Michael Hodgson

So I could justify having a single one of these on a layout not based on Consett or Tyne Dock, albeit not on a GWR single track branch and probably not running it on a daily basis. I rather like the train formation you've just illustrated.

Presumably they also ran singly from time to time - to/from works for repair/overhaul?

Is there any reason to suppose this wasn't just outshopped in grey rather than the usual company colours for photographic reasons? If it was still regarded as an experimental engine even when it was earning revenue, would they have been happy not to bother repainting it? Did its high pressure boiler need specially trained footplatemen or was any experienced driver considered qualified? If it needed specialist staff, the distinctive colour would have made it instantly obvious to all concerned.

Doesn't look as though anybody got airbagged.

Well there's a only a single yellow line and no "No Parking" signs, so what's the problem ?

Put it into revenue earning service and you'll need more than two cars!

Mine were read for the first time in a couple of years not long ago, though I too have changed suppliers a few times, so it does still happen. But certainly infrequently.

Thanks for that Iain, It used to be simple - we all used 12v DC. I think that tends to reinforce the argument for somebody like the NMRA putting forward more detailed standards. As you say voltage affects current draw, and I don't really see a need for that to vary from command station to command station either, although I can see that larger scales might justify higher voltages. If you need to draw as much as 10mA to get get detection, you wouldn't want every axle detected if you run very long trains as our transatlantic friends often do. In steam days my local station saw trains telegraphed as "HW" (hundred wagons) - with 200 axles that would be 2A! Not that I will be equipping every axle of course. It will be every brake van (and some of those will have working tail lights anyway), and end vehicles on coaching stock in fixed rakes, plus any odd vehicles that get used as tail traffic - horse boxes, parcels etc. Fitting SMD resistors is going to be a tedious job, but at least it can be done in batches. I have not yet finalised my choice of detector, but your comment steers me away from DR 5088RC as I would prefer something that can see a vehicle at less current. Don't think I will be using Railcom anyway as iTrain can keep track of what's what but it would be nice to keep that option open so that it can self-correct if things are crane shunted. The Z21 has multiple interfaces and should be able to handle a mixture of different detectors, and I suppose it 't doesn't really matter if only one or two sections are Railcom detecting and they fail to notice all the wagons.

Is there any formal (eg NMRA) or de facto (eg some manufacturer) standard for the resistance to be used on axles for reliable detection? Obviously the optimal value will be dependent on the sensitivity of the detection equipment chosen, so one might expect to see some sort of standard evolving. I have occasionally seen such axles advertised on ebay and there are plenty of metal wheelsets available to replace older plastic ones, but the DIY approach seems to be the norm when it comes to resistors. 10k seems to be a popular value, but higher values are also used. Surely this must be a gap in the market or is it so difficult for RTR manufacturers to automate that it would push the price up too much for those who don't need it?

Hmm. Our Electricity Board sealed fuses are typically 100A, maybe 80A in smaller properties, presumably with supply cables to match. I don't know what if anything they change for EV chargers. I've got a much smaller fuse on the circuit that feeds the garage light and its 13A Socket. If I wanted to make an unauthorised alteration to my distribution board, I would have to either run the risk of doing any wiring on live circuits or pull the sealed fuse. If I were to do the latter it was supposedly something that should have been picked up by the meter reader as part of his visit. With customer reading of meters they only come round once a year or so now to make sure I'm not telling porkies. I suppose even that visit doesn't happen any more with the new technology. Anyway, I suppose the street light would be the best place to hot wire an EV charger - nice and handy, close to where I park ... if they would only change to diesel powered street lights, we wouldn't need to buy EVs!

Dreadful stuff. The rails were coated steel and rusted severely. I had a load of it but it went out.

Here in Hitchin there's a music shop with a first floor door that open like that and on my my to the dentist about a month ago I have seen the hoist in use for a piano. You'd need more than a hard hat if that gave way - I felt safer walking on the other side of the street!

Ravenscar is a town that never was, but the station was not fictitious. Land in the area was bought up by a Victorian speculator with a view to building a holiday resort served by the station, but the tourists never came. He built a hotel/shop next to the station and you can still see the roads which were laid out for the failed development. The location is so exposed location that the station's waiting shelter was blown away once.

Thirty Foot is another Drain - also called thew New Bedford River. And while you're measuring ditches, there's always the Sixteen Foot Drain and the Forty Foot Drain - the chaps who drained the Fens seem to have been a little lacking in imagination. And the former station at Six Mile Bottom still stands as a private residence next to a line which still sees trains. It gets its name from the distance to Newmarket racecourse.

Extra weight to improve adhesion - they didn't have traction tyres.

I went to school in Walbottle. The "Wal" is an old wall that runs through the school grounds and stretches all the way from the Solway to Wallsend, and it was built by the military a couple of thousand years ago to keep them Durham lot out of Northumberland. Bottle is indeed commonly part of place names in the north east where the military tended to attract female "camp followers" and the term derives as I understand it from the same source as brothel.

Trains didn't need to be stationary as long with the old slam lock doors as they do with these sliding doors with their safety interlocks. They were invariably opened by anybody alighting before the train had come to a stand. Passengers wanting to board didn't have to wait for a door opening button to be released. The downside with such stock was any inconsiderate types who didn't close the doors again behind them. Oh yes, and the odd delay caused when over ambitious passengers managed to injure themselves triying to gett on or off while the train was moving. I think WTTs allowed 1/2 minute stop for stations that weren't very busy.

As I understood it (not yet having used one) the frogs themselves are isolated from the rest of the point and are electrically dead unless you do something positive about connecting them via some form of changeover switch?

Decades ago when I lived in Brum Hazelwell station was the home of the Birmingham MRC who met there one evening a week. Quite good premises but for the problem of local youths breaking in and doing damage. We had put steel sheeting over the boarded up windows and doors but the yobs then took to breaking in through the roof. I remember the station approach was a bit dangerous turning off a hump-back potentially in the blind spot of somebody coming up the other side.

I have used Gixen for years (and a few similar sites), but the free version now only allows you to set up very few at any one time. I have only once known Gixen to fail to bid for me when it should have done (their system was down or something)

Seep do a model PM1 with single pole switch on the PCB, PM2 lacking that switch and PM4 latching, with switch. I'm not aware of a PM3. Ideally one is likely to want double pole switch, one pole to wire the frog the other as a feedback to show which position the point is in. The downside of using relays rather than switches directly operated by the solenoid is that should the solenoid fail to operate, the relay will not reflect the actual position of the point. Of course you may be quite happy with that if they operate reliably. Of course if you attach more gubbins to what the solenoid has to shift, there is more chance of it failing to operate as reliably. Point indicators on the real railway show 3 conditions, Normal, Reverse or Wrong. The "Wrong" position shows briefly whilst a point is in the process of moving or not detected as locked fully over. This last option is mainly relevant to modellers if they use slow-acting motors rather than solenoids.

Well, if you hadn't bid on it and only watched, the other bloke would have got it cheaper. I blame all these ****** other bidders for pushing up the price of "bargains"!

As the site foreman told the builders about the company's new Hi-vis "It's not pink, it's salmon".

Plus the two hours hanging about in the departure terminal and faffing about with security checks and another hour waiting for baggage handling to lose their bags at the other end. How people travel depends more on the fares than journey time. They get up at silly o'clock to fly Ryanair mainly because it's cheaper than the traditional airlines and the trains. They would change their minds if the green lobby eventually succeeds in persuading governments to subsidise heavily more than at present environmentally friendly transport and impose punitive taxes on the airlines. Of course the real problem with a sleeper service is that you can't cram as many passengers to a carriage as Ryanair can into a fuselage, Of course flying might become politically correct again if Elon Musk were to design a 747 that can use lightweight lead-acid batteries to flap its wings. At least we won't still be under orders to stay at home by the time they've built these new supertains.

Not the best switches around. They aren't worth the extra over the version that doesn't have a switch. It's why some people prefer to attach microswitches or use relays etc. Having said that you've already got them and you want to use the switches. The springy moving contact strip might benefit from tweaking slightly to give greater pressure.