locoholic

Looks like Dapol will be getting the money that I used to spend on Bachmann products! This announcement is most welcome, especially the 517 class.

Best Thornbury exhibition for quite some time - many excellent layouts. I suspect the organisers would welcome any rail enthusiasts who drive a Land Rover, however, as the field used for car parking is rapidly turning into a swamp.

Yes - seems to have improved.

Not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but if you are fitting loads to the Rapido RCH wagons, be careful to make the loads smaller than the internal dimensions - if it's too snug, the load will split the wagon body open - they are not a single piece moulding, and the sides and ends aren't joined very strongly.

Just what my layout was missing - some diagonal end bracing.

That is true, of course. I'm simply aware that in the past I've spent a lot on Bachmann products, but now I don't. I am to all intents and purposes a former customer.

I can't think of a single Bachmann product that I'm planning to buy, except perhaps a handful of Palvans, if they're not ludicrously expensive. I don't suppose I'm unique, and would therefore have doubts about Kader's return to profitability.

Am I correct in thinking that for a Palvan to be evenly loaded, it required access from both sides? There must have been plenty of locations where this wasn't possible.

Why do I find it worrying that wagons notorious for derailing were used to carry munitions???

Work on the new facility at Onllwyn has started. There's a report in the Daily Mirror, but I can't paste the link on here for some reason.

I'll be blowed if I'll be running any Palvans on my layout - I have enough derailments already! Seriously; given the promised variations and the implications for tooling costs, I'll to interested to see how much Bachmann try to charge for these vans. The Vanwides were bad enough.

Has there been any date given for the streamlined B17s to appear?

I saw a couple of Heljan Class 47s in a cabinet at Hereford Models today - to me, the front looks a bit weird. I'll stick with my (old) Bachmann ones.

https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/about-us/projects/midlands-engine-rail/midlands-rail-hub/ Looks like the north and south curves into Birmingham Moor Street from the Camp Hill line might actually be built...

Daventry to Cardiff via Crewe is very far from being an exception - there are some extremely eccentric routings of freight trains these days.

Picked my BR Departmental No. 84 up from Derails today - very impressed by the smooth, slow running, including over points. My eyesight can't see the backwards crest, so that's not an issue for me!

Their "expertise" is what has led to the monumental cost increases and general impression that the HS2 project is totally out of control and shockingly poor value for money!

The freight from Daventry to Cardiff goes via Crewe at the moment. Skipton would be no more ridiculous.

GWR 517 and Metro tanks, to pull all the lovely GWR coaches that are/will soon be available.

Requirements of different stock? What about the requirements of the rail network, and the passengers? Seems that the tail is well and truly wagging the dog these days!

Is this a Bachmann or Accurascale model, please?

All that's needed are trains that have compatible couplings - something else that today's rail network can't deliver.

Isn't that effectively what Network Rail did at Nuneham Viaduct for years, until the weight of it all got too much?

Your comment merely highlights the fact that the fragmented structure of the rail industry has resulted in a complete lack of resilience. Alternative arrangements are rarely made, even when there are planned engineering works. As I said earlier, rail is now regarded as expensive and unreliable - the transport choice of last resort.

No, the worst case scenario didn't happen. This is a small slope failure in an area of flat terrain - talk of Glen Ogle etc is ludicrous. By your logic the whole rail network should be closed down whilst every cutting and embankment is inspected not for actual slippage, but for the potential for slippage. Rail formations have had 150 years of weathering, so the potential for slope failure is significant. Just as bad as the over-reaction to this minor event is the failure to divert trains via Nuneaton, as would have happened thirty years ago. Now such measures, designed to minimise disruption to passengers, are judged too difficult and expensive, and the passengers can just get lost. Not a great incentive for people to use rail.