bécasse

No signals and points all on hand levers so no ground frame either.

That is what I thought too. Of course, by this date the former rigid set structure applied to much of the Southern's coaching stock was rapidly breaking down, largely as a result of the withdrawal of anything that needed any money spent on it for repairs, but I don't think that the "set" system was formally abandoned (and surviving set numbers painted out in consequence) until later in that year.

St.Anne's Park is on the Bath line on the outskirts of Bristol.

A dimensioned drawing of one of them - as once at Witney Goods.

Given the almost total lack of colour photographs, it is almost impossible to distinguish between red-painted and unpainted coupling rods. It is clear that they quickly became surprisingly dirty in service so any original painted/unpainted difference would seemingly have quickly become irrelevant. I have now looked more closely at the question of droplight frames and cab doors being varnished rather than painted on Darlington-built locos. It has become clear that only the final 20 locos built there with wooden droplight frames had them varnished rather than painted (13137-13144, 13152-13158 and 13217-13221) and these were all originally black-painted locos (with black-painted wooden doors). Darlington obviously considered that green locos looked better with varnished doors because it seems that that works turned out all of its green-painted locos with varnished doors until the very final batches with alloy doors which were, of course, painted green. All of its black-painted production had had doors painted the body colour. While it is possible that the small number of locos built at Doncaster might have had varnished doors in the absence of photographic evidence to the contrary, I think it unlikely, given the long history of livery variations between the two works. I will be updating my original tables and comments in "source 2" to reflect these variations.

I would have expected trains of banana vans from Avonmouth Docks to have run fully fitted. Since the steam heat hoses had to be connected throughout the train there would have been little point in not also connecting up the vacuum hoses.

Indeed, it is likely to be a W-set as initially formed in 1958. It seems to have been common practice on the Lyme Regis branch to remarshall the resident set so that the guard was in the middle of the train, with the consequence that the set number was "hidden".

It depends what you want to use the Jinty for. The M1020 is a little on the small size for heavy work in 4mm scale, however, if all it is likely to do is light shunting or pilot work (their main task on the prototype) or powering a passenger pull & push (or similar) train, it will be fine. Like all the late-lamented Mashima 10xx series motors it is an excellent slow speed runner with a free-running gearbox (as all HL ones are).

My experience of Central Hall shows from 1961 onwards is that professional photographers just grabbed anyone to make up a "crowd" shot so the two spectators could be anyone. However I think it very unlikely that they would have been allowed (because of insurance restrictions) to film a model out of its context during opening hours so, given that other parts of the film clip do show members of the public, I suspect that it was filmed on the Tuesday morning when the show (then) didn't open until noon and that the two 2mm admirers are therefore MRC members or other exhibitors. I don't recognise the moustache or the face behind it but believe the man on the left may well be John Gercken, who was later to serve (and very efficiently too) as the Club's chief steward for a number of years.

Tiles became the preferred roof covering within the LCC area, rather than slates, after the Great War. Not that tiles should be thought of as modern, they were the first building material to have a standard size imposed in Britain by law - and that was almost back in pre-history during the brief reign of Edward IV.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it beat carpets, probably in the main carpets from commercial premises, to remove dust and other dry matter. In the days before vacuum cleaners there was a significant requirement for such cleaning of those carpets which saw a lot of foot traffic. You could think of it as the dry equivalent of a (wet) laundry.

The subsidiary signal was just that, it allowed movements as far as authorised just as any shunt signal would. Without the locking diagram, I can't be sure whether it could be cleared without the subsidiary signal ahead also being cleared (exactly as the running signal would only clear when the running signal ahead was showing at least single yellow), if it could it was just to allow movements short of the fouling point and may well have required the station foreman to stand at the fouling point with a red flag/lamp to ensure that the movement stopped short; although it seems unlikely it is possible that such moves were allowed to better position a van in the train (the station was alive in the early hours of the morning with newspaper traffic). The "single" aspect signal that you think you can see is in fact a 2-aspect (and hence 2-hood) signal in a 3-aspect head - the Southern Railway didn't use 2-aspect heads (except, possibly, as IBSs or distants within a semaphore signalled area).

Yes, PSV licences required for both driver and conductor, and in London even tram drivers needed a licence (issued by the LCC). The route would have been numbered 297B in 1932 under the Bassam numbering system where each route had a unique number and the suffix indicated a version of short working - 297A was probably used for journeys extended further along Tufnell Park Road to/from Holloway Garage. I can only find one photo of a scooter with a Bassom-style number display (on route 109D on the SE outskirts of London). I suspect that the rear route number display was a large stencil. If you are making the run-out displays readable, Holloway garage was "J". York Way was also served by several Green Line routes (in the days when they were lettered rather than numbered) as there was a Green Line coach station at Kings Cross (which I believe can still be seen today unless it has been demolished recently). Although Green Line itself didn't start before 1933, the routes had been operated previously by private operators such as Queen Line.

John Hinson's website includes the diagram for the 1920s (post-electrification) colour-light signalling although it doesn't show the two "parcels" platforms 2 and 3 shortened as it should. Platform 6 was also effectively short although a narrow (certainly sub-standard width) walkway was provided throughout an 8-car length. There were 2-aspect (both running and subsidiary) R/G signals on each road that converged prior to fouling points, the running signals being unable to clear unless the running signal in advance was also clear. Quite an interesting bit of early colour light signalling in fact. The signalling shown in John Hinson's diagram remained in use until at least the late-1950s.

The 639 mentioned was a short-lived very localised route, although that number had indeed once been borne, not only by a trolleybus route, but by one of the very two trolleybus routes (the other was the 615) which passed the end of Calshot Street at the time that Keen House opened; it didn't serve York Way (the former York Road) though. Before WWII, York Road was served by single-deck route 239 operated by LT type buses (known as "scooters" because of their length - they were 6-wheelers) from Hollway Garage. It ran between Kings Cross Albion Street and Tufnell Park Hotel with a running time of only 13 minutes. Prior to the LPTB route renumberings of October 1934, it had been General route 297B. I don't know what operated the route before the scooters arrived in the summer of 1931 but there were single-deck versions of both K and S type vehicles, the older K is perhaps the more likely of the two.

Surprisingly though a number did survive in general service into the early 1950s. I have a vague feeling that I have seen a Roye England photo somewhere that showed one with a Wxxxxx number. There were certainly several in departmental use that acquired DWxxxxxx numbers.

Definitely just the axle box covers and even those were probably brand new from stock when first used on an SR underframe. The ex-LBSCR underframes used under (rebuilt LBSCR) electric stock were non-standard length and the last in use, under reformed 4-SUB units in the 45xx series, were withdrawn in 1960; the reformed interim units having been created precisely because their underframes were unusable under EPBs and yet had sufficient life to provide a necessary buffer while other older vehicles were withdrawn to enable their standard SR underframes to be reused under EPBs.

You may well find it quite difficult (if not impossible) to get 0,5mm ø wire into a hole drilled 0,5mm ø. I would recommend opening the hole out slightly using, say, a 0,6mm ø drill which shouldn't be difficult. It will also give the solder somewhere to go. If the steel wire will in fact go into the hole you have drilled, you could use Loctite 603 to fix it, just apply the tiniest drop (I use a pin to apply it) to the end of the steel wire and push it right home in the brass.

The first photo is pre-WWII.

I wondered if the loco is one of the NCC Jinties?

Definitely a BEC (ie Brush) car, and it doesn't seem to match any cars that ran on the IoM. Could it be Derby no.1 (now at Crich, although on a standard rather than 3'-6" gauge truck) prior to restoration?

It isn't just Customs' that will form an impediment from January to visits by Europeans to the UK for exhibitions, etc. It has been announced by the Home Office that they will no longer allow Europeans to enter the UK using their identity cards on the spurious grounds that they are less secure than passports (really, do you now have to have a police visit in the UK before you can get a passport - or move home?). The majority of Europeans don't possess passports, because the ID cards replace them for travel within Europe, and I think it unlikely that they will go to the trouble, and expense, of getting one just to travel to the UK. They will just forgo that "pleasure" instead. Personally, I should still be able to enter if I so wish as I retained my UK citizenship (one has to pay a substantial sum to revoke it) and the British Ambassador in Bruxelles assures me that British citizens don't actually need passports to enter the UK.

It isn't just the fact that duty - and VAT - will become payable on all but the tiniest consignments, every shipment will face Customs' delays and, even if they decide that duty/VAT isn't payable, there will still be a charge to cover the cost of their examination. However, that is just buying goods and books, what is, in many ways worse, is that exhibiting British layouts in Europe and European layouts in the UK will become unaffordable because the owners will need to obtain a Carnet de Passage en Douane, basically an insurance policy guaranteeing the payment of duty/VAT if the layout isn't, for some reason, returned to its home country after exhibition. Like many one-off insurance policies these don't come cheap, I've heard suggestions of charges of the order of £ 1.000 or more. Similar problems apply to musicians and their instruments, but at least there their representatives have some muscle and the EU seems to have put in place a scheme which avoids such costs - but it doesn't apply to model railways.

The Vennbahn may have criss-crossed the Belgium-Germany border (and indeed it did) but the railway line itself as far as its boundary fences either side and including all station yards was actually Belgian territory throughout (and was operated by the NGBE - better known to the British as the SNCB). The RaVel walking and cycling track that has replaced it is also Belgian throughout. One of the stranger territory incursions in Europe, which in this case resulted from the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

My rather simplified take on it in HOe for my contribution to Les Croisées de l'étroite, pictured here at the LR Presse Trainsmania exhibition at Lille in 2017.