Pandora

I've viewed the Rapido Class 28 video on Youtube. The model may be the best N gauge diesel to date, I have placed a pre-order for two, I'm luck to have seen a Cobo at work, hauling a train of oil tankers through Carnforth July 1968

City Thameslink Station which replaced Holborn Viaduct Station has steep gradients at each end, the platforms are affected by the gradients, the climb out of City Thameslink towards Blackfriars is between 1 in 30 and 1 in 35, main-line OTM machines such as Tampers and Tramms if required to pass through City Thameslink are subject to controls such as one-off written authority signed by a Senior Engineer, the OTMs tend to stall 2/3rds up the gradient, the gradient is so severe the OTMs cannot be depended upon to make the summit

The possessions are a mix of everybody, Tampers, Rail Grinders, many seperate companies doing work such as vegetation clearance, litter picking, civil engineering track renewals or maintenance, that is only a few of the tasks which the nightime and weekend railways require. In the case of engineering trains, if there is more than one, the Picop ( Person In Charge of Possession) has to be a Senior Picop for safety reasons of movement control.

I'm aware of the SR green coaches on the Woodhead line, not aware of their presence on the trans-pennine routes, where were the SR coaches allocated as maintenance depots and regular routes?

I was told that the title Hornby Magazine was not the publishers choice, the Hornby title came from one of the big distributor/retailers of magazines , the publishers were seeking a title along the lines of Model Railway Constructor, the well known Hornby brandname may well have played a part in the success of the magazine

The Tier system: https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/Hornby-introduces-retailer-tier-system. I'm puzzled as to how Swindon Museum qualified as the lowest a Tier 3 operation, from reading the link, surely a Tier 2?

The Hornby retooled 91 , when will it be available? Has it slipped due to lockdown?

The information is not obvious, it could be a mistake by wheel lathe staff, or the instructions received by the turners, wheels may require a change to another profile when after several turnings, when the diameter has shrunk below a limit, it could also be the back to back dimension of the wheel flange or the runout of the flange, so many reasons for the problems

Designed in the 1930s, driving wheels very undersized, but "looks the part", back in the late 1960s, saw a convincing hybrid of an early Triang 60103 Flying Scotsman (the one with a Triang B12 chassis block) and a Dublo A4 body. the large driving wheels, which Triang introduced for the Scotsman model, gave a major lift to the overall appearance of the Dublo body

BR would repair industrial tanks, I recall an industrial 0-4-0 saddle tank in 36A Doncaster loco shed for repair. It was similar to the Kitson 47000 - 47009 saddle tanks on the LMS

A friend with a senior position in car retail tells me the car business is booming, used cars appreciated by 25%, and the shortage of new cars into the showrooms means not too much haggling as it is a sellers market. Is that the Hornby aim, new models in short supply, rationed to the retailers, high prices/minimal discounting, even better supplied to pre-order, paid for in advance by the retailer or the customer. VW have announced a similar strategy for the rest of the decade, fewer cars to be built and sold, but each of a high sales price with a high profit margin.

It is correct that Hornby have laid off their Sales Reps by redundancy, Reps were not allowed to disclose the information. I think the Sales Reps finished at the end of February. Retailers now have an Account Manager. Retailers were surprised, did not consider Hornby Sales Reps to be at risk, Bachmann continue to retain Sales Reps, even though Bachmann have a better IT system interfacing between Retailers and Bachmnn than Hornby. Retailers seem to prefer dealing with Bachmann over Hornby.

Announcement of the TFL funding package from February 2022 to June 2022 https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2022/february/tfl-statement---tfl-funding-update-25th-februa The funding agreement requires TFL to submit a plan to increase revenue or cut costs amounting to £400 million

There are memorials which are not "official", example a railwayman died by electrocution on the juice rail near Blackheath Station, his workmates created and erected their own memorial at the spot where he died. Some depots have memorials of another kind , a large outdoor aquarium at Romford depot, the aquarium dedicated to a railwayman

Visually attractive inside and out, and those seats look inviting for a journey. No comment as to the economics, the competition is an urban Tram unit converted to run on fossil fuel or battery power.

At 80t over 3 axles, do we have a locomotive with the highest axle loading in the UK?

You may be refering to the class 210 dmu prototype, the 210 was a competitor to the Sprinter

Do not forget the WR BUBBLECARS, the last train of the service for me a PADD to Hayes bubblecar. The WR had a prototype unit which never truly rivalled the Sprinter, the class 210, my prefered train into PADD in the commuter run, fast and powerful, with a purposeful diesel engine power a plenty!

This link, incidentally found within a thread on RMWEB, show Princetown Station on the GWR, Princetown matches the style of the Airfix Booking Hall, https://ianwaugh.com/princetown/

SC, self cleaning , and a common myth among we young spotters of the 1960s it stood for Scottish, and many classes of steam loco had the SC , but it was not universally applied to members of a class, I recall reading that the SC grids could ruin the steaming, so the crews took out the screens and hid them at the back of the shed, cannot remember where this snippet came from, probably one of the "greats" of the Shedmasters, Townend or Hardy

Does the Tonbridge to Hastings via Wadhurst line satisfy your query, when double track, restricted loading gauge needed restricted stock , the Slim Jim Crompton 33s and DMU Thumpers, to solve the problem of line gauge, the line was re-engineered to a hybrid of double track sections and single bidirectional sections permitting standard stock on the line

I think it is a rubber-tyred crane which has been placed on a wagon, the wagon and crane never leaves the yard ( it is out of gauge) the wagon is shunted into position and the crane is set to working loading and unloading wagons where there is lack of access for the crane to be operated from roadways alongside the sidings, look at the image note the platform and three sidings which are hard to access and think about the reach of the crane jib

I have ordered a copy, I have a soft spot for the class 14, I recall seeing them at Doncaster during their transfer to Hull. For the construction of HS1, the class 14 and 08 shared duties at Beechbrook Farm, the shunters told me the 08 was the better loco for shunting, the 08 could reverse direction very quickly, the class 14 driver had to sit and wait for the hydraulic transmission to refill on every change of direction, were the class 14 locos every assessed for use on hump-shunting duties such as Tinsley Yard where their 650 hp would have matched a class 13 ?

An escape route? Or is it for when the Guard wanted to stop the train? The Guard would show a lamp to attract the attention of the footplate crew or the signaller

The yellow extended overthe cabsides, was this standard for the WR 31;s. How long did this variation last on the WR?