Michael Hodgson

Oh dear, Class 104 and the MDOs announced today. Next year is going to be expensive

The word plumber comes from plumbum, Latin for lead. ....must be harmful to health, as the ancient Romans are all dead.

you can get most things on Ebay

Nationalisation was a political decision following a general election and the Party presumably campaigned on a platform (groan!) of "our" British Railways quite some time before the Act came into force. Before the war, the big four were campaigning for a "Square Deal Now", which didn't mean nationalisation of course.

Oh, the poor old Belgians are quite used to not having control of the situation.. Every time we Brits, the French and the Germans want to argue about something more than fishing rights, we go and fight it out over there.

Did they postpone April Fools Day this year because of Covid ? I suppose it looks more convincing than the Triang one! Much as I like the Blue Pullmans - when they were in the reversed InterCity livery my father used to commute on it when they from Bristol Parkway when he had to work in London for the week - they weren't economic even then. I can't see it entering regular srevice, so is it for excursion use ?

One of the reasons for poor running in steam locos is to do with valve gear, rods slightly out of straight, sticking pivots, rivets which can catch on other parts of the motion etc. As these are mechanical issues as with quartering, it doesn't matter whether you are DC or DCC, and it won't get any better with warming up. Handling locos by the motion or derailment damage can cause a good loco to start misbehaving. I have noticed that pickup wires sometimes work better in one direction than the other.

Because of your sharply curved platforms I would suggest you might want to deem 11 crossover motor worked if you abolish north box. Rodding doesn't like going round corners. Rods are straight and whilst they can change direction at a compensator or a crank, it's a series of straight runs changing the angle a bit every so far, and you don't want too many in the run. I have seen rodding in strange places not even adjacent to the track but it's most unusal and not appropriate here. The longer the rodding run the heavier the points are to work, and accomodating curves only makes it worse. The Board of Trade set a limit at various dates, which is why the ideal position for a signalbox (in the absence of level crossings) is half way between the two outermost sets of points. One rod only is usually needed for a crossover, working both points with additional rodding with a compensator connecting them together. A second rod for a Facing Point Lock is required if passenger trains are signalled over it from the toe of a point, but 11 is a trailing crossover. But install motor points and there's no rodding, and it overcomes the potential problem of distance from the Box! See also this thread...

Although Bob hasn't mentioned it on here, he's also added video 23 which follows on as part 3 on the same subject.

I'll drink to that ... let's open another bottle!

If sea water had got in, the load would be stuck to the floor!

I've heard of Zen decoders. What's Zen market?

Would you count Liverpool Riverside as a branch line to a seaport?

S6 would have been a stop arm not a distant - the distant for North box would have been S4, or more probably the same distant as South box (ie distant off = clear road through the station). Likewise with the distant S9. I would also expect to see a running signal rather than a disc as the exit from the goods line - if indeeed it is used as a goods loop. If it just part of the goods yard, then the disc is OK for that purpose, though perhaps a yellow disc or a second red disc for access to the sidings dependent on the company. If north box controls crossover 9, then surely you do need rodding through the station? By the date that those points became power -worked (obviating the need for rodding) the signalling would have been rationalised to a single signal box. As regards S1/2, I wouldn't expect a splitting distant into a goods yard or goods running line, as the entrance points would be low speed, so only the one distant. I am with Flying Pig on moving 11 crossover as that is the only reason for having north box - but perhaps you need in at that end to use the platform length in order to run round trains? UNLESS you intend to terminate Down trains in the platform and send them back in the Up direction, which case you would need a running signal for that move. The layout on your screenshots don't look like a proper box diagram because they just look wrong with the exits from the fiddle yard not protected by signals. The fiddle yard of course is notionally another station or the rest of the world, and wouldn't be worked from that box anyway. So I would put the fiddle yard control onto a completely separate screen/set of levers, and the screens for the scenic area could then look more like box diagrams, especially if you added the platforms.

65 tonnes in a 4-wheel van is quite some axle load. I don't suppose you went to the gym after a day's work- there's a lot to be said for pallets, palvans, and fork lift trucks!

How many bags deep could you stack cement on the van floor before you overloaded it? My back hurts just thinking about it! Wouldn't a 6-wheeler have been a better idea for such a heavy product ?

Why would Private Owners want the bits of smashed up wagon after an accident? The load perhaps if it was fit to salvage. As regards the wagon surely what they would want is compensation for what they would perceive to be negligence on the part of the railway company. I would have though the railway would use/sell the wreckage for firewood? Iron & steel could go to the company's furnace.

Quite a lot of work that, modelling the Palace of Westminster. Maybe there's kit though?

What I loved about the Science Museum in the old days was its railway signalling exhibits. No longer of interest to youngsters it seems, but fortunately John Jolly rescued them for the Mangapps Farm museum. Well worth a visit although it closed because of Covid, reopened for a couple of months but is closed again at present. Afraid today's Science Museum doesn't interest me, but I have been told it's me that belongs in a museum ... and I do have a photo of myself at Didcot Railway Centre standing by an entrance door above which is a sign reading "Display of Relics".

In practice a lot of model railway stuff (and especially layouts) often dies with the modeller, as it is usually of no use or interest to the next of kin personally and has value to them only in as much as it is worth what they are able to sell it for. As they don't know what they are looking at, they can't sell it on ebay as they can't give a decent description. When I was a lad many museums had beautifully engineered scale models of locos and ships in display cases. I have not seen anything like as many in more recent years - so what has happened to them? I don't doubt that a lot of good models get scrapped - but then so did the prototype.

Something like this ?

Yes, good way of doing it. If it's not all on one common return, use the bolt to operate a relay, and use as many sets of contacts as necessary, wiring it via Normally Open contacts for fail-safe.

It was the cylinders I noticed first. Clearances for platforms presumably being a problem for the RTR market

I thought those cow bells on strings were never very common and used on private rather than public level crossings? I don't see that the permitted size in the road vehicle regulations would apply to trailers hauled by agricultural tractors over private crossings, so no reason why you couldn't stack the stuff as high as you like, until the railway starts stick up OHLE.