AMJ

I overheard that the WHR/FfR is essentially going to be classed as 3 railways based on the distances etc and the likely destinations of passengers. Caernarfon - Bedgellert Bedgellert - PM and PM - BF Any longer and most passengers will not be able to afford the full trip or the time involved. The other year I was at Caernarfon and there were 4 adults in a group and the bill for the tickets was just over £100. I overheard people at one railway complaining that £10 was a lot, but these are the same sort that will buy packets of cigs and drink lager. (Some people need to look at the spending priorities.)

The other week I had my invitation to the full trip of the line from Caernarfon to PM Harbour station. Looking on the construction site the Britannia bridge crossing lights have been installed recently. There also is a date that the stretch of the Cambrian line will be on that ERTMS system. A comment has been made that they need HMRI aproval for the operation of the Cambrian crossing. The plan is that the Gold/Silver train will be run from Caernarfon - PM in the morning and it will cross with the Bronze one at Pont Croesor. So any one down at PM that day can have the chance for 2 up and 2 down trains all the way through the center of PM. The operation is to take the train past Spooners onto the Cob & reverse into PM(H). Likewise departure from PM(H) is reverse out onto Cob before coming past Spooners and onto Britannia bridge. Talk is that there may be public trains this winter from PM to Beddgellert.

A lot of mainland Europe get's away without any form of yellow end and rund some trains faster than us so perhaps it's just UK legislation. The EWS 37 looks good - probably enough yellow as haven't some been painted green with SYE (37403) ? South Africa use 3'6" gauge track so having bodies built to UK loading gauge is probably about right. Just look at the size of the 25NC (Janice) @ Quainton Road and compare against UK stock. Must get out my SAR dining car book for the dimensions as a comparison to say MkI's. New Zealand have exBR MkII's on 3'6" gauge. The 1m gauge stock in India looks similar sized to UK.

I don't have any 220's but looking on the exploded diagram on Bachy website http://www.Bachmann.co.uk/pdfs/32-600.pdf it looks like the wires from the track are fed into a PCB on top of the motor. There will also be a pair of wires from this to the motor. If this PCB is similar to other Bachmann ones then if you find the wires for the right & left rails removed from PCB and then connect to the red & black on the chip. The motor then needs feeding from the orange & grey wires on the chip. Often best to remove PCB. More complex if there is any wiring for lights.

Speaking to the owner of a shop the other day they had a document from the maker stating that they are delayed due to a minor problem with one of the moulds.

If you have never seen it Google "Don Jones minature New Street" as this layout was built in the back garden in Sutton Coldfield. There were various articles in magazines about this over the years. Unfortunately Don took his last train journey the other year. I think that Jim S-W might have known him. See http://www.hpw-railway.org.uk/news/Newsletters/HPW2009_MAR.pdf He built covers to protect the track from leaves rubbish etc and these would be removed before operating. You need to make covers animal proof or the small furry ones will find it a nice place to live.

You could always use the excuse that Doncaster has put one on the stopper from Donny to Leeds to test an ex works loco. There are many photos of big engines on that run in numerous books.

IIRC main line diesel shunting locos carry a red light and a white one at both ends. However if tripping you would then need to switch to white only and red tail if not hauling anything.

One thought would be how about changing the gauge on one of the SAR 3'6" locos such as a GMAM to standard and then thrashing it on say the NYMR?

The WHHR have some plans up to build a new toilet block on the 'short' platform opposite the headshunt. This looks like it will remove the siding by the shop where they have a few wagons on display. A thought that I had is that the headshunt is not long enough for much more than most tank locos so I wonder if they are looking at taking off the NGG16 and running the train with either a VB fitted tank loco or a LYD2. This would give the BG a chance to take on water, before hauling the stock back to Caernarfon. I find it fatal going to WHHR as I end up buying a book or two - on Tuesday I ended up buying the Bagnall book. Ouch!

Long time ago in a galaxy far far away I repainted a Triang Dock shunter into BR green. It was sold at an autojumble at York so might still be in the locality. Sorry no photos but it looked convincing as a BR diesel shunter.

One of the other (mis)guided busways that failled to deliver was the one that was installed to take passengers to the Dome in London. This used a system of a wire in the roadway as a guide, but it didn't work! Slightly OT I think that the following link might be a better idea as used in a few French cities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Guided_Light_Transit A cross between a monorail, tram and a trolleybus. The proper rail forms the guide and also a common return for the electric power. This reminds me of the very early trolley bus systems that used a skate (onto one rail of the tramway) for the common return and took the power from the overhead.

I have often thought that until the CTRL is sorted the ideal solution for the extension to PM of the WHR is to use the WHHR station on a temporary basis. There is the open top bus or a short walk between there and the Harbour station.

Arriva has the 142 refurbished and running on 3 Gresley bogies. Welcome to the 142/9 - a recreation of one I made earlier.

Perhaps the 8w tender ought to ride on a pair of bogies like the SR LN's. Or even max it a bit with a set of wheels like a Big Boy tender. NICE. Must see if I still have the 142 cut and shut I did articulated on 3 Gresley bogies.

I have a few 140 photos that I took at Dufftown as has a friend that I was drinking ale with in Scotland. If nescessary can always arrange to give a CD to you when you come to Middleton Rly on 1st Tue of month.

The original Live Aid was on this day in 1985 - ooh that does make me feel old. I'll get out the DVD box set and watch it at work tonight.

There is some interesting DD stock that SNCF use on push-pull services into Paris from the suburbs. I have ridden on it, will have a look to see if I have any photos. Also they have some DD units that operate on the RATP trains under Paris. The French way to do it is to have end doors that lead to 2 sets of steps, center goes down and one that goes up. Thus the lower saloon is between the bogies and the upper above it. I suppose what the rules are on headroom (for passengers) as to if we could do that within the UK loading gauge. The disadvantage is that only the vestibules will be disabled accessible.

Delta - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

World in motion - New Order

If you want inspriation see the Arriva Germany loco in this thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/17551-new-advertising-engine-from-arriva-germany/ Now can you imagine some of the UK diesels and electrics with rivetted sides?

Well I suppose that I'm an Early Riser today as I'm working 19:00 until 07:00 then back into the office on Sat at 07:00

A while ago I joined the Lancashire Library as they give you access to online research such as The Times and vaious other papers going back to even before the Middleton Railway. This is a free service to join and free to use, I know of many people that are using it for some information on family history, but if you search you'll find acts of parliament and other documents reproduced in the papers of the day. http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/onrl/ You can view 17th, 18th and 19th Century papers, Times upto the late 1980's - Access to Newsbank online national and local papers. Just done a search and come up with info from June this year going way back. The problem is that you can get engrossed reading articles that you have been sidetracked by and as mentioned above it can take up a lot of time.

The first cut is the deepest - Rod Stewart