Zomboid

I'm sure the other contenders are capable of building a decent train. Though it'll become a political issue if going elsewhere endangers the Derby factory. Is there much slack there now they're building the crossrail trains?

But the Western region closed all of those anyhow...

There's a large 400kV National Grid substation a mile or so to the west of the line at Bramley, nothing to do with the old MoD stuff.

In reality they're for trains to run opposite directions.You can use them as you want on a model though. Kids will want races for one thing, and I remember setting up a staged derailment on one track and smashing a train into it on the other (crashes are essential on a layout for children, accept this and buy cheap, robust rolling stock to allow that...)

Whilst bad weather doesn't help, you can't plan a Christmas work scheme expecting constant sunshine. And the south east wasn't battered in the same way the north was.Saying that, localised flooding and the like can make accessing specific locations difficult or impossible, so there may have been an impact.

I assume they've using the nice electric lights so kindly provided on the back of the tender.The withered arm was something else. A bigger loco than any of the GW (passenger) designs on a one coach branch stopper. If I ever outgrow this American HO lark... Anyway, I may have missed it, but I assume the good doctor has already amputated the trewinn branch? Shame, that cutting was quite remarkably photogenic.

A few weeks back there was a bit on the down fast near pangbourne.

New Day Rising - Von Hertzen Brothers

In Lily's Garden - The Wildhearts

I'd be very interested in a 21st century steam engine, purely to see how well it works. But then for me steam engines aren't in any way nostalgic as I've only ever seen them in captivity, it's more about them being interesting technology.

I'm sure you've already clocked this, but if it were mine I'd put dedicated feeds onto the lifting section and either side of it too. (is it hinged or does it lift out in its entirety? If the latter it'd also need a plug and socket arrangement so you could actually remove it).

Would a road like that have even had a gantry in 1957?

I think it's because ALCos are just better than everything else. Unless you're trying to run an actual railroad, but that's beside the point.

I wouldn't defend the binning of records, but I can see why the decision was taken - Railtrack wasn't supposed to have that kind of capability, it was intended to be essentially an uninformed client (much like how most of us have only a rudimentary understanding of how our cars/ computers/ OLED TVs actually work, beyond the controls).I don't need the writing schematic for my TV, if it breaks I'll either get a new one or call in someone who understands it and can fix it. Of course with hindsight it's hard to imagine a worse idea than Railtrack, but I can see how the mistake was made..

If there had been no WW2 then companies like ALCo and Baldwin wouldn't have suffered from the development freeze which the US government imposed upon them during the war, giving EMD a head start with diesels.

I would go as flexible as you think you can manage - obviously flexibly means complication. You won't regret building David's system if you go that way as it allows for more future developments (maybe you'll have visitors), but Chimer's system would not be unacceptable if it were my train set. Depends how happy you are with wiring design, really. If you want to have switchable sidings, I would put the isolating joiners after the points, with you would then wire through via a switch.

I imagine that if the WCML gantry design would have been cheaper to deliver the required performance, that is what what would have been installed. As for abolishing NR, maybe there's a case for that (not my personal view), but how would the electrification have gone any differently if the name above the door had been "First Great Western"?

There will be an aerial feeder on 25kv insulators as well as the contact system, since it'll be an autotransformer system - other examples in the UK are on HS1 and the southern end of the MML. And somewhere near Maidenhead I think I saw what looked like a sweet of industrial yoyos on one of the gantries, that might be related to the tensioning, but I wouldn't know. OLE isn't designed to be pretty (generally, the bit through Bath will be an exception) but once its been there a while it'll just blend in. I wouldn't say the old stuff on the WCML makes a mess of the countryside in Hertfordshire...

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but there's some actual contact system (I.e. Catenary, contact wire and droppers, didn't notice how it's tensioned though) installed on the down fast (main?) near pangbourne now to go with the earth wire.

I suspect that British railways would have skipped the mass dieselisation stage if trunk route electrification had started in the 1920s. No doubt the LMS would have seen what their eastern competitor were up to, how much more efficient electric locos were compared to steam (in terms of power and utilisation) and would have started their own program to give themselves a chance where they directly competed, meaning that by nationalisation the main north-south trunk routes would probably have been electric. The western would probably have stuck with steam though, as they had all that welsh coal - and innovation ended in Swindon in about 1903. Maybe in this parallel universe Swindon would have become the British Roanoake and the GWR our N&W...

If the NER had electrified the ECML it's highly doubtful that there would have been any deltics. The LNER would probably have been about as electric as the Southern was. Which would have been interesting - a British equivalent of the GG1 would have been something to see...

The following comment is worth exactly what you paid for it... Operationally, what does the branch give you? It looks to be a very basic run round with one siding as you've drawn it there; will that give you enough operational enjoyment to be worth the hassle of building the slopey viaducts etc? If it will, then great, if not then maybe consider either ditching the branch or having the destination off scene. If you will get your enjoyment from building the scene rather than operating then forget what I said.

I'd leave the orange conduit out. Putting it in just dates the layout, and there's plenty of parts of the network which don't have any. It's a bit hard to compare the ballast you've shown us to some that you've weathered over a reasonable length - see how your alternatives look when weathered then make the comparison. Perhaps do platform 1 with the very light stuff to show a line which was recently relaid?

That'll need one of those unpleasant sets of metal steps down from the town centre to the station now. The type which are wet and slippery and have a questionable aroma during an August heatwave...

I would say that for longer distance services, 442s with a diesel loco would be something of a result. Maybe not quite as good as new coaches with a loco, but way better than anything with an underfloor engine.