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When the use of colour film by individuals was still rare the processors could have an influence on how colour was rendered in the resulting slides. Our next door neighbour's elder daughter got married in the early 1950s and, as her newly betrothed was comfortably off, they went to southern Ireland for their honeymoon accompanied by a decent camera with colour film in it. When they got the slides back they were generally excellent but they were very surprised to find that the deliberately posed shot of the pair of them in front of an ex-GPO pillar box showed the box to be red. When they complained to Kodak, they received a very nice reply (together with a quantity of complimentary colour film) thanking them for the explanation that the box really had been green and not red. Apparently, it had been rendered correctly on the film but the individual processor noticed that what he thought was an obvious British post box hadn't come out the correct colour and so had "corrected" it. Kodak were indeed very pleased to learn that it wasn't a fault of the film but of the perceptions of the processor.

A certain gentleman who was once a sector director and who has more recently been associated with the Ffestiniog Railway would certainly agree with that final comment. In the second half of the 1980s the Treasury insisted that BR moved the basis of its accounting from the traditional calendar year to the fiscal year. After one very strange year that contained 16 accounting periods, the next year reverted to the normal 13 4-week periods but what no-one in authority noticed was that Easter, then a period for bumper InterCity receipts rather than an opportunity to dig half the network up, had fallen in late March before the new fiscal year started and then the next Easter fell in mid/late April after fiscal year had ended. Apparently the period-by-period receipt out-turns were largely in line with forecasts through the year until the final out-turn, with no Easter to bolster it, fell well short, meaning that the year as a whole also fell well short. The result was that the aforesaid gentleman went ballistic, I didn't personally see his "performance" but I did see his shell-shocked sub-sector directors immediately afterwards and they weren't a pretty sight. The real irony is that the aforesaid gentleman had, prior to becoming a sector director, held a senior position in the Board's HQ strategy planning office and consequently might just have been expected to notice the emerging problem himself (rather than constantly trying to score points against the other sector directors).

The board on the right with its back to the photographer would have had a [ T ] indication indicating the terminal point of the PSR on that road. Southern Railway PSR indicators were rare beasts, usually only installed where there was nothing else to help a driver identify his position, clearly here there is a signal but presumably the other end of the PSR wasn't so obvious. The standard top limit on the Southern Railway for steam traction was 85 mph but a lower overall limit may well have applied over the whole S&D, the introduction page to Southern-produced WTTs would have stated it whatever it was.

The 6-COR units concerned 3041-3050 only ever worked regularly on the South Eastern Division and then only on peak hour services during the 1967 summer timetable period. After that they were only used spasmodically including on the Central Division (and just possibly on race trains on the South Western Division). I strongly suspect that, given that they were effectively electric versions of the "long sets", their livery mostly never progressed beyond the green/small yellow patch stage and they were all out of service by the autumn of 1968. Certainly the couple I saw were in that livery, however I believe a couple may have acquired blue with yellow ends. Note that, as built, they marginally fouled the SED loading gauge and it was found necessary to remove the roof board brackets from all the vehicles to comply.

Officially you need a carnet. Not having one, even if the layout is "hidden" in the boot of your car, risks not only the confiscation of the layout for non-declaration but also of the vehicle. It probably wouldn't happen but it can and it isn't only the French Customs who are a risk but the Belgian Customs, who carry out regular spot checks within the country, too. Remember, the UK got unnecessarily nasty post-Brexit by insisting on the need for passports (which the majority of Europeans, including myself, don't have even if they are rather cheaper than British ones) so for the Customs to find a British vehicle carrying "contraband" would be considered a "good win".

There were definitely at least two different lengths for the horizontal platform.

Mart Sidings?

But if you think about it, the painting process for coaching stock was quite different to that for wagons.

There were definitely workings into both Charing Cross and Cannon Street of 10-car formations 4-EPB + 3 x 2-HAP. There may have been restrictions as to which platforms they could use but I don't remember Bill Woodyer mentioning it. His team at Cannon Street produced the platform workings for both termini and he was forever complaining that they were just handed the finalised WTT and told to work out the platforming which hadn't been taken into account in the planning and was, consequently, a far from simple task. All the planners had ever done was to ensure that there were never more than six trains (of which three long-distance) at Charing Cross and eight at Cannon Street at the same time.

........ withdrawn at the beginning of October 1971.

If the final painting was carried out when the body was already mounted on its chassis (which obviously it was), it would have been more productive, and therefore cheaper, to have painted it all the same colour; given the metalwork on the body a paint suitable for application to primed metal would have had to be used anyway.

Pre-grouping stock on the Southern Railway tended to keep to the lines of its former owners. There were exceptions, pull & push trains for example (see Mike King's book for comprehensive details although pull & push trains tended to be fairly rare on through routes) and, of course, the ex-SECR long tens which turned up as strengthening vehicles all over the network, plus other odd examples. Typical stock on the Reading-Redhill-Tonbridge line, largely worked as an entity, and on stopping trains on the Tonbridge-Ashford line, would have been predominately ex-SECR birdcage 3-sets (of which there were more than one variety). Fast trains between Tonbridge and Ashford, and especially boat trains, would have been increasingly formed of Maunsell coaching stock, sometimes with Pullman Cars in the formation. Dedicated Maunsell stock would eventually have worked the odd through-to-other companies trains over the whole Reading-Ashford line, with the stock provided by the "other" company on alternate days. I would add a word of warning about using historical photographs (say anything pre-mid 1950s) as they tend to give a very lopsided view of the operation of the railways. Most photographers worked Monday to Saturday lunchtime (but parsons had Monday off) and so a lot of photographs were taken on Saturday afternoons when the working of the railway tended to be rather different to the rest of the week even if the timetable looked similar. Furthermore, the sheer logistics of photography then meant that photos had to be taken sparingly and, not unnaturally, photographers tended to concentrate on the unusual rather than the everyday routine.

In some timetables there were a handful of suburban trains which included some 2-HAP units in their formation and which called at Lewisham, so they are a possibility as well as 2- and 4-EPBs, but probably not as late as 1990. A few longer distance trains called at London Bridge, so you might have changed into or out of a 4-CEP, 4-VEP or 4-CIG there and there might well still have been 4-EPBs working into Charing Cross from Caterham/Tattenham Corner. However, 1990 was much on the cusp of the introduction of the class 465 Networker fleet on the South Eastern Division and it is most likely that your memories are of a 2- or 4-EPB.

RRNE = Regional Railways North East and RRNW = Regional Railways North West, both being sub-sectors of the Provincial or Regional Railways Sector.

The ASLEF strike of May 1955 is likely to have been the final nail in the coffin for local livestock movements by rail, as it was for quite a lot of other rail-borne goods traffic, although the Suez crisis of the following year and the resultant petrol rationing may have brought a little back in the short term. Bulk movement of cattle from the Irish sea ports by rail lasted rather longer.

This drawing shows the standard pre-war SR station storage hut (and the sibling frogman's hut). I have details of the post-war lamp hut assembled from pre-cast segments somewhere and also of the warning notice for the door - I will post them when I get a chance.

I have come to the conclusion that they are track pins for Sydney Pritchard's great step forward - the production of Peco Streamline flexible track for real railways, not just model ones. I seem to recollect that he just couldn't find premises big enough to facilitate production so the concept had to be dropped, but obviously some track pins had already been manufactured. I seem to remembering reading about in an April issue of Railway Modeller but I can't remember the year, although it was obviously well before Sydney's demise, and I couldn't find it using the RM Archive search facility (which is good but not always perfect).

The same livery considerations would apply wherever the MkI suburban stock was being used (except, of course, on the Southern Region where unlined green was adopted from 1956 but where such stock was rare anyway). A greater question is the extent to which MkI suburban stock was in use on the London Midland Region. There was certainly some on the lines out of St.Pancras but some, at least, of these were short "metro gauge" vehicles which could work through the Widened Lines to Moorgate. My recollection of outer-suburban services out of Euston is that ex-LMS suburban vehicles continued to be used until replaced with AM10s on electrification in 1966 - although the same livery considerations would apply to the ex-LMS stock, and my recollections could be wrong anyway.

That Peter Groom photo definitely dates from somewhen during the year 1960.

Army khaki at the time of the Great War was a light colour, not far off a greenish sand. It was intended to make soldiers inconspicuous in the "hot" countries of the Empire where keeping "order" was the main task of the British Army prior to the Great War. I should add that that gloss "khaki" worn by 5322 pictured above is a definite no-no. Whatever colour was used it would have been matt to avoid reflections of the sun - one mere glimpse of a reflection from the sun would be sufficient to make the loco an instant artillery target, even at a considerable distance.

The railway gun spurs (used for heavy guns capable of projecting their shells many kilometres) would still not have been within visual sight of the front line except, perhaps, very briefly as the Germans advanced rapidly in the Spring offensive. The guns, with of course their motive power, would have been withdrawn rapidly as they were too valuable to be lost. I believe quite a lot of light (ie narrow) gauge railway equipment was lost to the enemy simply because rapid withdrawal was difficult.

I have seen suggestions that narrow gauge locos working along the western front were sometimes repainted locally into an overall colour that blended best with local topography. However I don't think that there were any operational standard gauge railways that came within visual distance of the German front lines (except very briefly during the 1918 spring offensive) so that would not have been an issue. Neither would attack from the air have been a significant threat although it probably happened occasionally. Caley739 makes an interesting point and he is probably right, grey being used for dedicated new-builds and repaints.

Yes it did, St.Ives to March (Cambridge to St.Ives remained open for several more years for passenger traffic, of course). I have seen a (partial) signalling diagram but I have never seen a reason quoted although I have wondered whether it was as a result of the incident on the ECML where a signalman deliberately misworked the levers in his box in order to derail a train.

Probably some just at the beginning of the decade when there would have still been vehicles around that hadn't been repainted or revarnished since unlined crimson and then unlined maroon were the norm. They would quickly have become lined maroon (unless they were in store) since crimson vehicles would have been repainted lined maroon and unlined maroon vehicles would have had lining added when they were revarnished.

An auger only works where there is nothing hard just below the surface, a pick-axe would probably be defeated by granite or slab slate but not much else.