Harlequin

Hi Dan, You need to think about the scenery at the same time as the track plan because each will affect the other. On that point, check that the minimum radii in the scenic area are visually acceptable. Also note that wherever the track gets close to the back scene you need to think carefully about the scenic treatment. The design also needs to allow for a method to get in and out of the operating well. If you have a section of baseboard that opens in one form or another then it should have minimal trackwork crossing it and it’s simplest for that section to be non scenic. That in turn means that it’s best located near the fiddle yard. But that all depends on the position of the door into the cabin and it might be quite difficult to arrange.

This is almost inconceivable. Very sad news.

Lots of desktop applications need to be able to show web content and for them it's very useful that the core parts of a browser are built into the OS. Essentially, Edge is just a wrapper around the built-in browser components in Windows.

I don't know either but we are a decade on from that discussion and things have changed a lot since then! One thing I've noticed is that hotlinked images in RMweb usually now also link back to the source page - a proper link to a meaningful page that contains all the detailed information. That overcomes most issues of attribution. On the more general point: Having a secure connection to a website is what people expect these days. They've been told that secure is good and unsecure is bad and browsers reinforce that in their address bar displays and their response to http addresses.

From 1918 to 1947, in fact. You can download the PDFs from gwr.org,uk. 😃

I think the suggestion is to get a security certificate, attach it to the website and use it to serve end-to-end encrypted data through the https protocol rather than plain old http. Search engines rank https sites higher than http because they are more trustworthy and browsers won't warn the reader that the site might be "unsafe" to visit. https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/ssl/what-is-an-ssl-certificate/ There's some more info here but it's a bit over the top for gwr.org,uk: https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/security/how-to-secure-a-website/

There are different versions of Windows 11 and that probably explains why some people find it more intrusive than others. I'm running Windows 11 Pro and my experience of it (after probably telling it once or twice not to do things) is serene and peaceful. I'm in charge and I never get interrupted or forced to submit to MS products. Even Edge and Bing sit around doing nothing. I guess the "Pro" version is the key...

Specifically what are MS forcing on you that you don’t want? (You need to accept security updates for your own good.)

MS are not forcing anyone to do anything they don't want to - they're just suggesting that their tools are best, as would any commercial organisation. There are plenty of alternative toolsets to Office365. (I don't use it, although my employers would probably like me to.) I have observed over the years that if you don't like an operating system it will be uncooperative right back at you and the relationship will always be dysfunctional. I don't like Linux and it doesn't like me... Previous versions of Windows had their foibles and annoyances but Windows 11 is a really well sorted out system, IMHO. If you don't try to fight it, and you don't call it names behind its back, you shouldn't have much trouble with it. 😉

You could install Thunderbird if you really want something on your machine. It's not as slick as some email clients but it is free and it does talk to gmail and pretty any other mail service.

Sketchup is a very intuitive 3D package and there's a free web version: https://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-for-web If you go up to the paid versions it's way more powerful than people think and there are innumerable plugins to extend its capabilities. You can export STL files for 3D printing and there are tools to find and fix problems in the STL meshes.

You could expand your junction station idea a bit like this: The branch has its own run round loop. This was very common and means branch activities don't affect main line running. The loop is trapped at the country end by a stub siding (which could be longer if it had a useful purpose). The spur at the town end of the loop could be used for end loading? Two long goods sidings that both have useful vehicle access. Both platforms are lengthened by the area shown with dashed outlines. The station building has to move a bit closer to the road. Smooth curves in the branch line run into the bay platform and a nice gentle curve on the end of the platform itself. Extra spacing between branch line and main line. The signalbox is in a new suggested position. The pink section eases the setrack curve to bring the two main running lines closer together where they pass through the station. That helps make things look a bit better and makes the crossover shorter.

I think you’re getting advice about two things: how to make a good train set with play value and how to make a good model railway with some correct railway practices and features. The two things are somewhat conflicting and that’s why the design hasn’t resolved itself yet.

For longer trains you could isolate the pink section and feed it through your auto-reverser:

You're going to need a DCC Stink Generator under the baseboard... 😆

I was thinking of Tiverton but of course Junction also has a bay platform for the branch. Wellington (Salop) had a facing bay platform for the Much Wenlock branch with inclined kickback siding for gravity run round.

I think the admins can change it if you ask them. Whoops sorry, Welchester already said that - and he knows because he used to be a bishop!

Off the top of my head, mainline junction stations with branch bays: Didcot Newbury Exeter St. David's Whitland Tiverton Newton Abbot Bourne End Kemble There are a lot more, I'm sure. It seems to be a common pattern and you can understand why - it avoids all the difficulties that you described above and allows branch trains to connect to main line trains without holding up operations.

Can I ask the OP, why is your user name @GWRSwindon when your focus has always been the GCR?

Exactly. That's probably good enough at 4mm scale!

Possibly silvery grey wood and fluffy green and cream visible between the slats. I think I read somewhere that the Cornish called Cauliflowers "Broccoli" and the "broccoli traffic" was, in fact, cauliflowers being sent up to London... Or did I dream that? Could CAD something up for printing...

The downsides, though, are that it's operationally very simple, there's no real reason to run goods services at all and the historical details only have to be as correct as the preservationists could get them. A model of a preserved railway is almost a model of a model...

The Error 200 thing was probably just a glitch with RMweb - I saw a few other people having different problems around the same time. To use the curved turnout you have to make the inner track have the radius of the curved turnout minus your spacing so that it remains parallel. That does mean that both tracks curvature is opening up but that's not bad thing because it helps transition from straight to the very tight R2 and R3 curves. Then one more thing: because the radii have become greater the whole corner curve probably needs to move down but that should be fine because there's a bit of room around the 5/6 and 9/10 crossovers and they could both be smoother by having one end in the corner curves. Note what folks are saying about track spacing: You need to use setrack spacing (67mm) in the corners to avoid bogie vehicles crashing into each other because of the outswing at the ends and the overhang in the middle. Setrack radii R2 and R3 are naturally 67mm apart. But that spacing looks a bit silly on the straights and won't help with your Streamline crossovers because Streamline's natural spacing is 51mm (2in). So you either have to use Setrack spacing everywhere or transition between the spacings as you approach and leave the corners.

It's an SL-E87, which you already mentioned.

That was the problem with Hornby, though: They could make high quality GWR/WR models when they wanted to but it didn't happen often enough. The good stuff was subsumed by trainsets, gimmicks, lazy reworking of old models and an obsession with the LNER! I used the past tense because I hope that's going to change now!