Regularity

Last time, they had policies, but no explanation of how they were going to fund them. I am trying to work out whether the current position is an improvement or retrograde motion.

The other thing they do (not just here, but across the pond in the USA)* is to promise lower taxes (to be fair, they have cottoned on to the fact that in the public’s mind, tax=income tax, and they do lower taxes, but only for the wealthiest), more freedom to spend money, and to fund this they increase the national debt. (UK national debt: highest it has ever been - and that’s not just covid.) * Under Reagan and the Bushes, the national debt of the USA went from about 38% of GDP to almost 100%, and whilst they left Clinton and Obama to sort it out, they blamed the Democratic Party rather than themselves.

They have policies?

The GERS was founded about 50 years ago, which was in turn about 50 years after the GER disappeared. Just food for thought…

Is there any reason for using that particular brand of liquid poly?

Late 20s?

I suppose the heavy breathing might be mistaken for an asthma attack, but if given a stroke, I might not manage a seizure, but a spasm is a distinct possibility…

Isn’t that what happens to any attractive young woman at a model railway exhibition?

I suspect that the vast majority don’t care!

Yes, but a different one, which is my point. Not so much the skill of a craftsman, as that of a designer. And yes, I have been happy to try out these products as produced by others, particularly for “repeat” items, where non identical variations are noticeable, also where I might not otherwise have bothered. As I said, both a boon and a blessing: but if I can buy it in a state of needing painting, and it will be better than I could make, then what incentive do I have to make it myself, not being one or the Tony Reynolds or Trevor Nunns of this world?

It’s a technique, rather than a craft. It’s about design and construction, but not about making. Unless you use someone else’s 3D models (or 2D with cutters) then it’s just like buying a partly made shell, or a kit. All require finishing correctly! Not criticising any approach of putting one above the other, but I am not sure if “skill” is the right word here. When you buy something, be that RTR, kit, parts, or even a computer file, you are spending money to save on time, usually related to the time you would spend with your hands. This particular technique is just another variation on that perspective. My own view is that if something is available in any format other than the raw materials, and it is at least as good at meeting my standards for accuracy (both dimensionally, and quality of workmanship) then it seems fairly pointless to hack away at things by hand, particularly for certain components like wagon axleboxes, springs and buffers. But that’s why I went into S scale, over 40 years ago, and such things are both a boon and a blessing in this regard.

It’s reversed turnout switching:

What printer (and resin) are you using?

The GWR had about 2 tank locos for every tender loco.

About 54,000 in 1901, and about 51,000 in 1911. That averages out at about 6 people per customer unit. I presume the GWR produced their own gas, etc, for the works.

How does that break down? How many households? How many business customers? What size of household, etc?

Surely that was one of the things the Romans did very well? For a while, anyway.

Also, the local promoters weren’t really interested in the minutiae of actually running a railway with the degree of day-to-day involvement required, so frequently had the “predatory big company” working the line for them. It is an aspect of Victorian Capitalism that we overlook, forget and misunderstand. There was no state provision of transport infrastructure: it was dependent on local businessmen to see the need and provide it: effectively a hidden tax on the local wealth producers. In a time where most employment was in the nature of low-paid manual labour, and when inflation was all but non existent and bank rates were very reasonable, this worked very well. Tangentially, this is partly why some companies were against increasing speeds, as these cost a lot more money and reduced the returns on the investment for moving the same number of passengers, let alone the difficulties of fitting slower trains around them. And in turn, the higher the speed, the greater the potential impact of an accident, and therefore the greater the need to increase safety measures. (Just another cost to most investors!) The thing about railway shares was not that they paid well (generally, they didn’t and after about 1870 you really weren’t going to get rich quick on them!) but that they paid steadily (a good, secure long term investment) and were also part of the nation’s infrastructure, without which it couldn’t function. This wasn’t totally benign: without an investment in major railway companies, industry and local economies would fall behind. The key difference between then and now was an understanding of the importance of enlightened long-term self interest, which has been replaced with a desire to get rich quick and to exploit every possible loophole and even sell off assets to people from other countries (and even to state-owned if not state-controlled foreign companies). Who needs to invade us anymore? All France would have to do, for example, is tell their state-owned energy companies to switch off the electricity supply in the areas that they operate. If we were in such a level of conflict/crisis with them, the French board of directors would feel it was their patriotic duty to comply.

That fits the narrow definition of success in terms of return on capital investment, which for speculative interests is fair enough, but there were other reasons, including the benefits to the local economy.

Isn’t it a through station?

How so? That takes me to a 404.

Actual bus for the blue diesel era?

That’s good: you can run whatever you like, whenever you like without needing to invoke “rule #1”, but having a specific time frame does help with focus. Then there’s Tony Jokester’s comment some years ago: “When people say, ‘I am modelling the sixties,’ what they really mean is, ‘I am modelling 1964 but making a bad job of it.’ “!

I have two. For Lydham Heath. I have two for the EWJR. I have a single example of Cambrian motive power, however.

A variant of dead cat bounce? But as you said, “ruining” was an important addition. Whenever I have seen a job advert saying they need candidates to “hit the ground running” I know that things are in a real mess…