APOLLO

Brit15

4. Branding and gimmicks: Nothing like a Virgin train to make me want to poke my own eyes out in disgust at the patronising and infantilising gimmickry aboard their bloody trains. You wouldn’t flush your goldfish down the loo now would you!

"Well, it wouldn't flush down, it was this big" !!!

I hope it's GOLDFISH he's talking about !!!!!!

Brit15

Hattons have some pre-owned ones, parts missing and not in original box, expensive though. Brand new old stock (!!) 'Instant Gratification' ex Olivias Sheffield is cheaper, and they have more than 10 in stock !!!

Brit15

Whow what a beast. 

Here is the loco that did the evaluation trials hauling heavy coal trains from Huntingdon to Hinton West Virginia, C&O 614T, 4-8-4 Greenbrier, running a test for the ACE program, on the C&O between Huntington and Hinton WV. at Cabin Creek, WV. 1/10/1985.

A bit nicer looking, I'll save my pennies for one of these. !!

The video of these runs is superb by the way.

Brit15

There's sod all to see on today's railways from the "souped up tram" windows anyway - Thats if your lucky enough to get a "seat" next to one. Just vegetation and the odd rusty siding now and again - oh, did I mention vegetation - soon be summer, lots of green, spot the colourfull flowers these days !!!!!!

"bing bong - for security purposes -- - -- -- -- --- "   "bing bong It is an offence to ---  ---- ----- -"  "bing bong we apologise for --------  --- -- ---" 

Brit15

These are being introduced soon, pure luxury !!!!!

Brit15

I remember another stab at a new coal fired steam loco in the early 80's - ACE3000. Didn't get built though thorough tests were carried out on using an existing preserved loco to gather data. I have an old Betamax video somewhere re this.

http://locomotive.wikia.com/wiki/ACE_3000_Prototype_Steam_Locomotive

Anyway, good news on the Tornado front - a few weeks and she'll be right again.

Brit15

I agree Edwin-m, a bit of a dogs breakfast is Golborne Junction. It's a sharpish curve to the right going south on the WCML, so slewing the fast lines further west to do the above would have sharpened this curve. Perhaps that's why Network rail didn't do it. An awkward place with roads, houses, embankments cuttings etc.

I often go to Manchester on the Trans Pennine EMU, 100 mph Wigan - Golborne then braking to 10 mph around the junctions, sometimes held up by an eastbound on the L&M at Parkside Jcn.

They weren't thinking of Pendolino's, 100 mph EMU's and 75mph freight trains when these lines were built in the early 1800's !!

Brit15

Beer, Fish (and chips !!) and England.

All go together on a good Friday night out !!!!

Brit15

There is a sort-of accepted notion of what it means to be Irish, to be Scots, and possibly what it means to be welsh, each has an identity, which isn’t necessarily the same as ‘national’ in the nation-state sense.

 

What does in mean, in an identity sense, to be English? I don’t know, and having been born here, ditto about nine hundred years worth of my ancestors, I’ve got a feeling that if there was something to know, I would have got in on the secret by now.

 

I genuinely don’t think there is a universally, or even very broadly, agreed set of defining characteristics that make for ‘englishness’. Certainly the nonsense served-up for the benefit of foreign tourists doesn’t capture it, and neither does flag-waving little-englander stuff.

 

Possibly the human contents of the land labelled England are too diverse in outlook to make either a flag or a patron saint a really workable notion, and that people tend to carry other identities instead.

A good reply, 

Flying back from Thailand a couple of years ago overnight via Copenhagen, early morning flight Copenhagen to Manchester A nice clear day with the sun just rising right behind us, little cloud above. As we neared our sceptered isle loomed up between the clouds and the glistening North Sea, a beautiful sight. We flew in over Whitby then down over the green and barren North Yorkshire moors and the Pennines direct to Manchester. 

What an entrance - THAT's England.

Brit15

A Yorkshire couple go to the Costa Brava for a holiday, but on arrival, the wife says "I won't be able to make gravy with your dinner, love - I've forgotten the Bisto" The husband says, "Don't worry, there's an English couple staying in the next apartment, I'll see if they have any" So he knocks on the door of the next apartment, and says to the man" 'Allo, 'hast any Bisto" To which the man replies "Pixx off, you Spanish prat!""

Brit15

The blurb says

Altering any RTR model potentially devalues their resale value; especially in the eyes of the collectors. Some won't even take them out of their boxes - believe me, how am I to photograph them? 

 

Yet, firms make a living out of detailing/weathering locos and stock. 

 

I recall David Jenkinson telling me that he'd never have his (particularly) locos weathered, because he felt they'd be difficult to resell. Ironically, most of his pristine (and very, very beautiful) locos sold for well-under what many thought they should make after his death. 

 

As for me; nothing I have, even locos professionally-painted, is un-weathered. I agree, it would be absurd to obliterate the fine lining and perfect finish achieved by Mr Rathbone and Mr Haynes under a layer of muck, but all have a degree of weathering. As for whether weathering potentially devalues what I've got, I don't give a fig. I want my creations to be as 'realistic' as possible. When I'm gone, I won't care and I'm under no illusions that my 'collection' will have a high-value at my demise. My intention is to live for many more years (I'm grumpy enough!) and by the time the Grim Reaper calls, the numbers of folk interested in buying anything I leave should have dwindled (due to their own mortality) to just a few. I don't make things because they will have a (high?) residual value. I make them for my use (though I still build the odd loco on commission), to suit my needs, and what they're worth isn't really an issue, other than for insurance purposes.  

 

I think one can see values dropping already, especially in the 'collectors' market. Hornby-Dublo peaked a while back, and vintage O Gauge doesn't seem to be increasing in price. Even beautifully-built items struggle to cover even their components' price. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Interesting comments Tony, and I totally agree, "it's your train set" and understand why you (and others) do what you do. I also remember David Jenkinson as a very talented builder (via The Railway Modeler mag) and I too admired his stock, and especially his EM & later O scale Settle & Carlisle themed layouts.

It does seem that the second hand market is slowly being enlarged with deceased modelers stock. I have bought quite cheaply some very fine American O scale models this year, and have been quite surprised at both the low "buy it now" prices and my winning (low) bids on ebay recently. How about an as new twin motored Weaver U25B diesel loco for under £100 ?. (yes I've not built it - but I will respray it in Rock Island maroon very soon).

Talking of resprays, I've quite a few to do, I have the equipment, paint, decals etc just waiting for some sunny warm weather as I usually spray outside in the sunlight. (Mrs draws the line at spraying indoors) and my garage is too "crowded" to use. I have had decent results thus far.

Brit15

It must annoying for the locals to be lumped under Greater Manchester some 25 miles distant.

 

Mike.

It happened many years ago, but us Wiganers do not think of ourselves as part of Greater Manchester, for instance our official postal address is Wigan Lancashire, but the "new" Lancashire boundary is a couple of miles to the north. Anyway we put up with it (for now !!). Good thing being in GM is I get my GMPTE "old farts" bus / train / tram pass !! - Down in Warrington it's buses only for them.

Nice to see more rail infrastructure being built. I'll go and take a few photos at various stages of construction & post them here. easy to do from public roads & paths without trespassing.

It's a logical place for such a depot, all access tracks are already in place and fully signaled. Access from Wallgate easy without crossing the WCML fast lines, and from the depot towards Liverpool / Manchester line traffic can head south and use the already electrified fly under at Bamfurlong, then either down to Lowton Jcn & the Liverpool / Manchester line or reverse over the newly electrified chord to the St Helens line. Easy Peasy.

HS2 is supposed to join the WCML just south of Bamfurlong and a HS2 train depot was originally planned there, but now the depot is seemingly cancelled.

I'll believe HS2 at Wigan if (I live long enough !!) to see it.

Brit15

Great News. 8F (SP) is to be reborn !!!

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/new-home-for-trains-provides-jobs-boost-for-greater-manchester

I've noticed a lot of vegetation removal recently from Brewery Sidings (to the side of the depot and the start of the old (long gone) New Springs Branch, where the photo below was taken.

The DMU sidings at Wigan Wallgate will probably go - they are fairly short and there's no room for expansion there. Wrong side of the existing electrification also.

Here Springs Branch's last day of steam - late 1967. Doubt I'll "bunk" the Branch anymore though !!!

On another topic here is a video of the improvements at Blackpool - Kirkham - (from I DMU I think) - again very impressive.

Brit15

The New York Central Niagara 4-8-4 was a particularly successful locomotive. A bit late in the day though as diesels eventually eliminated it. Shame none were preserved.

Read about its comparison costs etc with the diesels of the time here. Very interesting.

Cost comparison Steam versus diesel, 1946 NYC road trials

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Central_Niagara

The six days per week running schedule of these locomotives meant that all of the maintenance work normally done over the course of that week would have to be done on one day. This meant a specialized system was developed, where men in "hot suits" (asbestos heat-resistant coveralls) entered the firebox while the locomotive was still in steam and cleared all of the tubes, repaired the brick arch, etc. As the temperature inside the firebox itself would have been well over 100 degrees Celsius (212 F), and the working area these maintenance workers would have been standing on was the still-hot firebars of the grate, all references describe these workers as 'heroic' 

Brit15

As the poor sod atop the boiler of this (superbly modeled) loco is thinking "where do I start ?".

I agree with Tony in that in the real world everything is weathered, or is starting out so immediately it is outside, and (perhaps) should be so modeled. So where do I start - and more importantly (for me) where do I stop ?

On my O scale layout some items are weathered, some not and some are crying out for it. Take the RailBox car below, a bright yellow and on the layout it sticks out by a mile, almost toy like. 

It needs (and hopefully will get) weathering as in the web photo below (not my work).

Similarly this white SOO LINE box car. Note the weathered Great Northern car alongside.

Should look like this, but I'll probably leave this one as is, as it looks good as is.

My dilemma is, weathering more models probably de-values them for possible future sale (when I am gone). The outlandishly garish new ones will be dealt with though. A bit of a quandary for me.

The North American railroad scene is (was) very colourful, but weathering etc soon took a hold.

Anyway I bookmark various weathering articles, and thus have a list of items "to do". I'll do some a bit at a time.

Brit15

Or perhaps Double Diamond - keeps this guy going !!!!!

Happy St George's day everyone.

Brit15

Don't forget to add a tiny light (or small hole in the black back tunnel wall) to signify "the light at the end of the tunnel"

Brit15

There were several small stations on the WCML just north & south of Wigan North Western (which itself would make an interesting though large layout).

To  the south was Bamfurlong and a bit further south Golborne, both 4 track and very similar to each other.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/bamfurlong/index.shtml

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/g/golborne_south/

Going north out of Wigan NW it's 2 tracks and a steep gradient up to Standish / Coppull. Boars Head had an interesting junction / station / signalbox in a cutting.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/boars_head/index.shtml

Standish also had an interesting station and junction. The Whelley loop line joined the main line here via a flying junction, through the small station then 4 tracks commenced northwards. Standish is not on the disused stations site though. Today the 4 track commences further north just south of Euxton.

Brit15

I don't think any of the above have been modeled.

Brit15

My experience is that three failures modes dominate machinery failures, maloperation, poor alignment and poor lubrication. 

Too true.

My dad (in respect of his car) had a saying --  "oil is cheaper than bearings"

Brit15

Some photos of my O gauge pike (model railway).

Around through up and over the mountains in 22' x 12'. Spot the LNER signalbox (switch tower !!). A gift from a friend and I simply had to include it.

Not ultra to scale or realism but it's been great fun to make and operate.

Brit15

Such a namby pamby world we live in today. Bite off a bufferbeam, stab with a fishplate !!!!!

Before I got my first Tri-ang TT train set (aged 9) I "helped" (played) with my elder brothers set in Mum & Dads bedroom. The controller mains lead went straight up to the light socket, a splitter there had a push on/off switch - no earth either, reached from a wobbly chair, fell off a couple of times !!!

Not recommended but that was how it was back then. We survived !!

Brit15

Subscription service soon perhaps ?

Brit15

Prefab Sprout - not heard them for yonks !!

I had to google and found this - one of there best. -- Sooooo long ago !!

Nice pics of Trafford Park by the way - memories again !!.

Brit15