F-UnitMad

Was there much left or was it destroyed by the retreating troops?, and more importantly, why on earth would that subject have "a very wide appeal."..???

Ah, the Jeremy Clarkson School of International Diplomacy. 👍 And we wonder why we have a thread here about liking/disliking Foreign layouts.... 🙄😂

There has been such a shortage of HGV (& PSV I think) drivers that there are a lot of very inexperienced new drivers out there, passing their test one day, & thrown in the deep end soon afterwards, rather than working up through the different sizes of trucks within a Company over a couple of years, as I did. The test & reality are two different things. The inability of the driver in your account makes me think he was a very new driver. Once when I was acting as night shunter in the yard of the large Company I worked for, everything ground to a halt as a visiting artic blocked up the yard in a series of futile attempts to back on to a loading dock. The yard foreman called me up on the radio to go & sort things out. Long story short, I backed the truck up myself in one move. The watching driver exclaimed "You make it look so easy!" I replied "When you've done it for 20 years, you'll make it look easy, mate". Turned out he'd passed his test the previous Friday, this was the next Wednesday - 3rd day (night!) on the job with a fully loaded 44-tonner in a situation he had just not been trained for - the reverse manoevre in the HGV test being about as useful & relevant to driving as the reverse round a left-hand corner was in the car test. Like I said - a lot of inexperienced, and/or foreign, drivers of large vehicles out there now. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid....

Sheet of kitchen towel folded so it's narrow to sit a wheelset on, hold across tracks, soak bit over rails in IPA, set loco speed to maximum, and hold in place, moving each wheelset over the towel in turn. Alternative without the deliberate wheel slipping, is to buy a rolling road. Set loco up on that, maximum speed again, and apply cotton bud in IPA to each wheel in turn.

After a trip to Holland in the late '90s, I've always had a pipe dream of a Dutch layout, something like a Minories terminus to show off that blue & yellow livery on their EMUs, and the 1600/1700 electrics, which ironically I don't like in their native French colours.

Other way round. The proprietor of L.L.Co gave a donation to the Class 15 group from sales of his model Class 15. It was me who informed him of the Class 22 group (I'm not a member) & as far as I know he got in contact with them with similar intent, until, of course, everything went extremely pear-shaped for L.L.Co.

Indeed it was. It ended up finished as a British O micro.

Great choice of words, there. Cue much schoolboy giggling.....

I would refer the Right Honourable Gentleman to my attempt some years ago to build a US O Scale layout in a Boxfile..... 😝😝😝😝😝😝

Those photos made me realise what your layout is missing, Paul. Billowing clouds of steam, and lots of litter across the tracks!! 🤣🤣👍 Sprinting for exit....

Sorry, I was only being a bit tongue in cheek, you're absolutely right, it doesn't matter. 👍 Compared to American basement Empires, all our US outline layouts in the UK are Micros!! 😂

At 8ft long this is a definition of 'micro' layout I was previously unaware of. 🤔😉 Two levels certainly adds something a bit special to it. 👍

Only just catching up with this layout, Dan. Hopefully, from the sounds of it (quoted above) I've been a bad influence on you!! 😂👍 of course it'll work! Bad track is why American trains adopted trucks so early in their history.😉

Indeed, metal wheels will trigger a frog juicer, regardless of if they're on a loco or rolling stock.

Thankyou, that's what I meant. It might only be intended for use in one direction, but there are two routes for potential use as reverse loops.

Is the Landy owner related to the infamous Drake brothers? He never seems to go very far either... 😁😉👍

Looks to me like you actually have TWO reverse loops in fact. No idea how to wire them though, sorry.

Yes I think that's the crux of the matter. Each to their own concerning how or what they want to view at a Show, but there's no need to be rude, sarcastic or offensive about layouts that aren't of interest to them.

And his other grandfather? (Anyone who has watched Milton Jones will get it 😉👍 )

The bus has ripped it's aircon unit off by the looks of it. 🙄 I have a feeling it wasn't quite that simple*. The front of the roof has a slight hump on it, the restriction bar is wedged behind in the dip of the roof. Note the lower 'tell -tale' bar that hangs below the main bar is pushed up too. * Like the oft-quoted armchair advice to let the tyres down to lower a stuck lorry. Two big problems with this - 1) have you ever tried moving an HGV with all it's tyres flat? & 2) have you got a compressor handy to blow them back up afterwards, usually 120psi.

"999, which service do you require?" "Erm, this is a bit embarrassing...." Okay, not a low bridge, but still a height restriction. Just now in the Tesco car park, Cradley Heath, West Mids. 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Edit - and yes, the first thing I thought to do was post it on here.... 👍🥳

True, but you still have to look at it in the first place. 👍 I was at one show a few years back when the owner of a USA layout actually took down the big Stars & Stripes from in front of it, as he reckoned a lot of punters saw the flag, & that was all - minds made up, they then walked right past the layout without even a glance.

I think the new Show at Statfold is genius - it still gives the club something special* about their Show, without the sheer size & related issues around the NEC. * I was going to say 'Unique', but that's not quite true as other model railway events are held at Statfold as well.

I work in O, but would recommend Zimo in any scale for their excellent motor control almost straight out of the box, without needing to faff about with a million CVs.

Exactly so. 👍