fulton

Look at how much effort goes into a "clean room" in industry, I think we have little chance with people in normal clothes coming and going, plus ventilation, good house keeping and covering up is IMO the best you can do.

They are banned, except on private land with the owners permission, but you would never know that from the numbers out and about!

As a house builder in a previous life, NHBC accredited, the problem is we are using spaces, mostly, never intended or designed to be used this way, unless you invest a lot of effort and or money to get insulation, vapour barriers and ventilation in the correct places, you will in these extreme weather events, get condensation problems, or worse, structural problems from overloading the roof structure. Particularly in our UK, mostly damp climate, there is always a need to balance between sealing everything up to save heat, against the need for ventilation to stop condensation, and tragically the recent death due to mould.

Chatham Kent, out of one tunnel into the next.

I can remember a similar device for starting the vibrator on a large roller, which a bulldozer towed, you wound the handle until the marker showed, then released a catch, seemed a great idea when at that time a lot of construction plant was manual start, woe betide you if you stopped an engine before the end of day.

This ship sometimes features on my Fulton Terminal layout, an American built Liberty ship supplied to Russia under lead/lease, but apparently never paid for, at one show a visitor sent a photo to his friend in the Ukraine and we received an instant pronunciation, he also added it means Collective Farmer, which like peasant in English is used today as a derogatory team.

I've used the same kit, I think the mesh supplied, for me, was unusable, I used etched brass in stead, cannot remember where it came from, I think it was Scale Link, photo of a modified gate from the kit but with bars, as the entrance to a private siding.

Impressive, ingenuity, on a similar theme this tram in Innsbruck starts off on the level then as it goes up the incline the individual cabins swing to stay level. I was also impressed by the escalator in the new Hamburg Concert Hall, starts off as a moving floor, turns into as escalator, then back into a moving floor, gives access to a promenade with excellent views over Hamburg Harbour.

My house built in 2000, is near the railway line in Strood, there is a clause in my House Deeds, saying that as required by the South Eastern Railway Act of 1864 I must not display any lights that could distract an engine driver.

As we have drifted off on to place names, some years ago there was a quite good documentary on the Hoo Peninsula, between the Thames and Medway Rivers in Kent, the presenter very confidently kept referring to it as "The Hoo", made me wonder if a fellow local told him that's how we refer to it, as a joke, and he fell for it, in my whole life living here has always been referred to as "The Hoo Peninsula", also the correct name for the village of Hoo is Hoo St Werburgh, but that is never used.

Just driven back from Germany, took a different route via Venlo and Antwerp, all the roads I travelled in Holland had a 100kph limit, just over 60mph, everyone seemed to keep to it, did wonders to the fuel consumption, soon got used to it, maybe an idea for the UK, in Germany the roads I used had limits of 120kph or 130kph, many drivers were way over it.

Also just for reference my 2021 Ford Connect van has used 1l per 1000 miles since new, gave a warning with 600 mile range left, adblue tank holds 12l, has also averaged 55 miles per gallon since new, mainly long distance.

I've been pleased with Tamiya texture paint, needs thining down to avoid brush marks, the similar product from AmmoMig was too course, but was aimed at the 1/35 military market.

I find a break from the hobby helps, a problem seems to disappear after a couple of months, I go off to model aircraft or ships, then back to railways, its good to get the cross over of skills and ideas from different areas of model making.

Starting a new job can have its surprises, when being shown around the plant workshop of a construction firm I was joining, the plant manager said "Oh you are the new site manager, your car has just failed its MOT, we are working on it" on the ramp was a sorry looking rusty Fiesta, I should have had my suspicions as even the owner was driving an old Fiat, the firm wasn't all bad I was there for 18 years. A later career in security, on my very first job on my first day, found myself, with another new starter on the door of a busy Government building, we looked at each other, we thought there would be some training, I asked my Team Leader about being shown around, his reply was if I want to take a walk around then do so, I was there 9 years.

As most of my coaches rarely have passengers I have not found that a problem, the problem is the cows in the field.

I normally use DCC, but still manage to bump hard into stock sometimes, due to lack of attention, how can I improve that? CV settings? I use a Digitrax system and various manufactures chips.

Couple of moans about modern road "improvements", did a long drive Sunday, back to Kent from the NMRA convention at Crewe, driving standards reasonably good, heavy traffic, dark and raining, a number of broken down vehicles on the inside lane of the "smart" motorways, talk about an accident waiting to happen! who ever came up with such an idea. Today walking back from the shops, witnessed a very near miss, made my hair stand up, in my area the high level pedestrian red/green lights are being replaced with low level ones which I find less obvious, I think that contributed to this near miss, opposite to me were two people waiting to cross, a man on a scooter and a women looking at her phone, a bit of a gap in the traffic, scooter man goes, women follows right in front of a car, luckily no one hurt, I know scooter man and being on the phone also contributed, but the low level lights did not help.

On the question of lamps in 4mm scale, my Port Victoria layout first exhibited in 1991, had removable lamps, I used the white metal Springside lamps, with a bracket glued on the back and slightly over scale lamp irons on the locos and stock, the weight kept them in place, anyone who can manage three link couplings in 4mm, could use tweezers to position the lamps. In practice I found it a lot of faffing about and did not change them much but could if I wanted. On the general topic I build what I enjoy, to a standard I am happy with, I operate the way I like, but always open to new ideas, I exhibit my layouts because I enjoy it and want to share my hobby, hope people enjoy seeing the layouts as well, I do not exhibit for the layouts to be somehow judged, its a model railway hobby nothing else. If you want to build or operate differently then please go and do so, just do not tell others what they should do in their hobby.

Reminds me of Eurospoor where there was a 50euro deposit to be paid before you could enter the hall with a vehicle, which you could lose if you stayed more than 2 hours, the Sunday breakdown was a free for all which worked as the gangways were so wide.

I have a Ford Connect, according to the HMG website it is van, not car derived, so the speed restrictions apply, not that it is any real problem, mine is an automatic with all the extras, very nice to drive, regularly do a return trip to Germany, is EURO 6 rated which is good as more cities have emission restrictions.

A CSX, or any modern era, end of line terminal would probably not have a run round loop, trains would be propelled in, if a long push then a shoving platform would be used, trackwork would be laid to suit this, I have had a lot of fun with just push and pull moves, sidings can have more than one spot, which adds interest.

Plant City ready for our trip to Crewe, looking forward to it.

A couple of months ago I was held up in Calais for four hours following the Eurotunnel shuttle breakdown in the tunnel, when checking the BBC report they said the stranded passengers had been picked up by a freight train, photo was obviously inside another shuttle. News reports should be correct, some subjects I an quiet knowledgeable about and I see so many factual errors, I wonder how much I am being misinformed on subjects I know little of.

I went through a similar process, but only need two seats, so bought a Connect long wheel base, first trip was to Bristol with my Fulton Terminal layout, only just fitted, reduces expenses and hopefully I can keep exhibiting when age makes van hire a problem.