Jim Martin

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

This reminded me of a book I once read (can't remember which one) which said something along the lines of "GCR locomotive classification followed a logical system...", which was news to me.

I wasn't trying to suggest that it was easy: more the opposite, in fact. Maybe my perception is biased by the fact that I am modelling one of the areas you mention; but I'd stand by my suggestion that the period from the late 80s to the 2010s is probably the one with the least variety of unit classes across a large swathe of the country. Even so, it's taken literally decades even to get to a position which I felt able to describe as "more or less adequate": and, as you point out, it's not exactly perfect now.

I think this is a big factor. Few newer units have a very wide geographical distribution or variety of liveries; both of which are allegedly important to manufacturers. Also, as has been pointed out above, the situation with 1st generation DMUs is, if anything, even worse: manufacturers clearly believe that the "a unit is a unit is a unit" mindset is strong and that people won't buy, say, a Class 116 if they already have a Class 108. It's even worse with EMUs: there is effectively no "situation" with 1st generation AC EMUs because there just aren't any available at all. Even 2nd generation DMUs haven't been that well catered for. In N, which is my scale, we've had tolerable, if not great, 150s and 156s (and 153s, although that's neither a type nor a model that I know much about) for many years; a 142 which has significant issues since 2019 ( i.e more than 30 years after the prototype was introduced and 1 year before it was withdrawn from service); and a woeful 158 which stayed in production for 30 years before being replaced recently by a very nice, albeit expensive, model. Those few classes can take you a long way; but if even those, which maybe hit the sweet spot in terms of a relatively small number of classes covering the whole country, have taken so long to get to the current, more or less adequate, situation, I wouldn't be getting my hopes up for the 3rd or subsequent generations of unit.

I know nothing about models this large. Is this live steam?

Ah, thanks. I've been looking on eBay but never seeing it, which has been bugging me! Jim

I don't recall ever seeing a copy of a volume 2 of Gordon Weddell's LSWR Carriages. I've seen volume 1 (1838-1900), volume 3 (Non-passenger Carriage Stock) and volume 4 (Goods, Departmental Stock and Miscellany); but not volume 2. I have, however, seen several copies of LSWR Carriages in the 20th Century, also by Weddell, for sale; and a photo attached to one current eBay listing shows the first page of the Introduction, which talks about the first volume being published by OPC in 1992, as volume 1 of LSWR Carriages was. Am I right in assuming, then, that LSWR Carriages in the 20th Century is actually the second volume of LSWR Carriages, albeit with a different title? Thanks Jim

I see that. Interesting. Thanks

I use Open Train Times but I've not seen Signalmaps. How do you find they compare?

The right hand curve must be where the track adjusts to the island platform, because in the big scheme of things there's what appears to be a left-hand curve at both ends of the station. Would a short 2km radius curve be visible to the naked eye?

Hi Simon That's really interesting, so all this means that there's a curve of 2330m radius, then a transition of 15m, then another of 50m (there's a funny little kink in the platform, so maybe that's why there are two successive transitions?) then a curve of 660m radius? I assume that the numbers on the labels are heights in mm? Jim

I was waiting for a train at Merseyrail's Waterloo Station this morning when I noticed a number of labels fixed to the sleepers on the Liverpool-bound platform. Can anyone explain what these mean, please? The first labelled sleeper looks like this: successive sleepers are labelled as follows (number of sleepers is the number from the previous label): 7 sleepers: "10" 3 sleepers: "00" 5 sleepers: "05" 8 sleepers: this... Then at intervals of 7 or (usually) 8 sleepers, they are labelled 05, 10, 15, 20 etc. up to 45, then another 7 sleepers, then this... and that's the last one. if these are relevant: the direction of travel is from left to right in all the photos; there's a signal at the platform end (15-20m beyond the last labelled sleeper); and immediately beyond that is a curve severe enough to have a lubricator installed. Jim

I enjoyed it a lot, as did the Divine Mrs M. In tone, it was quite similar to the programme where Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimore go fishing with a guest: it's some old blokes who are at ease with themselves chunnering about something that makes them happy.

I've been into their Liverpool shop several times for advice about painting, and they've always been very helpful. I've never pretended to have any interest buying anything else (in fact, I've usually had a reference photo of a particular bit of railway equipment on my phone) and they've never tried to upsell me at all. I find the GW business model really interesting. Businesses are always claiming to want "a relationship" with their customers. Usually, that's something utterly superficial: pay an annual "membership" and get some barely-there benefit in exchange (every year, the escalators at Merseyrail stations abound with ads for underwhelming offers of this kind from the football clubs) but here you've got a whole sector - because it's not just Games Workshop - where the shops are social hubs. Another sector that seems to have the same sense of authentic communities built around shops is knitting. It's fascinating how they've been able to secure the Holy grail of retail that way.

This report relates to an accident involving an LNER workmans' train at Orgreave in 1926. The train consisted of 14 mixed 4- and 6-wheeled coaches, so it was quite substantial, and it was on a diagram which saw it shuttle between Sheffield Victoria and Orgreave several times over the course of about 18 hours a day. What's really striking about it, though, is the motive power. According to the report: "The miners' train was drawn by six-wheeled tender engine No. 3280, type 4-4-2, weighing 112 tons 14 cwts. in working order". This is an Ivatt large Atlantic, C1 class, and very much top-link power at Neepsend at this time (this was one of several C1s transferred to Neepsend in the mid-20s). I don't know if this was a regular arrangement, but it's a long way from an 0-6-0 pannier. Jim

Actually, this is a fair point. If he was an actor, he'd be getting paid residuals: not a fortune, but more than nothing. If they're using that footage again in an entertainment show, I'd say he has a moral case. Whether he has a legal case... who knows?

They're also extremely grubby. Like you, I guess, I live on the Southport line (Blundellsands and Crosby is my nearest station), which readers not familiar with Merseyrail's goings-on should know is to be the last route to get the 777s. Whether even rush-hour trains are 3- or 6-car seems to depend mainly on if two working units can be found; and my train yesterday was so dirty that the windows were translucent at best. The vinyls aren't great either. The current ones seem to be lasting as poorly as the previous ones did (although the last lot, the tiger stripe, when new, was my favourite Merseyrail livery). There's a lot of positive coverage of Merseyrail at the moment, what with Headbolt Lane and the battery-fitted 777s; but the Southport line is just sad. Jim

Unless you're modelling a very early railway, or some sort of light railway, multiple locomotives of the same type are prototypical. I'm modelling the WCML in the 2000s. Freightliner generally used either a single class 90 or a pair of 86s on their container trains. I want to be able to have two trains passing each other, both hauled by a pair of green 86s or one hauled by a pair of green 86s and the other by a green/grey combo. To that end, I've just acquired my fourth green 86 and another will be coming in due course. There will be some detail differences, particularly around the fire suppression tanks on the roof, but in general I'm a big fan of multiple locomotives that look the same. Jim

I flew from, I guess, Luton to Alicante with them. I remember that the in-flight brochures made quite a lot of the striking liveries carried by their aircraft (pastel stripes). The plane was a BAC1-11, I think. I don't remember anything at all about the food. Whatever it was, good or bad, mine would have ended up in the sick bag. I suffered from air sickness something awful when I was a kid.

I thought of Hlibre too. I went out there a few years back in a group of mixed physical attributes, so it was pretty much a given that we were going to get cut off by the tide. That's why we took a picnic.

The remake of The Ladykillers is a perfectly serviceable black comedy with an excellent cast and really good production design. If the original had never been made, I think it would be a lot more popular than it is. Unfortunately (for the people involved in the production) the original was made and is staying made; and is so embedded in British cultural memory, at least, that no remake is ever going to displace it. To add to my personal favourites already mentioned (Get Carter, The Wrong Trousers and Bad Day At Black Rock), I offer a scene from a movie with several good train shots ( can'tfind a clip of the train leaving town, for some reason):

I guess the answer to the OP's question: At the turn of the century what was the maximum length and width of a carriage that could run from one company to another? would be "whatever the company with the more restricted clearances could accommodate". I do know that the Great Central standardised on 60' length when it started building the Robinson matchboard carriages in 1911*, but built a number of 56' carriages to the same general outline specifically for through working to Bournemouth over the GWR (presumably not where the clearance issues were found) and LSWR. Jim * Okay, they built 60' matchboarded coaches in 1910, but I don't think you could say that the Barnums represented any kind of standardisation

Around 1980-82 I used to travel from High Wycombe to Banbury for spotting. I was there one Saturday when a southbound Freightliner and a northbound train that I can't remember swapped locomotives. I think the northbound stopped in the station, while the containers stopped on the goods line north of the station; then the locomotives were uncoupled and ran up to their new trains, coupled up and set off back in the direction they'd come from. I can't recall the technicalities of how the shunting was carried out. I learned later that this was a timetabled changeover (SO, I think). I have copies of the passenger and freight WTTs for the period, but I don't know where I've put them. I'm pretty sure that the moves are in there.

That'll be once, then Jim