bécasse

Looking further I still can't find any quoted buffer head dimension but I have noticed that the five so-called K14 locos that were built in 1908 with Drummond boilers and numerous detail differences from the earlier twenty Adams locos, originally had tapered buffers with a smaller buffing head, the earlier locos having had substantial parallel buffers with the larger buffing head. There were then changes over the years with some swapping of buffers and in due course (most of?/all of?) the tapered buffers acquired the larger buffing heads.

There is a drawing of 103, the last of the original Adams locos, in late-1920s condition by the late Colin Binnie which shows tapered buffers with the smaller head. I knew Colin well and he was a very careful draughtsman, so he must have had some evidence for his depiction and certainly 94, which was another Adams loco, had such buffers and buffer heads in early SR days; however 102, built alongside 103, certainly had the parallel buffers and large buffing heads, probably throughout its life. I doubt whether any of the locos which worked in Southampton Docks (and which bore names rather than their numbers) ever had the small buffing heads and I haven't been able to find any evidence that any of the locos that survived into BR days had anything other than the large buffing heads even if they were fitted with tapered buffers.

It should be added that the B4 class were an absolute minefield in terms of variations, not only were there numerous variations within the class as built but those variations seems to have been added to every time they were shopped.

I can't quickly find a note of the actual diameter of the buffer heads but they are marginally larger, perhaps by 1" top and bottom, than the total depth of the buffer plank. A quick glance at photos of Dapol's models suggests that they got it right on the O gauge model but that they are undersized on the OO gauge one.

11 minutes ago, csvt2004 said:

Could be Liskeard looking towards Penzance.

That was my first thought too.

In stealing the track plan from Ashburton you have also stolen its Achille's Heel for use as the basis for a model railway, namely a kickback siding that can only be shunted by horse (interesting in any scale let alone 2mm) or hand.

I suspect that the general use of roof boards ceased around the same time as the new corporate image was adopted in the mid-1960s. The spread of 25kV overhead electrification would also have discouraged their use (although BR MkI stock carried them below the cantrail and not on the roof, of course).

Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland, the map below shows what the boundaries were in 1876 before the railway arrived. The property numbers (eg 5622) were the same before and after.

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

This does all beg the question why the lime siding GF wasn't simply released by the Pylle - West Pennard staff, tablet, token (whatever) and shunted by the train in section, since the train had inevitably to go on to West Pennard anyway!

I think that the answer to that lies in the long 1 in 100 gradient down on to the Somerset Levels which eased through Pylle station but was otherwise long and continuous. Presumably when the Lime Works sidings were shunted the only vehicle left on the running line was the well-screwed-down brake with the rest of the train (which quite possibly had a further brake tailing its formation) left in relative safety at Pylle.

Incidentally getting up and down mixed up for this route is commonplace, it does help to remember that it was built from the Highbridge end.

Very sad.

Since you are going to declare it, I recommend making a list of everything that you are taking, the separate parts of the layout, each item of rolling stock, the controllers, etc together with your realistic valuations thereof, noting that everything is more than six months old. You would have had to do that for the carnet anyway. Hopefully the Customs' officer will look kindly on you.

29 minutes ago, Ian Morgan said:

 

That is true, but how will they value a micro layout to calculate any duty they intend to levy if I don't get one?

 

The carnet is likely to cost more than the layout.

 

 

 

 

So you are taking the layout but no models to run on it - and no tools either? The valuation would be whatever the Customs' officer chooses to say it is and, as a minimum, there would be a significant additional penalty for non-declaration, the officer could however decide to confiscate everything (and, if you were travelling in a vehicle, the vehicle as well). Remember that it is the value which is taxable, not what it cost historically, and the mere fact that you are taking it to be exhibited in Europe demonstrates to the officer that it must be valuable.

You might well get away with it but if you don't the penalties are significant. Remember this is what the British voted for, while the way that the British Government has handled the whole situation merely encourages the authorities in Europe to take a harsh line.

I might add that if I order a railway book which is only available from a British supplier who isn't registered to collect Belgian TVA (the bigger ones are but tend not to handle specialist books), I end up having to pay around another €30 in taxes and charges on top of the book price and postage, something I didn't before Brexit.

In theory you still need a carnet - but at least if you go by Eurostar you will find out at the controls at St.Pancras if you have a problem.

13 hours ago, ikcdab said:

Ok thanks. That means that in my train of 8, I have too many parlours and not enough kitchens! I need to sell a parlour and swap for a kitchen then.

 

Perhaps not, although I travelled on the Bournemouth Belle several times (in 2nd class) and the Harrogate Sunday Pullman once (in 1st) I can't remember the precise formation of either now other than the fact that kitchens definitely serviced more than the passengers in that car. It isn't impossible that kitchens served more than one adjacent car, particularly in 1st class where there were less passengers per car. Try looking at historical photos of Pullman trains, although they rarely enable one to see much of the detailed makeup of the rake, the kitchen cars do tend to stand out particularly in views where the car roofs are visible as the ventilator layout was different.

Yes, a Pullman kitchen served passengers in the same car and in an adjacent car, and yes, Pullman kitchens all provided similar facilities (which could be route specific) so a Third/Second Class kitchen car merely provided Third/Second Class (as opposed to First Class) seating. There were, of course, variations over time as to how fuel for cooking was provided.

The numbers were almost always carried by locos working out of sheds on the South Eastern whereas they were often missing on the Central and South Western (so the discs were just plain white). Specials had the letters SPL above the number in a much smaller font. Three digit numbers seem most common but one might expect that.

Each duty spelled out a locomotive's tasks for the "day" together with the timings for those tasks.

One disc on each Southern head code habitually displayed the locomotive duty number.

12 hours ago, TJ52 said:

So many I can't understand why the question was asked!

 When I first read the question my immediate reaction was that he couldn't possibly be asking about roads passing below stations (approximately) orthogonally and so he must be asking about examples where roads run under stations approximately parallel to the railway above. I could think of a number of cases of terminal stations where the cab road would qualify for that but I couldn't offhand think of any examples of public roads (except for a possible oblique example at Vauxhall) but there must be one or two examples of that somewhere in the UK surely?

My first was the 1954 Model Railway Club show at Central Hall when I would have been eight. I joined The MRC in 1960 and so stewarded from 1961 onwards except in 1969 (August that year), when I was a demonstrator for the first time, and in 1971 and 1974 (and also at Wembley in 1985), when I was a layout exhibitor.

Rather to my astonishment, I have exhibited layouts in France on six occasions since moving to Belgium thirteen years ago.

On 15/03/2024 at 23:39, roythebus1 said:

Maybe I'll give that a try, it's all too confusing for me, even the Apple help desk are confused and don't know why when I want to use the box below that says "choose files" it doesn't show my "pictures" as an option. why are Apple such a pain?

 

Roy, assuming that you are viewing RMweb on your iPhone, choosing files should offer you the option of searching your iPhone photo library for the file. If that doesn't work you can transfer a copy of the photo from your photo library to "files" which you do by selecting the photo in the photo library and then selecting the transfer button (square with upward arrow) and scrolling right down until you get to "files" and selecting that option. "files" is one of the options offered when you select "choose files" in RMweb on your iPhone.

David

Ah! Eureka moment! All problems solved!

Line reopened as an electric interurban tramway with street running through Bodmin linking approach to Bodmin General station to the Camel Trail at the erstwhile Bodmin Jail site, and again through Wadebridge and even perhaps at Padstow.

The current preservation group could continue to operate Bodmin General to Boscarne and the Camel Trail could co-exist with the tramway. It doesn't really help the OP although a nice Padstow tram terminal model might be a possibility with HO being perhaps more practical than OO given that most suitable tram models are in that scale.

5 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Erm ........ so Bodmin South Parkway would be north of Bodmin Parkway ...... could be a little confusing for some people - starting with me !

 

( Bodmin Halgavor ? )

Looking from abroad, I thought that sowing confusion was one of the raisons d'être of the British Rail network of today. I am just glad, despite possessing a silver pass, that I don't actually have to use it.

Is the apparently separate character in the middle an ampersand (rather than a Welsh "Y"). If it is, it perhaps suggests a colliery named for two joint (original) owners each with a short name.

I agree that the lack of any routing instructions suggests that it is very local.

2 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

 

... you'd have to replace Bodmin General with a station on the chord called Bodmin Parkway ......... oh no, someone's used that name already !

So Bodmin South Parkway it would have to be. Oddly I had been through the same thought process myself!

There are a number of photos on the internet showing BR-era locos, both steam and diesel shunter, which appear in the photos (and in at least one case apparently in reality) to be black but are in fact BR loco green. This would seem to be the result of the atmospheric conversion of the lead compounds in the green paint (which the 1956 green undoubtedly contained) to lead sulphide which, although actually a dark grey colour, appears to be black - the same effect that lead (pun, sorry!) to the darkening of white canvas roofs on rolling stock.

Perhaps the loco has just run round the train prior to propelling it west clear of the station in order to cross over on to the up. The pristine state of the wagons does suggest some sort of trial run.