bécasse

It was a WWII conversion but late, 1944, which creates a bit of a puzzle as there really weren't many bombing raids by then but the V1s and V2s hadn't yet started to arrive. If the conversion was in early 1944 it is just possible that it was intended to provide power to one of the substantial but very temporary pre-D-Day encampments some of which had significant workshop capabilities (and therefore power requirements).

And Worsley Works do actually have quite a good reputation providing that you accept that they sell "what it says on the tin", ie scratch-building aids and not complete kits.

"W2W (EX GWR 1113) at Swindon 25/05/1957" 25 May 1957 perhaps ??

I have had a go at producing a locking table and, since it has been linked to several times already, I have included John Hinson's diagram to assist comprehension - please remember that this is copyright and shouldn't be reproduced elsewhere. This locking table was only a quick draft so there may well be some errors in it and I am quite happy to amend it in response to comments. Alsop-en-le-DaleLNWR.pdf

I suspect that the two home signals will be released by the levers for their adjacent FPLs standing normal, rather than the points themselves (although 24 will require 8N as well, on the assumption that 8R releases 11 and 15R releases 14). As I indicated above, the LNWR tended to be very parsimonious in its signalling equipment and chose the cheapest ways to implement locking. It was by no means unknown for LNWR distant signals to be locked by bars fixed to the levers which overlapped the home and starter levers, physically preventing them from being pulled unless both stop signal levers had already been pulled - however, given the date of the installation, it is probably unlikely here. One other issue that you have missed is that 2R will lock 24N and 24R will lock 2N so that trains can't enter the station from both directions at the same time. I think that Keith has had a lot more experience with LNWR locking than I have and is probably in a better position to comment further.

That is almost the signalling understatement of the year! The LNWR were distinctly parsimonious with signalling generally, including the provision of box structures and the avoidance of traditional lever interlocking (particularly by clever use of sequential Annett's Keys - for which the LNWR had purchased a generic licence).

Diagrams my no means always indicate the type of shunting signal on the ground, but anyway yellow versions of the LNWR type existed from c1930.

Former Rhymney Railway 76-seat third no.42, built 1920 by the Gloucester Carriage & Wagon Company and condemned September 1957. Fitted with auto-train gear by the GWR. It is interesting that, although it carries a painted legend identifying it as a vehicle for staff conveyance (almost certainly, as already noted, as part of the Caerphilly Works train), it is still part of revenue and not service stock.

I have been through my post changing the dimensions to millimetres - and I would at least start with the wider (14 mm at the top, 10,5 mm at the bottom) strips. Incidentally, you will save yourself a lot of marking out and cutting if, in the flat prior to cutting them out, you lay the strips out alternate ways up.

The circumference of a circle is π x the diameter. Therefore the circumferences of both the top (notional) and bottom (actual) of a bucket will be proportional to their diameters, in this case 40 cm and 30 cm, so the top of each strip needs to be 1/3 wider (4/3 - 3/3) than its base, the extra width being split equally between left and right. The circumference of the base of the bucket is approximately 94,5 cm (including a small allowance for the thickness of the card). It is up to you how wide you make each strip at the base but convenient widths would be 10,5 cm (requiring 9 strips) or 5,25 cm (requiring 18 strips). In the first case the extra width at the top would be 3,5 cm (split 1,75 cm either side) , in the second 1,75 cm (split 0,83 cm either side). There are some approximations in this calculation which will be more apparent with the wider strips than the narrower ones, so the strips should be cut slightly over length and finally trimmed once they are all fitted, and it is probably wise to cut the final strip marginally wide, trimming it to fit as necessary.

OK, Tim, I didn't realise that there was a main entrance elsewhere and was somewhat mislead by the presence of the gatekeeper's cabin. I would obviously have expected the ramp to be wider if there were regular two-way traffic through the gate but assumed, perhaps wrongly, that the narrow width resulted from your necessary "adjustment" of the local geography. It still looks great!

It looks very nice, Tim. One minor point, assuming that the scene is intended to be normally set during the working day, the gates at the top of the ramp would almost certainly have been open. No gatekeeper would give himself the extra work of having to keep going out and opening and shutting them. A realistic little cameo could be set up here of a horse and wagon stopped at the top of the ramp with the driver standing in front of the guichet.

I, too, had once assumed that it was the IRSE committee that was, in effect, responsible for the recommendations that led to the changes in running signals (including, inter alia, both the standardisation of some equipment and the use of yellow for distant signals) which came about in the late-1920s once the new grouped companies had had time to "get their feet under the table". That was until I saw extracts from documentation issued by the Railway Executive Committee Standardisation Subcommittee on the subject of recommendations for signalling which had clearly been newly prepared in 1924. The title of that sub-committee tells us a lot because the Railway Executive Committee was the committee set up to oversee the operation of Britain's railways during the Great War, continuing after the war until 1921, latterly under the aegis of the newly-founded (1919) Ministry of Transport. The standardisation sub-committee must have been set up well prior to the abolition of the REC itself to have been given that title, most probably before the founding of the MoT and quite possibly even before the end of hostilities. Once the REC itself was abolished, the sub-committee clearly continued, flourished even since its recommendations were significantly acted on, under the wing of the MoT. Quite what the relationship was between this subcommittee and the IRSE and the RCH is, without a lot of digging in archives, difficult to establish but, as I suggested before, the limited number of suitable committee members will inevitably have resulted in overlap and consequent effective dialogue. It shouldn't be a surprise that the IRSE weren't left to sort things out for themselves. The position of Chief Signal Engineers in pregrouping company hierarchy varied considerably from company to company, with some, even in the larger companies, being a long way down the pecking order, with signalling being seen as a unavoidable cost rather than a benefit in most. Given all the machinations that went on as to who would take what post in the new grouped companies, nobody was going to leave humble signal engineers to determine future standards which might well benefit themselves rather more than their employers. In practice though, the recommendations that emerged, and which were to some considerable extent (even on the GWR) acted on, were to prove sensible and both traffic and cost effective.

I reckon that at the precise date of that photo, just about all 03s were liveried like that, ie they had all (bar possibly an odd one stored out of service) acquired wasp stripes and the serif style numbers, and hardly any (and perhaps none) had yet acquired the new blue livery. As for New Street itself, it would just another 11 months before it went electric.

Wasp stripes were applied to locos built or overhauled from mid-1960. It is, unfortunately, difficult to ascertain when locos built before mid-1960 were first overhauled after it, thus acquiring wasp stripes. Electrification flashes were also applied from mid-1960 but in this case at depots so most locos acquired them quickly without waiting for an overhaul. Condensed style painted numbers had been introduced c1959 so it was possible to see locos with condensed style painted numbers but without wasp stripes.

Immediately post the Great War, and perhaps to some extent even before hostilities ended, there were at least three different series of committees looking at how the railways might move forward and, to some extent at least, reap the benefits of at least limited standardisation. The three series were allied to the RCH (obviously), the MoT once it was formed a little after the end of the war, and the various professional institutions. It isn't that clear now how closely these different committees worked together when covering much the same subjects (eg signalling) but given the limited number of relevant officers working within the railway industry even pre-grouping there must have been some overlap. Certainly they do seem to have come to very similar conclusions, although, perhaps inevitably, some of the newly grouped companies took them to heart more than others - the GWR stands out, of course, as the odd ball but even they adopted yellow distant signal arms.

I doubt whether there was a general ban, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway currently operates 4-wheelers, for example. What is more likely is that an Inspecting Officer hinted (in my experience they rarely gave an explicit view, other than "no", but were quite happy to suggest what might prove acceptable given the right conditions) that bogie stock was more likely to meet the requirements. While there were plenty of 4 (and possibly 6) wheelers still around at the start of the preservation era, they were almost exclusively withdrawn service vehicles (or grounded bodies but that is another story), usually without working continuous brake equipment), and they would have been unacceptable without vast amounts of work (and IOs would probably have taken a lot of persuasion to pass wooden underframes even for occasional use - most if not all current day 4 wheelers are on steel underframes). There was a lot of redundant bogie stock around, much of it in fair condition, and that was a far better proposition for the limited funds that most preservation schemes had available in those days.

Ken Ashberry produced a number of versions of Ashdown and Midport over the years, all a bit similar in context (probably to fit his home circumstances) but different in detail. Most if not all were exhibited, often at The Model Railway Club's annual Easter show.

The link doesn't go directly to the correct photographs but when one finds them they don't depict a B-set but a pair of non-corridor carriages (a BT/BS and a T/S) which were specially modified (by having their ventilators located further from the roof centre-line than normal) for use on the Highworth branch which had a restricted (height) loading gauge. B-sets weren't permitted on the Highworth branch for that reason.

It is short term expediency which seems to work both ways at the moment (although the sender still has the chore of completing a customs declaration). We have been told here in Belgium that the "full-monty" of charges will be applied from 1 July, but I think that in the UK the implementation date may have been put back (three further months?). If you order from an approved importer (eg Amazon or Aliexpress), my understanding is that they will add the required charges to your original bill and you should get an undelayed delivery.

Sorry, I don't think that that is correct. It is well known that the GWR was using tins of ready mixed paint from about the time of the grouping, I forget the details but seem to recollect that the supplier was based in Torquay. I don't remember seeing a specific reference to SR practice (but i don't have a copy of the latest HMRS book and that may well have a reference), but I do remember from some 60 years ago a modeller who had worked at Ashford Works and who possessed a (legitimately purchased) tin of ready mixed early-30s Southern coach green (which he used to paint his models). So the SR were also using tins pre-war and the practice perhaps started when fairly minor changes were made to the green colour in the late-1920s. If they were using ready mixed for coaching stock they would have used it for goods stock too. I would be surprised, though, if independent wagon repairers used anything other than paint hand mixed from pigments even post-war.

The Railway Clearing House List of Stations book will provide an answer as it lists all the goods facilities at every station throughout the network. If none are listed, other than private sidings, no public facilities were provided. The book was reissued from time to time with intermediate updates by circular.

If they were on the same lever, they would have the same number, the numbers shown are the lever numbers. While 19 would require all the relevant stop signals to be pulled off first, the locking on 20 probably just depends on 19 being pulled off. It may seem superfluous providing separate levers but distants could be difficult pulls to adjust, having them on separate levers makes the technician's task marginally easier. I remember in the early 1960s being invited by the bobby at Andover Junction A box to pull off the distant (and it was distant because of the falling gradient) for the down ACE, I pulled the lever exactly as I had been taught and watched the indicator go from "on" to "wrong". Put it back and have another go said the bobby, I tried twice more but the indicator stubbornly stuck at "wrong". That's funny said the bobby, none of us can get it to go to "off" either, and the lineman has had half-a-dozen fruitless attempts at putting it right.

For the glazing, use a cocktail stick to draw some thinned pva adhesive across each spectacle. It will dry translucent (almost transparent, in fact) and once it is dry you can colour it with thinned (or specialist glass) paint. If you have never done it before, try practising on a spare etch arm, but it is easy enough, much easier in fact than trying to add "real" glazing.

One of the most instructive reminders from that era is the fact that all the wreckage from the October 1952 double collision at Harrow & Wealdstone, described at the time as being more tightly compacted than a car crusher could manage and incorporating the mangled remains of over a hundred fatal casualties (many of whom turned out to be railwaymen), was cleared, and all the tracks reopened to traffic, in under three days. with some tracks being reopened even more quickly than that. I wonder how many weeks it would take today?