Anadin Dogwalker

I built one of the resin EM1s around 1988. By that time, assembled chassis in brass (and with spoked wheels) were provided but a year or two earlier in a Practical Model Railways article, the recommendation was to use the bogies off a Lima class 52 minus the middle axle. The motor bogie was to be attached to the roof by a popper stud.

I'm still waiting on Revolution to announce 313/314s in OO if only to smoke out the Other Manufacturer that Ben Ando keeps refusing to name/denies knowing.....grrr

While I enjoyed the Star Beast, I was more annoyed about the Children In Need sketch and an ambulatory Davros. It could have been pitched way before Genesis, and pre-injury but the whole point of Davros was that his life-support chair was the catalyst for designing the Daleks. It's not as though his chair vaguely resembled any sort of wheelchair in daily use. FWIW I can only think of three other characters in chairs: the resistance leader in Dalek Invasion of Earth, Henry Woolf in the Sunmakers, and Trigger as John Lumic in Age of Steel. As much as it was nice too see Julian Bleach maintain his ownership of the role, ditching the chair was a bad call. It would be like ditching the police box as a protest against the failings of numerous forces and the criminal activities of officers. Must'nt give 'em ideas...

How about Sefton, the most seriously injured survivor of the Hyde Park barracks bombing? There's a life-size statue of him at the Royal Veterinary College near Potters Bar.

Worrying about accidentally putting Voltarol on the toothbrush. Not yet but still...

Re Ventimiglia, it was wired at 1500v DC so could be used by dual voltage French stock and Italian at half power. I interrailed that line in 2002. I can't remember which leg was wired first south of Avignon (ie Montpelier to connect to the Midi, or the Marseille leg) but the completion of the PLM DC electrification was 1962 and the AC Cote d'Azur extension in 1969. The triangle north of Marseille was all wired up as the loco depot (St Charles?) was on the Nice leg of the triangle. East of the depot there was a dead section and the catenary style changes to AC all the way along the coast, then back to DC on the approach to Ventimiglia. I'd need to dredge up the photos as I cant remember what style of spans were present in the station; I suspect it was probably Italian. IIRC it was mostly TGVs, units or BB25500 on locals plus the odd Sybic or BB22200- all dual voltage types by necessity.

I had always assumed that the wires would go east to Retford and join up with a 1500v KX-Doncaster/Leeds electrification, hence the proposed 27 EM2s.This would have only lasted a year ( on paper) between the 55 Modernisation plan and the adoption of AC. The allocation of all 40 AL5s for construction at Doncaster (and more AL6s) was the last vestige of wiring the ECML before the 80s. For the 76s, I wonder if it was at all possible to transplant a fixed output (ie no tap changer) transformer and rectifier pack into the space occupied by the steam heat boiler and tanks (or ballast weight in the majority) but otherwise retain the original DC control gear- but I think the air compressor and reservoirs on the dual/air conversions used some if not all of the space available. The principal is sound as it's how the SNCF wired a lot of the early dual voltage locos that way. The major downside would be the loss of regenerative braking. The electric spine plan is one of the great missed opportunities of the last 20 years. I went through a phase of photting at Worting Jcn (west of Basingstoke) about 10 years ago. I was surprised by the volume of freight but annoyed as ever by diesel haulage under/over juice. Basingstoke-Reading and Didcot-Coventry under wire should be a no-brainer, but Oxford is still diesel I think? I stopped at Tebay yesterday between 3 and 4pm and bagged three 66s. a 70 vs one 88. Not a bad haul for an hour, but I'd prefer 90s or 86s anyday.

I'd forgotten about the loop aerial (good call) but the set itself was in daily use from 99 to 2005 without a hitch.

Guilty as charged. My Dads 1979 Duette provides the 16Vac output to stationary decoders to kick the point motors under my layout. My 2005 Sony Trinitron has outlasted the contemporary DVD player (which failed after 8yrs) and VCR which lasted a bit longer and I replaced both with the same models. Previous to that I used my Granddads '72 single channel manual-tune-dial Sanyo. Still got it and I bet it still works (and now you only need one channel if connected to a digibox). Inbuilt obsolescence was an alien concept back then.

The E5000 body shell was definitely derived from the Re4/4i, the bogies were copies licensed by SLM. IIRC. SBB designs that predated and might have influenced the design of the roarers were the Ae6/6 (1952) , Re4/4i (batch 2, 1950) the Ae4/6 (40) and the third Ae8/14 (38 ish). There's an evolving family look through these and the Landilok had particularly raked cabs, like a roarer mated with a GWR railcar.

Number 2 , I presume

Frank Zappa: "Jazz isn't dead- it just smells funny."

If scenes on trains are eligible, then The Spy Who Loved Me (all time fave) , Live and let Die and From Russia With Love. Oh and Daniel Craig getting "skewered" in Casino Royale.

Bass for me too. I've a 70s jazz bass I gigged at uni and a bunch of Rickenbackers that dont often see daylight, never mind electricity. Q: How do you know when the stage is level? A: The drool comes out both sides of the drummers mouth

May I ask what are your tree building techniques/source materials please? I had stockpiled a lot of Woodland Scenics fine leaf foliage but I'm having second thoughts and am looking at Noch or Heki foliage instead to go on seafoam stems.