john new

Although my wife and I are observing the rules and minimising our travel some of the few journeys were are doing by car could/would previously have been done locally on the bus using our bus passes. Although I think you may well be right about the visiting issue just maybe some of the excess cars are other people making the same bus and/or train avoidance decisions. Part of the issue giving cars the edge is the need for masking on public transport and the associated risk of being cooped in with strangers even with socially distanced seating. Also we see that the buses are often running up through the village main street with the blind saying COVID capacity full. (Our local First buses are compliant) so reliability of getting on is compromised.

Surely the key issue is that the purchased item should be fit for the purpose of what it says it is sold for, not whether or not you are a modeller. Examples - RTR - should be 100% runnable with all the bits that are supposed to be attached actually attached and with a life expectancy of more than a small amount of running. Whether it is dimensionally accurate or not is a different issue here entirely, WYSIWG applies. Kits - they should (a) be buildable and (b) buildable into what they are supposed to be, again check WYSIWG before you purchase. As this link to Wright Writes shows even kits from reputable sources have errors. What we have seen over the years are examples of both the above not being the case, again as an example the Hornby Q6 motors had/have an issue so it is not just the 66 model, and on many a thread about kits there are quotes about misfitting parts and other bodges needed. I have bought a Hornby Q6, it hasn't had much use yet and my shunting plank use is unlikely to overheat a motor, I expect it to live as long as my old H/Dublo has, but will it if it gets used on a bigger layout in the future, perhaps a loop around the garden? If I got one of the rogues I may have to fit a new motor at some point (Modelling) the fact is it shouldn't need it.

Yes, rarely use eBay due to past issues but find PP much easier for internet buys than (a) digging out my payment card and typing strings of numbers and (b) the need to open accounts in newly visited sites.

Fully concur. I typed a lot more, and deleted it before posting this, as unfortunately our UK politicians, especially those elected to English constituencies, seem to be too scared of the backlash to act firmly.

But were the GWR as non-progressive as stated? They were early adopters of the DMU and had commissioned a costing exercise for mainline electrification. Had also looked at gas turbine traction so experimentation and ideas for alternatives to steam were in hand. The idea post-nationalisation of the BR Riddles classes was to impose a national BR standard on to the new Western Region, the GWR already had a form of standardisation which as an independent company they could have continued until the case for switching away from steam was forced on them by economics or labour shortages. In reality some steam men drifted to other countries after BR finished with it so if the GWR had stuck with steam a bit longer they would perhaps have found recruitment easier as there was a pool of redundant steam men elsewhere in the nation looking for work! The fact is we can't know, so a counter factual scenario can be made to fit anything, provided it stays plausible. My own guess - electrification.

The madness of some covidiots continues. This would have been bad enough (The church damage) without the activity being held in the middle of a Tier 4 Zone. Madness, but at least the Brighton event didn't happen, or if it did the original site was a decoy and it got through under the RADAR somewhere else. Apart from food shopping and exercise it is going to be another long drawn out period of staying away from people.

Can confirm this, we ran a piece about it in the SLS Journal.

Having been a speaker there in the past - sad news.

Did any part of it get useably archived on internet wayback? The usual problem on IW archived websites is text got archived but not associated photographs. I would look myself but have forgotten what the URL was.

I think both the above interact - bigger locos running with longer trains was found to need a significant civil engineering investment in marshalling areas, passing loops and four track sections to be practical (your constraint No. 2). That in turn led to your No. 3. Where bigger would also have led to increased weight in addition to the track configuration issues bridge strengthening costs all impacted on the projected total cost of operation. Building bigger would have knock-ons for costs of production in the workshops too. The Midland/early LMS's idea of little and often is often derided, the converse view is that it defrayed areas of capital investment at a time when the revenue impact of L&O was an absorbable increase in use of cheap labour. Mistakes were made, for example with the use of standard design axle-boxes, but that is the viewpoint of hindsight. At the time, especially to Board level accountants, it would have made sense and the engineering design side couldn't have argued sufficiently forcefully against the idea for it to be overturned.

Only 22:30 so a bit early but a Happy New Year greeting to one and all from everyone on the organising team at YMRS. Let's hope 2021 is an improvement over the last few months. Easter 2021 may be off but we are hoping to be back in full flow by Easter 2022. Best of luck for all your modelling activities in the coming year - support the trade - buy local.

More work on the inside portable layout and stock. Refine my weathering techniques Finally get some of my started kits finished in particular get my Dapol/Branchlines railbus to run properly. if the above can be got to work properly try another brass kit (the above put me off them as it has never run reliably). Learn much more about DCC, I have begun the conversion with some of my locos now DCC but still a novice. Outside, two scrap pallets retained after recent building works so the aim is to get a continuous run around part of the garden so I can run the long trains it is impossible to do indoors. All the best for 2021 to everyone, let us hope things do begin to get better during the coming year.

It will slow and stop more rapidly when the Darwin effect, partly or fully, makes those who think there isn’t a problem discover there is through catching it personally or knowing someone who has. As an example of the fact that there is still this idiocy about note the planned beach protest for today in Brighton. Why do it? What is that some people just do not get? There are fireworks going off near me now as I write this, I hope that the audience for them is just the one family bubble, and not a small gathering in contravention of the rules. Despite the publicity there are still obvious deliberate contraventions being noted, You can forgive the odd accidental lapse but not the deliberate.

Yes, they are very useful.

Have grandsons, one autistic, fully understand.

He’s probably a parent of primary age boys.

That is a scenario where the idea I have had for a while, but not built, of using an old TV connected to a looping video for an animated digital back scene would be ideal. Why haven't I tried it? I have the spare largish screen telly, but no space to build or store a suitable layout! The idea came to me on Upwey station, thinking that if the branch was modelled as preserved when franchises changed liveries the backdrop could be re-filmed and kept current. Idea floated that's all.

That isn't Keith's his was 4mm.

Keith drew the Corris loco Winson and I have a copy of his design as it was in 2008. Not sure if it is the same one, as it is one I have not tried to do from the sheet I have so may not be the final version. His trading name was/was to be Welsh Patentless Cardboard Chimney Co. If that is anywhere on the kit it will definitely be one of his. (See logo below) His others that I have copies of were - an original Bullied Pacific in N (Unfinshed) and a child's construction toy Welsh Dragon. The 4mm Narrow Gauge drafts I received were for Merridn Emrys, Tallylyn, Alice/Holy War. Moellwyn, a de-Winton & Countess. Not all the sheets I have were of the worked to a finish stage, his website shows at least one other he had made but I didn't get the drafts for that/those. Of those I know Russell and Holy War were finished versions (I test built versions of those for him at the time as instruction sheet checks) and I think from memory Talyllyn was too but the project fizzled out so what with one thing and another the designs did not get built. Hope this answer helps, sadly due to Keith's illness he lost use of the computer for email and our contact then became texts and some phone calls before it finally petered out due to the physical distance between Dorset & N Wales. I have no contact with any surviving relatives.

I helped the late Keith Hunt* with a few test builds of a series of 009 card kit locomotives he was designing. The card wheels in the kits were just for static display. I believe a print run of the Russell kit sheets may have made it to sales via the original Welsh Highland Society before Keith became ill. What has happened to ownership of the masters for that, and the other drafts in the range since he died, I can't say as I don't know. * As of today his website remains live and as a free Wordpress site may remain so permanently; however, no one has updated it for a long while.

As a long term H/Dublo fan, and operator of an H/D exhibition layout (currently pending a full rebuild) if it is only chipped I recommend leaving it as it is, the lived in look is authentic.

Why not do what I did, i.e. wire it fully for DC with the usual section switches and panel? To make it swappable between either you fit the track power feed and return for BOTH systems up the line from the switch panel with a DPDT acting as a splitter switch so as to select one or the other. My option also uses a plug-in DCC throttle (NCE Powercab) and a plug in Gaugemaster W for DC. This gives an instant visual aid as to which system is in use/was used last time. When running with DCC I just set all the switches to on. With this option DCC is therefore not a worry and can be ignored as regards track wiring, however, you do need to get the DC side sorted which for a dual system you have to do anyway. The best tip coming out of the DCC guidance is make sure there are plenty of droppers for each rail section rather than relying on the fishplates, that in turn will improve reliability under DC. It is still possible to c**k things up by putting the the wrong locomotives on the track when the DCC is fed in but as it is visually easy to tell which system is plugged in this risk is lowered. Also make sure your DCC locos have the CV set for DC enabled running, thereby eliminating that as problem if you give the wrong track feed option to your DCC items. I am still a bit of a DCC newbie myself therefore if the DCC experts see that anything above is wrong I would like to know so I can correct my own installation. Edit - addition: initially of course you can connect all the track feeds together underneath - the control panel can be added later to allow more than one loco at a time under DC. I did a quick and dirty cheat, a bit of scrap copper wire stripped from heavy duty cable (Skip bin sourced) mounted between two chocolate blocks with all the wires soldered to that. When I had the panel built the wires were then unsoldered with individual extensions joined on at that location and linked individually to the panel switches.

Can you do what I did recently for some missing wagon logos, scan the one's you have and then print your own off?

A link across posted into both would be a compromise as i can see your point too. It is just that new content churn so rapidly it is easy to miss things there.

With the depot fed by tanker trains from that well known company - Flatuline.