ringo

Notes have been made to T305 set and after an incident it was sent to Doncaster and the trailer car 59520 was repainted into full GW livery on one side by Doncaster. Actually, the whole unit was involved in a derailment at Tyseley, where the units leading power car went down the fuel road, and the rear power car went down the through sidings, the trailer went down the bank between the two. The brake end of the power car was heavily dented, this was repaired by me and repainted in the same choc/cream as the rest of the power car. However, the trailer (59520) was sent to Donny for repairs, but some how it was further damaged and returned to TYS with scorched paint on one side. I set too and repainted the trailer on one side in the full GWR livery with the darker GWR brown, it also had maroon window inserts as per standard GWR coach livery, the lettering was all hand painted only the coat of arms being a proper gold size fix transfer, from the original manufacturers. Cheers

I haven't been here for ages, yes I did do a 4mm BRUFF, I'm now looking at a 7mm BRUFF. Look here for the 4mm version. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/920-railway-motors/page-17 Cheers Ringo

I have a copy of that Bedford HA brochure, cracking photograph though.... As for the unimog posted earlier with the blue light on it, a lot of on track machinery has flashing blue lights, as this is used to warn others that the machine (which can be sometimes remotely controlled) has the potential to move without warning. Cheers Ringo

That's a southern region skate, which don't have an axle, just in case it came into contact with the third/forth rail. Eurostar have a beefed up version of the old Southern skate. The attached picture shows a new skate that we fitted to a class 508 EMU (earlier post showed a EWS skated painted maroon.......ours being a Freightliner skate is painted FL Green!) R.

The wheelset is lifted using jacks, the skate is constructed under the vehicle, the wheels are separate and have to be built with a tube that acts as an axle. The skate has wheel shaped blocks between the inner and outer frame, the wagon wheel is lowered on to these blocks, and there must be about 9mm of clearance between the rail and the bottom of the wheel. Max weight of the wheel can be up to 26 tonnes. The skate shown above is called a BR Mk 1 skate, the Mk 2 skate is basically the same but with slots instead of bolt holes. Speeds have to be strictly enforced for movement, 3mph over crossovers and points, and 25mph on plain line, with further restrictions where there is a severe cant on the track, skate movements must also be accompanied by a technical rider, who will check and re-grease the skate every so many miles. There are other variants of skate, including ones for 66s, IWAs etc. In some cases the wagon/coach or loco will have to have significant parts removed or the skate will foul equipment on the vehicle, on 66s the Radial steering mechanism must be removed on the bogies if axles 1/3/4 or 6 are required at be skated, if not it will fall off the road Cheers R

JCB, When Freightliners lorries come up for grabs when they are off leased, there is usually a fight for them, mainly because they don't rack up mega mileages, as they are predominantly used for trip workings rather than long distance, and are well looked after. Except one that is used a lot for moving wheelsets about Freightliner Maintenance depots in the UK and Springburn/Wolverton, and I think its the same lorry, but one used to do trip workings with wheelsets for 66s, to Poland.....its a bit odd driving into a PKP depot in Wroclaw, and being greeted by a new British registered Freightliner truck parked up in the depot! Cheers ringo

Merf, yes there is, And I go to Wabtec/LH Plant sometimes, and there's always some knocking about there, either as new or being serviced/repaired. I would need a special variant that's a Unimog, but modified by Hegenscheibt/MFD for use with their jacking/recovery equipment (as were the BRUFFS). Cant see our company investing that type of money though, we make do with Transits and a special modified trailer.... Cheers R

PhilJ No, I meant a full sized real one......just right for our breakdown team at Crewe! Regards R

Hi all, I found this worthy successor to the old BR Bedford BRUFF. Its one of the new unimogs, but with a proper box body, similar to that used on the old BRUFFs, looks good, and I want one! Cheers Ringo

I just find it highly amusing, a Leyland FG with Woo Woos and blue flashing lights. Hardly a high spedd persuit vehicle, still Im sure it got the fish n' chips on site a lot quicker! Might actually buy one just for the sheer hell of it as its so off the wall. Cheers Ringo.

I think the Blackpool BRUFF has been gone for some time, theirs was far less complex than the BR ones, basically had small rail wheels (smaller than the BR BRUFFS) and also had no hydraulic gear fitted for recovery on derailemts. It also has standard road wheels / axles and no 4x4 equipement, unlike its BR counterparts. Cheers ringo

Andy, the large lettering "EMERGENCY RAIL RESCUE", was only applied to those BRUFFs in EWS service, all the other BRUFFS had varients of BR lettering or other "localised" lettering. The only problem with the "Southern" BRUFFS, they used Lukas lifting equipment, which used a single control pipe, whereas the rest of the country used twin pipe MFD lifting equipment. The one shown is a Lukas varient. Other than that it looks to be remarkibly original, Cheers Ringo

Im not a great fan of the older trucks on BR, but I have to say Im quite taken by that Old Bedford (120 BLR), theres just something about it! Top notch pics! Ringo

Andy It was still there towards the end of last year. Also have a look here, in google maps, look around the back of Etches Park shed, and zoom right in, there appears to be a Coles crane and a ex BR van!, This cant be that old an image... https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=de24+8up&hl=en&ll=52.910416,-1.453483&spn=0.000205,0.0006&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=6.581428,19.665527&hnear=Derby+DE24+8UP,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=21 Cheers Ringo

Andy, Its definatley not complete, theres an awful lot missing, the only complete but seized bits are the rail wheels, and the engine is there, the back body isnt too bad I suppose though......would cost stupid money to put right, that is IF you could get the non standard parts for it. Cheers R