Arun Sharma

The other way is to forget about additive manufacture and 3D CAD sculpt it from a drawn solid block

I would have thought that the appropriate Isinglass drawing would have all the structural and historical information that you might want regarding any ex-LNER rolling stock.

Fortunately, they don't have to - They only need to work like trains.

I have an idea that although Antwerp and its port had been captured, the estuary of the Sheldt leading [backwards/upstream of course] to the port was still occupied by Germans on both North and South sides. It wouldn't be until rather later [with much thanks to the Canadian Army and the Royal Marines] that the taking of Walcheren and the Scheldt Estuary would allow Antwerp Port to actually be used.

It might be cheaper in the long run to put some form of 'cow catcher' on underground trains.

I saw this programme today. A chunk of the program is taken up by a situation where ein Schäferhund has run into a Northern Line tunnel. The end result being that the dog found its own way out but 200+ pax were stuck in a tunnel on a undrground train in 40degC for over two hours as a result with other services on that line suspended for a couple of hours. In other words, a large number of travellers [paying customers, if you prefer since that's what the TfL station manager referred to them as] were seriously inconvenienced. I am curious as to at what point might a line controller say, "stuff it, we cannot inconvenience the paying public any more - go back to full line current and run the trains". After all, there is no shortage of wildlife in TfL's tunnels. Anyone who has been on a central London tube platform late at night will have seen rats, mice and even the occasional fox. I'm guessing that the dog's owner wasn't sent the bill for the ESU call out.

Did they really mean: The Long Welded Rail Train (LWRT) has delivered 427 rails totalling 216 metres in length. That would make the average delivered piece of rail about 50.58 cm long [or 19.9inches in real money].

If DoT are going to pretend that we have any form of joined-up transport system, the idea that when planning land grabs to build [trunk] roads, there should be a capability to build a railway in that land space is a sensible one. Imagine the transport system we would have had if say, the M6[T], M25 and say, A14 roads had been built with an extra lane occupied by a railway carrying probably, mainly freight around [rather than through] London to the South and East coast container terminals. In reality, local and national politicians have long been opposed to their territory being bypassed. In the not so recent past, I was talking to the [then] Commissioner for Transport [when Ken Livingstone was Mayor]. he told me unequivocally that he [and the Mayor] opposed the creation of a London orbital railway because the London Mayorality wanted people [transiting from West to East etc.,] to have to change trains and use the underground because they would then spend [more] money in London. With that sort of mindset, it is hardly surprising that there is resistance to building railways.

I'm sure I've seen a layout on RMWeb modelling Cwm Prysor. When I was working on the Ffestiniog [on the rebuild of Welsch Pony] this was the route to Portmadoc and/or Blaenau I used. Incidently, I noticed the 08 has a couple of cut out holes on the buffer beam - anyone know what those were for?

As someone with a professional interest in occupational medicine, I've always been curious to know what the death rate from Mesothelioma and other lung diseases was in those who scrapped asbestos-loaded steam engines. As anyone who was employed at say, Drapers or Cashmore [or the scrapping shop at Swindon] and died of an indistrial lung disease would almost certainly have been referred to the Coroner, it ought to be possible to find out.

Would this help?

I agree with you but that concession to local government has cost the country phase 2 of HS2. Firstly, I believe that concession was unnecessary and secondly, I am increasingly of the view that the Manchester, Totton and Leeds legs of HS2 should have been started first.

This is very strange. The land was presumably acquired by an Act of Parliament for a specific purpose. Why on earth does some local council have any say at all in the process of what form the structure takes. They can surely have nothing to contribute. I understand that local and County Council arguments have added many millions to the cost of HS2. Many of which have been overturned by courts and only lawyers have got anything out of the process. As a rather clever journalist has written, 'The tunnels through the Chilterns were extended after a vociferous local campaign. But tunnels cost about ten times as much as normal tracks; cuttings five times. A big part of HS2's budget has gone on making sure a small group of people in the south of England will never have to see or hear it. As a result, many more in the north won't either.'

Interesting photograph - were those distinctive buffers only ever used on Sharks?

Good Guy - very helpful. If you ever needed a spare part from/for a JLTRT kit Laurie would always try and help. RIP

For those whose stomachs are strong enough to read the full [probably] horror story of what went wrong with HS2, may i suggest reading pages 18 and 19 of this weeks "The Economist".

It may be this one [on the Eastern bank of the Colne Valley] with the red outline arrow pointing to it: What the film does indicate is that to build a mile of railway, it seems that you have to build at least a couple of miles of new road and a few bridges. Perhaps DfT should be taking this into account when muttering about costs.

My father worked just by Mildmay Park on the Balls Pond Road [for close on 30 years] in what the local gentry like to call "Upper Islington". He told me that the locals pronounced it, "Mama Park". I suspect now that area has become 'gentrified' there would be few folk around who had ever heard the local pronounciation. But that's how the locals pronounced it in the '50s to '70s.

Yet, my understanding is that all the evidence suggests that reopening old railways causes unexpectedly larger passenger numbers than predicted. An example perhaps of, "If you build it, they will come...."

What's confusing me is the presence of a chord from the northbound HS2 to the Eastbound EWR suggesting that there will be a link between Aylesbury Vale and Winslow.

A friend of mine who has a passing, albeit somewhat cynical interest in the doings of large bodies, wonders whether the missing tunnelling machines in the Chilterns were in fact diverted to build a bunker at, and a railway connection from, Chequers to join HS2 so that the denizens of that Noble House could make a fast getaway if they ever needed to......

Looking at the supplied map, it looks like it is actually on the line of E-W Railway rather than HS2. It is well to the East of HS2's maintenance depot. While I like bats [especially as I have had numerous dollops of Rabies vaccine in the past] I am not sure that this is the best use of taxpayers' money...........

Leytonstone LT station in the late '50s watching Standard Stock on the Central Line - About 200 yards from my school. On the way home I would walk past the embankment between Leyton Midland and Leytonstone Midland on Hainault Road where, as often as not, there would be a 2-6-4T parked. Afternote: I have a recollection of one of the F5 2-4-2 tanks passing southbound through Leytonstone presumably en-route Epping to Temple Mills yard.

An interesting and succint overview of an essential part of the railway designed to relieve congestion on the WCML. What bothers me is that DfT must have known this would happen yet they still didn't effectively protest to or convince their political masters. It beggers belief.

I designed 7mm versions of the 10T flatwagon and the associated 10T Brake van [both as preserved at Quainton Road] back in 2014. They were marketed by Phil Radley but I don't recall him ever wanting them in 4mm. Although the brake van was designed originally to operate with LT's diesel loco DEL120, it was later modified with a somewhat larger cab [as per the current form] which then prohibited it from operating through tube tunnels - This of course applied to both the converted brake vans.