Clay Country

All it needs now is a cycling lion and small yellow panels and it's ready to go.

Ooh, any pics of the Load Haul one?

Cracking layout and very impressive catenary, really captures the atmosphere of the MSW. Looking forward to seeing more.

As a Derbyshire exile living in Cornwall I feel qualified to comment on both. The MML electrification is fantastic news and it's been a long time coming. This must be one of the busiest non-electrified lines in Europe and infastructure investment hasn't kept up with usage so it's good the government is finally looking to put that right. [OT] As far as Newton Abbot - Exeter goes, I was hoping HLOS would include funding to at least start planning for an alternative route in CP5. This would be a relatively low-cost way to at least get started on addressing a serious long-term issue for the rail network in the West Country, and would demonstrate that the goverment hasn't completey forgotten an area of the UK where rail use is rising rapidly. [/OT]

Cracking picture - sunshine, semaphores AND a 60 - very rare to get all three!

As a Grid fan I've been eagerly awaiting this one since it was announced, and it looks like it's been well worth the wait. The only (very minor) downside I can see is the lack of cowls, but in all other respects it really captures the essence of a 56, particularly around the front end (which looks more convincing to me than the Hornby Romanian 56), grilles and the bogies. Well done Dapol, can't wait for the Load Haul one!

Cracking shot Tim. I saw the same train near St Albans as I was heading up to the midlands aboard a Meridian. Seeing a Tug always brightens my day.

Fantasic work David, you've achieved something quite special - a layout that really captures the character of a modern British cityscape. Very inspiring stuff!

I think you're right on the nose grille Lee, but the original batch of pilot scheme 20s was delivered with oval buffers, like this: http://www.davidheyscollection.com/USERIMAGES/isc-class-twenties-copy.jpg

Absolutely stunning layout, really captures the location to a tee.

Another Simmons-Boardmann book I've found to be very useful is The Railroad: What it is, What it Does. It's a good informative technical guide to all aspects of how the North American railway functions and has some excellent chapters on locomotives, freight cars, yards, and switching operations.

The Sidings might still have these in stock. I bought one of the Alberta Heritage Fund hoppers from him and the black CP one, which I was unable to locate anywhere else in the UK. The PWRS cylindrical hoppers look stunning, and a lot of effort has clearly gone into their research, but they seem a fair bit pricier than the Intermountain version.

Yes they are still trading. I ordered some Intermountain items from them a few weeks ago by phone and they arrived very quickly. When I ordered I spoke to the proprietor Jason, and he said he travels a lot for work, so there can sometimes be delays in processing orders. Nonetheless he's very helpful and friendly and keeps a good stock of Canadian models that you might have difficulty locating elsewhere in the UK. I think the best advice is keep trying, he'll get back to you eventually.

Unless "being worked on" means they are being stripped for anything left that's still of value to the overhaul programme. It would be good to see these two back in service though, so I hope I'm wrong...

To be fair to the DBS engineers at Toton, a lot of work has gone into this overhaul and by all accounts it is a very thorough job. 007 is effectively a prototype for future overhauls so it makes sense to get everything working properly.

This looks like a really interesting project. I like the track plan and the slurry shed.

Here's a short article I wrote recently for International Railway Journal on the Cambrian ERTMS project, which includes some insights from the aforementioned Mr Leppard of ATW: IRJ June 2011

Or we could spend many hours fettling the Farish HST and produce something only a fraction as good as this I agree it's not perfect, but it is a very big leap forward. And for me the character of the real thing is definately there.

Indeed they have, see post 70

There are issues in Europe with the financing of onboard equipment, and who should bear that cost. DB says it is paying €60,000 for an LZB/PZB unit today, but about €75,000 for ETCS hardware and the same again for the neccessary software (based on a 15-year life and not including cab display screens). There is also concern among some operators, notably DB, over the long-term availability of software and software obselesence, and this comes back to the issue of standardisation between suppliers mentioned above. SNCF says software developers are not railway specialists and introduce things that are not appropriate to railway use. They are also frustrated that new versions of the software are quickly superceded.

Mr Burkin has also done a rather nice photo review of the GC set on his blog

Tulomsas in Turkey has already assembled at least one PowerHaul demonstrator under license from GE, and they will be ready to build production locos soon. My understanding was that Tulomsas would assemble PowerHauls for the Middle East and Europe, so it's feasible that they could build future batches of 70s of Freightliner (or other UK customers) although as far as I know Erie will complete the current order.

Is it OK to build something within the specified dimensions but on a larger board? I've got a larger board available and I'd like to add off-stage storage after the challenge is finished, so I'd rather not chop bits off if I can avoid it.

One I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is Long Eaton Midland Street at the southern end of Toton Yard. Trains generally came from Port Clarance in latter days, normally with class 47 haulage, although there's a view here of a 60 visiting the terminal shortly before closure in 1993 http://www.toton-rail.co.uk/fullsize/60090le.jpg the site is now an Asda, although the rails at the northern end are still there rusting among the vegetation.

That's a fantastic find Rich. I've been studying the North Devon line for some time now and I've never seen pictures of Scottish Distillers polybulks on the branch (and certainly not MGR wagons!).