3 years ago my mother had a fall in her bungalow and managed to get to the phone to call me. I was there within 20 minutes and called 999 to be told no ambulance for 13 hours. As it turned out it took just 5 hours (so that's OK then). She had broken her hip, and it's very unpleasant to hear your mother screaming in pain. She was taken into Preston hospital and passed away within a week from pneumonia she didn't have before she went in.

Big shout out to Martin @port perran for suggesting we create the story and for the continuance of the journey into the West Country
 

Toss up between the unhappy and angry thread but I plumped for this one.

Hot on the heels of my fathers passing and falling out with Adult Social Don't Care re my mother the father in law had another fall yesterday (he's waiting for a hip op). I know it's not their fault but a 6 1/2 hour wait for an ambulance although things quickly investigated upon arrival at the hospital.

Just lacerations, broken ribs and a fractured pelvis! Not sure how injured you need to be to get an ambulance more quickly? I will avoid politics but its decades of underfunding the NHS 

Similar for the 1970s services from Brum to Devon/Cornwall. Coach A was generally a second or brake second and was uininhabitable as it stank of diesel fumes from the locos, coach B was uninhabitable as it was full of smokers and the rest of it was generally very beaten up Mark 1 stock. They were not routes that received much love.

Worst case though was 3 Tysley DMUs with no toilets from London to Teignmouth with a toilet break at Bristol. That was a saga from the days when they thought their job was to actually get you there somehow rather than mutter about circumstances beyond our control and tell you to come back tomorrow.

You can hide weights in the bottom of a lot of loads but I've sometimes found it's a lot more stable to hide a small amount of weight in the bogies themselves and better running than a heavy load up top. Alternatively swap plastic bogie mounts for white metal or similarly heavy castings or ones made out of brass screws.

Obvious candidates for a bit of load though would include scrap rail (track offcuts), slabs of anything undefined (wrapped old wagon weights etc). For beams looks at larger gauge rail. O gauge rail is fairly solid and looks like a hefty girder, OO a lighter one.

Another option is pipes which can be modelled using metal tube or even random bits of plastic tubing wrapped with thin masking tape in places to give bulges for ends or joins and with weight stuffed out of sight down the middle.

In really problematic cases white metal or etched bogies with hidden weights internally, metal wheels and in desperation the old white metal couplings will give you really quite heavy bogies.

Quote from: scottmitchell74 on January 24, 2026, 03:20:48 AMMy first layout has a frustrating 3.3 to 4% grade. It's very limiting.

On my new proposed layout I want elevation, but I'm only allowing 2% at most.

I'm wondering how British locos handle 2%?

Thanks!

Some of the Dapol steam in particular has enough trouble on the flat. Heavy minitrix locos go up steep grades (except the unfortunate ivatt). Farish varies a lot - diesels generally do better than kettles.

2% is a good number, or model yourself a banker (and you can do that for UK stuff up to the 1980s trivially, and even later but it became a much less common movement).


If it's purely a visual grade then tilt the layout at 2% and run the track flat

Quote from: cmason on January 24, 2026, 03:06:10 AMOn wagon loads I am looking for solution as loads for these NER quads.



The challenge is that except for the second quad from the right which is a whitemetal kit, these are 3D prints which means they are ultra light so I need heavy loads. The top right vehicle now has a PD Marsh whitemetal pipe load wrapped in tissue paper and painted so just now needs chains added. It now has the needed weight not to bounce off the tracks. However next I am searching for something appropriate for the middle and second from left. Of course  the left hand vehicle without bolsters ( although I guess I could add some... ) will be fine with a whitemetal vehicle.

So, I have two issues - finding something era-specific (basically inter-war) and something *not* plastic or 3D printed. Even Ten-Commandments type cast stone loads would be a little light for this use.

Clearly cargo made up of steel products make sense however obviously not modern-era coils - perhaps a representation in whitemetal of something on the lines of rolled I / H beams might be appropriate - wondering if anyone has ever seen anything like that? I have looked at the websites of the usual subjects (PD Marsh, Langley etc. and can find nothing). Thoughts from other forum members?

BTW - I have the same challenge regarding the NGS Boplate kit which is also a bit on the light side - something suitably weighty and "format appropriate" in its LNER era guise,

Thanks in advance for thoughts,

Cheers,

Colin.

I remember seeing a video and there was a train transporting a dissasembled gantry crane on what looked like bogie bolster E's. They really stood out as they were yellow amongst the greys and browns of the 50's and 60's. So there is that.

Rob.

An alternative is to lower the ground by 1% and raise the track(s) over it by just 1% thus getting the same clearance but with a lower gradient

I have a 8% gradient on my layout , I think I worked it out at, going around a bend. I found the the older Farish and Union Mills locomotives handle it with no problems, due to these being made of metal and therefore quite heavy. The newer locomotives struggle to pull and will stall. However the newer locomotives will go up it on their own.

Rob.

I took advice from Steve Wright, the builder of James Street, and kept to 1:100 (1%) on my layout. It has 12" radius curves at both ends, and all of my stock, tyres or not, can pull 8 coaches or 25 wagons up the bank and round the corners, which at one end are still on the gradient. If you want long trains (8+ coaches, 25+ wagons) keep the gradients shallow or use locos with tyres; if you need to use steeper gradients be prepared to have to compromise on train length or stock capable of being used.

Dave