rodent279

86038 did indeed have an AEI cross arm pantograph, seen here in September 1985 rolling into Euston to pick up empty stock. As did non-MU, headlight fitted 86316, seen here running through a snowy Milton Keynes on vans, in February 1986. IIRC all class 87's had cross arm pans, except for 009 "King Arthur", until fitted with Brecknell-Willis pans from about 1983-4 on. 009, in an incident in about 1980 on the London division of the WCML, lost its pantograph-King Arthur lost his crown, as my dad said at the time! I can't remember if any 86/2

33 years earlier and 609 had recently been converted from 009, as seen here at Euston on Saturday cobbler to Northampton. Were these locos BR's best buy?

Yep, that'll be the one, I can picture the one dad was given. Not in a position to take a photo at the moment, but as it's been stuffed and mounted, it's not the best representative of it's species. A battleship isn't the first thing that springs to mind, but I can see where they're coming from. This is the best a Google search could come up with. https://sf.streetsblog.org/2020/09/02/bad-splices-point-to-fundamental-problems-at-muni/

Cossart valve gear. There was a reason for the rods being that distinctive shape, but it escapes me now.

Contact wire can be joined with a splice, at least it could in the original southern section of the WCML electrification. My dad was given one, polished up and mounted on a piece of wood when he retired. Whether it's still done or not I don't know. Maybe it's frowned upon where line speeds are high.

Not sure when 101 gained it's cast numbers, but it was sometime in the mid-90's I think. Originally it had transfer numbers as per the rest of the class. 001 was briefly named Stephenson back in 1975, but the plates were transferred to 101 soon after, and 001 became Royal Scot.

IIRC, the last digit denotes the maximum reverse voltage in multiples of 100, so a1N4002 has a 200v reverse rating.

What's wrong with it? I quite like it. Looks nicely proportioned.

Green? Or blue? Do you have the original, broken filter? I have a very similar Midland Railway lamp, which has a red filter and a blue filter. Odd, I thought, but if you place a yellow light source, which oil lamp flames are, behind a blue filter, you get a green light. So would it originally have had a blue filter for showing a green aspect?

Certainly by 23rd November 1985, as this photo shows, and probably some months earlier at least. As the caption says, this was a Merrymaker from Dundee, and at least two vehicles in this rake were so branded.

Thanks all. I need to take stock of how much I have. I certainly don't need all of it.

I have some old Triang track, with bullhead rails and integral grey moulded sleepers and ballast, also some very similar track with black plastic sleepers but no ballast. I think it's code 100 rail. Is there mush use for this? Is it of any value? Cheers N

That said, I have no photos of 7153, and the only photo I have showing what looks like a CK in a Cobbler rake is this one:- The first 2 vehicles are look like TSO's, the third coach looks like a CK, but I can't confirm whether it is, and as you can see, there is no sign of an NSE flash on this side. If it is a CK, then this is the compartment side.

Yes, 7153 was an ex-Euston coach, used on Northampton Cobbler services. I don't have any photos, but I know from memory that from 86-7 on, most blue & grey mk1' s on those services had NSE flashes.