Ozexpatriate

Pete, perhaps, but I can't think of it. I expect the pharmaceutical commercials go national. How long ago was it on TV?

This commerical (Intel Ultrabook Convertible) has been getting a lot of airplay on TV in the US lately. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7F4ZDdbjk I assume that after the first scene we are on the Bluebell. I'm guessing this is Horsted Keynes (as the presumably fictional "Duncan Park") with the London Brighton & South Coast Railway Class E4 0-6-2T 473, "Birch Grove" pulling into the station. Can anyone confirm this for me?

Only in the Kero-line-ass! (Carolinas) Thanks in large measure to Austin Powers, the British meaning of shâg is understood in the US these days.

Simon, No Gresley A1? (just kidding). From your list I like the A4 and the A3. I like the splashers and the flowing curves in the frames. No - it looks like it has a tooth missing.

SP 4449 is quite magnificent in 'person' and now in her new home.

As an entity, the Bulleid Leader was most certainly exothermic, though of course one could argue that the pistons/motion were endothermic. As to hell, I'll leave that to the philosophers. Augustine of Hippo perhaps?

There is an episode of Big Bang theory set on the northbound Amtrak Coast Starlight. This is season 2, episode 17, "The Terminator Decoupling" and features Summer Glau (The Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles) who sadly detrains at Santa Barbara. The move from LA to Montana is season 3, episode 13 "The Bozeman Reaction". Sheldon's "It's official, I'm an HO trainiac" is from season 5, episode 3, "The Pulled Groin Extrapolation".

I formed the impression that Bachmann had indicated that this decoder would sense the supply and operate happily on either DC or DCC stimulus. Many models offered in the US (even with sound) operate this way. I don't recall if we have discussed it here in this thread, but I do recall a conversation on the observation that the BR versions are DC and the GWR Green (shirtbutton) version is DCC. It did seem an odd choice. Since Bachmann released two Cities, I'm pretty satisfied for outside framed GWR 4-4-0s right now.

What an outrageous assertion! According to the Amtrak schedule, the Surfliner manages a start-to-stop timing of 64mph between Solano Beach and Oceanside! (It's probably the fastest part of the route.) Sadly most Los Angelenos have forgotten their extensive network of overhead electrification on suburban and interurban routes, now commemorated at the Orange Empire Railway museum. To tie this back into the thread, it was the Pacific Electric Red Cars (a subsidiary of the SP and self-styled as The Largest Electric Railway System in the World) that feature in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". There is a distressing amount of railway ignorance in Southern California particularly. I would be stunned to see it actually take place. LA-Vegas proposals pop up and disappear perennially too.

Found it! I thought we did one ... GWR & BR(WR) Era poll (which era do you model in?) There's probably no need for a new poll. Perhaps just a bump for newcomers to vote. Lately I've seen a couple of new RMwebbers who have identified themselves as GWR fans.

The recent Castle livery discussion here put me in mind of this old thread on preferences for GWR livery periods. Did we ever do that old thread in poll form with automated questions? (I don't remember.) Is this worth doing? I didn't want to start a thread that was essentially a rehash.

I don't have the suitable reference works to verify running numbers, but presumably they did so during the post war period up to nationalisation.

Would that be the 0-6-0 tender Collett goods you are referring to? 32-310 is the only one I am aware of that is listed in a current catalogue. It clearly looks post-war (Hawksworth era) to me. 32-304 had a shirtbutton livery. There was also an prior model, but I'd have to trawl through catalogues. I don't recall any being offered lined out but might be remembering it wrong. I have no idea if this locomotive class, being primarily freight was ever lined out in revenue service. We had a significant amount of discussion on the small details for this batch of Castles long ago. It starts around here. We did discuss No. 5011 sometime back then. There's some specific comments here. Pre-1935 GWR is my favourite period. While, it's not fair to say this period is ignored, early-Collett, late-Collett and Hawksworth periods do seem to take turns. For locomotives manufactured before 1935, if anything, it feels to me like the RTR models produced seem to congregate into early-Collett express engines, Hawksworth freight engines, each leavened with random shirtbutton releases.

The choice of livery is impacted by the specific tooling implemented for this Castle. The tooling applies to Castles that were built starting very late during the "GREAT <arms> WESTERN" livery, so the set of accurate running numbers in this livery is small.

Rob, My Tintagel Castle did not have a smokebox number or glue stains. It did arrive broken - chimney and separately fitted detail on the tender busted off. Nothing major that couldn't be glued back on, though there were some fine detail plastic parts I haven't identified yet that were also broken. The Argos Hornby Legends verion of Nunney Castle is in the Collett "GREAT <arms> WESTERN" livery, but this is the old tooling.

It's quite clearly the old Castle tooling, as one would expect, but it is nice to see Hornby do a "GREAT <arms> WESTERN" livery. It is interesting that Hornby do significantly more grouping liveries in their lower end offererings. This is very evident in the Railroad Range. Roughly, Grouping v. Nationalization DC steam engine liveries are: Railroad: ~13 v. 7 = 65% (not counting all the Holden tank etc variants) Regular: 28 v. 45 = 38%

Right you are. Sorry I missed it in all the noise and confusion. A worthy choice indeed.

If we're going Pennsy (and I do like those choices, particularly the T1), surely the GG1 has to get an honourable mention? They look fast and powerful, and they were exactly that. But most importantly they were unstoppable and had a service life spanning 48 years. Here's Lowey himself in a publicity shot with a new GG1.

Churchward's 4-6-0 designs set the standard 'look' for British express steam locomotives. The Collett-designed Castle (just to make sure no one is confused about which Castle ) is the pinnacle of this design ethos. I do have to confess a fondness for the industrial design aspect of streamliners, including the semi-streamliners. I've had plenty of opportunity to see this one up close and personal (it is magnificent even if you don't like red and orange) and I love the art deco look of this one. The late 1930s where whole trains, including locomotives were designed as a coherent entity with streamlining is my ideal as "best looking". A short list of examples includes: LNER Coronation LMSR Coronation Scot NYC 20th Century Limited VR Sprit of Progress SP Daylight

HM's blue clay hopper - the perfect rake for the proportedly purple Thomas (missing two wheels) shown here if only they were the same gauge and scale!

The MREmag & RMweb 00 wishlist poll results certainly confirm that the 'Yank' tank is a great choice. Congratulations ModelRail and Dapol.

Actually, I never thought there was a crossing at all.

I think most of the aerial photographs are older than that. I live in a town some miles upstream and Bing imagery with the same datestamp shows leveled dirt where a restaurant was constructed and operating before February 2008 (Google Streetview shows the restaurant under construction in 2007). The tree in the traffic management island in the intersection of Main St and 6th appears in two and disappears in one of the three Google map views. The Steetview data showing the tree is marked as 2009.

Attached below is a sketch of my interpretation based on what I made out (separately from the observations above), though largely with the same bing imagery. I couldn't really "see" the south end of the runaround, so the approximate alignment I have drawn could well be wrong. Please feel free to make suggestions/corrections. Incidentally, I live reasonably close to Oregon City. If someone wants to go ahead and actually model this location, it is possible for me to drive down there and take photographs.

I'm a bit confused about the notional 90° crossing. There is a 90° curve inside the mill - but this is a spur into a shed. This is the end of the shunt (Main and 6th Street) where the google aerial view shows fresh ashphalt.