ChrisH-UK

An article from 89/90 still has steel but in greatly reduced quantities on Speedlink trains so I'm guessing it was lost to rail with the demise of Speedlink. Pretty sure (but not 100%) that the Silver Bullets started straight away

We can only see half, and one end of a BSK also looks like half a BG. That opens things up a bit. I'm not getting many clues on the date from other things in that picture though to possibly narrow it down.

There's an article in the Dec 91 issue of Modern Railways complete with track plan. It's not the same type of diagram as used in the Quail map books so the two might complement each other.

I think it was repainted from NSE into RES around 1992, later it went into EWS and according to the AC Loco Group website it was repainted back into NSE colours in 2005. As a footnote for how widely this loco served, the pool of locos for Cobbler trains was also used for parcels trains for a while before they formally became parcels locos and there were booked passenger turns for parcels locos

I've considered taking photos from St Nicolas Bridge, looking at google street view there appears to be more foliage now than there was 25 years ago (things grow! shock horror!) but with the right lens I would expect good results, train speed should be enough to give time to compose the shot and take a few pics. There's the retail park with ASDA at the foot of the bridge for parking (so long as you give one of the stores some patronage, naturally). Chris H

The book "The Power of the AC Electrics" has detail shots and line drawings of the roof equipment. (ISBN 10: 086093246X) It's possible that the Modern Locomotives Illustrated issue 191 also had the info you are looking for. I believe you are correct about when the 2nd pantograph was removed. Chris H

Looks more like a courier vehicle to me 802xx series, I don't know how they were used specifically but I remember looking in the window of an unoccupied one and as far as I remember it was a standard compartment, unsure if the rest of the passenger area was gutted or the compartments used for whatever required the courier.

Before Speedlink finished in 1991 (and not usually in dutch) some carried bricks. At least one OCA carried wheelsets from St Blazey to Carlisle Currock and then Cardiff Canton. Dutch liveried examples also carried plastic drainage pipe and concrete troughing amongst other things.

Probably not considered major, but the RFM converted from FO had a full height but reduced width window not illustrated. Here's a pic on flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/60525183@N06/6908957973 Probably the easiest Mk3 bodyside conversion.

I recently discovered a magazine with an article about a review of TPO services in 1988, it had a diagram of the old order which had two services each way between Bristol and Derby. One was the 19:35 "Midland TPO Going North" (yes that's really how it was marked) which returned from Derby at 00:40, the second was the 01:10 "Bristol - Derby TPO" which appears to be the return leg of a service from Derby at 20:20. The article suggests that from October 1988 TPO services between Bristol and Derby would be provided by a 19:22 Penzance - Derby service but there was also a "bag tender" from Bristol to Sheffield at 21:40 that connected with a TPO to Leeds/Newcastle. Would the bag tender have been just BGs and GUVs or might it have included TPO vehicles?

The same article I quoted above did mention "TSO(T)s are now used on the boat trains in place of RMBs" and I do remember seeing sets with the TSO(T) as the only 'catering vehicle' at Liverpool St but I don't remember travelling on them to know if they offered a counter service or just made use of the trolley space.

A longish time ago in a galaxy not so far away I posted about a pic of the 89 on a Mk4 set in a Modern Railways Special. A couple of days ago while checking old magazines I found the exact same picture in issue 118 of Rail (Which has the former class 33 that was repainted in Mainline livery on the front) the pic is on pg 14, the caption reads The Class 89 has been used recently on some workings between London and Leeds resulting in the unique locomotive being paired with Mk.4 coaching stock for the first time. Following the fitting of Time Division Multiplex (TDM) equipment at Bounds Green, the locomotive can now be utilised for push-pull working. Avocet heads the 1210 King's Cross-Leeds as it approaches Werrington Junction, north of Peterborough, on February 16. Photo W. A. Sharman.

The DBSOs didn't start becoming available for Anglian services until the summer of 1990 and that was one by one to begin with, according to an article in Motive Power Monthly from October 1990 "The original intention was for push-pull working to be phased in from May this year, for completion with the October timetable. In the event the first converted DBSO was not ready until early June and three diagrams were due to commence with push-pull working on 10 September with the balance of Norwich and Parkeston Quay InterCity workings using DBSOs from 1 October." By this time I'm pretty sure the last blue 86 had been repainted. BSOs and DBSOs were around at the same time but I always saw the DBSOs at the Norwich end so if there's a BSO at that end it's unlikely that a DBSO is also in the set.

Not all, and only a few at the time they were renumbered from 47/4, 47834 was renumbered in 89 but retained cowling until 1991, 47835 kept the cowling even after it became a RES loco. Maybe B Exam's list just doesn't have them, I certainly don't have a comprehensive list of which did and did not.

47375 originally only had one end removed until at least 1992. As for the timing, my limited personal research suggests that locos with one end cut were done by early 1990 and after this doing both at the same time became the norm.

Lol, even medium haul is a grind for me, only the thoughts of the people/places being visited makes it bearable. I guess even WTPlus is a step too far for your work.

The case for going to Warley this year is very much stronger now.

Having spent plenty of time asking strange questions about things I planned to do I thought it was about time I showed some of the stuff I've already done so for starters here's a Conrail Shared Asset Hi-rail truck. It started life as a Boley Topkick utility truck but a few cuts of a razor saw turned a perfectly good model vehicle into a pile of parts. Then with the cutting done it was time for the shutting, the metal cab had a plastic section inserted to turn it into a crewcab, the chassis had a 12mm section inserted in each layer of chassis and the parts of the truckbed were rearranged to match the prototype. Ladder/equipment racks were scratchbuilt, hirail wheels added from Custom Finishes, front and rear fenders (again scratchbuilt) and a crane donated by a Kibri Unimog was fitted on the rear. Earlier Topkicks were used when Conrail was still a Class 1 (in yellow) but this particular one represents a Shared Asset truck active in the South New Jersey area in the 2000s.

Just checked my records for 1991/2 and found 5491 used in a Manchester "Club Train" in October 91 and almost a year later in Sep 92. Can't find the book for 1990 but I didn't make too many visits to Manchester or Yorkshire. Hopefully someone else has a better sample to check.

According to the 1993 P5 book there were 3x 2B TSOs in RR - 5453, 5463 and 5491 however the 1992 book has these in Provincial livery so without photos that's unreliable. I suspect the sources used by P5 had recoded all Prov liveried coaches to RR as the Prov code wasn't shown in the key for 1993, soooo that would be a no. Confused? yeah me too

According to my old P5 Coaching Stock books the remaining Mk2B FK vehicles were in NSE livery and in the Boat Train pool from 1991-1993, there were no 2B SK vehicles listed in any of these books. Cheers Chris H

I quickly discovered how nasty the nylon was that was used in most sports kits for supporters at the time and would've been wearing an american football t-shirt instead. Luckily I managed to stay behind the camera for most of the time so there's no photographic evidence other than a possible siting in the background of a published picture from Crewe Diesel open day in 1992. btw it may have been a bit of a fad then but American Football hugely popular now as evidenced by 3 regular season games at Wembley and talk of a London NFL team by 2022. Cheers Chris H

Might take some doing to recreate the prototype's hair of the time so I doubt we'll see a R-T-R Kit (did I really just type that?) And when it comes to taking pieces of other figures to make a Mr Spackman... please don't say it.

Looking good. Apologies if I have missed it but are you planning on giving the suggestion that both tracks crossed the water at one time but when they renewed they singled it and put the concrete abutment in? Maybe the remains of supports on the bank? Cheers Chris H

Hi Mitchell, The price I was bemoaning was of the Rivarossi DD-AR model