PatB

Note that the staff to be accommodated are for ski resorts. Yes, "ski", and yes "resorts" plural. Though for how much longer, given rising temperatures, is something of an open question.

Metal fairies getting ambitious and nicking the girder bridge?

Well, it ain't Dakar, WRC, NASCAR, WSB or MotoGP, but it's motorsport in 2024, so I reckon it's got a place here (and might interest a few folks who haven't come across the genre). https://youtu.be/04k9_lB0oK0?feature=shared

Ah yes. Working conditions in coal mines. I gather from my family history that one of my paternal great-grandfathers spent a significant portion of his working life lying on his side, usually in standing water, working an 18" high seam. Lovely. Durham coalfield rather than S Wales, but still...

Ooh, they'll be needing the big roll of gaffer tape on that.

What was up with the automatic continuous brakes? Surely they're supposed to come on in the event of a train dividing?

Hmm. Maybe we could add some sort of guidance system for the wheels to follow. Even better, maybe couple several of them together, this inventing an entirely new form of freight transport.

Although Seaton was technically main and bay, the bay was long enough, and heavily enough used on the mythical summer Saturday, that the difference was probably a bit academic.

Of course, in 1980, few modellers were quite as fussy as now about variations within a class. A 47 was a 47, which might be green or blue, but that was about as nuanced as it got for most.

Is it just my imagination, or are the eBay asking prices for Triang TT stuff slightly less insane than they were when I last looked, maybe 3 years ago? Obviously there's still a premium on mint, boxed rarities, but the everyday pieces seem almost reasonable.

I tend to agree with DCB. As USB wall warts are now essentially free, and will happily power pretty much anything other than traction current and solenoid point motors, with far less waste heat to worry about, I cant think of many good reasons to use anything else for accessory power on a new build.

Bit late to this topic. I do hope I'm not going to be too severely flamed for cheating, but, of late, I've become old and creaky enough to appreciate the joys of the ebike. Here's my first effort at a home conversion, on an old, steel framed Trek MTB with a legal 250W Bafang motor. This was my daily commuter (30 km round trip on unsealed tracks) for a year, until its deficiencies annoyed me too much to continue with it. As is fairly obvious from the seat adjustment the frame is really too small for me, so it was never a truly comfortable fit. Also, the cheapo Ebay aftermarket wheels weren't up to a strong, heavy rider standing on the pedals, along with the extra push of the motor, so the rear wheel kept pinging spokes. As a result of this, and a change in commuting needs, disillusionment set in and it spent a couple of years standing, while I worked out what to do with it. Then serendipity took a hand, and I found an old Giant Option X hybrid on the verge, waiting for the latest bulk rubbish collection. Big steel frame, 700C wheels, OK cantilever brakes, cruddy levers and gear components (but that's OK as I have better ones). So, I've been doing a bit of selective assembly with parts from the Trek, the Giant, and assorted bits I've accumulated over the past decade or so. I was able to build a cross-4 laced rear wheel from a double-wall rims and reasonable hub from my last hybrid, using the slightly longer spokes from the kerbside bike. Front wheel and not-terrible derailleur from the same previous hybrid. Saddle and butterfly bars from the Trek. It's currently at a stage where it would ride as a pushbike. I just need to finalise the wiring and mount the battery to finish the ebike conversion. Then it'll be time for some shakedown rides to find out if my wheelbuilding has been good enough. Just in time for some cooler, but still dry weather. Perfect.

With bonus kitbashed Airfix girder bridges.

I'm contemplating building a small 1:35 scale narrow gauge layout, incorporating various bits and pieces I already own. Track would be a mix of Peco and Hornby set track, with a couple of Streamline points and the odd bit of flexi. To disguise the 00ness of the track, I'd be using very deep ballast, covering everything but the railheads. Obviously, whilst easy enough to do on plain track, it's going to be tricky on pointwork to get a good appearance and leave the vital bits of the points free to operate. I wondered if anyone who's done this successfully has any tips on how best to go about it. If it makes a difference, ballast will be sand/grit dug from the garden (Western Australia has very little actual soil, but is made primarily of sand/grit) and passed through some laboratory sieves I happen to have handy to get a sensible size. Probably 0.3mm-0.8mm (representing roughly 1/2" to 1"), with a bit of dust mixed in, to try and represent a fairly coarse ash/cinder ballast. Point operation will be wire in tube. IIRC the Streamline points are live frog. If so, they'll have external frog polarity switching rather than relying on Peco's internal mechanism.

I am reminded of another Perth incident, when a kids' water playground (basically, lawn sprinklers with ideas above their station) was opened as part of a fancy waterside development in the city centre. Because it was the usual Perth half-arsed, cheapo bodge job, badly designed and constructed, and signed off in a hurry to meet the Minister's packed ribbon cutting schedule, it had numerous problems. Chief amongst these was that, after a week or two, the water was found to be harbouring assorted nasty microbes that thrive in a hot climate in damp conditions. Rather than admit they'd botched the whole thing, there were serious proposals from the powers that be that children entering the play area should be forced through a bleach shower so they wouldn't contaminated the water. I'm pretty sure the whole thing was quietly torn up after only a few months, and is never to be spoken of again.

And, on a related note https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-22/bite-victims-warned-stop-bringing-snakes-to-emergency-department/103752506

Because Perth is conveniently situated within walking distance of the surface of the sun most of our buses are sealed, airconditioned boxes, largely to avoid the necessity of hosing out melted passengers at the end of every day in summer.

That'll cost a fortune in Peco track rubbers.

Looks suspiciously like Brian Monaghan getting a bit arty with a RotM c1980.

Back when JuniorB was in kindergarten, they had a school trip, which I can only admire for its genius and simplicity, consisting of herding all the kids onto a bus, taking them to the depot and through the bus wash, then back to school. Exciting (for 5 year olds), cheap, and the kids were kept contained at all times when off school premises.

Currently 22 quid. Doesn't actually seem too bad for a Dublo Deltic. It's not like the original Dublo paintjob was particularly complex to reproduce, so it could be a nice piece for someone not totally obsessed with originality.

I've always thought the Ratio loco kits were a laudable effort to offer a loco kit that was as "easy" to put together as a plastic rolling stock kit, for a relatively affordable price (metal kits being expensive). Unfortunately, in practice they seem to have showed why conventional loco kits were/are how they were/are.

I've used Molotow, and other "street art" paints on (legitimate) mural projects and been very impressed. They stick like crazy to pretty much anything, with no more preparation than a blast with a pressure washer, and seem to last very well. I recently drove past one of our projects that's now 8 years old, and it's still looking good. The colour choice is excellent, too, and includes shades that don't appear in more "conventional" ranges. Well worth a look.

Interesting. I admit that it's been some time since I bothered to look at Oz retail pricing, as it had always seemed to follow the usual Australian situation, for any goods out of the mainstream, of poor range and swingeing markups. Perhaps the distributors and retailers have caught up with the Internet era and are adjusting to the realisation that their markets are no longer captive, and it's better to have a small cut of something than a larger cut of nothing.

Although given typical Australian model railway pricing, and the cost of shipping back to the UK, someone is going to have to really want them.