Oldddudders

A decent size, but still needing massive selective compression for all but the most modest of prototypes. I think someone mentioned earlier that you need to think carefully about access to build the layout and service it in use. This is about how far you can reach across to work on laying track, creating scenery etc. It varies a little according to operator-height - 6 footers reach further than shorter people - but also according to how high the baseboard surface is from the floor. If you have access from both sides, so a 3 foot reach either side, you might just be able to use boards 6 feet wide, but are you confident you can build and maintain at that reach? Experiment.

I suspect there are ways around that. His participation in other formulae implies money is still available. Years ago at Le Mans, Deb got close to a Russian team who were not short of cash, and if they needed parts or an upgrade, they simply turned to Igor The Banker, who could procure funds for such. Much smaller numbers, I know, but.....

Yes, but has she got CDL or an Exemption Cert?

He had been a discredit to Haas off the track, and no great shakes on it.

The old jokes survive, evidently. By 1997, sandwiches sold by Travellers Fare had been supplied for nearly 20 years by the same people who do them for M&S. A clear indication that you weren't a customer. And the range of products was far wider than sandwiches. Brands like Casey Jones and Upper Crust had been launched by TF decades earlier. Edit. You weren't alone. In the mid-80s, Hellman launched a campaign suggesting that their product could materially enhance a BR sandwich. It was quietly pointed out to them that they already had a very nice contract to supply all the mayo used. Had this been the private sector, I would hope they might have been publicly lampooned but as a state firm that was not the done thing. Some years before, the head of Schweppes wrote to the BRB Chairman complaining that on a train he had been served some foreign brand, and shouldn't BR be supporting British firms? True, he had - because his distributor was on strike!

What the Duck?

Having justly discouraged tobacco sales, and thus use, the tax coffers are somewhat emptier than when people puffed away happily.

DCC stay-alive is purely to overcome interruptions in the track power, not for smooth stopping. Any DCC chip has a Configuration Value, set by the owner, and re-settable at a moment's notice, that governs how quickly or slowly a loco comes to a stand when the throttle is closed. Imagine a flywheel with almost infinitely adjustable powers.

I am not a techie bloke in any way - although like many I relish what tech can do. The only nod to science in my paltry qualifications is O Level Geography (1964). They still believed the world was flat then! In the mid-90s, I had a round-the-loft HO scale layout with a number of complexities and two sets of storage sidings. I managed to wire this for dual controllers, and even had a panel that showed, via bi-colour LEDs, which throttle was live to which of many sections. But it was clunky control, and inflexible in what it allowed me to do. In early 1997, Model Railroader magazine ran an article explaining the basics of DCC. In those days, there were no plug-and-play decoders or sound chips. So, much of the fog of complexity that can apparently obscure DCC for those on the outside these days simply didn't exist - the NMRA Standards had been published (based on some from Lenz, freely-given, I think) and it was a handful of these that the MR article amplified. I was easily able to understand the simple explanations, evaluated the market, such as it was, and bought a cheap entry set - Roco Digital Is Cool. I have never looked back - although within a few months had moved on to a more sophisticated set. I would imagine each of the UK mags has had a go at emulating what MR did all those years ago - it is such an obvious topic, that might help sell their publication. I bet more than one earnest RMwebber has given it his/her best shot at explanation in these pages, too. I think it a pity that some of those still avoiding the whole DCC issue can't at least be given a chance to see it simply explained, as I was. For some of those people - talented, capable modellers with skillsets far beyond mine - there might be new opportunities for fulfilment.

As we know, most railway tunnels have names, typically related to the locale. On Southern, Bo-peep, Hoppity and Popham come to mind, each of the last having a #1 and #2 in quick succession (ooh-er, Missus!). Last night I made a similar discovery on the line from Rouen to Le Havre, where a local village has given its name to Petit-Pissy-Pôville and Grand-Pissy-Pôville tunnels. Isn't language wonderful?

Fairly certain that in 1986 I bought an HO Atlas Alco Century 425 B-B loco there. That in itself was remarkable - Atlas N was widely sold in UK, but the HO range much less so, other than by the specialist importers like Victors. ISTR the shop window, which faced south, had a yellow film applied to limit the negative effects of the sun's rays on the models on display.

404 feet in 4mm at half a mile. Too complex for me.

I agree. DCC is a splendidly deep cornucopia of goodies, into which we can each dip just as far as we choose. Using only the most superficial of facilities still puts your layout ahead of an equivalent DC layout in terms of operational flexibility and simplicity of wiring. But as confidence grows, we may feel encouraged to reach further into the remaining scope. Only costs militates against it being all things to all modellers, which is why DC will continue to dominate for the foreseeable future. .

Was there an RMwebber called Sunshine Coast, deceased about a decade ago, who worked there?

Paprika Plains - Joni Mitchell

It's not who you are, but the size of your war-chest that decides.

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf? - Jimmy Smith

And sister Gwen.

Hmm - and some people object to the queue delays caused by a mere bag-search.....

Is there any way you could slightly increase the circumference of the drive disc, wrapping tape around it etc? That way the belt stays intact.

Likes soggy chips.

Double Trouble - Fourplay

And evidently she isn't flagging....

Muddliverse?

Every Little Bit Hurts - Brenda Holloway