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There's a photo at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingythewingy/7938623142 with a very full caption which explains that the box at Aughton Road was built in 1928, replacing an earlier structure. At that time the LMS was still building boxes to pre-grouping designs, but it's not clear why a Midland design was used on an ex-LYR line- it's likely that the parts of a redundant structure of the right size just happened to be available at the time.

Llanfair Caereinion isn't GWR: the original W&LLR had no signal box at Llanfair. A new box was built by the preservationists in 1967, and renewed in a more convincing Dutton style in 2002.

That's Nailsea & Backwell, which closed in 1971. The station is still open. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nailsea_and_Backwell_Signal_Box.jpg

The RAIB site does not get updated on Sundays.

That's Neasden South Junction: Neasden Junction is the Midland box at the other end of the chord to the N&SWJR.

Here's a 1979 picture of the box diagram, showing that the detonators do indeed work with the points (33) ahead of them. George Pryer's diagrams suggest that this wasn't provided when the box opened in 1957, so maybe there was a later instance of a driver taking the wrong signal which prompted the addition of the detonators.

Bamber Bridge with proper windows, cleaning gantry and staircase, in 1989

Here's Rothley before it was at Rothley:

I think you mean no 12, which is the yard exit signal at Dunkeld.

That's Woodside Park. I can't place the other one at the moment.

No, that's Abergavenny. This is Leominster (formerly South End): Both pictures 1980s Stuart

That was my first set, for Christmas 1963. By 1965 I had learnt to read and that "Holiday Express" blurb is one of my earliest memories! I've still got the B12, which is somewhat battered but goes like greased lightning on the very rare occasions it gets put on the track. Standing it beside Hornby's latest version is quite educational!

It's also the case that where stop arms are stepped, any distants below them should also be stepped.

Here is the Bachmann/NRM City, alongside Hardwicke. On the City, the ball through which the handrail passes on the front of the smokebox is much smaller in diameter than those on Hardwicke, suggesting that it can be done, by the same manufacturer, much more neatly than we are now being presented with.

Those horrible big blobby handrail knobs again- ruin the clean LNWR look, just as bad as on the Stirling single. A great shame.

Civil servants are paid monthly

No, it's a GWR auto-trailer (possibly a former steam railmotor) in GWR post-war livery.

You might stand more chance of a reply if you ask in "UK Prototype Questions" https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/72-uk-prototype-questions/

The picture in Pigram & Edwards featuring SRM 98 also appears in cropped form on page 59 of John Lewis' SRM book. He is confident that it is in brown, and is also sure that all the SRMs were originally turned out in brown and cream, with the last appearing in February 1908, and all-over brown starting to be applied between July and September that year.

Sorry, no, I can't say whether it is brown or lake in the picture.

The ballast is interesting- looking at http://www.gx2006.co.uk/railway_operation/pages/gx2-13-gerrards cross station c1907.htm , the down loop apparently had darker ballast along a lot of its length than the other three tracks when that picture was taken, which (judging by the the absence of sheds and the pristine state of the footbridge) may indeed be a couple of years before our mystery train. I suspect that the stone used was not as well graded as it is these days, and probably came from more diverse sources, so it's not too surprising that there are differences in appearance. Looking at the Newton collection, there may have been drainage problems in the cutting at the London end of the station, which may have led to some reballasting in the early years. That's all speculation, alas.

The later we go the less likely it is that all the vehicles in the train would still have been in brown and cream- I think the light roof of the A9 implies that it is fairly new, and the foliage suggests spring, so I'm going to stick with early 1909 as the latest date. The Newton pictures of the building of the new line shown that the ballast was not all as light-coloured as new ballast is these days. I don't really understand your last point- Gerrards Cross is a very distinctive location, featured in many published works, and even if I hadn't been personally familiar with it for more than forty years I would have immediately recognised it.

Some interesting points there. In the shed-less "1910" picture of the station nameboard, the platform fencing is incomplete (compare with the picture on page 32 of the Oakwood Press book), suggesting it is very early. On reflection, I'm inclined to agree that the "1906" picture may actually be later (possibly the date was meant to refer to when the station was built), though that doesn't explain the absence of the shed from the "1914" picture. There's a picture on page 92 of "The Final Link" by Edwards & Pigram, showing 1908-built railmotor 98, in red, in the station in what is claimed to be 1912, and the shed is not only present but has acquired a neighbouring corrugated-iron structure, also on stilts. So I'm happy to conclude that the coach is an A9 and the original picture dates from 1909- and the dates of most of the other pictures are wrong too. Thank you all for your help!

This has eight compartments, C25 has ten.

What is the third vehicle of the train in this picture? The date (1906) seems unarguable as the line and station opened in April that year and are clearly brand new. However, the train includes something which looks like nothing so much as an equally new A9 toplight First, which weren't built until 1908. I can't find anything earlier than that in Russell or Harris which might fit.