brigo

To answer the Captain's original question, your RCD only covers the items to the left of it, the shower, cooker and sockets. Is your computer a laptop or desktop ? The reason I ask is most laptop power bricks, certainly all I've had, only have a 2 core mains lead, ie no earth, which would rule out a live/earth fault in the power brick. I'd be tempted to check if the socket has got any movement in it. If the live wire has a fault in it's insulation it could possibly touch the metal wall box behind the socket when moved. Brian

The CMOS battery in a computer is normally a small disc lithium battery (CR 2032) that is not "topped up". It is not rechargable, and only provides miniscule power to retain setup information in a couple of chips in the computer. Same battery as used in bathroom/kitchen scales. Brian

Official guidence is here, although it doesn't rally expand upon what boris said https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/874714/Full_guidance_on_staying_at_home_and_away_from_others.pdf Brian

I think the problem here is caused by the use of a mold release agent, which is of an oily nature, used in manufacture. You need a solvent or detergent solution to remove it or use a paint which contains a solvent. I've always used enamel paints which are oil based and contain a solvent for painting track and never had a problem. Acrylic paints do vary, some are water based and others like Tamiya have the addition of a solvent like IPA. To answer Philou's question, it's always a good idea to wash a plastic kit in a detergent solution before painting. Brian

Given the state of the building on the right definitely not new. The site has been levelled on Google maps, however in this case Bing maps is your friend, it's still there for now. https://binged.it/30O8wau Brian

The walkways above seem to be positioned such that a tipped wagon would come up between them. If the load is a bit "sticky" someone can then give it a prod to move it. Brian

Do you know where it is ? Brian

Bemo H0m and H0e available at https://www.bemo-modellbahn.de/aktuelles/information-neuheiten-2020.html Brian

With all this banter about how few people live in Central Birmingham let's not forget that Curzon Street is not the only destination in Phase 1. There is also Birmingham Interchange by the NEC. The local councils and commercial stakeholders envisage 40% of journeys in Phase 1 will be made using the station. Birmingham Interchange is being built not only to connect with the NEC but with transport links to Birmingham International and Birmingham Airport. There are also plans to extend the Midland Metro (which will also pass Curzon Street) out to the station. It will also be a Parkway station with some 7500 parking spaces. This will obviously benefit people living in the surrounding area including Coventry, Warwick etc. The parking was to all be at ground level, but the plans have recently changed and will now be multi-storey freeing up land for up to 4000 homes in the immediate vicinity of the station. There is also expected to be pressure from developers to open up more land for housing in the surrounding area. Roll on London Zone 10 Brian

Viessmann do some gauges for overhead that look very similar to those in the video except they are blue in colour https://viessmann-modell.com/sortiment/spur-h0/oberleitung/?p=1 The red ones are Marklin, just needed to find out what to call them, mastpositionslehre https://www.maerklin.de/en/products/details/article/70011/ Brian

Give the station building you have, if it were my layout, I would move the station to the left hand end and have the bridge on the right. The "simpler" end of the station would then be up against the tunnel with the single point perhaps in a short cutting. You would have more room around the station building, particularly behind it and the sidings area could be a little longer extending towards the bridge. Just a thought, Brian

I don't think with the station building you have that you would get away with running all the way across the front. The track would be too close to the station doorway and in real life there would have to be bigger space between them. However there is no need for the station building to be in the centre of the loop, in fact if you are having two platforms it would be common to position it off centre. There would then be a crossing outside the building to the far platform so that it was accessible if the near platform was occupied. Another alternative is to reverse the crossover into the goods track so you have a headshunt and back the wagons up to the goods shed. An end loading facility at the end of the headshunt would be typical. Sometimes the two goods tracks would have their own point onto the running track and cross each other on a diamond crossing, imagine a letter X sitting on a line ___X___ Brian

New item downloads available here for Roco, Fleischmann, Herpa and Piko. Generally I find the other manufacturers will appear here in due course. http://www.mbs-sebnitz.de/downloads-2020 Brian

A newly self-employed person will only pay the roughly 50% extra on their first assessment in January. In the following January assessments they will be billed for the difference between the previous January / July pre-payments and the actual tax owing (may even get a refund) plus the next 50% pre-payment. You should not be paying a full years tax plus 50% every January. Brian

You'll need a back to back measurement of between 10.2 and 10.4 mm https://www.morop.org/downloads/nem/de/nem310_d.pdf Brian

I've gone on Google maps, found a few of places where the image is clear enough and measured off a 50 metre length of track. I then counted the number of sleepers and every time came up with 83, which as near as dammit is 60 cm spacing. This works out at 3.75 mm in N gauge (1:160) Brian

Thanks, Dan, for the update. The motor looks very similar to the "1227" one available from Taff Vale Models although of unknown origin, http://www.taffvale.wales/Model-Railway-Motors.html Intrigued as to the purpose of the holes on the corners of the casting just behind the green cab moulding. Brian

Do we know if the motor has changed ? I did wonder if part of the reason for the upgrade was the demise of Mashima who supplied the motors. Bemo seem to have stopped supplying the part lists for new items on their website, so can't check there. Brian

To me, it looks like a load being carried on a Rollschemel Brian

A useful site to visit is this one, which lists the various coach types and the liveries they acquired. Hit the "Back to Germany" button at the top left to access other pages. http://www.mlgtraffic.net/DB_E_VEDB26.xml The blue and green coaches was the standard livery up to the end of the 60's (end of Era 3). The POP livery was purely experimental and few coaches received it. Next came the ocean blue and cream as the standard livery around 1970 (start of Era 4) and lasted until about 1990 (Era 5) During this time the TEE and IC coaches received the red and cream livery. With Era 5 there were various "Neue Bahn" liveries introduced for IC, IR, S-Bahn and local trains. MOROP have issued NEM data sheets for the various "Era" available at, sorry German text https://www.morop.org/downloads/nem/de/nem806D_d.pdf Brian

This subject has been discussed before, And with respect to exhibition layouts, Brian

They are not always that simple to convert. I have had a couple of Roco AC locos that I have bought cheap mainly for the bodies. I found the wheels to have deeper flanges and the motor gearing was different. The worm gear was a double start version which basically halves the reduction ratio. This is done because the motor runs at half speed, the AC voltage being converted to DC via half-wave rectification. Depending upon which half of the half-wave is fed to the motor changes the direction. Brian

Would also overcome the current problem of passengers travelling between Scuol and St Moritz having to change at Samadan. Could now have one portion Scuol-Pontresina and another Scuol-St Moritz. Brian

Another site in English witha short video https://railway-news.com/stadler-capricorn-train-switzerland/ They appear to have only one unit powered with the other three having low floors. Fully automatic couplers with the ability to have trains that split. I can see them being used for a train that goes from Landquart to Sagliains and then splitting with one part to Scuols and the other to St Moritz. Brian

If you visit the Swiss Map site you can zoom in closer. Really useful for the photographic view. https://map.geo.admin.ch/?lang=en Brian