SouthernMafia

Add the North Cots line to that, every day there seems to be a safety inspection of a bump or kink reported. And Charfield area has cropped up a number of times lately too. I travel on IETs every day and find them very pleasant to ride on. Yes the seats are hard but as Simon says a huge improvement over an HST, especially the legroom which matters at 6' 3". I had an HST from Swindon to Reading last week and the ride quality was just as you describe it for an IET as above! IETs are much smoother, certainly the one I'm on now is.

I believe the plan was to split it down the middle, so both franchises would have IET London services, one via Swindon encompassing Taunton/Bristol/South Wales/North Cots and LTV services, the other via The B&H encompassing Penzance/Plymouth/Exeter/Westbury/Bedwyns and what was Wessex Trains in the SW. It would have opened up some competition, particularly from Exeter and Bristol, but how that works in reality on a congested 4 track between Reading and Paddington is...well it probably doesn't.

Work has started at Swindon Cocklebury to electrify the sidings in preparation for 387 stabling in January. Looks to be some track replacement which is sensible as most of it is bullhead and covered in grass. Masts are up already! 4 sidings are being utilised, the ones next to the training area.

Have to agree, always said your colours are spot on Mike. Can you elaborate a bit more on how you achieved the colours for the tarmac?

Seems the problem of the siding length at Bedwyn is to be sorted soon as GWR are planning on running 5-car IETs on all Bedwyn services from January 2019. Not sure on what is being done in regards to the footpath/siding length.

Reading this thread just after reading the SWR woes thread which states there is not enough power to run the intended SWR timetable, surely its not a surprise this has died since another operator adding more trains will make the lack of power issue even worse. Granted a few extra trains from Alliance could probably be accommodated but saying Alliance can run trains and SWR can't is probably a political headache for someone?

Chipped mine today, what a these 70s are.The only way to keep the screws in is to work on it upside down, including installing the chip. Otherwise they're very difficult to get back in. Then the lighting bits pop out, also a pain to get back in. I notice there is a full set of LEDs in there for both day and night time running, no switch on the bottom to change them. Will a new Bachmann 36-557 do something snazzy or is some rewiring of the lighting circuitry required?

There is a small possibility that the OP is being sarcastic.... People seem to keep asking Hattons to announce every livery/variation of 66 that's ever made before the model is here. Give them a chance to actually get the first releases done! We are spoilt for choice with so many announced to begin with as it is, I'm sure the more unique locos will be produced in due course.

Nice looking project Ian, I too have been planning a similar type layout in my head for years, always thought a single level layout was a waste of one side and it would be nice to have a fiddle yard under the layout. Look forward to seeing this develop

I'm now querying whether it wore both shades. This picture shows a blue more similar to the blue on the Mk2s in your 47 photograph at Worting https://goo.gl/images/SJSRMa Whereas this image shows a darker blue closer to the model https://goo.gl/images/CDbxxh I know the paint will have faded over time which will have made the blue lighter, but I still think the Dapol image is a bit too dark.

Not sure on the shade of NSE blue here, is it too dark? Flickr etc shows the loco very differently. The SWT looks good to me. I have absolutely no need for a Southern one but it does look rather nice!

My not very good videoing skills have been combined with my not very good editing skills to provide an alight short clip of some trains running round Oak Road at Brockenhurst.

I understand Didcot Parkway - Wantage Road OLE is now live although not commissioned for use yet. Wantage Road to Wootten Bassett Jnc is "within the next few weeks".

I just about managed to get 31454 into a reasonable state in time for the Brockenhurst show, where it ran well in TnT formation with 31452 and 5 Mk2s, it even pushed the set round Mikes layout! Things to finish off: - source blue stars for front - repaint roof correct darker grey (or at least tone it down with some washes) - source laserglaze glazing - the factory stuff never goes back in properly after a repaint - source nameplates - despite constant nagging when I see him, Brian at Shawplan still hasn't made them! - add sound - potentially looking at my first EM2 to go into 31452, which has had its motor removed, with a normal speaker in 31454. - finish weathering You'll note the pictures are all of the same side, we won't talk about the other side....! Some work on the transfers to do.

My thanks to Mike for having me on the Sunday and allowing me to run some of my stock. Portland being end-to-end and no space for a roudy-roudy at home means trains don't often get a good run! A few terrible pictures but they certainly looked good on what is an excellent looking layout. Ex-Virgin and now with Freightliner 47848 passes Oak Road with some Ford Transits from Southampton. 31454 arrives at Oak Road with a Bristol-Weymouth local hauled special 47835 awaits the right away at Oak Road with a diverted Virgin Cross Country service 47835 awaits the right away at Oak Road with a diverted Virgin Cross Country service 31454 returns to Oak Road with a Weymouh-Bristol service. 31452 is on the rear.

I was pushing the Mrs for Intercity livered decor but this will have to do!

Funny what you can find lurking in kitchen cupboards...

I've got 3 31s, the last of which will be the pink one, but will need the headlight moving. This will be 31454. I might try Temeraire's method of spraying the orange line on first and masking it next time!

Well that's on the other end ! I went to run the chassis in last night on our club layout and the decoder blew! Good job that didn't happen at the weekend.

Portland: nothing changed. Stock: as usual a rush to the finish post with a show at the weekend! I'm helping out on the excellent Oak Road and felt some early 2000s trains were in order. If you know the area (Castle Cary) you'll know this train, orange lining has been finished on the loco (I hate orange lines) and hopefully it will be varnished in time for Saturday ! No, it's not the pink one! (Not this one anyway...) Some more Virgin Mk2s also arrived this week for the diverted Cross Country. Looking forward to giving them a run at the weekend.

Despite the lack of updates on here things have been progressing well on Redbridge, with focus on completing the mammoth task of creating Southampton Water. It's a slow job but will look great when finished. We are using the method as detailed in this video: We are also close to having a fully operational layout after the Control gremlins have been conquered and we are testing a variety of more interesting routes rather than roundy-roundy. We hope to have trains running via the Romsey line for our next outing, something we couldn't achieve in time for Brockenhurst this time last year. Speaking of next outing, we have the privilege of taking Redbridge to the Southampton show in 2019, about as local as we can get! We are looking forward to being able to show off the layout to punters from the local area who I'm sure will recognise the location and operations we have tried to capture. In the meantime, my latest addition to my fleet had yet to have a good run, so out it came for a session on Redbridge.

Kernow newsletter reports another run of the HIAs, due Q3. Good news.

The line is "passenger research has shown people prefer refreshments to come to them. They don't want to have to leave their seat and personal belongings unattended, walking potentially from one end of the train to another" Plus in this day and age of security, less unattended items is a good thing. Not sure how many times you need a trolley to come past you but in my experience of travelling 800 style (which is most days between Swindon and Reading), the trolley passes at least once. And being 2 x 5-car (if the other is in use ) it comes back much quicker than if it were a 9. First world problems and all.

Cocklebury sidings are being electrified and 387s will be stabling as mentioned above. Mainly due to the fact GWR lose access to Maidenhead CS when Crossrail starts, and Reading TCD won't be able to cope with the additional units. No plans as yet for any in service West of Didcot (I was just suggesting what could happen one day) - mainly down to the DOO agreements ending at Didcot, and so they will need a guard to go in service past Didcot. Unless this is revised it won't happen, £££££

How about they demolish the bridge, but to soften the blow rebuild Steventon station first, providing public transport links for all these new houses being built and the local community. It could also act as a nice Parkway for, um, Didcot Parkway. Whilst you're there with 387s going to Swindon for stabling later this year, why not rebuild Wantage station too and you've got yourselves a nice new service into London and a reason to knock out the Didcot and Reading stops on long distance services.