DavidB-AU

RIP Barry Humphries

Fire destroys workshop at Tasmania's Don River heritage railway https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-04/fire-workshop-tasmania-don-river-heritage-railway/102183238

230002 at the Rockhill Trolley Museum, being tested for Pop Up Metro. 230011 is there too but not visible.

I remember when a protestor fired what turned out to be a starting pistol near the then Prince of Wales during a visit to Australia in the early 90s. The then Premier of New South Wales, a former rugby league player, had crash tackled the protestor to the ground before the royal protection officer could react.

Norway gifts 12 diesel trains to Ukraine https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/03/30/norway-gifts-12-diesel-train-sets-to-ukraine-transport-minister-nygard/ Type 92 built by Duewag in the 1980s and retired in 2019.

Why? He has lost literally every civil case he has ever brought against anyone, ending up paying costs.

The British Rail Sandwich is supposed to be "kept under glass domes on the counters in refreshment rooms until the corners turned up".

Any excuse to post a Tom Scott video.

The World Lumberjack Championship has just finished. It was won by tree fellers from Ireland. (Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh)

A driver training run of the AC16 from Warwick to Clifton.

The transfer of the AC16 to Warwick on Monday. It ended up being piloted by diesel on both legs due to the fire danger.

16,000hp with a little container train.

Well the big announcement is the AC16 is going to Southern Downs Steam Railway for part of the year. Departing Ipswich on Monday at 0900, Toowoomba 1400-1500, arriving Warwick at 1600. It will be hauled by DH45 from Toowoomba to Warwick as the steam crew are not route qualified.

The Caledonian Sleeper rail service is to be nationalised later this year, the Scottish government has announced. The move comes after ministers decided last year to terminate Serco's contract to run the service seven years early. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-64802833

But some dragon with a flare gut, Burned the place to the ground. Second Breakfast at Tiffany's Wishing If I Had a Frodograph of You by A Flock of Sméagols

Surprise news. Alexander Kamyshin has resigned as CEO and will head up a new "Eurointegration office" of Ukrzaliznytsia. I suspect this might mean more standard gauge.

Meanwhile in a war, albeit with a limited number of services...

DALL-E AI images of different actors as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Yesterday saw the first QR Heritage operation since 2019. AC16 221A made an unannounced test run from Ipswich to Grandchester and return. Many of the usual contacts "in the know" didn't know about this until it left Ipswich. There was another test run today. QR hinted on social media there would be announcement "soon" about their plans.

I think you have more usable space that I first thought. So long as the exterior door is free to slide, you could use the space shown by the red boxes. You would then only need a small lifting section across the actual door when the layout is in use. The measurements shown in blue would give you a better idea. It's not impossible to get a folded dogbone or useful end to end in this space. Of course it would be easier in N! 😄

Could you possibly do a sketch of the room? Is there an option of a removable or lifting section across one or both of the doorways? Does "constant use" include when the layout is actually in operation?

It does look very ambitious! One thing you could consider is building the preserved line station first on a portable board plus a very basic fiddle yard you can set up on a couple of trestles. That would at least give you something to run while you build the rest. When the lower level is working you can drop the preserved station on top. Something you might consider for the main line junction is using a standard long crossing arrangement and move the crossover to curved points. This avoids closely spaced S bends which can cause buffer lock.