How about a Dictator Loco Class?

Can anyone help please? I'm looking for OO gauge wheels, that send power to pickups via brass pinpoint cone barings. So that power is taken from the 60° tapered axle ends. But ideally it would be even better if these wheels are insulated and go on to a steel axle. But the power transferring axle ends are actually part of the wheel, not the axle. I can supply an accurate drawing of what I mean. If nothing quite like it exists I'll have to scratch make them via 3d steel/brass/aluminum printing and or some lathe work. Standard power pickups create more drag and get in the way of my magnetic tuned suspention. I want power pickups that don't press backwards, forwards, up or down ideally. Thank you. Rob

So far I've found no super detailed 'Pylon Bible' out there. So without a quality guide I'm having to traverse satellite views of motorways and travel up and down roads on google street view. So if you have any good pictures or data on L2's I'd much appreciate it! Thank you Paul. I hate when people "pooh pooh" things just because they don't have the drive or know how, yet claim to know what they're talking about. I'm no pylon king, so it's a struggle but I know it will pay off eventually. I'm traversing half the UK's roads on google street view trying to find good pictures at the moment. I'm happy to make any L2's or alternatives you with if you want any. What is the difference between an L2d and other L2's please? A pylon expert I met on Sunday told me, the arms on the side are at a specific optimum angle (which I've sadly forgotten) from the earth cable at the top, to help against lightning strikes. Interesting.

I've just had a go at designing a quite accurate scale L2 so I can 3D print a load of them in OO and N. I'm well along with the design but I'm not sure if the very top is more triangular/tent like in shape or almost square/cube like in shape as I've drawn options in the second picture. Anyone know for definite please? Picture proof ultimately if possible? Thank you. Rob

Does anyone know the heights or dimensions for standard L2's, L6's and L12's? I know there are taller and shorter versions of all of these but there is a standard height for each I've heard. Then they go up or down in 3m increments, signified by different letters and numbers. Also the spacing between towers, is there info on this please? Thank you. Rob

I will gradually add more of my projects. But I've put this one up first as I don't know what to do with it. It's an MXA box wagon body drawn to exact scale plans of it's MVA relative (so I'll tweak the length if you want an MXA. If anybody wants one or more of these making in any gauge then feel free to ask. They sit usually on a BDA wagon.

If you post a picture and describe exactly what you mean we can probably do it yes. Do you actually mean 'Dog bone style iron pigs' or ingots?

The pictures show how you will receive them once posted. Put as pictured they should be cut out with a scalpel. They must not be placed in as one huge neatly ordered interconnected piece as you rightly point out. We will improve them further still. We have made some very pleasing steps forward on the price due to some developments! They won't cost circa £20 anymore thankfully. We want them to look as near total perfection as possible though. Hopefully far far better than any rival version. Thank you all for your input. Rob

That is very useful as it shows a treble pig. The double dog bone pig was as a result of much research and based on exact dimensions. We had help from somebody with real first hand knowledge of the steel works of that period. But anyone who wants treble pigs making can just contact us. They look way better in the flesh. The painting effect is time consuming and uses multiple shades. These aren't just some one colour vague plastic chunk. I really appreciate the second picture especially. Thank you!

(Deluxe super smooth dog bone pictured last) The lads at TMC have been busy making new loads for the plate wagons. Steel sheets, plates, slabs, tubes, H section. Now I'm just about ready to introduce hopefully a few more loads. Iron Pigs, Dog Bone style Iron Pigs in textured finish or smooth finish with deluxe rust effect. A few more shades will be tried such as grey, beige, grey and yellowy rust. And runs of pigs with mixed shades. The 'Dog Bone' style Pigs will probably cost £18 to £22ish per wagon I'm guessing and that should be around 180 pigs. But you can put more or less in. TMC can supply trestles too for carrying larger sheet loads. BUT THIS IS NOT 100% ACCURATE TECHNICALLY, as the wagons need slight modifications if you want to be fussy. Some of the other loads available are quite a bit cheaper for those who have to watch the ££'s, but still really look the part! We will make lower amounts of the most challenging to produce loads.

You are spot on with everything. Well said and thought out.

Those are really good points surely! It's doable.

Those are good points! I hope they learn from whats happened and then actually apply the lessons. Also if possible I hope blame isn't diluted away to the point that no people get any punishment.

There are light aircraft with parachutes now! I hope they'll start trying it on slightly bigger aircraft.

Actually that's a quite reassuring point. 99.9% of the time our current building knowledge and rules save us from tragedy. We're already sorted as long as our rules are followed.

Yes if it can work it would be great. We just couldn't have it stop at a burning floor though. Or a hugely smokey floor when people are coming down and it keeps stopping at smokey floors it could prolong the problems. If doors open sometimes the air draft from the lift shaft can feed the fire I've heard. If fireproof lifts could be controlled by the fire fighters manually so it can stop at a floor and look to see if it's ok to open the doors or not it would help. And an instantaneous instead of delayed door shut feature for fire fighters maybe.

I would like to pick our collective imaginations to try find solutions to this problem. There are lots of engineering minded wise people on rmweb. I regularly think about disasters such as the world trade centre fires and the Grenfell Tower fire. Surely it's not beyond the ability of humans to devise a way of saving stranded people. It isn't an easy task by any means and not a common event. But surely it's worth the effort of solving this huge problem. Helicopters for instance feed the fire with great amounts of air/oxygen. Grenfell Tower height; 67.3 m (220 ft 10 in) Rescue helicopter winch cable length; 76.2m (250ft) Only checked a few, this seems a rough average length. So the helicopter's wind can be quite a bit above the building. Only 1 person at a time can be saved by the person at the cable end though usually I think. Some can lift 600kg so maybe more people could be taken each go. But is air lifting acceptable? Building survival rooms (as used in the channel tunnel) on building tops may be too expensive for a problem that will usually never happen. Buildings without this aren't helped. And it's maybe barely possible to make them stand the heat, take enough people or have a big enough oxygen reserve. Certainly too expensive. Can ideas be thought up to solve smokey stair well problems? Using a zip wire/abseiling mixture that drops at a steep angle but angled far enough away to give a wide birth to lower flames poses more challenges. How do rescuers get up a building to attach the wires and assist people? A motorised paraglider lands accurately and has good control but probably isn't easy to launch in an urban area. Parachutes could miss the target and be risky. Jet packs aren't very save, are expensive and few people could use them. Helicopters seem to not be allowed near burning buildings? A larger drone with say a 20 to 30kg load carrying potential could get something up their but could it attach anything successfully? A drone can certainly take respirator masks and goggles up to help with smoke. Sedated people don't get scared as seen with the recent rescue of the boys football team from the cave. So if people are scared to go down a cable this strategy could be employed. A fine cable can then pull a heavier cable up. With an up cable and a down cable motors could ferry things to and fro. Top floor doors may need smashing down. There are no doubt many more problems and ideas. I'm stuck. Do any of you have sensible ideas that are possible to pull off, that cost under say £10,000ish to pull off? Lets try think about it a little. Thank you.

I love 66789! What a loco. TMC can now supply etched stainless steel nameplates for 66789 and they're in stock. Check my instagram for some pictures of the name plates. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj6KsqUASxf/?taken-by=bobsbitsnbobs Thank you.

TMC are also on youtube now! Keep and eye out for future posts.

I don't get how it being commercial makes much difference? The company is my baby. I was put in charge of all production when I started there aged 19. I've slogged my guts out to try develop it for 15 years and biased production heavily towards weathering and helped us focus solely on railways now. My earnings aren't a fixed wage, but are actually a proportion of what the company takes as it peaks and troughs it's way along. So actually it would be massively in my direct interest to promote the company. Unlike a Tesco worker for example. Personally I think it's great that people like you can advertise their pictures, websites or services on here as you do! It's part of the interest and fun of rmweb, to find out more about everyone and check out loads of interesting model railway related links. That's why I was puzzled about you using the word 'cynical'. You were maybe slightly right in guessing my motives for this topic. But I was seeing if my research was accurate, rather than letting others do everything. And I was genuinely interested in knowing if rmweb is potentially the most used model railway forum. I reckon it probably is from the interesting answers. And now when anyone types into Google; 'biggest model railway forums', it brings them here and they can see those great insightful answers, thus promoting our beloved rmweb. (And then this pile of unrelated garbage at the end)

John and Andy you have given amazing data! Thank you. How interesting. I love your statistics and number crunching ways John! (-: And I'll definitely use alexa.com in future. It seems way more useful/interesting than Google trends. rmweb does look the most used site according to what everyone has said. I'm proud of what Andy has achieved with this awesome site! My favorite by miles. I wish it had an eBay rivaling sales section too though. I think it was trialed and didn't work if I'm right sadly? Rob

What's interesting is that you are the only person on this page that's trying to get little scraps of business by putting this under your post and in fact all your posts; My weathering website : http://activeweathering.co.uk/ my blog http://www.rmweb.co....-of-weathering/ My gallery http://www.rmweb.co....hering-powders/ My bodging http://www.rmweb.co....ng-and-bashing/ But actually I've just clicked on it for the first time. How have I never heard of you before and your a fellow Leeds lad!? My actual job is weathering but I don't advertise my weathering services lol

Does anyone know what the biggest model railway/model railroad forums are in order? And where does rmweb come in the list? Surely rmweb is the biggest and best in the UK (I Know it's used internationally obviously) but is it in the world's top 3 biggest if not 1st or second? Just out of interest. Most rival forums have much fewer members don't look as good and have much less content if I'm not mistaken. Rob