rogerzilla

Although more expensive, the Bachmann 36-567a was still around a couple of months ago. I gave up waiting for the Zimo on back order.

There are issues with modern buildings and one bridge but the local council is supportive of a southern extension of GWSR to Cheltenham town, so it cam take race day traffic to the existing Race Course station.

Didcot is on that model already. The vast majority of the locos there look good but haven't run for years. They have had to hire steam in, despite having an entire shedful of locos in all sizes.

"If stove rattles when the locomotive is at notch 5, wedge this manual into the hotplate. Check stove is cold first."

SVR has had its fair share of politics and schisms before. It's by no means unique, as many charities and voluntary organisations go through the same pains. When most of your people can just walk out with no financial detriment to themselves, it takes a lot of motivational skills to keep them on side. These aren't skills the typical business manager possesses, as paid employees can put up with an awful lot when they need the salary to live on.

Eight for a Lord Nelson, and continuous for Turbomotive. It's just my opinion, but I don't think steam scales well (as people have similarly found with real running wateron layouts).

If the ELR ever had to close, we know what might happen: it would become a commuter line, as the local council has been pushing for. I imagine it will depend on individual circumstances. The minnows like my local railway get very few visitors but they probably have very low expenses and no paid staff. Like high street brands, the ones that survive aren't always the most-loved or glamorous, they're the ones with most cash saved up. At least, that's the only explanation for the continued existence of WH Smith 🤥

There are Thompson fans? 😆

I'm looking at volunteering for either SVR or GWSR when I jack in work next year - this will determine where we live, so it's a big choice. SVR was first choice but I also cycle a lot and the local terrain is "challenging", whereas it's as flat as a pancake west of the Honeybourne line. Looking at the volunteering info for GWSR, they seem to need steam workshop people rather than diesel at the moment, which is interesting as they have quite a few diesels. I suppose there are more people with hands-on experience of diesels from their working life.

One of the GBRf Class 50s? A steam railtour?

I will admit that a freshly painted 47 in the sun can look good: this was just out of the shop at the GWSR diesel gala. In service it soon lost its shine and went greyish.

I don't have a benchmark for the heritage railway sector, but that's higher than my employer, a very large financial services firm (i think our biggest spend is on depreciation of IT these days). GWSR may have the advantage of being in a very rich area where people are more able to give their time for free, or is just a younger organisation without as much embedded costs and practices. To what extent are the recent big spends on Falling Sands, the Bridgnorth shed and the Kidderminster diesel depot paid for? If there are debts still to be serviced, that is a big problem.

Does the 14xx still have the unpainted metal chimney? That was bizarre.

The latest update wasn't very upbeat,talking about redundancies. I don't know how many paid staff they have compared to other heritage railways. I know GWSR has barely any, but it's an outlier.

I remember only blue diesels in service, and that's why I buy green ones. Rail Blue was terribly drab and reminds me of the worst of the 70s and 80s, when the railway was in managed decline.

DP2 wasn't a Deltic, though. It was a Class 50 prototype with a V16 engine. Just happened to be in a modified Deltic bodyshell. DP2 was arguably better than the eventual Class 50, as BR insisted on a lot of extra features that ended up reducing reliability.

Well I never, Bradford Park Avenue were in the First Division for 1913-14. Looks as if they folded after a bad run of relegations, rather than merging as the Hartlepools did.

According to Wikipedia, there was a Bradford and also a Bradford City. Someone in the LNER publicity department must have been a big fan.

ISTR that the Deltics in service cost 3x more to run than a Type 4 passenger loco (pretty bad when you consider that availability of Class 47/50 was usually poor).

Are GBRf taking suggestions for retro liveries? DP1 powder blue with cream whiskers "Falcon" yicky green and brown "Kestrel" ochre and brown "Lion" white and gold, for sheer impracticability 😄 The great thing about a freight loco is that it doesn't need to match its train, so can be any colour you like. I'm not sure the 69s have the right headlights to avoid yellow ends, though, which would severely restrict options. I don't think even Kestrel got real yellow ends (obviously its top half was sort-of-yellow).

It's a flying pony or a pivoting truck, which is arguably even worse, as the prototype didn't pivot. It only looks terrible on tight curves

I would be surprised if there is a really good sound sample of Turbomotive. The only film I've found shows it simply made a hissing sound when running, although some railwaymen called it "Gracie Fields" because it was said to make a singing sound at certain nozzle settings. At least it won't need synchronising to the wheels! Oh and, for realism, it ought to be much slower, and probably make less noise, going tender-first.

Is mazak used for the Dublo die-cast bodies? It would be ironic if they didn't last as long as the plastic ones.

Now yellow ends are no longer required (with the right headlights) it's about time GBRf did a 69 or something in DP1 livery. They're already toying with speed whiskers and pastiches of other retro paint schemes.

If they did a footballer one, 90% of potential buyers would be put off by the team chosen!