Edge

Been thrown in at the deep end at all of the exhibitions that I’ve operated a layout at. I was for a couple of years a member of the ‘Desperados’ - a gang operating the County Gate, Cliffhanger and Bratton Fleming layouts. All three were nominally computer controlled for realistic operation, but I’m glad to say that I was able to step in to manually run trains when the inevitable error occurred (although I should add that such errors were honestly less frequent than that last sentence makes it seem). It took a moment or two to get a hang of what I was doing, but once that was achieved, getting the trains to ‘look’ realistic going around was not too tricky. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I achieved prototype practice, but nothing jarred at all. A little time to consider, some excellent design work on the part of the builder and a decent overall set up goes a long way to making the lot look good and run well.

the fatality percentage is based upon early and highly suspect figures (W.H.O themselves are the source for that assertion) because of the large number of people who suffer only mild symptoms and will never seek treatment/formal diagnosis of Covid19, this will lower the fatality percentage considerably once it can be factored in. ive also seen unattributed sources which state that of the 80,000 + cases diagnosed, approximately 35,000 people have already made a total and complete recovery.

Keep on at eBay about it. Had a guy pull eBay fraud on me with a Beattie well tank that I was selling. Cheeky mother decided to swap out the chassis for a knackered one and remove the DCC blanking plug and claim it didn’t work. took him to the cleaners, as unfortunately for him I’d photographed the thing from every conceivable angle and could at the very least prove that the damage he was returning it for had been incurred post-sale. Got every cent of my money back, compensation from eBay for being out of pocket for over a month, negative feedback removed and got him taken off the site altogether. a lot of the service that you get from eBay depends on who you speak to - I’d highly recommend that you keep trying if you have the desire to continue

Must say that I’m a little unhappy with the story direction myself. In particular the end of the unfortunate fellow at the beginning, who I was rather fond of (avoiding spoilers for those who haven’t watched) and I’m also growing weary of Star Trek series where the entire series is one story. One of the things I loved about Star Trek was a new thing every episode, even within wider story arcs (DS9 dominion war for example) and I think that Discovery and Picard really aren’t in that vein.

Lucky enough to ride in 93 from Llangollen to Corwen a few years ago, and again at Didcot last year. it’d be nice to see her again before she goes in for overhaul - although as boiler and mechanics et al are more or less new steam loco-wise I imagine she will be back in steam sooner rather than later. id love to see her at the SVR. Seeing her pulling away from Highley would make one hell of a video model wise, I suspect I shall pick up the model of 93 sooner or later. I have an increasing collection of ‘odd’ locos which can only be put together on a fictional preserved railway . 93 would fit right in!

I am watching. It’s nice to see him back, and I’ve always enjoyed the formula s as enemies, but it feels very far away from Star Trek to me. I think it’s the season-long stories. They interfere with the episodic nature of the series, which is one of the things I loved so much about it as a kid. Still, we are only two episodes in, so I shall give it a chance. For those not in the know, it’s shown on Amazon Prime Video in the U.K., do you do have to pay for the service. Although amazon do do a one month free trial, so it may be worth waiting until it’s all been broadcast and then binging on them.

I actually tend to agree with the 'verge of entrapment' comments here. Its one thing for the shop to fail to properly ID someone when the law says they should, but quite another for the police to actually provoke such a situation.

As a vague hope, I’m hoping that some more 009 stuff is announced - lord knows what exactly, although logic would dictate that it is Talyllyn based because of the Thomas link.

double post for some bizarre reason

R3841 for me. I’ve got a planned preserved railway with several new builds already, so what the hell?

Hush hush may be worth picking up - can’t say I care for the steampunk models personally, but it’s not like I’m their target audience anyway interested in the design app, we shall see what that’s like

My friend from uni is confined to a wheelchair permanently and our experience has been that it is far far easier to get a wheelchair spot on a steam train than one on a mainline train. Weird that... Additionally (and ironically enough), it seems the further out from the cities you go, the more helpful people are and we have been treated to some truly lovely service on local lines in the middle of nowhere, but given nothing but abuse in the cities. should add that this is the personal experience of my friend and myself, just a disclaimer there folks returning to the OP’s point, missing government mandated deadlines is something that the railways have done since the year dot. Whilst this is deplorable, it is sadly not too surprising.

The difficulties are a shame - the product was fantastic to watch in operation and the folks running things were friendly and open

yellow, blue and black for me!

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I like the BR blue because it’s just a little bit different. But I’ll possibly also print for a BR Green loco too. And I’ll have to pick one up if they do the faux Cambrian livery that one of the locos was wearing a few years ago

Interesting from my point of view that they are announcing for OO, but that O gauge is explicitly O gauge. I’m always fond of more OO9 stuff coming out, and I’ll be keeping my eyes open for anything from Heljan - VoR tank locos are a persistent rumour that won’t go away

Problem for me is that the GWR has such a long tenure that anything that says ‘the GWR was...’ will never really apply properly. Brunel was undoubtedly an innovator and famous maverick, his successors were less so, its standardisation programme was itself rather revolutionary at the time of its suggestion (in scope, certainly), and towards the end of its existence the gas turbine experiments were big steps forward. Not to mention, their development of things like AWS however, they rarely strayed from their established steam loco patterns and several were based on 19th century designed right to the end of steam. so there are arguments on both sides really

From my end of things, I was always extremely interested in grabbing a live steam loco in 4mm, but the astronomical price when new mean that I literally did not have enough money to make the purchase. Having since seen them in operation on several occasions now, I’m afraid that I can’t see any real difference in operation to the electric locos, certainly not enough to justify the still very high cost from my side. The incompatibility with other power systems was also a serious issue for me. nice idea on paper, but in reality there is nothing really too impressive about them for me (this is my own view, please don’t throw bricks or anything else :) )

Anyone got any word of the SR 009 Baldwin? I’m rather taken with it and would like to pick one up at Warley if at all possible

Made the massive mistake of grabbing WWE 2K20 on PC. it’s unplayable, and I’m going to have to wait for it to be patched before trying with it any more. oh well, time to fire up total war...

I’ve got a Mehano kids set that I use to test locomotives which has sub r1 curves. Pleased to report that my NCB USA went round without the slightest difficulty- it has a very short wheelbase so there are no issues there.

There was also talk on the KR Models Facebook page of a reveal at the exhibition today - anyone got any info for those of us who couldn’t make it?

If you are going to have an end to end shunting layout, then the Inglenook pattern of layout is a good idea- lots of ‘play’ value, plenty of chance for good detail in the scenic while keeping overall space usage and cost down. Whats more, manufacturers the world over are paying slightly more attention to smaller industrial-type locos which suit layouts like this down to the ground

If you are going to have an end to end shunting layout, then the Inglenook pattern of layout is a good idea- lots of ‘play’ value, plenty of chance for good detail in the scenic while keeping overall space usage and cost down. Whats more, manufacturers the world over are paying slightly more attention to smaller industrial-type locos which suit layouts like this down to the ground