Sandpiper

Does the PDF linked on page one of this thread still exist? The link doesn't seem to work anymore. (Tried on Firefox and Edge in case it was the browser but neither worked). Thank you.

"Diesels in Scotland" (W J Verden Anderson) has the following - 26012 working an up Fort William service between Rannoch and Bridge of Orchy, Summer 1975. D5313 working the down sleeper at Rannoch, May 1967. 26025 working an up Oban service through the pass of Brander, Spring 1979.

I remember spending ages looking at Chee Tor at an exhibition many years ago. Whilst I was there a man and small boy came and stood beside me. After watching two trains go past the man turned to the boy and said, "They're not going very fast are they?" With that they walked away. I guess not everyone appreciates such outstanding scenic modelling!

On the route I was referring to, the shape of the token and the design of the pouch meant the token had to be removed from the pouch to check the inscription if it had been put in the wrong way round. Having taken it out, putting in back in the wrong way round again would be a bit of an odd thing to do. I would suggest that putting it back in the correct way round would be good practice on the part of the driver. Putting it back in the wrong way round again would be just as sloppy as the signaller putting it in the wrong way round in the first place, unless as I suggested, it might simply have been the signaller setting a little test for the driver.

On one of the token sections I used to work, one of the signallers often put the token in the pouch back to front so the inscription could not be read. I often wondered if it was a little test for drivers and whether he checked with his colleague at the next box to see if the driver had taken the token out of the pouch. I always took it out so I could check the inscription and then put it back in the correct way round.

Thanks for the responses. Some interesting ideas there. If I actually get started on this proposed layout I can give them a try knowing that the plan will make it fairly straightforward to convert it to something else if they don't work out.

Would expansion and contraction of double ended "through" cassettes in a fiddle yard be a problem due to temperature changes? They would only be about four feet six inches long. I don't envisage any problems moving them. They wouldn't need to be turned around and would only need a couple of buffers adding to stop things rolling off the end and then lifting a short distance onto a wall rack. The room doesn't have much in the way of significant temperature changes and doesn't get any direct sunlight. Would expansion and contraction due to temperature changes result in problems slotting them into place without a hammer ( ! ) or leave excessively large gaps at the joins? I have an alternative plan which would work but in the space I have available double ended "through" cassettes would be more convenient. Thanks for any thoughts.

A bit late to this party but here's a few more class 25 pics at Mallaig from the blue era. This first one is also from the Derby Sulzers site. Scroll down the page to 1973 for a pic of 25002. https://www.derbysulzers.com/25002.html These two are both of 25232 arriving with the 1003 from Glasgow. https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/35255346313/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/35224331344/in/photostream/

A couple of 195s visited the depot a few weeks back. Unfortunately I can't remember the date but when I went past one unit was going through the washer (presumably to test it) and the other was berthed in one of the sidings.

Looking forward to watching this develop. I didn't realise that freights had to reverse down to the station. I don't think I have ever come across any photos of freights in the station.

Nice to see a working trap point rather than a dummy one. And that's a very elegant locomotive.

Whilst continuing my rainy day project of trawling the web looking for interesting photos of the West Highland, Kyle and Far North Lines, I came across this photo of 25229 at Invergordon. It's the only photo I have found so far of a 25 on the Far North Line. The second photo shows what is presumably the tail end of the train hauled by the 25. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnel_one/10204776324/in/album-72157632785235307/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnel_one/19240100123/in/album-72157632785235307/ edit Just found another pic of the same train. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnel_one/10223708226 Anybody know of any others?

According to the article the 4F remained at the Fort over the winter of 62/63 and was still present in June 63 despite having been withdrawn by then. However it sounds as though it was pretty much life expired and did not actually do any work over the 62/63 winter. A Black 5 was brought in from Perth for snow plough work. The 4F was later seen at Connell's scrapyard, Coatbridge in December 63. Going back a couple of years, the article has a photo of the 4F at Mallaig with the 0510 from Glasgow in July 1960. The train was double headed with the pilot engine being the Standard 4MT 76001 although the 4MT doesn't feature in the photo having been removed presumably for some operational reason.

If anyone is interested the March edition of "Steam Days" has a decent length article about Fort William shed and the locomotives of the West Highland Line. I haven't read the article yet but there are lots of interesting photos most of which I haven't seen before.

Can't help you with the train formation but during the period I was familiar with it the return working ran via Hastings and Ashford. It was always worked by a class 33 as anything else was too heavy for the bridge over the River Rother at Rye. The loco had to work pretty hard up the bank out of Hastings. I don't know which way it was routed after Ashford.