fulton

5 hours ago, MidlandRed said:

The state of the flood defence wall is somewhat iffy as well!
 

I think this is actually carrying the Medway Valley Line, it’s south west of the A2 bridge and south west of the junction beyond the down end of Strood station. 
 

You are quite correct, today it is the Medway Valley Line, I tend to use North Kent Line as that was its designation at the time I am modelling the area, I walk under the viaduct each time I go shopping and live just off the edge of your view.

A quick Google, brings up lots of suppliers, seem cheap, as you say maybe there are better alternatives today, solder tag strips work well for me.

Nice detail and weathering, shame about the obviously over scale nut and bolt castings. (this viaduct carriers the North Kent line over Janes' Creek, Strood)

9 hours ago, Schooner said:

 

 

I don't suppose you have a Prickly Pear catalogue to hand do you? A quick internet search suggests they've got some kits which would be of interest, but only a phone contact which isn't ideal...

He is only a one man outfit, best to phone to see what is available, has a small stand at Scaleforum, where I am normally tempted by something!

Interesting thread, my model of an Aveling and Porter locomotive, 4mm EM, non working, on my under construction model of the Aveling and Porter, Invicta Engineering works at Strood.

Should have kept the original long Y point, this short Y point, is too sharp and will never blend in, seen Saturday near Dusseldorf Wehrhahn station.

Some years ago I bought two O gauge PECO points, my plans changed and they were stored unused, around six years later I discovered them again, both had gone brittle and were unusable, I also had a home layout OO code 75 and after twenty years the plastic was as good as new, the unballasted track has been reused on my current layout, different souces or batches of raw plastic?

3 hours ago, Geep7 said:

 

 

Sadly, it seems that freight traffic in Spain is suffering much the same fate as in the UK, I.e. being moved to road

Not just Spain, have recently travelled by rail in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, many industries still have rail connections, but sadly most seem little used if at all, but lots of lorry trailers to be seen!

23 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

. There is no waiting for the torque converter to gradually engage; 

 

Wasn't this thread about HS1 & HS2?

Just a question, while we are off topic, are any vehicles today fitted with a torque converter auto box?

2 hours ago, Coldgunner said:

 Though I do have a basic cruise control and automatic lights.

When I had a Citroen C5, I turned off the auto lights, the feature stayed off, as my regular commute was along a busy "rat run" between Maidstone and Gillingham, around dusk as I went under some over hanging trees the lights came on then off when I had passed them, I had the fear someone waiting to pull out would think I had flashed them and pull out in front of me.

On 29/09/2023 at 21:07, dasatcopthorne said:

 

From the few good close up shots I have found, the brickwork on the kit is wrong. It should have stretchers.

 

Lets see how many people notice when I exhibit it.

 

Dave.

What is wrong with the brickwork? it is all stretchers as per your photo of Groombidge, nice layout, enjoyed it at Faversham. Correction, I have just seen up thread that the brickwork is correct, nice work, difficult to deal with the arris, corners, with this type of kit.

1 hour ago, AyJay said:

We may be strong, agile and confident when we construct our layouts, but age will start to take its toll and creep up on all of us. ( my knees and back are complaining).

Very good advice, when I was planning my garage layout I took advice to have a hinged lift up section rather than a duck under, twenty years later, with poor knees, that was such good advice. In my twenties I exhibited a layout regularly, it then went into storage for twenty years, when time came to pass it on to a new owner, I thought did I really take such heavy boards to so many shows, I physically could not do it today, or want to.

Thank you, it is posts like this that keep me coming to RMweb.

I am after some as well, did use some around twenty years ago, I think from Kings Cross Models, now gone.

22 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Sadly some people simply find it amusing to break things, 

I find that very sad and depressing, I think it is a problem in our culture, particularly in the UK, not saying it does not happen elsewhere, but I travel a lot in Europe and see things that you simply could not have in the UK without it being vandalised or stolen, such as book exchanges, normally a glass cupboard in a public space, people take and leave books, or schools without the need for high fences.

4 hours ago, MidlandRed said:

I’m not sure what you mean by this but the Javelin service serves most towns in East and Mid Kent and seems to be found useful to the people that fill the trains pretty well in both peak and off peak. I personally find the service very useful indeed.

Living in the Medway Towns ( a post industrial deprived area ) Javelin has transformed travel to London, and job opportunities, that did not exist before, used to take 1 hour 10 minutes to Charing Cross, now 25 to Stratford and 35 to St Pancras, I can see the trains from my garden and they are well used. There were lots of scare stories about HS1, I worked in construction at that time, one was that we would lose all our plant operators, who would go to work on HS1 for big money, in practice they came from outside of the area, lived in caravans, worked seven days a week, long hours for relatively low hourly rate, we did not lose any operators. Habits have changed, I know people who now drive to Ebbsfleet, has a large carpark, and take Javelin to Stratford for sporting events or Westfield shopping centre, Europe's largest.

Prompted by this thread, I had a PSA test, had the results yesterday, all clear, just takes a little effort to do it, my Doctors Surgery gave me an appointment straight away over the phone.

2 hours ago, admiles said:

 

UK Border Force are chronically short of staff 

 

Not sure if it would normally be Border Force or Customs, but when I get pulled over for my van to be searched it is often private security, maybe because of the shortage of "proper" staff, at the Tunnel anyway.

1 hour ago, Dagworth said:

The problem with leaving it as a gap is that it will close up when the rail gets warm,

Why not cut expansion joints elsewhere and either bond across or add a feed, in 4mm I just leave a gap, where IRJ were available I used them with no ill effects, expansion joints are necessary, if you lay long lengths in the winter you will have problems in the summer, back to the OPs question I think Milliput will break up and fall out in time, due to movement of the rails, even track cleaning will move the rails a bit.

8 hours ago, RANGERS said:

 

 

One thing that is required, and costs about £20, is a VE103 certificate which declares a vehicle that isn’t being driven by the registered keeper has their permission to be driven in the EU. There’s four sources for these - https://www.gov.uk/taking-vehicles-out-of-uk/for-less-than-12-months

 

 

Just to add, company cars and leased vehicles also need the owners permission, some countries require you to have the vehicle documents with you, for those still with the old paper driving license, like myself, you also need an International Driving Permit, simple and easy at the Post Office, it looks like something out of the 1950s!

I also use Eurotunnel frequently, now rebranded LeShuttle, with two return trips booked in October, prices have gone up, like almost everything, at the moment the speed and convenience still make it the best option for myself, I think the trains are showing their age, I wonder when reliability begins to suffer.

5 minutes ago, lippy said:

 

 

Firstly the Van hire companies that allow you to take a van out of the UK want another approx £150 for "Paperwork"

 

 

 

 

In the past when I hired a van to take out of the UK the van hire company, said the extra charge was for European recovery insurance, they were good enough to suggest I could get it cheaper myself, as long as I showed them a copy, which is what I did, I now have my own van and regularly travel to EU and non EU countries, have an annual breakdown and recovery insurance. There was a thread running sometime ago on this subject, going into some detail, your take about sums it up, some of the regular European shows do not seem to have recovered, post covid. 

Lots of nice places in Poland, I think generally you feel safer than in the UK, but obviously there are bad areas to avoid, this years holiday was driving to Swinoujscie on the Baltic coast, some years ago we travelled, by train, to Bielsko-Biala, in the south of Poland, started our trip in Hamburg, changing trains in Katowice, not a city to recommend, at that time lots of EU investment in roads and railways, we did a couple of train trips to Zywiec and Cieszyn on the Czechia border. One day we took a walk to the next town, planning to take the train back, did not look too promising, track overgrown, platform was also, with a timetable on the one lamp post, anyway the train did come, the driver and guard looking very surprised, to see passengers, we had a hand written ticket back to Bielsko-Biala.