Broithe

A quick look on eBay finds a good few, but at more than the Hattons price!

Marks carry Gaugemaster - and Hattons do. The 'dual' is a good device - The Model D.

For a DC controller, the Gaugemaster is hard to beat. Available in single, double and quadruple housings. You can always put two singles together, but you can't move a double apart.... If a single dies, you still have one that works. A double will be cheaper than two singles. It's up to you and you requirements...

Centre-off is almost always preferable, you don't have to use the 'off', but you can. These Hornby controllers don't have a centre-off for the direction switch, like the Gaugemaster ones do, and this can cause strange issues requiring cuts in the track that aren't necessary if you use a Gaugemaster.

That's what I would do. There's usually little or nothing in the cost and the centre-off position can be useful - just don't accidentally leave it there and confuse yourself, but you'll only do that once...

That's right - an DPDT switch is really just two SPDT switches that move together - in the diagram, the top part is one SPDT switch and the bottom is another, the fact that they move together is what makes them a DPDT switch. You don't (usually) need both poles in this sort of situation, but it does no harm to have both, and costs little extra in materials or effort. It can be a matter of preference whether you have the centre-off position or not - it does no harm and can be useful, too.

This is the DPDT situation you mention, I think. The SPDT is like one half of the DPDT switch. You can have three-position centre-off switch or just a two-position switch, which has no 'off' position.

I'm not really into the Northern stuff, but that is bloody lovely.

Maybe there's more of a problem on the "Mainland", with some lines at quite an altitude ( over 1,000' in places ) and lines way up North into Scotland?

If you do build your own, remember that both sets of gates 'point' uphill when shut - the right-hand, lower, gates on this lock wouldn't work, if the water was real...

A bit of re-working and you've got the start of a great song there - let's hope we don't get caught in a landslide...?

It's only ten on a Saturday night, there's time yet....

Really great stuff here. The chains are nice - can you remember the source?

Great shot!

The side/up force seems likely to be fairly obvious immediately. On another site, probably as a result of this discussion, I have just received a pop-up banner advert... "If you can fix this - (picture of bicycle) - then you can fix this - (picture of submarine)" - clicking this banner leads to this - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/engineers . I do hope that they have a rather more rigorous supplementary selection procedure. It does bring to mind a picture of all the lads pedalling like mad to get the sub going....

Women call this "multi-tasking" and regard it as a virtue.

...psychology...

I have a (nearly) finished model that I started in 1978.

Maybe it was also required for the braking action? Whoops - note to self - read it all first!

The act of surfacing and the collision can be the same thing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehime_Maru_and_USS_Greeneville_collision .

First Class. Sorted. ..and other mail-related puns - a grand job, though..

Quite right.

My party-piece is my Sean Connery impression. You are a *****... . ...for shore eyesh. Crikey - I've been auto-censored - you'll have to work it out for yourselves.

Does the Garda Sub-Aqua Unit have a speed gun?

1982. An initial denial, before a subsequent identification.