DavidB-AU

I see your Collett EMU and raise you Railcars No.39 and 40 in a proper livery. Cheers David

Not quite a track plan but an easy industry to model in Falmouth, KY. https://goo.gl/maps/HZkinJ8igBD2 The lettering on the end of the tank car says "EDIBLE TALLOW". Cheers David

Here's a related idea. Cheers David

SBS in Australia tried something new last Sunday, adapting the "Slow TV" genre from Norway. The Ghan: Australia’s Greatest Train Journey was 3 hours of footage from The Ghan between Adelaide and Darwin. No commentary, no music, no commercial breaks. Just on board, lineside and helicopter/drone footage of the train with occasional captions about the route and some history. It was staggeringly popular and held about 90% of its audience for the entire 3 hours. Well it's back again this Sunday with an extended 17 hour version! Cheers David

Under the 1955 Modernisation Plan there was still supposed to be around 7,000 steam locos in 1970 with the Standards having a working life of 25 years, meaning Evening Star should have retired in 1985. IIRC the rebuilt Bulleid pacifics were intended to remain in service until slidey rail reached Exeter around 1980. It's also worth noting that Hunslet was building new Austerity tanks up to 1964. EDIT: When did Castle Donnington Power Station retire its last RSH saddle tanks? Cheers David

South Africa until 1997(?) and as mentioned above Zimbabwe still does to some extent. North Korea still uses steam on some non-electrified (mainly branch) lines and isolated narrow gauge lines. Cheers David

There are a handful of places in the world with cheap domestic coal, no domestic oil and little hard currency to import it. That's one of the reasons Zimbabwe was retrieving steam locomotives out of the Bulawayo Railway Museum as recently as 2010. Cheers David

Most modellers of QR narrow gauge use HOn3½ now as more RTR stock is coming out all the time. Sn3½ was the most popular until about a decade ago. South Australians generally use HO for broad gauge and HOn3 for narrow (3'6") gauge. Partly for historical reasons as there was more 10.5mm gauge track and mechs around in the early days, and partly because it emphasises the difference between broad and narrow gauge. Cheers David

There is a (very) small group modelling Victorian in true scale HOb5¼ using 18.37mm gauge but you can count them on one hand. There is a great exhibition layout called Tyobic in this gauge. A photo here: https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-isLq7NzNm_8/TxqKE-nL-QI/AAAAAAAABSI/uIr7e_d76gk/s1600/tyobic%2Bjpg055.JPG But on the whole most seem happy with 16.5mm gauge. Where they represent the north east where broad and standard gauge run parallel, the usual trick is to use code 83 for broad gauge and code 70 for standard gauge. It gives the illusion of them being different. There's also the option of O or N scale. O scale has the complication that Victorians use 1/4" scale whereas other states use 7mm scale! But there are some absolutely stunning O scale VR models available these days. In fact if I was starting from scratch now I would be doing VR narrow gauge in On30. Cheers David

I almost posted that too. Until you have a permanent space, consider building a small portable layout so you can at least have something to run and build up your collection of rollingstock. Cheers David

If you'll forgive the American terminology, I'd also split them into givens and druthers. Given are things you can't change (like room size) or won't change (e.g. the region/era you wish to model). Druthers are things "you'druther" have but are negotiable (e.g. if you can't build a grand main line station, would you be happy with a branch line?). Cheers David

Aluminium company Alpart has awarded CRRC Qishuyan Co a contract to supply DF8B diesel locomotives in the first half of 2018. http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/crrc-to-supply-locomotives-to-jamaica.html

NREC rebuilds and leases them out. LTEX has a similar operation.

Meanwhile in Australia, roads have a liquid state. http://abc.net.au/news/2018-01-05/hume-freeway-melts-in-heat-in-victoria/9307344

Which indirectly gives me an idea. Push-pull operation in the UK was mainly limited to branch lines, but why not on main lines? Particularly on suburban services where a fast turnaround is required. I'm thinking particularly of Liverpool Street which had the most intensive steam service in the world. Now consider what Chemins de Fer de l'État did from 1933 with 2-8-2Ts and sets of Voiture État à 2 étages. While double deck would be out of the question, surely something was technically possible to match the capacity of a pair of Quadarts and be suitable for push-pull operation. Cheers David

A Dean bodge. Cheers David

I only cheated because I couldn't be bothered redrawing the main rod to the middle driver. Cheers David

Another little train over Ardglen. Cheers David

I cheated and made it inside cylinder. Cheers David

Game board reset.

Samantha has reset the laser display board to update the new year and the 2018 edition of Stovold's Almanac should have arrived last week. So we open a new game. The first game of the year dictates Standard Metropolitan Variation. Ravenscourt Park

NS and UP don't do it for any altruistic reason. It's simply to protect their intellectual property. If a livery is in use, they can charge more for model companies to reproduce it. Cheers David

Another picture here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BRblue313201.jpg Cheers David

I think Beauly has the shortest platform in the UK. Berney Arms and Gilfach Fargoed are also very short. Cheers David

EMU overhaul includes heritage livery http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/emu-overhaul-includes-heritage-livery.html