didcot

Road to hell - Chris Rea (I travel it every day to work )

Rock of Ages - Def Leppard

Whilst no laughing matter watch the video at the start of the piece, 1m 30 seconds in the water is going up the reservoir and the people are walking backwards! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49247226

Let me entertain you - Robbie Williams

Hattons have just cancelled all my preorder for the Quarry Hunslets. They state they are no longer able to fulfil my preorder! Shame, but will look elsewhere for Bachmann suppliers. Matt

Billy's got a gun - Def Leppard

Night boat to Cairo - Madness

I had a Minitrain Baldwin and it ran well. It disintegrated when it fell from lap height onto the carpet. I know they are not made to be dropped but I was surprised as they are very light and the carpet soft.

Its also important to be kind to yourself. I have always set myself high standards. Part coping mechanism, part drilled into me as an apprentice. If it wasn't right it went in the bin. So that kind of sets you up for a fall. But let's face it if something isn't quite right, no one gets hurt. So you have to be kind to yourself, take a step back or walk away but don't beat yourself up. It's taken a lot of practice to rewire my brain. Beating myself up was second nature, but that is changing slowly. I also deliberately steer clear of social media, with this exception, I don't watch the news, it scares me. I've also learnt that some people just aren't worth it and let them go. Not always easy due to family ties, but I don't need there toxic poison in my life anymore. So be kind to yourselves. Matt

Again I can only repeat what others have said. One thing I have learned from CBT and my local mental health team is to find a bit of time to do something for you each day. It doesn't have to be much or time consuming. Just something to help do a reset. I also find a cognitive shuffle helpful. You have to think of different things that are not related. So for example start with a brick, then say space shuttle. So it would go something like a brick, space shuttle, a sun flower, a phone, water, balloon and so on. It takes practice but it's a useful distraction tool. I find it useful lying in bed. It's stops me going over and over the same thing and calms me down. Tomorrow is a new day and a clean slate. I hope you feel better. Matt

Thank you Matt

Thanks Matt

I'm sure it's been asked before, but how does on solve the coupling height issue. The locos are a good couple of mm to high so much so that the loop on the trailing vehicle won't go over the pip on the locos coupling. Thanks Matt

Thanks for that. I will continue with dcc wiring for my new layout. Matt

Do we know if they will be dcc ready? I can't find anything on the Bachman site to suggest one way or another. Thanks Matt

What a fantastic response to a terrible event. The hobby should be very proud. Words fail me, the way everyone has rallied round to help is very humbling. I hope those who have lost so much have a crumb of comfort from the reaction. Matt

Gutted for all those affected. Its bad enough when you drop your own model but this.....! So sorry. Matt

Took a stroll down to the Railway centre on Saturday and captured this. I do like the straight frames.

I would agree that we have never had it so good. It reminds me of a birthday in the late 70s / early 80s. I wanted an Airfix Prairie, I was taken by the line drawing on the Airix box and 6106 was 1/2 mile down the road. Dad took me to Mr Miles shop in Didcot to get it on his Saturday afternoon off. We got it home and put it one the track.....nothing. 30 minutes of pushing and prodding wouldn't make it move, so back we went. Being a smaller shop Mr Miles didn't have another, so off we went to Centre News where a Hornby Pannier was purchased instead. Anyway 1/2 hour later we are back in Centre News to exchange it for another and then back again for a refund! Off we went to Touchwood Sports (who also did Star Wars figures in the blister packaging) and another Pannier was procured. You can see where this is going. By now I was in tears, Dad was beginning to lose patience with model railways having spent most of his afternoon off charging around town. But back we went to Touchwood Sports and came away with a blue Caledonian 0-4-0. Not my beloved GWR, but the only loco left in Didcot we hadn't tried. It ran straight away and I still have it tucked away with my other model railway items waiting for the day when I finally finish decorating the new house! I also asked for the 3 1/2" Rocket for Christmas. I could only have it if all the grandparents, Aunts and Uncles chipped in to buy it and other than some sweets from the man in red that was it! I couldn't sleep for weeks. I had the whole house up early, with my dad having to move his car out the garage at 6 am so we could lay down the track. He and my grandfather oiled and watered it, filled the butane canister, lost facial hair when lighting it. All to no avail. Seized solid. Queue Christmas melt down! The replacement only moved two feet and blew one of the cylinder caps off! My grandfather, who always seemed to have Araldite or plastic padding to hand, glued it back on. It still holds to this day! Fortunately neither I or my boys have had to go through that exercise and 99% have been perfect out of the box with only a drop of oil needed. I think we forget that the level of details and reliability were somewhat lacking back in the day. Matt

Thanks Paul

Hi All, I was wondering if anyone had managed to get a dcc decoder into the likes of the Bachman Skarloey and similar sized locos. Thanks Matt

https://www.shapeways.com/product/769ENR6W8/ep75b-tyers-token-machine Like this?

That's not a bad idea and does have some merit. I think the Festiniog single Fairlie had various people drawing various things from all over the world. But the difficulty comes when trying to combine the various CAD models from different programs. Packages like Pro Engineer (the best), Solid Works, Solid Edge etc all have their own file types. The only way to transfer models from one package to another is through generic files types such as IGES, STL or STEP. The problem is when exporting from one software to another is that the feature creation process is lost. Unless you have synchronous technology and even then its a pain. You essentially end up with lots of surfaces or as we call it dumb data. Manipulating those surface can be very difficult and time consuming. The lower end software doesn't cope with CAD models from top end software very well and details can be lost. An extreme example would be a wheel looking great in top end software, but when imported into a lower end software it looks like a 50 pence piece. Having said that I like your thinking. A crowd 3D modelled Model! Matt

The Lord of The Isles sets from the 80's do appear to go for silly money and there is always a few floating around. One I have, but never see is The Rocket set. Although the box got lost when I left home! But I'm not planning on selling it and James May would through the box away anyway! The old 4-4-0 Counties used to command a good price, but seam to have lost desirability against the new loco drive version. Matt

I'm looking forward to seeing these in the flesh. The old Airfix Prairie was on my Christmas wish list 30+ years ago. Unfortunately it and several replacements latter meant I ended up with a Hornby Caledonian Pug! My Dad gave up! On a pedantic note when referring to the CAD's that manufacturers show in press releases, they should really refer to them as CAD Models or 3D CAD Models from which 2D drawings are produced, or used in CAM (Computer Aided Manufacture) to produce the tooling. Its like Numpty Clarkson referring to a car as having 500 torques. Its 500 Newton Metres ( or Pounds Feet) of torque. Pedantic off. Have a Merry Festive Season everyone. Lets see what 2018 brings. Matt