Mike Buckner

Looks like there was some variety in fonts, depending on the available space. For example the letter C in Calne is quite different than in Chippenham. The example below is in the font Hurley 1967 Sans - a .ttf font can be downloaded from the web. It somewhat approximates what you want.

a definite favourite !

If it ends up that you cannot get satisfaction from or a replacement for the dud one, it might be worth checking if the function pins/wires are operational - for example to use in lighting a coach. You may need to put a resistor across the motor terminals to program it successfully.

Reliably among the most interesting threads on the forum

Brighton station has a road going East/West under the front station concourse. It also has another narrow road going North/South underneath platforms 7 and 8. No longer used, it was built in the Victorian era, to allow horse-drawn taxis to ascend a gentle slope up to platform level, avoiding the steep incline at the top of Trafalgar Street.

Clapham Junction

Same here. I know where the station(s) are - in my head. The trains stop there, when I want. Or pass straight through.

I had 3 of those W.H. Smug Specials sets. All 3 had the same fault - the factory assembly of the motor had not properly attached the upper and lower steel plates surrounding the armature to the motor frame. Consequently, they were attracted by the magnet, obstructing rotation, resulting in very slow running with a hell of a clatter. Easily fixed with suitably placed Araldite. They then ran very well without much noise. They could pull far more than any other of my loco's - including a 6-axle heavy Fleischmann diesel. They easily hauled all my rolling stock at the time of about 35 coaches and wagons.

This is certainly true. My own two eyes see things slightly differently. If I close my right eye, and view with my left, things look slightly more pink, than if I close my left eye, and view with my right, when they look slightly more blue.

Chinese Whispers: Initial verbal message: "We're going to advance - send us reinforcements" After several radio re-transmissions: "We're going to a dance - send us three and fourpence"

There's only so much Paddington to go around.

ah yes, the sounds of 2 hours of clanking, washing out, oiling up, fire lighting and hissing steam first thing in the morning

Technology ups the ante. When telephones came out, businesses got a phone to attract more custom. Before too long, businesses without a phone were losing custom. When the fax came, larger businesses were expected to have that. Today, in most cases a business sending handwritten communications would raise an eyebrow. In the early days of computers, dot-matrix printers were an advance over what came before - but now they would shout cheapskate. Nowadays, businesses are expected to have a website. Large businesses are expected to have a well-monitored social-media presence. I have a mobile phone, but I'm not in love with it. Sometimes it's handy. There is a growing tendency to insist on mediating transactions via a (smart)phone, which makes life less easy for those without one - but easier for the authority insisting on it. In Brighton now, you can only pay a parking meter by phone - cash is not accepted - an administrative convenience, and a reduction in theft of the cash. The railways are pushing for "smart ticketing". It will, I'm afraid, become increasingly awkward to be without one.

To simulate the behaviour of multiple locos on the same track, give all your locos the same address, and have the funnels pointing the same way.