adb968008

2 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

 

 

We don't like spending money on what we would call frills!

 

 

Neither do airlines, which is why they sell it.

but then here the passengers are too tight to pay for it too.

On 07/04/2024 at 14:01, melmerby said:

The Tube network is currently having Wi-Fi installed, so I don't imagine HS2 will be without.

Belgium, Singapore, Hong Kong, Washington all had this nearly 3 decades ago.

Its strange to see why the UK likes to be so backwards and resistant to accept modern technology.

I remember 20 years ago the TV screen advertising that was flashing past outside the carriage windows in the tunnels of Hex and thinking the UK had finally come up with something cool in modern media… but it lasted what 6 months ?

Inside tunnel advertising using screens seemed quite a cool idea (and captive audience) to me.

15 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

Could the standard MK1 dynamo be replaced by a 24v alternator & rectifier, used to feed a battery, with enough charge to keep doors locked for say 3-4 hours?

Will need to be 24 hours minimum, and in winter…

some railtours can be very long endeavours, especially when something breaks.

6 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I don' see them getting some bloke in Fort William do the job on the cheap in the sidings up there. 

It's just a stock move - doesn't really imply they will be using it in service without modification.

If WCRC management really think they are about to win the argument it would make sense. 

Perhaps they do believe the politicians will pull rank on the regulators with an election in the offing?

Or perhaps its a PR stunt, and driver training / refresher work.

They might have the coaches there but they are missing the headline act… the steam locos.

I did note in the consist two FKs… but they now seem to be FO conversions…which makes not fitting cdl during there refurbishment even more bizarre.

5 minutes ago, david.hill64 said:

I expect the hardware costs of a CDL installation will be quite small. Preparing the paperwork, getting the approvals and staff training will add a lot. 

If you don't want to do something, inflating the costs is a good way of stopping it.

Agreed, but wcrc has over 100 coaches, portioning the paperwork etc could divide the fixed costs quite considerably.

That would be an advantage to wcrc over everyone else with a dozen coaches.

thing if it is its really a fraction of what wcrc are quoting, it begs the question why fight it, its cheaper just to do it….

But equally why has so few others bothered to do it either, they might have exemptions and made promises to the ORR, but theyve still had 20 years to do it but keep pushing it out.

How are the £30k costs of cdl per coach calculated ?

This outdoor gate has had a magnetic doorlock on it for over a decade that I know of..

https://www.securitysafetyproducts.co.uk/security/security-access-control/extra-strong-weatherproof-maglock-for-gates-and-external-doors.php

Quote

Designed for use on large iron and wooden gates, as well as other external doors, this genuinely impressive maglock boasts a holding force of 1200lbs. It is for this reason we rate this as our single most secure external maglock.

It also has achieved an IP67 rating, meaning it is designed to withstand all the elements that the British weather can throw at it.

 

I know the rail industry is full of bloat, ego and waste, but is this a case of the industry exploiting itself, or can it look outside itself for solutions like this, which cost £71 inc vat per door, so £210 per carriage… plus a few LEDs,  a power source, emergency break glass and a wire to the brake coach ?

I reckon finding suitable industrial use equipment for this shopping list could be sourced for a fraction of the numbers suggested.

I know already its more complicated than that, and someone has to have their authority and you can only use suppliers who are mates of mates…. But even then it seems the real world has solutions the rail bubble doesnt… question is why cannot they be used ?

Whats the other £29,500 ?

35 minutes ago, mevaman1 said:

Anyone know of source of Bachmann 47 nose footsteps?  I have 2 missing on a recent eBay purchase.  They don’t appear on the Bachmann spares site.

 

 Any help much appreciated.

 

 

Andrew

These are the biggest weakness in Bachmanns 47, easily lost.

They used to be listed.

Probably best to call direct.

4 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

An unfathomable amount of equipment dating back to the 1950s is still in use and needs spare parts. In the 90s the factories discovered they could also sell valves to hobbyists in the West who, by most reports, consider them to be very high quality. 

Cheap, disposable, available in vast quantities, doesn't need high tech to perform, works in wide variety of poor conditions, easy to fix in poor conditions, standardised.

5 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

SSSSHHHHHHHHH ! - there might be some Russkies tapping-in to RMweb !

Theyve got one of there own…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76

its live here

20 hours ago, Roy Langridge said:

Have you looked at the cost of the Heljan alternative? When comparing as close as you can like-for-like, Bachmann are charging less aren’t they? Heljan sound £389.95 v Bachmann Sound £339.95 or SFX £384.95 (all rrp). 

 

Roy

Wow….

Yipes.

i’m glad I stick with DC.

ive only got 1, paid £200 for it, dc ready. Felt like it as a “new release” premium.

its certainly not competing on better price or higher quality, and arrived a long way behind the Bachmann one. So its missed all 3 of the typical measures of success.

Just an observation, but last week when I first saw this, I was in Poland and saw an ebay intl site.

i saw literally dozens of sellers offering hundreds of these.

Back in the UK i see less than 10 models offered with only a few choices by just 2 sellers.

Checking my Polish server tonight, they are all still out there so I guess they are staying off the UK.

I am additionally seeing another Dapol O gauge listing tonight that I hadnt noticed before.

fyi when it comes to fakes, off the back of a lorry or anything ritually abnormally bizarre, Poland leaves us in the dust, anything goes there, especially further east you go.

15 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Yawn. 

If you dont like the answer dont make the statement.

its very obvious theres an anti wcrc rhetoric in here.

i dont care either way.

but to ignore the fact they are entitled to defence is to prepare for failure.

you made a statement claiming they needed some good arguments, it took me two minutes… i’m sure it will take them way less, and a good lawyer will wrap it in a bowtie, so why offer such a gift as a dog old statistic ?

The ORR already shot its bow indicating the incidents in Mallaig, and (york ?) which are pointed and relevant and much harder to ignore, and very recent. I cannot even think of a cdl failure incident they could counter with, and how many trains a day now run with cdl…thats compelling.

What WCRC needs is something better than CDL, and have ORR rule against it… but I cant think of that one.

To go with a specific exemption for WHL only, at 25mph might be a harder one to argue against… as that with door bolts and stewards would be stronger than what heritage railways today offer, many with a greater service frequency than the WHL and the risks of volunteers vs professional staff.

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

An implausibly huge number. WCRC really need some very good arguments to be effective against that stat.

Nearly every train was slam door, bar some commuter EmUs

none had any form of door lock.

none had any stewards.

How many have fallen to their deaths in the last 5 years to 2019 which is much more relevent ?

Old numbers mean nothing unless your proposing to go back to those standards.

why not dig up numbers from. 1829 when trains had no roof and no door latch either?

remember a judge has to be neutral.

Bulldog clips, two pieces of straight metal.

wash it in warm to hot water, it will start to be a bit more pliable.

then clamp the plastic inbetween the two pieces of metal to get the flat back in it.

leave overnight and see how it goes.

you may need to repeat more than once.

Interested in a garden office myself, though that website is dog slow.

How are you getting it installed, base etc ?

11 hours ago, black and decker boy said:

https://westcoastrailways.co.uk/downloads/wcr-mp-letter-26-03-24.pdf

So we now know that ORR did turn down the first request for a temporary exemption whilst the main application was / is considered.

That letter cost a few quid to write.

12 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

 

Not a clever game to try. 

 

The Track Access Agreement is with Network Rail as 'Owner of the Network'

Who has to agree to  Network Rail making the agreement?

Well the document is about 100 pages long but you don't need to get deep into it to find out who pulls Network Rail's strings.

 

Words copied directly from page three of the current Jacobite agreement between NR and WCRC:-

 

"Background:

(A) Network Rail is the owner of the Network; and

(B) Network Rail has been directed by ORR to grant to the Train Operator permission to use certain track comprised in the Network on the terms and conditions of this contract."

 

 

Relations between the ORR and wcrc arent good unless youve noticed,

The easy one to resolve this would be in the renegotiation of the Jacobite access contract to indicate all the requirements expected in order to approve it…

ie

1. Cdl fitting

2. Sealed windows

3. cet

4. internal door handles

no compliance no approval to run.

(The contract today does specifiy mk1/mk2, 37, B1, K1, 8f and 5MT, and CET requirement), so other clauses could be added…

tbh what maybe worthwhile is the ORR to publish its overall intentions inrelation to mk1’s for the next few years, so an operator could opt to do full compliance now, rather than piece meal upgrades every year.

Then wcrc puts its pitchforks away and goes ahead with certainty in knowing what it needs to do, beyond cdl and hence invest/plan accordingly.

if the ORR insist on sliding doors in 4 years.. we’ll be here all over again.

If the contract is up in 6 months, common sense suggests they should be discussing this in parallel to this current dispute, waiting until October would seem a bit late in the day, especially as LSL look to be interested, it does feel that money talks and LSL and ORR are becoming quite cosy…

10 hours ago, ruggedpeak said:

So if the NR contract is up later in the year are WCRC are trying to stall fitting CDL until they know if the contract is renewed?

That would make sense to me,

some clarity on whats the future for mk1’s 5 years out would make sense too.

spending a fortune now and finding mk1’s banned in a few years makes no sense either.

Photos can help..

no7 1960’s Oswestry (b4 1966).

https://flic.kr/p/6ii1qf

no7 in 1977 swindon

https://flic.kr/p/dPW3F3

Oil conversion here ?
 

No8 in 1961 swindon

https://flic.kr/p/2ofkaMC

no 9 Swindon in 1954 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Swindon_12_Works_Vale_of_Rheidol_narrow-gauge_2-6-2T_in_'A'_Shop_geograph-2578842-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

no9 again in 1976 and 1977 swindon (looks to have been several months).

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/latest-input--news--old-pictures-etc/6th-july-2020

https://flic.kr/p/2nXTMo1

Unknown, 1962

https://flic.kr/p/2ngd6HF

I’m still a little puzzled…

Neither loco has been made after 4 years, 7 years after announcement.

Why pick these two off the shelf to copy, when far more exciting ones exist ?

say Running off some extra 68’s on the end of the current batch due soon would be much easier to hide and shuffle out the back door, whilst the rest went out of the front.. and anyone on the inside would know a 68 has more success as they've made oodles of them… weve seen some suggestion that happened a few years ago with someone else.

But the two selected havent been made for years, which may have relevance to the story.

I can certainly think of at least two alternative explanations that would see these in the wild, that differ from the “moonlighting staff” narrative. For example, I have heard anecdotally that a Chinese manufacturer can consider a tooling to be abandoned in some circumstances. We also have no clue as to the contractual arrangements, theres always possibility of a disagreement. Theres also another very recent rtr tooling which imo is a copy with minor tweaks of an existing.

Speculating on dodgy staff is a bit sterotypical.

I doubt we will ever know the story on this unless some action is taken by the factory/Dapol.

that said..

it doesnt change that they are out there in a Dapol / Murphys box when they shouldn't be.

The point missed about the serial numbers, my bad..

Was applying them here, at the warehouse, before going to retailers, not there at the factory.

The factory could try copying them, but it would be much more delibrate as they’d need to have one sent there from here to replicate.. something for a model railway item is a bit extreme,

A bit like limited edition certificates are added here.

41 minutes ago, carefreeroz said:

Has 010 been painted yet? If so, what livery please?

Still in undercoat.

its at Tonbridge this weekend, maybe a trip to Eastleigh cometh ?

this maybe worth a watch on Monday, its a regular path 0Y68 with a VAR for monday LE to Eastleigh

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:H32609/2024-04-08/detailed

admittedly it could be anything, as its a regular path.

theres an 0Z69 (clue there) on monday shuffling around Eastleigh yard

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:R09094/2024-04-08/detailed

I wouldnt be surprised if a new model turned up at some point.

The 153 /155 is the only one thats not had an upgrade or a retool..

There is another problem..

once they arrive here, the laundry process on a faulty one is all too easy..

I suspect these will be identical.

ive said for years adding a serial number to locos and the box would be beneficial for warranty purposes, and help modellers from insurance purposes too.

Just a thought, but with 37407, 37667, 37676, 37685 all at FTW, when was last time 4x 37’s were there?

i guess whatever stunt wcrc is planning, it doesnt involve heating the stock… 5-11 degrees and rain.