daily to London as they do now. So I think a case could be made financially.

MP - as in your elected representative and member of parlement - the people who make the laws and turn any EU directives into legislation in the Westminster parlement.

 

If you are spending any time resident in the U.K. then there is nothing to prevent you getting in contact and stating your concerns To a person that has some power to influence proceedings.

Unless he lives in Maidenhead - not a lot.

This looks like a very clever minimum space project with some great modelmaking.

I only have one small gripe. I don't think it can be either Birmingham or London with those stone walls and bridge, lovely as they are. I think we must be somewhere in Yorkshire.

Hmm, haven't the Chinese been trying to get into the British rolling stock market anyway? Perfect chance seeing as many think that MTR are putting much of the money into this franchise

It seems from the press releases that it is 70% First and 30% MTR. But it could be the other way round.

Either way, nobody puts that much real money into franchises and the rolling stock is usually leased from a RosCo (bank subsidiary).

Given that it is only a 7-year franchise, it's not going to be easy to find someone to finance this all-new fleet unless the long-term hire is guaranteed by the Govt (i.e. you and me). I think it might be politically "courageous" for the Govt to give such a guarantee to the Chinese given the known antipathy of Mrs May and her advisors.

The first two 707's have pantographs for testing purposes (presumably to do with signing off various bits of approval paperwork) but are then scheduled to have them removed when the OHLE testing is done.

 

Retrofitting pantographs onto the 707's should be a very easy job so they will find a home somewhere.

 

It is where all the 455's and 456's are going to go I am most interested in.

456s, with their loos, should be ideal for that new Portsmouth - Weymouth service.

I have not seen any mention of upgrading the electricity supply west of Poole so shorter trains will presumably be necessary.

FYI - FIRST STORY IN BULLETIN - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08k5gkf/south-today-lunchtime-news-30032017 (Expires tonight 10:45pm)

 

Don't know if the item has been mentioned/discussed on this thread yet?

Interesting. But as usual, the journalist seems to have got quite a lot wrong there. All modern trains can be fairly easily modified for 25kV and there are plenty of other places where it would make sense to use these.

It would seem to make sense, on the basis of what he was saying, to buy more 707s and not bother with the 455 upgrade.