Pete the Elaner

14 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

 

Not sure how a frog juicer prevents a short circuit when you run into a turnout set the wrong way.

From what I have seen you post in the past, I know full well you know how it works, so I guess you are just prompting me to explain?

There will be a short, but the the Frog juicer switches the polarity so quickly to rectify it that the command station safety cut out will not detect the issue & any locos moving and/or making sound will also carry on without any interruption.

I did not like the idea of using one until I operated a layout which used them. They don't expose errors like switching the frog with the point will do.

14 minutes ago, RFS said:

 

So how does this stop the train from derailing on the point?

Doesn't.

But it doesn't stop anything else & that is the idea. If the derailment is in the fiddle yard, anything happening in the scenic section is totally unaffected.

8 minutes ago, peterm1 said:

Yep. I've never found the need to use frog juicers. An answer to a problem that doesn't exist. Tortoise for me every time.

Not quite.

Frog juicers are a solution to cope with operator errors (when you forget to throw a point).

You could argue that the errors are bad operating practise & we all try to avoid them, but they do happen.

Maybe you could consider an alternative to PVA?

Many consider it the 'tried & tested' product for ballasting, but it is a resin wood glue. It is great for gluing wood together, but fixing ballast requires different properties, so why assume it is good for this too?

A resin is a poor product for fixing ballast & PVA reacts with some ballast, leaving it slightly green.

I don't like the names very much. They are cryptic when they could have been more meaningful.

Gospel oak to Barking Line has long been known as the Goblin & likely still will be by locals, so this seemed like an obvious choice.

Some older lines have use names relating to where they run:

Victoria serves Victoria

Piccadilly serves Piccadilly

Bakerloo serves Baker St & Waterloo

Hammersmith & City

I am sure something more meaningful could be though of for each.

Here are a couple more:

Havering Line - Romford to Upminster, both being in the borough of Havering.

Cross Line - Crosses the river & runs to New Cross (I don't like that one so much, but it still means something a lot more obvious than Windrush).

10 hours ago, LNERandBR said:

 

I think it's important for anyone having issues to get in touch with Accurascale as they can then build a wider picture of what is occurring and make improvements if they are needed to future models. People just complaining on Social Media and carrying out home fixes doesn't help them in this case. 

I also think it is impolite to complain in public before giving the supplier a chance to resolve the issue. Most will be keen to sort any problem & be praised for it rather than be criticised.

8 minutes ago, Marcoblanco said:

no sound options left. If Mr Lego is lurking around, can he or others answer; I see that the Lego cav 56 decoder on offer on the website lists functions but only one for fan [?] is this a misprint as surely the fans need 2 functions as separately operated..

It looks like this refers to fan sound only, but what we see as a command function is not necessarily an output function. A single command function can control more than 1 output function.

A good example is the simply turning on the lights with F0 turns on white & red lights at front & rear. This is 4 output functions.

34 minutes ago, Deeps said:

 

One solution to parking in terraced streets would be for the council to compulsorily purchase a block of the houses, demolish them and turn the space into a residents only car park. I should imagine the uproar would be significant, and I doubt the council in question would be too happy at the resultant reduction in council tax income.

 

I live in an area built like that: A cul-de-sac of garages with houses behind them, but, aside from the corner spots, each garage has space for a car in front.

Many households now have 2 cars (including mine) but also most of the residents use their garages for storage, so their second car is....? The area is becoming increasingly untidy & I occasionally find somebody has blocked me in, or parked in the space in front of my garage while I have been out shopping.

2 hours ago, Edwin_m said:

The real crime to me is seeing a model locomotive with tail lamps lit when hauling a train.  Any rail staff seeing this should report it immediately*, because if the train should become divided behind the loco in an Absolute Block area, the next signaller will consider the line as clear on seeing the tail lamp lit.  

 

*I once did so by shouting across to the driver on the avoiding lines at Derby.  He replied that it must have been like that all the way from St Pancras.  Oh well...

DCC users have had the ability to turn off tail lights on the latest D&E models for 4-5 years now, so the model world is getting there.

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

Don't they still sometimes need ballasting to bring them up to the minimum weight requirement though? But I supposed you can choose where to put the ballast for optimum balance, which you can't for paint.

 

I believe that used to be the case, but it was mentioned several times last year that the current regulations (hybrid engines, DRS, bigger wheels, halo, strength to pass crash tests) had made the cars heavier & teams, including Red Bull, were a little overweight.

On 09/02/2024 at 20:04, Steadfast said:

 

Most model tail lamps fail to replicate the distinctive look of the the flash. Once you've noticed it, it makes many models look wrong.

 

I made that observation at the club a while back when somebody brought it a model with a flashing tail lamp. Its flash was more reminiscent of the way a cursor flashes than the very quick 'on pulse' of a tail lamp.

Making a circuit board small enough is beyond my capabilities & resources but I am sure a manufacturer will oblige before long.

31 minutes ago, Reorte said:

When merging with a 70 mph road I'll be heading for 70 (assuming the road I'm joining is free-flowing), but trying to spot gaps well before I reach the dashed line, which may well entail easing off before I reach 70. It's obviously a bit easier if you're descending rather than going uphill (where you can see the main road earlier), but there's usually plenty of time at most junctions whichever way they go.

 

People who expect others to pull over does annoy me. I'm happy to pull over if there's easy space to do so but it shouldn't be expected - in the same way as when I'm joining I think it's good practice to see merging traffic approaching well before the merge point.

I completely agree.

I always consider junctions below the main carriageway to be upside down. I had not considered visibility but a loaded HGV benefits from a bit of gravity assistance. When you exit the road, you don't really want gravity trying to make you go faster either.

Isn't it a lot easier to adjust your speed if you've built it up quickly then ease back if necessary rather than try to add some speed because you under-estimated how fast the traffic is flowing?
I do try to give joining traffic a bit of space by pulling over but, as you pointed out, this is not always possible.

4 minutes ago, Coldgunner said:

Had someone flash me yesterday. Going along the parkway at 70mph, I was being overtaken and essentially parrallel with another car. Car almost matches my speed and position to try to merge but had to abort as I can't move over.

 

Its their job to slot into my lane I'm under no obligation to slow down. Not my fault they suck at merging (wasn't even that busy), if they just eased off the throttle or even just accelerated harder they'd have been fine.

It is really not that difficult to adjust your speed when entering a dual carriageway either. I am surprised they were doing 70 though. Many seem to limit themselves to 50 then find they need to find an extra 10mph from somewhere.

I would rather accelerate more sharply initially, which gives me time to adjust my speed (usually down) to merge safely. It is one of the few times that accelerating hard is a good thing.

16 minutes ago, Nick C said:

And on a related one - We saw a delivery van while out for our walk at lunchtime, who had just stopped in the middle of the road, between two lines of parked cars. There was a suitable gap he could have parked in no more than two car lengths in front of him, or a church car park a similar distance behind.

A lot of parking is lazy, thoughtless & dangerous.

Near where I used to live, there was a turning with a post office outside which people regularly parked. It is easier to explain with a picture:

The post office is right on a corner. Vehicles parked directly outside make the view virtually non-existent, so there is a layby about 20m away. I was amazed there is a car actually using it in the photo, because most people cannot be bothered to walk for 10-20 seconds to use it. Most people park where the van is. I used to take a route about 1/2 mile longer instead of chancing my luck by sticking my bonnet out of this junction to see if it was safe to pull out.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Thorrington,+Colchester/@51.8402937,1.0386447,84m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x47d911e1d16ccfb1:0xf7d5dae59eeb39e9!8m2!3d51.84049!4d1.026629!16zL20vMGJjZnEx?entry=ttu

29 minutes ago, Wheatley said:

60 thou styrene, 16mm x 10mm with some lines scrawked along one edge 1mm apart ? 

 

Granted the strip of tactiles behind them isn't quite so easy. 

I tried to make coping stones with styrene before.

Even though I tried to be as accurate as possible, they come out very slightly different sizes, which looks very obvious when you try to line them up with each other & I was dissatisfied with the result.

Laser cutting produces them in consistent sizes, but without any relief. When using acrylic, the cut is not perpendicular either. I thought this would make them look acceptable to depict the curved edge, but it did not look right.

16 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

No idea. I think they were moulded. Just things I've seen in magazines that I would skip past as they aren't relevant. 

 

I would look at the scenery manufacturers or someone that sells lots of stuff like that such as Gaugemaster.

 

 

 

Jason

I am pretty sure "3d prints" was a suggestion instead of a remark that 3d printed ones had been seen somewhere.

It is certainly something I had considered because what I have seen commercially available just don't look right to me.

It is exactly the type of thing I bought my 3d printer for.

16 hours ago, 62613 said:

Agreed, but should it happen all the time?

No, but a lot of things happen which shouldn't.

Avoiding an accident is much less hassle than allowing someone else to cause it, then going through the hassle of dealing with a repair.

My first bedroom was within line of sight of the Colchester-Clacton line. 309s appealed to me because they passed through the village non-stop. Very occasionally, I would get to see something which I now know to be a class 37 on what I expect was an engineers' train.

So I really do view a line as being rather naked & incomplete if it does not have OLE.

As I got into my teens, I had a few day trips to London, the class 86s hauled the InterCity services & I discovered there were lots more electric locos over in Euston.

I was always interested to see what was on shed as I passed Stratford, Willesden & Old Oak Common. A trip to Harrow on the main line & return on the DC to see both sides of Willesden (with a walk to Old Oak) was not uncommon.

12 minutes ago, 62613 said:

Happens all the time near our house. We have a situation where two residential streets go into a sort of approach road from the main through road. It forms the stalk of a 'T' with them both. I have, on a number of occasions, watched cars turning right onto the stalk either completely on the wrong side of the road (with no cars coming the other way - can no - one turn right properly?), swerving to get back into the correct lane when they see me approaching either junction, beckoning me out when I'm turning right at either junction, or looking nonplussed when I just exercise my right of way when turning right.

Cutting corners happens all the time, but for a driver to do it then claiming they were not at fault is rather outrageous.

1 hour ago, peanuts said:

has the highway code changed in regards to right turns ? 

one of our company vans was hit yesterday just between the passenger door and the front wing by an idiot turning right onto the road he was just coming upto the give way line on .managed to push the fully loaded renault traffic 3feet sideways and wreck the skoda Octavia he was driving but he wasnt speeding and is insisting the bump was not his fault . we have the whole thing on cctv so he doesent have a leg to stand on .

Am I interpreting this correctly?

The Skoda driver cut the corner but claimed it your van's fault for being too close to the give way line (but on their side of the road).

2 hours ago, Mark G said:

The annoying thing is that the whole project is being delayed by adding sound to the ones that have ordered sound ones, i havnt so why cant they sent these out to save us waiting any further. Date now is quoted as quarter 3 2024...come on!!!

It is not only being delayed by the sound recording. There is something else which affects all models.

18 minutes ago, No Decorum said:

We face delays to new projects for all sorts of reasons, many unforeseen. I would respectfully suggest that taking the time to add sound (and provide for remote control of the panto) is one of the best reasons.

Their existing BW pan on the class 92 operates, but you are nearly correct.

I was told at Warley by a member of Accurascale's staff that they felt the 92 pantograph does not park low enough.

They feel they can improve on this but the re-design has forced them to delay its release.

1 hour ago, Chris M said:

Last time I tried to book a number of rooms the price went up because the hotel was so busy. It was only busy because I was about to book a lot of rooms. I thought a block booking would make it cheaper rather than more expensive. Haven’t used that hotel again.

True. The price does not always go down when rooms are bulk booked.

I used to be involved with snooker & players were encouraged to book through the organisation, which had blocked booked rooms. They discovered that it was cheaper to book their own rooms directly.

Wasn't Horner's hearing supposed to be today?

I guess that if we don't hear anything, it was just another nonsense story from the media.

Peco have a much bigger range than Hornby too.

Streamline is much better looking. Not just a better six foot but a choice of different radii points & they also do steel & concrete sleeper track. An HST or class 87 looks silly pulling a rake of Mk3s on a main line layout with nothing but wooden sleepers, but Hornby don't provide any other choice. Flexi track is a slightly different mind set, but I would not use anything else now & Hornby make this too.

Electrofrog is another discussion. For those willing to do a bit of extra work wiring, these are much more reliable than Hornby or Setrack (which are both insulfrog).

3 hours ago, 2750Papyrus said:

it would be good to re-establish a regular and reliable Bletchley-Bedford service using the existing infrastructure against which the possible alternative future improvements could be debated.  

There seems to be little chance of that with the current ToC. They do not seem interested in running trains on the line, with many current services being replaced by buses.