ian

7 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

A previous day-job location had a lift with floors going down to -10. Our security pass only allowed us into floors +1 to +3.

If your pass didn't allow you to the area below ground you obviously weren't a mole...

I'll see myself out.

8 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Did you know dropping a viagra tablet in a flower vase stops the flowers drooping.

Apparently if the tablet gets stuck in your throat you get a stiff neck.

More trains working for their living

1 hour ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

“Who Fridgidaires Wins” ? 😉

Ice Cold In Kildare?

10 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

Questionable whether any of the closer-to-hand ones even need point motors for a home layout?

As long as they are close to the hand of whoever is doing the shunting  then they'll be fine without.

18 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I don't know who started the rumour of me painting something and finishing it.

That WOULD be a portent of imminent doom for the hobby!

Just wonderful. You sir are an artist and craftsman.

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Here they are, posed on Nancegwithey Viaduct.

An early prototype of the Brunel timber viaduct design. 😀

12 minutes ago, Barry O said:

2025 probably...

 

Baz

The cakes might be a bit stale by then...

Jolly good show - and hopefully jolly good shows as you get Much Murkle back on the road.

You could try comitting a crime a the other end as well...

It'll look great when you've got all the occupancy lights wired and connected to the layout....

I'll see myself out.

The diving board now has a home. I know that the safety elf would have a fit if he saw it but it's my railway and I don't care! Mind you, the concrete pads on which the legs stand need some work.

One part of the IA empire that they were always very cagey about was Lewis Masonic - a publisher and bookseller of masonic texts. The Midland Counties shop/warehouse in Hinckley had a 'secret' showroom where freemasons could browse and buy. IA was a freemason and that was one of his pet schemes.

We're drifting away from the original topic here but for many years IA made its money from property interests rather than publishing.  The founder was, however, very attached to the publishing arm and it was only after he was no longer in the driving seat that it could be flayed, filleted and dumped.

11 hours ago, RichardT said:

MRC was a later development after Ian Allan realised they’d made a mistake getting out of the model railway magazine market.

And then Hornby Magazine was a later development after IA had realised they has made a mistake in getting rid of MRC and getting out of the model railway magazine market.

And a later development was when IA got rid of Hornby Magazine and got out of the model railway magazine market.

The Pentowan seaside 'toy; railway?

The diving board has grown a bit.

The locals are always on the lookout for signs that may portend forthcoming doom.

A pot of paint and a paintbrush is sufficiently unusual to count in that category...

A fare-dodger is known as 'Schwarzfahrer' - black traveller - and if caught were subject to an on-the-spot fine and much tutting and black looks from other people on the bus/train/tram.

Meanwhile I seem to have built a diving board!

Those of us who have birthdays during the Christmas period will know the feeling of getting short-changed with presents that 'are for both Christmas and birthday'. Well, as I bought myself a loco for Christmas it seemed only fair to get another one for my birthday. It arrived after the event but, given it had come from Germany, that is forgivable.

What we have here is a BR 111, introduced on the DB in 1974 so brand-spanking new in terms of the layout context. These were passenger locos and it provides a bit of variety to the BR110s used on the electrically hauled D-Zuge.

If the two lads by the lineside were railway enthusiasts they would be enjoying the spectacle of a new loco - so we must assume that their gripping reading matter isn't Eisenhan-Kurier but quite possibly something a little more embarassing as they are far from parental scrutiny. A glossy pictorial with unadorned Rhinemaidens perhaps?

32 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

Prague is also home to the Pizza restaurant with an LGB railway serving every table with drinks from the bar.

Oi! You derailed my pint!

And that, m'lud, is how the fight started.

So, having made a rod for my own back, here is the new improved operations video with added layout schematic. You may need to pause it occasionally to make the most of the new information-rich environment and view it full screen rather than in a window.

Enjoy!

Nearly three and a half years on from this:

I've finally got this:

And from the side that you never see in the catalogue:

Mind you, I have done other things on the layout during the course of the building's gestation - Neustadt didn't have a baseboard when I started it!

As you would expect there are lights:

The year is off to a good start!

No apologies needed for thread drift - couplings are one of the eternal niggles of the hobby.

The Ercallbahn is constrained in its choice by the fact that most of the stock has couplers that can't be changed without extensive reworking of the rolling stock. Since most of the couplings are metal and can be adjusted by bending with a pair of pliers and, when properly set, work well, that will do me. They don't do close coupling, uncoupling without a ramp is a bit of a lottery - sometimes you lift the correct vehicle in the correct way and they come apart, other times you don't and they get tangled - and they look nothing like a real coupling.

Prior to starting this project I had been working towards an N gauge empire but had stalled with couplings. The fact that the standard issue Marklin ones worked was a major factor in the decision.