buritonhampshire

Not too sure about any pacifics or main line locos but some of the tank locos from Portsmouth Dockyard were scrapped at Bedhampton about 1961. Perhaps this is what you remember? Roger

It must be a first for a cover-mounted gift to be in S scale. A rough measurement makes the figures about 6 foot 9 inches in OO but 5 foot 7 inches (or thereabouts) in S. I forsee amputations in the future to fit into your Pecketts and Barclays! Roger

I seem to remember that these models (not sure about the ones offered by Hereford) were manufactured by Bachmann and as black class B tanks came in two versions. The 'break points' for dating are pre-1972 if they don't have UN hazard symbols and 1976 when Shell and BP split their alliance and started repainting vehicles with their own branding. After that leasing came into effect more and plain liveries with no branding came into force more. The above is a very rough and ready rule of thumb - I have been trying to find some of the non-UN hazard code versions recently but the black liveries don't seem to have been produced for a while. Roger

Paul Thank you for that simple advice - easily understood. Much more so than what the NCE 'momentum' button actually does. I currently have no custom settings of my own in decoders and am about to 'look after' a whole pile of other friends locos at an exhibition where, as far as I know, there are no custom settings either. I can easily cope with a re-set and putting the addresses back into the locos and any other changes to CV29 (for reverse running for instance) if required. I will probably isolate the momentum button on my handset to prevent inadvertant use by anyone else during exhibition use and will suggest the same to the other provider of the handsets at the exhibiton. The decoders in use are a mixture of sound and non-sound with ZIMO (assorted) and ESU V4 depending on whose stock it is. A re-set I could cope with at the bench behind the layout and the programming track that sits there. Thanks for your continued sage advice on the forums. Roger

Hopefully another simple question! Conflating this topic and some of your other posts regarding the NCE 'momentum' button if this has re-written CV values in POM mode would it then be a simple matter of doing a decoder re-set to regain the original values that the designer has programmed? Does this also work with ESU decoders (yes, I know you are primarily concerned with ZIMO product - I have several SLW Class 24 locos and am very happy / impressed) but I'm never quite sure what values a decoder re-set will revert to. Roger

Hadn't looked at removing the grilles - will go back to that! As I understood it there were a small number dual-braked which gave trouble (overheating or something similar) with the original 3 panel arrangement. The fitting of the 2 piece Serck shutters were a solution to the problem by re-arranging the internal layout of equipment. Of course, the change-over took place in the middle of production runs and was not a clear break in number order. The Western region 'named' locos from Crewe were affected by this and it is problematical to work out which were delivered with which arrangement! The excellent Class 47 Data File series is a help but, as of my last check, the volume dealing with this batch is still being updated awaiting reprint. The group are usually at Ally Pally so I'll have to have a look next month Roger

Although it was after I retired I think the Super-Alliance on SWT (between Stagecoach South West Trains and Network Rail) had been dissolved before the re-franchising. It was totally unworkable as there were differing "points of view" regarding priorities and, undoubtedly, a grave question over financing. One assumes that the bottom line of Grayling's and the Government policy is that someone else pays for any improvements and this reduces (on paper) HMG's outgoings - at least to the general public in the press. The convolouted franchising and leasing deals which the Government are funding are kept behind the scenes so the general public don't realise what huge expense there is and what poor value for money the deals are. Three or more years before the South West Trains super-alliance was set up Network Rail declared, in discussions with SWT, that the track and signalling between Waterloo and Surbiton was "worn out" and needed total replacement. Didn't see any of that happen during the duration of the super-alliance. Shortly before the alliance was set up Network Rail took back all maintenance in-house and absorbed many of the contractor's staff working for them, effectively tossing Balfour Beatty off the premises. I regularly see Balfour Beatty vans parked nearby (at a track maintenance access point) as they seem to be doing all the work again, subcontracted by Network Rail! Rail franchising is a wonderous thing (not!) but is a major plank in HMG's GALMIN (get a little man in) style. Especially if they can also be persuaded to pay for the work as well! Roger

At an 'educated' guess I would say ex-Bulgarian (BDZ) 44-071, virtually identical to CD Class 242. The colour scheme suggests one of the locos re-worked by ZOS Zvolen in the past couple of years. see at following link :- http://www.buritonwheelbarrow.net/SlovakiaRailways/2014/AugustSeptember/i-6mk7pjc These two DO appear in Pritchard but under their current leasing companies. Several CD and ex-BDZ locos of this type are appearing across the area in recent years although most have been re-numbered. Roger

DOO is seen as a way to save money - forgetting additional costs for despatch and surveillance devices. Government policy, I'm afraid. More importantly I can't reconcile the figures. the press release promises 22,000 seats extra in the morning peak and 30,000 in the evening. Note this is ADDITIONAL. My rough calculation would make this an extra 20 to 30 trains (not extra carriages!) to get into and out of Waterloo on a line with no extra capacity. Has anyone checked with Network Rail about the extra lines needed for this sort of service!!?? Roger

Just to clarify the situation a little. The SD40-2 'B' units were relegated to trailing unit only status - this involved the removal of cab signals, refrigerators, toilets and cab seats. (I assume that this would have allowed the units to be driven in yards but think it highly unlikely that any engineer would do it willingly; even dead stock movements are usually undertaken by coupling together.) The first units treated seemed to be in 1992 and B-units became quite common out on the road as part of a lash-up - but not leading. Canadian Pacific got some second-hand units (from NS was it?) that they converted in a similar fashion but they experienced problems with staff trying to couple them in the lead or try to ride in them. They solved the problem by painting over the windows and sealing up the cabs! I seem to remember that the UP treatment was because of a shortage of the necessary equipment for the cabs and was meant to be a short-term solution. Of course, this was around the time of the take-over of SP and the semi-melt down of their services in places so, as there were a lot of spare SD40 units from the C&NW and MP takeovers, not to mention lots of tunnel motors it was seen as a way of keeping 'power' on the track but meant that trailing only status was mandatory. Roger

I'm intrigued by the shots of 33/1's on TC units from the early days (1970's) but tend to think some may have bypassed Bristol TM and gone via Dr. Days Junction or whatever it was called. Certainly in the Eighties (as had been noted) the usual load was 5 Mk Ones with a Crompton as far as Bristol TM from Portsmouth (where the Fratton crew came off) and after Bristol and Cardiff men "signed" the Cromptons sometimes continuing to Cardiff otherwise a Brush 4 was the usual rostered traction. Once Sprinters (as noted 155 then 156 then 158) replaced loco haul Fratton and Cardiff men generally worked end to end with a change of ends at Temple Meads. TC units worked very seldom at this time but on the very odd time that they did (before Sprinters) the loco would have to be on the leading end entailing a run round at Cardiff and, of course, a run round at Bristol TM! The shunters at Temple Meads always insisted on putting a tail lamp on the TC unit even when red blinds were being shown! Roger

Try by increasing the value of CV29 by 1 as you have done and then change the values of CV 49 from 0 (zero) to 16 and the value of CV 50 from 16 to 0 (zero) - this has worked on the most recent one and has the current Hattons 21 pin decoder fitted. Roger

Re 73101 nameplate colour - I think this is the picture!! Roger

Yes, certainly the indoor shot gives a different hue to the paint. I've checked my original scan (full size and done with a Nikon Coolscan 5) and there are distinct differences in the hue of the name plate and the brown of the lower bodyside when using the colour picker tool in Photoshop. Hopefully there will be a crop above this comment which is from the full size scan and my thoughts about the black colour can be appreciated. Colour on various film emulsions is subject to differences (as I know when scanning Kodachrome or Agfachrome E6 - different from my baseline Fuji E6 slides) as is peoples' screen set up. Really can't explain the two different interpretations based on the same photo angle and roughly the same lighting conditions! Roger EDIT - No attachment - how do you do this?

Very interesting - I will have to dig out the original slide and look very carefully. It's interesting how different emulsions record differently. Your brown looks the same shade as the lower body sides whereas mine looks several shades darker, at least. Curiouser and curiouser as someone once said!!! Roger