Jeremy Cumberland

Oh, it was no criticism, I can assure you, and I phrased my post badly. Your bridge fits how I might imagine such a scene, and it is quite delightful.

For minimal height of a bridge over a stream, take a look at this layout: Now, to my mind, the bridge is too low - there isn't enough space for beams under the rails, whether they run lengthways or crossways. I might well be alone in my thoughts since no one else has commented on it, or perhaps we are all too polite to mention it (I didn't post in the original thread), but "polite" is the wrong word. Scenic modelling isn't about striving for accuracy, but creating an impression. Glenadam Distillery looks wonderful to me, a look that is in no way lessened by having a seemingly impossible bridge right in the middle of it. I only wish I could make something as good.

Have you looked at the elevation of Loch Laggan? The dam is about 1 mile from Tulloch station at 258 metres above sea level. Tulloch station is at 205 metres, meaning a gradient steeper than 1 in 30 would be needed. Making the connection with the existing West Highland line further west won't help much, because the line is climbing all the way from Fort William. East of Laggan dam the route to Newtonmore would probably be easy enough, although I have no idea why anyone would build it, but how were you thinking of getting to Dalwhinnie? I can't see an easy route on the south side of the Spey round Laggan, not at the elevation needed to cross Càthar Mòr. I don't know this area at all, but doesn't look much more hospitable than the route you are trying to avoid. However, the big reason for not building a new line is there isn't the demand among the taxpayers of Scotland, and not even the most rail-mad First Minister could pursuade the voting public that this was worth spending millions of pounds on.

That second picture captures the station perfectly.

I thought the steam pipe looked a little odd, but didn't notice the difference between the two pictures. It's no good, though. How do the engine crew get up on to the running board? An Austerity only has 4' 8½" drivers. This thing's got 5' 8" drivers, and inclined cylinders to boot.

Garnedd Tunnel, between Tanybwlch and Dduallt has the same dimensions, but the track was lowered in the 1960s to provide more room at the eaves for the "barn" coaches. Apart from the two tunnels, the Ffestiniog Railway has height restrictions at Rhiw Plas bridge under the A497 (or A487 as was) and a number of footbridges on the upper half of the line. All of these were rebuilt in the preservation era with an increase in height. Looking at the video, see how the locomotive towers over the carriages, and notice that the cab is just as wide as the carriages. The back two carriages are essentially built to the old Ffestiniog loading gauge, and although changes made in the preservation era allowed significantly greater height, the height of the eaves only changed by a couple of inches, as can be seen in this picture of a carriage built to the traditional loading gauge (right) and one rebuilt to the new loading gauge (centre): The changes to Russell in the 1920s were brutal, and still it didn't fit:

I went to a number of the London exhibitions in the 1970s and early 80s, but the exhibition I remember most clearly was Bristol sometime around 1980, where I saw Castle Rackrent, which is probably the layout that made the biggest impression on me.

In your first diagram, where is the return wire going to the C terminal of the point motor? You appear to be under the impression that the black wire is a return, whereas it is a supply (at +12V when energised by the switch). Here is a wiring diagram for a Seep SP1: Essentially you need a latching relay with the same two-coil configuration, and you wire the coils of the latching relay in parallel with the coils of the point motor. The latching relay wiring diagram in your post is for a single coil device, and this won't do. Instead you need one like this: Connect 1 on the latching relay to A (or B) on the point motor, connect 2 on the latching relay to B (or A) on the point motor, and connect 15 and 16 on the latching relay to C on the point motor. With a DC supply you shouldn't need diodes, but if Brian Lambert says to fit them I would. You then switch the frog by connecting 13 (or 4) to the frog feed and 9 and 11 (or 6 and 8) to the track feeds. The relay you linked to in your post is a two-coil latching relay, indicated by the L2 in the part number (012 is the coil voltage) and should be fine.

Only the one in the middle.

The police force rather than the city. Westminster is policed by the Met.

"Hamilton ell" and "Dunfermline splint" appear to be types of coal. "Ell" and "splint" are both mentioned often in Scottish records as types of coal, but I have no idea what they are. A Scots dictionary suggests that "ell" was used originally for a particular coal seam that was one ell (approx. 38 inches) in thickness. Like I am sure others reading this thread have done, I have hunted for collieries with "&" in their name in the local area. There are a few of these, but they all look to be too long: Beath & Blairadam Elgin & Wellwood Kelly & Balcorno There are two "of" or "o'" collieries within reach: Hill of Beath King o'Muirs Neither of these appear to match the shape of the letters. I did find Beath & Kelty mentioned together in one place, but these appear to be two different collieries.

From replacing a few signs, they are now installing "21 new signalling systems" between Totnes and Plymouth. Gosh!

The front one looks to be a J19/2, rebuilt by the LNER from a GER Class T77.

It's half a mile away, though. Far Away. Small. It's the same thing, really, isn't it Dougal?

The Andrew Barclay works list on ILS (https://www.industrial-loco.org.uk/workslist.html) says it has 10½" x 18" cylinders and 3’ 0" diameter wheels. It is a lot smaller than the recent Hattons 14"/16" model, and I don't know of anyone making one this size. The nearest surviving prototype I am aware of is 1219/1910 "Caledonia Works", which has 10" x 18" cylinders and 3' wheels.

I always think the best thing to start with is to work out what train movements you want, then create a track plan that works with the train movements, work out how it might be signalled (if you are interested in signalling), then work out how to power it. There's quite a lot of overlap between these, and you might, for example, realise when working out signalling that certain movements simply won't work, or that you want additional movements that you hadn't previously thought of. Your track plan is basically sound, with dedicated controllers for the two main lines, and the ability to switch the engine shed and the goods yard to either controller. If you are using common return, you only need single pole double throw (SPDT) switches, but I'd probably choose DPDTs and keep the returns for each zone separate as well. I suggest using switches with a centre off position (on-off-on), so you can isolate the shed and goods yard. If you want a crossover between the up and down lines, you will need additional switchable sections, but these are no more difficult than what you have already. To work out where these sections need to be, you need to think how the crossover is likely to be used. Suppose you had this track plan instead, with no diamond crossongs but a crossover between the two up and down lines instead: Now, your movements over the crossover are likely to be: Passenger train (DMU or auto-train, perhaps) from the right going into the station and then heading back to the right Loco from the right heading to the engine shed Loco from the engine shed heading to the left Goods train from the left heading to the goods yard Goods train from the goods yard heading to the left Loco from the goods yard going to the engine shed via the station and the crossover Loco from the engine shed going to the goods yard via the crossover and the station All these movements have one thing in common, and that the train always stop immediately before or after the crossover. Where the train stops, you want to make these sections of the main line selectable as well, just like you have made the goods yard and the engine shed selectable. I have drawn these additional switchable areas in black (top main line) and red (bottom main line). These will usually be set to be powered by the top main line controller and the bottom main line controller respectively. Take, for example, the passenger train arriving from the right, coming into the station, then departing to the right. You will driving it into the station with the red track section set for the bottom main line (as usual). Then, while it is stopped, you change the crossover and you also change red track power to the top main line controller, which you then use to drive the train out of the station. As soon as the train is over the crossover, you can reset the crossover and the red power switch.

It's a small k for kilo-, not a capital K. Kilogram = kg.

Where's this information from? The NYMR website mentions short journey returns on the Daily Train Service page: https://www.nymr.co.uk/pages/category/book-tickets I find it a little curious that there is no mention of short journey singles, since I would have expected some demand for them from walkers and people travelling to/from holiday accommodation. Perhaps they don't do singles, but they certainly do short journey returns for £13.50, so your "well over £100" might be a little over £40. All children travel free (there appears to be no limit to the number of children each adult can take - but there does need to be an adult "supervisor", it seems), making it quite reasonable for families.

How much longer do you want? https://www.ba-bolts.co.uk/brasscheese.html do 9/16".

Cab control comes in different forms. For a double track terminus, you're probably going to make every track section switchable between each of the controllers, which means having lots of selection switches, so there is a great benefit in having common return, to simplify the wiring. However, in your original plan, you only actually wanted the purple zone to be switchable, with the green and blue zones having dedicated controllers. Here, there is little benefit in having common return for the entire layout; you could have common return within each of the zones, and a double pole selection switch for the purple zone. If you want individual track section switches for isolation or fault finding, these can be single pole on/off switches. Since you are now talking about four controllers, your plans must be more complex, but if you still intend having a small number of relatively large zones, it's probably cheaper to keep the controllers you've got and only having common return with a zone, not across the entire layout.

Internet redirecting. Quite likely, a large number of Hattons' potential customers are unaware of their demise. Even more likely is many web links still pointing to Hattons' website. I have no idea what the database contains, but if it includes customer details, this can probably only be acquired by Rails if they also buy the Hattons name.

I, too, do not have a mobile phone. Two factor authentication isn't a problem in itself. Some providers use email. Some use automated phone calls to a landline. For online banking, one bank has a card reader and another has a stand-alone keypad registered to me (but, curiously, they don't offer this as a means of authenticating ordinary online payments, for which they only offer a text message). A GP surgery really ought to be more inclusive than only offering two-factor authentication via text message. My experience of trying to use an app for two factor authentication is that these apps only work on mobile phones, not on pcs or tablets. I think they confirm the phone number, which is effectively what sending a text message does. I wonder what happens if the person's phone is stolen. Text messages to landlines are possible, and I think they depend on the sender's system, not the recipient's. I occasionally receive audio text messages without setting anything up specially to receive them. But an ordinary 01xxx landline number isn't accepted by most providers requiring a number to dial for two-factor authentication.

That's what overlaps are for, innit?

Well, you wouldn't want her getting scurvy now, would you?

2 ton and 3 ton for FR wagons refers to the capacity. I am not sure I ever knew how the FR charged for carriage of slate. Wagons on the FR were numbered (unlike Dinorwic slate wagons), so I suppose it is possible that tare weights were recorded against the wagon number in a book. General goods wagons on the FR mostly had the tare weight painted on, in the more usual tons-hundredweight-quarters format.