Zomboid

I suppose with a station like Beauly, it needs to either be one door (so 15m is enough) or an entire unit, which means 50+m for a 158. I imagine the difference between those two costs made the difference between being viable and not.

I imagine the reality of Bastille was that the morning/ arrivals would have been more intense and chaotic, with the potential for trains to get held up on their way in. I suppose it would be unlikely that they'd arrive out of order with the lack of junctions on the line, but they could still arrive with the wrong spacing.

I think the magic of Buckingham is because it was built to be an actual railway, and everything it does is a real railway thing. There are a few unusual features, the kickback goods is vastly more common in a model than it ever was in reality, but those are perfectly forgivable...

It's a shame that another locomotive had to be lost to create 2999, but I think the world of preservation is better off overall with an example of whatever class 2999 is. And the history of steam traction didn't finish in 1968, it's just another different chapter and new history is being made every day.

I doubt he'll have much of a say in it really. Great work from George there.

I think there are some flows that rail could help with, but the vast majority it just wouldn't. For example, there is a Sainsbury's distribution centre in Basingstoke, next to the SWML and with space to build a siding and loading facility. What I don't know is if there's anywhere at the other end of a substantial flow which could readily be connected to the rail network.

There's the actual LNWR one to use as inspiration too of course. I never knew about the Folly Bridge station (or Grandpont as it seems to have been known), but keeping it is an interesting might have been scenario.

I've mentioned my idea of a joint LSWR/ GCR terminus in Oxford. No reason why it couldn't be just one of those... It's actually basically the premise of Buckingham isn't it? The BLT can be in Woodstock or somewhere out that way and there you go, just change the nameboards and it's job done.

The names mean very little these days. Scottish Power are the distribution network operator in... Merseyside.

Quite possibly, but they are yours to do with as your see fit. It puts me in mind of the forthcoming Iron Maiden album (bear with me...). As well as the usual download for £10 and so on formats, they've done a fan club special version of it; a wooden box with a bunch of other things as well as a CD copy of the album. It's very expensive (£333), and looks to be a really nice thing. But a bunch of the fan club members who bought one are not even going to open it. I can't fathom why anyone would spend £333 on a charming wooden box and then not even open it - so it'll have resale value in a few years to other people who in turn won't open it? I mean, it's everyone's choice and that's fine, but they might as well fill the box with gravel if it's never going to be opened...

There is a big skill in assembling a scene though. A well designed and laid out Metcalfland could well be a more convincing model than a collection of superbly scratchbuilt structures put down in a bizarre and unlikely configuration. In a way it could be a bigger challenge to create a believable scene using only RTP items than to do so using scratchbuilt structures. But then that's why these options exist isn't it?

The luxury is more in terms of time than anything else. Having time to pursue a hobby is the biggest hurdle, and if you can get over that then almost any hobby can be pursued for as much or as little financial outlay as you like. Most of us don't have the time or inclination to learn how to do everything in the vast hobby that is model railways. I'm happy enough running trains to reasonably accurate operating practices on a bare plywood board with cereal packet and sellotape buildings to show me where to stop. If that's not good enough to be a modeller then I'm not a modeller and I don't care. (I'd like to make it look better, but on the rare occasions that I have time to do anything I'd sooner run trains).

Strange how neither track is straight through the station, but both turn left to turn right.

If a scissors is something to use, then how about using them mid platform and doing something like Cambridge or Limerick Jn? Would admittedly need a lot of space, but would also allow everything in front of the station to be open (except any bay platforms behind it), and by only modelling part of one end it could fit. Goods can then be in front of the station and easily accessed.

The OP does say to ignore the left and top. I'm not sure I'd put the wrong direction kink into the main lines through the platforms.

If I ever want to be rude about First Group, I prefer to call them "Last".

I've got a book somewhere which says that Churn halt on the DNS was only served in daylight hours. It may week have been 'lit' initially before that became too much like effort for the (presumably) next to no passengers that used it.

Well no, I have been involved in exhibiting a couple of times and if I never do it again it'll be too soon. I'd build whatever layout I built for operation pleasure and not for viewing.

Long trains are generally out of reach, but being into American modelling I have occasionally had an opportunity to run something really big on a large modular layout (I think I had about 40 freight cars on one move), and there was a different challenge in getting it going with my two locomotives and then keeping it from stalling or slipping to a stand. I really enjoyed that, but since I don't have a large village hall to build a layout in it's kind of irrelevant... Operating on the edge of haulage capacity is probably a different matter to how long a train you can believe.

Are those nice, new concrete sleepers (the cost of which was presumably used to justify closure)?

I think my ideal would be a system type layout, where I'd have the full length of a light railway or US style short line, where I'd then run the daily mixed train, stopping to shunt the various industries and sidings along the way. I think that would be highly unpopular at an exhibition though, with one train pottering around on a 60' layout...

A Stirling Engine can actually run on hot air.

Bits of the Southern avoided large numbers of MUs until quite late - pre-thumper Southampton Terminus or Bournemouth West, for example. Though push-pull steam on the local services might still have been there to make model operation less interesting.

I imagine most of us in this particular thread would prioritize operation over visuals, if we could only have one. We're probably also a minority at the moment. Personally I don't find exhibitions particularly interesting partly because the operation is generally the model railway catwalk type. Which I must stress is absolutely fine, it just doesn't hold my attention. I've found that what I enjoy most is the American approach of operating *a train* over a stretch of route (imaginary driver), rather than operating *the trains* over a section of railway (imaginary signaller). But either way it's vastly more interesting if I've got the controller in my hand rather than if I'm watching someone else do it - which is another mark against exhibitions for me. And I prefer both of those to watching one train circulate and then another, regardless of who's driving.

I basically wrecked a £250 locomotive attempting to weather it. Not doing that again, thanks. They can stay how the factory sent them. I don't get too worried about "but 29854 wasn't in Missmarpleshire in 1962" issues anyway.