Zomboid

Though there still needs to be space inside the signal/ pointwork for the shunt release loco, so the saving is probably the difference between a 4-6-0 and an 0-6-0T/ 0-4-4T (or thereabouts), which is probably about 8cm.

That would seem to rely on having proper couplers (I.e. body mounted knuckles) as seems to be popular with American models. Try propelling any number of tension locks round that, especially if they're bogie mounted, and you'll be doing a lot of re-railing.

It can do, but in this I managed to get effectively 3 loops in with just R2 and R3 curves. Obviously different rules apply for EM or long trains, but with shortish trains and RTR rolling stock, you can get a return loop with extra tracks into a fairly compact space.

I make bread reasonably often because I enjoy it, but I do it all manually. Most of what we eat is bought though, I don't have time to do it myself regularly.

Very cosy looking

I don't buy those, but I do buy bags of pre-chopped stir fry veg. To get it any other way would cost more and result in more stuff going in the bin. I make my own sauces though.

Actually it's just mail order, so it goes back to the 1860s.

Space is the issue, but it's still, in my view, the best thing to have opposite a model terminus.

Personally I'm with CJF, a return loop is the perfect "rest of the world". Have a couple of roads for overtaking so you can vary the sequence and there's basically no need to ever do any fiddling. Of course that takes up quite a lot of space, but it's still the ideal as far as I'm concerned.

On the other hand, layout planning is a hobby in itself...

It's not Amazon per se, it's internet commerce. Amazon are the big fish in that pond because they did it better than the competition, but it would just be someone else if it wasn't Amazon. If there was a good reason to go to the high street rather than open a web page then I would (and do) do so. But for an awful lot of products it's both easier and cheaper to order online. I can even get a fair amount of stuff delivered the same day. If they're out competing the high street that's basically natural selection in action.

I suppose the question is how much down time is that likely to mean? And will the layout be significantly less compromised as a result? The more faff at the start and end of a session the less you'll use it, so a more compromised layout that you can just turn on and go is going to give you more satisfaction than something "better" that you have to spend an hour setting up and breaking down.

A date? I don't even have an invitation.

Presumably St Giles & Slipcote Albion play in yellow & white, and their stadium is built over some subterranean railway sidings... I like the idea, cheesy though it is, as it squeezes about as much operation into the space as you're likely to get. I guess that's why it's so cheesy, ultimately. If freight operation isn't critical, then perhaps in the shadow of the stadium (Dairy Lane?) there could be the carriage sidings associated with the terminus.

A few years back (so might have been NXEA days) I got London to Cromer in 1st on an advance ticket for £13. Such things may have been available in BR days as the majority of the journey was on the former IC route, but the good deals were not just limited to the ex IC stations. On the other hand, advance fares for a trip like Reading to Abergele were available, but no cheaper than the walk up fare so there's no point buying them.

The new chord will have an ELR of its own, so no reason why it wouldn't start from zero at Marholm. And the distances do add up if that's the case.

They look like mileposts to me, but (the 'I' and 'III' would refer to quarter miles), but then what they've actually installed there or where the zero would be doesn't stack up particularly. Guessing a bit on Google earth, the route is a bit under 2 miles long, so that kind of stacks up if it has a zero at the Peterborough end.

I'd be tempted if I had any physical manifestation of a layout I could run it on!

Aside from the wheels it would do the job for me now. Would be useful pulling the 3 coach plus van "express" on my imaginary Minories. I'm very much not not a finescaler though...

I think it's about 80mph where aerodynamic drag becomes a real big deal, but I'm not sure where I'm pulling that from so it's probably wrong. Pendolinos were designed for 140, and the 350s were initially specified for 100. If enough power is available then you can bludgeon your way to just about any speed, but for a given weight and rolling resistance you'll use more energy in a flat fronted EMU at 110mph than a 390 at 110.

I haven't had anything direct from Amazon that I've noticed about this. But perhaps it's no coincidence that I have never used Visa credit to buy anything from them (or indeed anyone else, my CC is and has always been MasterCard).

The A4 has a kind of curved "running board" that nothing else had. Removing the valances emphasises that, whereas the flat line along the bottom of the valances creates more of a jelly-mould appearance. I suspect that they were aerodynamically significant at 126mph though. As for rebuilt Bulleids, they look very nice in a different way to the "air smoothed" versions. With the BFB wheels you just have to paint them black (with optional silver smokebox) and a dirty great headlight and you've got something very American looking. Which I like.

I think once the A4 had been done, that was pretty much as good as steam locomotive streamlining could get, aesthetically speaking. We certainly never bettered it in the UK, and none of the foreign streamlined locos I know of were better. At that point there was no point anyone else trying...

Wasn't the 2-8-2 the general utility loco over there? Obviously there were special tools for particular jobs.

It would most likely have been something different, as locos were designed to meet traffic needs. If we'd had braked, bogie freight wagons as the standard by the 20s/ 30s, then I suppose the question is how would they have run? The super heavy stuff would still have been super heavy and in need of a lot of power to move at a highish speed, but you'd think that for most stuff the trains would have run more like passenger trains and at passenger speeds, so the locos were have looked more like passenger locos.