class26

............and the final page 

1894392474_Corrour4.pdf

Here`s the promised article from April 2008 Railway Modeller. 

Hope it`s useful 

Corrour 1.pdf 689972801_Corrour2.pdf 1791208863_Corrour3.pdf

I have an article from a 2008 edition of Railway Modeller  which I will scan and send shortly.

Interesting to see in the above video that new speed limits on the approach to the Cross are in place, can be seen at 20.32 and seem to be in use. Compare at 11.30 , 18.15, 19.30 or 21.50 to the usual very cautious approach or departure. Wonder how much time this will save ?

8 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

Static heather!? Good luck with it and I’ll be curious to see how you get on. What will you use? The backscene really had made quite a difference. I’m really looking forward to following your build. You have made a really promising start. Really looks the part. 

I should say I am totally new to static grass having never used it before so it is going to be a big learning curve and no doubt a few mistakes on the way. I will probably make a small diorama first to experiment with various techniques before letting loose on the main layout.

I have previously bought some heather tufts but you do not get much for your money and  I will need vast amounts requiring a second mortgage no doubt so I need to find an alternate solution to represent heather .    

Also time to give the Forsinard side of the layout some attention.  

Back scenes now mounted , a few photos below. The next job will be the apply static grass to blend in with the back scenes. Not sure anyone does heather static grass though !  

I would add to the point debate try the new Bullhead Unifrog points,  Yes, they are more expensive but you will never have a stalling loco and the appearance of the bullhead track is far better than what Peco offered before.  If you can, as Keith above says design you plan to use less points you will keep the cost down and maybe the layout will be visually more satisfying due to the more realistic track. I have never regretted making the change

3 minutes ago, Roy Langridge said:

 

Only 2 years 5 months since confirmed (not 3 years) and I think you will not have failed to notice that there has been quite an unprecedented event for the past 15 months or so that has delayed quite a few projects by many manufacturers... SLW have said this impacted them. 

 

You seem to be rather putting the boot in? I voted for a headcode 24 in April 2017, I don't feel the need to moan about the wait, nor by cynical about the 25. If you are that desperate, buy the Bachmann version?

 

If you want quality wait a bit more, it will be worthwhile.

Roy

Exactly, and let`s remember how long it Bachmann to release the 24/1`s. It was more like 6 years if my memory serves me right between announcement and being available

8 hours ago, 96701 said:

I'm seeing all this froth over Class 25s, I'm still hoping that I might see the Class 24 that I ordered way back in October 2018. I appreciate SLW is a very small company, but I have been waiting a very long time since the Scottish versions with headcodes were announced.

They will be available towards the end of 2021

On 26/03/2021 at 09:00, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

and still no plan to reach Leicester, Derby, Nottingham or Sheffield. 

 

Pathetic.

If you read April`s "Modern Railways" work is now starting on continuation of electrification through to Sheffield. It is divided into 8 sections and work has started to develop the cases for each. 

2 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

Which is why a separate rail body is needed to manage it. The problem with politics is ideology - if, back in '92 BR had been required to start contracting out services the process could have been managed much more strategically but back then the political footballs were big, privatised utilities such as BT and British Gas (anyone remember Cedric the Pig?). So, much in the same that Brexit became ideological, the shout went up that privatisation must mean privatisation, with BR smashed into a million pieces and the contracts awarded to cuddly plucky local operators. Of course this was never going to be sustainable which is why the only people who could end up affording the franchising game were conglomerates (in many cases backed by other states). Meanwhile, like a supertanker slowly drifting, the long term strategic management capability of the industry has been lost. The DfT cannot fulfil this role, and bizarrely they assume that TOCs can do it even though both operationally and under Competition Law it is not possible to fill that strategic gap. The long delayed Williams (Shapps) review and White Paper is likely to point in this direction.

Meanwhile, there is a whole generation out there who seem to think that by magically making something publicly owned it becomes well run. It doesn't matter who owns it provided it is properly structured, managed and capitalised.

As for those people that think public ownership means lower fares, higher wages, a better service, well that's what happens when the majority of the population was born after the 1970s..... 

Off topic buy the British Gas privatisation was "remember to tell Sid"

Also dissappointed that Helmsdale is not proceeding but I fully understand your concerns. I was surprised how much space my Forsinard station takes. Having a shed 24 feet in length I thought that would be more than enough but in reality it just about fits allowing trains of a maximum 6 mk 1`s  and curves of a reasonable radius at either end of the station. 

In addition to Ben Alder`s points above regarding Thurso it has a very convenient bridge at the station entrance which is perfect for a scenic break whereas Wick just continues into open countryside.  

20 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Skeggy isn’t one of the possible locations of the ‘free ports’ that HMG thinks are going to revive the economy in coastal areas, is it?

Skegness isn`t a port . Boston, 20 miles away is but I am not sure if has has been awarded freeport status.

Spoke with Jamie this morning and it seems the Highland 24`s will be out at the end of this year.  

Not much progress over the winter for two reasons. Firstly it was so cold out in the shed despite the heating and secondly waiting for Peco to send me the long awaited bullhead points, track and joiners 

Now the weather has improved and Peco has obliged work can re commence. 

The other reason preventing work over the winter was my mulling over the location of Thurso. About 6 months ago and up thread it was located along the window side of the shed and led straight out into the Flow country section. Well, I was never totally happy with this as I had always envisaged the Flow Country taking the entire one length of the shed. For those not familiar with the Flow Country it is a vast area of peat bogland, (in fact the largest in Europe,) fairly flat and in its own way very beautiful but desolate with few trees and I always felt it needed lots of space to do it justice.  Squeezing in Thurso meant loosing about 40% of this side and as I mulled this over winter I hit on the idea of relocating Thurso in the central aisle thus giving back to the Flow section the entire length of the shed. Thanks here to Jools 1959 for his input into the thinking.

It will be a bit of a squeeze with slightly under 2 feet to walk in between the sections but that`ll stop me having that extra slice of cake !  Three new baseboards have been purchased from White Rose and assembled yesterday. Today I have crudely laid out Thurso to get a feel of how it will be. If I am honest it could do with a little extra width but I can`t diet that much !

Here`s a photo of the result and is now waiting for the baseboard supports 

Other photos show parts of the Flow sections where Thurso used to be.  The balance of the layout is now much better I think. 

I am now moving onto the backscenes. Sadly John from Art Printers has sold the business so the option of a him doing a custom made backscene isn`t there anymore. I have found a local printer who will oblige so am now in the process of selecting suitable images. 

39 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

 

Will it (by railway standards) though?

 

Please remember that the future is in cab signalling with no lineside signals. At a stroke that removes a large chunk off the bill and thats before you get to the reduction in staff because of the use of obstacle detectors to monitor levels crossings and automatic route setting etc can bring.

 

While most work being done over the next 5 years is of the conventional type, the whole Southern section of the ECML (Kings Cross to Doncaster) is due to get in Cab ECTS within a decade.

 

Much like Highways England have vowed never to build (or widen) a motorway with hard shoulders ever again (they will all be 'Smart Motorways') its entirely conceivable that NR could similarly issue an edict that all future re-signalling schemes will be done as ECTS.

 

Given the line to Skegness is effectively a stub end branch I could easily see it (and the joint line) be a prime candidate to follow the ECML with ECTS rollout.

I would think given the number of signal boxes still manned on the Skegness line , if they did introduce ECTS there would be large savings in  time.

3 hours ago, great central said:

 

The joint line would make some sense as there's more freight using it now and it could already have the clearances since it was upgraded for freight use.

As you say though the Skegness line is not much more than a very long twig most of the time and would probably need a fair bit of work on bridge clearances. 

It's still mostly manually signalled as well so not even that near any sort of modernisation, signalling alone is going to cost serious money.

Maybe the increased costs of running it after May will improve it's chances?

Maybe intermittent electrification on the Grantham - Skegness section and batteries filling in the gaps ? 

There are 2 road bridges between Allington and Skegness, one just after Firsby plus the Sleaford bypass (A15) west of Sleaford. That one is relatively new and looks to be high enough 

2 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 

On the other hand, Northern Ireland might consider that it would be better off throwing in its lot with Scotland, in which case the argument for such a fixed link become stronger, especially if the UK government has paid for it first.

if Scotland votes for independence it will be totally bankrupt. I haven`t read a single economic forecast saying otherwise. It will make Greece look like a walk in the park so why would N Ireland want to be linked to what will essentially rapidly become a third world country ?

58 minutes ago, Pandora said:

A figure echoing around the corridors of the railway is a  post-Covid reduction in passenger numbers of 40%,  working from home is a real threat to the railway in terms of fare revenue  and supporting revenue from passenger facilities such as rentals of commercial shops in stations, how will such businesses cope with a 40% loss of footfall?. The societal effects of the pandemic are not  to be dismissed.

Perhaps, but this is a 100 year project. Who can say how things will look in 10 years , never mind 100 years ? 

For once this country is taking the long term view, don`t knock it.

7 hours ago, lmsforever said:

What a waste of money  NI needs money spent on communities not ridiculous projects ,get covid sorted ,get the economy back and dont come up with crazy ideas.

Don`t worry, it will never happen 

6 hours ago, DavidCBroad said:

"A boat collided with our signal,"  that ranks right up there with "The wrong kind of snow."

Might be cheaper to relay the track from Meldon Jct to Bere Alston

I would suspect that if the total cost of patching up Dawlish over many years was added up it would be cheaper to build a new line. What is sad is that we all know ultimately a new line will have to be built, this seems like denial. 

I have the same loops on my Heljan 26`and Bachmann 37`s. On my hidden tracks I use 3rd radius curves and do not get derailments now. When first fitted yes, I did get annoying derailments but I experimented and lowered them a little and now all is OK. This means you have to also bend the coupling also to be slightly lower otherwise it just will not couple but a tweak with tweezers does the trick

1 hour ago, Zomboid said:

I could see the Manchester branch being postponed, since phase 1a goes to Crewe anyway (though I don't know how easily the trains could be accommodated from there to Manchester via the existing lines), but the benefits to the MML and ECML would make the eastern leg arguably a better investment.

 

But as you say, those kind of decisions have all sorts of politics attached, so who knows.

I think there is no way the manchester leg will get postponed. Burnham would be screaming blue murder as would every other northern politician and the NPR would be severally compromised also if not made impossible. If the Tories were to postpone they would be toast and Labour will not as they are desperate to claw back the north.