Arun Sharma

Thank you - I would certainly like to see that other pic if you are able to track it down.

Anyone got any pics of the griddle cars in the class 309 units? - The four car unit in the six car set that went to Clacton had a griddle car in it.

I assume that the driver for all this process is to so simplyfy the fare/ticketing system that a simple machine in the station selling a very small range of ticketing types will enable the displacement of all ticket office staff into redundancy or reallocation to new duties. 

16 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

.....and, while you're talking about Birmingham......

 

 

 

 

At 1:02 there is a shot of a two set Cross-Country 22x service traversing a marked change in gradient between the first and second set. Is that artefactual from the viewpoint of the camera or does that rather strange gradient change actually exist? Seem to me that if that gradient change was on a model layout, it would not be regarded as especially prototypical.

 

 

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As some will know, the majority of my modelling and kit design work is done in 7mm scale. However, living in a bungalow, that doesn't really allow me to have anything other than a very short test track. I have decided to take the plunge and build myself a small layout in N gauge [with a probable migration to Hornby TT120 one day].
 With 4mm and 7mm turnouts it is often recommended that PECO electrofrog points have the stock and closure rails electrically bonded with a piece of wire soldered between them. Additionally, the two small pieces of wire that bridge the gap between the closure rails and the frog are removed - see attached screen shot so as not to confuse terminology.

I gather this is done as the electrical connection between the stock and its adjacent switch rail is otherwise normally entirely dependent on physical contact between the point blade of the switch rail and the stock rail and this can be readily compromised by dirt.
 My question is therefore, is this same procedure required in Electrofrog points in N gauge? The reason I ask is that the N gauge Electrofrog points seem not to have the same small pieces of wire that bond the closure rails and the frog - unless I need to get a larger/better magnifying glass of course!
 Any advice appreciated. The image comes from a DCCwiki.com YouTube video for which many thanks.

Hmm... I wonder. I would normally watch Yesterday on Sky. The Sky box would normally allow me to record a [one-off] programme that was being broadcast no more than 167hours ahead as that is the maximum length of time that the in-box timetable allows. Last week, the Yesterday channel was not displaying any programmes further than 72 hours in advance. Thus I couldn't set the box to record the Hornby programme any earlier than Saturday evening.

Years ago - back around 1975 perhaps, I recall a visit to Steamtown at Carnforth where a Black 5 had been painted in LNER apple green. I only saw it the once and presumably it has long been repainted black. I suspect I took a photograph of it but haven't found it yet.

12 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Actually with some quite considerable additions - its Docks Dept grew massively as a result of the grouping and was of course subsequently headed by someone who came from one of the amalgamated companies;  Its coal traffic also received a major boost giving the combined company access to one of the richest parts of the South Wales coalfield and arguably it was its coal revenue that allowed it to carry on running various quiet rural branchlines.  And financially if definitely dead something right because at nationalisation certain GWR stock (i.e. shares) received the highest continuing guaranteed payments post 1948 of any of the Big Four stocks.

 

But are we entirely right to look upon 1923 as the anniversary of anything more of the Grouping than the attachment of names to three of the new Groups?  The legislation dated from 1921 (see above) and amalgamations started before 1923 - for example all of the larger Welsh companies amalgamated with the GWR from 1 January 1922 and the revised GWR was established by legislation passed in July 1922 with absorbtion of various smaller companies coming in January 1923.  And the GWR did not absorb the M&SWJtR until July 1923 with the Caledonian and North Staffs similarly surviving as separate companies until that month when they finally amalgamated with the LMS.

 

So the centenary - apart from the names used by three of the Big Four - spreads over the period from 1921 to mid 1923

....... and of course the L&Y was incorporated into the LNWR a year prior to the Grouping

It's an interesting point Edwin - Putting a tram or some form of railway [perhaps solely for freight?] on the lateral side of a carriageway might present greater problems as it likely interferes with traffic leaving and joining the motorway whereas if it is in the centre then junctions could be much more like they are now. Perhaps the major use for such a central railway would be for freight - effectively an extension of the 'electric spine' so there would be no need for the railway to have an equivalent rail turnout at every motorway road junction. Basically I would be thinking of a railway linking DIRFT-like places.- to keep container traffic off the motorways.

You might argue that right from the outset, when designing any new motorway, that the central reservation should have a bi-directional tram track and cycle lane added. Far cheaper to do at the design stage than once [junctions et al] built.

On 24/12/2022 at 17:20, Wheatley said:

There's a thread on pprune.org somewhere about Vulcans. Apparently the testing of engines on dispersals (rather than in the Engine Test Facility where the noise is largely deflected upwards rather than straight out behind the aircraft) was strictly prohibited except where essential for operational purposes. Of course on an airfield with a nuclear strike commitment it was not difficult to justify operational necessity and a surprising number of tests were found to be operationally necessary on Sunday mornings, especially after a complaint from the neighbours. 

It's an odd thing that on returning from the first Gulf War to UK that the locals never complained  about noise made by our desert pink painted low flying Tornados but voiciferously complained about their identical green painted brethren who hadn't gone to the Gulf. Similarly, our yellow search & rescue Sea King helicopters never had noise complaints made against them but the identical green ones often did......

40 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Fortunately 🙂

However it does exist in 7mm.............

28 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

The helpful thing to happen would be for a big fish, Siemens maybe, to acquire the tiny minnow that is the residual of Vivarail and run it as a limb (do fish have limbs?) of their organisation. 

 

Coelocanth fishes have vestigial limbs - there is one in the Natural History Museum if you want to see fish limbs.

2 hours ago, 1E BoY said:

Just to get the subject matter back on track - Winslow in 6.4 miles south of Buckingham and Finmere station (which was not actually in Finmere but at Newton Purcell is 5.1 miles to the west. Buckingham rail commuters in recent years have the option of driving to Bletchley / Milton Keynes Central on the West Coast Main Line or to Bicester North on the Chiltern route to Marylebone.

Or of course residents of Buckingham could just get Stagecoach's X5 bus to take them to MK, Bedford, Bicester North, Bicester Village or Oxford.

There was a short RHTT MPV pair working with clouds of spray through Weybridge on the down slow line which then crossed the main up and down lines to travel onto the branch towards Addlestone this evening at 1605 but regrettably too dark to take any useful pics.

7 hours ago, Din said:

 

The M6 toll is stupidly priced and the lack of traffic I see on it no matter time of day suggests it'll be paid off some time when the Sun Explodes

Interestingly, whilst the road is gratifyingly free of traffic, Norton Canes services always seem to be jam packed at any time of day! Very strange!

8 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 But - as an example - TfL has end-to-end advertising inside tube cars but never ever outside.

Not entirely correct - viz., the Yellow Pages C stock train and the United Airlines 1973 Stock Piccadilly Line train. For some reason RMWeb doesn't seem to want me to add a pic of the YP train.

Suggest also try Southern Nouveau published by Irwell Press which has drawings of masses of the SR's concrete lineside structures.

No, I don't personally have a website.

Most of my kits are small runs and have been sold by Radley Models who do have a website though it can be a pain to negotiate at times. A few kits [mainly trams] are sold directly but they are very limited runs designed to specific orders in the main.

The only notification that usually exists of a new kit coming out is via RMWeb [in the appropriate section], Western Thunder and the 7mm Finescale Society forum. The only hard copy print notifications would be in the journals of the Model Bus Federation or Tram and Light Railway Society.

18 hours ago, Jon Fitness said:

There's quite a few vehicles about with St Helens style front ends. Here's a particularly excellent one!

JF

I like that one - I'm guessing that's in the NW Road Transport Museum in St Helens. I think that might be quite a useful kit to design. I will see if there are any plans in the MBF catalogue.

On 07/11/2022 at 19:14, D6775 said:

All very interesting, what else is in the back catalogue. Buses suitable for the 80's/90's would be interesting.

80s and 90s buses are complex. Although they tend to have a pretty simple outline, they tend to have flush glazing and windscreens that curve in more than one plane. They are therefore easier to scratchbuild in clear styrene sheet and using vacforming for glazing. Once produced, they don't necessarily lend themselves to being duplicated via silicon moulding as:

a. Transparent resins are difficult to handle sucessfully owing to their propensity to produce bubbles

b. Removal of support pins in transparent resin casting will leave a mark that can be seen through the part [not a problem with opaque resins]

c. Resin casting really requires a wall thickness of 1.5mm as a minimum and that makes scratchbuilding masters more difficult.

However, there is a LT Merlin/Swift in the 'back catalogue' somewhere as we have an AEC SMS lurking at Brooklands.

2 hours ago, djparkins said:

 

Arun - will this include intermediate cars?  On a personal level - any luck with the battery loco/wagons we spoke about.

 

David

Yes - with the exception of the 18 prototype streamlined DMs which were converted into trailers as these cars retained the three saloon windows at the old cab end. Other than the underframe bits, the trailers and NDMs are essentially the same as the driving cars except that they have a trailing end [less guard's controls] at both ends.

Regarding the 1938 BLs and the 30T flat wagons, I have heard nothing back at all from the resin casters. I will chase them up.

3 hours ago, djparkins said:

 

Hooray!

This is the screen shot of the 3D CAD model. All this and more exists in solid form at present. I am currently working on the bogie design but with the aid of the LT Museum, I have all the information I need to complete the design of these although given the requirement for 31-32inch diameter wheels, motorisation might be challenging.

2 hours ago, 37114 said:

Good project Arun. Will be interested to see what you do next as a model, the RM is out of my area but some 1970s buses and coaches would be well received please.

If I can find a decent set of drawings [or even a prototype in a museum] a Leyland PD3 with the St Helen's front would be a possibility as I have already designed that front end on some LT breakdown tenders viz:

The difficult bit was the radiator area. Converting this into a bus half cab would be pretty straightforward.

However, the next model in the list is almost completed and that is the LT 1938 Tube Stock Driving Motor.