Hitchin Junction

Liking the first 150 years out of the last 200 (75%) isn't narrow minded AFA visiting all regions of the UK in modern image, I suspect your might be confusing the multitude of present day private operator liveries with what's the same shape underneath the paint. My personal preference is not later than the end of BR. Although even there I much prefer Maroon and Green to Blue. Tim

Mechanical inertia drive. Unfortunately was only in production for a few years in the 80's I think. Probably because it cost several times the price of most motors at the time. That type of mechanical stuff costs a lot of money to make, especially in low volume. Tim

The "running costs" of regularly replacing batteries for hundreds of locos would be well beyond my budget or even most people' sensible consideration. And that extra cost will always be greater than for a track powered loco, no matter what the manufacturing quantities are. I'm OK with using wireless for control, if it becomes as cheap as DCC, but exhibiting that at Warley would be interesting. Who gets to decide and assign which of the thousands of RC addresses your locos will use, to avoid duplication and multiple layouts reacting to the same commands? BTW, a land-line phone handset is still way cheaper than that an iPhone, and their manufacturing quantities are in the millions. Tim

I go to an exhibition to be awed by the modelling. And to see things I could not ordinarily see in real life. That immediately knocks out toy train couplers, ridiculously sharp curves, out of the box gaudy painted RTR, and on-off speeds. It also knocks out "modern image", 'cos I would see that by just travelling about my daily business. So awesome scenes of railways long gone, represented and operated realistically (and totally hands off) are worth my time to stay and watch, to perhaps learn some history . . . .and perchance to dream. Tim

Oh oh. That reminds me. I still have a set of 6 Alan Gibson etched Midland sides I need to get around to. . . . Tim

Off topic; Whatever happened to "Mild" ale. Tim.

Last time I looked, Hattons was a business. That's what they are putting their money into. Tim

Well it certainly is an Achilles' heel for a too cheaply made toy, or a model designed without much thought for that aspect of it's engineering. But even 0-4-0's with a modicum of weight and some form of working suspension that keeps all wheels touching the rails don't seem to have a problem. Ditto for track work that doesn't have unpowered or plastic vee crossings. I always found wiring the track to be a fun and educational part of the hobby. All the magic of invisible remote control, at very little cost. Really great for youngsters entering the hobby and a welcome escape from buying everything and making nothing. Tim

Check with your tax consultant. Putting a large sum of money into a someone else's hobby isn't deductible. Tim

Lugging the battery in a trailer behind a tank loco might be a clue. Tim

And going back on topic. I don't see live steam producing 4mm scale model clouds of smoke , harmless and clean for indoors, or otherwise. Like time, some things just don't scale down. Tim

Ah yes, the days when every delicately detailed plastic model has to be torn apart every 3 years to change the battery, Including the all the lit coaches, and the buried wireless operated point motors and signals. :) Tim

By that "logic", if Hornby and Bachmann suddenly switched to magical remote auto working realistic screw couplings, their sales would stop?

It seems that to make everyone happy, RTR model businesses should produce models that are absolutely accurate models of something, but only claim and advertise them as generic. Tim

Only just came across this silent chuffing and whistling treasure trove, while I was looking for steam trains starting. https://www.huntleyarchives.com/collection.asp?collection=the+flying+scotsman Presumably it's already well known? Does make me think that too many model steam railway layouts have the wrong sort of weather Tim

Sorry, I was trying to avoid being subjective. If you look at the video time indicator at 11.17, the train is just about to move. By 11.18 it has moved a whole 1st class compartment. By 11.19, another. And if there are 7 x 1st compartments in a typical 61 ft coach, that's around 9 ft a second. I'd hate to be 4 mm scale in that coach standing putting my suitcase on the rack at 11,17. Tim

Thanks for posting the LB video. It's a heck of a fine model. Topical pun intended My only minor impression is the stopping /starting speed of trains for that era. It seems that you get from 0 to 6 mph and vice versa in just one second, even with a long passenger train. My youth memories of catching and entering already moving slam door stock suggest it could be a lot longer. I'm not sure what type of DC controllers you are using. I would assume using bemf feedback types would considerably slow that down. Tim

Since I'm relatively new to RM web, I'm not familiar with Little Bytham. So I have a question. Do trains "stop" at LB, or just run through at speed? Tim

I think Heckmondwike was the first large P4 layout. Apparently one of its purposes was to rebut the statements of the then Editor of the Railway Modeller who apparently claimed repeatedly that P4 was unworkable in operating layout form, except for small demonstration set ups. Instead, it ended it's days on display an the York National Railway Museum as a major example of skilled fine scale railway modeling. Tim

Actually no you can't. If you were pulling up to a rake of stationary coaches, your DCC settings would instantly push them up to the meeting Deltic speed and the whole train would carry on down the rest of the model 30 feet. The problem is that relatively; model locos are massively more powerful than the prototype, the model cars have much more friction and they all weigh far too little. And almost the same effect happens with DC too. As a test I recently increased the weight of a model 10 coach train to about 300 gm per coach. But, with just a single diesel, I still could accelerate it from rest to a scale 90 mph in just under one coach length. Pin point bearings don't stand up to those sort of weights, so they will need to be replaced with miniature ball races. My next test is to put a max current limiting device in the motor leads to reduce the pulling torque and then see how long it takes to accelerate the same heavy train. And how smoothly it will then start. I'm still using DCC, because I want to control multiple trains on the same trackage. It just doesn't have the capability to add inertia to the rest of the cars in the train. Tim

I'm thinking that the best way to simulate prototype haulage in model railways is to have very weak (or deliberately weakened) motors in locomotives, very high inertia in locos and cars, and extremely low stiction and friction in all vehicles. Given the issue of adding high inertia, that is most easily created by weighting everything. But that does limit the ability to haul up grades. In my case I could forfeit true grades and just have all level trackage. After all one can tilt the vertical in scenic grades to some extent to somewhat fool the sideways viewers. The end result would be that all model locos would be able to pull their prototypical loads at prototype speeds - eventually - but would take a more realistic amount of time getting there. All without extra electronics. Or - getting fanciful - adding a power boost function just for gradients. Tim

Nope, clearly the third sentence. Fiddle yards AKA Hidden sidings. Tim

That's known as "false equivalence". A hobby that assumes that buying Peco track is the normal and acceptable way to achieve routing of model railway vehicles between locations has a completely different end goal that one that assumes they are builders of a similarly to the prototype working model of a railway. Furthermore, like Schrodinger's cat, if you can't see some hidden or internal part of a model, you can't claim that it is or isn't part of a scale model. And if two people are working to achieve quite different things, they are probably following different hobbies, even if some of the materials are common to both. Tim

30 Quid per coach may not sound much, but I suspect modelling this ordinary suburban train is going to cost 450 Pounds before buying the loco. If the generic shorties are going to be modified to all the various (and typical?) GER variations in one train shown, it's also going to be a heck of lot of work. Tim

Another radius related problem that has not been mentioned, but which could be a bad surprise, is the reverse curve. This can have a more serious an effect on longer vehicle end swing as the ends of two adjacent vehicles are swinging in opposite directions at the crossover point. Having ashort straight section between the two curves helps, but the minimum safe length usually needs to be determined by experiment. Tim