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This is the NGC video on YouTube about 4ZC 30 and it's replacement. It's a short but interesting watch. Once the lines climb onto higher ground that seems to be where the switch to rotated twin conductors takes place where they have been fitted to L2 and L6 lines. Obviously for the new L8 4ZC 30R (i think it would be R coded) then it would have to be twins and you can see the work on changing the insulator bundles on towers 29 and 31 either side too. Cheers Paul

Yep that's the one. I think the east side 400 conductors were changed from quads to angled twin conductors sometime in the late 90s or early 2000s, whilst the east side remained untouched except for the section between Pentir and Llanrug sec. A separate 400kV underground cable circuit also runs from Dinorwig to Pentir via a more direct northerly route, whereas the southern 400 circuit runs underneath the Llanberis Lake Railway. You can see the 400kv ducting boxes along the route. And being a hearing aid user the T telephone coil setting on my aids provides confirmation that these under trackbed cables are indeed live n buzzing lol! Not sure when the 132 circuit came into being from Traws to Y Ffor for Pwllheli - maybe from new? There is or was a National Grid video on YouTube showing the work they had to do to replace the damaged tower, remove it, put in new stronger foundations and erect the new L8 tower. Note that the conductors revert to twin on this soon to be replaced section of the line. They might just change their mind about building a second plant at Wylfa once we get a power generation shortage in the next 10-20 years. Cheers Paul

Yes it finally popped up on google so their little camera car must have been busy tootling around in 2020/21 lol. The Pentir to Trawsfynydd line starts off heading south as both circuits on 400kV. Then at Llanrug there is a sealing end compound and the west side circuit terminates. The east side circuit bypasses the tower and continues on towards Porthmadog. The west side line is earthed to the towers and continues south too. Up until recently this was still on quad conductors and insulators - I have a feeling these have been changed now. Further south nearer Porthmadog at a place called Brynkir alongside the A487 near what was The Goat Inn is a D30 tower. Coming from Llanrug the west quad conductors earth onto the tower again and from the tower a link is made to a tower deviation and pole line that runs towards Pwllheli at 132kV. So from Brynkir to Porthmadog (north) at least it is 132kV on west side and 400kV on east side. OpenMaps seems to have these two circuits transposed but does seem to confirm that is is 132/400 all the way to Trawsfynydd via the Glasyn cable section too. The L8 D30 was put up a few years ago to replace a damaged L6 D30 in virtually the same position in the estuary. However this and several other L6 towers are due to come down as part of the Snowdonia V.I.P. scheme and then it will be cable from Llandecwyn to Minffordd instead. If Wylfa 2 had been built then the plan was to reinstate the full double circuits between Pentir and Traws and presumably provide some means of transforming down from 400 to 132 near Porthmadog and provide a new cable maybe link to join the existing line to Pwllheli. Cheers Paul

Added a few years ago from what I can tell but the google earth imagery has been updated at last. Provides a connection to the Gwynt y Mor offshore wind farm substation one side is cabled and the other on the two SF60s as shown. Cheers Paul

Do you have more than one handset for the Prodigy DCC01 connected to the base unit? If so, you will need to check that one handset is the master and the other changed to become the slave. Details of how to do this are in the Gaugemaster booklet. I had a similar problem years ago on a then newish DCC01 system. Another thing to check is that the loco address only appears on one handset as having the same number in use can confuse the system as well I have found. Worth checking in case. HTH Paul

Hi Ashley, you have picked a good location to model... I live oooh about 200 yards or so where the shed used to be although I don't remember the shed myself as wasn't born in Northwich, so only know it from photographs. Looking through what I recall seeing most duties were covered by 25s and 40s and some 47s. Once the pairs of 20s came along to take over the hopper duties the 25s and 40s started to fade away as being withdrawn of course. Eastern Region allocated 37s would often appear on the Monkton to Northwich coke train. I suspect the other coal trains were mostly in the hands of 47s as was outgoing traffic from Oakleigh like the air-braked soda ash PCA tanks. Peaks 45s were very occasionally used on the hoppers to Northwich and in some cases pairs too and I have seen and had published a photo of one such pair. 31s were rare at the time but did make appearances on the hoppers in the later 80s in lieu of the booked 37s. 56s not sure but possible they could have turned up on coal especially if come over the Pennines but as said more likely to be a 47. As for shunting the humble 08 was your chap for those jobs but I would guess by mid to late 80s these turns had gone and shunting done by the train engines. Unfortunately, you have missed out on the Hatton's OO gauge models of the I.C.I. hoppers they are now completely sold out and recent sales on bay of E show that they are quite sought after often going for double or more the original selling price of £24/25 each. If you are N gauge then there is or was a 3d printed model available on Shapeways, likewise if O gauge there have been etched brass models and more recently a new kit model has been produced too. Do you have any photos of your shed and will it be incorporated into a layout? Cheers Paul

Yes I was thinking it was late 1985, when my good friend Brian Arnold managed to get the photo of it parked up in the headshunt end siding near Avenue works. However, I have no information on how the wagon was tested or even if it went to the RTC at Derby for type-testing. Suffice to say the next time it was seen was at the September 1986 Diamond Jubilee open day/s when it was on show at Winnington works with newly named class 47, 47365 "Diamond Jubilee", where the air-brake equipment had clearly been removed and the wagon returned back to standard with vacuum-brakes - photo also in book. I know I made reference to their being other wagons at Avenue works in the process of being converted. But I was going off what I had been verbally told when doing the book and so far no photo or notes evidence has emerged to support this. Unfortunately, I knew anything about these open days in 1986 otherwise I would have pestered my Dad and or Uncle to take me. Cheers Paul

At that time the pairs of 20s had only just started in traffic on the hoppers and due to a ruling I was told that the guard was not permitted to ride in the rear cab of the trailing 20, and so they had to use brakevans for a while until this rule was changed and/or the need for a guard to travel on such trains was no longer needed. So it was not unusual to see the brakevan immediately behind the locos during this time. I don't think that work to convert ICIM 19000 started until late 1980s when it was due for overhaul at Avenue works. Cheers Paul

Will do I have ordered some sheets of 20 and 30 thou plasticard so I am ready for stage 2 once finished tinkering with my wagon plans to refine them slightly. Cheers Paul

That's my plan b to go with 3 x 20 thou for the Zander wagons floor if plan a doesn't work out. Cheers Paul

Well 5 years after purchasing my SP I have finally managed to draw something up and got my first design cut out as a test piece using some 600 microns thick plain white card. The last time I tried to cut something was the chevrons shapes and to my horror once the SP started going it started to cut into the mat and then the card, so somewhere I had missed a step, probably pressing the load mat button whoops. So the mat still has it's chevron cut marks, fortunately not gone all the way through phew. So inspired by the recent article in Rail Express Modelling about making cheap wagon models specifically the MTV/ZKV 'Zander' open box wagons 150 of which reused the old 20 ton Class A and B tank chassis and for us modellers that means the classic Airfix now Dapol ESSO 20 ton tank kit and as per the article using most of the chassis and underframe parts. So I though after reading the article, surely it would be better to have the parts for the floor cut out more precisely using the SP... and that got me thinking. In the article it uses 30 thou plastic sheet to make up the floor, sides and ends - the floor is doubled up to make a 60 thou thick floor. Having had a skim through this very, very long thread I am hopeful that I can at least score or partially cut the 30 thou just enough to enable the parts to be snapped out. Exhibit A shows my initial test cut I have just done... bit of a nervous moment hoping it would start to cut in the right place yikes. Now to find out of I have any of those 20ton kits stashed away anywhere... oh and find my drawings for my other planned wagon ideas. Cheers Paul

Wagon sold today for £102 plus the p+p with 9 bids and 4 bidders this time. Cheers Paul

Yes sounds about right. Another friend of a friend has one of the ICIM ones for these hoppers and he let me have a look at it take some photos and as you say the letters and numbers appear to be buried in amongst the layers of plastic. Would that sort of production have been outsourced or done in house somewhere within BR I wonder? Cheers Paul

Yes that is the photo I was thinking of, just trying to remember where I saw it. The eBay wagon now sat at £84 and just over a day to go until auction ends. Regarding the number plates I haven't got any exact dates but I would imagine that upon introduction of TOPS the wagons would have had to had the yellow number disk painted on or affixed if a plastic disk onto the solebar as a minimum. I don't know what the rules were around applying these to private owner wagons back then but I would imagine that BR would have wanted them doing sooner than later. A friend managed to buy one of the original enamel numberplates purely by chance having spotted it for sale some years ago. Cheers Paul

Yes the exact nature of the maintenance for the bearings and wheel sets is unknown but I would imagine they would have to adhere to B.R. standards and specs to be able to run on the mainline of course. Yes, you don't often get photos of just the wagons unless they were parked up at either end of the journey. I do kick myself now for not making the journey to visit Oakleigh Sidings back in the day to see the wagons up close and stationary oh well. I do have some photos of the wagons taken in the 1970s so I will check those to see what numbers and plates are fitted. I couldn't use them for the latest book in the end. Yes I have seen those two in train formations and must try figure out which two they are, so will need to go back through my photos and notes to try fond them and see if they were amongst the internal user and stored ones I saw at Winnington and Lostock in 1998. Cheers Paul

Yes it was 1966 as since had this confirmed after both books published (typical I know!). I have a copy of a letter from I.C.I. dated March 1983 in which it refers to these modifications and others in general and I quote.. "Lamp brackets were fitted in 1966 when B.R. eliminated the need for brake vans. Roller bearings were fitted in 1966." I would guess that the removal of the enamel numberplates from the solebars coincided with the introduction of the TOPS private owner numbering and thus the black data panels instead along with the yellow plastic number disks too. Cheers Paul

And this one finished on £82 no further bids too this evening.

Not quite the record but this one is...

Yep and the weathered ones a pound more bargains for £25, though the 6 coded ones took a while to shift, perhaps not as much demand for those post-I.C.I. with the letters removed. Cheers Paul

It would appear so that there us unsatisfied demand for these wagons. Even the new HMag supplement on BR LMR train formations makes note that these models are highly sought after now. I would be very pleased if they did some more of the 4 and 5 coded versions and pretty please the Summers, British Steel and later I.C.I. Mond versions of these slightly smaller wagons. Oh and do the diamond frame bogies with roller bearings fitted too. Cheers Paul

In fact there are a few more sales to report some I had not seen myself as well. A single 5B model for £48.99 + £4.20 p+p might have been buy it now? A single 1A model £53.52 + £4.20 6 bids Another 1A at £49.51 + £4.20 4 bids A set of 4 6CW £119.50 + £2 from Rails oS eb shop bin? A pair of models 6CW/6DW £59.50 + £2 also from Rails eb shop bin? A set of 4 6BW/CW/DW/EW £117.00 + £6.50 7 bids Another set of 4 6BW/CW/DW/EW £80 + £6.50 1 bid A single 1A model £22 + £3.60 p+p bin? The pair of models previously mentioned were both 6CW and sold for £83.06 + £4.20 with 8 bids. The one yesterday sold for £64 had 24 bids. Cheers Paul

Recent sales on bay of E show the demand is still there for these models. A pair sold not long ago for £83+ and today one single wagon (ICI005A) with a removable stone load sold for £64 with the lucky buyer having an extra £4.20 postage. Cheers Paul

Further to my original post, I forgot to add that power station fly-ash is being brought in to Hope using PCA tankers too and has done for a number of years now - definitely from Drax power station but times exist in Real Time Trains for paths to West Burton ps too. HTH Paul

Hope Cement works is a good example to do some research on but essentially it has both a limestone quarry to the west and a shale quarry to the east and uses both in the production of cement. I think gypsum is brought in by road but would have to fact check that one. Coal is currently brought in by rail from South Wales but in the past has come from Ayrshire, Immingham, Yorkshire coalfield too I would imagine. Recycled materials including rubber tyre waste has and may still be used too to fuel the kilns processes. Outgoing traffic is of course cement both in bulk form in the likes of Presflos, Cemflos, PCA 'vee-tanks' and straight barrel tanks, along with the newer JPA tanks. Also dispatched in bagged form too loaded into 2-axle vans like unfitted and fitted versions including the Palvans, then later air-brake vans. With a resumption of van traffic around 2001, VGA/VKA vans were used along with bogie Cargowaggon vans with seven repainted into Blue Circle Cement yellow livery (like the Heljan OO model). And the works is quite a compact site though was updated and changed around 2007/8 as traffic expanded and new bogie tanks arrived. Plus it has that nice single track linking the works to the main exchange sidings at Earle's Sidings on the main Manchester to Sheffield Hope Valley line. There is still a good amount of traffic that goes out by road tankers. HTH Paul

Yes the version 6 models without letters took quite a while to shift, perhaps not as popular as the others. Cheers Paul