Harlequin

People can say what they think about Bachmann or any supplier (within limits obvs.) Human nature means you're more likely to hear the negative views on any given subject. This should not be surprising or annoying... Who said anything about Bachmann retreating from the UK market? Why even raise that possibility? (Edit: Sorry, I see it was mentioned above but I don't think someone in the know should be referring to it for fear of starting more rumours.)

The wall would be at the top. The thin bit, the duck-under, allows you to get into the operating well from the open room more easily than crawling under a wide baseboard. (So, not a good place for a viaduct!) Sure! You don't have to have a non-scenic FY. Just make some sidings or loops in the model easy to get at.

There’s another video and some stills on Devon Live: https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/beaches-retained-under-new-plans-3758836 The scheme is explained by a different member of NR staff in this one. It’s a nice model and the model maker cut a hole in the Parsons Tunnel end board almost as if he/she had thoughts of operating it!

Yes, simple rebrand to get the public on side. The name needs to be of the moment (a bit Brexity), refer to past engineering heritage and be timeless all at the same time. How hard can it be? Er,... The Great British Central Main Line? GBCML Get Boris to announce it. Problem solved!

They are all stored in the community/uploads/emoticons folder aren’t they? If so a regexp on the filename ought to be able to reliably detect them...?

I tried to find some info on this last night but no real joy. The only thing I found was in "Stars, Castles and Kings" by Jackson where in the context of them being plated over on 4020 he describes them as, "small forward-facing windows that allowed crews to peer over the firebox". The implication being that prior to plating over there was some perceived need to be able to see the top of the firebox?

Does anyone know how graphite improves running? (This is basically the question rab asked above but I don’t think it’s been answered.) In the condition where the electrical circuit would have been broken is the graphite moving into a gap? Or is it remaining in place but effectively changing the profile of the rail? Is it perhaps cleaning the contact surfaces as they move against each other rather than being a conductor itself? Or is there some other mechanism?

And for the fiddle yards?

Hi Daryll, How much space have you got and what scale are you going for?

Hi Delorean, The sea and town plan doesn’t make good use of the space IMHO. If you’ve got a 10 by 5 space it would be better to fill it with a rectangular layout with a simple rectangular operating well in the middle. Notice also that the sea and town plan has a triangle in the trackwork which needs special handling, electrically. Interestingly that plan doesn’t have a fiddle yard and if you don’t want one then it might make it slightly easier to fit what you want into the space. If you want a double track circuit, a through station and a little quayside scene tucked away somewhere I’m sure that could all be accommodated. But note that a quayside really means the water level needs to be well below rail level to make sense. It can be done - just needs planning. Edit: Possible simple baseboard plan: All boards are 5ft long with varying widths 2ft6in wide operating well The red outlined bit just carries double track to complete the circuits - could be a duck-under or all or partially removable. No room for fiddle yard, though...

You're right. Atkins says, "Every horse was known by a number branded on the offside forehoof [snip]. The number was shown on a card above each stall in the stables". He says that a "roan mare" (?) purchased in 1917 was numbered 1859. She was the oldest horse in service in Sept 1936. He also says that circa 1900 the most common type of horse across the GW was known as a London Van Horse. Lighter than a shire, more active and suited to town roads. Heavy dray horses were also much used, of course. BTW: I think there is another GWR 2020 to be had because the horse-drawn vehicles were in a different numbering sequence to the "mechanically-propelled" vehicles.

Remember there needs to be a gentle transition to and from level at each end of the gradient.

Then it is our beholden duty to stand at the end of every heritage railway platform wearing a light brown anorak and to accost members of the public in a slightly strangulated voice, thusly: "Of course, you know that livery is all wrong, don't you? I think you'll find that when it was first 'ex-works' (I'll come back to that later) it wouldn't have been lined at all. You see..." Etc, etc... (Then take a sip of your weak lemon drink.)

Did you notice that when Mr Portillo and his companion got out of that train the loco had magically changed to a GW variety with a proper (brass) safety valve bonnet?

All these different stories about why the Large Prairie has been delayed go back to what Mike was saying about communication and transparency. If Hornby were more open there would be less room for "Chinese Whispers". (Hah! See what I did there?) Maybe Hornby can't be clear because, as others have suggested above, they don't actually know what's going on further down the supply chain. However, if you were of a cynical frame of mind you might think that it's in Hornby's interest to obfuscate because it gives them more freedom to chop and change to suit their needs. Who's to say that even now the Prairie has not been bumped again in favour of something they consider to be "more important" in the 2020 range like, perhaps, a "SteamPunk" "model"? I'm being a bit mischevious there.

I got some SRS publications today including No. 8 “Signal box diagrams of the GWR”. Thanks to whoever suggested them! Some reading to do tonight!

From Youchoos website: Non-sound Zimo Decoder: £20-35 approx for N and OO sizes Blank Zimo sound Decoder: £100 approx. Pre-loaded Zimo sound Decoder: £110 approx (including a speaker!) So the cost overhead of sound seems to be mostly in the hardware, rather than the software. That will be due to things like a faster, more capable processor, lots of RAM and a DAC.

No. Just pointing out that the environmental impact is more than transport costs. No, it's just something we have to factor in when considering the true costs of producing models. Making models from trees: Possibly, but we have better technology than the whittling knife. We might be able to produce a plastic like material from tree cellulose at home and use it in a high-resolution 3D printer.

Manufacturing the models we love presumably requires a lot of electricity. How is it generated? By burning coal or by more sustainable means?

Agreed that good communications is vital and the manufacturers would do well to look at the example set by Locomotion/Rails today! We do seems to be a patient set of customers but inevitably, as the release dates get pushed further and further back, the proportion of customers willing to wait gets smaller. (It would be interesting to see such a graph...) And these big delays do offer an opening to competitors. That's another small point in favour of bringing manufacturing more "in house", which may or may not mean closer to the UK. BTW: I was told that for the past few years there has been a worldwide shortage of an important precursor chemical for various plastics which is affecting the production of models. Don't know how big a factor this has been.

I don't understand all the factors involved but would the costs of UK vs. Far eastern manufacturing really be so radically different now? Conditions have changed since Chinese production first became attractive. When thinking about these issues should we also factor in less tangible costs like environmental damage, reputational damage caused by repeatedly pushing back release dates, costs incurred by long round-trip development cycles and loss of sales from people getting fed up waiting for models. A "Made In Britain" label would have some value. I don't know how it would all stack up.

Is production in China no longer such a good idea as it once was?

Well, blow me down! Mr Portillo, Britain's greatest living Thunderbird puppet, visited my old stomping ground on tonight's programme and met someone I went to school with, Gerry Cawley, in the playing fields outside my old primary school. He ended the programme at Mawgan Porth (although this was not acknowledged) where I lived and built model railways with my Dad.

Sorry posted in wrong thread.

Careful now! You're starting to sound like a "SteamPunk"...