SamThomas

Found this on the internet with the caption "every little helps, but not at Asda price."

Where I live there is a corner shop (actually on a corner), a small/medium sized minimart & a Marks & Spencers (filling station) all within an easy walk. However, with Aldi 10 minutes away by car & a selection of TesAsBury's 15 minutes away we only use the local shops for topping up because of the price structures.

Indeed it was - tanker driver jobs were never advertised & you really had to know someone already there to get in. Very, very good money, nice clean & 110% maintained truck & no nights out. Then of course higher management started to make the job less attractive with the result we have noww.

My apologies - I found the missing "0" under the keyboard.....

500 drivers will make very little difference anyway. For a start, you have to find 500 drivers desperate to work in the UK - 3 x months until Christmas then off you go to look for work in their own countries during January - they are having a giraff. These drivers will also remember the inhumane conditions they had to put with on the M20/Manstone Airport a few months ago. There will inevitably have to be some sort of priorities - fuel for essential workers to get to work, food to take priority over stuff you cannot eat. If us HGV drivers cannot get to the depots (I'm 40 miles away from mine & my early start precludes using public transport) the company I work for have suggested that we may have to take the trucks home - that will please the neighbours.

AFAIK the Greggs in some or all of the motorway style service areas are operated as a franchise. When I drove away from home (thesedays no "overnights) there was a marked difference in standards between a high street & roadside outlet.

Same principle for anything powered that moves - get to cruising speed ASAP "smartly" as relative to the vehicle. Judging traffic lights & reading the road ahead to avoid turning your momentum into heat via the brakes will pay far more dividends than too slow acceleration. FWIW, I drive a diesel Range Rover & it's far better on fuel if I accelerate "smartly" to get into a high gear than if I pull away too gently.

HGV's have not "thundered" for a number of years - they only tend to make an obtrusive noise when they are running over poor surfaces (& a high proportion of them thesedays are air suspended & more road friendly). You appear to be a little "anti HGV", so in that case I respectfully suggest you stop buying anything produced outside of your district.

Every logistics company I have worked for in the past (except 1 - a well known supermarket) say that pulling smartly away & getting into the highest gear practivable is better for overall fuel economy - with all their investments in telematics that should tell you something.

Yesterday, I left the depot in a fully loaded 18 tonner with 30 cages of groceries for 7 x outletson board. About half were filling stations - only at the first one was I able to park the truck on the fourcourt due to the amount of selfish cretins filling their tanks. The others, I ended up parked on busy roads adding to the chaos wheeling the cages accross - thanks to those drivers who allwed me the time to do so - to those who almost pushed me out of their way whilst pushing heavy cages I hope you die a long, slow, painful & miserable death. On my way home after a 15 hour duty spread I could not buy any diesel. So, today I could not work, but that meant that something like 10 tonnes of groceries & provisions did not end up on the shelves further compounding the problem. The company I work for has plenty of their own diesel but cannot let us drivers have any/sell any for legal reasons so if it gets that bad we will end up taking our trucks home !

I would check the voltages round the trackwork using a meter with a load (such as a 12v vehicle indicator bulb/lamp/globe) connected in parellel with it (the load will help to highlight any loose/dry/defective connections. Also, I would invest in a couple of rolls of single flexible cable for the bus - cost less than the price of a couple of mid range decoders.

Not exclusive to Zimo - also available from Lenz & ESU (& probably others).

I used to work for a well know supermarket driving HGV's - the fridge was driven by a generator deriving it's power from the road engine. By terpory switching off the fridge the trucks would go up long drags in a higher gear so certainly auxilery power taken from any traction engine will mean less power at the wheels.

As you have overcome any of the issues regarding twin powered wires & "overhead points" & have no need for automation makes your choice of a DCC system easy. Before you go down the DCC route just bear in mind that DCC requires very good pickups - however, use of something like "Track Magic" will help as will the use of decoders with some form of "Power Pal". Your next choice will be desktop contrioller or hand controller. Handheld - I would recommend looking at the Roco Multimaus - nice single hand operation, illuminated display, more than enough space in the stack (or memory) for you to recall your fleet easily & you can name them (not possible with the Powercab** which many people swear by) "Red Bus", "Green Bus" & so on. You could also look at the Roco Z21 which is expensive but you can picture your fleet to find them & you can use a tethered handset, wi-fi handset or a smartphone/tablet. Some of the Gaugemaster systems are pretty good too - also alvailable as wireless. Lenz is excellent but like the Powercab, in need of updating, but then again Lenz is reguarded as the Father of DCC. ** The Powercab is a well respected & popular bit of kit, especially on here. Personally, I would not use one - I find the handset too "clunky", don't like the thumbwheel speed control & because you cannot name your fleet a little bit "old hat" & well overdue for an update. Personally, I have no experience of current desktop controllers.

Roco produced a set of 3 - DCC operated with sound syncronised with the doors. You could select which side the doors opened & on closing they would close out of sync with each other. You could also select the "guards" door which would close after the others & the whistle. Not too certain but I think you could buy an extra coach. Very expensive though.

I think you will find that the said gentleman was the UK Flesichmann Agent after the demise of M & R Model Railways. Fleischmann then sold direct to the retailers until the agency was given tio GM.

I've had my (Black) Z21 for a year or so now & really pleased with it except for last weeks issue. I have a wi-fi Multimaus which is OK, works as it should but it's a bit "basic". I bough an entry level Acer Tablet to run only the Z21 App (the older "colour icon" version which I prefer. So far, so good except that I could not back up my data, either to a memory stick, SD Card or to my desktop via the internet/email. Did not worry too much until last week & the tablet would not start, despite many efforts & a trip to the local computer/phone shop that can usually kick most things into life. A few people have inferred that the Acer is "built to a price" & that I should have spent more on a Samsung or even look at Apple. Just like to ask for peoples experiences so that I can compare ; Android & various makes of Tablets. Apple (TBH, I'm not a fan of Apple). Running the App on a Winows 10 desktop (I understand that the forthcoming W11 will run Android Apps as "native". I have run "Leapdroid" Android emulater on an old PC & that seems to work albeit slowly. Huawei appear to be good value for money but do not appear to be fully Android compatable. Just peoples thoughts/experiences please to help me decide which way to go or maybe go for a different system (which must be able to hold 100 locomotives/units in the "stack". TIA, Sam. p.s. I've searched the forum & only found snippets.

That 3rd wagon (car) looks like a candidate for the scrapyard itself.

Always rings a warning bell to me - on the few occasions a supplier has wanted to avoid PP (or other providers fees) I simply tell them to add the fees to the invoice & I'll pay that way. Worth the peace of mind.

Looks to me that it may be over a canal & there is enough height from the water level for canal boats. I may be wrong of course...........

If you have to resort to manual switching you could try wiring a car headlamp bulb/lamp/globe in series with the PSU output - wire a switch to "short out" the bulb & see if that does the trick.

Yet another incorrectly calibrated warning setup !

Whilst agreeing to a number of points Kevin makes it will take time to resiolve the issue (actually, quite a bit of time). Increasing the wages/conditions of HGV drivers alone will not be the only solution - there needs to be a set of solutions, all working together. If we put aside the finger pointing for a momentlets consider some of the solutions. 1) Increase the wages - that will encourage new blood into the driver pool. 2) Improve drivers conditions. Both of these solutions will also help to retain good experienced drivers &maybe tempt some of the same out of retirement. 3) Better ongoing eduction for existing drivers (the CPC does absolutly nothing in this respect). 4) Better management - drivers need to be treated with respect & as human beings. Also, there needs to be regular checks/inspections of company owned equipment, how drivers are leaving their cabs, how drivers are engaging with customers & so on. 5) Well equiped trucks with working CCTV, A/C, HGV specific SatNags & a decent radio (most trucks have telematics but these are more for the bean counters to look at things like fuel consumption, hard braking & periods of engine idling). 6) ASAP start to weed out the bad drivers - if education does not work then the disapplinery system should be used). 7) Instigate a programe of smartly turned out trucks & smartly turned out drivers giving the who industry a clean professional image. 8) Better roadside facilities for drivers. 9) Anything else you can think of ? As an aside I know that there are a fair amount of drivers who don't keep their cabs clean, look like they sleep in the nearest hedge, bath as frequently as Queen Victoria & never appear to laundry their workwear - they deserve to be with their opposite number empler wise. IMHO it will take a minimum of five years, probably nearer to ten.

I never said that "price & speed" was an excuse for "drivers to be careless about bidges". I stated already stated a number of times that the wages/conditions of a great many HGV drivers is a contributing factor. If the industry paid drivers a decent rate & better working conditions thjey would attract drivers with more professionalism & weed out the ones that cause the problems.

Nope - wrong. It's a 12 tonner at least - not phyically big, even small refrigerated trucks like these have a payload of (IIRC) around 6 tonnes so that rules out 7.5 tonners & white van man. By all means knock delivery drivers from "white van man" (80 - 90 drops a day man) right through to the trunking drivers with 44 tonners - just remember where the problem really lies - the "must have it tomorrow & don't want to pay shipping" mentallity. Anyone who is a prolific user of the major mail order outfits is part of the problem that has been created over recent years. So, can we please stop knocking the drivers who are only trying to earn a living (albeit with the odd mistake here & there) - we can always start having a pop at train drivers who have the odd SPAD or open the doors on the wrong side.................