ZiderHead

Looking really good with all the vegetation I dont know if its of interest but there are alot of deer living in the woods/undergrowth at the N end of your scene, Ive seen up to a dozen of the cheeky chaps wandering all over the sidings and even running lines after rainy spells in the summer - I think they may be tempted out of cover by the freshly grown grass. Its rare to see that many out in the open, but common to spot a few lurking at the edge of the undergrowth if you keep your eyes peeled. I think they are Roe deer, but I stand to be corrected on that.

It must have been pretty chaotic then too! It always seemed a bit crazy to me to build a major new port without a rail link, when work started on the Royal Portbury Dock the Portishead branch had only been closed for 8 years … It took a further 30 years to build a short spur off the branch for freight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmIOrCdh9pI

Thanks for the info, I usually check loco allocations using www.brdatabase.info but unfortunately it seems to be broken at the moment.

Great thread, particularly like the shots of the west country 31s, any idea when they started to be based at Bath Road? (I have the day off today so have spent an hour or so skimming through your Flikr collection while listening to Sussex vs Somerset, all in all a very satisfactory morning )

That photo reminds me of Rolls Royce's standard response when asked about the power rating of their cars - "adequate, sir"

Plenty of 70s around then, how many are there now? I gave one on containers a wave passing Wolvercot bridge yesterday at 2pm

Seeing a loco on a lowloader always reminds me just how small our loading gauge is …

10 or 12 sounds about right, it seemed to completely fill the Motorail dock at TM - the whole train was an impressive sight!

oops - link now fixed It mentions Trenance Junction closing May 1968, so presumably the diagram is for early '68, or it took a while for the signal to be removed, and also the limit of shunt being extended.

Presumably once the shunter had moved the carflats into siding #1 and the coaches into #2, it would have backed onto the carflats in #1 so the train loco could then back onto the coaches in #2?

Yes I should have mentioned that the box diagram was 1968 from http://www.svrsig.org/diags/S1063.htm, which has a good description of the box and signalling as well as a separate locking table and dog chart (not an expression Ive come across before - it looks like the physical layout of the interlocking frame.)

Hmmm I'm not sure if the passenger service terminated at St Austell or further down the line, and hence where the loco would run around the carriages. Its 40yrs since I was on a Motorail and at the time I was probably more concerned about where my next ice cream was coming from This box diagram might be useful for reference if someone else knows about the operations: http://www.svrsig.org/diags/S1063-12.pdf Edit: Paul has provided the answer while I was replying

I watched it many times as a kid (as well as loading our car at TM too), details in this excellent topic: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69084-kernow-blues-1970-to-1985/page-2&do=findComment&comment=973538 Signal box diagram is on the previous page

My Ivatt ran really well after it loosened up a bit, it hauled 3 coaches and all my wagons (inc ?10 opens heaped with fine sand) round my 8x4', although it required some driving to get it going and avoid it slipping. Not bad for a prototypically underpowered class II My Hymek (iirc same motor?) just pulled away with no problems.

Crushed like the junk they were presumably. Morris Cowley - where every car is a Friday car!

Great find! I stayed in the stationmaster's house there a few times, sadly after the line and station had been removed. One more for the loco weathering reference

Great footage Those 16t (not tipplers this time!) do look somewhat overloaded with stone. I knocked up a spreadsheet a while back with some bulk materials as 16t loads, might be useful if you're not modelling them with coal: Material Density Weight How full? kg/cu.m 18.3cu.m Bauxite, crushed 1281 23t 60 % Cement - clinker 1540 28t 50 % Clay, wet excavated 1826 33t 40 % Coal, Anthracite, broken 1105 20t 70 % Coal, Bituminous, broken 833 15t 100 % Coke 650 12t 100 % Concrete, Gravel 2403 44t 30 % Concrete, Limestone with Por2371 43t 30 % Copper ore 2590 47t 30 % Earth, moist, excavated 1442 26t 60 % Earth, wet, excavated 1602 29t 50 % Earth, soft loose mud 1730 32t 50 % Flint - silica 1390 25t 60 % Galena ( lead ore ) 7600 139t 10 % Granite, broken 1650 30t 50 % Gravel, with sand, natural 1922 35t 40 % Gravel, dry 1/4 to 2 inch 1682 31t 50 % Gravel, wet 1/4 to 2 inch 2002 37t 40 % Iron ore, crushed 2900 53t 30 % Limestone, lump 1538 28t 50 % Limestone, pulverized 1394 26t 60 % Marble, broken 1570 29t 50 % Mud, packed 1906 35t 40 % Sand with Gravel, dry 1650 30t 50 % Sand with Gravel, wet 2020 37t 40 % Shale, broken 1586 29t 50 % Slag, crushed, 1/4 inch 1185 22t 70 % Slate, pulverized 1362 25t 60 % Stone, crushed 1602 29t 50 % Wood chips, dry 520 10t 100 %

Not unreasonable given that base rates averaged over 10% from 1977-1991 ...

Freight, Bristol area, BR blue. Music to my ears! Looking forward to seeing these

Hmmm looking closer ... no side doors, so I think you're right - tipplers. In which case ~27t is ok

Very nice It raises a question about the 16t though - I assumed that the 16t was a loading limit but the load in those wagons is about 30t by my reckoning!

Interesting. I though a lot of the route east of Bedford had been built on but a quick look at google maps shows that its only in Sandy and Potton, although there are quite a few houses there on the old trackbed.

Its a shame the whole of the Varsity line can't be reinstated, its a royal PITA driving from Oxford to Cambridge, and parking in either.

No need to remind me, as I said it was a tragic incident. It is completely unreasonable to assume that the barriers, lights and two-tone were for the train they were trying to catch, because they do not mean that a single train is coming, they mean that it is not safe to cross the railway - exactly as the signs posted near the crossing state very clearly. As for auto-locking gates, its rather telling that in the months after the incident the gates were locked and pedestrians regularly climbed over the locked gates to cross the tracks while the barriers, lights and yodel were active, having walked past a large pile of wreaths …