Nick Gough

Looks good and perfectly at home at Henley.

Could it be the other end of here? Happy birthday to your good lady!

Does that help?

The SVR has a design to modify the existing locks. Several coaches have been fitted with the modified locks in recent months. Further ones will be done in due course. There are a number of GWR coaches on the Valley that already have slam locks because the GWR bought some from an outside maker in the late '20s/early '30s, but then reverted to the old type until BR days.

Thought I was looking at photos of Stoke Courtenay for a moment!

I could happily spend a while here, on the sea wall, watching the trains go by.

Thanks to all for the comments. That confirms that I wasn't just seeing what I wanted to see. Rail built buffer stop it will be.

Buffer Stop I am trying to decide on what design of buffer stop I should use for the loading platform. Should it just be a plain beam, attached to the end wall? Like on the Hungerford model: Or should it be a rail built version?: I have scanned part of a much larger, long distance photo and highlighted the area where I think the buffer stop is. I would be grateful for any views, and thoughts of what type it would be.

The platform walls have received a coat of 'creosote' and most of the platform edging is in place:

Or an adult version of Camberwick Green/Trumpton/Chigley? (No, I don't mean an X-rated one!)

The two main sections of the goods/loading platform joined together: I have cut long, thin strips of balsa to represent the sleepers forming the platform edge: I think it's just possible, in the next photo, to see the transverse grooves cut in the lower strip for the individual sleeper ends:

The next plate, in the book, may have been taken on the same date: The loco in both photos appears to be a Hall. I am fairly confident that Plate 199 is post-war. The Dynamometer car is carrying it's later number - I believe it was changed from 790 around 1946 to accommodate a new build batch of Hawksworth C82 Thirds. It's not clear in the scan but, in the original, the tender appears to carry the G crest W insignia. The mention of "'Castle' class trials", in the caption, relates to plate 197 which is another view of 4074 Caldicot Castle (to @Harlequin's post above) from a test in 1924.

This photo is to be found in the book, "Thro' The Lens - A Pictorial Tribute to the Official Work of the GWR Photographers" Though this one isn't dated, all the photos are pre 1948.

A look inside an indicator shelter, as recorded by an official GWR photographer. Note that there appears to be a sheet of something behind the nearest man, presumably to protect him from the heat of the smokebox:

Didcot Halt has an inclined ramp at the rear for access to the platform: Again I have used this as a guide for my goods loading platform. The rear wall is also formed from horizontal sleepers, but set at an angle with the ramp: So I have cut my balsa walls accordingly: