Pendle Forest

The 12t kit has built into a really lovely model. Just needs a bit if weathering now. Easy to build with a bit of patience and effort.

Looks like the engineers have decided a cranes needed! Recently completed (apart from weathering), Make Your Mark Models, Plasser & Theurer 12t Rail Crane

Thank you :) I was playing around with the settings on my phone camera, so i think it's that more than anything else.

Night time at Pendle Forest

I've got the smaller 12t version on the way to me, as he has just done another run of the kits. As you've built the big brother of it... would the kit, as it builds, lend itself to a light in the cabin and maybe some lights down the side? Is there room to hide a simple light function decoder, or are each of the parts solid and would need hollowing out?

From the pics it does look like the lip below the front cab windows, looks more like a shelf. I'm not convinced it captures the front face correctly at all

My earliest 'odd place for a loco' was being taken by my parents to Burnley Central where, in the coal yard, BR in its wisdom had decided to name 86213 Lancashire Witch. It had been hauled over, dead of course, from Preston by a 25 that was lurking elsewhere in the yard. It was dark and they had floodlights up and someone had invited along a 'witch' with a big cauldron that was very enthusiastically belching out bright green smoke that made everyone choke.

Wales and the West Country too where all the semaphores suddenly moved in the not normal way 😅

I'd forgotten about the SPT orange 156s. You'd also get the occasional escaped Tyneside yellow/blue 143 too.

Absolutely love this.

We know who would benefit... everyone south of Brum. The whole area North of Brum would get nothing from HS2. Had the whole thing been built we could have got to London from Manc or Leeds slightly quicker but at greater cost than we can now. Wow! Weirdly not everyone in the north really wants to do that. In fact the majority couldn't careless. Three electrified transpennie routes would benefit the whole of the North Midlands and the North. How many more people would u like a scheme to benefit? Extra capacity on the southern end of the WCML could be created by better speed profile matching of existing services, removing bottle neck junctions and ensuring the post-covid traffic patterns are better reflected in the working timetables. I'd go as far to say that HS2 was only ever wanted by the metro mayor's because it was the only real chance of investment that was on offer ;)

Apologies... I may have made it seem like it was dissociated from the budget re-allocation. I was trying to compare both the cost of the runt of HS2 that will be built and the overall cost of the whole thing (had it been built) against the relatively modest costs, of a scheme that could have been completed very quickly, that has huge backing, and would unlock very real benefits withing 2 years if Network Rail and the procurement process got on with things. It could fundamentally transform East West travel between Lancashire, Merseyside and Gtr Manc on one side and the Ridings of Yorkshire and Tynside.

If we had a truly joined up system you could then carry the electrification from Bradford through to Burnley and achieve two fully electrified routes from North and West Yorkshire over in to Lancs. Further infill from Rochdale through to Todmorden and the curve, and the additionally Blackburn to Bolton, would allow a circular route to be created linking - Manc Vic, Tod thru Rochdale - Burnley (linking in with the Yorkshire services) - Blackburn - Bolton - Manc. With Blackburn or Burnley acting as interchanges for Blackpool, Liverpool and Crewe (swinging South at Lostock Junction). 13 miles of tracks and a wiring project most European countries would call laughingly simple as its not high speed.

Actually it would allow intermodal traffic to reach Trafford Park and the New Salford Port without using Castlefield corridor. With freight removed there is no need for the extra through platforms at Piccadilly. Drax has also made it very clear that routing it's biomass trains over the route would significantly cut costs and reduce traffic as the flow would be around rather than through Manchester. So for that link you can unlock the Castlefield Corridor... that would provide enormous benefit across the northwest. I'm fairly certain that it removes one of the most congested routes in the UK.

There are 13 miles between Skipton and Colne that could go back in for around 200m. That's double track and includes electrification from Skipton through to Preston. This would give a fully electrified, relatively gradient flat, none-congested Northern Pennine link. The track bed for the missing section is wholly owned by the local authorities and Network Rail. Major earthworks are still in place and apart from rerouting the ring road at Colne onto a bridge over the tracks the route is unbroken. Thr route would give direct access from the North East to East and West Lancs, Inc Liverpool, without going through Manchester. Connections at Burnley and Blackburn would make accessing both Manchester Stations a doddle. Yet.... nothing. Despite the scheme being shovel ready, everyone agreeing it's a stupid not to do it, and hoardes of government ministers promising it would progress on the pipeline.

We saw an APT slide into Preston platform 6 on what would have been, probably, one of the last set of test runs. It was a full double set. By that stage the remaining active sets would appear randomely between service trains so it was a complete fluke. There was a special APT ticket booth on platform 3 at the foot of the main access ramp and special 'APT Coach x' marking had been painted the length of at least platform 3 where the doors would line up. I don't remember seeing them on 4 though. It looked awesome snaking it's way round the curves into the platform and compared to a class 108 belching diesel in the adjacent platform, it was truly 'the future'

Preston was our hub spotting station in the mid-80s to early 90s. Standard fair were 20s,25,31s,37s,47s for diesels and 81s,85s,86s,87s for electrics. A motley array of 101s,104s and 108s were still trundling around... the 104s mostly in plain rail blue. Then along came the pacers and sprinters. However a trip to Carlisle using a Network North West Railrover uncovered these mysterious scottie dog emblazoned 26s which we all thought very exotic. A 27 was like hens teeth but was guaranteed to be captured on film. The rarest of rare events, which would usually involve charging over the footbridge to the platform it was arriving in, was a 47/7 that had somehow escaped the push-pull circuit. These were almost always removed at Carlise to be replaced by a 47/4 from the north west allocation... it was well known that furious exchanges would take place with the traffic office at Preston if they got that far south with demands they were returned ASAP. Going towards the south west everything up to Brum was pretty much the same but hitting Bristol, going on holiday, would see us pinned to the windows ad we passed Bath Road in the hope of at least one 50. The third rails emus were always a catch, particularly with there odd set numbers on the front. I never did quite get used to the 4 digit set numbers. And the 3 letter codes were baffling.

No issue with a manufacturer wanting u to use a particular decoder. This should be made clear at the point of sale though and that's especially the case if the decoder needs to be formatted in a particular way.

Your last paragraph is my point entirely :)

Then, I'd say, there needs to be more clarity. When you're presented with two choices 'Ready' or 'Sound', then surely the model manufacturer should state if there is a requirement for the decoder to be formatted in the way they would recommend. Hence my differing 'indicators'

If you buy a Bachmann 37 and you buy the plux22 decoder they recommend, you can plug it in and everything they say works, will work. If you buy the recent Cavalex 56 and buy the decoder they recommend and plug it in... not everything works. It will only do so if you upload to it their file ... it doesn't say this in the instruction book or in the marketing material... so how would you know. Both models are labelled as Ready. Yet one is take the decoder and plug and play, while the other is format then plug and plug. 'Ready' either means one thing or it means multiple things and becomes meaningless.

Yep maybe it should indeed be, then when it's purchased there is something that at least alerts you to why, for instance, the tail lights won't stay on on your newly purchased model.

With respect you're missing the point. I'm talking about how the way the marketing and definitions have not kept up. Even if the thread got a little side-tracked I've no issue programming ... I just don't see how that is reflected in the material that advertises the products. You may see things differently. We each have our own point of view.

I've two accurascale 31s on order but I'm seriously considering cancelling them and going with Bachmann over the decoder issues. I've two Bachmann 37s and it was a doddle... plux22, straight out the box, in and everything worked just as Bachmann stated it should.

The answer seems to be that manufacturers should make models available with the decoder fitted that they recommend with the correct programming. If there are any issues (the F2 on gaugemaster for instance which is well known about, a note could be put on the function list of how to change this just using the handset)? I don't doubt that some folks love the nitty-gritty of the CVs and the programming etc. The huge selling point of DCC, originally, was simplification and more functions. You put your two wires to the track, you give your loco an address, and away you go. More simple than DC wiring wise and with more basic functions available ... win win. My initial point was that the way things are now marketed hasn't kept up with the way that DCC has become more and more complex... the information to the customer is (in many cases) poor.