Nearholmer

Rich this might be better in your interesting thread, but I've found the item from the CRS site that I was trying to recall: Note from Roger Smith :- Normally the only loco hauled train was the class 31 hauled newspaper train : 1C07 04.05 SX Exeter SD - Barnstaple, & return 2C68 05.45 SX Barnstaple - Exeter SD (Which was then 50 hauled onto Penzance), but in the summer of 1986 this was 33/0 hauled on Saturdays and continued all day as a SO loco hauled service train on the branch. Not sure how many other instances a 33/2 may have been used as it was booked for a 33/0 but on the day (16th August 1986) a 33/2 was a real bonus. For the record the locomotive diagram was : 1C07 04.05 SO Exeter SD - Barnstaple. 2B63 05.45 SO Barnstaple - Exeter SD. 2B64 07.38 SO Exeter SD - Barnstaple. 2B67 09.20 SO Barnstaple - Exeter SD. 2B70 10.38 SO Exeter SD - Barnstaple. 2B71 12.15 SO Barnstaple - Exeter SD. 2B76 14.42 SO Exeter SD - Barnstaple. 2B77 16.00 SO Barnstaple - Exeter SD. 2B80 17.30 SO Exeter SD - Barnstaple. 2B83 18.52 SO Barnstaple - Exeter SD. My guess would be that whether the newspapers came by loco or DMU might depend upon the exact date/year under discussion. Kevin

I've just been looking at diagrams, and there were subtle differences in dimensions between batches of the military type, some being 10' 2.5" above rail level, and some 2" shorter, width varied by 4" also ....... I wonder if the first ones scraped something, or whether for one batch the dimensions are "as drawn" and the others "as measured when fully fuelled".

The 44 (Short) Ton weight was crucially important in the US, because it just skimmed under the limit agreed with Trades Unions that allowed single-manning; a pound heavier and it would have needed a crew of two. This was a huge sales feature, because the sort of marginal railway that they were intended for could save a lot over the cost of steam loco crew of two, and use some of that to fund the purchase price. (Oh, I just read wikipedia, and it says all that, only more accurately!) The military ones were 1 (Short) Ton heavier, but I haven't worked out exactly how/why, and I guess there weren't any trades union agreements in the military.

I'm fairly sure they were designed to be in loading gauge for Britain, and they were certainly designed for ease of changing the track gauge ...... I think the traction motors were narrow enough to allow down to metre gauge. Lots more pictures of the Gironde ones in this thread, which practically amounts to a book about the railway http://forum.e-train.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=73243&start=165 The only Herault picture that I can find shows a bigger loco, I think its a Whitcomb 65 Tonner, of which USATC had lots, some of which became NS 600 class. A few of this type did work in the UK, including on the Longmoor Military Railway. EDIT: No, having checked, the Herault locos were built by Coferma, heavily based on the Whitcomb design, and using engines, generators, and bogies bought "army surplus". The design was also heavily ripped-off by OBB for their first post WW2 diesels.

Many thanks. The preserved one that I have seen came from CFTA line SE de la Gironde, where they were used well into the 1970s, so that makes at least two French secondary railways. And, I've just found this excellent video of one in service ....... the viaduct is terrifying! https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-Lkry-SF01&hsimp=yhs-SF01&hspart=Lkry&p=CFTA+de+la+Gironde#id=1&vid=ad5af374d1daadb1b4168f3c38c62891&action=click

I think this has been discussed on RMWeb somewhere before, but can I find where? No. USATC imported c100 GE 44 Ton Switchers (actually ballasted to 45 Tons in the USATC version) to Europe after D-Day, many being assembled in GB from kits of parts sent from the USA. Excellent photo of one being unloaded in France from the TS Twickenham Ferry below. I know that a lot were eventually recovered and sold to Indian and Pakistan Railways, that a few went to a light railway in France (one preserved in working order in the Landes), the Portuguese Railways had some, and that others went to industrial users in Spain and Sweden, and when the Bilbao Metro was first being built, I "copped" one being used by a track contractor on that work. So, any European users that I've missed? And, did any actually get used in Britain? Somewhere, I've seen a photo of about fifty of them lined-up after assembly somewhere in South Wales, but I'm thinking of actual use, rather than "passing through". Davenport also built locos very similar, possibly to GE drawings, and some of them were used by FS after WW2, but its specifically the GE ones I'm after. Kevin

Theres a lot of interesting stuff about the Barnstaple Line on the Cornwall Railways website, including a clue as to what that train may be. There was a loco-hauled newspaper train in the early hours, carrying through vans from London, which then returned to Exeter, I think as the first ordinary passenger train, and on Saturdays the 'newspaper' loco then remained on the branch, with a loco-hauled service being operated all day. The photos certainly have that "early on a summer morning" look about them.

Hornby trains were first announced in Meccano Magazine in June/July 1920, but they didn’t advertise them properly until well into 1921, because demand was such that they couldn’t keep up over the Christmas period, even without proper adverts! From what I can discern from the definitive book, the tabbed lettering ceased c1923/4.

Hmmm ....... not really a picture to enhance a curry, is it?

Strikes me that it depends how far you want to take realism, because most of the south coast doesn’t look a lot like most of South Wales. Local geology tends to dictate local building materials, and they are, by and large, different between the two locations ....... doubtless if you search hard you can find bits that do look similar, but my gut feeling is that it will be a fairly long search. Other than that: perfectly feasible, especially 1912/1935 in the one locale.

There’s an Indian restaurant, in the former chapel of what was originally a Catholic children’s home, near to where we live, which has a full-sized replication of that painted on the very-high ceiling. Which probably interests no one. Sorry!

Look upon the unexpected arrival of 0 scale in your life as an epiphany.

The sort of signal box and construction method that i’m Intending, but I am set on making my own. This “wrong scale from eBay” thing can cause disruption: I know a guy who accidentally got a G1 vintage tinplate wagon, and now has a house-full of vintage G1 things, having sold his vintage G0.

I love the “do not alight here” sign on the signalbox, to deter any parkour experts who might otherwise be tempted.

I’ve just realised that those open wagons are very similar to those of the Glyn Valley Tramway.