Michael Hodgson

I wonder how Barmouth bridge would have coped with that.

Page 3 is back?

Hornby PLC isn't just trains, they also include Corgi and Scalextric brands. The company is majority owned by an asset management fund specialising in turnaround of companies with a history of financial problems.. I see their trains market as splitting into two main categories with very different characteristics. Modellers, relatively limited in number, but who have already accepted they need to buy online where that is the only option and who are prepared to pay a premium price for accuracy in a high quality product, and children's toys with potentially much larger volume but where robustness and low price are key considerations and accuracy is fairly unimportant. A visible presence in toyshops may still be necessary for sales to the latter group, but that doesn't imply a need to carrry the whole product range. If/when the public do take to buying most of their toys online, the problem becomes one of maintaining product awareness - that is, they need to advertise.

The GCR did have some at Loughborough I believe, and I think others have also tried. The problem with pole routes these days is that the traditional copper wires are worth stealing for scrap value. If you turn up on Saturday and find the lines disappeared whilst you weren't running trains midweek it's not just an inconvenience affecting administrative phone calls (that could be dealt with using mobile phones), you can't run the advertised timetable on a fully signalled route when block instruments can't talk to each other and the best you can do is to resort to some hastily implemented form of degraded working. The fare-paying public are unimpressed by chalkboard cancellation notices however realistically that might follow BR practice. They've gone out of their way to get there and expect little Johnny to get his train ride, and perhaps more importantly won't come back again.

Is there any traffic purpose for short siding off the run-round loop? Probably not much need for a cattle dock at top of the Valleys, so end-loading maybe? Most modellers have more stock than their layout can accommodate without becoming unworkable (if every siding is full, you have to run a train out so that you can run one in), and need as much storage space as they can squeeze in. As already suggested a sector plate would be better than sidings as shown, but a traverser would have even more capacity. A traverser when in use can exceed space occupied when the layout as stored, depending on your space considerations, this might or might not help. There is the question of how you turn freight trains in the fiddle yard - do you envisage proper shunting or "crane shunting"? Some people prefer "train turntables" or multiple lift-off cartridges that can be put back the other way round to minimise handling of delicate stock and excess stock can be stored on a shelf above the layout. A matter of personal preference. I had a layout of this type (1' wide) which I expanded when in use by means of a fold-down front and lid carrying just scenery and controllers. Kept the dust off when the layout wasn't in use.

Yes, it's all very well having a go about wooden sleepers and jointed rails, but how many workers did the old railways need to replace rotten timbers worn rails, walk the track hammering chair keys back into place work on chair screws, fishplates, &c. It's rather easier to find volunteers who want to drive locos, inspect tickets or work in the shop, especially if they've reached retirement age and are not quite as fit as they used to be. These blokes in day-glow orange jackets taking photos along the lineside aren't historically correct either - perhaps we should bring back railway policemen in top hat and tails to catch some of them? I haven't seen too many goods porters or wheeltappers on preserved railways lately either, I'm just grateful that there are still people who do maintain the permanent way, restore rolling stock and many other unseen jobs like finance or safety inspections without which there would be no trains.

CDU gives the tie bar a hefty lick, so the point blade is thumped every time you change the points. That does cleaning contact but that sort of treatment doesn't help moving parts to last long. That's one of the reasons why some people don't like solenoid motors and prefer slower acting devices. I prefer Seeps over Peco PL10, but find the built-in switches (on the models that have one) rather unreliable. As Stewart says, a proper microswitch is better.

Well at least it's prototypical - sounds like you need to start raising steam a little earlier!

Infamy, Infamy!, They've all got it infamy

Surely they only needed the skins for that?

Funny you should mention him. I never see any wheelie bins outside No.10 whilst some posturing journalist is telling us what the PM will be pontificating about shortly. Perhaps the dustman doesn't have security clearance to get past the rozzers at the end of the street? Somehow I doubt his waste paper goes into the local recycling.

https://www.islandecho.co.uk/the-only-way-is-essex-group-set-up-to-preserve-island-line-train/

This thread goes back to 2014. I imagine the OP has got a copy or lost interest by now.

So add a sound chip and an LED circuit to model that.

Americans tended to think in terms of a more generous loading gauge, so orders for the UK might well need to be specially designed, and it was probably easier for the smaller UK companies just to buy an off-the shelf design from one of our own manufacturers.

"a stronger bond with our customers" "Our new website is expected to go live in the coming weeks and we anticipate a much improved interaction with our much loved customers as the platform allows us to continually develop the communities we serve. " ... and direct sales more than doubled. Does this presage a trend to cutting more retailers out of the loop permanently ... including of course the discounters ?

Blimey, you've got SIX bins Jeff - not a problem for me, but many of the Victorian terraced houses round here don't have room for all that. I thought I had a lot with have five - grey, brown and purple wheelie bins. Little brown caddy for food waste - to save dodging round badly parked cars, the dustcart parks up at the end of the street while a man sprints round pushing a red wheelie bin round tipping the caddies into it. Broken plastic crate (I think a dustcart backed over it) for papers. Mine's brown but most of the neighbours have blue, no lids so there's waste paper blowing all over the street if it's windy on bin day. It's mostly junk mail since the free local newspaper finished a few years ago. Good job you're not colour blind though! We don't put egg shells don't in our food waste - they get crushed and scattered on the strawberry bed. Apparently slugs don't like that cos they cut their feet on the sharp edges - though I rather think that's an old wives tale.

It varies widely between local authorities. There is a statutory obligation on them to collect general waste, but garden waste is an optional service, and most of them do have some sort of service but have taken to charging for it. Some of them shut down this service over winter, and some of them reduce the frequency to monthly. Mine is fortnightly all year, and you used to be allowed to put food waste in, except during mad cow/foot & mouth scares. Now I have a separate food waste collection and that little brown bin is the only one that is done weekly. What annoys me is that bin colours aren't standardised between councils. Some use green and some use brown for garden waste. Here a grey bin is used for recycling and over the county boundary it's for landfill. And they wonder why people put stuff in the wrong bin.

I think you'll find violin strings are made from catgut, so the child cannot truthfully claim no animals were harmed

A girl who weighed many an oz. Used language I dare not pronoz. For a fellow unkind Pulled her chair out behind, Just to see, so he said, if she'd boz.

This stuff is worth whatever somebody is prepared to pay for it. Some of the vendors are clearly traders and they have to make a profit (after paying ebay & paypal's rake-offs). Anything that is overpriced (or has excessive postage charge) won't sell and will be relisted - either for a very long time or until the vendor reduces his starting price.

That's anything with a copper chimney

Until people had cars allotments would usually be within walking (or at least cycling) distance of the allotment holders' houses, and a shed would only be necessary as a place to keep tools and supplies such as feed for chickens. These days you might leave crops in them for a while, eg onions hanging up to dry. A tool shed would typically be quite small. Nowadays a shed is often a 6' x3' prefabricated building, supplied flat-packed. They are not on proper foundations and in exposed locations commonly blow over in stormy weather. They then need repairs, often with materials that don't match. Councils don't usually provide sheds, that's down to the allotment holders, though there is often a committee that lays down rules. They might want to regulate sheds and to stop the place looking too much like a shanty town, but mostly they are concerned with use of communal standpipes and people who neglect their plots and cause a weed nuisance to the other plots. During the war a shed would probably be cobbled up (or a prewar shed repaired) using whatever old doors and odd planks or similar could be salvaged or scrounged as timber was in short supply and needed for the war effort. As such, it might well be smaller, perhaps only the size of a privy, and not even necessarily tall enough to stand in - after all it only needed to be big enough to hold spade, fork, watering can etc. Wheelbarrows can be left outside. Sheds are easily broken into, so you wouldn't leave anything of value (these days perhaps power tools). With many foodstuffs being rationed, you would probably take home anything ready to eat (or perhaps to barter). It would have been wise to have some sort of rota for keeping an eye out for anybody stealing crops or even tools. People knew their neighbours and who belonged there. With widespread concerns over possible paratroopers, escaping PoWs (or more plausibly, enemy aircrew who had been shot down or even Allied deserters on the run) the Home Guard and police would want to know of any strangers who were seen.

Signalmen often describe a box as "back to the job" if the frame is along the back wall, or "facing the job" if you stand looking over the frame to see the trains. There isn't any hard and fast rule as to which is usual. Sometimes when a box had its frame replaced it would be put in the alternative position because that way the old frame could still be used whilst the fitters were working on the new one, the changeover usually being done outside traffic hours. Par signalling (as at 1968 and 1992) is shown in Vol 14 of GA Pryer's "Signalbox Digrams of the Great Western & Southern Railways. George Pryer followed the convention used by the SRS and others to which orientation was used, by using a rectangular outline of the box containing a horizontal line representing the frame with a dot representing the position of the signalman (or two dots if it was a double manned box). The frame being nearer the Up Main and signlman nearer the Branch platform. St Blazey (1956&1976) is also shown in the same volume as worked facing the job.

... inspired by the Euston arch. It was cobbled together from an old broom handle & a few off cuts when I did the decking. And I only did the decking because this timber from freecycle was far too good to use for making raised beds on an allotment. On the other side of the wall is a bookcase with a hole in its back wall, so sometimes a visitor would be suprised by a cat suddenly clattering out of the bookcase One of the names he answered to was "Obstruction Danger" as he wore 6 bells on his collar to give our feathered friends a sporting chance. A real character, sadly missed.