roythebus1

My thought entirely. Had anyone read the railway's statement, they would see it is the operating PLC that is in trouble mainly due to problems with the engineering department. It is common in most industries to have several companies under the umbrella. A couple of railways I belong to have the main operating company, usually a plc or a charity who then wholly own various subsidiaries, such as the catering or engineering departments. That way should catering have a bad year such as the previous one, or engineering has some claims against it, then the whole entity is unlikely to fail. The only railway I'm aware of that owns everything from the track, grounds, buildings, locos and stock is the IWSR. But even there the charity own a trading company as the charity as such is not allowed to trade. With the Llangollen as the stock and locos appear to be owned by others and hired in by the company, they should all be ok where they are. I've not been to that railway so can't say with any authority what they've got or what happened, but it seems to be common business practice whatever it was!

All this makes me wonder when the empty tanks were cleaned out; at the collection or delivery point? It seems they were never cleaned outside!

Possibly if I know what one looks like! I've got a couple of Ks motors going spare.

The prototype Deltic had the bodyside stripes painted different colours at different times.

A lengthy read. My observations: I was a guard at Rickmansworth on the Met Line in 1973. when I was there I was told "they" were going to build a link from Croxley Met to Croxley Green and on to Watford Junction. It would involve less than a mile of new track and a new bridge across the main road. Here we are in 2021 48 years later and that mile of railway still hasn't been built. "They" are still trying to finalise HS2; my son is one of those who has "helped " dig the tunnel under euston for the XR group, why not get him and his mates to start digging under the Irish Sea, I'm sure at the rate they dig they'll manage it in a few months. The rest of Europe has finished building its entire high speed network and all we can mange is HS1! Says it all really. Oh, nd don't forget the Boris Island Airport and the Boris buses....

Was secondment at Rugby from December 1974 to December 1975, and we certainly worked 86s with Mk3 stock and head codes were in use on all locos except the brand new 87s. ISTR a few of the 86s had the new cross-arm pantographs. One of our afternoon workings was a peak hour job London-rugby, timed at an average of something like 92mph to Rugby, reportedly the fastest average start-stop time in the Uk at the time. I can't remember where the train went after Rugby, we got relieved there.

Bingham Road on the woodside-Sanderstead line, double track, long platforms and 2 car trains in latter days. Extend the daily oil tanks from Sanderstead to run towards London via the Mid Kent line..and use the line as a weekend diversionary route from Charing Cross to East Grinstead and Brighton.

Meccano was first produced in Calais, there's a place there still called Meccano, just up towards the theatre from the station.

RS Components do boxes of assorted small springs, but never in the size you want at that time.

How about the rubber sleeving we use for sleeving wires on relays on layout wiring? I get it in small rolls from RS Components.

The early Trix coupling seems like an early form of remote uncoupling adapted by Kadee. ISTR a friend had an R1 in the mid 1960s with a shiny metal coupling and a bit of rubber or plastic sleeving on a tail behind the mounting, presumably to aid self-centring.

Why not put a separate 4.5v system in for phone charging off 3 x 1.5v battery cells? Maybe get a restaurant car dynamo as well.

Most European railways allow the running of heritage electric stock on main lines. Speaking of trams, the city of Gothenburg has an extensive tramway museum and allows the preserved cars almost unlimited access to the entire network providing they don't delay the normal service cars. I have a friend who has been a driver on the vintage stuff for over 45 years, and another who is fleet engineer for the museum stock. He is employed by GS, Goteborgs Sporwegger/Gothenberg tramways. Anything is possible if there is the political will to do it.

Quite a few interesting topics all in one! As some have said battery technology has advanced considerably over the last few years with the Luxembourg tramway system using battery power in the city and tradition OHLE out of town. As for minimum radius of the 2BIL, I'd suggest 2chains, much the same as most main line stock. 2chains =66yards=198'. Very slowly... It's possible for most electrical things to run on much lower voltages. the SNCB?NMBS 3000 volt dc locos work onto the NS system under 1500 volt DC, albeit a bit slower! but then I worked a pair of 501s converted to battery power when I was at KX and they managed to reach some 55mph despite only being able to work in series at about 300 volts dc. A pair of Redhill men have been known to work an MLV from Guildford to Redhill (or the other way) with a utility van it tow. Driven carefully and with good batteries, shutting off down every slight slope increases the range as it does with battery cars on the road. Not many people realise that. Heritge EMUs lend themselves to loco haulage on the main line as they're usually air braked. The last SR stock with camshaft control were not only the 508s but the 455s as well. One of the 4DD cars lives just up the road from where I live and is currently undergoing a lot of minor restoration work. Have a look as the Southern 4DD group on Facebook for details.

Wasn't the Hythe Pier Railway recently given over to a heritage operation as it was uneconomic for the ferry company to keep it going?

I note DCC (can I use that name on here) are offering brass b/h chairs for about £49 for a pack of 100. That would make a yard of track very expensive.

Just wait for our American friend to chime in...

In the mid 1960s Trix had a showroom in Great Portland Street, around the time they were introducing their new "fine scale" range of coaches and locos. they ere selling the old tinplate wagons off for a shilling each (5p in new money). We used to buy then just for the couplings. Pity we didn't know then what an investment they would have been 50 years later. The wagons got binned and the couplings used to convert Tri-ang stock as the MRC layout used HD/Peco couplings.

From what I've read previously, Pritchard made enough to finance Peco for a long time.

I've recently found my "spare" Trix 81 body, but I started to convert it to an 86 many years ago if anyone's interested in it.

I have to agree with what Going underground says above. The risk of using H&M controllers is very minimal, risk assessment is the keyword. Having said that, I also have to agree with what Andy ID says! Do your own risk assessment. Is the controller case sealed? Yes. Is there any signs of the case being tampered with? No. Any sign of damage to the wiring? No. Does it work? Yes. Does it work well with the stock you've got? Yes. Keep on using it. If it goes bang, bin it.

Simply, the cab control enable either controller to work anywhere on the layout. You will only find what goes where by tracing the wiring using a meter preferably with a continuity buzzer.

That is the reason they have high/low resistance switches, to suit "all motors". The half wave switch does what it says, gives half-wave rectification for very slow running. Modern motors will need the higher resistance mat or switch set too high.

If these units are left unopened then I don't see the internal components being of any real danger to anybody. If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. If it is, skip it. H&M went over to double insulation in about 1968 but still used the old type rectifiers until the early 1970s. I still use a pair of new Duettes on my layout and they seem to work very well with modern motors.

Were the Daleks re-tyred as well?