MikeB

This topic was discussed in another thread last year, which gives some more information / viewpoints:

I agree with these sentiments, but the question I have is are Warners management (1) also imcompetent and don't realise the damage that the repeated IT issues are doing to the users' perceptions of the site or (2) content to extract as much short-term value from RMWeb as possible, even if it undermines Andy's attempts to continue to provide a product that most users value? Going back to when I was working, if faulty manufacturing was harming sales, senior management would ensure that the production issues were rectified.

Does anybody else have the issue that whereas links to multiple pages in a thread were arranged horizontally, now they are vertical, making each topic "line" much larger, so few topics on a page? On PC/ Win 11/ Chrome .

It isn't quite as simple. In winter, two pairs of Bernina railcars worked local services and the year-round BEX was an out and back Chur-Tirano-Chur working. In summer, two pairs of railcars worked Tirano / St Moritz BEX and one pair was on local services. Two extra Allegras were needed; one to work local services instead of an ABe 4/4 III pair, which was managed by an Allegra working the BEX from Chur to Tirano and then working local services and another working local services before going to Chur with the afternoon northbound BEX. In addition the Landquart-Davos-Tirano BEX you mentioned has been replaced by a Tirano-Chur-Tirano service, which needed the other Allegra. This is the pattern planned for 2023 except that yet another Allegra is needed to replace the railcars on the local services, which presumably is the reason why the use of an Allegra on the GEX is not scheduled in summer. The full summer schedule needs 10 power units on the Bernina and the Arosa line needs three as the minimum. So allowing for maintenance and reserves, with only 15 3-car Allegras suitable for regular service on these lines it looks like more units will be needed if / when the ABe 4/4 IIIs are ever retired.

It's been reported elsewhere that Manfred Luckmann, owner of the Filisur webcam, passed away on 13 December 2022 at the age of 73. His website schmalspurbahn.ch with the Filisur webcam and the large archive has now disappeared from the Internet.

Yes, this was from the December timetable change. One oddity in the winter schedule (Mon-Fri) is that the Allegra working the first Poschiavo-St Moritz train (4624) is then meant to work the GEX to Chur and back before ending its day on the 2002 departure from St Moritz to Chur. Another Allegra is meant to work the 0509 departure from Chur to Samedan before going to St Moritz to work the 0848 depature to Tirano as the start of a day's work on the Bernina. However, every day so far has seen the Allegra stay on the Bernina and a Ge4/4 II on the Albula workings. This saves an Allegra diagram so one is free for something else, such as a Ge 4/4III Albula diagram, which fits in with your idea that the Allegras are in high demand. The seasonal workings are now on the RhB website -they show no Ge 4/4 I workings in conenction with the Albula tunnel workings, only on the summer Rhine Gorge excursions.

The Scuol Pontresina workings are now booked for Ge 4/4 IIs. The Albula passenger wokings are nearly all Ge 4/4 IIIs, with one diagram worked by an Allegra. Now that two more Allegras are needed on the Bernina with the withdrawal of the TWIIIs from local trains, if there's a shortage of Ge 4/4IIIs I assume they have to use a Ge 4/4II on Chur-St Moritz , so this may happen from time to time in the future.

I like to keep a few stamps for when I need to send a letter and it appears that I have to send them to Royal Mail by the end of January so that they can exchange them for bar-coded ones. Whatever. So, on Wednesday morning, seeing no queue at the local Tesco service desk, I asked for some stamps to tide me over. The reply was "Sorry, we have none as the Post Office has no stamps and so all the shops in town that sell stamps have also sold out". What? To quote Mr Meldrew. "I don't believe it". I suppose it's one way for Royal Mail to reduce the backlog. On a positive note: Thur 1514; e-mail from Kernow with the invoice for the Bachmann 158 I had on pre-order Fri 1042: e-mail from Kernow saying order has been shipped by DPD Local, Next Working Day Sat 1351: e-mail from DPD Local saying parcel will be delivered today between 1641 and 1741 Sat 1712: doorbell rings and Shaun standing there ready to take photo of parcel on door step. So many thanks to Kernow and DPD Local for overnight delivery from SW England to SE Scotland.

You should have no problems. I purchased my ticket for Warley 2020 at the Glasgow show in Feb 2020. The lady on the Warley stand at Glasgow in Feb 2022, said advanced tickets for 2020 were valid for 2022 and she simply swapped my 2020 Warley ticket (which I had with me) for a 2022 one at no extra charge.

I went today and agree with Legend that it was a great show, with several layouts that I'd not seen before. The layouts were a good mixture of scale and location, with excellent modelling, and the various O gauge layouts, some quite small, kept drawing me back. The traders included some newcomers - perhaps as methods such as 3D printing become more widespread, exhibitions are a way for newer traders to gain greater exposure? I'm less sure about the new venue, although since the old one has been demolished there's no going back. The sports stadium is austere and while having the exhibition in a single hall is a bonus, the lighting is not good. Parking was similar to before - the main official car park was full and the recent rainfall meant that some other options were accessible only through mud or large puddles of indeterminate depth. I found a space on a side road, The big downside for me was the catering. The official cafe seemed to offer little and hot food meant queuing outside for a hot dog van. Thankfully it was dry and not too cold. (The weather, not the food, which was good) I understand the club had no say over the catering, but it's a big comedown from the pie and chips on offer in the canteen at Forth Valley College in previous years. Anyway, congratulations and thanks to Falkirk MRC for an excellent show, especially after the covid cancellations and the forced change to a new venue.

Some of the information put out by the RhB addresses the challenges. The Capricorns were designed for up to 4 units (16 coaches) to operate in multiple, so the 25-unit train needed 7 drivers ((6 x 4) +1). As mentioned above, an army telephone system was used to ensure communication between the drivers, but that doesn't take away the skill required for each to drive independently but in a coordinated way. 21 technicians also rode on the train in addition to the invited passengers. Because the route was downhill power consumption was less of an issue than ensuring that excess regenerated power was not transferred back to the overhead. Some special software was needed as modern electronics don't like a train under power being pushed or pulled (if the one ahead or behind had more or less momentum because or gradient or curvature). Apart from the positive publicity for all concerned, presumably the RhB, Stadler, ABB and the other technical sponsors learnt through pushing the limits, much as motor companies do through motor sport. More details at https://www.rhb.ch/de/news-events/offizieller-weltrekordversuch#info

Yes, I should have been specific that I was thinking of the 3-car Allegras. Interesting that today a four car Allegra (3104) was booked for the morning mixed train up from Landquart to Davos instead of a scheduled three car Allegra, while one of the latter (3514) has three runs with freight specials on the Albula. The Fiiisur webcam shows a mix of maintenance equipment and logs on the first journey. https://www.schmalspurbahn.ch/filisur/webcam/m221026082254763

The early morning RE 4011 mixed train is currently diagrammed for an Allegra, working back to Landquart as passenger train 1018, after which the set has the rest of the day off (except on Saturdays when it does a return trip to Arosa). This tends to the first Allegra diagram to be worked by a Ge 4/4/ II if all the Allegras are needed elsewhere or are unavailable. Similarly, the early morning RE 4307 mixed train from Landquart to St Moritz is worked by an Allegra, which then spends time on the Bernina, whereas all other LQ-SMOR workings are Capricorns. Haulage capacity is not a problem for the Allegras. From next week, with the autumn timetable and fewer BEX workings, more Allegras are diagrammed for regular freight workings: The LQ-DAV set also works an evening freight from Landquart to Klosters and a mixed train from there to Samedan. The next day it hauls an Albula freight working to Chur/ Landquart and back before freight workings to Pontresina, Scuol-Tarasp and Landquart. Another set after a trip working to Felsburg goes from Chur via Albula to Samedan and via Vereina back to Landquart. Despite the large number of Capricorns for most passenger workings, the Ge 4/4IIIs and Allegras need high availability for the Albula expresses / Vereina car shuttles and Arosa / Bernina passenger and mixed trains respectively so it seems as if the Ge 4/4IIs will be needed until some new locos or emus capable of hauling wagons and coaches are obtained.

A few pages where the black is greyish rather than black. Noticeable on the two side by side pages where the same Hattons advert is duplicated..

The Sommerfeldt overhead manual gives a height from railhead to wire of 65 mm for HO masts 111, 112, 106, 107, 108 and 109, and 5 mm between base of the sleeper and railhead. The height from baseboard of the top of the post for 111 etc is 84 mm and 96 mm for 107.

THE NMRA Manufacturers' code list does indeed show 169 as AE Electronic Ltd in China, but the web link for this manufacturer on the NMRA website leads to a dating agency with a lot about divorce. The linked e-mail address is not to their own domain but to one with the the generic Chinese e-mail provider 163.com. I'm not encouraged that a company making decoders doesn't have a working internet presence.

Thanks. Yes, I know that autofill can sometimes add hidden spaces and cause something not to be recognised. But the fault endures on the Rapido form even when I delete everything, and enter my e-mail address manually.

Has anybody else had problems with the Rapido website and acceptance of e-mail addresses? I tried to express my interest in the O gauge J70 on Friday, using the link in the first message, but the Rapido website site refuses to let me submit my EoI, saying "The entered email address is not valid", without any further explanation. My e-mail address is valid and I use it all the time, I sent a PM to rapidoandy on Friday, but have had no reply. Disappointing.

Agree, I hate the IT practice of continual upgrades that take something familiar and functional and wreck it. Conversely, some change is desirable. Would anybody today want to use a 1990's PC using Windows 95? One reason I like ESU is that they actually say "update your ECoS firmware only if you want to upgrade relevant errors or new functions that you absolutely need, Never change the configuration of a system that is stable and works without problem".

Like others, I ordered this book based on this thread and I've not been disappointed. The book arrived very well packed from The Titfield Thunderbolt shop. I like the style of the book as it's not so much a series of plans but manages to be both a philosophical consideration of layout planning and a practical help. It certainly gave me some new ideas for my next layout. I liked that the contents included several North American examples as that brings a wider range of prototypes and ways of doing things. My only criticism would be the small, thick, hand written text, That was hard to read and I needed a magnifier for some of it.

Many items seem to be in short supply for well known reasons. If something is not available in the UK, why not buy it from an online retailer in Germany or elsewhere? It's what I do for my Swiss HOm layout and although more complex since GB left the EU single market and customs union it's not that difficult. In most cases, the supplier does not charge local (eg German) VAT and the customer pays UK VAT to the courier company, along with a handling fee. The Euro price is usually quite a bit lower than the Sterling price from the UK distributor so the overall cost can be less.

One other consideration is does the system make it easy to do what the user wants to do. Consisting seems important if you have multiple power units on a train, as in North American mainline, but is probably unimportant for many UK modellers. Easily accessing function buttons is important to use the capabilities of sound fitted locos. I had a NCE Power Pro but replaced it with an ECoS for these reasons. The American systems seem very dated with lots of button pushing, like the old mobile phones where you pressed a number key several times to enter a letter in a text. I find the European systems with touchscreens such as ECoS and ACE much easier to use, especially since you can label the function keys with symbols or words, avoiding the need to remember or look up what each one does.

I don't know what B and O mean - perhaps blau/blue and orange from some colour coding convention? However, the ECoS instructions say that polarity is not an issue for 2-rail DCC. I can see three reasons for the lettering; 1. they are fixed, whereas left and right depends on whether you are looking at the unit from the back or above from the front 2/ for 3-rail, B has to go to the centre rail 3. it ensures consistency between the main and programming track; this is important if the programming track is an electrically insulated siding as the ECoS provides normal track power to the programming track when programming is not taking place and if the programming track did not have the same sides at B and O as the main track bus , there would be a short when a loco crossed the gap.

I've saved the default loco workings from recent years and in summer 2020 your observations fit with what was scheduled, with a deviation: 1) 903 SMOR-CH, 905 CH-DIS, 904 DIS-CH, worked by 622 in your photos 2) 903 CH-DIS. 902 DIS-SMOR (so run round at Chur) worked by 633 3) 905 SMOR-CH, 904 CH-SMOR; since 642 was used on the first working as a deviation from the scheduled plan, presumably 622 ran round train 904 at Chur to cover for the missing Ge 4/4 II The workings in 2021 were the same as in 2020. The end of scheduled DIS-SMOR loco workings happened this year.

Gordonwis wrote: "yes. Visp - Zermatt. MGB is the lifeline for freight to Zermatt (lorries can reach Zermatt but it is largely an environmental choice to stick with freight. On the ex-FO section freight ceased a good few years ago now . I've spent many fun-filled Zermatt ski-ing trips dashing down the slopes at the end of the day in order to phot the 'tea time' freight departure from Zermatt " I noticed MGB shunter Tea 2/2 802 outside the goods shed at Zematt on a Sunday in June. Does anybody know why there is so much hardware on front on the loco?