Pandora

A tale from the mess room is that during a electrification scheme long since completed, when a pile drilling needed an extra bit of work, they would attach a strap around a labourers ankles and crane him down the hole head first, the tale includes the demise of one such unfortunate.

From the Mk 1 coaching stock, the type of wood for the interior fittings and that engraved plate would be found above the vestibule door?

The message from the new Hornby Chair and discounting may be aimed at concerns by retailers. In the past retailers have taken up warehouse clearance stock pushed out by Hornby as discount runs , who them find Hornby have made further online discounts leaving brick and mortar retailers with over-stocked shelves and non-competitive prices

I recall a mangled pantograph unit in long-term residence in the Up Cess near Continental Junction on the road towards Ashford. There was a rather fetching witness mark of the pantograph head in the concrete facing of the tunnel arch where the said pantograph met an untimely demise. I never had any such issues with the Giraffe on my Triang trainset

Note the rare sight of one of those elusive On-Track Machines tamping the Down Fast, a plain-line Tamper possibly by Plasser & Theurer

The population of Greater London fell from the end of WW2 until the mid 80's, the low point was around 6.7 million around 1985, in 2017 the population is around 8.8 million, more than 30% growth, to provide transport infrastructure for such expansion consumes a lot of funds. Can anyone name other cities which have seen such major changes in population demographics?

Too bland and unimaginative for what is the most advanced passenger train in service in Britain by a British manufacturer, Mett-Cammell, and I wish we could have lots of different liveries for the fleet just to break up the monotony of the railway scene. Let us have liveries which say "Pace and Grace"

Fuel cells are simple? I wish that were true. they are one of the most temperamental devices you can name. They cost a fortune to manufacture, fail to restart, they "backfire", deteriorate due to contamination from pollution of the gases, and hydrogen is very difficult to contain in any vessel, it has the capacity to simply leak past any seal or material you can think of. I do not work with them, but know an physicist / engineer who works in fuel cell R&D.

The tarmac in London may be low-noise for environmental reasons, (we have to sleep) but Londoners breathe toxic air due to transport pollution such as carcinogenic diesel exhaust fumes and illegal toxic Nox levels 3 times WHO levels, thank you VW for your defeat-device "clean diesels"

Here is a link to a table of figures including spend / capita for Uk regions, note it is transport infrastructure so may I assume it is road AND rail projects? It seems London receives 55 % of the entire budget and 9 times the spend / capita for many typical regions £1900 vs £250 https://www.ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/new-transport-figures-reveal-london-gets-1-500-per-head-more-than-the-north-but-north-west-powerhouse-catching-up

Basically not much about our country is done properly and correctly, it is stutter and stumble, stutter and stumble all along the way, take all those census returns we fill in every 10 years, they are a snapshot of the population at a point in time and in theory the numbers can be analysed and extrapolated to predict future requirements for infrastructure to support the population in the mid to long-term , ie we will need X hospitals, y school places Z new houses etc etc. Let us plan and cost the budget here and now. The Jubilee line in London opened in 1999 with a predicted capacity for 30 years of travel growth, the line hit capacity in less than 15 years due to delayed projects such as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000 construction

London is served by fast 125 mph trains for the benefit of medium and long distance commuters, but due to majot congestion, road journeys are slower than the days of teh Edwardian horse and carrriage. I cycle from London to Sidcup ( Invicta models) the 20 mile round trip is faster on a bicycle than a car

Here is a wikipaedia link "zinc pest" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_pest

Good point, I would ditch the casting if I could buy a replacement part, but the main structures of the original blocks show no sign of expansion or failure after 12 years, other than the thin "weak" extensions to the cab area, they are mildly warped as opposed to the severe breaking free/shattering as exampled by images on Rmweb. I think it is worth risking persisting with the fix,as being in my 60s, who or which is most likely to suffer disintegration requiring the fabrication of a certain "shaped-box" , "sized to fit the body"

Thinking through my ideas to salvage my zinc-pested Hornby 31 locos, did not mention before that the body screw pillars in the roof of the shell have split, the bodies can be saved by glueing the cracks and also making reinforcing collars for the pillars from tube or washers. I intend to cut off the ends of the chassis block forward of the cab bulkheads to give a offcuts which includes the metal buffer beam, I think I can trim back the defective metal of the offcut leaving behind only the metal buffer beam which I intend to glue it into the shell.

I have been stripping down my three "zinc-pested" Hornby class 31 diesels today. The bodies shell cracks or splits are below the cab door and can be repaired, a back to back comparison between Lima and Hornby shell is an educational experience, other than the difference in length, (Lima is 3mm shorter) there is little to choose between the two in look and detail

the signalling is also limiting , several long sections of the line signalled with colour light signals on the home/distant TCB principle, the distant signal cannot show a red aspect, only yellow or green, this restricts the capacity of the line

I believe you can buy a replacement chassis casting for around £17 from Hornby and swap the mechanisms over

My R2413 loco ( running number forgotten) disintegrated , but my R2413A BR Blue weathered 31174 running number is not showing any signs of breaking up

Third rail is ( or was) a cheap option to install but very inefficient to maintain, for a typical midweek night shift possession in juiceland of 4 to 4hours 30 minutes, half of those hours will be lost to isolating and making safe the conductor rail and re instatement of the third rail supply. In diesel or 25kV areas the PICOP and ES require only about 30 minutes to erect/ dismantle a possession. The productivity of a juiceland track worker is about one third of non-third rail territory.

After scotching up, applying parking brake, tail lamp up, and throwing the BIS. Put the JUICE PADDLE in the driver's cab window. the last in Juiceland ... not in the Sectional Appendix, but everyone used to do this.

If wikipedia is correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_railway_electrification_in_Great_Britain £4.2 billion allocated from 2012 to fund 7 electrification projects, GWML at 2.8 bn is 400% of budget, I disappointed by the cancellation, but certainly not surprised

For the best models , there isn't a need to pick a name, the model will find it's own name!

This did occur, it was a total surprise to the "St James Bridge" spotters, I missed the sighting but I recall the squabbles over "cribbing" a blue pullman. The most hardened criminals had cribbed D600/D601 and DS1173 at Doncaster works, I cannot recall the year possibly 1964. ps I think run made the front cover of either Railway Magazine or Railway World the same year