Railpassion

Intrigued by the DC control... Yesterday was my first experience with Lego trains. The 8 year old operator was delighted and demonstrated a working Eurostar with sounds and whistles on his phone app and used a tiny game controller to wirelessly operate the battery-powered train. Running was smooth and reliable. No wiring needed. This is the way to go for model railways. Hornbys new DC system is intriguing but you still need the wires to the track. Surely the future is radio control and cut out the wires altogether. Diesel locos could have one driven bogie and the batteries could sit above the other bogie.

Closing many lines was never the answer. Sorting out the inefficiencies across the network would have saved more. Until the 80's the thirty miles of railway between Hull and Bridlington required at least 33 staff to man the crossings and boxes before a single train could move. Now it's 3 (excluding Hull).

Lovely patina to the photos. Do post some more please.

I thought I wasn't going to enjoy but by the end I really did. Yes I wanted to see more of the layouts and the build, but it's a good effort. I lived in Switzerland and went to exhibitions in France where I would say the average age was at least twenty to thirty years younger. We need younger people to be inspired. Generation X has not committed to clubs and societies (across all pursuits) in the way the previous generation did. There is a significant gap. There are war game shops and this is thriving, if we can stimulate war gamers to try railway modelling. Fun layouts, diaromas and puzzles is a great way to get people started, or indeed started again. My local model shop reports a significant increase in sales since the show began.

I think pragmatism has been lost. The Castlefield problems could be ironed out by cutting one or two trains per hour and TPE would benefit from delaying the extension to Edinburgh until next year to give more time for driver training. As more new stock is introduced TPE are going to find it hard to keep to time.

I use CR signals for post and ground. They are very good and well priced. The led faces are blank unless lit and the colours are prototypical, particularly the green aspect - unlike Berko. The scaling is good, there is a range of feathers and they are made of brass. Delivery is within a few days too.

Congratulations on being featured in Continental Modeller. I've been following progress on here for a good while. It's splendid work and so flexible due to the modular design. Next year I'm definitely going over to the Harz to experience the real thing.

Thanks for the helpful replies. I've just used the gaugemaster syringe type lubricator and sparingly oiled the shafts near the motor but by listening carefully the squeal was coming from the worm at one end. I've oiled the bearings at the end of the worm and hey presto all is now well and the loco moves more smoothly too. Thanks again for the advice it's worked. I spent over €150 on the loco and was pretty dismayed as it's only three weeks old. Now it's working better than ever.

I have recently bought a new Jouef (Hornby) diesel (67400) hj2020 and it's been fine during running in on DC. This afternoon it decided to squeal when running in one direction. Any thoughts from experienced technicians? The bogies are clean but there is a bit of oil around the wheel cogs. The running seems not to be affected but the squealing is noisy.

Northern passenger numbers are down due to the huge number of strike days last year. Add to that the service disruption and it was a torrid year. Northern have been shafted by the DfT over staffing, timetabling and then by Network Rail which seemed (no disrespect to hard working engineers and staff) in almost total meltdown across the organisation. TPE have escaped lightly despite shocking performance. The MD has done well to get his £39,000 bonus.

I had a ride last week. Very impressed by the loco haulage. Smooth quiet carriages and a step change in quality. No engine beneath the floor so a much less stressful saloon experience. Alas the seats are too hard and the window alignment is very poor. But, the thrash from the 68 is superb, it's an incredible deep roar which is lower in pitch than a deltic and full bodied. Its a sort of Railjet experience which brings back in a new form the great days of loco haulage across the Pennines. Ditch the plastic and buy more of these for Cross Country. With only five carriages, acceleration is excellent and I do wonder if these should be seven carriages to provide much needed capacity before too long.

Forfar also closed in the 80s. These closures were the tail end of a policy of reduction of the network to the minimum politically acceptable size. Amounts saved were negligible and 10 years or so later, money poured into rail so that by the late 1990s we were putting in 400% more money for roughly the same network. March /Spalding should have been retained at least as a single track line to maintain the route.

Thank you for taking and posting this, very kind of you. I've been away and just seen it on my return. The old-style orange theatre lamps were much more stylish.

Thank you for the photos. Are you able to photograph the ssignal for the branch please. Photos of this newish signal with the indicator set for the branch are quite rare.

After my tribulations with a Class 22 when they first came out I've held off buying any until last Friday when I weakened and went for the GSYP with discs from CMC.

Have you tried CR Signals? They have a good range and are very fast. I use them and they are excellent.

My thoughts are that the capacity of the loco-hauled sets at around 300 is simply not enough. Six carriages would be better in the long run. Many trains are crowded from early morning to late at night already. I regularly travel on TPE services that have over 200 standing.

Just trying TT myself. The second hand coach market seems rather pricey. I've bought new Piko and Kuehn (herkules) locos and they seem rather good and quite a bit cheaper than new OO and N locos.