chriswright03

I think for me the question is fairly simple. Is it possible to run trains and make money taking into account infrastructure, stock and salaries? If not now, will it be in the future given the desire to rid our towns and Cities of traffic? (Yes I know that is a second question). Some Bus routes are subsidised by local Councils but in or area that is always subject to a threat to remove the subsidy by the Council each year followed by a threat by the Company to stop the service thereby removing the ability for people who need a bus to travel in certain (usually remote) locations. This always results in a Mexican stand off and comes down to who blinks first. Without subsidy many services would not be viable and the same would apply for rail travel should the decision be taken to reinstate lines anywhere. That sort of investment has to be made by the Country if we are to improve our travel system. Many of us on here are of an age where we probably did not have a family car when we grew up. I was 16 before we had one. Now most houses have at least two cars and often more. I recall in my service in the Police it going from being able to drive to work and find a place to park in the Police Station car park without a problem. As my service went on through the years that changed to more difficult to eventually impossible and being told that we would have to pay to park somewhere mainly because of all the extra civilian staff who all had cars. Affordable, reliable and convenient public transport has to be made available to the majority if we are to stop the traffic problems in the future. Don't know how it can be done but surely the railways, or as someone has already quoted light railway has to be an option. Quite how that will stop Mothers driving 100 yards to drop the kids off to school is a different matter so maybe leave that huh?

Greg you do not need a computer for DCC at all. You can use one for route control and stuff but at your stage I wouldn't even go there! Running a loco on DCC is simplicity itself with any of the systems. Controlling sounds or functions such as lights can be fairly simple if all you want is the basics. As an example if you look at what sounds are on most locos then most of them can be used with the basic systems as well. Pauliebanger has highlighted the fact that the Dynamis has only 21 functions and he is right but for me that is plenty. It may also be enough for you as well as would the Select. Thing is it you are new at it and want to keep the cost down for a start then maybe even look at buying a second hand system from somewhere that you can test it and make sure it works. There are plenty out there if only because a lot of people upgrade fairly quickly as I did many years ago. I have a lot of time for Pauliebanger as he fitted sound decoders into my O gauge fleet some years ago before I left the hobby for a while. He has an excellent knowledge and any advice given will be sound (excuse the pun). He and many others on here will give you good advice. I just think for the time being you will find a starter system sufficient to see if you want to progress or stay as you are. Whichever you go for I can assure you it is not as difficult as it may seem and it is a lot of fun.

Yes I realise that Rob thanks but I didn't want anyone to assume (wrongly) that he has a system already as it would change the advice maybe. Same old story really the question has been asked so often which is best. I researched it all again myself earlier this year when I was returning to the hobby after a break for a few years. Having had an NCE last time and a Dynamis that I bought second hand I looked at what had changed in the intervening years. Difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff really as a lot of the threads discussing systems are quite old now and the game has moved on considerably. Truth is that one system may suit someone but not many others. I have Dynamis Ultima on load to try and I am pleased with it 'for what I want' but realise that will not be the same for everyone. My understanding is that Greg is at the very first step in DCC and has no knowledge at all so I just hope that we can help him without making it all sound too complicated.

Paul having posted above you and now read your post I agree with you in the main but cannot see where the OP says he has the Select. Just read it again and he has no system as yet unless I have missed something.

Any of the basic systems will be sufficient for your needs if you only want a 2 or 3 locos at any one time. Most of the sounds are able to be operated by even the most basic DCC controllers. Increasingly these days sound decoders offer ever more functions but without going into too much detail what you say is that you want basic without too much cost. I have on trial at the moment the Bachmann Dynamis and it does all I need with a couple of sound locos. I have previously used the NCE Powercab and it is good as well but offers very little more than a basic system to start with. If in doubt get yourself into a model shop where they sell these systems or even look on Youtube at the various ones. Simple works but be aware it is addictive and simple may not keep up with your ambitions once you start!

AndyY will be the one to contact with regard to this. No one else on here will be able to answer your question. I suggest you PM him and ask him.

Oh I am well aware that some of the other companies leave a lot to be desired. Having taken over Lincs Roadcar however many years ago it was they are still running some of their buses albeit the Volvos that were new in 2003. I actually preferred driving them to the newer stuff that the Company had shares in! Not wanting to divert this away from the original thread I shall just say this. Grimsby is a depot that has no competition at all yet the fleet/depot and it's maintenance were in dire need of money being spent and they should have had enough profit to do so. I accept that being part of the East Midlands region we were part of an are that was not that profitable at some depots. We had an excellent MD at the time and whilst she was always open and approachable it was very evident that when the train set was bought things got worse.

Perhaps if Stagecoach cut their losses and concentrate on buses again they may stop the cut to the quick budgets that are in force today in the bus world. I still have contacts working locally for them and to say that money is tight would be a lot of an understatement. I believe Mr Souter sold some of his overseas interests to pay for the ECML saga. At that time we could see it would leave little to pay for the upkeep of our fleet let alone the countless other depots in the Country. We were not wrong.

I am sure that is true to a large degree at the time but is it today? As an example I will look at Louth to Grimsby as it is what I know. I live in Louth and not only occasionally travel along the A16 to Grimsby but in recent years have driven the buses on that route. So the line to Grimsby closed much later to traffic but remained open for freight to ABM malt kilns (also now gone) sometime later. In the 70's and for that matter the 80's not many of us commuted to work let alone the distances that people now do on a daily basis. For instance in the Police in the 70's I was not 'allowed' to live further than 12 miles from my station. That has changed and now there is no restriction. I am sure it was the same for many people during in that period where they may have found themselves having to travel to work. In fact in the Beeching period nowhere near as many would have even owned cars let alone used them to travel the 15 miles to Grimsby. Now the A16 is packed with traffic dawdling along with the usual combination of traffic including those who cannot get above 40mph unless going through a 30! HGVs, farm traffic and of course buses. All of which make it a very slow painful journey. In Grimsby Peakes Parkway now occupies the land where the track once was and in Louth itself a small industrial estate and houses occupy the station area. So without massive expense and havoc being created the link between them by rail is unlikely to be replaced. Except the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway have plans to extend towards Louth in time. https://lincolnshirewoldsrailway.co.uk/making-tracks-louth/ Had someone had the same vision of the future as NYMR then the link to Grimsby now could be very profitable as it would make the journey quicker, easier for those who do not have cars and as Louth is a very popular Market Town for visitors provided improved income for many. As it stands the journey by car is torturous due to the poor standard of driving on it (many accidents weekly). On a bus as it goes through most of the villages on the way and the journey takes a full hour which isn't a lot of fun in the cold or even on a hot summers day (we do have them) it isn't the nicest way to travel and certainly not many would want to do it daily. So given the above and the fact that you have to find somewhere to park your car when you get there and most likely have to pay a fair amount to do it I believe a rail link would now be profitable even with reasonable fares. Given that there is now an increased desire to rid the streets of traffic in our towns and cities I believe that many of the lines closed in those years even right at that time would now make sense. I cannot find it at the moment but the price quoted for one mile of track on the Wolds railway is astronomical. That isn't to say that it would be cheaper for many other tracks to be reinstated anywhere else but is that cost compared to the continued problems we have created by driving our tin boxes everywhere a game changer?

No you don't understand Unions. You have some personal bad experience of them but that by no means gives you the first hand knowledge of every union nor what goes on. As an Ex Union Secretary representing 130 plus members at a bus garage I take great exception of being bundled up with your generalisation. Unions have changed from the days of continual strikes and industrial action holding the Country to blackmail. Majority of my time when I wasn't actually driving was spent representing members in disciplines. I also was responsible for pay talks and meetings with management locally and goup for many matters. I attended numerous courses held by the Union and never came across anyone who thought strike or industrial action worked. We were taught to negotiate with Management and yes at times it was difficult but I did it to the best of my ability, won some, lost some and solved a lot of issues by being reasonable. Please don't generalise. By all means talk about your personal experience but don't come out with sweeping statements of how you know how Unions work.

Aldi (certainly around here) are a nice exception to that. They have plenty of width to be able to open the doors without having to mind the paintwork or breath in. Having said that some folk still manage to park right on or over the line!

Any Industrial action has to be by a postal ballot of the members so one man cannot make that decision, although influence can be used it is still difficult to get a majority vote for anything.

I suppose anything is possible. Who would have thought that trams would have made a come back in our Cities?

He wasn't to start with. Predictive text decided Beecham was the culprit! OK so lets start from a different angle then. Is it possible (should the finances be there) to do something about it all this late in the day? Is the railway network able to take on the new challenges that having less cars/commercial vehicles on our roads will bring? As has already been mentioned do we even have the skill sets to run something akin to what is being discusses?

Agreed to some extent but it doesn't have to go to the extent of this Party did this and this one did this. So maybe I should say without 'Party' politics. Simple reason really is that where is plenty of views and discussion to be had without straying across the line where it will get locked.

Stop with the rucksacks already! Jeez!

No starting handle Stuart?

I posted this as a discussion point really to see if there are options in this day and age in anyone's view. Like extending lines, preservation lines being utilised more or even just what alternatives there are available. I did say I did not want it to turn political so could we step back from that angle please?

It would seem that the Deltics are now sold to new owners so hopefully they can be restored to last well into the future. http://royalscotsgrey.com/0/2017/11/29/7594/

Yes and we are having the wall rebuilt!

Already some are talking about re-instating lost lines where house, industrial estates or cycle paths have been built. Not very realistic but now the car is the enemy of the State the train is looking good again.

Oops. Predictive text and lack of attention. Thanks for that, now changed.

Not seen this mentioned which surprised me as it is on a FB group I use and Jeremy Vine currently discussing it on Radio2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42157853 Without getting into politics perhaps worth a discussion.

EDIT: Since I started posting in this thread Windows has done an update and restarted. Ever since then Firefox has been on a go slow. Even getting the Firefox has stopped working warning.

The only problem I had found with the old version was playing videos on Facebook which could have been an issue with either I suppose. Certainly I keep getting a reminder that Edge is faster than Firefox but on my laptop it just freezes and I have to do a big button shut down. Windows 7 upgraded to 10 and maybe that is some of the problem. Even if Firefox had slowed down why could they not fix the bugs, make it quicker and leave everything where it was? OK it hasn't taken long to get things back to where I can use it just the same but why even bother moving stuff around if it worked before? Example the Home button and then the Bookmarks. I am sure the bugs could be fixed without having to redesign the whole front page.