AMJ

The smallest station is Damens on the Worth Valley It has a waiting area and ticket window never been there long enough to see if there are WC facilities. Ingrow West might be ideal plan. To the right side of the entrance hallway is the tickets and staff area, left side a ladies waiting room with a small extension to the north side with gents loo. Other buildings exist for storage.

This one from TSG is also worth viewing

Yesterday parked towards the north bridge at Doncaster was 88009 Diana. I hadn't realised that these DRS locomotives were getting onto the east coast.

Was at Doncaster for a short time yesterday morning, 800202 arrived into a platform from south then went back south. It was running on the juice as was one that passed through on the fast line heading south. Looks like running on juice it's using front pantograph.

I was sat riding inside the bar car on a railway enjoying a pint of ale thinking about it few things..... Most model track maker's produce rails in most scales and gauges as standard yard long lengths. A yard in OO would equate to 76 yards (or 3*76 yards for length in feet). N scale will be roughly twice and O about the equivalent of 130'. Ignoring modern welded rails prototype track is often laid with 60' track panels. Being prototypical even for O a yard of track will need to be cut in half. A Mark I coach is roughly the same length as a standard 60' track panel. Some locations use shorter 40' sections. At least as modeller's we do not need to be continually jacking and packing the joints when they have dipped. Should we be cutting track into 60' realistic equivalent lengths?

Many of the drivers from Leeds used to do it but as the station has many flats and hotel rooms overlooking it there might be a remit to minimize the noise.

Forget to say the classic Max Boyce comment I know as I was there. My comments above are essentially How I test along with kicking the brakes

Also drop vacuum using them guards handle

There is a simple check that were do. With full vacuum the brakes will be off. Take the bag off the rear vehicle dolly, need any damn good pull, the vacuum will drop to zero and the brakes will apply. Replacement of the bag on the back will get the vacuum back to whatever the locomotive is creating This is how we do it

In Ireland the current line to Derry is on a 1930's LMS art deco concrete viaduct at a higher level than the Larne line. There seems to be a prototype for everything.

Looking like I need to build a layout for the Ixion HC and JF to shunt!

Forgotten to mention that when I was doing the steam train from LE the line from Poznan to Wolsztyn was being rebuilt. Some good running on the main Poznan to Berlin line heading into Zbaszynek. There are plenty of stuffed and mounted steam locomotives at various stations including Zbaszynek.

For those who are interested the DHRS have a new book about the B class locomotives which is supposed to be available from July, see their online shop. Mine is on order and they said it would be possible to collect it from a railway event this weekend.

The other year the steam train operations ran from Lezno to Zbaszynek which I did a couple of days. On one day they had substituted the steam locomotive for a diesel, think it was boiler wash out day. Steam crews will ask you if you want to ride in the cab but they have a tendency to specify a cost of a few Zl. Even bahn.co.uk identified which trains were steam.

Our local TV channel had some photos from Northern of the first class 195 unit being unloaded the other day in Bristol. A friend who works for Northern indicated that when these and the electric CAF units have entered service that will kill off the union argument as they will eliminate guard's.

If you are thinking of the original USA styled Pullman coaching stock that operated on the Midland Railway one body was destroyed by an arsonist at Butterley the other year. They do have a poor body located on a chassis at Swanwick Junction. See the following http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=2201 http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=2202

I like and appreciate many of the none BR designed coaching stock due the scarcity such as at SVR and Others. Mk I are notorious for being rust buckets with asbestos insulation. There are some of the Mk I diagrams that no longer survive and potentially could be recreated from a donor coach. To most passengers they would not realise the difference between say a Thompson and a Mk I.

Anyone who fancies getting the pair of locomotives together should be willing to pay for the transportation costs just like hiring in one for an event. There are many nice foreign locomotives spread throughout the UK. Danish 385 is a powerful locomotive and was out of ticket before Andy's time in Leeds.

Leeds had the following companies so you can understand why I keep finding makers doing nice locomotives:- North Eastern Midland Great Central Great Northern London and North Western Lancashire and Yorkshire Hull and Barnsley would have done so if the East and West Yorkshire Union Railway had built it's line to Drax. Not counting the many nice Leeds built industrial locomotives. Back OT I'm tempted by the attractive North Eastern green but I must have a thin down of the collection.

Another handy book to look at by Ken Hoole is NER locomotive sheds, I used to have a copy. It doesn't list every individual locomotive especially where they are swapped for works visits etc. Just says even for small one locomotive sized sheds that the motive power was.... A problem I have is my modelling location in West Yorkshire means that this NER 0-4-4T the Midland and Lanky radial all operate into the area!

Roll out the German system, you can tell what each vehicle is from a chart on the platform plus they advise you where each vehicle will be. In India they are the same for the long distance train's with about 26 coaches. Only once has a German train arrived wrong way around but they were aware and announced it as being so. With so many of the station announcements being done from central location they can easily change it for other stations en route. However signallers are sat these days in office without seeing a train so they are not likely to know which way round a train set is!

For quite a few kits I'd buy a selection of LEDs and resistors from a handy supplier. Key wires are Blue - for the common return White - head lights at one end (also tail at the other) Yellow - head lights at the other end (ditto tail) Alternatively using the other functions output can be used for internal lights or to have separate control of the tail lights. Personally I'd not hard wire the chip into the kit as you can get from the likes of Bachmann spares (at most shops) DCC sockets along with wiring harness. This would allow you to change the chip at a later date say for a sound one.

Many of the early locomotive crews will have started out working on the early industrial railways. As you may be aware in 1812 the Middleton Railway was the first to commercially use steam locomotives rather than the static engine with rope haulage. There will be some migration from static to mobile engines. It will depend upon if a person working for an industrial line knows at the end of the day he'll be home compared to the mainline lodging turns as to what he wants in life. Before the recommendation for no alcohol at the Middleton we had one of if not the first instance of a mobile engine boiler exploding. This was about 1813 and the locomotive crew were taking a break having a drink in a local hostelry and there was a failure. Crews were also known to tamper with the early form of safety valves to run the boiler at a higher pressure. The various types of spring safety valves are designed to stop crew from tampering with them in traffic.

A few years ago I did Leeds to Warsaw by train when the sleeping trains existed, all booked through Ffestiniog Travel. Coming back was daytime from Poznan with a change in Berlin which nearly went oh so wrong as an hour's connection became 5 minutes due to slow running PKP. As a group of friends we prefer to stay overnight in Köln or Aachen to break up the journey from UK to Germany. The other year when DB drivers had some Industrial action I traveled from Aachen to Dresden to find when I was at one station the service I intended to be on had been cancelled. One of the platform staff indicated your ticket allows you on Ice so get this one to Berlin and change there. Talking with the guard he checked what was running and advised me of a private operator going to Leipzig three hours after getting into Berlin. Some changes can be tight so often best for looking into alternative route. dB app is good even for UK travel

These are looking good. For many of your future designs during the summer you could visit an old vehicle event. Take a good camera and possibly one of the black and white measuring stick. Asking most owners if you can measure and photograph their pride and joy they will usually be happy to help especially if you offer them a model when completed. Many of the owners club's will have access to or advice who has drawings as owners will need these for restoration.