Broithe

When I've used grain of wheat bulbs, I've found that they're very white at 12 volts and don't last too long. I've generally run them in series pairs from a 16 volt supply, so each bulb gets 8 volts, they 'look' much better, not a sharp white, and last for ever. The only down-side is that if one bulb fails the other will go out, too - a sort of mini-Christmas-tree-effect - but, I've never lost one at 8 volts.. With tungsten bulbs, you can run them off AC - I've used spare Hornby power supply transformers, so that they're separate from the track supplies.

Also, it can be worth testing any structures that are to be lit for 'light-bleed' through the walls - card buildings are usually OK, but plastic and resin ones can often look a bit 'strange' in the dark, especially if the light source is right next to a wall or roof. It's a fairly simple issue to slap some paint on the inside - silver is a good choice, both reflective, for efficiency, and fairly opaque to light transfer.

The beauty of tungsten lamps is that you can vary the 'look' by varying the voltage applied, and a small drop in voltage makes a huge difference to the lifetime, too. They do use a good bit more power than an LED lamp, though, but that won't be too much of an issue on most layouts.

I've used Viessmann street lights - they're rather nice, though still a bit 'pricey' - the LED ones are very efficient and give a realistic light - some of them also plug in to a socket mounted in the baseboard, handy for removing safely, if you ever need to do any work. The colour of the emitted light can be a problem in some layouts, dependent on your time period, be careful not to get it looking too modern or olde worlde... http://www.gaugemaster.com/viessmann.html

Magnificent!

It is - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryborough_railway_station .

Looking for old pictures on the net, I came across this familiar-sounding place in Victoria.

He certainly has some nice ones in there - http://www.backdropjunction.com/ .

I have sent my Dutch agents into the field and they have already returned with this, although it is in Dutch - http://www.kennislink.nl/publicaties/bladeren-op-het-spoor-weglaseren .

A Hungarian approach to winter blues.

This could annoy the neighbours - http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/01/23/mbtas_mattapan_line_relies_on_snowzilla_in_worst_weather/ .

An ideal little cameo setting for any fans on here - - retweeted by Irish Rail. Anybody recognise the location?

Currently in Tarbert - - looking a bit tight.....

They're quite quick to erect, straight out of the box.

There is a tendency to try to keep abnormal loads off the motorways over here for many reasons - high-speed traffic, congestion, a lot of over-bridges, etc - and also to stay out of built up areas, there's too many overhead lines, etc. It would take a while to get a load out of town at the beginning of a journey and southbound ones would often spend the first night on the way from Stafford in this lay-by - https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=stafford&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Stafford,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&ll=52.753808,-2.106698&spn=0.001378,0.002411&t=h&z=19&vpsrc=6 - some years ago, a 200 tonne transformer was being taken south and overnighted here. At some point in the night one or two axles failed and this cascaded into the entire side of the trailer collapsing. The transformer then slid off and fell over - luckily, it fell into the field, rather than into the roadway. It took many weeks to retrieve it and fix the remains of the trailer.

The last of the big Scammells had torque-converters, for sure - http://www.commercialmotor.com/big-lorry-blog/the-last-scammell-heavy-haulag - difficult to see another practical way, short of a full hydraulic drive, and that can have speed implications. There are often also tanks aboard simply for ballast, to to increase the downforce for improving traction from the driving wheels.

I would imagine that they have a form of torque-converter.

Deluxe's Roket Plastic Glue can help - but all sorts of odd materials are used these days - worth having some in the box, though. Available in many model outlets.

I was just passing through... A combination of the two would be a good idea... And it wouldn't hurt to identify the bogie underneath, with a spot of paint/tape etc - so that you know it's a bit dicky if you ever need to get it off again..

Try glueing a suitable bit of foam between the two parts , the fixed and the broken one - you'll have a bit more area and the loading won't be "against" the glue....?

Worked for me - looks very interesting.

Large load on the road today - - on the N69.

We mostly ran all-wheel-drive diesels - mostly my Murphy's - but, we also ran a tender-drive Flying Scotsman, with four coaches, including a post-office pick-up-and-drop coach - no trouble. The only thing that gave any real trouble was a seven car Pendelino, and that seemed to struggle mostly because of the double bend before the slope started - if it was all on the slope , it seemed to just manage. It tend to derail, actually, as the traction tyres were only on one side. It's a simple enough issue to do some testing with a few planks before you commit yourself. Better safe than sorry Do beware of tight bends an or near the slope, though. They do add to the rolling resistance. We did run various old engine drive steamers, mostly six-coupled, never had any real issues with them, often pulling quite fair trains. Do have the lowest slope you can get away with and try it experimentally first - that's the best advice I can give. Some of the older engines required a small power increase to get up, and a bit of a turn-down after they had 'summitted', to avoid them 'running away' - Murphies and other more 'modern' types didn't really have much of an issue of that sort. All being run through Gaugemaster DC controllers. You can see the journey over the ramps with a 141 pulling three coaches here - longer trains weren't much of an issue. The ramps are at the back, immediately after the start - either side of the suspension bridge.

Nice. I see a Magister sneaking in - a while ago, I put some pictures up here - http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/1981-airfix-Irish-aircraft?p=32423&viewfull=1#post32423 - if you missed them.

Ah, I just thought that might be why I couldn't find it....