Regularity

There is a Gilmaur etched kit for an SW1500, is there not? But there is the other part of the solution. Because it is roughly 2x2x2=8 times larger in volume and mass, you only need ⅛ of the amount of stock for a given space, or if you prefer to think of the area or train length, you still only require ¼ of the stock for the layout footprint, and half the stock for a given train, yet get 8 times better inertia, etc. Yes, there is less, but you need less anyway.

I have had in the relatively recent past quite an argument with various heads of departments (including, oddly, HR) about this when “risk events” are being reported, agreeing with your viewpoint, and repeatedly saying that it is either poor training, poor procedures, poor performance or the wrong person in the wrong job, and that all of these are management issues. And the corollary of that is when a mistake is put down to “human” error, it simply reflects badly on the manager for not being bothered to find out why and doing something about it. Some (?) of you may have noticed that I am reluctant to let go once I have sunk my teeth into something, so you can imagine how popular I might have been for taking solace in a past manager’s comment, “We don’t come to work to make friends, but it’s a bonus if you do.”

Evolve, or devolve? Alternatively, if you automate drudgery out of people’s lives, they will be free to pursue more interesting pursuits, such as modelling railways...?

The problem is in many ways worse than that, as the operators become reliant on systems, only some of which are automated, but may assume that some things which are not automated are.

IIRC, sourcing them is not the problem. The difficulty is in finding a young girl who can run faster than her brother...

The reason for that is, no one minds if we go OT, least of all the OP! Merry Christmas one and all.

Is hat really a Fairlie? Although not much swivel of the steam bogies would be required, with wheels that big, the boiler diameter would be somewhat restricted.

Would Co-Co and Bo-Bo (as per MSL electrification, designed by Gresley), not have been the likely outcome? Admittedly not imaginary engines, but in LNER green or blue, running out of King’s Cross, and imaginary scene.

That’s going a bit far: firstly, I stated in a subsequent post that I was not going to post anymore on that point, secondly, it wasn’t me complaining about you going so far OT, so comments about sauce, goose and gander are wide of the mark, at least in the usual context.

Anyone else thinking of the New Haven and McGinnis?

We have legislatures, laws and law enforcement officers. This is partly because the last thing you should do is let victims/relatives of victims determine judgements and punishments. Abiding by this without exception, no matter how you feel, is the price you pay for the protection of the law. Advocating anything else, for anyone at all for any purpose at all, leads to mayhem and murder: “Hey, you disagreed with me on RMWeb, so I am going to put you six feet under.” By the way, I am not making a threat, just pointing out where failure to accept and follow the rule of law will lead. You may have heard the phrase that we can assess the level of civilisation by how we treat out convicted criminals. This is true, but it is only possible once we have first helped the victims. Besides, if you really want a ####### to suffer, ensure that you have laws to lock him (usually male) up, and make sure that other prisoners know what he is, but that they are not to kill him. If it’s vengeance you are after, eat it cold... I am not saying there is anything wrong with you feeling so strongly about these people, merely that being glad that they are dead may deny some of the victims a possibility of personal closure. And it is the victims, not the perpetrators, that I am most concerned with. And yes, I do have kids, and yes, if someone did something like that to them, I would want to string them up by the gonads with piano wire whilst we all took turns in whipping them with a cat o’nine tails. And that’s why I leave it to the proper bodies: I would not be in my right mind. Besides, what if it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity... Last word on that from me, too. Edit: bizarrely, the word pead0phile is banned by the censorship Nazi.

Good: it’s your backstory, and don’t let anyone take that away from you.

Just making a philosophical and theological point: who is anyone to judge another?

Drawing out specific exceptions to the rule(s) - which is what is going on here - does not refute a generalisation. All it means is, unless you are specifically modelling one of the exceptions, then you need to come up with a plausible back-story for anything out of the ordinary, or you will be falling back on rule 1 - which let’s be honest is a way of saying, “I couldn’t be bothered to do a proper research job, so I looked around for a handy excuse.” Now, I have absolutely no problem with that, provided that whoever is invoking rule 1 is completely honest with themselves about it. (What they say to the rest of the world is their own affair, and they can suffer or enjoy whatever consequences follow, but we all need to be honest with and to ourselves if we want to be happy.) And if I find it implausible, then what does it matter unless they are looking for me to like/approve it?

Regardless of the type of person he may have been, that is still an avoidable loss of a human life, and he will never now have the chance to redeem himself, nor to apologise to his victims.

You have shades over the windows, by the look of it. Not impossible, but unlikely. If you don’t mind the observation, your designs don’t look very British: Australian railways have often struck me as looking like what happens when you combine British and American designs, which I suppose is essentially true, and they end up looking American to British eyes, and British to American eyes. Probably worth looking at at British and Irish early DMUs, particularly on the GNRI and County Donegal, etc, to get a better feel for the styling of what might have transpired over here. Google is your friend here.

The black ovals, which I guess are for occupancy indicators, also provide a guide to wiring the layout to get the right level of operational flexibility.

So far this year I have put one coat (just the first coat) of black paint from a rattle can onto the body of a small US outline switcher.But that’s one more thing than last year... So, not the slowest this year, although last year I was not really a modeller, just someone interested in other people’s modelling. Merry Christmas all!

Is she related to Samantha in any way?

We know they weren’t among the dead, otherwise I wouldn’t have made the comment. We had a signal passed at danger here in Oakham a few years ago (early noughties), at the level crossing. Luckily nobody was injured. It was an empty DMU on a driver training run, and the driver and trainee ran past a distant and two reds, which means they must have cancelled the AWS or whatever in the cab without realising it. I only found out about it via a friend who was a signaller at another box on the line. At the time, the Nottingham-Peterborough part of the cross country run from Liverpool to East Anglia (and vice versa) used to pass through at speed, so it is possible that the driver was used to running straight through. I don’t know which train operating company was involved. Anything involving the human element is capable of error, whether that be driving, building, designing a train or just how people approach grade/level crossings: we have all seen the videos... I can see nothing to be gained from commenting over different automated systems applied on different continents under not only differing jurisdictions, but different railway cultures. So far, we know this much: A train derailed on a curve approaching the bridge, the resulting accident has caused fatalities and casualties. The train was going considerably faster than it should have been. There are consistent (with each other) reports that there were two railway personnel in the cab. The NSTB is investigating. Their report will endeavour to obtain the truth. Most of the discussion on here is speculative at best, or from a position of ignorance at worse. A few posts have shed light on general truths, but until we get the report from the NSTB, we will not really know the full specific details. I suggest we let due process take its course.

Not mine, but anyone considering modelling Conrail in the 70s in S Scale might be interested in this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Overland-Brass-S-scale-RS11-lehigh-Valley-patch-Conrail/253308068867

I don’t think the passenger doors would be recessed: they would be flush. Also think a trolley pole is perfectly likely, with electric power.Could not see non-British prime movers fitted at that point in time, either. If it was to be able to haul something off the national network, you will need screw couplings, buffers and a vacuum brake pipe.

That is pure speculation on the part of the Newspaper: it may turn out to be true, of course, but there is no way of verifying the source, and it would be scary in the extreme if the NTSB did not interview the driver and anyone else in the cab as part of their investigation. For all we know, the trainee may have trying to tell the driver to slow down.

Similarly, the NER was so profitable it installed OLE between Newport and Shildon (I think) to shift coal traffic, and planned to electrify the mainline between York and Newcastle: although the latter was cancelled, the nascent LNER must have been relieved to have it as part of their core, along with the GNR and NBR, as a counterbalance to the GCR (good industrial base, but the London extension was a financial white-elephant), the GER (the famous “agricultural millstone”) and the GNoSR (serving a sparse area with low traffic potential). And then the 30s came along... Well, the LMS senior management had a fairly clear idea that Riddles was a steam man, pending full-scale electrification, and kicked him upstairs to the position of Vice President, opening the way for Ivatt and his plans for testing diesel-electrics. It would have been more sensible to allow further construction of a limited number of grouping designs: this happened until the Standards came on stream anyway. The last Castle was built in 1951. It would have then been possible to spend some more time and money developing the LMS twins, options for DMUs, etc. Undoubtedly the biggest loss was the death in a WW2 bombing raid on London of Josiah Stamp, whose business acumen and organisational genius would have made for a superb head of British Railways - assuming he could have been tempted, of course.

Second jumper? You big softie. Just a jumper would make you a softie. Surely you know that oop north, the correct attire for a cold winter’s evening is a vest?