mcowgill

Just frightened myself realising that one of my favourite photos is now over 30 years old, 'City of Wells' climbing out of Keighley with a storm brewing, September 1982

Seems like only yesterday..

Martin

AKAIK there's not much (if any) questioning from the examiner about the Highway Code in the practical driving test. You're supposed to know all this earlier from passing your theory test which should cover it all, but how much is related to hazards like level crossings and how much is on other areas like first aid etc I don't know. There seems to be an awful lot in the theory test that's about being a more general user (both passenger and driver) in addition to all the driving / rule of the road things we all learned years ago.

Hopefully my eldest son understands how to use a level crossing properly as he's seen them from the footplate side on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland.

Martin (eldest son passed his license a couple of years back, another one currently learning)

Not sure if we've mentioned this one before from our old friend.  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360618516021?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D360618516021%26_rdc%3D1

The price is fine and with free postage, but surely a 'Bachmann .... mint boxed' model should at least be in a Bachmann box...

The frog juicer is an excellent product when used to solve difficult problems.

My fiddle yard is partly on the window sill and as I didn't set the rest of the layout high enough there wasn't enough room for point motors underneath some of the baseboard. The frog juicer has avoided me having to find a switching solution to go with the surface mounted point motors particularly as they are DCC controlled so there's no control panel with spare poles on switches.

Martin

With this sniping thing, if you have put your max bid on EBay at say £50 and your winning at £35, you join one of these sniper sites, would it know that it was you that was winning at £35, but you have decided to have your sniping total at £70. If some one came in and put a bid in at £47.50 and the Ebay bid went to £50 for you would it still try to win it from you. If you see what I mean.

 

OzzyO.

The sniping tool I use will always put a bid in, whether I am the current high bidder or not, as long as the current price on the item hasn't gone over my maximum limit. It doesn't matter if you are currently the top bidder, the sniping tool uses your existing Ebay login so Ebay knows it's you bidding.

It's no different to you increasing your bid during an auction when you are already winning, Ebay doesn't change the item price but other bidders would now have to bid more than before to outbid you.

Martin

£75 and it has the wrong bogies...................

They always did, the old class 37 shared a chassis with the 31, bogies and all. I think I'd do myself a mischief if the bogie steps were there in real life!

Martin

I imagine, though, that they all look pretty ordinary at close quarters, with no make-up, with a hangover.

The only one I've had the pleasure of meeting looked fine at close quarters, and from what I heard a hangover was a distinct possibility at the time...

Looks like my credit card's just been mugged by someone in Liverpool.

I have just looked at J H Russell's pictorial record of GW engines and found a copy of Diagram A.40 which shows the original rebuild of 3265 with non standard windows. This shows the bogie wheels as 3'8". Not sure what to make of this.

 

Roger.

Here's a photo of 3265 circa 1936 http://www.railphoto...36-182.jpg.html

IIRC Bachmann said at the time the 2011/12 catalogue was released that they expected the new releases to be available in the following 18 months, which could easily take us to the autumn and who knows what unforeseen delays there might be.

We'll just have to wait and see and I'll just carry on running my lumpy old K's kit.

Martin

I just know that there is an RMWebber out there who has been waiting for this opportunity all his life - at this price!

 

http://cgi.ebay.fr/J...=item5ae2d742ae

Very tempting, it's cheaper than the Dapol one and you don't have to wait for it to arrive from China. Would anyone notice the difference?

Much more worryingly I rather fancied one of these when they were still being made, luckily I resisted the urge at the time!

As others have said, timing belt failures can be expensive. My wife broke the one on her Renault Scenic while accelerating up hill on a dual carriageway, probably doing about 50mph. The cost for doing the repairs at a main dealer were in excess of £2000.

I wouldn't have taken a car with 70k on the clock to a main dealer for such work when it was out of warranty, but before they started work on it I spent a long time on the phone to Renault, the car was bought new by us, always maintained at a main dealer - and most important, while out of warranty was not due for a cambelt replacement on age (due to high annual mileage) and the mileage interval for replacement was 72k, still a couple of thousand miles in the future,

I got Renault and the main dealers to swallow most of the cost (the full cost was eye-watering) and an admission from the Renault UK Customer Services Director that the replacement interval was increased from 36k to 72k due to complaints from customers about the cost, there was no change to the belt specification and they expected 'most' belts to survive the increased life.

Since then I've made sure I know the state and age of cam belts on all our vehicles, the last MG I bought was in excellent mechanical condition but had no service history, the belt was replaced almost immediately just in case - better safe than sorry.

Martin

I would be a bit suspicious of this selller anyway, it looks like he sold a Bachmann MPV back in July, long before anyone had them in stock.

Martin

My old satnav used to give a fairly pessimistic predicted ETA at the destination, driving normally you would almost always 'beat' it, but then the ETA would become more accurate the nearer you got.

My new one is much more intelligent, linking up to realtime data on traffic conditions, current traffic speeds on roads etc, last weekend I did a 550 mile round trip, the ETA it gave on departure was within a couple of minutes the correct arrival time, allowing for the couple of stops made on the way. It has made life so much easier when driving on my own, it knows where the traffic is, offers to send me on a different road if congestion means the alternative is quicker, and I never have to get the map out (or argue with the wife while one of us is reading the map!)

One odd thing, and perhaps it's because I've spent so much of my life out walking and reading maps, or trying to find photographic locations with maps, I just can't get on with the '3d' moving view of the world that the satnav gives by default. I have the device in 'map view' mode so it's just an overhead moving map looking vertically down on the landscape. It seems to give me more detail if I need to look at the device and my brain instantly understands what it's looking at.

Martin

My memories of visits during the 1980s is that up until the late 80s most of the trains were Mk1s or a mixture of Mk1s and early Mk2s. Later Mk2s could not have made an appearance on the West Highland and Kyle/Far North lines until the 37/4s arrived in (IIRC) 1986, they were the first locos fitted with ETH to match the later carriages. The only exception to this was the sleeper with the ETHELS providing power for the heating and air-con.

I would recommend 'The West Highland Mallaig Extension in BR Days' by Tom Noble (OPC) which has plenty of photos, mostly Mk1 with a smattering of early Mk2. Remember that the 37/4s lasted only a short time before the 156s took over, I think the late Mk2s would generally be fairly rare.

Martin

Unless somebody can show me the figures I cannot see how the rebuilding the WHR into Harbour station is value for money. Given the constraints on Harbour station, the WHHR station next to the NR station is the more cost effective solution as well as being potentially more accessible.

If you were the FR management team would you be happy to see the trains run into the WHHR station to save the costs of crossing the Cambrian? I'm sure they would be more than happy to see all the passengers spend their money in the WHHR shop rather than the FR shop and buy refreshments in the Russell Cafe rather than Spooners?.

As has been said elsewhere, the FR is a commercial organisation, a significant employer in the area and it's contribution to the economy of the surrounding area by attracting visitors to both the FR & WHR may surprise you. It was calculated as part of a thesis at Bangor University in 2008 as £9m per annum.

The FR operated trains will terminate at Harbour station, there is no economic sense in them going anywhere else. Trains run by the WHHR with permission to operate along any part of the length of the restored WHR will terminate at Tremadog Road, I can't see any other possibility.

Martin

Me not understand either! Have I got this right: that the connection through Porthmadog [paid I think partly with public money] is therefore unlikely to be used? Or have I mixed up my geography?

The connection will be used when the WHR opens fully through to Porthmadog from Caernarfon, hopefully next year, that is not in doubt.

The issue in dispute is the access by the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway (who currently run from their station at Porthmadog opposite the Network Rail station to a point alongside the original WHR, all entirely to the north of the Cambrian standard gauge line) to the FR operated/owned WHR, in particular their proposals to run to and from Pont Croesor.

Think of it as something like access rights to Network Rail by an 'open access' TOC.

It appears that the statement was a draft unintentionally released by the WHHR and has since been withdrawn from the mailing list it was sent to, however it still remains on Barrie Hughes website.

I don't want to add any more or express any views as I know many of the people involved on both sides of the argument and as an appointed officer of the FRS there's always the risk that someone might take what I say as the 'FR point of view'. I can honestly say I know nothing more than anyone else and have kept the above to undisputed facts.

Martin C

So it looks like plain green only carried the 'wrap round' windows and the modification took place at the same time SYP's were added.

The top photo at http://nicwhe8.freehostia.com/d5705/gallery/gallery2/gallery2.html appears to be D5711 without SYPs but with the later windows.

As it's at Trafford Park it may have been while it was in store, but it has clearly had the modifications and no front end repaint.

Martin C