C126

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67263931

Wonderful. I still can not believe this is 2mm:1ft when I see the pictures.

A conical-ended bitumen tank wagon would be enough for me.

May I add my thanks to you all for the show. Despite being my third visit, the programme, and the new 'You are here' maps, I still got hopelessly lost and disorientated, missing Lecture Rooms 1 & 2 until an hour before departure. Bought my Xmas present - Mr Larkin's v. 1 of Speedlink wagons - and a few other bits, and was delighted by what a broad church the hobby is. I hope everyone else enjoyed themselves as much. Thanks again. Roll on Warley.

Err... is it not "Plasser & Theurer"?

... or cross your legs for ages awaiting one's arrival near a lavatory. Or perhaps I am just getting old.

Thanks @Mikkel , always good to read your thoughts. I am a big fan of watching layouts at exhibitions at eye-level if possible, and shooting photos the same (panoramic, if possible). I like @Andrew P 's movie-photography of his Speedlink layout where he uses shots at buffer-beam level. His camera has a good depth of field as well, which helps.

Having bought many Preiser figures last month, I have taken photographs trying composition and colours. The layout is strewn with 1970's wagon-load stock at the moment, and while bauxite shades dominate, I wanted to try other-coloured wagons in some pictures to see the effect. Sadly, focus and camera-shake is not my strong point, and some backgrounds must be excused. D7070 rests in the grain/warehouse siding, having brought in a special Company train of minerals from Acton Yard (despite what the head-code says). The '03' yard shunter bustles around arranging the wagons. I hoped the completed part of the warehouse would dominate, but this teaches me to pull back further, for the train to be smaller in the frame. The minerals company's JCB loads an Accurascale MDV, and a lorry arrives with more shingle for one of the bins. Meanwhile, further down the siding, the coal merchant arranges sacks. ModelU have brought out some more suitable figures recently, rather than these generic warehouse staff. I rather like the way, in the last picture above, the size of the vehicles increases from left to right, and the blue grain wagon gives a splash of colour on the right of the frame, but not out of balance with the drab grey and bauxite. Meanwhile, the '33' on 7N44 departs for Tonbridge Yard, taking the grain wagons, an empty Vanfit for sacks of fertiliser, and a VIX Ferry Van back to Kent. I shot this with the camera raised slightly above ground level; for some reason I thought it looked better. Please excuse the un-painted 'onion dome' on the corner of the warehouse. I did not expect it to be in shot. In the two Mileage Sidings, staff load and unload the day's freight from 7L57, the 09.08 from Norwood Down Yard, with 33 039 deputising for the rostered '73' EDL. This was the first time I have played with the Accurascale Coil wagons. These will be headed for a canning factory, an idea for which I am indebted to @Nearholmer . Still not fixed a realistic hook on that Coles crane... A Vanfit is unloaded, as two staff bicker about how best to get the load into the back of the red drop-side lorry. The pale poles on the BEV on the left of the picture were an attempt at 36' telegraph poles from pine felled on the High Weald, made from bamboo kebab sticks. I must find a dark wood-stainer to simulate creosote. Again, the colours are muted, but the yellow and red of the road vehicles bring a splash of colour. 71 012 pulls away with the 'Up' after-noon milk train from the passenger station on the viaduct, as the '33' shunts two vans out of the way in the goods yard. I should not have included the N.C.L. lorry; the picture did not need more bright primary colour. The yellow 'Freight-Lifter' would have drawn the eye to the loading of the Vanfit and the Supervisor chalking the destination. At last, the train is made up and the '33' pulls its vans into the departure siding, ready to have more added by the shunter, and then run round and be off as 7L58 to Norwood Jn Yard. I like the opportunity now of including more figures in my pictures. Presumably goods yards were run down and mostly deserted in the 1970's, but there must have been several people bustling about (or, in this decade, probably just standing around) when un-/loading had to be done. The railways are for people, and British Rail itself employed thousands of them. It is easy to get fixated on the trains and their constituent machinery. I will re-take some shots, and try a few more when next I have the opportunity. I must also repaint more of the figures with high-vis. vests and yellow hard-hats. Do watch Using T.O.P.S. (1978) if you are interested. It has been my inspiration.

F.W.I.W., he told me at D.E.M.U. Sutton Coldfield he was now working on the four Speedlink vols., not mentioning any of his previous series (so I assumed completed). I would suggest sending him an e-mail, but mine awaits a reply, so I hope he is not indisposed.

Just came across this pending title - out 31st October, 2022 or January 2023, depending upon which parts of the web-page you believe. https://www.crecy.co.uk/british-railways-freight-terminals?osCsid=8cmc02qnf8rmkifmdkndihgth3 I hope it delivers what it promises. Looking forward to buying a copy. Hope of interest to readers here.

Re the Wagon-Lits co., I would recommend highly Geo. Behrend's Night Ferry : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Ferry-Britains-International-London-Paris/dp/0901845132/ref=sr_1_8?crid=2WZD2FQ33PZ8N&keywords=night+ferry&qid=1697703920&sprefix=night+ferry%2Caps%2C65&sr=8-8 A seminal book to me, found and bought at the Bluebell Rly - I had never heard of it before - and returned a few years later because they have a coach there preserved as staff accommodation. Also, Anthony Burton, The orient express : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/460638.The_Orient_Express You will find technical info. on B.R. sleeper cars in the H.M.R.S. book on Mk i. coaching stock. Hope this helps.

Hoping to prompt some early purchases at the cost of pulling this off-topic, may I just say Mr Larkin's v.1 of Speedlink wagons is now available: https://www.crecy.co.uk/speedlink-volume-1 Sorry if not of interest. My Christmas present sorted!

Please may I beg to suggest the late Ronald Reagan, his economic policies, and their consequences, have not been wholly beneficial to the environment or people's health and wealth over the last forty years. Sorry to drag us even more off topic. 😀

Please do not despair; I have pencilled it in for the weekend lap-top session.

Thanks for this; still thinking 'inside the box' I never consider the idea of keeping a down-load as just that! Reduced-H.M.R.S. sub. just purchased. Nowhere on the form to credit it to @hmrspaul , but he may consider it his doing, en homage. Another web-site to add to my 'footer'.

@hmrspaul I am very glad to hear your web-site is on a sound financial footing; I feel guilty using it only for visual reference, unwilling to order prints for which I must then find storage space, and so contributing nothing financially. If you would consider a new membership of H.M.R.S. a substitute, I am happy to oblige and support their and your good works. So much for winding down my membership of organisations prior to retirement! Thanks again; Neil.

In the words of another contributor on this web-site, "I used to live in a fifteen-minute city; it was called the 1970's."

Sorry, @PMP , I have just endured a couple of flawed surveys at work by some who should know better. I appreciate it is difficult to construct something like this. It does throw out the results though. And yes, I do feel smug at my virtue-signalling, and have had to restrain myself at not ranting in the main thread from which this stems. Thanks for your contributions.

Is there a 'Friends of Paul's Wagon photos' fund to which we may donate, if only to keep the lad in occasional beers as a thank you for all his hard work? I am serious.

I do not drive for many reasons, so do not attend exhibitions inaccessable to public transport. E.g., Gaydon in a few weeks' time: no vintage 'bus shuttle from Leamington Spa station, no attendance by me. Simple. And the poll is flawed, in forcing me to answer questions on things irrelevant (car ticket prices) before it accepts my answers.

It really should be considered now part of London Underground. You won't get me travelling on it with all these tunnels. The joy of train travel is the view from the train of 'outside'. Harrumph!

It is refreshing, innovative, pioneering thinking such as this that keeps the U.K. a hub of cutting-edge excellence 'going forward'. No wonder we are synonymous with being a 'first-world economy'. Truly, other nations must stand and watch in awe... Apologies for the lowest form of wit.

I smiled at how, if I heard and understood correctly, she wanted both a cessation of infrastructure investment, yet improving the current resources. If only she read RMWeb, she would see how H.S.2 would assist such improvements of the W.C.M.L. Sigh. Gawd bless the Great British Public...

D--n fine work, Sir! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001r7h8 Starts at 31.43 if anyone else wants to listen.

Blimey! better watch 'Threads' again and finish that model Goods Yard, before we are all dressed in rags and eating each other. (A weak attempt to bring a little levity to the proceedings.)