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37409

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Everything posted by 37409

  1. ROG are not involved in the delivery of the units, that's DB Cargo's job. ROG are doing all the testing.
  2. I once had reason to be glad of the Achnasheen Hotel's existence back in 1994. I was on a 'Freedom of Scotland' rover with a mate of mine and driven up so we had the car for positioning moves plus somewhere to store the tent/sleeping bag/spare clothes etc. Having placed the car at Kyle and covered the Kyle line for a day or two it was decided to re position it at Inverness to be able to cover the 'down the middle' turns the following day so after we rolled into Kyle on the last train from Inverness, we drove back along the A896/890/832 to Inverness. Having spent the first part of the journey dodging suicidal sheep on the single track roads from Kyle to just past Strathcarron we joined the nice, fast A890 to Achnasheen and ten the A832 towards Garve and Inverness. It was now fully dark and after 10pm, but I had a pair of very powerful spotlights mounted on my car and they were illuminating the road for miles ahead. Barrelling along the crest of the road at about 70-75mph with great visibility somewhere near Achanalt a fully grown Stag bounded out from the ditch and crossed the road about 50 feet in front of me. I had no chance, there was a loud 'bang', glass everywhere, I had a vision of something coming through the 'screen, a sickening thud and we came to a halt in a cloud of tyre smoke (no ABS). Luckily (bear in mind no mobile phones in those days) after about 10 minutes a car appeared and stopped offering assistance. As we were about 5 miles from the nearest phone I grabbed a lift with the driver to the Achnasheen Hotel where I could make a phone call for breakdown recovery and have a restorative whisky or two. I grabbed a lift back to the car with some guys with a Landrover who dropped me off at the car, loaded the dead Stag into the back of the 'Rover and headed off to fill their freezer (under Scottish Law if you hit it you can't claim it, but if you find it it's yours...!). Meanwhile my mate has assessed the damage and worked out we weren't that badly off, dents, smashed windscreen and a blown tyre so we got the recovery crowd to drop us at Autowindscreens in Inverness, put the spare wheel on and levered the bodywork away from the wheel. By 9am the next day we were back in business with a dented, but serviceable car. Very luckily for us (and thanks in no part to me swerving) the Stag had run into the side of the front wing, blowing the tyre and causing its neck to be hit by the windscreen pillar. This meant that it was killed instantly (I'd hate to think what we'd have done had we had to put it out of its misery) and also prevented damage to the front of the car, It also meant that it spun it around causing it to put a large dent in the rear wing as it bounced off but that was a price I was willing to pay to remain mobile. The 'thing' that came through the windscreen was its head and had it been an older male with a full set of antlers the general consensus is that I wouldn't be sat here today and neither would my mate; luckily it was a young buck. All in all a very lucky escape and I was never gladder to see civilisation than when I saw the Achnasheen Hotel with its phone and bar full of whisky.......... All in all it was a rather eventful Freedom of Scotland as I broke my left arm behind 37188 two days later but that's another story...........
  3. The 'small' wheel size never seemed to bother the Bulleid Pacifics, which are supposed to have the greatest number of recorded (albeit not official) trips above 100mph of any type of UK steam engine. Of course the reason for the number of recorded trips may simply be because the majority of 'timers' lived in the South, or maybe because express steam lasted longer on the ex Southern lines, or maybe the ex Southern drivers were having a 'last hurrah' and thrashing their locos more than drivers from other regions, but even so, small wheels does not necessarily equate to lower speeds - witness the 9F's.
  4. Wouldn't that have been great if they'd extended that policy a bit. Even if only 1% of locations took them up on the offer just imagine what we could have now..... SR 'V' class owned by schools, more 'WC's' owned by town councils, 'BoB's by the RAF, 'MN's' by shipping lines, 'Counties' by County Councils, 'Halls' and 'Castles' by Landed Gentry etc etc etc
  5. Re 50's and Inverness.... 50's were booked traction to Perth on the Motorail where a 40 took over for the final assault on to Inbhirnis, On occasion there'd be no 40 available so, if traction knowledge wasn't an issue, the 50 would run through. D410 also made it in addition to D412 pictured above.
  6. There is no arguing, Ivor did go Psssscht ti coof........
  7. As shown in that last pic of the 'fish mixed', the fish wagons were air-braked and thus had to travel on the 15.50 Mallaig - Glasgow/Euston as it was the only Up Mallaig line train that used air-braked stock at that time.
  8. I suppose you're using the WR system of counting things on the Withered Arm when asked to compile statistics for Beeching: I can see 4 turnouts........
  9. That's correct, the 'day coaches' were from Qst - FW (with sleepers and aircons), FW-Ml (with 1 aircon), Ml-FW (likewise) and FW-Qst with the sleepers and aircons. Booked move, the sleepers and the Mk2d BSO were left at Fort William and the declassified Mk2e FO plus the two (or sometimes more depending on season) Mk1's worked the 14.05 FW - Mallaig and the 15.50 return. This happened from the summer timetable '85 through to the end of hauled services when the sleeper became its own train separate from the normal WHL services. This meant that the 15.50 ex Mallaig was effectively a through train to Glasgow with a seated coach for Euston. Note that the tanks attached to the afternoon (16.05 ex FW) Mallaig were TTV's or TTG's, not TTA's. This is because, aside from the sleeper, all WHL services were vacuum braked.
  10. As said above the Sprinters took over on Jan 23rd 1989 predating the advent of Regional Railways livery on locos and stock. Intercity livery started to appear on the sleeper from '83 and also appeared on the Mk2 aircons (d/e/f) so you can mix Intercity and Blue/Grey. The Mk2 aircons appeared when the sleeper moved over to Mk3 sleepers in '83. Being all airbraked the day coaches attached at Glasgow Queen St were dual braked Mk1's as there were no air-braked Mk2a's in the WHL coaching pool until after Sprinters appeared. Thus, despite normal WHL trains getting Mk2a/z's from 1984/5ish, the 04.50 Glasgow-Fort William and 17.40 FW-Gw still kept Mk1's despite also being the 'premium' Intercity train on the route. The 'mixed' carried on until the demise of loco hauled in Jan '89. Normally the tanks (TTG or TTV's) were attached to the 16.05 Fort William - Mallaig on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and returned empty the following day on the 18.50 Mallaig - Fort William. Loco diagrams for the '85-'89 period were roughly as follows; 1Y21 09.50 Gw-FW 2Y55 16.05 FW-Ml 2Y58 18.50 Ml-FW 2Y57 21.05 FW-Ml 2Y52 06.50 Ml-FW 1T18 08.40 FW-Gw 1Y23 16.50 Gw-FW 1S07 05.50 Gw-FW 1T34 14.15 FW-Gw 1Y51 10.05 FW-Ml 1Y54 12.20 Ml-FW 2Y53 14.05 FW-Ml 1T46 15.50 Ml-FW 1M16 17.50 FW-Gw
  11. Usually the sleeper was; Mk3 SLE, mk3 SLEP, Mk2d BSO, Mk2e declassified FO, Mk1 SO, Mk1 BSOT, plus occasionally another SO during high season. Air braked. Normal rakes were combinations of between 2 and 7 Mk1 BSOT's, SO's, SK's, Mk2a/z BSO's, BSOT's, TSO's. All vac braked examples (including the Mk2a's) The sleeper generally used dual braked Mk1's as there were no air-braked Mk2a's allocated to the WHL during that period. Very occasionally a Polmadie Mk2a BSO or SO from the West Coast Mainline pool would be used. The Sleepers and Mk2d/e worked Euston to Fort William and return as a portion splitting/reattaching from a Inverness sleeper at Mossend hence the need for the BSO. This portion worked to/from Glasgow Queen St where the 'day coaches' forming the 0450 Gw-FW/1550 Mallaig-Gw were attached/detached. The day coaches plus the declassified Mk2e FO also worked the 14.05 Fort William-Mallaig and the 15.50 Mallaig-Fort William before being reattached to the Mk2d BSO and the Sleepers to form the 17.40 Fort William-Queen St/Euston. Hope that makes sense.
  12. Regarding the maroon mk1's, as I see it you have the following options; a) Extend the time period for the layout to include up to mid '90's and use them on SRPS tours and the arriving/returning Jacobite stock moves/tours (although this does mean you're now firmly in RETB territory). b) Repaint them blue/grey and use as 'normal' rakes. c) Repaint them in Intercity with white roofs and use as West Highlander Land Cruises. d) Get rid of them. Oh, and daft suggestion of the day......... Given the layout is loosely based on Crainlarich have you thought of calling it 'Crainlarish'?
  13. There's a wonderful scene in "Mr Hulot's Holiday" that highlights the importance of listening to station announcements..........
  14. Yes, that's a 'Y' class. The line 'Up Country' to Kandy is fantastic, truly one of the Great Railway Journeys of the World. If you do get a chance to do it don't forget to stop and visit the National Railway Museum at Kaddugannawa, Oh, despite them being known as generally known as tuk-tuks, in Sri Lanka they are usually called 'Three-wheelers', and a ride in one is certainly an experience! A more beautiful, charming, fascinating and welcoming island would be hard to find. I've been 5 times now and can't wait to go back.
  15. And a pair of 20 axle bogies would be great for anyone blessing the rains down in Africa.........
  16. Just make sure the Shermans have a length of pipe to slide over the barrels to make Ze Germans think, like, maybe it's a 90mm and the loudspeaker on the side so they can play music real loud - it kinda calms us down.
  17. Interesting how, despite having a custom interior, they still can't get the seats to line up with the windows.......!
  18. The Merioneth & Llantisily Railway Traction Company Ltd have a triangle leading to their shed. Perhaps with the large increase in passenger numbers coming to see their celebrity steam engine they could do with a 1+4 set to handle the visitors.........
  19. RETB didn't come in until 7th December 1987 on the Mallaig Extension, 27th March 1988 from Helensburgh Upper to Crainlarich/Crainlarich to Oban, and the final section from Crainlarich to Fort William on 28th May 1988 according to http://www.scot-rail.co.uk/page/RETB 37's started on the WHL in 1980 with the 27's finally disappearing by 1981. The 37/4's started to make an appearance in 1985, by 1986 all passenger services were /4's. Steam started in 1985. If you base your layout in the 1980-early 1988 period you can have blue 27's making the odd appearance, blue and Large Logo 37/0's, LL 37/4's and 37401 in Intercity livery, Black5's and still keep the semaphores. EDIT:- You could also have 37423 in unbranded Three Tone Grey Railfreight livery as that got repainted in Feb '88 but didn't get its decals and name until May.
  20. I'm sure that originally the plan included a new access into the RTC from the down main to save trains coming or going from/to the Spondon direction from having to reverse in the station, but looking at those plans it seems that this idea has been dropped.
  21. Ah, Flying Scotsman, or as once described by a driver I know as a 220psi boier on a 180 psi chassis with indifferent valve gear that requires works attention every 6 weeks just to keep it running. He may, of course, be biased due to being an ex SR man used to Maunsell's S and N15's whose only modification was to have their snifting valves removed......
  22. As far as I'm aware, dogs started in '81 on 37's and spread to other locos shortly after. In '83 Inverness joined in with the stag with Motherwell and Haymarket adding Salmon and Castles respectively in '84. By 1985 they were pretty common on all classes.
  23. 26/0 with cantrail grilles extending full length to the rad grilles. 26/1 with cantrail grilles stopping short by 3 grilles. Stags/Dogs/Castles/nothing
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