woodenhead

@Gilbert What was in this roped off area, it just seems to be an empty space

Well at least the modern DB does sell locos that can be returned to traffic, not like the old EW&S who simply dumped traction in the yards at Toton and Healey Mills and waited for the weather to do it's stuff.

Private companies can also have similar expectations from their owners - 20% margin on everything, "I know you've been doing this years but now I want you to do this instead and stop doing the other thing".

The design of Making Tracks with it's four track mainline theme is quite suitable for a set of 4 DC circuits each with their own controller and just a few section breaks to seperate the trains. But to show off the best of modern railway modelling and have lighting and sound at it's best you need to be running DCC, also due to the length I am going to guess that AC is a much better solution that DC, rather like the real thing really. Maybe it needs it's own discreet wifi solution and channel to block out all the interference.

Not suited to large mobile layouts I think is more appropriate. Making Tracks had problems at the start of Milton Keynes too, at Model Rail Scotland the massive Eastfield layout was having gremlins all day so much so I hardly saw anything move and never anything within the shed area. I think the airwaves get a little crowded when all the people turn up, later in the day as things thin out I'll bet they have a lot less trouble operating.

I too thought it was CGI to begin with. Too perfect!

Don't they say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Whilst we all expect Accurascale to enter N gauge, I would guess Cavalex might be a little reticent with their HAA seeing as they were usurped with the OO HAA and the class 91/Mk4. If you want to model something now and you can obtain Peco CDAs - why not, you can always sell them if something better comes along, otherwise you might have a long wait.

Do you mean this chap?

Glad I didn't go then, after Milton Keynes last year no thanks. However, well done to Key, big crowds are what they needed to pay for this and big crowds they have got then.

He’ll be playing little part in the car development now beyond input. It’s clear he won’t be gunning for the title as the car is too off the pace so all eyes on 2025. Then there is the mental challenge, he’s no longer as focussed on winning and I reckon that’s a mentality that has to be practiced constantly to keep sharp so he might be taking a different approach and caution might be straying into his mindset. None of this is good if you ask me. Hopefully he gets his focus back next season, if he stays in Vettel mindset he should retire.

But he’s a lot older and dare I say it, he’s becoming Vettel. This would open a massive door though for Sainz at RB.

Ha ha, who's seeing things now lol

Someone care to explain the 7mm Titfield....

Not fair, all the best small shows are in the wrong half of the country!

The fact it has been running two weeks would suggest WCRC have found a loophole and intend to use it to force the ORR into an exemption. The Mk1s provide a retention toilet and the Mk2s the door controls - such a pity they could not be contained in one coach, but I expect they will push to be allowed to have passengers back in the Mk1s from some new risk mitigation regime they cobble from this lash up.

Mercedes seem to be stuck - they went the wrong way, spent one and a half seasons trying to make it work before going the Red Bull way just as Newey began to go the Mercedes way. The car is still slow comparitive to the McLaren and Ferraris, RB is still leagues ahead and I don't see Hamilton thinking he made the wrong choice in heading to pastures new. I get the awful feeling they are now really targetting 2026 to get back up front when the regulations change again and they'll just tweak away at the current car to get on a par with McLaren and Ferrari, RB might implode I guess but they've a long way to fall before the stop winning races. Sainz should have stuck with McLaren, but that door is firmly shut now. Mercedes is the only viable option unless he does indeed spend a couple of seasons waiting for Audi to get a chance to put their real car onto the track. Who'd be a racing driver without a seat, it's going to be a hard life lol. Wonder where Danni Ric will end up though when he's dumped unless he suddenly finds his form again.

I think it's a little more complicated than the Welsh Government simply wanting to abolish coal, I think if it simply was an opencast mine working with it's neighbours in a sustainable way it might have survived a bit longer. The last site was operating without a licence and there was a concern the land it occupied was not going to be fixed and made good for future use. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67564413

Not to mention the orange one.

Also way to go when trying to make a show about general modelling not be focussed on trains when the centrepiece and the centrepiece model are both railway. How about a boat or even a fighter plane as a centre piece - something different and a statement that it's not just model railways. But perhaps the main draw is model railways and Key just needed the 'model world' bit so as not to tred on Warley's toes as as model railway show, this show was certainly being spoken of before Warley cancelled their slot.

Apparently DB has started scrapping the dumped 90s at Crewe.

What is the pre-occupation with shows at the NEC needing a centre piece - what purpose does it serve? You can't buy it, you can't watch it run and it must cost one of the sponsors a fair wad to transport it there and back. That could be prime selling space, another model or a cost reduction somewhere to make the show cheaper to operate. I know it was a Warley thing, but I sometimes wondered when things are tight, why?

But it's the closest we've seen to the OP's brief a 47 with unfitted wagons and the one at Wakefield has unfitted minerals and dominoes. So I guess we've found the enough evidence for the OP to be able to confidently run an unfitted coal train behind a domino class 47.

Daisy the cow wanders the lanes of the local village.....it's self service.

I don't think he is chasing the money, he will be well rewarded wherever he ends up next and at Aston you still have internal politics as that's the only way Lance is still driving for them. But if he is drawn by the challenge perhaps a return to Williams might be his swansong before retirement, how else to prove it's 'me' not the team that delivers success.

@Roy L S I think they did the Crewe Cut first as they've been promised for years and potentially would have been overshadowed by Blue and Green versions.