Karhedron

I think you are right. I wonder where the milk tanker originated. At a guess I assume it came from Appleby which was on the S&C line.

Now there's a good idea! Probably a bit more than a 5600 as the outside valve-gear will add to the complexity. Having said that, maybe you could make some savings if you double-up and produce the closely related Churchward Mogul at the same time as Dapol are doing in 00.

I don't model MI. I don't model MI. I don't model MI. I don't model MI. Ah forget it. Put me down for an NSE version. These units were such a part of my formative years that I just have to get one.

Swappable battery packs do seem like an easy solution on the face of it. I guess there must be more problems with them than is apparent at first glance. Is it just the cost of the batteries that makes it prohibitive? Then again, the development of very high speed chargers seems to be happening quite quickly so maybe there is just no need.

2KW will take a while to put signifcant charge in a car battery. You might be better off calling just calling for recovery and getting towed to the nearest charging point.

Skoda's electric Citigo is coming early next year. Reports suggest it is a long range version of the VW e-UP and is expected to be competitively priced. This cuold be the sort of car I am looking for. I had an Octovia for many years and would happily buy a Skoda again. https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motor-shows-frankfurt-motor-show/new-skoda-citigo-e-iv-arrives-frankfurt

Tankers were not filled at every station though. Tankers were normally loaded at dedicated rail-served creameries which were spread along the lines in milk-producing areas (e.g St Erth, Lostwithiel, Hemyock). Each creamery would act as concentration point for the local farms in its area, even though other stations might be nearer to the farm than that creamery. There were also a few places where milk tankers could be loaded at sidings from road tankers with the creamery being located a short distance away (e.g. Penzance, Dolcoath, Torrington). Churn traffic declined pretty rapidly during the 1930s as milk tankers caught on. Churns were much lower capacity and much more labout-intensive to handle. To be fair, churn traffic didn't completely disappear from the railway until around 1960. Since you are modelling pre-war, some churn traffic certainly seems likely although I would not rule out tankers. The 6-wheeled tanker modelled by Dapol appeared in 1931 so would certainly suit your period. Churns were carried in passenger rated vans, the GWR built specialist vehicles for this traffic (the assorted Siphons). I believe the SR made do with regular vans. The Dapol Maunsell brake is a bit on the modern side but is the right sort of vehicle, as is the Farish Bogie B. https://www.hattons.co.uk/61063/Graham_Farish_374_630_SR_50_Bogie_B_Luggage_Van_Southern_Green/StockDetail.aspx You would also need a passenegr rated Brake vehicle such as the Queen Mary brake van shown above. Here is one on an SR milk train in BR days at Seaton Junction with the creamery visible in the background. I will be back in the morning with more thoughts....

Technically a creamery is indeed somewhere where milk was separated. However it seems to have become applied as a more catch-all term for facilities where the milk was processed in some way. Many railside creameries did indeed process milk into cream, cheese, butter, yogurt or powdered milk. Even the simplest creameries like the Wallingford one above chilled the milk before loading into tankers (to give it a chance of reaching London in a drinkable state) and so appear to have qualified for the term "creamery". At the other end, the term dairy seemed to be used for places where customers could purchase milk. There were also bottling plants which received milk in by rail and sent it out in bottles on milk floats but didn't have a front "shop" as such. Many rail-served creameries actually received more milk in for processing than they dispatched to London. Bailey Gate on the old Somerset and Dorset line was primarily a cheese factory, as was Appleby in Cumbria. This sort of information can often be gleaned by reading histories of the local town or by analysing the working timetables (where available) as these give a better idea of what went in and out. Photographs are great for modelers but do not always give the whole picture.

I have been looking for the definitive book on milk on the rails for years and I am reaching the reluctant conclusion that if I want to read it, I may first have to write it. It won't be anytime soon though as I have a full-time and 3 young kids to take up what spare time I have left. I have done a couple of articles but 3000 words is a lot easier than 50,000+. Annoyingly, I don't feel I have a sufficiently comprehensive picture of the subject. The more I research, the more questions I find that I want answers to. I have a lot of facts and pictures but some of them don't connect properly (yet). It is like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing. Still, it may happen one day (once I win the lottery and retire).

Yes, you could find small creameries at the end of branchlines (and large ones for that matter). Normal practice would be to convey the tanker or tankers to the junction behind the local passenger service. At the junction, the tankers would then be attached to a fast train for their journey to London. Milk tanks were passenger rated. Whilst dedicated milk trains were the norm, it was not uncommon to see a couple behind an express passenger service, particularly in pre-nationalisation times. The best example of the sort of setup you are looking for would be the CWS Creamery at Wallingford. This diminutive building normally only filled 1 tanker per day. Plans have been published for this in 4mm scale and I know at least 2 layout that have used these as the basis for their own buildings. Annoyingly I have not been able to find any photos of the Wallingford train with milk tanker attached but there must be one around somewhere. Here is the creamery circa 1960. And here it is reproduced in N Gauge on Carl Woodward's superb "Vale of Oxbury" layout.

London got the lion's share of the bulk milk traffic but I believe other flows existed. There is a shot of A4 0004 WILLIAM WHITELAW near Aberdeen with the 18:43 milk train to Perth 17 April 1964. I am not sure how many other cities had similar flows.

Depends how it is used I guess. For our main car, most of our trips are short ones around the town (weekly shop, taking kids to after school activities). But a handful of times a year, we drive long distances such as going on holiday around the UK. We could get by with just electricity for our everyday driving with a car like this and only use the diesel for the occasional long trips. That would avoid the "range anxiety" on long drives while still giving the benefits of a full EV for 90% of our journeys. For someone who regularly drives medium or long distances, it sounds like the benefits might be marginal. Plug in hybrids are a compromise. Depending on your needs, they might be the best of both worlds or the worst.

I quite like the look of it and I generally like VWs. The battery warranty is handy too. It is roughly the equivalent of a Golf though whereas I am interested in something the size of a Polo.

Both are true. A growing population will put more strain on our planet's resources. Eating less meat will relieve some strain. Experts seem to agree that going fully vegetarian is not necessary. The diet below in this article would apparently feed 10 billion people with the area currently under cultivation and includes some meat. Committed carnivores can still enjoy a weekly burger and somewhat more chicken. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46865204

Yes meat feeds people but very inefficiently. An area of land can feed far more people if it is used to grow vegetables directly for human consumption than if it is used to raise animals for slaughter. The exact figures vary depending on your source. Cattle ranching is particularly inefficient as cattle requires a large grazing area as well as supplementary feed in winter months. On average you can feed around 10 times as many people if you use land to grow vegetables for human consumption than if you raise livestock on it. Sheep raised in hilly areas that are not suitable for arable use might fare better, as would poultry and swine raised on scraps and food waste. However most animals are intensively reared at the moment. The earth has enough arable land to feed our growing population but not on a "western" (i.e. meat-heavy) diet.

Can I ask where this information comes from please as it implies that over 50% of the grid is being generated from renewable sources which I thought was not yet the case. The National Grid has a current figure of 28.2%. http://grid.iamkate.com/

Exeter middle box springs to mind.

I use acrylic paints and I found a mix of a fairly bright orange and a darkish brown actually gave the best finish for "red" bricks. Trying to work from a straight red gave the same problems you described. I then added a mortar wash to tone it down a bit. Here is the finished effect.

I have my suspicions about this. Firstly, the CLEPA has plenty of vested interests in keeping manufacturers of conventional engines in business. This is rather like an accountant for a tobacco company arguing that the health benefits of not smoking were unproven. Secondly, a great deal depends on how the electricity is generated. Many european countries still have carbon intensive generation due to their historical reliance on coal. Germany for example has a pretty dirty power grid BUT it is also cleaning up fast and installing a lot of renewable generation capacity. Current studies show that electric cars already have significantly lower lifetime CO2 emissions than IC cars. That benefit will increase as more renewable generation comes online. https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/eea-report-confirms-electric-cars

Just tried a bottle of alcohol free Moretti as I am partial to the real thing. I shouldn't have got my hopes up. Very disappointing and watery with none of body of the real thing. Alcohol-free beer seems to be like decaf coffee. Its not hard to get but good ones seem to be few and far between.

I stumbled across a couple of interesting shots of Torrington. The quality is not the best but it looks like loading took place inside the shed rather than outside. Perhaps the gantry and pipework outside was used for cleaning. It also confirms top-loading of the milk tankers.

Just received a refund for my 2 Kings from my Halifax Mastercard. Took a couple of weeks but worth persevering. I received the same caveat about disputes as others noted above. Now, what do I spend it on?

Curving the backscene works pretty well. I just curved the corners slightly on mine but it is enough to disguise the "corner in the sky". A fully curved backscene like the one on Vale of Oxbury is even better but the layout needs to be designed with that in mind from the outset.

The surface area of a car doesn't provide a lot of generating capacity for solar cells. Toyota have estimated that in good conditions, solar panels will extend the range of a Prius by about 2.2 miles over the course of a full sunny day. It is questionable as to whether that is enough to be worth the effort and cost of fitting them. It is probably more efficient to invest in a large solar farm that can feed the grid and charge cars from that.

Sometimes the issue can be designed out if the railway surroundings themselves form part of the backscene. The classic Minories trick of modelling in a cutting is a great space-saver.