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Michael Hodgson

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Everything posted by Michael Hodgson

  1. On Greenhill Street/Alcester Road, so it woud be nice and handy for foreign tourists wanting to visit the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, his birthplace and Anne Hathaway's Cottage. And it shouldn't be too difficult to provide connections into HS2 for anybody wanting to go to Euston.
  2. Most of the stuff on the market at present is foreign outline, but had an interesting discussion at Ally Pally on Saturday with West Hill Wagon Works. They are going to introduce a range of 3D printed British outline OHLE. The had a couple of cantilever masts and clip-on registration arms on display, quite impressive but not yet available. They still have to more development work to do, so they're not yet on the market, such as gantries, transformers etc, and will be released as a comprehensive range, though they won't be doing their own contact/catenary wires. The masts were planted using magnets in the base so that they coud take knocks when track cleaning etc, and the resin they've chosen was pretty robust so it shouldn't fracture easily. It looked very good; if I were planning to do OHLE, I'd be waiting for this range to come out.
  3. Why just the Underground? Hitting a cow or horse would be a greater risk than a mere alsatian. When the ECML was closed, one of my trains diverted via the Hertford loop had to stop short of a tunnel because of a horse had been reported on the line, and the driver wasn't allowed to enter the tunnel until it had been inspected in case the beast was lurking inside. Or perhaps something other than a conventional train horn might be more effective in keeping them away? https://ruralis.no/en/2021/06/09/skrem-elgen-for-toget-kommer/ Not sure TfL would get away with this solution to stray dogs ... https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/elk-on-the-loose-causes-metro-meltdown-in-stockholm
  4. Don't tell her one of the main shopping streets is a Shambles.
  5. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwio7_Gg_f2EAxXEQEEAHZHKDhIQFnoECBwQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bathnes.gov.uk%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fsitedocuments%2FPlanning-and-Building-Control%2FPlanning%2Fnr_a_guide_to_overhead_electrification.pdf&usg=AOvVaw15xoGB58UVDy8u45WPACcN&opi=89978449 Chapter 11
  6. It's a bit older than my garden shed but rather better constructed.
  7. He might be on here.....
  8. Thanks for posting that. They are an excellent range, but the cost of dealing with Australian postage and customs had stopped me looking for these products when I have a potential project that would want one. Good to know they are back.
  9. He's entitled to his opinion. We've all got a right to be wrong.
  10. Naturally you'd want the Cathedral in the background of your model too - Salisbury's would be nearly 6' long and 5' 4" high in OO
  11. Once upon a time it was St George for England, St Pancras for Scotland. Now International high-speed passengers arrive in St Pancras and will have to catch the tube to Euston (maybe) if they want to go further north
  12. They're still got anti-terrorism announcements on the train but not on the bus, because terrorists obviously don't travel by bus either!
  13. There was an accident in 1961 near Rugby Central where a palvan containing only some empty pallets derailed fouling the opposite line and an express ran into the debris at speed, its engine turned onto its side and facing the opposite direction. The report says the track was in good order, there was nothing the wagon examiner should have picked up, it was blamed on poor design of the wagon.
  14. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/41296-how-do-i-wire-a-peco-insulfrog-double-slip/ I didn't realise there was such a thing as a left-handed double slip! All the Peco ones look symmetrical to me. And you would be less likely to get wrong if you didn't insult your rail joiners 🤣 I hope you've got it sorted now, but there's a couple of old threads on this https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/41296-how-do-i-wire-a-peco-insulfrog-double-slip/ https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/154444-wiring-peco-sl-90-double-slip/ Personally I like the suggestion of just installing it without any extra wires, treating it as wiring two simple turnouts toe to toe, and then add extra wires to anything that's electrically dead.
  15. The Science Museum decided their displays were out of date, and it's all about "experiences" these days. So if you want to see the Science Museum's railway signalling exhibits these days, you have to visit John Jolly's museum at Mangapps Farm when they're open.
  16. Did anybody still have wagon turntables by then? Or anybody who knew how to use them.
  17. I thought the show was better laid out than in previous years - there did seem to be more space between the layouts so the other visitors made getting from stand to stand seem less of a scrummage, despite it being pretty well attended, particularly in the late morning when I evenutally got there having just missed my train because the ticket machine kept refusing to read my credit card and having to wait nearly an hour for the connecting shuttle bus. For once I didn't encounter the usual rucksacks, though there were the usual individuals who could usefully take a shower, even if only once a year for the show! Unlike a lot of recent shows, there was lots of seating albeit mostly around the food outlets, although it was still very hard to find an empty place. But my main gripe was the free shuttle bus from the station to the show just wasn't up to the job - though the drivers were clearly doing their best to cope. The service frequency would have been adequate, except that most of them arrived at Ally Pally station already full and standing so sailed straight past without stopping. I'm pretty sure the driver of the one I eventually managed to board was turning a blind eye to overloading well beyond what he's supposed to limit it to. And this was mid morning, so it wasn't a case of the usual peak period of enormous queues for the start of the show. In previous years I've driven in, but I have what should be a particularly easy journey by public transport, as I don't even have to change trains.
  18. I understood the problem as being that forklift drivers just dumped pallets into them such that the load was unevely distributed and they rode so badly as to cause derailements. As they were introduced towards the end of widespread wagonload freight, they were probably doomed form the outset.
  19. That's a version I didn't know about. But it makes sense that it would have been wanted.
  20. There is in any case no obligation to leave feedback
  21. Great progress there is such a short time. I particularly like the way you got as much track in through the hole in the wall/under the stairs with the reverse curves looking gentle enough to avoid problems in a hidden area. There can't be many layouts that have gone to the trouble of building three lifting flaps, but it does seem like the right answer given the topography of the building. I would have been thinking of some sort of latch to keep the flaps from crashing down, but the gas struts seem like a better idea. Adding track and any scenic work on the flaps will alter the balance slightly, so I suspect final adjustment of the strut arrangement might be better left till you've done that.
  22. Goathland as a centre isn't really practicable as car parking is fairly limited. None of the other stations is great either (except perhaps Whitby with the pay parking near the Co-op), so encouraging them all to go to any one station will probably only make matters worse. They aren't the only line with that issue - for example the Epping-Ongar is a lot more difficult.
  23. Yes, the duration of the trip is an important factor when considering the optimum length of a preservation line. Enthusiasts want as much as possible restored. Unfortunately, they don't visit very often and aren't the main market. The buk of the revenue comes from Mr & Mrs Joe Public who are not particularly interested in railways. They just want to take little Johnny on a steam train ride as part of an afternoon out to keep him quiet. The total fare for the family (and the cost of tea and cakes, maybe plus Thomas the Tank in the tat shop) is what will determine whether or not they will decide they can afford it, but the time they are prepared to spend in total on the exercise is also limited to perhaps half a day. Then it's Thank God we got that over, and we can get back home for the big match on telly. I have similar doubts about the financial viability of the GCR running all the way from Leicester to Nottingham, much as I'd like to see it. I don't see the demand being there for a longer trip, so I don't see them getting away with increasing the fare to cover the increased costs of the through mileage. And they too have had to cut back on staff costs.
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