Davexoc

For 'manual', that could be gravity assisted, as although the line is sort of contouring the Chilterns, it is running downhill towards Watlington. Chinnor cement works was gravity worked for the unloading of coal, Chinnor being about the highest point on the line.

Heard on the radio this morning a NR ad stating that the WCML would be closed over the May Day Holiday weekend. A bit of heavy lifting coming up then....

That is a nice looking lump. The colours are a bit out, the pipework at the near end should be salmon pink, denoting lube oil Here is one for reference on a lowmac, probably a bit too faded really though...

Only 3 different 153s? Go back to 2008 and you could have many more, here are 4 different liveries in one shot.... That is 308 in Wessex black, 311 in RR, 319 in Arriva and 376 in CT green. When you add in the others plus 158s around that time, there was an abundance of liveries. W&W orange, EMT, Northern spirit blue on 153s Alpha line silver, Northern spirit burgendy (ex TPE with and without CT branding), CT green, EMT on 158s Plus the 156s which were either CT green or EMT Plus you can mix and match on summer weekends with Skeggie 15

Matrix sign on H8/Buckingham Road is warning of coming closure, but I don't think it is this month. May Bank Holiday blockade on WCML for those cranes to lift the beams into place??

Last December, loaded with JLR curtain siders....

Not sure you'll see the face of it unless on a westbound train. This is the back of it in May 2009....

I wasn't saying the price of plastic was the main driver, but it contributes. I order the plastic for a packaging manufacturer, and our monthly bill has risen from just over £1m, to over £1.6m per month, all within the last three months. Metals prices are also on the up, as is oil. As tooling is metals, and most of the non-plastic bits of a model are also metal, running on machinery that uses oil, there are other contributory factors. Then don't forget there is a plastic box with a plastic former and liner to protect the models, encased in a card sleeve, which has also risen in price due

Not that surprising really, plastics have increased in price by about 50% in the last year, most of that in the last 3 months. Then add to that increased shipping costs and the Suez blockage recently, quite easy to understand the increase and delay. The bad news is, that the price of plastics are likely to go even higher in the coming months, so more increases likely to come...

Scottish 47/4s certainly carried them, plenty of images of them, just not 47/7s... Plus 47004 seems to have retained them when it moved south and got repainted in two tone green at OC. I wonder if fitment made brake block changes awkward, as they do seem to obscure the slack adjusters.....

And before Woburn Sands became a Costa Coffee Love that murky Saltash picture. Judging by the trees, it is a typical early summer day?

I am guessing that what that actually means is, when the light stops functioning as a flashing light, and becomes just a steady glow, it is time to change the batteries. The cessation of the flashing function indicating that the battery life is almost over, and switch off and change over as per any device.

Finding it hard to believe this was taken nearly six years ago...

Looks to me to be wagons used between bogie bolsters that are loaded with rail. As most bogie bolsters were under 60 feet long, the rails would overhang the ends, thus requiring an SWB wagon between them to keep the overhanging loads apart.

With the slogan 'Range anxiety? Let the train take the strain....'