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jim.snowdon

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  1. The rivet pattern would also suggest side hinged 'cupboard' doors, as would the presence of a door hinge visible on the right hand side (as posted) at the top of the second stanchion. That, plus the generally welded construction, would indicate it as an ex-LNER loco coal wagon.
  2. I'm not aware of any British diesel electrics having anything but a direct connection between the engine and generator shafts. The common approach was for the generator to have only an outer end bearing, the inner end of its shaft being supported by the engine crankshaft. US practice, from what I have seen, tends towards making the generator mechanically independent of the engine, but still coupled directly.
  3. Narrower (9"?) corner plates were a feature of wartime built wagons, introduced as an economy measure compared to the traditional 12" plates.
  4. From a check on the OS 25" map for c.1928*, the only siding, and therefore lodging for any camping coaches, is on the landward side of the running line. Thus, they would, in this picture, be hiding behind the train. The absence of the pillbox that was built around the outcrop seen in the picture would also date the photograph to pre-1939. The same map also shows nothing in regard to the tea rooms that are in the background, so all that can be said, in my view, is that the picture was taken some time between 1928 and 1939. * https://maps.nls.uk/view/106020710
  5. Which will always prompt the question as to why 41 was unused, or what it was intended for.
  6. The only certainty will be that the No.1/A end will be the end where Forward on the controller sets up the Forward train line. But then, with two engines and, therefore two traction equipments, one will be in Forward, the other in Reverse. None of this will be obvious to the bystander however.....
  7. The insides of PO coal wagons (and railway owned examples, including the BR steel ones) were unpainted save for any metalwork on wood bodied wagons, which was generally given a 'black japanned' finish at construction. Open merchandise wagons were similarly unpainted when wooden bodied. The unknown is the pre-BR steel bodied coal wagons - BR adopted a policy of using a self-weathering grade of steel (Corten) but how widespread that practice was for pre-BR wagons is unknown to me.
  8. There is a view in circulation amongst railway modellers that it was a requirement, if not a BoT requirement, that vehicles carrying livestock, especially in freight trains, should be coupled immediately behind the locomotive so as to reduce shocks to the occupants. It certainly seems plausible, and would be consistent with many livestock wagons being equipped with screw couplings and vacuum brakes/through pipes. The question is was this ever set out in the railways rules or general appendices?
  9. Intriguing. My knowledge of Chippenham station dates from long after the branches had gone and the Calne branch bay is much the more obvious feature.
  10. And then there's Chippenham, which I recall as having the bay between the up and down lines, and not directly accessible from the latter.
  11. Yes you can - you follow the prototype signalling principles, just as the signal engineers had to when faced with a new track layout. Probably because it added operating interest, which is generally what model railway operation is all about. The bog-standard railway station with two platforms and a goods yard is pretty boring to operate.
  12. They were more 'strong recommendations' than actual Rules with legal force. They were essentially what the Railway Inspectorate expected to see and considered to be good practice. If you complied, then approval would normally be forthcoming. You could deviate from them, but you had to have convincing reasons why (a) compliance was not reasonably practicable and (b) that what you proposed was no less safe than a compliant arrangement. The only legal rules were those set out in the various Regulation of Railways Acts, which marked those relatively rare occasions when the Inspectorate's powers of persuasion had to be backed with force to deal with recalcitrant railway companies.
  13. I'm sure Heljan's pricing policy is the classic one of 'screw the customer for as much as they will pay', otherwise known as setting the highest price that the market will bear. The unfortunate part is that people make the comparison against what it would cost them to build one, or more likely, what it would cost to get one built, ignoring the fact that these RTR models are mass produced, with all the economies of scale that that brings.
  14. It is an ISO container, or more specifically an integral bodied tank with ISO length and width dimensions and twistlocks on the corners. Not that common, relative to the number of ISO tank containers that had the tank contained within a complete frame, as at the head end of that train.
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