Hesperus

I thought the 9 cars were more or less electric only with a single diesel engine to get them out the way if the wires are down.

5th class Sorry about the terrible picture quality, I really need a new phone!

Our local line used to be a bit dull with 95% of the passenger trains being 175s and most of the freight being 66s. It seems to have plenty of variety at the moment with as many 150s, 153s and 158s as 175s and plenty of 67+MK4 workings but the odd 197 comes through and we know the situation won't last long before all the variety goes. Freight and specials give a bit of variety. I've not seen a 60 or 70 for ages but 37,43,47,56 and 57 have all come through recently.

A stock delivery passed me yesterday near Shrewsbury with a new TfW unit sandwiched between about 8 old Freightliner bogie coal hoppers. Unfortunately I didn't see the loco at the front or take a picture as I was in the middle of my motorbike CBT. Why they couldn't have just coupled it up behind another 197 is anyone's guess.

I've not seen a layout that looks completely different from anything else for a while but this is one and I can't wait to see more.

Possibly a bit big, I've recently acquired an O gauge example and it's a similar size to a Jinty, I got the impression that J72s were a fair bit smaller. I'll try and get a picture of it with my Terrier if that helps?

Ah, it's back again but not everywhere now. As you can see it makes it quite hard to post a reply. Ps, Thanks for replying so quickly Andy

It was appearing on several pages when browsing on my android phone but has thankfully disappeared at the moment.

Is the "Digitrains gets video" thing a Google ad that the £12 will get rid of? It's one of the most obtrusive ads I've known on any site and makes typing a post really difficult as it won't go away.

Presumably the issue with insurance value is that they'll be written off if the cost of repair is more than they were worth before they crashed. It could cost a lot more than that to build a small batch of new ones.

Mostly Mk3s and a few of NRs yellow mk1s and mk2s on the mainline but didn't a pair rescue the Cornish sleeper once? There's a good few preserved examples now so there's potentially all sorts they could have been dragging around.

I'm certainly not target market as I very rarely buy model railway items new but I welcome this. The current product list seems a bit odd, would perhaps have been better to concentrate on 2 or 3 eras rather than a couple of items from every decade in the last 100 years. I back the shouts for more tank engines but am perhaps a little biased. I've been interested in 00n3 for years so do buy TT stock when I see it and a new source of chassis has got to be a good thing.

I've loved Alphagraphix kits for years and have a few of their wagons running on my layout. They've always been a bit tricky to get hold of between shows though so I'm delighted to find they have a new website. https://www.alphagraphixkits.co.uk/

Covering? Fantastic work as always.

Thank you, it's a lovely place and my kids were born there so it will always be special to me. I've been terrible at getting anything done lately so more work on the really difficult one might not be the best place to start. I do have some nice stiff plastic in stock which might be good for chassis building though and colder weather is always helpful for keeping me nearer the modelling table than the outdoor projects. Your mention of Alphagraphix is well timed, it's reminded me that it's Guildex this weekend so I can get some more :)

All your stock looks fantastic, I stick to a far lower standard but try to keep them consistant. Really need to get on and finish this

It's a great kit, the coaching stock for my imaginary Herefordshire branch started there too but is built to far lower standards.

Trying to move logistics from road to rail and move away from internal combustion engines is going to make HS2 look like kids pocket money. Arguing that things can't be done because there isn't a lock on that door or the DfT were tight last month isn't the start of the problems it's going to cause. I know it's all going to be terrible but I like to think of ways the future might be better. I really shouldn't bother voicing those ideas on here.

While the DfT should be electrifying most of the lines the 769s will run on there are still going to be plenty of lines where a Bi Mode train will be useful, particularly until the wires are up. In hindsight converting 30 year old trains would only have been a good idea if the wires were expected to be up inside 15 years and the companies involved had the skills to have them working out of the box. As we're going to be waiting far longer it's probably best to keep Hitachi's order book full.

My thought would be to lock one or more coach's out of passenger use at off peak times. That way it would encourage operators to use longer trains so peak time travel would be better.

Central Wales is mostly on a SY postcode (centred on Shrewsbury) or LD for Llandrindod Wells. Shrewsbury has a large station with unused platforms and lines heading out to the fringes of SY (Aberystwyth) and straight down to Llandrindod Wells, Cardiff and Chester. I really think this can be done but train interiors might need a rethink to allow passenger stock to carry large amounts of parcels in the aisles at quieter times of day.

The biggest waste of energy in parcel delivery is all the competing companies. It's probably not as noticeable in towns as they are dropping off a lot of packages close together but at my little hamlet of a couple of dozen houses, a mile or so from the main road you can see the silliness of 8 different vans driving up here most days to drop off one or two packages each. I try to minimise this by getting most things sent to my workplace (also because I'm usually out). I'm not convinced that HGVs will work well on battery power so I can see a lot of freight heading back to the railways if investment is available and staff willing to work in different ways. To pick up on the out of town hubs that @lanchester mentioned above. If a city has a ring road it's fairly likely to pass the railway line at some point so could theoretically be rail served. I wonder about trains of small containers that could slide off onto electric vans for local delivery. Whatever it is would ideally be able to be unloaded safely under 25KV as that will need to be on most of the network if we can't have diesel. Sorry to leave an extra tag, I can't find a way of deleting it. Or writing anything after it. @lanchester

23 years ago I stepped off a plane from Dublin at Teeside airport and needed to get back to Durham. I walked to the station following the roadsigns and crossed the footbridge to the boarded up station building. Helpfully there was a phone to rail enquiries which I used to ask when the next train was due. This caused some confusion as the operator wasn't aware of a station there and enquired if I was sure I wasn't at Newcastle airport? Aye pretty sure as that's a Metro station so wouldn't have this phone. I ended up walking back to the airport to catch a bus.

If you had the top side of that plan as the viewing side then the scenic break would be a lot easier to arrange and you would have much easier fiddle yard access.

Looks good but I think you should carefully measure the rolling stock you intend to use as 13" doesn't seem much if you're running passenger trains.