Yes I know…. It’s been a while. I seem too busy building stuff to be writing about it, although not as busy as Steve’s been…

There’s a popular myth that the only water troughs in a Tunnel were at Standedge on the ex LNW transpennine route…not quite;

Some have been discovered in a tunnel near Saltney….

Made from plastic channel and constructed “in situ”, the many support brackets were glued down as the channel was laid. The planking (provided to stop the water from washing the ballast away) is from coffee stirrers and the troughs have several layers of varnish poured in. This was all topped off with a spray of gloss varnish over the area to give a wet sheen to everything.

The associated water tank and treatment tanks were made up from various bits of styrene and odd fittings to complete the scene.

Another recent addition is a cattle dock to replace the fuel depot which never seemed to look right.

Heavy use/testing of the Dingham couplings has shown that anything fitted with a bogie must have the couplings fitted to that bogie! Other than that, as long as buffer stops are avoided, and they are set to provide a reasonable gap between vehicles they seem reliable and useful. Heres one attached to a bar soldered to the bogie on a Southern "Queen Mary" brake van