RFS

A little while ago I ordered a loco from them at 3pm, and had the postie knocking on my door with the parcel at 9am the next day.

Alan - the command "stop all schedules" actually kills them all immediately, so all trains stop dead where they are. (In the manual it's actually described as "terminate all schedules"). You may want to use "lock all schedules" instead, so that all existing schedules run to completion but no new ones, including successors for ones already running, will start. I actually run all my schedules from a timetable, so to quiesce everything I just stop the clock.

You can get just the interiors from Replica railways - http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/spares-and-accessories/spares

Looks like his test run made things rather worse! Regards Probably because it's O gauge and the description says "I have tested this on 2 meters of Peco code 75 track".

Because it looks like they were all scrapped in BR green with pre-Tops numbers! This sort of thing needs be authentic....

I'm very pleased with the results on my stock. Having tried one Thumper and one 4CEP I've since bought 4 more packs and completed my other Thumper and 4CEPs. One problem I found was that some of the couplings were a tight fit in the pockets. And in a couple of cases the coupling fell to bits when pushed home. Both were from the same packet so I returned that packet to Hatton's for a replacement. You do need to hold the NEM pocket tightly with one hand while pushing the coupling in. Also I found another 4CEP coach with a slightly sticky CCM. I had noticed that this coach sometimes swayed through points although it never actually derailed. But its CCM had become partly displaced so it was off with the body and seating unit to fix.

If you go into Google Earth and search for Willington I'm pretty certain that's where this is. Go down to bottom left and you'll see the aggregate site on the right on the line. There's a private access road over the railway at this point, and Willington Power Station is in the background. Seems like the photo was taken from that bridge. The lineside vegetation has grown massively since the photo was taken and I doubt you could get the same picture today.

Looks to me just south of Willington as there's an aggregate site on the right, and a footbridge from where the photo was most likely taken. A few miles from where I live!

You can get a complete set of spare parts - in fact for the whole engine and tender - for just £8.69 from Hatton's - http://www.ehattons.com/34863/Dapol_C048_Battle_of_Britain_Class_4_6_2_Biggin_Hill_steam_loco_Plastic_kit/StockDetail.aspx Would save all the hassle "restoring" it and be just a tad cheaper.

"This 34057 Biggin Hill model, would be a fantastic addition to any collector of vintage and antique model trains / transport. This item is quite badly damaged, with markings, bumps and dents. Paint has chipped away, parts have broken and it can benefit from cleaning. This would be an Ideal item for those who enjoy mending broken models." http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airfix-Biggin-Hill-34057-Railway-train-model-toy-Vintage-1970-c-collectible-38-/360857950913?hash=item5404cf5ac1:g:DPwAAMXQVT9S-hd2 £29.99 + £3.99 postage? And for another £39.99 you can get the tender, which sadly matches the condition of the loco! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airfix-British-Railways-Made-in-UK-Railway-train-model-Vintage-1970-circa-Toy-55-/390771827556?hash=item5afbd0e364:g:lbMAAOxyJX1S~MJI £70 for the pair? I don't think so somehow.

There are lots of archive films taken around Dover and Folkestone on the Southern Film Channel starting here - https://www.youtube.com/user/SouthernRailwayFilms including this one of a class 71 running through the Warren with the Golden Arrow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBSqlW1Eq8U&index=4&list=PL408C43DC38F37DD4

I think you have to look at this in perspective. It's written in typical headline-grabbing, Microsoft-bashing style, and by referring to it as "spying" is presupposing that what MS are doing is malicious. The first thing I would want to know is what is this PC doing? It's contacting MS 700 times per hour? Given that there are over 150m W10 PCs today, and they're all doing the same, that's the equivalent of 105bn transaction to MS per hour. Really? I don't think so. I suspect the PC has been set up to run a particular workload cycling round loads of different apps precisely in order to generate these figures. The results from a "typical" user may well be a fraction of this number. Personally I'm not worried. MS have said the data they collect is telemetry and has no personal information. If it helps MS make W10 better that's OK by me. If I use an MS app, and it suffers a failure, I'm quite happy for diagnostic data to be sent back to MS.

Hit ctrl+alt+delete and select task manager. Then have a look under tabs such as performance and app history. You may find what process is eating all your CPU etc. And if you want to see if there are any reliability issues, try the performance monitor. Start a command prompt (right click start button) and enter perfmon /rel

This guy seems to make a habit of listing things with the wrong picture ....

I would advise against soldering the fishplates to the rails. In hot weather the track will expand, and if there's no gap in the rail due to the rails being soldered together, you could end up with buckled track.

I used a Lenz Silver Mini (wires version) with the wires soldered to a spare 8-pin plug.

My DCC system is Lenz and for that I use LDT RS8 detectors. These cost around £64 for 8 sections. The Digitrax BDL 168 costs around £112 for 16 sections, so both are on a par with your chosen 63320 (£63.55) which also monitors 8 sections. £7-£8 per section seems to be the going rate. You might like to source your 63320s from http://www.modellbahnshop-lippe.com/produktsucheneu/0/0-0-0-0-0-63320-0-0-0-0-0--gb-h/produktsucheneu.html , which at €71.91 works out a bit cheaper at about £55. Equipment not supporting Railcom is going to become a bigger issue in the future. I use Tortoise point motors with the NCE Switch-8 and this doesn't support Railcom either. Fortunately I have a separate LV102 booster which at the moment acts as the dedicated accessory bus, so I'm able to disable it just on that, rather than the LZV100, to allow the Switch-8s to work.

I'm also using #322 on code 75 rail fixed directly to the sleepers and it works just fine. It's the thicker #321 designed for code 100 track that needs the sleepers removing to fit code 75 track.

When I bought my first 4-CEP (aka class 411) my excitement on receiving such an excellent model was slightly tempered by the length of the conductive coupling, resulting in clear daylight between the coaches. This was in contrast to the Bachmann MK1s that close-couple beautifully using the Hornby version of the Roco coupler, and with the shorter Roco coupling the same effect being obtained with Hornby's Maunsell coaches. But without the conductive couplings the lights and head codes on the trailer coaches would not be usable. Then the 2EPB (aka class 416) arrived with a much shorter coupling, and this unit close-coupled perfectly. Sadly the 2EPB coupling was too short for the 4CEP. And then the Thumper arrived with the 4CEP coupling, and the 2EPB one was also too short. I calculated that something midway between the two would work. That is now available - namely the version for the class 101 which Bachmann have just made available as spares in a pack of 4 (item number 36-066). For reference, here's a picture of the respective couplings. Note that the 4CEP was first supplied with long and short couplings although there's little difference in length. From the top the picture shows 4CEP (long), 4CEP (short), 101 and 2EPB. Here's the 101 coupling fitted to a 4CEP - And to a Thumper - The corridor connectors (4CEP) and rubbing faces (Thumper) touch on straight track, and the CCMs take care of the curved track. I should point out that all my track is Peco code 75 and all points are 36" or higher radius. Plain track dips below that in places in the storage yard but not below about 28-30 inches. Also I had a problem with one of the 4CEP coaches that derailed a couple of times, but then I remembered it had done this before with the longer coupling. Its CCM at one end was tighter than on the other coaches. I had to take the body off, and unscrew the seating unit to examine it. It was catching on one side, but once freed up everything was fine. I just had to remember to re-assemble the coach the same way round to ensure the pickups had the correct polarity. Very pleased with the improved appearance! It might be the case that owners of class 101 units could obtain closer coupling with 2EPB couplings but I don't have a 101 to test this out.

Certainly would. For example, see this picture of Waterloo with plenty of the bullhead rail in evidence. http://railphotoprints.zenfolio.com/p408419154/h13162249#h13162249 Or you can mix-and-match if you want. http://railphotoprints.zenfolio.com/p408419154/h5b6bcfee#h62c82ffe

Just had notification from Hatton's that Hornby are now to produce the BR green versions in "unlined BR crimson livery instead".

Try control panel -> device manager and click the arrow next to the sound, video and games controllers. Does your device show? It may be you need to update its driver. Failing that try searching the Windows 10 Forum ( http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10?tab=Threads&auth=1 )

Try going into control panel -> sound and making sure your monitor's speakers are set as the default. The other possibility is the drivers are missing or need to be updated.

I have a Lenz DCC system and I also have to turn off Railcom for the Switch8s (or rather the Lenz has an "NCE Compatibility Mode" which has to be enabled).

Some good information on the SEMG website - http://www.semgonline.com/proto/signals.html I grew up in SE London and I remember some of the signals there at the time (1950s) although much has changed since. The up starter at Blackheath was the "transition" signal between the preceding semaphores and subsequent colour lights, so it was a semaphore home signal with a 3-light (Y/G/Y) addition below. At the next station, Lewisham, there was a diverging route for Charing Cross or Holborn. Here there was a pair of 4-aspect colour lights - one for each route rather than feathers. The aspects on the signal, from the bottom up, were Y/R/Y/G and I remember there were similar signals at the up platforms at London Bridge.