ruggedpeak

Just watched these two videos (not mine). EDIT the red strips over the doors as continuation of the body markings are on the new 88's, not 68's. Slight variation in livery presumably to reflect them being part leccy.

Caught a glimpse of a Balfour Beatty SPA 461071 at the Balfour depot behind Colchester Station from the train yesterday. Went back and after some clambering around got these pictures (see gallery for the rest) as I have only found 1 other photo of a BB SPA on the web. Not great as I had to climb over a large concrete ditch and up a bank to get to the fence(!) but some detail including electrical box (?) on the end. Bushes prevent decent side photo.

Having pre-ordered a Dapol DRS 68 and been over-excited at it turning up I'd rather the decoration was checked first. The industry doesn't need another high profile cock-up this year and in my view Revolution are providing very high spec models on a pre-order basis and I am in no rush, I'd rather have something as good as the N gauge version than something rushed. I've waited this long so it just needs to be right.

And a video Not bad considering it was spontaneous filming on my Blackberry Classic. As an aside, with lots of DRS activity at Norwich, Trackmaps show a DRS stabling point just south of Stowmarket, and it looks like a 2 track siding with palisade fencing and a green plastic fuel tank.

Not great photos due to rubbish camera today but have been travelling on both the top and tail 68's and 37's on the Wherry Lines. 68's are very modern and good looking but they don't match a pair of 37's for drama (and fumes!) when pulling away (even if the 37's did fail before starting one journey). Once the 37's were going again we had the good fortune to pass the 68's at Reedham Swing Bridge. [/url]

Your showroom was most likely a protected corridor for office staff to the outside door which is the 'final exit'. This sounds like a very common situation in industrial units, where offices are at the back on the 1st or mezzanine floor and the showroom is right on the main entrance door, and staff have to cross the main industrial unit and through the showroom to get out. The corridor may have been required due to travel distances, limitations in fire detection and warning, risky materials in the unit or various other reasons etc. I am also sympathetic to Vecchio's response as I think it was unfair and potentially libellous to make uninformed comments about a business' safety in such an alarmist manner ("bonfire"). A model railway layout under a stairs is not a significant fire risk in and of itself, and from the photos I would assume (I stress assume as I have not visited the premises or conducted a fire risk assessment at this site) that the fire detection, travel distances etc in the shop mean the stairs is not a protected corridor, so there is no issue in respect of electrical equipment under the stairs. A thorough read of this book will explain why the layout is in not a threat and why the Fire brigade won't be terribly interested https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-offices-and-shops. Mezzanines are covered in the guidance. I am looking forward to the layout being finished and using it as an excuse to take a train to Peterborough to buy some trains

Just to be clear, the photo I posted above from Wikipedia is of a refurbished Arriva Trains Wales 142.

Autoballasters had gone this morning so no opportunity for photo. MHA's are still north of the station with 66585 at the London end. They are nearly all full so I'd guess they will leave today or tomorrow. 66514 on thunderbird duties as usual sat by the Shark. Track into the new platform is laid, platform itself still being built. IIRC there's a big closure coming up one weekend to redo the OHL.

I can assure you that does not translate into money on the ground, and that figure is presumably more prime time Ant & Dec type programming rather than off peak or daytime. The large TV executive salaries and expense accounts are paid out of that figure. I'll bet the team turn up saying they haven't got much money for this project, despite the fact that most of us could deliver a show for considerably less than half a million!

Bizarre coincidence in choice of wording?

As do Arriva Trains Wales. A disappointment as I'd definitely have one of those. Image from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/142069_C_Interior.JPG/784px-142069_C_Interior.JPG The photo above is of an Arriva Trains Wales refurbished interior. ATW stuff is going for silly money for some reason and has been for a while - £53 for a Hornby ATW 142, £111 for a Bachmann 158, similar for ATW 57. Seems Wales is popular. Edited for clarity re the photo.

Sounds familiar. Not the same factory by any chance? I have no dog in this particular fight, but do have a wonky liveried DRS 68........ Hope you get it sorted out

"A Freightliner class 66 diesel locomotive has been named “Poppy” in memory of 15 workers from Buxton Lime Firms (now Tarmac) who served and died in the Battle of the Somme. A naming ceremony at Tarmac’s Tunstead Quarry was attended by more than 50 people, including Andrew Bingham, MP for High Peak and members of The Royal British Legion who officially unveiled the engine. Inspiration for the locomotive name was taken from a large copper poppy sculpture produced earlier this year by three Tarmac Buxton apprentices to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. An aluminium cast of the sculpture, which was made using 1916 manufacturing processes and features the name of the workers who lost their lives in the battle, has been fitted to the side of ”Poppy” as a lasting tribute....." https://www.freightliner.co.uk/news/buxtons-battle-of-somme-heroes-honoured-in-loco-naming/

Remodelling at Shenfield ongoing. yesterday 66 with a long line of MHA's being filled with spoil. Today two sets of auto-ballasters. One set were in the old Railtrack blue stripe livery with the Railtrack logo removed and NR logos, the other in full NR livery of a yellow stripe instead of blue and NR logos. Update: No pics as zooming past but on the Railtrack ones it was the lettering only that seemed to have been removed and a rectangular yellow NR logo at the right hand end on the blue stripe, if that's of any use. It wasn't the usual white NR logo stuck on the blue stripe that I've seen before.

It's for safety. We had a couple of electric cars at work and charging points a few years ago. Got rid of them as the type of vehicle concerned had a habit of spontaneously combusting. Far safer to have vehicles full of flammable liquids

But this isn't 'I'm a nobody get me out here' or the 'Great British Innuendo off', this is small time low budget stuff. There will be a decent sum for the 'talent', an almost reasonable sum for the crew and TV filming gear (they'll still moan how they got more on Dr Who) and if you are lucky £500 for everything else. Hence looking for knowledgeable volunteers rather than having to pay for professionals.

Not really, more about whether it produces interesting and useful articles on railway modelling. I can't get over excited about 'editorial freedom' of a railway mag, reviews are hugely subjective in any event. If they do a negative review someone will point the finger at a biased reviewer harbouring a grudge anyway. And advertorials and sponsored content are a growing fact of life across the mainstream media as traditional revenue sources dry up.

Call me old fashioned but at least the Hornby model has the same livery on both sides! The latest version of the 67 is an excellent model overall. The 68 is a work in progress.

This looks a lot more complex than the Night & Day LU liveries on Bachmann's Limited Edition 66's which required new print processes. In fact as a layperson it looks like a total nightmare! If Hornby can match the quality on Realtrack's GW Pacer liveries with this then it will be very impressive.

It is a shame it didn't work out. The basic concept was good, but I agree with the comments above about a number of fundamental issues, such as search. I did buy stuff on it, and sold one thing (the other listing vanished without trace).

As someone who worked with the tv and film industry for a number of years, there are wise words above. Negativity and being realistic are not qualities found in TV land. Read Simon Kohler's blog about his experiences. If this goes ahead it will be an adventure and possibly a nightmare all at once. Good luck.

HI Eleanor Those are great ideas, however I have several key objectives I am trying (!) to stick to with this layout. The first is to limit the scenic part to the size of a lump of chipboard I found (683x250mm). The second is not to buy any more track or other items except scenery unless I really have to. The size challenge falls away if the size keeps creeping up! Having laid track as per post 11, with curves from the fiddle yard into the sidings and platform to make some interest, I have found one of the key pieces of rolling stock, my Realtrack 143, really doesn't like being sent through the points from the fiddle yards where one part of the train is on one curve and the other is on an opposite curve. This is not a fault of the model, but my using short Hornby points. The tight reverse curve alignment tips it/derails it. So everything has had to be straightened: The straight lines was something I was hoping to avoid but to get a 2 car Pacer in or allow a loco hauled Mk3 to be dropped off in the space means short points and thus compromises. Ignore the platform tightness, it is the standard Hornby item in Anyrail (will use Metcalfe kit) and gap between the two platform roads can be adjusted in due course. I did manage to find another piece of chipboard of sufficient length to allow me to have a single board for both the scenic section and fiddle yard, which saves some work Will ponder the track layout a bit more but I think straight lines are a result of the size if I'm using full size locos etc - a Peckett or Sentinel focused layout would be fine with the earlier designs.

I am delighted to say my DRS model arrived from Modelrailwaysdirect during the week, having been checked before despatch. It is intact and the nameplates are as good as level with no glue. Very pleased, the model is outstanding. Well done Dapol. It runs also runs well.

Thanks for all the input After a lull and half term I've got back to track planning. The plan above ended up requiring me to buy 2 new points despite having quite a few knocking about. After more playing around with what I had to hand (a variety of Peco streamline points that are too long and lots of LH Hornby/Bachmann ones) and trying to work out how to build a track plan requiring lots of RH points when I had lots of LH ones, it eventually dawned on me (not the sharpest, clearly!) that if I flipped the plan over then all the RH points would become LH ones! Which means I can stick to using what track I have already, one of the objectives. The rulers show the length of key rolling stock, and using the short points and pushing points into the fiddle yard the Class 143 can now run everywhere on the layout. I then wondered if a 156 would fit but it doesn't and I'm not extending it again to fit. The format seems a bit more conventional but it is workable and all the scenic areas are linked via the fiddle yard, so stock does not have to be moved by hand. The fiddle yard board is the same length as the scenic area for simplicity. I was also toying with installing Kadee uncouplers but the electric ones are about £20 a piece (3 are required) and I haven't got Kadee couplings as yet (and reading up on them its a bit fiddly due to NEM pocket heights etc) so will leave that for now. Next steps are to lay out this plan and also cut a piece of chipboard to size for the fiddle yard.