Neil

This rather argues that we live in a more common sense world where near misses and deaths are designed out (as much as possible) compared to a less regulated past.

Peace; what better could one want at Christmas.

So many questions. Is there any evidence that the population is increasingly stupid? Are we part of that population? Is it possible to reinstall common sense? What is common sense and how would we measure it?

There is a difference between WCRC and the other operators starting with the willingness to comply with the regulations and the conditions of the exemptions. There's a strong argument to be made that WCRC have in layman's terms 'been trying it on' and that the ORR would be negligent if it permitted circumstances that gave any opportunity for this to happen again.

I guess WCRC used up any goodwill they may have had some time ago. How could an organisation which failed to comply with the terms of the original exemption be trusted to do so with a further exemption even if was time limited? It would appear that WCRC have a libertarian management culture in place which doesn't fit well with the pursuit of safe working practices. Health and safety driven improvements are no new flash in the pan but go back to the early days of the railways. Anyone who has read the classic 'Red for Danger' will appreciate how the search for greater safety has driven improvements over the years.

I do wonder how much money WCRC have spent contesting the requirement to fit centralised door locking.

Comfortable, had a trip on one from York to Manchester some time back.

I've had a pair like these, bought when I was an apprentice and still going strong nearly fifty years later. The knurled screw and locknut act as a stop for repetitive work. I use my pair for both mains and model work.

Take one Hornby 06 body, chop and reassemble, plonk onto a Kato mechanism disguised as a six coupled example and voilà, a beefy narrow gauge diesel. Plenty of room for weight in this beastie.

A couple of my pug bashes which may have been seen before elsewhere. First up something a bit Peckett-esque. Shortened tank, modified cab sat on a Model Power mechanism. It does ride rather too tall in the saddle, a function of the upright motor position in the cab. A narrow gauge one; chopped pugs were once a common sight on 009 models up and down the country. Here's my take on the genre running atop a tram skirt fitted Kato mechanism. Can we include structures too? OK then here's the Airfix half timbered cottage without the half timbering or the thatch. Finally the evergreen coal office, re-purposed as the tram station at the seaward end of the Little Point.

I'm sure that I have read somewhere (on the internet) of others experiencing wifi issues at exhibitions where home use was faultless. The thought was the cause might be interferance from other layouts in the hall also using wifi. Sorry I can't offer any more as I'm no expert in either dcc or wifi.

Likewise here in Wales. Next week Mrs R and I will roll up at our local station, get on the train and buy returns to York from the guard/conductor using our two together railcard. I wonder what other TOCs which serve unstaffed stations do?

I recommend Night Trains by Andrew Martin available from Simon at Titfield Thunderbolt here, with a review by the Guardian here in case you need further persuasion.

Ah a wishlist, could I have peace and justice in the middle east, that rather aggressive Mr Putin to wind both his neck and troops back in and governments the world over to get serious in combatting climate change so the lovely Fairbourne Railway doesn't need to bulk buy snorkels for its passengers. Thank you.

Because it's always a good idea to keep an open mind. It does seem a bit silly to jump to a decision before both models are out there and a fair comparison can be made.

Ah yes, I was a bit surprised to find it happened on plasticard too.

A false start and a bit of a rethink have happened over the last few days. Using PVA to stick the paper print outs of the DVLR station building to plasticard set of some warping, pesumably as the paper shrunk. I remembered that years ago I bought in some self adhesive printer paper so after some difficulty (printing on the backing rather than the self adhesive paper) I got a full set of print off that I could peel and stick to the plastic. Result, all has stayed flat and level. Cutting out the tracery is a bit of a faff requiring good levels of concentration so I only do a bit per session. It's difficult to see if the cut out panels are level and in line from the front but turn the sheet over and checking is much easier. I'm about half way through the process now so it's not a rapid technique but it is very satisfying seeing the characteristic design emerge. The walls will be good practice for the doors and windows which will be even more fiddly. It strikes me that this building would be a natural for laser cutting but the customer base would be pretty limited. Finally on Friday night's running session the new Thomas based loco was paired with the two carriages hacked from Tomy trackmaster Annie and Clarabel. Really quite please with the ensemble.

Oh dear, wrong sort of pannier tank.

It's been almost a month since I last posted progress on the layout. In part this is because my focus had turned to producing this dubious item for the light railway ..... .... and partly because I had a big tidy up of our guest bedroom as a friend was coming to stay for a few days. At the weekend we took a trip to Aberystwyth on the train and called in at the splendid Vale of Rheidol shop. It has a brilliant selection of books both prototype and modelling but it was an Alphagraphix kit of a DVLR station building that caught my eye and came home with me in my rucksack. Because the model is destined for Northern Town and because Northern Town lives in the garage I won't be using the kit for the final building as I worry about damp setting in. I also wanted a model of one of the smaller DVLR station buildings like those at Dunnington, Murton or Osbaldwick, so I copied the kit on the printer and then cut the print out to match the layout and size of the smaller buildings. I built a simple card structure to match the dimensions of the chopped up print outs and then glued them on as overlays. Here's the old place holder light railway station on Northern Town ..... ..... now replaced with the DVLR model. With the proof of concept model finished I can now move on with confidence to the final build in plastic. I printed out another set of overlays but in black and white which I'll use as cutting templates for the fiddly panelling, doors and windows. It'll save me a huge amount of time marking out and hopefully give a more accurate result than ruler, pencil and try square.

You're most welcome, Elaine has always been really helpful and pleasant to deal with.

A bit late, you may already have sourced a body, but there's what looks to be a tidy example (poor runner) for sale at Elaine's Trains here.

It's the backscene that's causing difficulties with the colouring. Looking at the painting that inspired the colours and the photo that accompanies it, the sky is pale, lighter than the buildings, whereas in the model the background is significantly darker than the buildings. I would want the drama to be in the buildings, so would alter the sky but as ever these things are a personal choice and it would be a dreary world if we all thought the same and made the same choices.

Quite, if structured properly they could pick up in the North and the Midlands on their way to the continent. Obviously it would all be far easier if we were still in the EU and Schengen, or like Switzerland just in Schengen. Save lots of faffing around, red tape, queues and the loss to the economy. Ah well, a chap can dream .....

Regional Eurostars back in favour? Leeds, Manchester and/or Birmingham?

Yes I can see where you're coming from but this was always intended to be a quick and dirty project. I wondered before I bought the raw materials whether I could use a cut down chassis (to a four coupled one) as the basis for a sort of Metro tank look-a-like using a Triang Nellie/Polly/Connie body. This is unlikely to happen now and the red one has gone off to ebay.