woodenhead

A while ago, Hornby did ask for comments about what people might like to hear from the Van.

I did suggest 'Let me out', is that one of the 29 sounds?

if you start with a shed then you don't get to your long term aim of flowing trains.

Why not start with a large loop plus your passing loops and that has some point work in for later extensions like the yard and shed plus a partial fiddleyard, again with thoughts given to later expansion.

This way you can run the trains and use that as your basis and then add the extra elements as you build your stock.

I know from other posts you felt you weren't getting anywhere with completing layouts, but this model is brilliant - from the first image I just thought Birmingham - the type of steel yards you would see from the WCML between Wolverhampton and New Street looking down from the embankments.

It looks interesting to operate, you can mix eras, you've the option with the top loop of other non-steel freight running round, the only diesel locos you wouldn't see on this would be a Deltic or a 50 - anything else is pretty much game on.

All this box opening is making me think I am in a train version of Deal or No Deal, would that be DCC or No DCC

New Drill and Balls apart, I'm having fun so far since coffee at 11.

 

3 Point Motors coded and directions set, and tested.

 

No 1 installed and tested, even the Frog polarity was RIGHT FIRST TIME.

 

Wiring and plugs installed in the Sector Plate.

 

Holes drilled in Baseboard for Controller wires etc.

Those nice pristine baseboards are going to end up looking like Swiss cheese.

No it won't, just the two holes, remember Andy does DCC

I only had the TWO, now I have THREE??????   Must be your Adrian.

Balls of steel apparently

I know, I was watching and the tamper was busy whilst trains were passing on the other line.

I saw an even better video on Facebook from India - 6 track mainline - put an underpass down in a few hours - they began by reducing the lines down from the outside in, at one point there was still one line running trains and all the other lines split by a ditch.

This time at Deshler it does seem to be a better crossing than last time, I know it's good to improve engineering but I do like it when the trains clatter over it, they just glide now like it's simple continuous rail.

Disappointed, no more bouncy bouncy clickety clack.

But I am sure the engineers are happier.

Give it a couple of weeks for the usual deterioration to begin, they have to constantly replace this crossing

This sounds like another experiment along the lines of the DVT experiment - something that gets a train away from a station using less fuel, less pollution and less noise

I was doing a body swap with a friend

A friend with a tummy bug, if I was doing a body swap I'd have asked for a Channing Tatum body not someone with dodgy eating habits. 

My usual morning look is on pre-owned, some observations:

The added date section isn't as clear as it used to be, some of it you cannot read

Don't show us sold out items in Pre-owned - it's either in stock and showing or not there, the last thing you want to view is a load of items you cannot buy.  I know you have an archive of sold out items and it is useful but not when browsing for possible purchases.

I used to store my usual view of OO in past 7 days - does the last search stick as a cookie or do we have to select the search parameters now every time?  Same will apply here on New Stock that I look at every afternoon.

I know shops (and Ebay) like to show eras/liveries in their search selections, are you absolutely sure you've got everything in the right place - the number of times I've applied such filters and not got the expected outcome - this isn't a gripe limited to Hattons but as your changing the site and making such searches very prominent i thought I'd bring it up.

Edit - did the products section, too many options on condition - New, Pre-owned I think is enough and you can't read all the text

Are you planning sound?

On such a small layout I think sound will enhance the scene, i'm not usually one for it but it tends to be more with the sounds of engines accelerating with a train rather than idling in a stabling point.

Lighting is also going to be important as the top will restrict natural light.

And a heavy dousing of Rule #2: See rule 1

The simple fact is the DfT are not answerable and are not accountable so can steam on in their own way irrespective of the long term and medium term damage they are causing to the industry. So whether users are unhappy with the service or not, it is as it is. 

 

The GWR electrification fiasco is a prime example where the Government have "saved" Network Rail £165 million* by cancelling an electrification contract, but paying £300 million* to Hitachi for amending the 801s into 800s, as well as the extra lifetime costs of running a fleet of dual mode trains, including a percentage of diesel operation.      

 

Many many more cases like this such as the TPE class 170 farce involving DRS paying over a million pounds each to rebuild two derelict class 37s etc etc

 

* approx figures released to the public. 

But having Hitachi in the UK building trains keeps people in jobs in the North East and we have a train builder who can supply HS2...........

Such a waste of talent!

 

Mike.

Oh I don't know - real talent is cutting corners but still achieving the same desired result.

Odd weekend for me - spent the whole weekend doing jobs - couldn't stop - felt a bit agitated but couldn't put a reason on it but cleaned all the bathrooms/en suites, changed and washed all the bedding, washed a pile of towels, hoovered the whole house including son #1s tip of a room, dusted, cooked and even spent some time painting track and gluing down Kadees to let me run trains again.  In between all this every chance I get I am shredding paperwork that has been building up in a box, 5 years worth of confidential stuff.

My wife is on a fitness instructor course this week and I think I was feeling her anxiety about the course as she hadn't done all her prep as she has another course she is doing on top of the other and she had been focussed on that.

In the past I think that anxiety would have been put into incessant playing of timewaster games on my ipad - CandyCrush and similar but without them I have to find other things to occupy my mind so although I have been agitated at least I feel good about what I did rather than feel I wasted a whole weekend staring at a computer screen moving pixels round.

Anyway, house is lovely and clean and I am itching to start rubbing down paint work as my next project.

North Somerset annual war games, could be cover for independence from the rest of the UK

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Travel-Card-Zone-2-3-Yearly-London-Oyster-card-EXP-31-AUG-2018/122940108959

 

The price on non-existent travel these days... extortion!

Surely there is something questionable about the legality of selling an expired Oyster card

Main LiNe? (In which case, whoever came up with the acronyms must have been a GWR fan, believing that the line out of Paddington is the only Main Line.)

 

Jim

It does state £10 max (or is that the new charge).

I agree which is why I made a point of not making any comment on the news feed.  It is simply a report of what a French minister has said could happen.

 

While I fully support the no politics policy, there are times when politics crosses our special interest group; whether it be:

Not selling knife blades over the internet to private individuals

HS2 approval

Funding for the rail network

Approval or rescinding of Franchises.

and so on.

It's nice to have a Brexit Trump Corbyn May Johnson free site, we're bad enough when we cannot agree on the best way represent a GW numberplate on the side of a loco.

Also I will concede my comparison with Y2K was a poor one, nothing wrong in admitting when I am wrong

Edit: site is also reality TV free, another bonus.

I think J2025 is a rather Wet Doddington   

This is beginning to look like one of your layouts now Neil, the evolution of the track layout is paying dividends.

How do you fit the check rails?

I've been looking at the Peco stuff on Model Railways Direct - it's cheap too

Yes, I remember how the world "as we knew it" would have been seriously affected at that date and time if many, many people had not spent several years (not New Year's Eve) and significant amounts of money ensuring that it wouldn't be. (The organisation I worked for were looking at the effects on our operations of Y2K at least 5 years in advance.)

 

In that case, the precise event was known well in advance, and could be planned for. In the case of Brexit, the details of the situation at midnight on the day of leaving have not yet been defined. The situation will definitely be different, but the ways in which it will be different are not yet known, so planning for the changes needed is difficult if not impossible.

 

Someone(!) has to decide what the destination looks like before people can start detailed planning on how to get there.

Which is why Y2K is a good example, just like Brexit there is a known date and there will be people quietly in the background planning what happens that day should there not be an agreement - whether we as a nation like what we get that day is another question - but the media will have a frenzy now because it sells advertising if people are reading their articles and it also feeds an political angle especially if what does happen isn't complete carnage for either side pro or anti Brexit.