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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: September 14th, 2023

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  • If it’s your car, then you are responsible for the safety of your passengers. You should ensure that any adults are aware of how to use the safety features, e.g. seatbelts, and you have a plan for evacuation of any children in the event of an emergency. Just like if you’re driving a car with child safety locks on the rear doors that prevent those doors from being opened from the inside.

    Hate on Tesla or Musk all you want, but let’s not spread easily-disprovable FUD. It weakens whatever argument you’re trying to make.













  • Oh no, Hattons are closing!!

    I’ve always loved model railways, but the hobby has got increasingly expensive over the last 20 years or so. The high end has eaten the middle, and much as the details and fidelity of the models are now wonderful, the prices are absurd and the target demographic is retired boomers on final salary pensions. Combine that with the space constraints - 00 is the only gauge anywhere near being affordable and it requires 6’x4’ for a simple oval - and it’s a recipe for disaster.

    Hornby are right to push TT, and personally I’d steer the industry heavily away from DCC and other expensive digital add-ons as defaults, as cool as they are. The right angle to push is that of unplugged creativity, not connected consumerism. Not good for profits in the short term, perhaps, but the hobby needs a new generation who dream of joining the local club and building their own large-scale layouts in retirement. If there’s no generationality then it’s over.

    Me? My dream is simple now. Two-track garden railway loop along the fence with a few sidings and passing loops. I have neither the time nor the space to fully model anything, but I want to sit back and watch the trains go by anyway.