Wheatley

Not very I expect, it's a SIGINT platform. It replaces the Nimrod R1 not the MR2/MRA4 MPA which is why we are (eventually) buying Poseidens. Can't disagree with the rest of your argument though.

Checked while you were away, they should be running until at least the end of 2017. There are break clauses in the contract (presumably in case the DfT finds a couple of 156s down the back of the settee) but they'll be around for a while.

Yes, for the foreseeable future.

The missiles themselves are slightly more than 1% of the total programme cost, a lot of which will be spent by AWE as the UK builds and owns the warheads, the US only builds the delivery vehicle. The rest of the 20 billion quid will go on new submarines (to be built in Barrow ?) and new infrastructure to support them. If you want to build (or refurbish) a submarine base in the UK, you have to build/refurbish it in the UK. Given that an entirely UK-based design and build option for new trains is not going to happen for these particular contracts, would you rather have them built entirely in Spain or built in Spain and assembled in the UK ? Or is your glass always half empty ?

Have you tried asking Phil Sutton ? He's not forced to tell you, mind.

Certainly "it'll do" and I have no qualms taking a razor saw, file or whatever to a RTR anything if it saves me a bit of time compared to the alternative, either to correct it or turn it into something else. The annoying thing is that photos of LNER cattle wagons aren't exactly like hens' teeth so it shouldn't be necessary to make a best guess at what the drawing is telling you. I can't make my mind up whether it's sloppy research or a deliberate policy. Certainly their pre-railway business model seems to be to sell as many different liveries of the same base model as possible - maybe "it'll do" is their version of design clever because they keep doing it. 90% of their market will neither know nor care that the sides should be mirror images, and if it saves making two tools ...

That's a great idea, I'm sure they could be painted the same colour as the roof so they don't stand out. You could have a couple more for the TTS version to turn the sound on/off, make compressor noises etc. I'm all in favour of realistic operation but I think you're over-thinking this. If you really need that degree of fine control over secondary features stick a decoder in it and go DCC.

I suspect that this may be a modellerism, i.e. trying to tightly define something which the real railway didn't, or which it interpreted loosely as and when it suited. "Branch line" is another.

Apart from the bit on how to convert CC1004s into broad gauge wagons, didn't we already do all this in the last Coopercraft thread ?

And they're still not flared properly. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88264-oo-gauge-class-71-electric-locomotive/page-35&do=findComment&comment=2256760 Edited to add link.

At least the cab corners are the right shape on this one.

But this is a problem (almost) entirely of the BBC's own making. They should have accepted Clarkson's apology and got on with it instead of jubilantly crowing that they'd sacked the oik. Evans will polarise any audience you put him in front of even when he isn't trying to take over someone else's formula. I can't stand him but I can't help thinking he's been set up to fail here. Unfortunately you were almost the only one. 3 million viewers in 2000 to nearly 7m in 2014.

It's the difference between looking like and functioning in exactly the same way as. All those items on your list can be made to look pretty much like the real thing (with a bit of effort), even if they don't function exactly like the real thing. Conversely Peco Streamline manages the exact opposite - it functions like real track* but looks like nothing except Peco Streamline. C&L on the other hand works just as well and looks a lot closer - like using a Parkside underframe instead of a Tri-ang one. [* in that it keeps the train upright and pointing in the right direction, I'm aware that the dynamics are different because weight and mechanical forces don't scale.]

Possibly to stop accidental contact with the posts by trackside staff, because they are close enough to the existing OLE to conduct a flashover to earth via anyone nonchalantly leaning on it. The masts in your later pic away from the OLE don't have it.

There's a picture on Science and Society showing an insulated container being unloaded. The meat is in the form of full carcasses hung from hooks in the roof.

Definitely the same chassis, although the Britannia had been re-vamped with a new chassis a couple of years before the Clan appeared. I've a Hornby Brit and a Clan, the chassis are identical.

Ruling gradient on HS2 is 2.5%. Maximum 'desirable' gradient on a motorways is apparently 3%. So not a million miles apart.

Unless I'm missing something (which is entirely possible) the Hornby Clan uses Britannia parts because the real one did. The boiler and fittings are different but that's about all, at least in 4mm scale. Am I missing something ? Edit: Just realised I've read that as "Hornby compromised by using existing mouldings" when I suspect your point was that Hornby did in fact do exactly what BR did and added a loco at minimal cost. Apologies.

My apologies, "stockists" should perhaps have read "shops", i.e. my two nearest proper model railway shops. I've no idea whether the first is an official stockist of yours but the "can't sell what I haven't got" is a direct quote from him, and I doubt the second is as his initial response was "Who ?". In both cases my question was simply "are you going to be stocking DJM ?" and no, I'm not telling you which shops.

1. "Stockist" requires stock to sell. Both my local stockists gave me the same response when I asked, both said the same about Oxford and both now stock their full range, but they can't sell what they haven't got. 2. Julian's I expect while he's not spending it on your products.

First of all you put the boot into Adrian while he's not well (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/107859-temporary-closure-of-abs-models/page-2&do=findComment&comment=2197346) and now you appear to be wishing him dead. Are you this unpleasant in real life ?

Have you got something against place names ? It's a perfectly harmless Norse word, no more offensive than York or Scunthorpe.

BTP Peterborough are well aware and are pursuing the matter, and have said as much on a couple of social media platforms.

It goes with the ... er ... L&HR coaches. Whaddya mean they're not available from anywhere ? You can all draw your own conclusions as to exactly what shades of red and cream that was: http://www.constructionphotography.com/Details.aspx?ID=50264&TypeID=1

If the 500 foot rule was absolute then all sorts of helicopter-based activity would be impossible, pylon inspections for example. This is a great example of trainspotters suddenly becoming lineside experts on aviation when a sizeable number of them have just demonstrated that they're not that ###### hot on the rules surrounding their own hobby. Well said Derek. With respect to the FOI request, (Jukebox's link), that is the requester's 39th FOI request to the BBC. I suspect that faint ringing noise you hear is an axe being ground...