RichardT

Now, if they’d used these, I could have understood the chuntering: (From the Daily Mash) RichardT

He did several IIRC (from reading 1950’s back issues - I’m not that old): he was quite a talented cartoonist. “The Real Enthusiast…” was a series of them in 1953: RichardT

Absolutely. While we're at it let's abolish all the colours of all the other lines - just print them all in black which will save money - and tell that idiot Harry Beck to get lost with his daft diagrammatic tube map. People should just automatically know where to go in the largest city in the UK because it's just common sense. And I'm absolutely confident that your reaction would have been exactly the same had the lines been named "Middleton", "Camilla", "Boris", "Farage", "Truss" and "Thatcher" - because your objection to this development has absolutely nothing to do with the names. RichardT

Elizabeth, Jubilee and Victoria aren't "neutral", if by that you mean politically neutral. RichardT

Yes, this I agree with. I also wasn’t sure why my newspaper thought that changes to the local transport map in a southern city was somehow “national” news. RichardT

They are about as politically-inspired as “Elizabeth” and “Jubilee” i.e. they don’t relate to geography but instead reflect aspects of history and culture. In this case, four of the six names allude to history and culture relating more to women and non-white people. Richard

Nuanced and heartfelt tribute from Mark Lawson in the Grauniad: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/feb/13/so-much-more-than-a-dj-steve-wright-introduced-britain-to-a-new-style-of-talk-radio RichardT

Oh b*gger. Time’s winged chariot seems to be getting ever closer. Funnily enough I was just looking at “Burdale” in an old RM. I remember it being close to us in the De Grey Rooms - can’t remember if we were operating “Ashburton” with all-new Cookie-sound (like DCC, but on a tape recorder and with bad impersonations of West Country accents) or “Totnes”? I also remember the Butcombe lot opposite. Roger initially struck me as a bit intimidating (height plus confidence) but then he started chatting and you realised he was a sound chap. Another one gone. Richard

I suspect the remark wasn’t meant to be taken entirely seriously… Richard

Yes, I had a bit of a brain fade there! All I had to do was some simple arithmetic… RichardT

Well…Hattons did intend to produce a N gauge LMS Beyer-Garratt. They never really put any promotional push behind it, and it faded from view at EOI stage but I don’t think it was ever formally cancelled…. I had EOIs in for two because they regularly made it to York, and may occasionally have gone further north I believe. (Evidence awaited.) Just sayin’ Accurascale. <cough> RichardT

Some of them might, and others won’t. People keep saying what you’ve said and while it’s not untrue, it’s not true across the market. Otherwise no-one would be buying pre-1948 era models. I started trainspotting in 1974, just as I entered secondary school, and spent most of the next five years at the end of Platform 9S (as was) at York, and on shed-bashing visits. I’m interested in real railway history of all eras, including today. But I have no interest in modelling railways of the 1970s onwards with their increasingly multiple unit/fixed formation-dominated operations and consequent lack of play value. (Sorry! “Operational interest”.) As a side note, it’s my view that an awful lot of so-called 1980s and onwards layouts are actually steam-era ones operated with modern models. There always seem to be a preponderance of conveniently-surviving private sidings needing shunting, parcels depots, or “residual” wagonload traffic, and lots more loco-hauled passenger trains than were ever seen in reality. Not to mention tiny MPDs apparently allocated three of every class of BR diesel…. It’s like that famous David Jenkinson article “Is Your Mutton Dressed As Lamb?” but in reverse. 😉 EDIT (See later post) Also, to note that if you started trainspotting in the 1960s you’re well into your seventies now. Brainfade there! RichardT

By the loco profile book there was one month crossover, 10001 got yellow panels in October 1962 and 10000 was stored unserviceable in November. TBH I don’t think 90% of those buying the Twins are going to be bothered about strict prototypical timescales! I suspect a lot will appear on 1970s and 1980s layouts having been “preserved” - which 10000 definitely should have been, if the BTC historic relics panel had included some museum professionals, rather than a lot of Establishment buffers trying to recreate their boyhoods. 😅 RichardT

I won’t be buying anything announced today*, but bearing in mind that this is a quarterly announcement, if we are settling down to getting one (or two) new tool locos and one (or two) new tool items of rolling stock every three months then that feels positive for N, no? The Twins are an obvious gap filled and look lovely. I just hope that they don’t presage more models of more obscure one-offs and niche locos** for collectors rather than mainstream classes. And (continuing to hit my head against this brick wall) come on Bachmann and start shrinking more of your existing OO steam models to N! RichardT *Unless that “Easten Region” water crane turns out to be an NER one, which it definitely looks like. **To be clear, I don’t think the Twins are “niche”. But they are definitely “niche-adjacent”…

As an N/2mm steam prototype modeller I’m struggling to avoid the phrase “first world problems” when I look at this thread! 😅 Richard

A whole era summed up in two words there.

The Stockton and Darlington layout referred to above was in the September 1975 RM (for obvious reasons). It was built to P4 standards, and still exists as a static exhibit at Darlington Railway Museum (due to reopen after refurbishment later this year). So if anyone fancies reviving that layout and converting the Hornby model to P4… Richard

Anything can be made to work, after a fashion, if you throw enough money, time and people at it. And 10000 did “work”. But the defintion of “making it work” depends on your initial objectives. The LNER wasn’t an engineering research institute - it was a company looking for ways to generate more money from running trains by cutting costs in a way that showed a return on investment. 10000 was a worthwhile experiment that demonstrated that it wasn’t possible to achieve the objectives at reasonable cost in a British context. But the experiment provided useful data. As for sources, Yeadon is good for anally-retentive trainspotters and rivet-counters wanting to make sure they’ve got the right shedplate on their B1. I’d not rely on him for contextualised engineering history. For 10000 you’d be better-off borrowing William Brown’s “Hush-Hush -The Story of LNER 10000” Richard

I'll trade you that for downscaling the V1/V3 from OO to N! R

The kite is being flown not because anything has changed in Europe or on the Ukrainian front, but because there’s now a very real prospect of a Trump presidency in November. Whether you believe that he is simply an old-fashioned isolationist or whether you believe that he is compromised by Putin, if he gets back in then we and the rest of NATO can no longer rely on the USA as an ally. RichardT

TT-120 Raven Pacific. You heard it here first. R

It’s a useful distinction but when assessing which side of a line a CME sits I think I’d draw a distinction between CMEs authorising one-off R&D projects (10000 and “Fury” - and the latter wasn’t a Stanier project) and introducing untried innovations into regular frontline service which then needed expensive remediation (e.g. the Merchant Navies in their original form, perhaps the P2s?) RichardT

Very true! RT

You’ve beaten me to it, so the only thing I can add is that Gill’s serif WHS lettering is indirectly responsible for Gill Sans. Frank Pick required from Edward Johnston a letterform for UERL/LER signage that would be clearly distinguishable from the commercial lettering already common on Underground, of which that on WHS bookstalls was the most prominent, so that passengers would automatically recognise it as directional signage not an advertisement. The result was Johnston’s sans-serif Railway Alphabet, which was an immediate success. Johnston’s letterform (not a “font”) was trade-marked by the UERL for their exclusive use. Spotting a gap in the market Monotype commissioned Eric Gill to “design” as close a copy of Johnston Sans as he could get away with which they could sell to other users - the LNER being an early adopter. Gill admitted the copying in a letter to Johnston (his former teacher) and amazingly got away with it - Johnston was rather unworldly when it came to money matters, but I’m surprised that Pick and Ashfield didn’t “have a word” with Monotype. Then again, they soon after used Gill for some of the sculptures on 55 Broadway. Spotters note: the big giveaway between Johnston & Gill Sans is the capital letters R. Johnston’s is not very elegant: looks like P held up with a pit-prop. Gill’s has a more elegant curved prop. And getting back on-topic, I remember the WHS bookstall in front of the old signalbox at York (before they moved the shop into the bottom of the signalbox) being brown varnished wood. Can’t remember the lettering colour but I’ve always assumed white/cream or gold. But I was only eleven and that’s now a while ago. RichardT

I presume that Hive saw that Crecy had updated their expected date to Autumn 2024 and decided to update their page to the first month of autumn. It's astonishing that an author can get themselves into such a tangle, especially after publishing the first volume OK. Obviously we don't know the ins and outs but I'm betting it's paralysis by analysis. Especially if it's now only being worked on by a lone author who is perhaps over-sensitive to criticism. (I have written a book as a lone author: I know the issues and the tendency to self-sabotage if you don't take disinterested advice.) Richard