PhilH

I've just been reading a timeline of events taken from the ships black box, apparently just over a minute of power outage was enough to precipitate this disaster. In the same article I noticed this which, given the size and high volume of ships which use this port, to me just beggars belief. "An official also said that the Key Bridge was fracture-critical, which means "if a member fails that would likely cause a portion of, or the entire bridge, to collapse, there's no redundancy". On the face of it a disaster waiting to happen.

When you look at rake of these ships' bows wouldn't the damage have been done in this case before the ship actually hit a fender like this?

I have no axe to grind either way with regard to West Coast but in the interest of fairness I will say this. I was associated with LSL for five years and covered a fair few miles on the footplate out on the mainline as owners rep for them. At the time LSL were not a toc and therefore hired in drivers and fireman from both DB and West Coast. In my experience WC crews were no different than DB crews in terms of taking the job seriously and certainly did not give the impression that they were simply playing trains. We had alarms and surprises when on trips with both but both sets of crews dealt with them in a professional manner.

In simple terms vac brakes depend on a vacuum being maintained on one side of a piston in a cylinder whilst atmospheric pressure is introduced to the other side of the piston when the brake valve is actuated.This is often referred to as the train pipe side and the chamber side. Therefore there should always be a vacuum on the chamber side of the system otherwise the brakes wouldn't work.

Come on, this is RMweb!

I didn't realise until recently that the NRM workshop contained that most valuable of tools for the maintenance of steam locomotives, a wheel drop. I hope that that at least remains available for use, unfortunately it's not something that can be moved very readily so if it were not to be available for use anymore it would be a crying shame.

I don't know if this has been on here before I found this fascinating and quite frankly incredible. I'm definitely going to have to visit this place before I push up daisies. https://www.facebook.com/reel/234342143003228?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V

They seem to be made of a quite strong material, or at least the ones I bought about two years ago do, and stand up well to rinsing out in water to flush out any cleaning fluid. If they still have them It has to be worth investing a quid.

Poundland glasses (spectacles) cleaning tissues.Dried and ironed to get rid of folding lines however these can be prototypical as tarps were folded when not used.

One other thing before you do a lot more printing. Make sure you order and fit a protective screen over your LCD. They're like the house insurance of 3-D printing.... considered expensive and unnecessary until you need them. They can save your LCD screen from resin spills and leakage from holes in your fep, screens don't take kindly to having resin on them.

Obvious but I take it you've done the build plate level and removed any protective transit film from the LCD screen?

I doubt very much whether Mr and Mrs Joe public would want to spend that long on a heritage train, especially if they have the 2.4 children trailing along in their wake. Unfortunately on most heritage railways these are people that pay their bills, not the majority of enthusiasts who see it as a badge of honour not to spend more money than is necessary during their trip. I base this opinion on my experiences and conversations during my time volunteering on a heritage railway.

I would add to others comments , really must get to see this layout. As someone who volunteered at Ropley for 30 odd years it is fascinating to see it created to such a high standard in miniature.

That's why the whole bottom of the box is a flap that can be undone and opened so the box drains. When we were carrying out frost protection on standard locomotives on the Mid Hants this was part of the procedure.

As above that's the sieve box

If it's box like it could be the sieve box on the side of the tender chassis underneath the tank

It did look like the first pic , scratchbuilt Strabokran, the rest 3d printed by me apart from some heavily butchered kit figures. Now it looks like the second pic, I dropped it…

To expand on that I would say that certainly at elite level to call it sport is somewhat of a misnomer. In my opinion it's business pure and simple.

This can cause confusion as where I come from they’re called fings.

One (and only?) advantage of being old is that you perhaps have experienced sights and experiences that some today would envy. I was born and bred just outside Eastleigh and a great day out for us lads was a trip on the train to London to trainspot...nb on our own, no adults, aged barely 12. Truly exotic was my first A4 on Kings X bufferstops, 60028 Walter K. Whigham, absolutely gleaming. This was closely followed by a red Coronation at Euston. Heaven!

What's realistic about a sped up clock?

All well and good if it’s a busy mainline, not so good if it’s a one train every two hours branchline.

As you seem to have a crystal ball can you give me next week’s winning lottery numbers please?

This. For a long time the motive power boss on the MHR when I was there was Bob Deeth who was a driver at the end of steam and featured in some of the fast runs noted at that time. Although the 5s were used turn and turn about on a lot of trips with Bulleid’s finest according to him they were only good for 80-85 mph. I can’t remember which way round it was but it was either the boiler/ steam ways not getting enough steam to the cylinders or the exhaust ways not getting rid of spent steam quickly enough. Either way it had the effect of throttling the things back.

I have to admit it has been quite amusing to see the number who can't quite grasp the meaning of the word.