Jim Martin

The new Merseyrail Class 777s have this feature. Very useful it is, too: I travel home from Moorfields; and when the weather is nice I'll catch the first train out of town, wherever it's going, so that I can wait in the open air. Stand by the door, press the button as soon as the train pulls out of Moorfields and there's a prompt right there when you get to Sandhills. Not once have I found myself getting off at Kirkdale (or worse) because I forgot that I was meant to be changing trains.

The comments are always the worst part of any newspaper website. I generally read the Guardian, and it's the same there.

It's quite possible that they did. Architectural salvage is big business. Google "genuine victorian fireplace": some are very grand indeed, but there's a market for more modest ones as well.

I don't recall this - I don't go to that many exhibitions - but I do recall one bit of Inkerman Street-related "copying". The passenger train was a three-coach set of LMS stock; but instead of a set of three 57' coaches (I could be wrong about the exact lengths: I'm not an expert on LMS coaches) it was modelled as one of a rare batch that included a single 54' coach. Within months, one of the kit manufacturers had introduced that exact set. It might even have been advertised as "the Inkerman Street set", or something like that. As I recall, there was a mildly peevish paragraph about it in MRJ at the time, complaining that they'd been trying to do something a little different from the norm; and now it was the norm.

That's surprising, because I think it's a pretty common use of online services by GP surgeries. My GP really isn't any great shakes and they've had this feature for a couple of years.

As an alternative to the David Ratcliffe book (which is worth having, if you can get hold of it), you could try this: https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/product/5542/source/specoffweb. It's out of stock at that website, but you may be able to find a copy online. As a guide to the sort of subjects covered, see this thread: Note that for reasons that probably make sense to the guys behind Rail Express, the magazine ("REx") and the modelling section which has been included in every single issue for years and years (sometimes abbreviated to "REM") have separate number series, so REM144 would not be in REx144. Go figure. The articles in Rail Express cover the whole country over a broad span of time, so I'd doubt that any one article would contain more than one or two formations relevant to you; but most of them would contain something. Jim

Green Lane station on the Merseyrail (formerly Mersey Railway) line from Birkenhead to Chester is in a cutting, which is partially covered by the former trackbed of the lines into Mollington Street depot, which run almost on the same axis as the lines through the station. This shot is from Google Maps: the light-coloured parallel lines are steel girders which span the cutting. You can make out the Liverpool-bound platform beneath them. The southbound platform is beneath the now abandoned and overgrown trackbed (just do an image search on the station name for views of how this all looks from platform level). The high-level lines included those into the depot, goods lines to Birkenhead docks, several sidings and the lines into Woodside station, which at one time had expresses to London. Most of this is still visible on Google Maps. South of here, the Merseyrail tracks climb to the same level as the mainline tracks.

That's nice work! I'm pretty sure I never rode a 155 (although I have been on a 153) but it looks pretty good to me.

I've seen the Class 155 done as a conversion from a couple of 153s - reversing what happened in real life, I guess! Still, it looked like a big job, as I recall. Also, Dapol are planning a revised Class 66? I did not know that. How's that going to compare with the Revolution model, I wonder?

Well I had 9 (I've sold some off since) and they were all awful. Maybe it was a production batch thing: I bought all mine from the same retailer, Hattons, not in a single purchase but at about the same time; and they all ran really badly and made a screeching sound as they did. This are the photos that accompanied my original blog post. In the first photo you can just about see the shiny spots where the wheel flanges have rubbed against the ribs. Once the ribs came off, all my BYAs ran perfectly, as do my other wagons fitted with the same bogie. Jim

Plus ça change...

Some people want the GCR route reopened because they're fundamentally opposed to any route closure at all; and if it was reopened, they could describe the original decision to close it as "short-sighted", a favourite term of theirs, even though the network has got along perfectly well without it for 60 years. I grew up in GCR territory (High Wycombe) and I've got a pretty sound knowledge of the company. I used to model it, a few years ago; and I'm edging towards doing so again, if only as a change of pace from the WCML in the 21st century. I'm emphatically not "anti-GCR". But it closed because use of the railways was in decline generally and the connections it offered could largely be replicated by alternative routes: South-West to North-East services via Banbury are perfectly possible without the Banbury-Woodford Halse link. The London Extension became a favourite of anti-HS2 campaigners not because they liked the GCR route, but because they didn't like HS2. Describing it as "a high speed route" without adding "in 1897" is dishonest, but a certain amount of dishonesty is part of the game of PR and campaigning (and I'm not saying that HS2's supporters were altogether above it).

Are you talking about particular rolling stock, or is it just everything? I know a lot of n-gauge container wagons, for example, being very light, have poor reputations for coming off the rails.

Thanks. I've just noticed where it says "excluding the 30'1" 6-wheelers" in tiny letters on the front of that book, so I guess that the literal answer to my question is "not much at all"! I suspect that you're right about the most useful book for my purposes, though, so I'm going with your recommendation. Cheers! Jim

How much overlap is there between Millard, Selected L.N.W.R. Carriages: a Detailed Commentary; Millard, London & North Western Railway Thirty Foot 1in Six Wheeled Carriages; and Millard & Tattersall, L&NWR Non-Corridor Carriages? I'm looking for a decent understanding of the kind of stock used on regional passenger trains in the North-West in the 1920s. I assume that these would mainly be made up of non-corridor stock. Thanks, as ever (and Happy Christmas!) Jim

Thanks! I could have sworn that I'd checked the Society website, but evidently I didn't (or else I made a very poor job of it). Maybe I'm confusing it with the 3SMR site, which I definitely looked at. In my defence, I was doing it on my phone, which is rarely a good way of viewing lengthy pdfs. I'm interested in an NER prototype, and the heavyweight bogie with the tiebar looks like it'll be just the job (in my OP I said that I didn't want the tiebar, but I've just looked at a photo of the prototype and it actually does have them). Jim

Interesting point. I meant externally: the insides are pretty much as they ever have been. You wouldn't want to eat your dinner off them, but they're acceptable. I wouldn't be surprised if you were right about the carriage cleaners. Merseyrail has been gearing up for the 777s for what feels like forever, so it's quite possible that the infrastructure has been modified to suit them (apart from obvious infrastructure changes, like all the work on station platforms that's been done over the last few years).

I'm considering a 3mm project, building a couple of carriages, and I was wondering where, or even if, I could obtain 8-foot wheelbase Fox bogies and wheels. 3SMR do a white metal Southern 8' bogie which might be adapted, but I really want something without a tie bar. Any ideas? Jim

Sadly, my train home last night was a 507 (albeit cleaner than most) and this morning's commute was on another 507, this one carrying the usual livery of overall (including the windows) dirt colour. So the 777 revolution on the Southport line is at best partial.

I'm sitting on one right now, on a Southport to Hunts Cross train. By no means the first time I've ridden on one, but the first time I've even seen one in service on the Southport line. I rode home from work yesterday and it was a 507. I don't know if this marks the launch on the Southport line (not before time, since the 507/8s are pretty much clapped out, not to mention that Merseyrail seem to have given up on cleaning them altogether) or if this is another test; but here it is. Jim

I meant in more general terms. These are only third-rail examples because I travel a lot on this Merseyrail electric network, so that's what I see. My actual layout plans are for an overhead electric line. I fully expect to have more questions in due course, based on things I've seen at Wigan North Western!

Wow! Just seen these (while on the train, as it happens). Lots to look at here: thanks again. Jim

Thanks very much. I don't know how I passed O-level physics, because all of that seems new to me (although, in fairness, that was so long ago that electricity may not have been discovered). Track really is fascinating. There's so much stuff layered on top of each other. I intend, finally, to build my long-planned layout in 2024 and there are so many things you could add to the track that the problem is likely to be deciding what to leave out. Jim

Thanks very much indeed! Why wouldn't the clips also be on the track on the inside of the curve, where it's (very slightly) tighter? Jim

Another question about stuff that I see while looking at railway track... Both of these pictures were taken at Merseyrail's Brunswick station. This station is on quite a sharp curve which continues through the entire length of the platform. This photo shows a set of clips which are on every other sleeper on the northbound track right through the station. I don't know how far they extend beyond the platforms (it was nighttime when i took these). I did think that they might be something to do with maintaining track alignment on the curve; but this track is on the outside of the curve and the other track, which must be on a slightly sharper curve, doesn’t have them. So, what are these, please. This bit of kit is between the rails on the southbound track. I assume that it's something to do with signalling, but there's no signal visible at that end of the station (which might be the whole point, of course: you can see maybe 200 yards up the track from this point, given the curve and the fact that the driver is on the inside of the curve). Again, can someone tell me what this is? Many thanks, as always. Jim