scouser

You are right, that Penny livery looks stunning!

Those paying customers, who keep the railway employees employed, have all the right to complain if they don't get what they have paid for. They don't have to know how it works. If they buy a ticket to point A and the train should get there in an hour, then that is what they should get! Any exception to this should be explained fully to these "thick" individuals who just happen to be the reason the passenger railway exists. I find the contempt for passengers from railway employees is disgraceful, and don't tell me I don't have to work with them. When anybody is paid to do a job and doesn't like it they should change their job. Every job in the world would be easier if one did not have to deal with customers.

Hello Shortliner, I'm fairly sure, probably, that the layout I mean was "Build it in n scale" and was based around the Chicago area. It was featured in the January Issue of Model Trains Airfix mag. Issue no.1. It featured a station named after a lake, help me out here,, and a Chicago and Northwestern commuter train. It a also had exchange sidings and industries. As you can probably tell it had a big impact on me! Cheers Paul

Hello Joe many moons ago a chap called Chris Ellis was editing a mag called Model Trains. He built an n scale oval layout , American outline, that enabled operation for two people or one could just sit back and watch trains. It was, I think, 3 foot by 2 foot. I still think it was a great layout and I wish I had the space to build it in ho. Build what you like, if it doesn't work build another! One of your points I disagree with is that the hobby is slowly dying. I don't see any proof of this. I do see more and better models, pricey but being bought. In some cases if you don't preorder you won't get one! Relax enjoy and keep up the great modelling. Paul

Thanks for the wooden enclosure info,everything about this layout is excellent. The weathering on the white building is very realistic. Paul

This housing situation is common all over. In Cornwall (Kernow, sorry Captain!) the lake district and many other places it is happening in small towns and villages. As the population grows it is unlikely to improve, although my local estate agent says the demand has a lot to do with divorces as well. Good luck with your fight (and it is a fight). Paul

What? Wait you can't just go! Cell phone speaker, wooden enclosure..details please details!,

For a practical reason that it could save the railway more problems, which it did have.For the people involved, to save them the problems that follow watching a violent death or the aftermath. I worked in deep mining and I'm sorry to say that I know what that is like.

I mention the anti union rhetoric for the main reason that the unions, leadership or otherwise , did not make these changes.Anybody who wants to blame people should be looking at the GTR management. The railway workers have been left to try and make it work, been there done that. As for being a member of a union, you get a vote regarding the leadership, use it. Oh, and remember what the railway workers lot was like before they had unions. When I said it was the same as insulting all railway workers, for a lot of union bashes it is just that.

Does it matter if it is the railway, a zebra crossing or anywhere else. Surely finding someone in a confused state would require calling one of the emergency services? I do not know which one though.

Yes , it is!

Am I the only one that finds so many people on here have a high level of disdain for the people who operate the trains they depend on? One commuter verbally attacked a station worker during the Southern strikes. Had the insulted person belonged to a minority group this would have been a hate crime! Obviously workers don't count. I must admit here that I am not a very important commuter, just somebody who respects the workers that operate our transport systems.

The BBC is carrying the same story.

Sad to see that the graffiti morons were around even then

Lest some forget! Dissing IKB is blasphemy and will be dealt with accordingly!! Nobody expects the IKB Inquisition....

I think a system that does not work more than once is a problem! What about privatising the railways, I mean taking the government bit out of the picture completely?

Err, protecting birds? Domestic cats are the main problem here, listen to the screams now! As for why people are upset, well it is people who want to travel so until we invent some sort of magic travel system trains, cars etc. will have to be put up with. The ideals of environmentalists are exactly correct, but unfortunately the real world gets in the way.

EMD is now part of Progress Rail and they have a tier 4 loco available now, the EMD SD70ACE - T4 which uses the 1010 engine.Whether this could be made to fit the UK loading gauge is the big question.

How about reasonable price for energy upto a limit to be used and then massively expensive?

I agree that reduction of waste etc. is the best way. Unfortunately in the real world this is not happening. The government plans to ban diesel by 2040 show how cynical world leaders are, let's set targets for after we are gone! History shows that things change when circumstance become dire , this usually means something bad, like a war happens. Neville Chamberlain springs to mind. Nice humane thinking isn't changing anything, it's just putting off the inevitable. China has just banned imports of recyclable materials from the rest of the world, good for them, the result outside China? Panic. The ideas that sound nice I find fit in with the idea that education can stop crime, probably true but not happening.

Ahh, and this from the "newspaper" that recently said low paid families were not eating fruit and veg because they are so very expensive!Serves them right for shopping at Waitrose. .....

7.6 billion people now and expanding every day. You really don't see this as the problem?Without us the problems do not exist. All of the alternatives currently being put forward as good energy sources are not even keeping up. If we could even stabilise the population we might have a chance of catching up. I'm not being negative, just realistic. Best thing we can do regarding transport is move around less, yes like that's going to happen! LOL

Sorry chaps and chappesses session but I feel I have to dispel the clean energy myth. Cyclists emit both CO2 and methane, both greenhouse gases! Plus the as yet, the unknown dangers of large amounts of sweat. No, trains powered by peddle power? Terrible threat to the planet!

Florida East Coast Railway is currently using Liquidised Natural Gas for a large part of its fleet. The GE loco's can run on gas or diesel and use diesel to start the engines, gas use is 80 percent on a journey.

Unfortunately? Why? You have just made that post over the Internet using some form of digital device. Created by the can be done folk. The down side I will admit is weaponry, but the technological advances are not just good but also very necessary. On railways moving lots of people is made necessary by the large amounts of people who want to move. With growing populations this requirement will not go away. Finding a different answer to this problem could make somebody a lot of cash! Paul