H2O

Sounds like a win win situation of fully enjoying the models when you were young and getting a good price when you had finished with them :-) well done.

AFAIK wheel diameter has an influence on the loading too with larger wheels being kinder to the track. If the Co-Bo had unusually small diameter wheels this would be another negative for the class. Wikipedia has 3' 3.5" for the Co Bo and 3' 9" for class 25. The wear limits would reduce those a bit for in-service worse case.

The West Somerset Railway PLC (PLC) and The Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust Ltd. (S&DRT) can confirm that they have opened discussions regarding a new 10-year lease for the Trust to occupy the Washford site. This follows from Washford Yard not now being required by the PLC in its entirety in the foreseeable future although the PLC will still, by agreement with the Trust wish to use the Yard from time to time during the period of the new lease. Any future arrangement will exclude the station which will revert to PLC management. This will allow the Trust to continue with their restoration and maintenance work on their rolling stock at Washford whilst at the same time making arrangements for relocation of artefacts to other sites. The Trust had already completed a strategic review of how it is fulfilling its charitable objectives. It has concluded that moving its museum items and some of its rolling stock to other locations will enhance their access by the public and broaden the appeal of the Trust. West Somerset Railway PLC Board - Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust Board

My sympathy for those impacted by this. Hopefully people will follow the advice and this will reduce the current rise in cases. Another 1st world (and railway centric) problem is preserved lines who were just starting to get back on their feet. This will put at risk the specials in the run up to xmas. As these are a big part of their income another risk to jobs and projects in this sector.

From this photo that looks correct so it doesn't appear to have been a bidirectional passing loop at that time (early 60s?). farm4.staticflickr.com/3191/2811863063_fd34530e57_z.jpg Agree not easy to reinstate but from recent pictures it looks like there isn't anything impossible to move if they needed to put back the middle line.

Great photo's of Chelmsford and a few other places I know. I came to Essex in the early 90's and seen a few railway changes since then. My only visit to Chelmsford before the 90's was in about 1982 coming out of London on a 12 car EMU to cycle in Essex. A question I have about Chelmsford station is when the centre line between the platforms was taken out, I can't remember if it was there in '82. I'd guess it was bi-directional for fast trains to avoid slower ones stopped in the station. Would this be useful now or is Chelmsford important enough that all trains stop there?

There were the Aveling and Porter series of standard gauge locomotives based on traction engines. AFAIK these were a bit ligher than the one off Pecket design, but it depends if you measure size by height, length, weight etc.

Do you have a link for that story? I did a quick search but no joy. I did find a WSR official info release that Andy Forster has been temporarily (re)appointed CME, for the upcoming xmas season and reopening next year. WSR also seem to have been granted 880k from the government but not sure of the terms.

I realise this does not help the OP but for the amount DCC decoders cost (or rather how much is charged) they should have output protection built in. In other words even if you have a short circuit at the output they should not fry themselves. This protection is available in many voltage regulators (e.g. 7805) that cost less than £1. A DCC decoder is much more complex and sells in fewer numbers but cost 20-30x as much. Perhaps the cheap decoders could not have this (you pays yer money an takes yer choice) but to hear that the pricier ones blow is disapointing.

If this has been built to work under its own power (diesel or otherwise) it may need to be mainline certified if they are filming on network rail hence working AWS? It looks very convincing, the boiler looks just right, perhaps there are some real bits on it that are scrap or life expred. Any info on who built it as I'd guess someone in UK rail preservation (probably sworn to secrecy) has been involved. If anyone knows which direction it came from that may give a clue because if it is a working (even non-steam) replica there can't be many places that could build something like that, probably for a fairly pretty price!

In principle, rather than track plan, Bath Green Park. Lots of local services to Bristol and branch services down the old S&D. There were only 2 platform faces but 4 tracks between them. I understand turn around times were tight and some trains had locos attached at the rear for reversal, although these may have been the longer distance though services between the midlands and Bournemouth. Turn around times were perhaps not as tight as the 3-4 mins mentioned here though. After about 1962 reduced longer distance trains, but probably also a less intense timetable. A possible Minories (ish) model using rule 1 if local services had remained into the station after '66?!

I like the washing line analogy for a ring connection. The 2 basic ways of connecting multiple circuits to a single power supply are ring and star. Star is where each circuit, or group, is separately fed from the supply. Each has their advantages and disadvantages, e.g. with the start configuration you can have different fuses so they are tailored for each group of circuits. I don't think there is a clear winner. Your plan for a ring system looks fine.

Quite! I wish the English* parliament would take heed of what has happened north of the border. * There is, of course, no such parliament, I mean the parliament with jurisdiction on such issues in England.

Bristol Temple Meads was a jointly run station by GWR and MR (later LMS). Not just the old station as from about 1880 to 1948 the running costs were split 5/8 GWR to 3/8 LMS. This might of determined platform number sequences, perhaps at other places where the GWR shared stations this was also true?

For the long drawn out process (and thus unlikely re-opening) look no further than the Portishead branch passenger re-opening. Previously being local and having travelled on the line in the GWR 150 event I use this scheme as a bit of a bell-weather for re-opening lines. The scheme has local backing with the council coughing up money and it has apparently a good return ratio. Much money spent over the years but little to show for it. Problems with each re-opening scheme are unique but the decades this re-opening has been rumbling on for shows how even a good scheme can be mired to such an extent that it effectively has little chance of happening. One issue for all schemes is that each stage is done, one after the other, and it takes so long to move the project forward the reports on environmental effect, traffic impact, finances etc. become out of date when the next stage is started so they have to be done again - soaking up millions in the process. If the government are serious about re-opening lines perhaps new legislation is required to streamline (not circumnavigate) the various stages of (re)building rail lines. For some Portishead info, and hence what can (and will) go wrong, there are many references on RMweb including:

Evening Star (and a couple of other 9Fs) went to the S&D and did many turns as a passenger locomotive, so lined green turned out to be appropriate in the end. The 9Fs were almost too good for speed and haulage capacity by all accounts on this route :-). As it didn't need assistance (double heading) it saved cost too - but that may have not been welcome 'upstairs' on a condemned route... I wonder if it's livery (as well as not being of GWR design) was a reason this celebrity loco was posted out to Bath MPD?

Binliner depot near Lawrence Hill station in Bristol: http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/Bristol_City_Council_Refuse_Transfer_Station Photo on above link is from 1995 so sits in your time frame. Earlier there was a cement and molasses traffic in the same area but I think that had stopped by the late 80's.

There are a number of ways you could configure 4 LEDs with advantages and disadvantages for each. The most (electrically) efficient way is to have all 4 in series and one resistor. To calculate the resistor in this case think of the 4 LEDs as one LED with 4x the forward voltage but the normal forward current (4 x 2.1V and say 20mA in the above example). For 12V this would be (12 - 8.4) / 0.02 = 3.6 / 0.02 = 180 Ohms (but I'd use 220 or more to be on the safe side). You could have all 4 in parrallel and 1 resistor. For this resistor calculation think of the LEDs as having the normal forward voltage but 4x the forward current (so 2.1V and 80mA). For 12V: R = (12 - 2.1) / 0.08 = 9.9 / 0.08 = 124 Ohms, again probably 150 Ohms or more to be safe. Big disadvantage is if one LEDs fails the others will take more current and also fail. You could have one resistor per LED, this is less efficient and needs more resistors but has the advantage of being able to adjust the brightness of each LED. Here the resistor value would be (12 - 2.1) / 0.02 = 9.9 / 0.02 = 495 Ohms, so use 560 Ohms or higher. For all LED calculations use the typical values rather than maximum to make sure components last much longer.

Was this posted in the wrong topic? The Portishead branch has nothing to do with the S&D. (Edit: I think Portland got misread as Portishead). The writer may wish to know that the Ashton Court Estate was purchased by Bristol City Council in 1959 so unsure of the background for the 'power and privilege in everyone’s way in the 21st century' comment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashton_Court

I've been a committee member of both types of organisation, albeit a few years ago. I agree with Happy Hippo about company limited by guarantee. Generally if you are doing anything a company does (taking financial risks) then that is a better option. The down side is the overheads as far as approved accounts, companies house and probably having a larger turnover that will involve being VAT registered. This all takes time and money to sort. For a non-company model the risk is not limited. The last organisation I was a committee member of had a chairperson who was wise enough to dispose of as many fixed assets as possible and to limit risks in anything that was organised. It seems the GOG is run as a privately owned company but gives out the image of an open members society, the 2 are not the same.

None at all as far as I'm aware. The 7Fs were sometimes seen north of Bath on the MR lines - I'm not sure if they got to Barrow Rd. I think the GW and S&D yards at Radstock connected via some sidings, perhaps via the very low bridge. Certainly no through connection at Radstock, perhaps until the very final days before closure(?). The only rail connections to anything else were at both ends and, in a inconvenient way, at Templecombe (with LSWR / SR).

Hi Arun, If the statements could be published in full (subject to being a reasonable length for all) that should help in making any election fair, which I presume is in everyone's interest. I assume the GOG website would have room for that even at this late stage? As I have no access perhaps the statements are already there and it is just the magazine that is being referred to? Sadly if members are unhappy with how the election goes they may have to resort to voting with their feet. :-(

I'm not a member but wondering (if true) this could potentially invalidate a vote? Surely to make the election free and fair all candidates statements should be officially be published in full or none should be published? Sadly, unless someone wishes take legal action, this could be swept under the carpet.

As well as limiting current LEDs should be protected from reverse voltages above about 5V. If driven by a transformer over about 3V RMS a simple half wave rectifier and capacitor will stop the LEDs seeing a potentially damaging reverse voltage. If you are driving multiple LEDs from one transformer you can drive some on one half of the waveform and the others on the other half. If you want a dimmer light use a higher resistor in series. Another way is to have the LEDs in series. LEDs take about 1.7V for red to 3V for white at their rated current. If your not sure what resistors to use get a selection, start with the highest an reduce until you get the required brightness, a digital multimeter will help you in this. If LEDs have too much current or reverse voltage they may not fail immediately but would do so over a week or so rather than last for years.

Bachmann SDJR jinty for £62 at: http://herefordmodels.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=340_350_355_356&products_id=6995&zenid=f41434907ba93c982293e02617b43ac9 only one in stock.