bécasse

Mart Sidings?

But if you think about it, the painting process for coaching stock was quite different to that for wagons.

There were definitely workings into both Charing Cross and Cannon Street of 10-car formations 4-EPB + 3 x 2-HAP. There may have been restrictions as to which platforms they could use but I don't remember Bill Woodyer mentioning it. His team at Cannon Street produced the platform workings for both termini and he was forever complaining that they were just handed the finalised WTT and told to work out the platforming which hadn't been taken into account in the planning and was, consequently, a far from simple task. All the planners had ever done was to ensure that there were never more than six trains (of which three long-distance) at Charing Cross and eight at Cannon Street at the same time.

........ withdrawn at the beginning of October 1971.

If the final painting was carried out when the body was already mounted on its chassis (which obviously it was), it would have been more productive, and therefore cheaper, to have painted it all the same colour; given the metalwork on the body a paint suitable for application to primed metal would have had to be used anyway.

Pre-grouping stock on the Southern Railway tended to keep to the lines of its former owners. There were exceptions, pull & push trains for example (see Mike King's book for comprehensive details although pull & push trains tended to be fairly rare on through routes) and, of course, the ex-SECR long tens which turned up as strengthening vehicles all over the network, plus other odd examples. Typical stock on the Reading-Redhill-Tonbridge line, largely worked as an entity, and on stopping trains on the Tonbridge-Ashford line, would have been predominately ex-SECR birdcage 3-sets (of which there were more than one variety). Fast trains between Tonbridge and Ashford, and especially boat trains, would have been increasingly formed of Maunsell coaching stock, sometimes with Pullman Cars in the formation. Dedicated Maunsell stock would eventually have worked the odd through-to-other companies trains over the whole Reading-Ashford line, with the stock provided by the "other" company on alternate days. I would add a word of warning about using historical photographs (say anything pre-mid 1950s) as they tend to give a very lopsided view of the operation of the railways. Most photographers worked Monday to Saturday lunchtime (but parsons had Monday off) and so a lot of photographs were taken on Saturday afternoons when the working of the railway tended to be rather different to the rest of the week even if the timetable looked similar. Furthermore, the sheer logistics of photography then meant that photos had to be taken sparingly and, not unnaturally, photographers tended to concentrate on the unusual rather than the everyday routine.

In some timetables there were a handful of suburban trains which included some 2-HAP units in their formation and which called at Lewisham, so they are a possibility as well as 2- and 4-EPBs, but probably not as late as 1990. A few longer distance trains called at London Bridge, so you might have changed into or out of a 4-CEP, 4-VEP or 4-CIG there and there might well still have been 4-EPBs working into Charing Cross from Caterham/Tattenham Corner. However, 1990 was much on the cusp of the introduction of the class 465 Networker fleet on the South Eastern Division and it is most likely that your memories are of a 2- or 4-EPB.

RRNE = Regional Railways North East and RRNW = Regional Railways North West, both being sub-sectors of the Provincial or Regional Railways Sector.

The ASLEF strike of May 1955 is likely to have been the final nail in the coffin for local livestock movements by rail, as it was for quite a lot of other rail-borne goods traffic, although the Suez crisis of the following year and the resultant petrol rationing may have brought a little back in the short term. Bulk movement of cattle from the Irish sea ports by rail lasted rather longer.

This drawing shows the standard pre-war SR station storage hut (and the sibling frogman's hut). I have details of the post-war lamp hut assembled from pre-cast segments somewhere and also of the warning notice for the door - I will post them when I get a chance.

I have come to the conclusion that they are track pins for Sydney Pritchard's great step forward - the production of Peco Streamline flexible track for real railways, not just model ones. I seem to recollect that he just couldn't find premises big enough to facilitate production so the concept had to be dropped, but obviously some track pins had already been manufactured. I seem to remembering reading about in an April issue of Railway Modeller but I can't remember the year, although it was obviously well before Sydney's demise, and I couldn't find it using the RM Archive search facility (which is good but not always perfect).

The same livery considerations would apply wherever the MkI suburban stock was being used (except, of course, on the Southern Region where unlined green was adopted from 1956 but where such stock was rare anyway). A greater question is the extent to which MkI suburban stock was in use on the London Midland Region. There was certainly some on the lines out of St.Pancras but some, at least, of these were short "metro gauge" vehicles which could work through the Widened Lines to Moorgate. My recollection of outer-suburban services out of Euston is that ex-LMS suburban vehicles continued to be used until replaced with AM10s on electrification in 1966 - although the same livery considerations would apply to the ex-LMS stock, and my recollections could be wrong anyway.

That Peter Groom photo definitely dates from somewhen during the year 1960.

Army khaki at the time of the Great War was a light colour, not far off a greenish sand. It was intended to make soldiers inconspicuous in the "hot" countries of the Empire where keeping "order" was the main task of the British Army prior to the Great War. I should add that that gloss "khaki" worn by 5322 pictured above is a definite no-no. Whatever colour was used it would have been matt to avoid reflections of the sun - one mere glimpse of a reflection from the sun would be sufficient to make the loco an instant artillery target, even at a considerable distance.

The railway gun spurs (used for heavy guns capable of projecting their shells many kilometres) would still not have been within visual sight of the front line except, perhaps, very briefly as the Germans advanced rapidly in the Spring offensive. The guns, with of course their motive power, would have been withdrawn rapidly as they were too valuable to be lost. I believe quite a lot of light (ie narrow) gauge railway equipment was lost to the enemy simply because rapid withdrawal was difficult.

I have seen suggestions that narrow gauge locos working along the western front were sometimes repainted locally into an overall colour that blended best with local topography. However I don't think that there were any operational standard gauge railways that came within visual distance of the German front lines (except very briefly during the 1918 spring offensive) so that would not have been an issue. Neither would attack from the air have been a significant threat although it probably happened occasionally. Caley739 makes an interesting point and he is probably right, grey being used for dedicated new-builds and repaints.

Yes it did, St.Ives to March (Cambridge to St.Ives remained open for several more years for passenger traffic, of course). I have seen a (partial) signalling diagram but I have never seen a reason quoted although I have wondered whether it was as a result of the incident on the ECML where a signalman deliberately misworked the levers in his box in order to derail a train.

Probably some just at the beginning of the decade when there would have still been vehicles around that hadn't been repainted or revarnished since unlined crimson and then unlined maroon were the norm. They would quickly have become lined maroon (unless they were in store) since crimson vehicles would have been repainted lined maroon and unlined maroon vehicles would have had lining added when they were revarnished.

An auger only works where there is nothing hard just below the surface, a pick-axe would probably be defeated by granite or slab slate but not much else.

The SR brake van is in BR livery, it would have had vermillion Venetian red coloured ends in SR livery, so the c1950 date estimate is right within a year or so either way.

Known to some signal engineers as "direction levers" and, depending on the track layout, their use can significantly simplify the interlocking. Levers which work more than one fpl, whilst commonplace (usually where one facing point was followed almost immediately by another), could be hard to work but that didn't usually apply to these direction levers as (typically) there was only a single lifting locking bar (between the two facing points) and while one lock was being put in the other was being released.

"Antwerp and Ghent have emission zones that require pre registration," So does Bruxelles. The three Belgian LEZs use ANPR cameras, if you enter the zone and haven't registered your plate (and paid if necessary), you will receive a huge fine and, unlike the UK where failing to register/pay is a civil offence, the offence is criminal and therefore you can legitimately be identified through your plate number. Wallonie is currently considering making the whole region (ie the whole of southern Belgium) an LEZ, the necessary cameras are already in place and all Belgian and Dutch cars are already registered so it will be easy and quick to implement if the decision is taken to do so. The French LEZs go under the name of Crit'air zones, the number of cities and towns implementing them is growing rapidly - and Genêve in Switzerland is effectively included in the French system. Vehicles hired outside France (vans hired in the UK, for example) are banned from entering Crit'air zones. Countries requiring winter tyres (typically November-March) include Germany, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Switzerland and mountainous areas of France and Italy.

"Platform Shunts - Also a fair point, removed. Presumably the platform shunt signals would be required if no 17 was the home signal for the next box along, rather than being an advanced starter?" If this were the case no.17 would still be slotted by the terminus box and the block section would be one of those no longer than the width of the signal post - they did exist in congested areas. The slotting would ensure that, if the platform starters were cleared just for a shunt move, no. 17 would be on. Incidentally, normally no.17 would have to be sited sufficiently far in advance to allow a complete train to be shunted (from one platform to another) without needing to pass it. If circumstances dictated, the need to locate in advance of an overbridge for example, that it couldn't be located that far in advance, a subsidiary "shunt forward" arm would be added allowing a train to enter the block section sufficiently to be able to undertake the required shunting move but no further. I seem to recollect that there was(is?) an example on the up road at Sheffield Park on the Bluebell, but they weren't uncommon on the LBSCR.

Ground signals which became yellow post-circa 1930 were red before that and were simply ignored unless the road was set towards the running line. If you just ignore their provision, you won't get BoT permission to open your station to passenger traffic, ground signals (or point indicators) from sidings onto running lines were a legal requirement from quite an early date (unless the points were worked by an immediately adjacent ground frame). It is quite likely that the release crossover would have been worked by a local ground frame (probably 2 levers - lock/release and crossover normal/reverse) with a mechanical (ie rod) release from the box and would not have been signalled. The LBSCR used home and distant signals for entry into platforms, not homes and shunts or calling-on signals, the distant on indicated that the platform was partially occupied. Not only did this practice continue throughout the LBSCR period but it was then adopted by the Southern Railway for termini with colour light signalling, the last such installation being the new Cannon Street box of 1958. In the LBSCR era distant signals were red, yellow only being adopted (slowly) from 1926 onwards. With an advanced starting signal you don't need (and shouldn't provide) shunt signals. The BoT wouldn't allow shunting towards the down line and shunting towards the up line would be authorised by the platform starting signal. Just because today's preserved lines are festooned with signals as if they were fairy lights doesn't mean that that was what was done in the past. Every signal cost money (ie shareholders' dividends) to provide and they weren't provided if they weren't necessary (unless you are modelling the NER).

It would seem that HMRC have been taking a deliberate "laid-off" attitude to items coming from the EU to the UK (those mainland Europe layouts at Warley, for example) but you can expect EU countries to apply the rules strictly to the letter for layouts going the other way (hence the vast and well-publicised traffic jams at Dover where the French controls are - Dutch controls take place their side of the North Sea). Remember, too, that Customs' checks don't take place just at borders, I regularly see the Belgian Customs undertaking random checks on main roads (and not just on autoroutes, stopping any suspicious vehicle for examination - and any van with one of those "YUK" plates on the back is going to be considered suspect. The British voted to be treated differently - and they are!