Swissrail

I believe there will be a second gauge change back down to 1000mm for the Interlaken - Luzern section.

That explains then why H girder portals these days look like they could support the weight of a ten ton truck whereas those from earlier schemes look quite delicate by comparison . It all adds to modern schemes looking cumbersome and unweildy.

Agreed. I don't have children but I'm sure I'd be pilloried from all quarters if I advocated that the primary and secondary schooling systems be shut down on the grounds that they are of no use to me.

What I don't understand is that the GWML OLE is designed by Furrer & Frey of Switzerland and yet is grotesquely ugly and heavy looking compared to the equivalent installations going up all over that country. Having said that the older equipments in Switzerland that are being replaced are delicate and have a graceful lace-like appearance. Structural strength can't have been an issue though as these are up to sixty or seventy years old.

I'm told the ECML installation is so fragile because of the then Tory government insisting that the scheme be funded solely from BR coffers. The designers had to place the masts further apart than would normally be recommended in order to save money. This resulted in, among other things, the section along the cliffs north of Berwick upon Tweed being prone to dewirements because of wind deflection on unnecessarily long wiring spans. Apparently this problem still persists to the point that one of the TOC's on that line (I think it was Virgin) threatened to use diesel traction throughout because of it. A similar problem occurred on the Weaver Junction - Glasgow section until extra intermediate stabilising masts were installed, in the late seventies I think it was, together with ball-race pulleys on tensioning masts which enabled them to supertension the wiring thus reducing the dewirement and arcing problems they had, particularly on Beattock Bank.

Looks very much like an early predecessor of the Translohr system used in Caen & Nancy in France and Padova & Venice in Italy.

Can I be heretical here and ask if using unmodified P4 wheels would be unacceptable instead of full P87 or running the risk of modifying one to the other and making a hash of it? After all P4 wheels will be a major visual improvement over standard HO or RP25 wheels and with only a minor widening of check and flangeway gaps the running should be as good and possibly better than with proper P87 wheels. I'm going to try it on one of my Swiss electrics as I can't see that the minimally oversized tread and flange are going to make that much of a difference to anyone but a strict fundamentalist.

Hi Tim That Duchess is stunning. A beautiful job! Cheers Alan