BoD

You have time for jigsaws too?

Obviously that assumes that the AWS/TPWS etc systems are all working as they should. Nobody would ever dream of overriding them, would they?

If you have the LZV100 command station with your LH90 you can read the address of a decoder. Page 23 or thereabouts in the manual. If you have removed the decoders from the locomotives how are you intending to ‘connect’ them for testing?

… and wasn’t that ‘management of the risk’ only supposed to be in place temporarily whilst the particular risk itself was dealt with? That it wasn’t is why we have this topic today.

I don't know the actual figures so I'm only speaking from observation and that report quoted earlier but I guess Kirkwall has a much greater number of cruise visitors than Lochaber. When I was visiting Kirkwall, not on a cruise, there were two largish cruise ships in each day. (Do you ever get more?) According to that report on the cruise economy Fort William only allow one cruise ship to dock per day and then it is one of the much smaller boutique size ships. I have only ever seen that size ship at Oban too. Do any cruise ships get to Mallaig? When I have been in Mallaig the town certainly seems to fill and empty with the coming and going of the Jacobite. I don't think WCRC are overstating things when playing the tourist effect on the economy card - I'm not saying that that it makes it a valid argument in this case though.

It’s quite possible that some of the media will report it that way too, without undertaking any investigative journalism to get to the real reasons behind what is happening.

So they wanted the exemption to run until it’s planned revocation at the end of February so that they could ‘work with the regulator to find a long term solution’ Genuine question - how long have they actually had to work towards that long term solution already? And a rhetorical one - what makes them believe they would reach a solution in a few short weeks when they haven’t wanted/been able to do so up to now?

They are (or were up until now) still recruiting stewards for the Jacobite. https://westcoastrailways.co.uk/careers

Interesting thoughts, thank you. I appreciate the notion of gently leading and encouraging rather than ‘driving’ and then letting nature run its course. As soon as he has developed more manual dexterity we will try making things together. We do many other things too so I am not forcing it upon him. I just hope that if, after all the other distractions on the way, he does wish to pursue railway modelling, there is still a hobby there for him. As some have said, yes, I am probably being pessimistic but it’s not solely the Hattons situation that has prompted these thoughts.

Obviously the sad news from Hattons today has affected many in different ways. Personally it has got me thinking about encouraging my grandson into the hobby. He is very enthusiastic about trains (I wonder where he got that from) and he loved his Brio trains. He has some Hornby Playtrains and enjoys helping put layouts together and ‘playing trains’. At the moment it will probably be a year or two before we make the move, probably to settrack and more complex things. There are lots of other factors involved but today’s events have brought into focus something that has been in the back of my mind for a while. Am I doing the right thing or am I likely to be leading him down a dead end, encouraging him into a hobby where there isn’t much of a future? Should we cut our losses now or carry on hoping that there will be a model railway hobby in the years to come? We could argue that the future of the hobby depends on us encouraging youngsters into it but is it likely to be a futile exercise? Perhaps I am being over pessimistic about the future.

I haven’t attempted it but could you adapt Bachmann Commonwealth bogies? They are readily available as spares.

That explains a lot of the Mod’s posts.

But it didn’t need to be did it? Membership fees, bar takings, occasional grants and other activities covered running costs. Moving away from that, what about the idea that has been suggested, by whom and how seriously I know not, of a two division, ‘British Isles’ (for want of a better description) League? Any chance of that working and solving some of the issues?

is there a difference between selling on your own second hand pre owned items and trading for profit. It does say they don’t have to report under 30 items per annum which I guess would cover most selling of personal property. Although if I (or someone else) tried to list all of my rolling stock at once…

You too.

… and with the various powers that be over the years achieving those safety improvements by encouragement and partnership rather than by compulsion. By the time regulations were enacted most if not all railway companies had accepted them and were at least starting to comply. Perhaps someone should send copies to the management at Carnforth.

My brother-in-law gave me a great tip when talking about changing car light bulbs. He advised going in first with your mobile phone and taking lots of photographs so that you could actually see what was where, what needed to be done and how to do it. I’m not sure if there was any connection but he was a gynaecologist.

Too much Information.

The Peco 00 track sticks out like a sore thumb too.

Might it be worth grabbing a couple of screen shots so that you can show that the item was defective before seller sent it to you?

I bought my own cheap mister bottles example here although there are many other suppliers. Experiment with a pva/water mix until it does job. I found 50/50 works for me on slopes. Adding usual drop of washing up liquid helps too. Don’t forget to clean them and flush through several times after use.

Wasn’t that the case where people, despite being warned otherwise, went too close to her but it was she who was deemed to be a danger to the public and so shot? I know in which direction I would have pointed the rifle.

... or they just held on until a lineside fire needed extinguishing.

Fingers? Really? What a genteel set of prefects you must have been.

Yes, Gosforth was a decent club back in simpler times, supplying a few players to the England team. I had a quick chat with Roger Uttley on Carlisle station not that long ago. Because of today's circumstances the team is very much a young team under development. Last Sunday was both figuratively and literally men against boys. Some of the young players show great promise and I just hope that we can hang on to them as they develop. In the meantime it is all pretty painful.