stewartingram

Poor little thing!

Pedantically, it 'hauled' in one direction only. In the other direction it pushed! These were unfitted open coal wagons, and no brake van, delivered to Fleetwood by rail, then onward over the tramway to Thornton Gate sidings (Cleveleys), to be emptied. The journey on the tramway was done between service trams. The return had a flagman in the leading wagon, signalling to the driver. Again between the service trams, it had to negotiate numerous flat crossings of roads; the tramway itself ran alongside the (main) road on a fenced off reservation. Now that operation is something I would love to ha

A little off topic, but what about Blackpool Tramway? The present system is really a total rebuild of the older Blackpool, and Fleetwood, systems that existed until some 5 (?) years ago or so. Since then it has re-opened as a modern system with Flexity trams, though a lot of the rebuilding was done before the final upgrade was done. Unusually, there is a shed load (literally!) of preserved cars which are gradually being put back into service on tours, being based at the old Rigby Road depot. They still work, on the new modern track and OH system. Interestingly, I believe that volunteers o

Something to be dropped off en route - signal box or crossing keeper perhaps? Or something the crew are carrying home, no room in cab? I've seen bikes carried like that. Stewart edit to add - no room inside boiler or tender for the DCC chip?

Ugly? Noooo. Another progression in the story of the ECML. I actually think the Hornby models (from the pics here, my model hasn't arrived yet) shows a powerful design of loco. I like all the ECML big 'uns. Stewart

Attached here. If anybody else wants to see it they might as well kook. GER Models 4mm list.docx

No reason for me to upgrade then! I'd only remove those and throw them in the bin. Stewart.

Paul, did you get my message with the attached file of my 'favourites' that contain many East Anglian references? I have no apparent way of checking that it actually got sent to you. Stewart

Being a little selfish here, but as I have a magazine collection (RM, MRN, MRC) complete back to 1949 except for 5 copies, would anyone be prepared to lend me those 5 copies, to see if I need to search for them to complete the collection? If their is nothing in them of interest to me I won't need to look further? [ RM 1949 - Dec (issue 2); 1951 - July/Sep/Nov/Dec [issue 11/12/13/14)] Obviously care would be taken and promptly returned. Stewart

Is their any wiring for the live frog via a switch? If not then to me it sounds like poor contact of the blade against the stock rail, from standing. Moving it a few times is cleaning the surface contact. Always a potential unreliability problem. All my points are electrofrog, operated by Seep motors (similar design to Peco, but not as easy to align when fitting). The motors are built on a plasticard sub-base, designed to make fitting of the motors to the baseboard much simpler with easy alignment. The base includes a proper microswitch, which is used to switch the frog. I admit that ther

I can't see a problem with passing them on, either to someone like a preservation society (ie giving them away) or selling them (ie doing what the society will do).

Had an email from Kernow at 17:15 to say that it is in their Dispatch dept, waiting for Royal Mail to collect, soon be here now. Stewart

Sorry but the E4 in these gaudy colours is wrong. Go to Bressingham, where the NRM's E4 is painted a proper shade of blue. Now that is a REAL E4!. Mind you, I can remember seeing it pottering about in BR black.... Stewart

Sorry to be cheeky, but... If you are willing to split, and have any 1950 & 1951, I am looking for 5 issues from those years to complete my collection. Then... I get the same problem as you. I'm downsizing my collection (all mags going back to 1949!). I'm scanning the articles I want, then passing the mags on.... Stewart

Ok, so they are Fruit vans. So were they used for other fruit - eg strawberries on the W&U, or were they different fruit vans? Stewart

I could be wrong here, but way back when I was in the local club, and did a swap of mechanisms with one of my mates. If my memory is right , I put the mech from a 50 (slower geared) into my AEC GW railcar, the faster geared mech from that went into his class 50. See if you can compare the gears on different mechanisms. Stewart

I'm after 5 odd copies of Railway Modeller from !950/51, and if you have any? Otherwise I have the complete set. Stewart

I've sent you a PM. Stewart

I saw an old publication in my loft the other day, on these brake vans that I bought many years ago. I'm going up there again this weekend, I'll dig it out. Stewart

Echo for the Middleton Press books. I'm interested in East Anglia, priciply around the Cambridge lines, and southern ECML. Stewart

Heading for Newmarket, on the sharp curve from Coldhams Lane Cambridge? Stewart

And the Trix one with the Brush 4 (47) and WCML Pullmans. Or the kitmaster one with A3, USA tank etc. Not forgetting Wrenn with quite a few.....

With this leaning towards the GER, should Oxford Rail rename themselves Cambridge Rail? Stewart

I use A4 sheets of self adhesive labels which readily attach to sheets of plasticard (thickness of the plastic varied to suit. I then cut out the parts from the sheet with a craft knife, and stick them together with Mekpak or similar. Finally, when complete, I brush a matt varnish on to seal everything; my building are used in the garage with varying temperature and humidity. The varnish I use comes from the local DIY store, much cheaper from them than a specialist model varnish. Stewart

I hope nobody minds this little intrusion? Thomas Hill/Vanguard diesel crossing the road on the BLR, with my 1st car (wish I still had it). Must have been around 1968/9? Stewart