mdvle

And for steam fans, or early diesel where the steam facilities were used, a reasonably compact roundhouse complex. The external stuff is compact enough one could halve or third the size of the roundhouse and it could still be reasonable. This is CPR's Ottawa West roundhouse (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) from fire insurance maps December 1956. Images can be found at: http://urbsite.blogspot.com/2012/05/cpr-ottawa-west-roundhouse-remembered.html http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/ottawa_west/one.htm

Search didn't indicate that this location has been featured before, and I just posted some track plans of a freight shed that ran along this street in the other thread (*). These are pictures of CN running freights down Ferguson Avenue in Hamilton, Canada. Apparently mainly a more residential street in the steam era but the one end had some industries including the freight shed. https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=15604 http://www.railpictures.ca/upload/street-running-on-a-gloomy-wet-day-cn-c424-3232-heads-north-up-ferguson-avenue-on-the-hagersville-sub-in-hamilton-leading-train-466-not-far-from-arriving-at-hamilton-yard-a-nice-selection-of-nyc-j http://www.railpictures.ca/upload/matching-cn-zebra-striped-a-b-a-f-units-9173-9195-and-9166-handle-725-the-steel-train-along-the-street-running-portion-of-cns-hagersville-sub-along-ferguson-avenue-having-just-departed-hamilt And from the steam era, the aftermath of an accident just a short distance from the freight shed https://www.flickr.com/photos/hpllocalhistory/14467297116/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/hpllocalhistory/14303769960/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/hpllocalhistory/14303797739/ * - https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/47081-track-plans-for-north-american-layouts/&do=findComment&comment=3719029

Given the ongoing interest in street running, an example that could provide a more interesting way to model it on a layout. Segments from fire insurance maps for Hamilton, Ontario, Canada showing Ferguson Avenue which had street running by CN. More interesting from a modeling perspective, there was also a freight shed located along this street so a layout based around a freight shed could prototypically have the mainline running down a otherwise residential street, and the mainline having a passing siding. Posted links to some images to give an idea of the neighbourhood just past the freight shed here - https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/55031-street-running-in-the-usa-or-canada/&do=findComment&comment=3719031 Clips are from 3 adjoining pages.

And when you bought from the US, I am guessing you got the US sales tax deducted too (or more accurately, given how US pricing works, they didn't add it to your purchase). Regardless of what one feels almost every jurisdiction has a sales tax of some sort, and in most cases you are required to pay this regardless of where your purchase originates. This is how Amazon become so big and dominated, with no presence in 49 states they didn't collect sales tax and the buyers predictably didn't self declare. Needless to say, plunging sales tax revenues as physical stores got wiped out soon forced the states to force Amazon to collect the sales tax for them (and given the mess of state, county, region, city, town, etc. sales taxes in the US it isn't a simple process). As for your shipping complaints, several points. One, I suspect you can blame congress. The USPS I seem to recall put through a fairly significant parcel price increase and I think it was about the time under Bush in the mid-2000s when the Republican congress passed a law forcing the USPS to pre-fund its retirment benefits until sometime in the 2050s (and the law only applies to the USPS, no other companies or organizations). Needless to say that law made a mess of the USPS finances. Two, countries around the world, noting the changes in how people buy things with resulting declines in tax revenue, I assume started putting pressure on the Amazons and eBays to collect the taxes for them so it didn't become a game of chance at the border. I used to order from Amazon US because they offered better discounts than Amazon Canada and even with the exchange rate and shipping costs (via the USPS) it would be cheaper than Amazon Canada (though delivery would take longer). Never got hit for taxes crossing the border. But Amazon started collecting taxes for the Canadian government, and add in higher shipping costs and it no longer makes sense to order from Amazon US. The eBay Global Shipping program is likely similarly a result of various governments pressing for tax collection. As for the VAT being applied to the shipping cost, of course it is. Just as if you pay to ship something within the UK you pay VAT on that shipping. Or if I order through Amazon US they charge me GST on shipping. You can make arguments either way, but in general if its taxable within the country you live in then its also taxable when you order online.

DCC can have many advantages, and if you are starting out (ie. don't already have a large number of locos to suddenly at chips to) it doesn't have the sudden cost issue to deter. Can also have the advantage (if the budget allows) to go for sound so for example the daughter could use the train whistle/horn to add to the play factor in addition to the usual engine sounds.

Any reason the fiddle yard has to be on the right? If not, simply rotate the layout 180 and you get your siding at the front.

The 1600 is now in tooling according to the just released Rapido UK newsletter, those who aren't subscribers can find a link to it in the topic started by Rapido today on RMweb.

Those interested in the bus may want to jump over to the just released Rapido UK News thread and read the newsletter, bunch of stuff about the bus including a new route offering.

Another possibility (note: I have not used them myself) depending on how much you order from the US, or perhaps if you can share the costs with some other reasonably local people to you, are the mail/parcel forwarding services that give you a US address and they then for a fee ship it to you.

RPM Chicagoland 2019 Link to several presentations/handouts - http://www.rpmconference.com/index.php/2019-rpm-program-complete/ Weathering Media - Color Theory presentation slides - https://theniagarabranch.wordpress.com/2019/10/29/colour-theory-basics-from-chicagoland-2019/ Creating Artwork for decals - http://prototopics.blogspot.com/2019/10/decal-artwork-presentation-file-from.html 2 blog posts with photos of some of the models that were displayed: http://prototopics.blogspot.com/2019/10/chicagoland-rpm-2019-part-one.html http://prototopics.blogspot.com/2019/10/chicagoland-rpm-2019-part-two.html

I agree it is a nice track layout. It will all depend on what changes you can accept visually. I would be tempted to see, given that certainly the tank locos are likely to be about 6 inches or less (based on wikipedia, the terrior would be about 4", the e1 about 5"), if you could perhaps "steal" some space from the track at the left where your templot version appears to give the locos about 12 inches at the station end.

Rapido have posted to Twitter an image of the first injection samples of the Flexi Flo hoppers. https://twitter.com/RapidoTrains/status/1189973279483867138

Per the just released Rapido UK newsletter (in inboxes of subscribers) Rapido found two dozen brand new Pendolinos during a cleaning of their warehouse. These will be brought to Warley and sold at the Rapido booth on a first come first served basis - the Rapido booth will be easy to find because there will be a real bus next to it.

Rapido usually waits a couple of days before putting it up on their website to give subscribers a bit of an advantage.

The first choice will be access to the real thing to take lots of measurements and photographs (and the photographs will usually feature a long stick with measured intervals on it to make scaling the pictures easy - I think somewhere on the Hornby Engine Shed blog in the past you can see it in use). With the caveat that you have to be careful with preserved examples, which may have been modified, this offers the best way to see what was actually made and used and to confirm any other data that may be available. 3D scanning, as mentioned above, isn't a magical solution. There are pictures around that show the result, basically all it produces are what is called a point cloud which is essentially a whole bunch of dots in the appropriate 3d space that give you the outline of what was scanned. There can be artifacts in the point cloud you don't want - for example some lettering if the paint / vinyl is thick enough can be shown in the scan. So a human has to take that point cloud data and turn it into actual drawings. Given the extra costs and work 3D scans aren't done all the time and really only have a large benefit if the prototype has complex curves that can be difficult to measure, and where (more so in the past) any official drawings may not be accurate. Official drawings. These can be very useful, particularly if no prototypes exist anymore, but can have the problem that the people actually building the item in question may not have exactly followed the drawings. More of a problem in the past, particularly where a jig may have been created to form complex shapes and a "close enough" was used (or worse if complex shapes were all individually hand made). For the most part gone away for new stuff given the computer controlled machinery used in making things these days, though you still have to be careful about changes that may happen on the production floor and perhaps not reflected in the official drawings (or at least the versions you get). Finally, if there are no prototypes and no drawings (or the drawings may have accuracy concerns) then just general pictures. Obviously can be done but more work given they typically won't have the scaling aids and so scaling will need to be done by using dimensions of known components or even informed guesswork.

Maybe something that people could interest Accurascale in doing given they seem to be a bit more adventurous in subjects to make.

Some industrial spurs that may provide inspiration, found when going through fire insurance maps for Calgary AB Canada Both maps are approximately 800' across (HO: 9.2' / O: 16.6' / S: 12.5' / N: 5')

No product yet, but there is a new manufacturer of freight cars that has started some blog posts to introduce the company and the what and why. They will be at least initially focusing on cars built in the 1920s that lasted through into the 1960s. https://www.prototypejunction.com/

London Reconnections has an update on the state of Crossrail based on the 23rd October meeting of the Programmes & Investment Committee https://www.londonreconnections.com/2019/crossrail-progressing-but-slipping/

Global Shipping is an eBay program where your item gets to your door with no additional costs to you - the Global Shipping fee includes the shipping / tracking / customs / VAT / etc. (which is one of the reasons why it can seem expensive, particularly if you are used to getting things across the border without paying the taxes).

117 new Alco PA and PB series in HO new versions of the New Look "Fishbowl" bus issues with some DCC RS-18 models CAD pictures of the Rio Grande Ski Train Snack Coach (enough orders so going ahead) pictures of tooling for the Horizon coaches, Flexi-Flo https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Rapido-News-117---New-Locomotives--New-Buses--New-Videos-.html?soid=1101318906379&aid=8a9TgUnJGO4

You run into the same problem as an HST model though, who has the space? 5 73' coaches takes you into just over 8' plus the Class 68. You could perhaps shrink it to 3 coaches (2 + driving trailer) but that is still 5' plus the Class 68.