Wheatley

The idea on motorways is to use them in queuing traffic, ie when the vehicle cannot do more than 37mph even if you wanted to. Once the queue clears it's back to manual control. There is some logic to that, tailbacks tend to cause accidents in the tailback as people get bored of trundling along in first and start fiddling with the radio etc. Presumably, given the number of morons who already think it's ok to text at 70mph the only way that's going to work is if the car hands back control at 37mph automatically.

"The Huddersfield and Sheffield Junction Railway" by Martin Bairstow (1993) contains two photos of signalling interest. 1. "Huddersfield - Meltham local entering Netherton", there is a lower quadrant signal at the entrance to the tunnel (reading towards Huddersfield. Undated but another photo credited to the same photographer (D Ibbotsen) has a 1931 date on it. 2. "Last regular passenger train from Meltham takes the single line token to Lockwood, 21st May 1949". Timber signal box (with bobby and token hoop), LMS tubular post signal facing the other way with what looks like a UQ miniature arm bracketted off it. Regarding industry, the next photo dated 1954 shows brand new David Brown tractors occupying almost every part of Meltham station, I count at least 131 including some loaded onto Medfits. The line was only 3 1/2 miles long so they wouldn't have had to wait long for the previous train to get out of the way.

No idea about tampers but the fire supression kit on a DMU is designed to put out engine fires. If you set light to something away from the engine it doesn't work.

It goes through the middle of the platform though.

Thanks K. Corrected my original text slightly as i'd got my dates cross-hobbled.

Good question. There are NCC minutes from 2012 on line agreeing to the disposal of the 80m directly under the bridge as at that time GCR owned the bits either side. The new brickwork predates that though. Presumably it's hiding replacement steel or concrete girders but whilst I could understand a heritage railway wanting a cosmetic brick screen it seems a bit extravagant for a local authority, they're usually just concerned that it doesn't fall down or cost a fortune. If they are planning to reopen that far it that could by interesting, NCC were supposed to starting work on a cycle path across the site in 2019, including demolishing the part of the platform nearest the bridge. I can't find any reports of it actually opening though. Anyone from GCR actually know ?

Not even that realistic. What breed of cow has 4 spots and a diagonal stripe ? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornby-R7121-Cows-Accessory-Multi/dp/B07N89D63J

Your map is wrong. I know the line went through Borchester because some bloke built a model of it. Hornby black and white cows, despite having been painted by someone who's never seen a cow, don't look too bad if de-horned and painted black.

I'm amazed they lasted this long.

Some time ago, during an archaeological survey of a Roman field system in the Peak District by mature students, attention turned to an 18th century field wall on Roman foundations. It zig-zagged down a slope at quite a regular 'wavelength' whilst its partner on the other side of the lane was ruler straight. After much discussion of theories including building it round now-gone trees, Kev the Postman came up with Rouane's Theory of Distracted Artisans. This roughly stated that one should never try to find too much logic in anything done by a gang of blokes, especially bored ones.

I quite enjoy them but then I never expect them to be anything more than a pleasant chat which might shed a bit of light on how bits of the industry work. They aren't politicians and BRM and Railway Modeller aren't the New Statesman. If you want them to take an approach more similar to either mass market magazines or specialist industry publications they could just regurgitate corporate press releases because that's all that happens with those half the time. I suspect that if magazines started the interview with "So how did you manage to balls up xyz model so spectularly then ?" then they would run short of interviewees and quite possibly readers quite quickly.

Leisure travellers will be back as soon as the shops and pubs open. Commuters will take a bit longer but people are getting fed up working from the box room or dining room table. Not all of them, but enough, not necessarily in North Wales but look further east. What will reduce is the number of people travelling from (say) London to Birmingham for a two hour meeting then back again. They certainly aren't empty around Leeds/Manchester/Liverpool - they're not busy, but they aren't empty. Are the ferries carrying any foot traffic at the moment ? That won't be helping.

Agreed. I worked in a model shop in 1985/6. We could sell as many Cheshires, MR 1000s and whatever the LNER Footballer was as we could get. The only loco in BR livery which sold was Mallard, and that's only because it wasn't available in blue at the time. Even then we sold more Seagulls for people to stick Crownline plates on.

In all seriousness, the Northern Spirit Staff Suggestions Scheme once received an idea to turn the newly redundant 141s into centre cars for 142s by sawing them in half and welding the non-cab ends together. There was even a diagram showing how the sawn-through centre windows in the saloon (!) could be plated over on both sides with perspex to cover the join. Nina, the young lady clerk who administered the scheme, was crying with laughter when she passed it to me for evaluation.

Apart from those workplaces which are still open there's nowhere to go on a train at the moment. They'll be back as soon as the shops and pubs re-open, last summer was a rolling pub crawl in some parts of the north-west.

The Hornby one was plug n play, it extended the bracket signals with extra arms/dolls and some bits of gantry to bridge the gap: https://www.hattons.co.uk/420321/hornby_r089_signal_po02_signal_extension_set_pre_owned_like_new/stockdetail.aspx

Tracing paper ?

Quite a lot of preserved locomotives in the UK carry names or liveries which they never carried in service. It occasionally causes controversy but to my mind, if you've gone to the considerable trouble and effort to preserve the loco and keep it running, you can paint it whatever colour you like, call it whatever you like and embelish it however you like. More controversial is painting something in a sponsor's livery, the best known being the DH Sea Vixen which was displayed at airshows in Red Bull colours. For months the aviation mags were full of letters decrying this outrage and demanding that it be repainted in FAA colours until the owner beautifully shut them down: "The Sea Vixen costs a six figure sum each year to insure and display, Red Bull have covered those costs for the next three years. If in three years time any of your correspondents would like to send me a cheque for the next year's costs I will paint the aircraft whatever colour they like". Personally I quite liked 'City of Truro' in BR black.

a) Iands's 1624mm is the same as the 5' 3 3/4" quoted by The Stationmaster on a previous occasion: b) It depends. For a shunting signal 'as close as possible' bearing in mind that if the point blades were detected by the signal it would have to be directly in line with the ends of the switch rails as GWR discs had the detection built into the signal base. http://www.gwr.org.uk/no-groundsigs.html On other railways the detection was in a separate cast iron box behind the signal, with the signal wire running through it and the signal itself a few feet in front. For running signals it would depend on how the signal and any points ahead of it were interlocked. My own (non GWR) prototype had the signals a maximum of 40' from the point ends because detection / route locking was originally by depression bars which had to be longer than the maximum gap between the wheels on a 57' coach. (I think thats how it works anyway !) c) "Every platform has a signal on the end" is a modellerism, if it had one then the position would depend on where the signal needed to be - top of the ramp, bottom of the ramp, 20 feet off the end, wherever.

The basic signals are still available but not the gantry extension. But then Zero 1 was short lived, didn't stop DCC taking off.

Floor to ceiling shelves with the magazines in those triangular magazine file things, usually one year to a file in date order. You help yourself and take them to the till. Usually I go in with a list but i have been known to just browse, that's less productive though. There are preserved railway and society mags as well as mainstream ones. Model and prototype.

Once it's open again this lot have extensive stocks of old magazines https://www.vintagecarriagestrust.org/magazines.htm If you find the issue you need from one of the sources already mentioned they will deal with phone or postal queries. Note that checking whether they have it in stock almost certainly involves one of the volunteers putting the phone down and walking next door to look, so I don't expect they're open at all at the moment.

White for the actual ceiling, for reflectance as already mentioned and because anything else will add a slight colour cast which you'll have to correct or mitigate. Graduate it down the walls to pale grey/blue if you want but I wouldn't on the ceiling.

Caley739 has it. The system is explained in volume 1 of Mr Larkin's "The Acquired Wagons of British Railways": "It took until 1949 to devise a scheme and by 1957, when it was finally abandoned, quite a substantial number of wagons had still not received new numbers. This was because wagons could not be renumbered whilst loaded. New numbers commencing at P1 were issued in a totally random manner as follows: P1 to P1550 - Appleby Frodingham Steel Co. P1151 to P1900 - WH Arnott Young & Co" ... and so on. The companies listed are wagon repairers, the list goes on to include NCB and BR workshops etc. So P1 to P1550 were wagons renumbered at Appleby Frodingham after unloading, not wagons formerly owned by them. Two examples from the book - P4364 owned by Maltby Main Colliery, renumbered by Bolton Railway and Ironworks Ltd, P81313 owned by Newstead Collieries Ltd, renumbered by North West Wagon Co, Wigan.

I can see where you're coming from with this, something like a cross between finescale Lego and the Hornby junction signals which could be assembled a few different ways round. A robust ready-assempled arm/pivot/lamp unit which clips onto either a post or a doll, and a similar arrangement for the counter-balance arms. Different height dolls which plug into brackets or landings, which themselves plug into or clip onto posts. Base unit to contain tiny solenoids for the operating wires to connect to, they don't have to be the size of a PL10 after all. Walchaerts valve gear is quite fiddly and delicate but all the RTR manufacturers have managed it. The argument that it woukd be too generic doesn't hold water either these days, you could float a battleship on the froth being generated by the Hattons/Hornby generic coaches. It would be expensive but what isn't these days ?