DK123GWR

5 hours ago, 1722 said:

‘The Maltesers Association of Great Britain’ ? Now that’s an association I’d join in a shot!

I managed to do it with the latest post, despite realising my error after the previous one!

3 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I feel that the 10-cars run more easily than 9. Why an extra car should make any real difference I have no idea. The 06.55 Ply - Padd on which I am riding is a classic case of feeling sprightly as we approach Tiverton Parkway, just as the 13.03 Padd - Ply did Tuesday last week. I have little experience of 5-cars but suspect they have a similar advantage. 

5 car units have three engines (so 0.6 engines per car, 6 on a 10 car unit).

9 car units have 5 engines, which works out at 0.555... engines per car.

Benediction, about the life of Siegfried Sassoon, is on iPlayer at the moment. It has a few bits of black and white footage of railways, as well as a small number of scenes where Sassoon is travelling during WWI. They do seem to have made an effort, and probably couldn't have done much better given the era it's set in - he and his brother leave separately for war on an SECR coach and a GWR Toplight (chocolate and cream, but an older style with lining around the windows). This scene also features a loco pulling the SECR train, but the shot only shows it below the running plate, presumably concealing something innapropriate. Later, as Sassoon leaves Liverpool for Scotland, an LMS coach (Stanier?) is seen in the background. If it is it's too new, but still an awful lot better than the Mk1s that some productions would be happy with.

9 minutes ago, ess1uk said:

Which line is Battersea Park station on?

I think it's an alternative terminus on the ELL/Windrush Line for trains that would normally run to Clapham Junction. It only has a few trains per day and if I recall correctly these are mostly early mornings and late evenings. Is this just to avoid formal closure of the line?

6 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Incidentally, the Piccadilly line, now officially considered to be east-west, still has some north-south signage on the Finsbury Park to Cockfosters section (where arguably it does make sense). Presumably they never considered ‘north-east to south-west’.

Which of these is Uxbridge?

My notifications have been working for the past day or so. I hit 26 (i.e. filled a page) before this happened. Unlike @RobAllen, my previous pages are also working.

And while Waterloo was named after a bridge, I don't think the bridge (which was only 3 decades old at the time) was named independently of political considerations.

Edit:

Victoria (the queen, via the very new Victoria Street, and during her lifetime) also has a clear political hue.

Maybe also Liverpool Street (the Prime Minister, via the admitedly slightly older Liverpool Street road).

Mine still doesn't work at all.

2 hours ago, RobAllen said:

One thing that I have noticed is that it knows that I have 22 unread notifications, so I guess the problem is related to the viewing of my notifications.

Not sure if that additional information helps you find the issue, as I guess that this isn't happening for everyone.

The same here, I now have 21 unread notifications. Clicking on the bell, and even trying to go through to the dedicated page, does not change this.

At Nailsea last year, I overheard a conversation between two gentlemen walking past a Croatian layout called Osjusko Stari with thick West Country accents to the effect of:

"That there's some foreign stuff."

"Crikey."

In telling this story before somebody remarked to me that they may well have said the same about the LMS.

One place I think would make a good model, and which will be familiar to some British people, is Aguas Calientes in Peru. Look around on Street View and I'm sure you'll see its potential:

https://www.google.com/maps/@-13.1551661,-72.5256983,2a,75y,58.25h,79.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAg8uy3S9EyNPekfl3JjMiw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

If you are looking up the stream towards the footbridges, the rails leading round the curve on your right hand side lead to this junction at the edge of town:

https://www.google.com/maps/@-13.1578695,-72.5235395,2a,75y,341.11h,76.75t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snC37LWipxdiMI5ugINkZRw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

The other line comes from this terminus, on a higher level than the first picture.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-13.1569789,-72.5236113,2a,70.7y,328.67h,85.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sx2AZ-MUSCWCoWkUmISafvA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

Another thought would be the railways in the Llobregat valley near Barcelona, with metre, standard, Iberian, and mixed gauge lines running all sorts of passenger and freight trains.

I've tried logging out and also clearing RMweb cookies (while logged out), but exactly the same thing is still happening.

Since the red banner appeared last night saying that the 'Classifieds' section was out of action, my notifications have not loaded. I have a bell in the top corner with a number next to it (gradually increasing, so that bit seems to be working). When I click on the bell, it brings down the box as usual, but the wheel just spins around and never displays the notifications. Clicking on 'View all notifications' takes me to a page with the usual url, but this page does not load and displays the error code 500. All other functionality appears to be working as usual. I am using Chrome on a Windows 11 laptop if this helps.

4 Triang clerestories (two of each type) for £10.80 including postage:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235408204374

All have been repainted into plain brown, but as I plan to introduce them to a razor saw this makes very little difference to me.

I only have experience with code 100, but all Streamline points should be perfectly reliable if correctly wired. I have never had a derailment on Streamline points of any kind (when the correct route is set!) using modern rolling stock. The only reason for avoidng small radius points is aesthetic, which doesn't apply in the fiddle yard. Set-track points can cause issues, but they are an even smaller radius (and turn through a larger angle). I would focus on getting the best possible length and number of sidings (which usually means using small radius and curved  Streamline points).

3 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

Slips might cause the odd derailment, but I generally don't see much use for them in most fiddle yards.

They could be useful for adding a headshunt, or allowing a dead-end extension to a through siding to store and otherwise over-length train. They might be useful if you have multiple lines feeding into the fiddle yard, depending on how easily you want to move stock between them.

Apparently the Young Hegelian critique of religion was motivated by public health concerns. People were picking up injuries getting down to pray. It's bad Feuerbach.

13 minutes ago, Buckfire said:

I think I know the post you’re talking about, but, as with many other older posts on this thread, the pictures are gone, and I do t know if anyone has salvaged them. God, please tell me there’s a way to retrieve them without going through too many hoops. 

You will have to ask the poster. If they don't have them it's very unlikely that anyone else will.

I found this thread after trying to use a Rails 6 function decoder in a 4-TC and being unable to work the interior lights. If I have understood correctly, this cannot operate the interior lights, and I needed the 4+2 version. Is that right?

58 minutes ago, darkstar said:

This looks an interesting bit of hacking.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256345677881?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=jFNwAufNRVO&sssrc=2524149&ssuid=jFNwAufNRVO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

It also looks just like the one discussed in all of the last three posts.

1 hour ago, C126 said:

I assume rail travel is declining in this demographic group.

I can't (quickly) find any data to support or reject the assumption, but I'm sceptical (unless you're talking about children travelling with families - where the high marginal cost of rail travel on some journeys carries greater weight). Teenagers and those in their early 20s though are more climate concious, more left wing, and less able to afford car ownership than our immediate predecessors (a newly qualified cousin of mine can't get insurance for less than £10,000/year). That said, when on trains or at stations (even Didcot) most people (and this is true of all ages) are staring at screens.

I think that rationalisation is a big issue - of both rolling stock and operating practices. My current understanding is that for a model based on the Devizes branch in 1938/9, I can have (at least) Manors, Moguls, Halls, Castles, 57xx, 54xx, 28xx, and quite a few other locos could be justified occaisionally. I have local, regional, and express passenger services with local and long-distance freight. There is plenty of opportunity for shunting - different at each station. And this is on a single track line where the largest station has three platforms.

How big would your prototype need to be to get anything like that diversity on the modern railway? The best I can think of is a cut-down Oxford, with at most one through line between the platforms (or model the future layout with three through platforms and no freight lines), a single bay for Chiltern services, and simplified sidings. But that would still likely end up as big as a model inspired by steam-era Trowbridge, which would offer everything the Devizes branch does and more. I love the look of the modern GWR and much of the freight that runs alongside it (EWS livery is still a common sight near Oxford) but I would still need a lot more space to build a modern layout as interesting as Wiltshire in the 1930s.

And to attack an important premise of the argument for producing more current stock, if I want to see the modern GWR, I can go for a walk. How often do you think a 43xx comes past my house with a long train of four-wheeled wagons? When do you think I last got to see a Bulldog running? Replicating things I've seen in real life is appealing, but no more so than creating things I never could.

On 24/11/2023 at 18:48, Siberian Snooper said:

There was an article or two in the much missed GWJ on Devizes, with a good selection of photos and other information. I don't have ready access to my collection to give chapter and verse on what was in the article.

 

 

I'm hoping to review these at the library this evening, and I'm trying to get access to a few books which might contain some useful information. Unfortunately, the coach formations book is one of the few they don't have a copy of. Incidentally, the only website I can find claiming to have this book in stock was last updated in 2006. Since it doesn't appear in National Library of Wales searches either, I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that the British Library is the only (non-specialist?) library in the country to have a copy (I'm assuming it does because it legally has to, but can't check because of the recent cyber attack).

38 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

Can't they leave all the gender and sexuality stuff to Channel Four after the watershed?

I completely agree! We should remove all identifiable traces of sexuality and gender before the watershed! Children will never be safe from such destructive ideas until all characters are uniform, nondescript, alien blobs!

Or is it only some people's sexuality and gender that you think children need protecting from?

What do you think character before identity would look like here? You can't understand Rose without appreciating her experience of gender, and the consequences of that. From the shed scene we know that her compassion for The Meep, before the reveal as a villain, is clearly linked to her own feelings of isolation. This is the scene in which Rose is most vulnerable, and we get to see a part of her that she would normally hide from other people. But her partial exclusion from society has come about because of her gender identity, and the way that others have responded to it. We know that she experiences discrimination and hostility from at least some of her peers, and that this is pervasive. We've seen it take place outside her front door. From that we can be almost certain that it happens at school. So there probably aren't many places where Rose feels safe and secure. That's a very important insight, and its something that might be crucial to understanding her actions if we see more of her. And those are just the indirect effects that are easiest to observe. Somebody who spends more time than me thinking about what gender is and their relationship with it could probably give you a far more detailed and nuanced account of the ways gender identity can influence seemingly unrelated aspects of someone's personality.

If we are judging people by the content of their character, we shouldn't be getting upset about the fact that their race, gender, or sexuality are so visible. They would still be fundamental (though not politicised) parts of people long after equality is acheived.

Martin Luther King was very clear, even in that speech, that his dream was something that could only be realised following a long and often confrontational campaign for equality: "With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day." A point King made time and again, which he is making here, is that progree cannot be acheived without making people uncomfortable. Most people find changing their views challenging, and they can lash out. I have enourmous admiration and gratitude for those who, like King (and, to some extent, Russel T Davies) who understand that what they are doing will make some people uncomfortable, that they will fight back against it, and yet do it anyway because they understand how important it is. As I write this paragraph @woodenhead has posted and I would agree with everything from the first comma onwards. Returning to King's famous speech: "We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only." If main character roles are dominated by straight, white, able-bodied men, it acts as a more subtle but no less powerful version of the signs King was opposing. It's a similar point to my last post so I won't keep rehearsing it, but seeing yourself in prominent positions matters, and if you don't you will notice it and it will limit your ambitions and opportunities.

I think I've made most of the contributions I can to this debate. There might be further elaborations or clarifications but I would imagine they will just be building on the same basic points. For those who are following this thread solely in their capacity as Doctor Who fans, I can imagine it's already becoming a little tedious. I hope therefore that I will be forgiven for stepping back for now, and limiting any further contributions to very specific points which I find interesting.

26 minutes ago, proton said:

I would advise caution driving too fast into the garage - the force of the collision might create local black holes at the points of impact, potentially consuming the entire car...

 

PBM

Mission accomplished then! The car gets compressed into an infinitesimal volume and easily fits into any storage space.

I thought it was reasonably good. I think being aware of The Meep beforehand (so anticipating the reveal as the villain) didn't really detract from the episode, and probably made the earlier scenes more amusing. I would have perhaps preferred the good Wrarth Warriors vs evil Meep situation to be slightly more complicated, forcing the Doctor into a dilemma where saving the innocent civilians on Earth from The Meep would require working with the Wrarth, who (for example) were indeed treating The Meep as livestock as alleged in Donna's kitchen. I also appreciate that that would be too slow and heavy for a lot of people, and that the context (three specials) required Donna to be revived pretty quickly so she could play a full role in the next two, so a more complicated story would probably have led to too much being crammed in.

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

(and often seems to only represent the “concerns” of the “media types” within the M25 ring)

Except, of course, for all of us who haven't often seen important aspects of our lives replicated on screen, especially when that's something we're marginalised for. Being able to watch films and TV that told stories about queer people and dealt with issues affecting us was hugely important when I was a teenager questioning my sexuality. It allowed me to explore and confront feelings that I just wouldn't have been able to otherwise. The fact that such stories have increasingly entered the mainstream, and been well-received, is one of the things that helped me build the confidence to stop hiding part of myself away. Seeing people like you on screen matters. But so does having other people see them. It can erode prejudices and people's reactions can tell you a lot about how safe it is to be yourself in that environment. Inclusive storytelling makes a real, positive difference to the lives of ordinary people across the country.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's something you can fully appreciate except by first-hand experience. I would be sceptical of many of the assertions I've just made if they weren't grounded in my own experience as there isn't much else that I have felt that I could use as the base for trying to empathise with someone in my own situation. But it's still true that seeing authetic, explicitly gay characters in prominent roles on television has helped me, just as seeing authentic trans or disabled characters is immensely valuable to many other people. The idea that inclusivity in media is solely, or even primarily, about allowing media executives to congratulate themselves on how progressive they think they are trivialises the important impact it has on the lives of a huge number of viewers (the majority of whom live outside the M25).