rodent279

Why do pantographs need to be modified to run leading pan up? Surely the driver just raises the leading pan?

61% of what? Pollution measured where?

Personally I'm not sure that GWR green, or some slight variation thereof, really works well on modern trains, it just looks too dull. Seems to work ok on water boiling machines, with copper and brass work to set it off, but I'm not sure about modern, flush glazed, plastic finish trains.

Joyous!

At least you can make soup out of a marrow!

Not really. Mk1's have drophead Buckeyes, the knuckle can be dropped, revealing a normal drawhook that can be used with screw link coupling stock.

I believe that a joint committee was set up by the big 4, prior to nationalisation, to look at a range of go anywhere coaches, with a high degree of commonality of parts. I could imagine that what emerged as the BR MK1 isn't that far removed from what would have been produced had nationalisation not happened. Maybe the big difference between each companies vehicles would have been in interior layouts and styles. It doesn't take too much of a leap of faith to imagine similar things happening with diesel procurement-a basic concept agreed on by all 4, with details varying between each company.

Also trying to squeeze a quart sized service into a pint sized infrastructure.

For me, the funny thing is I look at UK trains without yellow ends, and notice it, but I look at overseas trains without yellow ends, and it barely registers. I do think UK operators have gone for darker ends though, most European operators have a light area on the front, though not necessarily yellow.

That's interesting, I never knew that British builders built so extensively to French & German designs. How were the French and German design locos delivered to the nearest sea port? By rail? That would be a fantastic photo-a French or German outline loco on UK rails. I know they are out of UK loading gauge, but in those days the railway companies dealt with out of gauge loads much frequently than now.

I rode in a 6 wheel Umbauwagen on a tour with V200 033 last year, also a bogie Umbauwagen. Max speed is 100km/h and we stuck to the limit, but the ride and noise levels weren't bad, certainly comparable with a MK1.

Weren't some of the Umbauwagen literally bogie vehicles cut down?

Early BR mk1's had wood panelling interiors, sometimes with a small plastic plate displaying the wood type- "Crown Elm" and "Lacewood" are the two that I remember seeing on BR in the 1980's (and regret never photographing!) What other types of wood were used in mk1 panelling? And how thick were the panels? Were they actually panels, or were they a veneer of say Crown Elm over a base, like hardboard? Cheers N

Long shot, but I'm after some info on railtour stock. Does anyone know the stock used on the RESL "Grampian Highlander" tour, 16-18th Nov 1984? I've checked Six Bells Junction, which sometimes has stock info, but it's not there. Cheers N

My one experience of a 395, a year or so before the Olympics, was that they were no worse than a 350 or similar EMU. Commuter interior, but no worries about ride or noise level.