bécasse

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!

The name "Gamma" hints that it might have been their third loco.

The most significant point about the light railway clauses in the 1868 ROR Act was that it permitted such railways, which had to have been lightly constructed, to be subject to a less rigorous BoT inspection than was habitual. There do seem to have been a considerable number and most weren't, with hindsight, very obvious, as an example the L&SWR's final initial approach to Bournemouth was one of them. It seems probable that any line completed within the next decade or so after 1868 on which a 25 mph speed limit was imposed was in fact inspected under the provisions of the light railway clauses of the Act. The 8 ton axle load limit is a slight red herring in that, while the railway had to be lightly constructed, there was no requirement that structures or permanent way should be incapable of carrying a greater axle load, which was probably not that onerous anyway at that period.

Locos got swapped around between the various "Stephens" light railways because the gentleman(?) concerned personally owned them and profitably rented them out to the railways he managed. Those railways where he specified the civil engineering requirement usually had under bridges which were of rather lighter construction than was required to keep costs adequately low, such bridges with their low permitted maximum axle weights being very useful to the hire fleet side of his personal business.

Wasn't maroon used as the "dark" colour in certain places at one time?

2-HAPs of both varieties were used on East and West Coastway services in the 1970s following on from the use of 2-BILs and 4-CORs. The Bulleid variety disappeared en mass with the timetable change of April 1976 (to become 2-SAPs in the CD suburban area) but the BR variety continued throughout the rest of the decade. I can't remember precisely when the 4-CAPs appeared (which of course were just 2x2-HAPs semi-permanently coupled) but Blood and Custard will have the dates. I would suggest that 4-VEPs and 4-CIGs were seen occasionally on Coastway services throughout the decade - and quite exceptionally 4-EPBs.

Bituminised paint was my assumption too, particularly as I suspect that the reason that GWR Loco Coal wagons were black (rather than the dark grey used on other wagons) was that bituminised paint was used on them, the GWR being known to have been significant users of it.

The "mortar" wash will affect the final colours of individual stones as well and you might find that you have to paint/repaint some of the individual stones after applying the mortar wash to get the overall effect that you want. Try to find some photos of stone walls in the actual geographical location where your layout is supposedly set, they vary quite considerably; Google Streetview can be a useful source if all else fails. I have attached three photos of a stone retaining wall in the immediate area where I live. The horizontal "banding" comes about because of the way that they are constructed with the workmen working from staging which is lifted each time a "band" is completed. Despite appearances these are actually drystone walls, the mortar only being added as a final pointing to keep moisture (and hence potential frost damage) out.

That was my understanding of BR practice too despite the fact that Hornby Dublo finished the inside of their (rather nice for the time) 16T mineral wagon in black. An understanding that was seemingly confirmed by the discovery of a colour photo which showed a "pale-pink" interior which is just how I would have expected a lightly rusted self-weathering steel to look. However, opening this month's Railway Bylines at page 137 I found a picture of a line of various steel mineral wagons stabled (doubtless for the summer when there was less demand for them) at Stoke Bruern station on the erstwhile SMJR in the early 1960s. A three-quarter view taken from the road bridge, it clearly shows parts of the interior of a number of wagons - and they all appear to be painted black or possibly dark grey, certainly a much darker colour than their exterior wagon grey finish and much darker than I would expect self-weathering steel to look. A number of them show marks left by their previous loads, and they would have been out empty in the rain for some time, so the dark colour is most unlikely to be the result of coal dust remaining from their previous duties. The source of the photo isn't acknowledged.

I have seen a reasonable effect of cream lettering created by judicious use of a yellow highlighter. I haven't done it myself, though, so I am unaware of what potential pitfalls it might involve, or how long lasting it might be

You already have convincing replies on the voltage drop (or, more realistically, effective lack of resistance drop) on your proposed circular layout, but it might be worth adding one final statistic. The resistance of 1,5mm2 copper wire is all of 11,5 ohms per kilometre.

The Southern utility vans were always U-vans (or sometimes "Cavells") to SR staff, no matter what fancy coding might be painted on them. Once pooling came with nationalisation the main difficulty was preventing other regions from poaching them. The principal reason for adding them to local trains, there were even examples specially fitted to work with pull&push stock, was pram traffic, particularly during the immediate post-war baby boom decade when few families possessed cars - electric units could usually cope with prams because most units had more than one brake van.

There is one other issue, if there are two signals on the same post (ie not bracketed) ahead of a facing point, the normal convention is that upper and lower relate to left and right in that order (and likewise if there are more than two routes/arms). You have them the other way round. Bracketing signal 2 to the left, even marginally, might be the obvious answer. Signals mounted one above another relating to different routes were once commonplace but started to become rarer during, say, the 1880s, at least for running roads.

I suspect that fixed stop semaphore signals had become part of the national S&T repertoire somewhen about then, albeit very rarely used, one was installed at Shanklin in 1967 as part of the IoW electrification scheme (although that scheme did use some rather odd signalling arrangements - the lack of distant signals being the most obvious). The Southern had certainly been installing fixed red c/l signals by the early 1960s - there were a pair at Folkestone Harbour - but at the same time was still using subsidiary yellows (with a partially masked lens), displayed alongside a red, to permit entry to non-passenger routes which were effectively permissive.

That photo is also useful in confirming that at least some of the maroon-painted MK2a FKs had black dark grey and not maroon ends.

I would have said that the norm was for both footplatemen to be upright, the fireman of near necessity, the driver because he got a better view of the road ahead (and, having once been a fireman, was used to habitually standing on a footplate). The seats would typically only be used when the train was at a stand and there were no immediate tasks to be done.

Shunt discs (dollies, dummies, w.h.y.) with yellow stripes were discs which could be passed in the on position if the relevant points were set appropriately - typically towards a head shunt - but could not be passed when "on" if the points were set towards a running road. They displayed a yellow light at night when "on". They were introduced by the LMSR, LNER and SR (but not by the GWR) in the very early 1930s. The WR started to do the same only in the early 1950s and then generally only for new works. Prior to their introduction the shunt discs concerned were red and the requirement to pass these when "on" was considered undesirable by the post-Great War committees charged with examining future British signalling requirements, that was why the change was made.

Name of photographer obviously withheld to avoid embarrassment. He (she?) clearly didn't realise that it was 2FS and not N, although the finescale pointwork should have given a vital clue.