ikcdab

Well yes, that's the skill of managing volunteers. They need to want to do what that are doing, on the other hand, they just can't do whatever they want. Mundane jobs need to be done and if all the volunteers only wanted to sell tickets, then it just wouldn't work. The skill for the manager is to create a cohesive team where the volunteers are all supporting each other to achieve the greater goal of (say) running a station. It's a tricky job, as we have seen on numerous occasions.

To be honest, this is nonsense. If an organisation isn't covering it's membership costs, then they need to address that, not blame the member. I recently became a member of the GWSR. I have no plans to volunteer there. Are you saying I should feel guilty and resign immediately? As as for your second point. Volunteers work on a line because they want to do so. They enjoy doing it and it gives them all sorts of social paybacks. They aren't forced to work there so no need to feel disadvantaged. For what it's worth, on the West Somerset, volunteers can pay a much reduced membership.

Well I am someone who can make modifications and I am prepared to do so, but this level of work to just get an engine that runs properly is unreasonable. Rails are sending me a returns label and I hope you get my money back. If so, I'll just buy a Bachmann quarry hunslet instead that I know is reliable.

bought one of these from Rails back in April. I had to send it back immediately because the valve gear was loose. it came back - not sure if it was a repair or a replacement loco. I didnt run it apart from a short test run, but got it out today and ran it again - and all the valve gear on one side dropped off again. The crankpin was loose and came out and the slide bar and slide bar guides dropped out. Its been more than the six-months Rails stipulate in their refund policy - they now say in their policy that i have to prove it was faulty. I have emailed them and gave the evidence that it has already been sent back once and now we have the same issue again. I have no idea what they will say but now i just want a refund. The loco is rubbish. Anyone else had the same issue? Ian

Yes, but that means there are plenty of attractions away from the station so people don't hang around and spend money in the station shop. Hence why the buffet closed. But the railway is severely constrained by what it can do there. It doesnt even have use of the station approach and the locals won't permit any form of catering at the station. No parking in village and horrendous traffic. Maybe, but warm weather drives them onto the beaches, not the trains. Coupled to which, Swanage station is limited to 5 coaches so longer trains can't be run unless top 'n' tailed by a diesel. They have high fixed costs with an annual wage bill of more than £1M and expensive loco hire agreements. The railway has invested a lot on being a park and ride for Swanage but at heritage rail fare levels, this can never really work when the bus is so cheap. My own personal opinion is that the focus on the Wareham link has meant the eye has been taken off the ball wrt the main railway and many thousands had been spent on a link that can never ever pay its way. Just my opinion. They seem to be developing a route map for recovery. It's a great railway and I have every expectation that they can overcome this blip.

I have read the thread and I can see that it's resolved itself well. But I feel so strongly about this that I still want to have my say. It never ceases to amaze me that people will spend hundreds on locos and stock yet penny-pinch on baseboards. Without decent, well-made baseboards, your expensive stock will never run properly and you will be continually disappointed. Watch the everard junction channel on YouTube. He built a layout that then warped badly and it all had to be ripped up and made again. MDF can never ever be suitable for a serious model railway baseboard. Use decent ply, screwed and glued, cut truly and well-braced. Make a decent foundation for your layout and it will repay you time and time again.

I think you are saying that you are worried about the heat from the radiator affecting your layout. Easy answer.... Turn the radiator off and heat the room with a fan heater instead. If you can't do that, then just put some form of insulation between the radiator and the layout. Silver foil or just a layer of plywood would be enough the dissapate the heat. Ian

Brass bearings cost (relatively) next to nothing and are an exact fit on the axles which gives the best running. You will never achieve the same precision with resin and you risk wasting all of your work.

Does this help?

Can you explain? They worked in multiple in that both leading and trailing cars were worked from the leading cab. That is no different to any other DMU. If you mean that they didnt work in multiple sets then, again, thats no different to many other mulitple units and they could have worked coupled together if needed.

It is interesting how ones memory plays tricks. I have dug out my old combined volumes. 1974: shows a class 41, the prototype HST set. No class 43. I don't have 1975, but my 1976 edition is showing them as 252 (the original class 41) and 253. No mention of class 43 anywhere. Despite that, in my day, they were universally referred to as HST.

i long ago gave up on Royal Mail. Evri is now much cheaper and far more reliable. Next day on this: "parcels up to 120cm long and with a combined length and circumference of 245cm." is about £3.50.

curing outside can be hit and miss and probably precludes printing during the winter! you can buy UV LED strip pretty cheaply - it hasd to be the right wavelength. Then i made up a square box from spare white-faced hardboard and stuck the LED strip inside. My own very relaible curing box for about £5.

I have had a Elegoo Saturn for 12 months. I went for water-washable resin as it seems so much easier. My experience is that it is the exact opposite of "plug and play". I have had endless trouble getting decent prints and have tried everything. My success rate is around 50%...or worse. The only thing I have yet to try is standard resin in place of the water washable. Good luck!

Haha, yes well I guessed that but being on the outside of a building in the UK means they are working overtime and look a little underpowered for the job. I was after a little more detail.....

Thank you. I've emailed you and sent via PayPal

@Michael Edge hi Michael, is the Ruston and Hornsby 165DS 0-4-0DM in stock, and if so, how do I go about ordering it?

It's on the bin store, so might make sense. What are moisture traps and what are they for?

These two white "things" are high up on the communal bin store outside my friend's flat. There is a ceiling inside so no clue there as to what they are. Have been there for ages. Any ideas?

Blimey. Your posts are always interesting, but I think auto correct is letting you down. I think I get the gist.....just about!!!

That's great for you, but you can't really drive from Dublin to Birmingham can you? Public transport is the only option.

Ok, so give me an example of where a sustainable option is cheaper than the hitherto traditional option. Whether it's food, cars, energy, travel, white goods, toys etc. Only this week I went to buy new carpets. I was offered a new sustainable option made with some form of material grown in India versus the traditional polyester/wool mix. And, guess what, the new sustainable one was twice the price of the traditional one. I mentioned energy. My supplier is EonNext who claim "100% renewable electricity". Yet during the recent energy price crisis, their prices still went through the roof, despite no conceivable link to gas at all and their profits skyrocketed. Air source heat pumps start at £10,000 but a gas boiler is £1500 and there is no obvious reason for such a huge differential apart from it being fashionable and so we can hike the prices. As I said in my original post, if governments really wanted this, they could easily reprice and retax items to make sustainable stuff cheaper. Why not double the tax on gas boilers and rate heat pumps at 0% vat? But they don't do that, do they?

To be honest all this is absolute hogwash. We may well need to protect our climate, but far far too many people see it as just a way of making money. As far as I can see, IN EVERY CASE, the sustainable option for anything is more expensive. If the government really wanted to promote public transport, they would slash rail fares, put on more trains and pay for it by far higher taxes on petrol, cars, junk food, cigarettes etc. They would close out of town shopping centres and support local bus services. We will be going to Warley next month. The return train fare is £95. Two of us going so £190. And that's on cross-country who insist on running 4-coach Voyager units that that overcrowded and uncomfortable. By driving, I have a far more convenient journey with petrol costs of about £30 plus the parking fee. So better than 25% of the train fare and means I can spend more at the exhibition and thus provide better support to the niche traders.

crikey, so i have to have it like this.... https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co205846/gresley-buffet-car-railway-carriage Ian

Does anyone have any interior photos they could post or link to as they were after the conversions? Loads of pics online but I'm not sure if they are representational of how they were in the 1950s / 1960s.