MarshLane

Does anyone have a copy or details of the track plan for Manchester Piccadilly and its approaches in the mid-1980s please? This is the time before Platforms 13/14 were lengthened and when the former power box was on the west side and the sky high Royal Mail corridor link to Mayfield was there. Any help would be appreciated. Ive looked in my collection of Track Plans but the Midland ones don’t go back that far. Rich

Apologies to Revolution for the thread drift my comment caused. No, I believe the Mk5a and 68s remain on hire to TPE until June - the (current) expiry of the original contract. Which is why the TPE-liveried ones are not doing much. On paper they are still hired to TPE, if TPE choose not to use them or store them, thats their problem. 68025 and 68026 noted on Longsight today still coupled to Mk5a sets. The 93s do have advantages over the 88s in some areas, but the high cost of electric for freight operators is still an issue, and part of the reason why DRS are in no hurry to operate all 10 of theirs at the moment. No, I believe the Network Rail paperwork has been issued and its awaiting ROG to arrange the tests. That is *MY* understanding, which may of course be wrong. We still conform to the EU requirements - that part of the EU law has not been changed yet. Interestingly there was an issue recently (I cannot remember the exact full details) where the regulations required somebody on the EU side to sign off paperwork for UK rolling stock - they would not sign it off because the UK is no longer part of the EU - but our law still required it. I gather it took several weeks for somebody to legally be promoted to a position where they could take over that responsibility! Nothing is simple in the rail industry! However, while all standards and commissioning is to the same base level, UK acceptance (or homologation as they call it) would always have had to done in or out of the EU. In the same way that a new loco built for Belgium (for example) has all the base EU paperwork, testing and documation completed, but still needs separate homologation for Holland, France, Germany etc.. The same has held true in the UK, both before and after Brexit, very little changed in that respect. The '93s' have some of the work done, but the dynamic testing is outstanding. However, there are other issues outstanding, that I cannot mention here. Dynamic testing isnt the only thing.

All nine remaining '93s' are ready for delivery, and parked in this line at Valencia, waiting for ROG to accept them. The shot is taken in Valencia for anyone who doesn't click through to Flickr. Nice shot!

Could be interesting in a couple of ways, especially as 50% of the DRS 88 fleet is currently stopped - with 88001 having not worked since November 2022, 88008 has not been in traffic since February 2022 and 88009 was stopped in July, all are at Kingmoor, while 88003 was stopped at Crewe in November 2023 and 88004 has been at Motherwell for 12 months. #off-topic - sorry!

Horses for courses I suspect, what you don't like others will. Your comment about getting home and discovering you'd paid £10 simply shows that like many people you pick something up and go pay with a card and don't look at the total. I'll make that assumption as if you'd paid cash you know how much you would have paid. I cannot dispute the advice your friend was given by BRM that it is your responsibility to check - nobody should ever tap their card or enter a PIN without checking the total. Also you say "simply writing off feedback as grumbling with a condescending comment" - what exactly did you expect to happen? Oh we are sorry here is a refund? Thanks for your feedback we won't do it again? I suspect whatever response you received you would not have been happy about because you chose to purchase something, without looking at the price, without looking at the amount the retailer was charging you and then feel annoyed that you made a mistake because you assumed something. Dont worry, we've all done it, we've all got home and muttered swear words to ourselves, but then we realise it's just a small thing and watch in the future. To say that you'll never buy another copy of BRM again is, in my view, a total over reaction to the situation. TO balance this argument a bit, can I add that I know of two people who have both bought this issue of BRM specifically because Traction was included, both of them are modellers, one very rarely buys BRM unless there is an article he wants to read, the other is a semi-regular reader who purchases it may 5-6 times a year. Both mentioned it to me and said they had bought BRM to have a good read and the addition of 'Traction' was a great advantage. So it really is a case of what suits one might not suit another. I am not sure how this works, but also consider if you had BRM on subscription from the publishers, I doubt you would have been charged extra for the bigger issue - I am assuming that subscribers got the same bumper edition as everyone else. However, writing and making views know in a polite way, whether for or against any ideas such as this, surely has to be recommended or how else does the editorial team know what readers want, and whether they like ideas or not? @AY Mod how does the different in price work with the digital edition of the magazine for those that buy individual issues?

You’re doing well Tony, looks nice! I look forward to seeing it running!

I really do like this entire concept Paul. A really positive and achievable way to keep things fresh, and workable. Also the size means each module can be finished within a reasonable time frame, while giving the flexibility to encompass new things and have reasonable operating potential.

Hi Duncan, Simple answer get an Apple phone, I never have a problem!! Sorry sarcasm mode off :) I have never used Samsung, but somewhere you should be able to export or send images and within the options for either there should be an option to remove EXIF data. If you clear that, then two things: a) firstly the image rotation fields with IPTC should be cleared so the forum software will have assume it was taken right way up because there is nothing there to tell it otherwise! b) it will also remove any GPS data which would pin point where you live, and hence where the photo was taken, and the obvious security concerns that brings. I always make sure I select that from my iPad or iPhone before sending pictures over to the Mac to go on the web. Its about time all of the forum software (for all forums and all forum type software, not just rmWeb) presented an option to users to automatically remove location data, which the individual user could switch on or off at his/her choosing. For Mac Users If anyone has a Mac and a phone or camera that includes GPS data, a quick way of removing it, is to open the image in Preview, go to Tools > Show Inspector, click on GPS, and click the 'Remove Location Info' button, then just close the image. Preview will automatically save it and remove all the GPS data. I assume there is something similar in Windows, but as I have not used a Windows PC in 22 years, I have no idea about where or how you would do that! Hope the above helps.. Rich

Hi Duncan, In the spirit of a 'forum', I would say that I personally agree and disagree with some of your comments. I think the wonderful aspect of this hobby is that it is a broad church and the congregation includes those from various walks of life, meaning that the hobby of railway modelling is different things to different people. I am slowly progressing with a layout personally, and now have a dislike a Peco track work - it looks to 'modelly' for my liking, so am into the field of handbill track work. Something I would not even have considered 10 years ago. But other people say I am quite happy with Peco, thats fair enough, and each to their own. I think the same goes for the 'out of the box' layouts. Should such layouts be at an exhibition? In my personal view no, my opinion is that exhibitions are to exhibit layouts that people have built, such as your Shirebrook which is a superb example. But having said that, I have friend who enjoy running trains prototypically but have no interest in scenics and layout - one friend has OO gauge model that just has yellow sticky notes to denote the stations and sidings! Yet the enjoyment that he (I would say 'we' as some of us go and run it with him on occasions) gets from it is up there with the enjoyment you get from building Hobbs Bridge, or I get from the times I have the enormous privilege of running the historic EM gauge layout Buckingham with Tony Gee. So to me if people enjoy using the 'out of the box' stuff then fine, thats what the hobby is all about relaxation and enjoyment. I think if we all had to have things the same, then there would probably be thousands of GWR branch line terminus layouts and nothing else!!! But equally, I do agree, that layouts such as Hobbs Bridge and Shirebrook (as well as the many others out there that have had hours and hours carefully spent on them building scenics, scratch building the buildings, working with MERG electronics, weathering scratch built, kit built or RTR rolling stock, what ever the roll the modeller plays, they all encourage other people to try things. Different people have different skills, different abilities, but also of course different inabilities - health, mobility, dexterity can all impact on what people can do, and if somebody is sadly falls under one of those categories, then they need to able to enjoy the hobby however they can. And good luck to them! Having said all that, I think in this day and age encouraging people not to turn to out of the box modelling, but to become creative is great and we need to see more of it - of course that now covers everything from PVA glue and cardboard through to 3D printing! Its horses for courses, and long may it continue.... Love the update with Hobbs Bridge, and I also think the idea of finishing the viaduct in mid-air is a genius move. Not one I'd have considered, but it works really well. Rich

What happens with the extra breakfast at the B&B as a result of the extra room though Andy????

If we renamed the 10:00 St Pancras - Carlisle express the 'Saturn Adventurer' or 'Moonraker Express' would that help get you back any quicker! 😃🤣

I am sure one of Elon Musk's little internet satellites will probably come round every 30 minutes and give a web connection for a bit.....

Great to see Wolfstatt on here Craig, look forward to seeing it in person and further photos/videos being added! Edit: Craig, as recommended I have just watched the video on YouTube from @PaulRhB of the layout at Alexandra Palace in March last year. Great camera work from Paul shows off just what a wonderful layout you have achieved here. Really well done. For anyone else that wants to take a look I have put the link below! I'll go watch some of the others on YT of Wolfstaff now .. thats my evening gone :) Rich

If it helps, I have just about got most of my Rhein Valley photos from a couple of years ago reuploaded after the server crash - they may help in someways. I have got several hundred from that trip however, only a small number are on the thread as it is a bit repetitive, but if there's anything specific do shout I'll take a look. Rheinland 2019 Rich

Well obviously its fake - my nephew took his remote controlled buggy over the sands at Cleethorpes ... if you put a picture of the tracks from that into black and white its just as good as Nasa's 'close-up' shots of the moon ... a man on the mood pah! as if! 😉 Sorry I really do need to stop letting sarcasm take over! Thanks for the description of your photograph process. Fascinating. I have done video filming work running a 6K camera a 120fps in the past and know the amount of data that comes from that, so can imagine the processing power for compiling that lot. Well worth it though, the quality of your photos speak for themselves. Keep up the good work. Rich

Hi Duncan, You're making some nice progress there - what's the plan for the end of the viaduct? I presume thats the edge of the baseboard on the right hand side of the layout? Rich

As I'm actually playing around 009 at the moment, that is a really useful tip Ian! Thanks for the blog post. Rich

Stunning Images Jeff, you are going to have stop flying your drone over there so often tho - I mean if you can do it, while sat surfing rmWeb, what excuse does NASA have for these big rocket things! Well done on the photography tho, really good. I presume they are focus stacked? What was the original number of images for the composition? Rich

Mike, Thanks - it's a fixed temperature iron ... it was only £35 from Amazon, so I wouldn't have expected a lifetime use out of it! My 25w is an Annex Variable Temperature Control and that is a very different story! Thanks Chris, I am thinking that may well be the way to go. Rich

Morning Peter, Well that’s just not good enough! Have you been over to check the dry stone walling around the viaduct for dust and missing stones. Maybe your telescope can be set up to give us a view of whatever your looking at from beside Gill Head??? 😂 Seriously, glad to hear your keeping well. I think we all go through bouts of zero interest, somebody said it’s called human nature! Enjoy your astronomy, our next door neighbour (sadly no longer with us) used to have a motorised telescope concreted into his shed, with a motorised roof opening. I put my Nikon D850 on there a few times and had some lovely images, but you know far more about it so can only imagine what you’ve been getting! Another vote for the odd image on the ‘Space from Gill Head Observatory’ thread!!! Long as you’re enjoying yourself. It’s like @Andrew P who’s doing very little modelling at the moment … something to do with making a lot of noise with a guitar, which has replaced the trains apparently. In all honesty he’s bloody good, having seen some of his Facebook videos! But don’t tell him I said so, wouldn’t want to push him further away from the trains!!! As ever look forward to the updates when you have something to share Jeff. take care Rich

Any progress Jeff? Surely you must have migrated back into what @Andrew P calls the Pit of Doom and away from those twinkly stars by now… 😃 Hope you are keeping well? Rich

Maybe some aspect of encouraging modellers to scratch build the wheels could come into, or a fine etch for the spokes that folds a couple of times to give some depth and gently pushes inside a 3D printed tyre? Sorry my brain is working overtime now - as you say a great project! Sorry for the thread drift ... @KNP I dont tend to comment often as I feel there is not much I can add to the remarks that are passed, but as I am posting, congratulations on superb modelling, great detail and a very enjoyable thread, that I do read/check in to every few days! Rich

Either way I am sure @Modelu Chris would be interested in 3D scanning for their offering .. although I admit I am not sure if there are any bikes or whether the 3D printing could commodate the fine detail around wheel spokes etc. Food for thought maybe?

Thanks John, What is your 50W iron if you dont mind me asking? Rich

Just as a thought, can anyone recommend a similar 60W iron? I am thinking it may be best to go for a different brand. I dont want a temperature controlled iron (got a 25W one), but as this kit is a 7mm Brass kit it needs the 60W power. Just a simple iron would work fine - any recommendations appreciated, although I know a lot is personal preference. Rich