OnTheBranchline

Rob Smedley: “There is absolutely no reason why we can’t have a female Formula 1 world champion”

Congrats to the bloke who snatched up a Dapol GWR Railcar with added passengers DCC Fitted pre-owned for 86 quid - you were faster than I was. 

On 19/02/2019 at 14:12, Zomboid said:

Yeah, that was the idea. Shouldn't be a problem for a while as you're at the younger end - though maybe you need to consider if anyone else is going to come round for operation sessions.

 

Here's a superb MS Paint sketch of what I was getting at (freehand curves with a trackpad are rubbish - who knew?). The whole thing needn't be more than 8 feet deep. You'd need access into the middle of the dogbones as well for retrieving the inevitable derailments.

What about four feet deep?

3 minutes ago, Quarryscapes said:

The old ones from the 90s look a bit suspect, but the modern ones since 2000 all look OK to me at a quick glance. Sams trains does a comparison...usual trigger warnings apply!

 

 

Nice subtle plug, Sam 🤣

It's a weird trend that it'll say both DCC Ready and DCC Fitted in the description - but I've been assured that it's DCC Fitted. 

I saw on a Facebook group that Hornby had gotten the body/firebox shape wrong for the 28xx/2884 class in order to make the motor fit. I searched on here and I didn't see any discussion of it. Is this true or is this someone's rambling that I should ignore?

On 29/10/2023 at 11:13, gwrrob said:

 

Still nothing to see on their stand at the Gaydon show today although they did say it would have a highly detailed underframe and their release will be Summer '24.

Summer '24 yes but which century? 

I'll get me coat 

5 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Margam was a fascinating train crew depot as it was not only an amlagam of various steam sheds but the links remained very much in the former steam shed groups although the work was changing.  So you would here one Margam man saying of another 'oh, he's Duffryn Yard' man'.    

 

At Radyr a similar there was what might be described as something of a bias against Aberdare men - one reason for it was competition for Mileage payments on ballast trains but it actually went much deeper and way further back than that.  Radyr was formed basically of men who had come from wehat was 50 years earlier TVR sheds while Aberdare was  long established as an important GWR shed going way back before the Grouping.  This sort of competition had apparently existed for years between Aberdare and the ex TVR depots despite the fact that we had no Drivers older than post-war GWR employees.

 

Another feature was some of the amusement had at the expense of other depots.   Old Oak Common men, notwithstanding that they had come from all over the place,  were always 'Cockneys' to men at the down country depots.  And being regarded also as 'townies' so unwise in the ways of the country they could also be ready targets for a bit of fun.  Hence one day a conversation developed in the cabin at Taunton where an Old Oak Driver started asking how good the soil was in the area for growing vegetables.  Taking this as an ideal opportunity a couple of Taunton men very seriously explained that the soil in the are was very rich and produced superb veg and would the London man like an example.  The Old Oak man jumped at the chance and was told that turnips were doing really well. and was asked if he would like one next time he was there - the offer was duly accepted.   Clearly the Old Oak Driver was not in the Gardening Club on Acton Estate because when he was next there a couple of days later he was presented with a massive turnip for which he offered profuse thanks and carried off in triumph.

 

A couple of weeks later the Old Oak man was back at Taunton on the same turn and expressed considerable disappointment about the turnip.  Apparently it had been very tough to try to cut and even worse it simply wouldn't soften in lots of boiling water so it had, unfortunately, had to go in the bin uneaten.  The Tanton men in the cabin managed to keep straight faces and not let out teh secret that the supposed 'turnip' was actually a mangel lifted from the field of a farm near the town - so it really was much bigger than even a field grown turnip.  Mangels were grown for winter cattle feed so thatt Driver had been well and truly caught out.  The story, along with others, was still being told at Taunton a couple of years later and knowing some Old Oak Drivers I can believe it absolutely - especially as it was also told at the London end about country bumpkin sheds..

Not exactly a nice thing to do when someone shows genuine interest in something?

On 06/11/2023 at 05:21, Sjcm said:

The fact that they seem to send out DCC fitted locos not realising it (and costing them profit) shows they're either snowed under by the  sheer amount of stuff arriving or their inspection process is a case of plonk it on a test track, mark as running/non-running, and then a detailed inspection of the box😂

Did you want to tell them or shall I? 

🤣

In Great Western Railway Journal No 46. Spring 2003, former fireman Bob Crump talks about being at Reading from 1948-1959 writes about an amusing incident:

"Occasionally, when we had a rough engine, we'd stop at Moreton-in-Marsh for water and I would try to make a can of tea while the tank was being filled, but will fail to do so because the kettle didn't boil in time! One night I tried shouting at the bobby in Honeybourne box to ask the bobby at Moreton to have the kettle on for us. We thought no more about it until, when dropping down into Moreton station, we came to a sudden stop without applying the brake. I was pulling coal forward when his happened and ended up knee deep in lumps. What had happened was that the signalman at Honeybourne misunderstood what I had called out and had attached a banker to our train without our realizing. It was the banker that stopped us. Its crew didn't want to go any further and we never got the can of tea!"

Did this ever happen in practice or was this story written possibly for the benefit of the reader?

In Great Western Railway Journal No. 45 Winter 2003, R.S. Potts writes about a working on the Snow Hill to Aberystwyth where the working pulled into Moat Lane and the stationmaster shouted to 'take the staff out of the magazine' and the Tyseley crew didn't know what he meant. The stationmaster then asked "haven't you done this before?" and from the silence knew what the answer was. R.S. Potts then wrote that the stationmaster was probably thinking (in Welsh, of course) how dense the Tyseley men were.

Then later in the article on the return working, the driver then remarks that they are back "now we're on a proper railway" joining the Hereford line at Sutton Bridge Junction.

I guess it would be no different than people at one company in a similar field thinking negatively of another company.

Were there any two sheds that were notable for their bad relations?

Edit: I've also read about sheds thinking of 'devious' ways to keep a "good 'un" on the shed and not returned to its actual shed.

I've noticed in a bunch of YouTube videos that double heading can be a bit difficult in model form.

- In one video: two 45xx's haul a load of coaches - it's noticeable that the 2nd 45xx is going at a faster rate.

- In another video: a 42xx and bigger engine (4-6-0 but not sure which one) are running together and the 42xx is dillydallying in front, probably due to the lower gearing, and the 4-6-0 is going like it's trying to break the speed record.

It's unclear if these layouts are DC or DCC - I would think that DCC makes double heading a bit easier. Having two of the same engine class would probably be best because then the relative performance is the same.

On 31/10/2023 at 19:54, melmerby said:

To my eyes the Hornby one has the edge.

Performance? if the first Dapol ones were like their Mogul, then the Hornby wins hands down.

i find whatever styling or QC issues Hornby has, they make up for it for being stellar runners.

F1 in talks to overhaul sprint format for 2024

why not just have fan voting - the driver whose fans vote for their driver the most, gets special boost - that’ll get them watching! 🤪

6 hours ago, The Lurker said:

That's probably because Mercedes see George as their future #1 driver and he is not put in the position of his predecessor; "Valtteri, this is James...."  So far they have not particularly asked either Lewis or George to move over for their teammate regularly. Although had Lewis been chasing down the Driver's Championship, maybe they would....

George is a good-very good driver but he’s not great (yet). He’s definitely been shaded by Hamilton this year.

4 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Rain stops Q3, so the first run was the only one to be competitive. Pity.

It’s not like they would have gone faster with the rain anyway since the first runs in Q3 were in the dry.

43 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

I don't expect for a second that should Max be leading Checo he will let him pass though. Still, I can't see George doing that for Hamilton either. As we have said, they are racers.

Funny thing, everyone jumps on Max but George is just as bad - in his case wanting for the team to help him get past Hamilton. 

25 minutes ago, County of Yorkshire said:

Kings never carried the GWR wartime black livery. Kings, Castles and Stars got unlined GWR green during WW2, all

other classes were turned out in unliked black however. 
 

On this topic, I’m very much in the camp of “it depends where you’re modelling”. I have a stack of Kings, Castles, Halls and Granges because ultimately I want to model a mainline or secondary main line location in the late 1940s. For the same reason I don’t have many 56xx’s for example, which were very geographically restricted. 
 

Loco fleet composition is as intrinsic to period accuracy as are buildings, the street scene and rolling stock! 

 

CoY

I know that they never actually wore black - just thought it would have been an interesting ‘what if’ scenario.

Other than placing at a height that they can't easily reach and maybe having a border around it.

I'm tempted to sacrifice operational creativity in order to have a smaller roundy-roundy layout in a lockable room so that they (3 and 1 year old) can't go to it. 

Or am I overthinking it?

45 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I'm quite happy never to encounter such a train at an exhibition.

Clearly you've never smelt the other pundits at the exhibition...

On 06/10/2023 at 08:40, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi ya,

 

Not really too sure about your question.

With only 2 painted the wrong colours it is hard with Brush type 2's in my modelling period not to have more than one in the same livery.

 

Even harder with English Electric type 4s

 

And type 3s

Again Brush type 4s are a problem, thankfully Lion and Falcon throw in a bit of variety. 

 

Some lazy bloke in the paint shop still hasn't got round to painting the black one.

Black Class 08: "it's been 34 days and they seem to have adopted me into their clan"... 😆

2 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

l think not. However something contradictory may quite easily rear up out of the woodwork 

My Wellington post war GW Castle has BR steam pipes… 😔

Is there anything majorly wrong time period or unprototypical about the Caldicot Castle release with the small tender?