ejstubbs

Link for the ANE manual: http://www.anemodel.com/Upload/Download/201503312203272305.pdf

There also offer a fairly detailed servo programming manual: http://www.anemodel.com/Upload/Download/201410212000373524.pdf

The ANE Smartswitch web page does talk about both DC and DCC, as does the manual.

It's a pity Peco don't seem to provide a downloadable version of the Smartswitch instructions, so that potential customers can evaluate the system beforehand - and the quality of the instructions that come with it.

Er, I think they do: http://www.peco-uk.com/imageselector/Files/Instruction%20sheets/Smartswitch%20Manual%20v2.pdf

It is a lasting regret for me that, in all the years we lived in Derby, I never managed to persuade my Dad to take me to Cadeby.  I believe Teddy Boston did used to have informal open days at the rectory, but of course in those days it was that bit harder to get information about such things than it is today, when we have so much useful online material available at our fingertips.

According to this web page, at least as of 2014, the model railway from the rectory was safely relocated to a garden shed in Nuneaton.

To DaveF: Thanks for posting these pictures, it's actually good to see what I missed out on!

It was also James T Kirk's middle name, of course.

(Helped him avoid Klingons.)

Also stocking non railway items is useful -ships, planes, dragons, All these connected hobbies can share, but some people only seem to focus on one.

You've just given me an idea for a freight load for my Lowfit other than the ubiquitous tractor/plough!

Birmingham New Street has several.

Lichfied City had a scissors on each side of the island platform. Snow Hill had one betwen each of the Main and platform lines. 

Edinburgh Waverley has a scissors crossover between platforms 1,2,19 & 20.

There is a hiccup. Some Smartswitches have been recalled due to a fault/safety issue.

Smartfrogs, not Smartswitches.  And your link is identical to that in darren01's post that you replied to.  Apart from that, thanks for making it all a lot clearer!

People complain about how there are not any local model shops around where they live, yet they then describe how they ordered 400 quid of stuff from an online box shifter.

I think this happens in pretty much any vaguely specialist market these days.  On a climbing forum I also frequent there are frequent gripes about the demise of climbing shops with a useful range of stock, and knowledgeable staff able and willing to offer helpful advice and guidance (Peglers of Arundel being a notable loss in recent years) right next to posts asking which online retailer is selling such-and-such a rope, rucksack or whatever at the lowest price.  (Don't get me started on the twits who post asking which are the best boots to buy!  The answer is always: the ones that fit you best - and you can only find that out in a shop.  Unless, I suppose, you really, really like your local post office.  Or hate your feet.)

How did Stagecoach start out in business ? Perhaps, allegedly, by competing ruthlessly with existing bus operators ? Sauce for the goose, etc.

Souter and the Gloags started out running long distance services with a couple of second-hand buses.  It's hard to see that as ruthless competition.

However, they were what one might call rapacious in taking advantage of bus deregulation in the mid-1980s, and fell foul of the OFT and the MMC multiple times.  Just one example from an article in The Independent in 1995:

Stagecoach's aggressive policy received most publicity for the events in Darlington in the second part of 1994, on which the MMC reported in August. The local authority put its municipal bus operation, Darlington Transport Company (DTC) up for sale in July last year. Busways, a Stagecoach acquisition, bid, but by October the Yorkshire Traction Company emerged as the preferred bidder.

Stagecoach eyeing Government compensation over East Coast

Did the franchise bid documentation not make it clear that open access competition might emerge?  Even if it wasn't stated, can/should it have been a complete surprise?

Both taken with the aid of a telescopic pole.....

Very kind of him to help out, especially since he's probably waiting to see whether he's going to be deported...

Looking at cover pictures on magazineexchange.co.uk the edition for Jan 1975 looks promising, content index describes a GWR branch layout called Buxton Road by T.A. Quinn - no copies available at present.

There are a number of copies for sale on eBay at the moment.  Current cheapest seems to be item number 391462862159 at £3.15 including delivery.

 

I quite like that GWR plan from 1985. Does anyone have any more information about it?

 

Do you mean Bredon? It appeared in the September 81 and July 85 issues of RM.

Where both GWR and LMS locomotives are shown running, and even one in BR livery.

Mr Wood didn't specify in his article which railway it was meant to represent.  He does say that it grew out of his son's first train set featuring a Mainline J72, and the article also says: "Present motive power consists of two J72's and a Collett 0-6-0."  It was in the later 1985 colour photo feature that an LMS 4F appeared, along with a pannier tank and a Flying Banana.  There is also a tantalising glimpse of this loco:

I'm sure someone will know what it is immediately.

Regarding the station building, Mr Wood says: "This is based on the ERIC plan but altered to suit the layout."  (I am ignorant as to what the ERIC plan might be.  Anyone know?)  The article does state that the engine shed is based on the one at Bodmin Road.

There's no doubt that the layout has a GWR feel, but it seems that the owner wasn't particularly fussy about what he ran on it!

Model Railways Direct, of all people, seem to have some of the Peco kits still in stock.  They're still listed on the Peco web site but apart from MRD no-one seems to carry them.

The Bachmann B type ones seem to be unavailable at the moment - their web site says Aug/Sep.  I can be patient...

...and remember that no two wagons in a train ended up being exactly the same colour.

Unlikely to end up that way on my railway, given my (in)competence with a paintbrush!

...and also that the container could belong to 'anyone' and be of any RCH type, this being the whole point of containers.

Indeed, and I am planning to get a few more containers so that I can add some variety.  Are the Peco card ones any good?  I haven't yet found any other sources (but that's probably just because I'm rubbish at searching).  I'm working on the basis that the B type or one of its variants would be the most appropriate ones to go for.

Conflat S wagons were fitted

Oh, that's what that big round thing underneath is for...d'oh!

So would LMS bauxite be a good match, or would I need to mix it up a bit?  (Or shell out for the Precision Paints pot?)

The DX container would most likely be dark blue with white lettering under the LNER.

Just generic dark blue, or is there a specific LNER colour?  (I assume garter blue is too light.)

Thanks for the advice on the lettering, much appreciated.  Looks like Powsides do suitable lettering for the conflat, too.

The other day I succumbed to a momentary temptation and bought a Parkside Dundas LNER conflat + DX open container kit which I found seriously under-priced in a local model shop.  It's probably been hanging around for years and may turn out not to go together very well, although on inspection nothing seems to be warped.  On the off chance that I manage not to make a complete dog's breakfast of assembling it, I was wondering about colours and markings.  This site says that non-fitted wagons were grey, and containers were blue.  I already have a pot of LMS freight wagon grey: how close is the LNER shade to that?  Would the open container really have been blue, and if so then what shade?

I'm also wondering about transfers for lettering/numbering.  The conflat obviously doesn't have a lot of "real estate": would the HMRS LNER goods vehicle insignia sheet have small enough characters for it?

That's the one!

That plan from the Peco Track Plans book differs from the real Bredon in a number of ways.  The worst of which IMO is that the arrangement at the station throat at the right hand side doesn't flow anything like as well as the original.  The treatment at the left hand end is much more awkward than the original as well.

In the September 1981 article Mr Wood states that Setrack was used for the whole layout, although some straights were cut down to fit, and the reverse curve leading to the bay (which is also not properly represented in the Track Plans book version) was made by "flexing" a Setrack straight after cutting the webbing between sleepers at strategic points.

The layout was 6'6" x 3'10" and used second and first radius curves.  It also had a three-track traverser fiddle yard accessed off the outer track at the top right, under the hillside.

Below is a quick shot at what I think Bredon should look like in Setrack, including the 'tweaks' admitted to in the article:

At least, Alan Shearer still lives in the predidjuse Ponti land, and gives a lot of his time to local communes.

And he's just got a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours!

Kittiwakes, not fulmars.  Quite different birds.

That track plan looks rather like Roy Link's "The Art of Compromise".  It was mentioned briefly on here recently: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/111720-small-layout-ideas-oo-gauge/

The links from that thread are as follows:

http://unnycoombelala.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/compromises.html

http://apavalley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/compromising-design.html

The layout appeared in the October 1978 edition of Railway Modeller.

Without knowing the exact circumstances which led to the truck being where it was it's difficult to know whether this actually counts as "stupidity".  However, it seems clear that the train driver at least had his smarts about him.  I don't know what he said but the passengers all seemed to get the message clearly enough!

Although no details are given of the nature of the "verbal abuse" I would guess it was hardly any more significant that that which would be encountered in the average playground...the way the report has been written it gets better potential press coverage if it implies something more sinister to do with a child.

As you say, you are guessing.

To be honest I'm not clear what the point is  that you're trying to make.  If you actually believe that going around verbally abusing random 12 year olds in public places is acceptable behaviour then I suggest you go and try it sometime, and let us know how you get on.

Surely a photo in the local press is going to stand a more likely chance of a result than national coverage on a relatively obscure web site?

Something like this, you mean?

Never mind trains - a lot of people round here (Edinburgh) don't even seem to understand how long it takes a bus to stop - due to its greater weight, and the fact that there are unrestrained passengers both seated and standing on board - despite sharing the roads with them every day.  I take the bus to work most days and the number of times I see pedestrians and cars making semi-suicidal lunges in front of approaching buses is quite disturbing.  Some people seem to have the idea that "bus = slow = time to get across" permanently lodged in their heads, and don't actually bother to observe what's actually going on in a particular situation in order to verify whether or not their default assumption is correct.

I suspect that in the case of both buses and trains some of the worst offenders are the ones who never actually use the public transport option in question, probably regarding it as slow, undignified and generally beneath them.  (Those same people often being quite happy to fly hither and yon at the drop of a hat, though, despite flying having become one of the most degrading forms of public transport known to man in the last couple of decades what with the increasingly intrusive security checks, full body scans, having to take your shoes off, cramped seating etc etc.)

One thing I've noticed about the Kadee whisker and NEM couplers is the lack of consistency in the size increments.  In the whisker couplers, the difference between "short" and "medium" couplers is 1/32", but from "medium" to "long" it's 7/64" - more then three times as much, and equivalent to more than 8" in the prototype.  I discovered this the other day when the "medium" was just too short for one of my wagons, but the "long" looks almost as bad as a TLC in terms of spacing

With the NEM couplings, the difference in length ranges from 1.07mm to 1.98mm, again not particularly uniform, and could lead to some ugly-looking long gaps in a rake.

As the Derby model railway exhibition is coming round again soon I thought I'd check out whether the Silk Mill layout is going to be running the same weekend.  I couldn't find any operating dates later than July 2015 on their web site.  Has it all gone quiet again over there?