Suzie

Taps available here:- http://pandhmodels.com/category.php?id_category=36 Just cannot remember which one it is!

The Kadee screw is excellent for screwing the draft boxes under the chassis. Use the Kadee drill and tap (which I think are supplied in the starter kit) to make the hole which can be blind if required, and cut the plastic screw down to the correct length. No need for nuts and bolts. If the chassis can be removed from the body it is possible to fix the Kadee in place with the screw in a tapped hole and cut it flush for a much quicker installation on an open wagon.

You could replace the microswitch in my super economy example above with a single frog juicer but you would still have the reliability issues.

All you need is a double pole switch that works in conjunction with the point. PL15 is designed to attach to a Peco PL10 motor and is not ideally suited otherwise. If you are being super-economy (less than £1) you can use the point's switch rails as one pole and just add a lever type microswitch that bears on the end of the tiebar for the other pole - but no one would recommend that method as it is less than reliable. Two microswitches will be OK! Using a double pole slide switch as a point actuator is quite popular and that will give you all the switching you need for not a lot of money. If your points are motorised it is easy to add a switch to motors that do not have a switch (many like Tortoise do have switches built in) and many decoders come with switches built in too (like ESU Switchpilot with extension) to make it all very easy. It is very unlikely that you will need to go to the expense of a reverse loop module (a dual frog juicer is pretty much the same thing in this context) with all the pitfalls that using one can entail. Design your layout with a reverse loop and there should be a simple low cost wiring solution for it as long as you can arrange for the switch on the point. If you cannot have a switch then you will need to budget for an auto reverse module, and bear in mind that you will probably be disappointed with some of the cheaper offerings.

Most layouts do not need an auto-reverse module to control the polarity of the reverse loop, it can be done simply with a switch (like a Peco PL15 for example) attached to the point that controls entry to the reverse loop. Do you have a track plan of what you want to do yet?

Something tells me that the Sutton to Wimbledon line would be a lot busier if it were an extension of the Northern line, capturing all the passengers who take a bus to Morden instead of taking the train. Realistically the Northern line does not have any interchange with anything other than buses in that area. Perhaps then Portsmouth might be a southern terminus for Thameslink via Sutton, reflecting Brighton on the other branch with Thameslink trains via Wimbledon going to Guildford. It would be sad to see another loss of heavy rail in the area with the direct service from Wimbledon to Croydon going over to tram already, but if passenger numbers are low...

Sutton could have become an interesting 'What might have been' to model, a bit like Ealing Broadway with Northern Line tube and District Line sub-surface terminating there but with the added fun of the Croydon and Epsom Downs lines too. It is a good job it got finished before the war or it might have not survived the 'New works' post war cull. I would not be surprised if Boris nabs it for a Northern Line extension at some point as part of giving the Northern line a better southern interchange at Wimbledon with his trams. The article mentions that the line was not very busy, but I have had cause to use it quite a few times.

I have had a play with an SC1 + DP8 and it is possible to configure the SC1 + DP8 combination for four signals with any mix of 2-aspect colour lights and Dapol semaphores with a bit of imaginative wiring. The SC1 keeps track of the synchronisation well and queues up commands if you send them too quickly for the mechanism. Synchronisation is maintained even during power off and a synch button is provided for emergencies. All the Dapol signal wiring goes to the DP8 adaptor where it provides the pulse on the yellow wires and the power too if you don't have 16V AC available (can be derived from the track or DC).

If you are planning on having more than two signals the Signalist SC1+DP8 combination will save you money, and it can power the Dapol signals from the track supply to make wiring easier.

The meaning of language changes with time, it happens all over. There is now discussion in the art world that 'Avant garde' no longer means looking forward but is an actual era from some time in the past. It has gone from being a description to being an entity merely by the passage of time. The words have not changed but the meaning has. Anyone describing their art nowadays as avant garde is going to be immediately dismissed as old hat regardless of how the phrase translates literally. In the same way modern image has gone from being a phrase encompassing anything that was not the tedium of ancient history at a time when I was younger and ancient history was anything over ten years old, to being a phrase describing in my mind the British Railways modernisation (1955) to BR blue era (1980ish) mainly used by those old enough to remember the earliest part. Like the grouping era it has a timespan of around twenty five years. The sectorisation and privatisation which followed was such a marked change in attitude and appearance that it is hard to be able to describe it using a term which has already become dated but was still describing the current in 1980. As well as the language, how people use it and context says more about the people using the term than the term actually means in most cases. I know that my published in Railway Modeller brother in law will use the term only in a derogatory sense to mean anything that is not a GW BLT, and I know people who are a little ignorant of history who will use it to describe anything without outside cylinders, but I know who they are and what they mean. When the words are written down and read by a wider audience the context becomes less clear, and perhaps its use needs to be considered very carefully.

The smallest connector you can use is probably the 1mm pitch JST connectors from Farnell. The system consists of sockets that are designed for PCB mounting but can be glued down to the tender and soldered to, and housings that take crimp connectors. available in 2-9 ways so can be useful for non-analogue applications too. Those listed above will probably be easier to use though if you have the space.

Or publish a different address for the exhibition to the previous year even though it is at the same venue!

If you cannot do soldering then it is unadvisable to DIY. The savings on doing DIY can make it worth learning, typically you will be looking at decoder costs below £2 per point using the kits or below £1 if you source the parts yourself.

Tortoises take about 6mA each so you need to have quite a lot before you have to worry about loading up the track supply. If cost is an issue I would recommend using DIY decoders.

... Compartments, bench seating, dimmable lighting, buffet car...

It is not unheard of for a hissing noise to ensue when splitting 360s and a unit being failed.

Last time I was on a splitter it was an all stations 12-car 360 split at Colchester Platform 1 with the Clacton portion (front 8-cars) leaving first via Colchester Town, and the Walton portion (back 4-cars) going direct. It was pot luck as to which portion got to Wivenhoe (and all the intermediate stations) first (usually the Walton presumably because the Clacton driver had an 8-car walk when reversing at Colchester Town) but to make sure you got the first bit there was the fast Clacton that got to Wivenhoe before both portions form Colchester Platform 2 leaving between the two parts. A rare opportunity to see the left (No1 position) feather lit on the platform 2 down starter. I have never seen the (No4 position) right feather lit. Now the old searchlight is preserved on the Epping and Ongar perhaps it might light more often! Speaking of searchlights, here are some I photographed at Clacton. Probably the only three mechanical searchlights left in use on Network Rail. The subsidiary discs are motorised, but there are some mechanical ground discs with pull cables, GPLs and a semaphore for good measure if you like variety and even a 3-lens colour light starter on platform 4. Something for everyone.

The bone is a rare beast to see in these parts. So rare that I have never seen one.

The Old Dalby 309s (Sharon and Tracy) lost their intermediate trailers and had a lot of extra equipment added to the cab that went across the gangway, so I guess they had to lose the end doors on the cabs.

No pictures of freightliner livery 90s or the (before my time I hasten to add) 40s yet. Did all the 309s get Essex Express jaffa? I suspect not because I have seen 12-car 309s with Blue/Grey - Essex Express - NSE formations which would suggest that some went straight from Blue/Grey to NSE. All jaffa pictures here so far are of the former 2-car units.

I like the idea of a 1500V DC line to the channel, but surely it would go via Cambridge, Lincoln and Sheffield to the north?

I was thinking that MML would be a good alternative for Felixstowe and Tilbury freight rather than going via either Willesden or Nuneaten.to places further north than the Midlands. If there is no capacity for freight on the southern end of the MML there will be even less on the much more useful and no wider WCML. I find it hard to believe that Sheffield and the East Midlands will generate sufficient passenger traffic when HS2 arrives (serving Nottingham and Derby) to clog up the MML and having better connections north from the East Midlands will be something that HS2 will not provide fully. I don't think high speed on the MML will be that important, it is the connectivity and freight capacity that will make it useful, even if the freight has to go north via Preston rather than via Settle. It does seem strange that a route with the potential of the MML is just truncated at Sheffield just because it is not quite as fast, when for freight that is an advantage not having to interleave with faster services. Leeds is a growing conurbation, so I suspect there could be some justification for infrastructure improvement beyond just a HS2 terminus.

I still don't understand why there is not work being done to utilise the midland main line as a north south corridor. Reinstating it as a link to Manchester and Scotland would relieve a fair bit of freight from the west coast, and with it being electrified as well it should be a popular alternative. It should be possible to get something in place before HS2 is complete and the west coast is already overflowing again due to the reduced capacity caused by all the remaining trains being stoppers.

You are unlikely to find a suitable bridge rectifier, but instead will need to use four diodes like UF4001 to make a bridge. The capacitor should ideally be rated at 35V but size will depend on the lighting load and how good your pickups are.

Don't overlook the No16 which can be very handy on 4-wheel wagons where the NEM pocket has to be discarded due to height issues. Fitting a long shank No46 can require a bit of surgery which can usually be avoided with a No16. It looks like the No16 might be hard to get hold of now, I have not tried the No146 with a No252 box to see how it compares.