Pete the Elaner

Nuclear flasks are a good call. I seem to remember a pair of RF 31s on this though Colchester in the late 80s with what looked like standard HEAs as barrier vehicles. I don't have any photos & being 30 years ago, I would not argue about being correct.

Tipton, W Mids.

A little more information about what you want from it will be helpful. What made you choose DCC in the first place? You have not mentioned what scale you are using. Larger models can require more current, but most basic or starter systems will provide enough for anything up to & including O gauge.

I gave up with desktop icons & disabled them years ago. (Right-click, view, uncheck Show Desktop). There are better alternatives to do everything; typically the start menu. I prefer this because it always opens on top of anything running. I cannot remember the last time I minimised anything.

On a similar note, I had a chat with Ben at Crewe about the forthcoming O gauge class 50. I had similar concerns over the front windows for this. I was impressed with Ben's enthusiasm & attitude for attention to detail. I am sure he will put the same into a new OO 47.

I felt the stereotypical sky blue was too blue, so my walls & ceiling are blue-ish grey colour. I also replaced the standard bedroom light with a double fluorescent & changed the tubes for daylight ones. Every other room seems dim & shadowy by comparison.

Anything, model or not, is only worth what someone is prepared to pay. If others are prepared to pay more, then surely this is the going rate?

It makes me wonder how many modellers stick strictly to 'I won't buy it if it looks wrong on my layout' & how many buy to run under rule 1?

The same is true for most hobbies; we buy most things because we want to, not because we need to. Some of my cycling friends have replaced their bikes recently because they wanted something new, but there was nothing wrong with their old ones. In the last year, I have replaced my handlebars, stem, bar tape, wheels, tyres & innertubes without there being anything wrong with the old ones. The only thing I did 'need' to replace was my helmet. The old one took a whack when I slid on some ice & it is recommended to dispose of them after 1 such impact even if, like mine, it looks undamaged. As newbryford said, we don't need model railways at all, so every purchase for the hobby is a want not a need.

Do Heljan need them? More features are more potential faults, which could cause more returns. It is hypothetical anyway. It was Clive who accidentally started this by suggesting the shutters could be modelled open. Whether Heljan do it or even consider it will be their decision.

If you want 'DCC toys' then you should consider using DCC. Things like this work poorly otherwise (sound has been tried but worked poorly, lights go out when the train stops...etc). If you don't want DCC, then accept that you won't have access to 'DCC toys'.

That was before the wires went all the way to Norwich. Bachmann's model is a lot later than this. I only ever remember seeing it in place of an unavailable 86, or hanging around Colchester waiting for it to be required as a rescue loco.

Some modellers have been asking for more controllable lighting. Now we have it, the old-standard 4 function decoders are not sufficient. Be careful what you wish for!

I completely agree with you about that. When the service boards show 'good service on all lines' I always think to myself that there is no such thing on the Circle.

They are fiddling with Euston's Underground at the moment. Escalators are being refurbished 1 at a time, which is worsening congestion. The lifts & stairs are slightly off from the SW corner of the concourse, but not too far. The main exit from the Northern & Victoria lines are close to Euston BR & until recently the escalators delivered you nice & centrally onto the main concourse, with a clear view of the departure screens when you emerged. They have recently changed this so the escalators deliver you to an exit on the outside (south) face of Euston. The shortest way to get back to the concourse is to turn left then head back in, but you get a rubbish view of the departure screens. It makes little difference if your train is at platform 12-18 because you have to walk across the concourse anyway but if it is at 1-7, you have to wade through the crowd to see what platform it is then back out again. I hope this new external exit is temporary! It still works better than most of the other bigger London termini (exception being Liverpool St) but not as well as it did 6 months ago.

I used to do Paddington-Euston as part of my commute & learned to treat the Circle/H&C very much as a last resort. Trains are not very frequent by Underground terms & I could easily be waiting 10 minutes at Paddington. They then wait at Edgware Road for what seems like ages. They do a crew change there & then continue to hold the train until the next District Line train arrives. There is then another wait at Baker Street for a West/Northbound Met to crossover the line in front of you. Then as you mention, the walk from Euston Square, which I am sure is only there because the Met had some sort of feud with the London & Birmingham railway, otherwise the exit at Euston Square would be at the opposite end of the station. It may seem like these delays would not always happen to every train, but they usually did. An alternative would be to take the Bakerloo to Oxford Circus then the Victoria to Euston. It may be 7 stops & a change but the services are frequent & neither line hangs around. It may seem like a less direct route but it is quicker than the Circle/H&C.

Yes, but depending on the design, it may take 18-24 months to change the design of the car if required. We were talking about Kubica, who was signed mid-late last year?

For me too. How often do you see a real station in the middle of a field with no way to access it? These are the exceptions & do not make a very interesting model. Most have a method of access (road with a car park, or maybe a cart track depending on your era), especially if you have some kind of goods yard. A station would often be in a town or village so some housing and/or shops around it may give it a purpose. You don't have to model any of these; just somehow infer that they exist. But there is nothing wrong with just wanting to run trains around some track. I don't think the OP had this in mind though.

Not necessarily. Cars can take several years to design. If you watch the Gordon Murray documentary, when he arrived at McLaren in the early 80s, the engine was a fraction too tall to work with what he had in mind & as a result, the car was not competitive. It took a year to get this changed & it transformed the car. That was an engine. You can't do anything with a driver. IIRC Kubica was not signed until late last summer, which is pretty late in the design process of an F1 car. Who knows what went on at Didcot? It could well have been that some of the designers were very frustrated with compromises which needed to be made to fit him in...& these would likely not have been involved with any choice about which driver to sign. That is all hypothetical. It could just be that Kubica is not the driver he was. I remember hearing last season that he has permanently lost some movement in one of his arms. Surely that must be a problem? My guess is that he brings lots of Zlotys with him to the team.

It is not always that simple. McLaren struggled to fit Mansell in their car. Their car was not so good at the time. Was this because they compromised in other areas in order to fit him? Within the tight margins of F1, a few mm can make the difference between winning & coming 5th. I wonder if a team has ever refused to sign someone because they were too tall for the car?

If you look just as Verstappen's line out of the corner, you would not wonder why he went so wide. You would simply accept that he took the racing line. If there was a barrier around the outside of the corner, LeClerc would have backed off, conceding that he lost the turn. He had already been beaten into the corner & was well wide of the apex because Verstappen was there. I don't blame LeClerc for continuing to battle for the place. He would not be a top driver if he didn't. It was a battle he was never going to win though. I agree about Lando. He did very well to qualify as high as he did in the first place & he defended well without being dangerous.

The cars have to perform across a variety of circuits & conditions. Cooling was Mercedes achilles heel this weekend. Cooling adds drag but aero has been their strong suit so far this season, so we may see also them struggle in the heat of Abu Dhabi & the altitude of Mexico. I would not be surprised if they are already working on different components to address this though. I was also surprised by the pundits being surprised that Ferrari was strong this weekend. The Red Bull Ring has 2 very long straights; 1 after the other, so surely this favours a car with a powerful engine & good top speed? This is exactly what the Ferrari has had all year, so this track should have suited them.

& as for the Verstappen/LeClerc incident... Pundits were comparing it to the Hamilton/Vettel incident in Canada, but I think it was totally different. Vettel was penalised for "re-entering the track in an un-safe manner". Verstappen never left the track. Verstappen took the racing line. If there would have been a barrier on the outside, LeClerc would have backed off & . LeClerc actually conceded the corner well before this point. He entered it wide because Verstappen was already there on the inside. Sometimes you have to go for things but they don't work out. There was 1 corner (turn 8 I think) which was a small chicane which it looked like every driver cut on every lap. Why have it there at all if you allow it to be cut all the time? If they are not going to enforce track limits here, they may as well have asked for the corner to be removed or paint the track limit a bit further out.

You should know better than to judge anything from P1's times.

He will not sign for Ferrari if he wants to win the championship. I am always quite shocked when media suggests drivers move to Ferrari with the ambition to win. Some Ferrari history: Their first foreign 'leader' was Jean Todt in 1993, who spent several years rebuilding the team. It took 7 years to win a world driver's championship with Ferrari, key signings being Michael Schumacher & Ross Brawn. He left in 2008, which was their last driver's championship. If you take away his influence, Ferrari have not won a driver's world title since 1979 & have consistently been the 2nd or 3rd best team. They signed Todt because they saw him as the best leader & who can argue with his record there. Before & after, they have been patriotic & signed the best Italian. So why would anyone who has genuine ambitions of being a world champion want to sign for them? They pay the most wages but don't win world titles.