ejstubbs

To drag this thread kicking and screaming back on topic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-sussex-40934390/school-minibus-caught-ignoring-level-crossing-warning-lights (Perhaps I should start a thread asking people to vote on whether or not this thread should only be used to post examples of stupidity at level crossings, with discussions arising being segregated on another thread. That way, people who receive alerts on this thread wouldn't be continually annoyed by e-mails about posts that don't feature the brightest and best of human stupidity at road/rail interfaces...)

Nearly a very nasty incident in Poland: http://www.independent.ie/videos/have-you-seen/watch-car-ploughs-through-levelcrossing-and-misses-oncoming-train-my-inches-36018076.html You can see in the view from behind the car (second half of the video) that the train did clip it - there's a sizable dent in the tailgate where there wasn't one before the train passed. You have to wonder what the passengers said to the driver before walking away...

"Aren't you that bloke off Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)? And shouldn't you be wearing a white suit?"

Not my model, or my photograph - in fact the Disused Stations people (on whose web site the photo appears) don't seem sure whether it's real or a model: I'm pretty sure that it's a shot of Model Railway Club's Chiltern Green and Luton Hoo, as featured in Chris Nevard's "The Old Days" gallery (8404_smrs_expo_005 and 007). Not bad for 2mm scale. There are just a few background details that don't seem quite to match, although the photo on the Disused Stations web site looks quite old so maybe the layout was re-worked slightly between that photo being taken and 1984 when Chris took his.

Agree with all of that. I use the Roco/Hornby combination on my Hornby 'super detail' LMS period 3 corridor coaches and LMS non-corridor coaches, both of which have the Hornby CCM. That worked well hauling and propelling on a layout with radius 2 curves and Peco code 100 short turnouts, including crossovers (therefore reverse curves). I might have been able to use Roco/Roco if I'd retracted the buffers but I never got round to trying that before the layout had to be dismantled. I'm about to embark on an experiment with fitting Keen Systems CCMs to my Bachmann LMS period 1 coaches, and (after locating a cheap one to use for test purposes) my short Hornby clerestories. I plan to use Roco and/or Hornby rigid couplings with those, too. At the end of rakes I use NEM Kadees with the pivot for the coupler head (not the jaws) immobilised with superglue. Taking the swivel out of the coupler head means that the coach's CCM is engaged a bit more positively - especially if the coupler on the loco/tender is not free to move, as on my Black 5 where it's a Kadee #5 screwed directly to the tender chassis. The NEM pockets on all my Dapol wagons seemed to be out of whack - must have been older models. They all got chopped and #14x series whisker couplers fitted instead. For Kadees that droop slightly in NEM pockets I find a sliver of 10thou plasticard either above or below the swallowtail (whichever is required to make it work with the Kadee height gauge) will usually fix it. (Similarly, I often find that one of the Kadee 10thou fibre washers is needed to stop whisker couplers from drooping slightly in their draft box.) Apart from slight coupling droop, fixed as above, I've not had any problems with Kadees in the NEM pockets on more recent wagons from Hornby (LMS Horse Box and CCT) and Oxford Rail (LNER cattle wagon & 6-plank wagon) I usually work to the guidance that IIRC Kadee themselves offer, which is to have the inner back face of the jaw in line with the buffer faces. Again, this worked for me on my 2nd radius/short turnout layout. I'd hesitate to claim that this really gives "close coupling" but anything's better than tension locks...

I've not used points denominated by a number myself, but if by number 6 points you mean the Peco code 83 #6 turnouts eg this one then the Peco website says they have a nominal radius of 43". The #5 turnouts have a nominal radius of 26", so may be a bit tight for your locos if their internal geometry goes much tighter than that. A quick check using this online tool suggests that the Atlas code 83 turnouts, while using a similar number-based nomenclature, do not have the same dimensions as the Peco ones. The Atlas 505 and 506 #6 turnouts have similar dimensions to the Peco ones, but the Atlas #4 Custom-Line turnouts are larger radius than the Peco #5s. I reckon that if you're not using Peco turnouts than the online tool linked above is probably your best bet for an answer, at least in terms of nominal radii. FWIW: the "nominal radius" is the radius of the circle you get based on the angle subtended between the toe and heel ends of the divergent road of the turnout, and the distance between them. To think of it another way, it's the radius of the circle that you get if you join lots of the same turnout together on their diverging routes. As DavidCBroad and 66C pointed out, what goes on between those two endpoints may involve tighter radii, depending on how the turnout manufacturer has designed the trackwork. (Basically, how much of the rail on the diverging route is actually straight rather than curved.)

Thanks everyone for your input. It looks like there are many different ways to skin this particular cat. My baseboards are 12mm ply with battens at 300mm intervals but I still find the noise from running trains quite distracting. It could well be just that some people are more sensitive to some noises than others, of course. Yes, that is the stuff that I am planning to use, and largely for the reasons you state. I think that I will trial my idea of using the AnyRail-based templates on my test/running in oval first. I'm a little concerned that the plan and the physical track won't always turn out to be identical, so I could glue down lots of foam only to find that the track "doesn't work like that". Still, I suppose it shouldn't be too difficult trim away unwanted bits of foam, and add a few fillets here and there if necessary. The intention is that it will all end up covered in ballast, so it doesn't have to look pretty - although of course I do need to end up with well-laid track that runs smoothly. I think tackling it a small section at a time will be the way to go. The foam sheet is a bit over three sheets of portrait A4 wide, so that would seem to be a reasonable size to break the work up in to. At least if I get the test oval operating to my satisfaction, I'll then be able to "play trains" a bit if I ever get impatient with progress on the track laying for the full layout... I have invested in a pair of Xuron track cutters, so my facilities for adjusting lengths of track in situ are vastly improved from the last time I was trying to make track fit a plan.

I'm looking for some advice about laying track on underlay. On my previous layout I laid the track directly on to the plywood baseboard. I was dissatisfied with this for two reasons: 1) the baseboard acted as a sounding board and amplified the noise of the trains; 2) you can't get a decent ballast shoulder with track sitting directly on the baseboard. I originally laid the track just to check that it would work - but I then invested so much time and effort in providing power, and then making sure that trains ran smoothly everywhere, that the thought of dismantling it all and basically starting again - with the added complication of dealing with a layer of underlay - put me off. For my new layout, I'm thinking of using 3mm closed cell foam of the kind that is sold as underlay for laminate flooring. This should be effective at reducing noise transmission from track to baseboard, and will give the right lift to the track to allow me to put a more prototypical shoulder on the ballast. (I know about the sound transmission issues that can arise when ballast is glued with PVA. I'm looking at other, less solid-setting adhesives such as Copydex or Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement as alternatives for that job.) What I'm not sure about just now is exactly how to go about laying underlay that will match the track configuration, hence why I'm seeking advice here. I've designed the layout in AnyRail, and I think I could print out reversed sections of the plan at 1:1 in such a way that I could glue it to the foam sheet and then cut around the track outline to get the underlay in the shape I need it. I could then glue the underlay paper side down to the baseboard, and lay the track on top. The possible downsides I can see with this approach are primarily to do with the holes that I'll be needing to drill/cut for power feeds, point motor rods and uncoupling magnets. - but I'm sure there must be other issues that I'm not aware of yet. I understand that, with cork underlay, it's fairly common to lay cork sheet over the whole baseboard surface. But that would seem to lose the ballast shoulder benefit that you get by having the underlay cut to match the shape of the actual track. On top of that, foam instead of cork doesn't sound like a very stable base for buildings and scenery. Before I launch in to a possibly doomed endeavour, I would be very interested to hear about how other folks have approached this task, and any wrinkles, tips or gotchas that they may be able to share.

Thanks to both of you for this encouraging information. I shall approach a selected coach gingerly but with more confidence, and a suitable screwdriver. I was planning to use the Roco close couplers (or the Hornby near-equivalent) within the rake. I use these within my rake of Hornby Period 3 coaches and they seem to work well. Do you think they will have the requisite centring effect for the Keen CCM? I would use Kadees at the ends of the rake.

I'm thinking of fitting Keen Systems close coupling mechanisms to my Bachmann Period 1 LMS coaches. Are there any tricks or gotchas in disassembling these coaches? I may only need to remove and modify the bogies - Keen's web site suggests that their CCM will fit directly underneath the coach floor - but I'm not even sure what's involved in taking the bogies off. They seem to be attached with a screw but I'm not sure whether access is required to the inside of the coach in order to re-attach them. (And yes, I know about the non-prototypical lining and all the other issues with these coaches. One thing at a time!)

It takes practice to be really effective.

Really? I must have missed Scandinavia when I was learning the names of the continents from my Dad's Times Atlas of the World all those years ago. Oh, apparently not: "Scandinavia is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe." And, just for completeness: "Europe —a concept dating back to classical antiquity— is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia."

2-strokes have been effectively dead as an automotive technology for many, many years, due to being unable to pass emissions regulations. They've said that all their cars will be electric or hybrid from 2019 - so some will still have an IC engine in them. As Suzie pointed out, EV that need to be parked to recharge are still a major inconvenience for journeys outwith the range of a single charge. No-one seems to be doing much about swappable battery packs, which was at one time being suggested as the way to fix that problem. On the positive side, that could encourage more people to use more suitable means of travel, such as railways, for more long journeys, with eg shared use autonomous EVs to take you from the station to your final destination. Certainly none of what are currently perceived to be barriers to the widespread adoption of electric motive power should be insoluble, but they may require a major shift in people's expectations as to how they go about travelling, and I suspect that the flash car on the drive may cease to be much of a status symbol in the foreseeable future.

Sadly not so, or maybe no longer so, according Wikipedia: Angel station has the longest escalators on the Underground, and the fourth-longest set of escalators in Western Europe (after Náměstí Míru in the Prague Metro at 87 metres, Västra skogen in the Stockholm Metro at 67 metres and Kamppi station in the Helsinki Metro at 64 metres).

aohi ;ojh we were being told the only way to meet emission standards was wiring everything and now we've come back to internal combustion engines and sod the future. FTFY. Electrification has been dropped purely because of cost. It's nothing to do with diesels being OK after all; the bi-mode IEPs simply provide a figleaf of an acceptable passenger service for the politicians.

I've definitely seen someone taking a cello on a bus. It was in a hard case, and they had it partially on the seat next to them as it wouldn't fit in the luggage space, which obviously wouldn't be popular if the bus was crowded - I suspect the driver would not allow it on if that were the case. But it can be done if the driver permits it. A double bass now...

Only in the Newtonian model. Under General Relativity, "spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve". This is actually quite a good Wiki article if you skip over the higher maths; this bit is probably most pertinent to the question raised in the OP.

Only during the day. In the evening ie prime viewing time the tennis was usually on BBC2, and occasionally channel-hopped over to BBC1 when a key match overran (like Murray's quarter final IIRC), if the next scheduled BBC2 programme was deemed less expendable than that on BBC1. The BBC ran six red button channels for Wimbledon this year, and multiple live feeds on iPlayer. They didn't need to fill up two mainstream channels at prime time, and they didn't. I'm not a great tennis fan either but I doubt that even my careless evening channel-hopping resulted in me having to blink at more than a total of five minutes of unwanted tennis during Wimbledon fortnight. Of course it does help that there's BBC4 as well these days, from 7pm onwards. And there's iPlayer during the day. You just need to be a bit more flexible, rather than simply reaching for the same two channels all the time when more choice is being provided.

Wrong thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/124580-are-the-worth-it-bbc-announces-high-earners/

Do you mean "Blink"? I can't find any reference to an episode called "Duck". TBH I don't usually remember NuWho episode names, or Classic Who story names. I tend to remember them as "the one where..." (and yes, I know Friends used that as a prefix for most of its episode titles, but I have never watched a single episode of Friends and hope never to have to). If you did mean "Blink" then that was the one where Moffat first coined "wibbly wobbly timey wimey".

I've bought two ex-display Global kitchen knives at an excellent price from an Amazon marketplace vendor who specialises in precisely that kind of thing. AFAIK they don't have a physical shop - certainly not local to me - so bang goes this useful source of discounted but good quality kitchen equipment. Result: I'm p!ssed off, and the vendor could well go under - while the scallies will simply work around it, or all start using another offensive weapon 'du jour'. This strikes me as a classic example of the "something must be done...this is something, therefore it must be done" argument that failing government ministers love to cling on to like a lifebelt in order to justify their generous pensions (funded by us, of course). We, meanwhile, have to try to get on with our lives as best we can while wading through the ever-deepening fudge and mudge of ill-thought-out legislation like this (did someone say Dangerous Dogs Act 1991?) What's really annoying is that if this gets into law, it's 99.9% certain that none of Rudd's replacements will ever have the guts to stand up and say "this is nonsense" and repeal it. It'll just become 'the new normal'.

Thanks, I have occasionally wondered but never got round to actually looking it up. EDIT Looking at roughly contemporary large scale maps on the NLS web site, the junction where Ealing High Street bends round to the right and turns in to The Broadway does look a little bit like the junction of Tweedy Road and Sherman Road near Bromley North: And the "John" from "John Sanders Ltd" could have fooled an impressionable ten-year-old...

That seems to have been pretty much its 'mission statement' from the outset: Lord Northcliffe said the formula for success was to give readers a "daily hate". It was, of course, his brother Lord Rothermere who sent Hitler a telegram of congratulations after Germany invaded the Sudetenland in 1938. Which was nice of him.

The Brigadier was stuck living on a one-way time line, and wouldn't necessarily know where the Doctor was on his. If the Brigadier met the Doctor at time X, and at that time X the Brigadier had a memory of a previous experience at time Y also involving the Doctor, he would tend to assume that the Doctor also had a memory of it, unless the Doctor specifically stated that the thing at time Y hadn't happened to him yet - which would be unlikely to come up in conversation, especially if the Doctor chose not to mention it eg for fear it would confuse his friend too much. It's also worth remembering that the Doctor didn't have a working TARDIS for a fair chunk of the time that he was working with UNIT, having been exiled to Earth by the Time Lords for breaking the Prime Directive (or at least, the Who Universe equivalent thereof) so in fact their timelines were synchronised for quite a while. Stephen Moffat (Mr Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey himself) did build the problem of non-synchronous personal timelines in to the relationship between River Song and the Doctor, which went in more-or-less opposite directions on their individual timelines. The Doctor's first encounter with River Song in his timeline was in the episode in which she died - which was, obviously, the last time she ever saw him. And IIRC she realised that it was going to be the last time, because he didn't know who she was. Which was a bit sad. In later (in his timeline) episodes they used to compare diaries whenever they met, in order to work out where they were in each other's timeline on each occasion. Their timelines didn't go in completely opposite directions: River Song was born Melody Pond while the Doctor was in his 11th incarnation as Matt Smith, but the Doctor last saw River Song as an adult when he was in his 12th incarnation as Peter Capaldi, which was also the penultimate time (in her timeline) that River Song saw the Doctor. On that occasion they spent the night together under the Singing Towers of the planet Darillium* - precisely as she had told them that they 'had' when he first met her. Confused yet? Blame Moffat. I have to say that agree with t-b-g: the old format with four or six 20-minute episodes per story felt a lot less rushed than a complete story in one 45-minute episode that NuWho usually gets. Strangely, though, the two-parters don't always seem much better - perhaps because they usually retain the manic tempo of the single-part episodes, and try to cram the same amount of 'story' into each programme. I think it wouldn't hurt to ease off the throttle a bit for the two-parters - eg just having one major story arc milestone over the 90 minutes, alongside the episode story itself. I'd also agree about Spearhead from Space: that gave me the complete wig when I was a kid. The scene where the mannequins smashed their way out of the shop window looked exactly like Bromley High Street to me! (The shop in question would have been John Collier, I think.) * Where the nights last 24 years.

You sure about that?