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The Night Mail


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2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The top diagram you've kindly drawn out also shows a 'flying connection'.  This is the trailing crossover between the single slip and the trailing crossover at the far left of the diagram.

 

I believe these connections were provided at stations where high priority tail end traffic could be added to fast trains, without the need to keep the whole goods yard clear to allow such an operation to take place.

 

Seems to be a typical Midland arrangement - it avoids having to run right up to the far end of the loop to shunt the short sidings, usually carriage landing, end loading, and cattle dock.

 

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Please note, on the grounds of impartiality,  I did NOT use an example from my preferred railway!:laugh_mini:

 

Heck, well, I had them to hand the toe-to-toe 3-ways are a characteristically Midland feature but otherwise I think they're pretty much generic wayside station layouts.

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1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

Heck, well, I had them to hand the toe-to-toe 3-ways are a characteristically Midland feature but otherwise I think they're pretty much generic wayside station layouts.

As a gentleman, you can get away with picking the MR as an example, but if I mention anything which is the opposite cardinal point to East........:laugh_mini:

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4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

As a gentleman, you can get away with picking the MR as an example, but if I mention anything which is the opposite cardinal point to East........:laugh_mini:

 

No problem there HH. The Glasgow & South Western was an ally of the Midland, the London & North Western eventually became friends (sort of... ) and there was traffic interchange with the London & South Western. Have I missed out any western companies of note?

 

Dave. 

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6 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Have I missed out any western companies of note?

 

How about the Great Southern & Western (not to be confused with the Ayrshire company), the Wexford, Limerick & Western, and the Midland Great Western? I gather the latter was generally known as "The Midland".

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1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

No problem there HH. The Glasgow & South Western was an ally of the Midland, the London & North Western eventually became friends (sort of... ) and there was traffic interchange with the London & South Western. Have I missed out any western companies of note?

 

Dave. 

As there are no elephants on this forum likely to get too big for their boots, there was also the Grand Trunk Western.

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28 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Apprenticeships tend to be like rocking horse droppings, so if you get the offer, you'd best snap it up. (The apprenticeship, not the droppings!)

 

And Apprenticeships in trades such as Clockmaking even rarer than Bears giving cake away;  the practical skills you'd learn in such a trade would be infinitely transferable to other occupations in the future, should you so wish.  And they'll come in pretty handy for certain hobbies too....

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5 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

How about the Great Southern & Western (not to be confused with the Ayrshire company) …


Being pedantic - also Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Wigtownshire, Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Cumbria.

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Afternoon all,

 

 

I have been doing a bit of digging to try and find out more about the engine that my is based on.

 

 

According to Warwickshire Railways:

 

"Ex-MR 3F 0-6-0 No 3520, another member of the MR's 1873 class, is seen leaving Saltley shed ready for a class J trip on 2nd July 1938. Built by Neilson & Company in January 1897 No 3520 remained in service until December 1959 when it was withdrawn from Bedford shed to be stored at Derby works before being scrapped by Doncaster plant in September 1960. This locomotive was built at the turn of the century at a time when motive power was critically short on the Midland Railway. This resulted in the MR employing outside contractors for a number of contracts including the USA locomotive builder, Baldwins, who provided a number of short lived 2-6-0 locomotives"

 

image.png.2f9b90d13bab7336b728f4f04ce1ce1f.png

 

 

So, Saltey shed again. From memory it also had a big allocation of Kirtley Goods'.  Do we know what nearby big goods yards this engine would have gone to?

 

 

I suppose I could also model par of the Saltley Shed complex. Here is a list of the current track I have:

 

Two Hornby left hand points.

Roughly 4 feet of Hornby flexitrack.

 

I don't know whether it will be easier to stick with Hornby track or find some Peco track in the USA that will cater to British flange sizes, but as this is a modern engine that shouldn't be to much of a problem.

 

The baseboard is 3x1 feet and is covered in foam board to deaden noise. At the moment it has an embankment sceniced into one long side, however this can and probably will be removed.

 

 

All suggestions are welcome.

 

 

 

Douglas

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1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

So, Saltey shed again. From memory it also had a big allocation of Kirtley Goods'.  Do we know what nearby big goods yards this engine would have gone to?

 Central Goods for a start. Fits in nicely with previous posts.

 

Dave

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2 hours ago, pH said:


Being pedantic - also Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Wigtownshire, Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Cumbria.

 

Yes, but Kilmarnock was the centre from at least an engineering perspective. Plus, of course, two members of the Stirling family and one of the Drummond - Ayreshire families both - served as its Locomotive Superintendents.

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52 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Yes, but Kilmarnock was the centre from at least an engineering perspective. Plus, of course, two members of the Stirling family and one of the Drummond - Ayreshire families both - served as its Locomotive Superintendents.


My point was only that the G&SWR operated in several counties other than Ayrshire.

 

You can add Smellie and Manson as locomotive superintendents born in Ayrshire, though there was another who was a Liverpudlian.

 

And while you’re right that Kilmarnock was where the locomotive workshops were for most of the company’s existence, the head office and the original workshops were in Lanarkshire.

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9 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

No problem there HH. The Glasgow & South Western was an ally of the Midland, the London & North Western eventually became friends (sort of... ) and there was traffic interchange with the London & South Western. Have I missed out any western companies of note?

 

Dave. 

 

Dave, don't forget we jointly owned a railway, until the unmentionable one got their grubby paws on it and immediately closed it down.  Bill

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The Midland and South Western Junction Railway, connections to LSWR, Midland and GWR.

Owed money to Midland at grouping, carried through Midland carriages. Between Cheltenham you going to Southampton.

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I seem to have opened something of a gusher by mentioning the Midland and western companies. To add to it, I think I'm correct in stating that the Midland was involved in more joint lines than any other company.

 

Dave

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14 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I seem to have opened something of a gusher by mentioning the Midland and western companies. To add to it, I think I'm correct in stating that the Midland was involved in more joint lines than any other company.

 

Dave

I cannot claim to be a railway historian as there are huge gaps in my knowledge, but I find all this information quite fascinating.

 

The town (now city) of Swansea had the GWR, MR, LNWR, R&SB and the Mumbles Railway all terminating within less than mile of each other. At the time the railways were built, Swansea was a relatively small town and to be served by so many companies was incredible.

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8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

On a completely different topic, if you have an Alexa device, ask it the following:

 

'Alexa, say two nine five in Welsh'.

We don’t have any Alexa devices so I thought I would try Siri on my iPad. “Can’t translate Welsh yet” 

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25 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

The town (now city) of Swansea had the GWR, MR, LNWR, R&SB and the Mumbles Railway all terminating within less than mile of each other. At the time the railways were built, Swansea was a relatively small town and to be served by so many companies was incredible.

 

I quite agree HH, Swansea must have been a great place for pre-grouping spotters (if there were such beings). Another place that would have been great to see in the 'old' days was Carlisle Citadel with no fewer than 250 (IIRC) trains from the Midland, G&SWR, L&NWR, Caledonian, NBR, NER and M&CR each weekday - colourful or what?

 

If I've missed any out I'm sure someone will soon put me right :)

 

Dave

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7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We don’t have any Alexa devices so I thought I would try Siri on my iPad. “Can’t translate Welsh yet” 

I may have told you about my former colleague, Mr L.B.W. Jones. He had been, inter alia, a guard at Sheffield Grimethorpe. He was interviewed for the post of Assistant Yard Manager at Stewarts Lane. Not the tallest bloke you'd meet, although the chair of the interview panel probably rivalled him for vertical challenge. But with a double-barrel surname and all the pomposity of Divisional Movements Manager, he asked Len which part of Wales he came from. "Salisbury." Panel looked at each other. "I don't think you understood the question - I asked you which part of Wales you are from." "And I replied Salisbury, that being the closest I've ever been to Wales. I'm from India!" He got the job.

 

Much less amusingly, our Paignton friend Jackie had had her cat put down this last week, so Sherry suggested they went to her holiday cabin on the site at Whiddon Down for the weekend, just to change the scenery a bit. Yesterday they went across the Moor to Tavistock and back, all very nice. This morning Jackie was a wake early with neck-ache, and then chest pains. Ambulance called, and needed - the medics insisted she be taken to hospital, as while an on-site ECG revealed no major problem, she clearly needed help. And of course, no hospital is allowing visitors right now. Sherry is left a bit high and dry, but will make the most of the sunshine. Site neighbours proved helpful - one, a trained medic, was very reassuring. All this at 07.00 on a Sunday!

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