Leicester Thumper

Especially when it wasn't unknown for the coupling rods to break in some cases, especially on layouts with curves.

I'm sorry to quote so much of you Mike @The Stationmaster, but I resonate so well with your comments. Regards shunting, as some know I am a current serving member of staff on the national network. As part of my duties at a previous location, I had to be involved with the stabling of units in our platforms overnight. This also facilitated giving handsignals and following RSSB GRT8000 rulebook modules stipulating the required process and distances involved. I agree with Mike, shunting at night could be seen as easier, due to the use of handlamps. In this day and age a good proportion of lamps used in shunting on the national network, and preserved railways, are of a modern LED type lamp. In line with best practice, and keeping a suitable unobstructed line of sight, it's easy to see the handsignals and understand them. In daylight, with the use of hand signals, it could be argued that shunting can be impeded, especially at busy locations, or ones with visual distractions as caused by the environment itself. The "20ft rule" thats quoted here is most interesting, as the 6ft/3ft distances for the mainline hwve not changed in a very long time. This could trigger w possible review of arrangement uk wide, perservation or mainline. Kevin, I will admit I take slight humour in your comment, it often seems to ring very true. I have friends who volunteer at various railways and the "out the woodwork" really holds true to type!! However, that said, whilst the number of volunteers might be better on such occasions, as a mainline operational worker, I can't help but to consider that this sort of scenario could be a hindrance rather than a help. Whilst operations staff will need to be assessed and have a safety and competency record for safety critical duties, each railway will work this in a slightly different way, although they will mandate to the requirements of the RSSB and the ORR. My thoughts are, that if you have volunteers who aren't regular in their tasks, even with assessments, they could potentially make mistakes. True, to err is to be human, but if you have trained skills you have to keep using them to make sure you don't lose them. If that makes sense? I concur, obviously, I will wait for a full or interim RSSB report to come out first before making full judgement etc, but I have my own private thoughts on this and I can't help but think the same. This, right here. If I made a mistake on such a scale at work, I would expect to be held to account in such fashion. Obviously, each incident is unique, no two are the same, but when the statutes of law for health and safety exist, and where there is a comprehensive rulebook mainframe and good guidance readily available to operators and railways, a standard needs to be upheld for the safety of everyone. The number one priority of any rail operation, whether that's a preserved railway, light rail system, national network, anything, is its safe operation. Whenever incidents do happen though, is always an opportunity to learn and progress, and we should all remember that.

Small progress today for about an hour and a bit. Not had much chance this week to do modelling, further complicated by flat hunting to move in with my partner (christ that's stressful). So, I'm going with option B, I have considered all feedback, and many good points were raised, thank you for providing those views. In my heart, I'm being told to for option B, don't know why, but hey, modelling is a part time of happiness, and if I feel happy making the decision, why not? So on that note I ordered another sheet of terraced backs from Sankey Scenics, and have already cut out one of the parts I've needed to complete the second row. the top one, my dad cut out when helping the proof of concept for the backscene. The bottom one is mine and I feel I've done well. I also started trimming up the first layer on the mounting card. This was tricky cutting wise. A Scalpel wouldn't cut it, so I used a snap blade knife and it went through the card lovely. I didn't take photos of every step today, however, I found the core cutting easier with the snap blade, and then I used the scalpel to neaten things up. Mounting board is fibrous in the middle, and the stray strands of fibre can impede the final product. Now I haven't done the whole length yet, as this is both time consuming and focus intensive. Where there s small gap between the factories on the left, I will stick in some brick sheet or a chimney stack over it, so that everything n looks joined up. That's all for today.

Top song that. If you go on YouTube, there's a live version from a festival and it's epic. Sounds amazing.

Being a youngster, I haven't watched a lot of the stuff he starred in. That being said, I've seen the Great escape and, interestingly, I have watched all the colditz episodes, which I thought he was fantastic in. I love that series, the BBC made a good series with sometimes limited budget, and Sir David played a fantastic character. I really must pick up and watch a man from U.N.C.L.E.

Thought I'd conjur up an interesting one for the music lovers. Now music is a far reaching past time and covers various eclectic tastes, genres, moods and even topics. Obviously with RMweb being a forum for all people, I think its safe to say that if you are listening to something with explicit lyrics etc, then just put the title of the song and artist name, rather than a link to it on YouTube, Spotify, etc. I'll kick it off, recently had a binge on early 80s metal music, namely Mercyful Fate's Melissa album. Musically I've just stuck it on repeat as the guitar work and melodies are on point. What's in your play list? Etc

That's a point I forgot to consider. Thanks for pointing that out. I will have a look when I can afford some time to watch. Thank you The only downside I see with that, is on the product page itself, it stipulates it cannot be used with sprung couplings? I know that whilst NEM rapido style aren't technically sprung, surely the resistance could be such that it would prevent the arm from functioning? Funny you said this.... I had a thought that I could have a couple of strategically placed magnet bars mounted in rails underneath the board, with some thick wire as a handle so I could just c slide the bar to where the stock needed uncoupling..... hmmmm.

I'm preliminarily looking into coupling solutions for my micro ish layout (link in description) so that I can draw up costings etc so that I can budget the later stages of my build. In an effort to avoid the "hand of god" (or in my case hand of doom as I have a tendency to knock stock over), I thought I'd look into ways of making shunting hands off, so to speak. I notice that Dapol have the easi shunt system which seems to be very similar to the microtrains style couplings. I have some questions about them to help me in my endeavours. With the easi shunts, they offer long and short arm couplings. As my layout is a straight end to end, I take it I wouldn't need long arm couplings? my assumption here is that the length has more to do with the curvature of the track? easi shunts are magnet operated, and my layout will have confined operations. Permanent magnets might cause me an issue. Would it be possible to use simple electro magnets instead to uncouple stock? I would assume it is, but I thought I would ask. are there any other coupling systems that are just as easy to use? Or is this the best bet? Anyone who uses the easi shunts, how have you got on with them? Some observations have been added in blue. Many thanks

My millionaire uncle left me a stately home in his will I don't know where "Sod hall" is, but I'm sure excited to get it!

And I think B covers all of that quite well. An industrious suburban area, built in Victorian times, with the bendigo of it being Midland region, which could place it in the industrial North, the textiles capitals of the Midlands, or the equally grafting factories of East end London. The wall is nice, even if it's a slight pig to get spot on. Pritt stick was my saviour with that. Admittedly, I don't use the likes of rocket card glue, instead going for cheap and cheerful Pritt stick and Tacky glue from Hobbycraft. Scale model scenery mixed a trick there, if there was a small selection of complementing gates for various uses, that would be the icing on the cake. Possibly.... although I'm growing to like B. I see what you are saying though. Food for thought, nevertheless.

I had wondered about using different backs from the same supplier.

This has crossed my mind, but I feel that it would require editing and use of graphics editors or photoshop (or equivalent), which at this moment I can't as my PC is out of action. Timescale is between circa 1953ish to 1968ish. Going on the fact that station branding would have been consistent at this time, as the corporate image took some time to roll out post 66. Region most likely to be Midland. If you look at my layout thread, link in sig, the station building will be facing the track and will be situated on the left hand side as you look at the front.... .... akin to this. Thanks for replying btw.

I'm interested, any particular reason why? I'm leaning more towards B as I think about it....

Does anyone know of any low relief or ultra low relief station building kits? I'm building essentially a micro layout that's 3ft x 9in in N. The station building will go at the farthest left hand end as you look at the layout. What I am after is a low relief station building that adds physical dimension at a depth of about 20 or 25mm, with a flat texture of the rest of the building behind it. I have looked around and, I have to say, I'm a little disappointed with what I've found so far. Checking the traditional names such as Metcalfe only offer up full relief models, with little in the way of low relief stations. I have looked on scale model scenery, and other vendors of similar nature to no avail. I did find a low relief laser cut wood kit of a station in N on Ebay, however I'm not sure it's of true proportions! Does anyone know of any kits or is this really looking like a scratch build necessity? If the latter, which brands of texture sheets and windows, doors, etc, would people recommend? Many thanks.

OK, had chance today to get a few more hours of head scratching done. So, I finally made a move to mount some of the buildings onto the Daler board which I will be using to make depth. I stuck down the buildings with a good dose of Pritt stick, which did the job perfectly with no fuss. As you can see, I need to trim around the tops of the buildings, the 60mm drop below goes flush down to the bottom ready for the next layer to go on top. I must stress, this mounted part has not been affixed to the back yet, as trimming needs to be done and I need to play with other elements to make sure I get the depth I need. That brings me to my next point rather conveniently.... So, there's two ideas. idea A is a back row of factories with one row of houses. The victorian wall will be in front, with an option to stage the houses from left to right, in order to have a rising embankment, leading to a road overbridge far right as a scenic break to the fiddle yard. Idea B sees a back row of factories, a middle row of houses, and a front row of houses. Again, the victorian wall will be in front and part of these are evident in the shot as an example. The picture has a few houses missing, as I need a few more. Idea B also leaves a chance for an embankment, but one that smaller and thus shallower, which would give some elevated physical relief, without creating an incursion on the already narrow 9inch corridor. The question is which is better? I'm planning towards B, but the simplicity of A might be better.

Quick update time. Not had chance to do much modelling due to my shifts and being occupied with other things (my partner) on my rest days. Bad news, it's another post about building walls. Good news, all the components are made up now, with final gluing together to happen when I'm happy with my backscene arrangements. Iv completed making the walls, and the fiddly coping stones. Now all happily done. so now that is finally done, and I am never building walls again (!), I will lay out the backscene buildings on the board and make measurements relating to their position. When that's done I can move to gluing parts to mounting card and cut them out before final application to the backscene. So, slow progress, but it's getting there.

Yes, your summary is correct. I often speak to the SQR auditor who has stated that my industry employer have their call points set up to be answered by someone in our control center, however, if the call is not answered in 45 seconds it gets diverted to a call centre in India. The issue is the poor blighters in the call centre are just as confused as the punters by the end of it! I agree. CIS systems have a big need for improvements to make them suitable for 21st century requirements. More information integration is required, with an emphasis on detail, to the point people understand what is properly going on, what it is going on, and basic information to assist in getting people on the move. We need that as it is, and that's before any station reforms and de staffing takes place!

It varies by company who you get on the other end of the phone, Mike. I know at some TOCs, the help points are supposed to go through to their control centres, for an actual informed human to answer. If that isn't answered in a certain span of time it gets put through to a call centre (perhaps generic outsourced NRE call centre?) Whereby the quality of information can vary. On this point, I wish to point out that operators conform to a Service Quality Regime, which was introduced some time ago. I know These guys do some, if not all, of the SQR audits, and I wish to point out that a help point not being answered by a company control centre, or customer service team within a short amount of time (its like 30 or 45 seconds) it gets listed as a failure. I know it's not directly related, but it might be interesting for some folk. I have omitted certain detail due to being an employee in the industry, all the information I have given here is publicly available through various means.

One pancake says to the other, "Tell you what mate things seem a bit flat here"

Quick post. Had a very rough sketch, which isn't to scale, of how I wish my station building to potentially look. I know it's a terrible photo of the drawing but bear with, not able to get to the scanner at the moment. I'm having problems envisioning how to build said building. I say build, as so far I haven't found anything RTR or Kit wise which I want to just saw in half and use. So I'm thinking of kitbashing. Now my issue is, and please folks do respond with ideas here as I feel lost, I want it to have a finish like a metcalfe kit. Problem is, if I use metcalfe roof slates and brick textures, where on earth do I get the doors from?!? It's something for me to think over. Things will pick up latter side of the week as I go back into more sociable early turns.

Perhaps I have, but when you work in an industry that's trying to cut your job, you kind of feel the overall picture is endemically broken.... I resonate well with this. I think you hit the nail on the head whereby I failed. The ECML at this point is an enigma of misunderstanding and financial failing. I don't know what it is about that line, it just like to eat franchises! I digress.... Yes, and as a current frontline staff member I can say your fears are fairly founded. I know many of the "Old School", whether management or frontline, and the general gist seems to be the same as your outlook. Originally there was some hope among my colleagues that the GBR plan might be a breath of fresh air, that GBR might be the posterial kick to get things running in order and be better for the workers. Ha... yeah perhaps not! I agree, soon as the civil service is involved it starts going downhill, that being very prevalent for my colleagues and I, considering the ongoing proposals. Back to 68s etc etc been on lates, so only just had the time to respond to Mike.

This is an interesting discussion, and it seems I align with a lot of what's been said this far. I think this situation shows how endemically broken the rail industry is, when it comes to leases and traction training. Its late so I won't go on as brain is a tad frazzled, but as a railway worker myself, albeit station frontline, I have to say this is yet another classic railway c**kup. New stock, actual investment into improvements, should always have an expedient and robust traction trading programme in place. For whatever of the reasons, this wasn't done at TPE. It begs the question, was this situation borne from the lack of handling on part of First group? Was it Covid (less passengers etc thus less stock req'mnt)? Or is this a political situation, whereby we have a government who don't have a clue how to (try to) run the railways? Perhaps its all three? The forward thinking part of me says that really, if any structural issues are sorted with the sets, the fleet would find work elsewhere. Whether that happens or not who knows, but I think political interference will have a lot to weigh in on the matter. Someone mentioned the DaFT wanting to lower the leasing bills, yet another case in point, generally, that the current state of railway affairs is torrid. If its not a proposal to try and reduce costs by rearranging stations, its some other weird and stupid stipulation to try and exert control over an already broken structure. The only way that further instances of the mk5 issues at TPE can be avoided, is of the people in charge get together, have a long hard look in the mirror and say "let's review stock procurement and staff training". Easiest way of sorting out the leasing problem, don't let banks and other large corporations own rolling stock, either the state owns it,or the operators do. If it was the former,the state could lease stock at a far lower cost than the likes of HSBC etc. But what do I know, I'm "just that bloke in a uniform".

Lucky bloke, if he could deposit a blank cheque through my door..... ha Sorry was trying to multi quote but my tablet said no