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I have often thought that that line offered serious modelling potential, and I have a vague recollection that you already possess a suitable station building (since it is known which style would have been used). In addition to the local train service, I have always assumed that it would have seen (at least in the 1950s and early 1960s) excursion and holiday-maker traffic from the Peterborough direction to Clacton (and Butlins!), perhaps even a summer period Clacton portion off the "North Country Continental".

I rather doubt whether anywhere would have had a goods yard in the 1970s. Mistley, on the Harwich branch, still had full facilities intact in 1974 but it was most unusual by then. Household coal, grain, sugar beet and fruit, all to some extent seasonal, tended to be the mainstay of East Anglian rural goods yards post the mid-1950s but they mostly disappeared or were lost to road by the mid- to late-1960s. As, indeed, were most rural passenger lines, even those converted to basic Pay Train operation. Assuming that there is some good reason for the retention of this yard (for wagon load traffic), I would plump for the signal box having been downgraded to a gate box (pending closure or conversion to half-barriers - which was awkward with a adjacent station) with just protecting stop and distant signals in each direction and manned as required by a railman. The connections to the yard would then be worked by local ground frames adjacent to the points concerned, unlocked by the SL token. Late 1950s or c1960-62 would give you more scope with the diesels having arrived but some of that traffic still about. Autumns, in particular, could still be busy.

The trick is to add two or three locating pegs made from, say, 0,7mm ø brass wire. Drill suitable locations on the brass coach side, if it has door "bumpers" they would be ideal but even holes in the plain sides can be filled afterwards. Fasten the brass coach side to the donor coach, perhaps using clothes pegs, and then drill through those holes with the same size drill into the donor coach. Now you can either solder the brass wire pegs into the brass side or simply place protruding lengths of the wire in the holes in the donor coach side. Before you add the glue make sure the alignment is perfect, the assuming it is, spread the glue thinly, allow to go tacky and then close up the brass side onto the donor coach using the alignment pegs.

I wouldn't have ruled out a halt platform and/or possibly a single siding but neither would have any link with the signals, the siding point being released by the single line token. Whether there were any locations where that was actually the case I don't know (at least not without a lot of work trawling through books). Incidentally, such locations featured working distant signals for obvious reasons, one of the very rare occasions where the GWR used working distants on single lines. I believe that there was at least one location where two level crossings in close succession both slotted the same distant signal, which only cleared if both crossings were open.

I reckon that I would be very pleased with that if it were in 4mm scale, for 2FS it is almost incredible.

It isn't just a summer/winter bias that one has to be careful of when analysing railway photographs. Until about 1960 many people worked five and a half days a week and only had a fortnight's annual holiday. As a result a disproportionate number of railway photographs of the period were taken on Saturday afternoons when, although the actual timetable may have been similar to that applying on other weekdays, the train working (locomotives and/or rolling stock) were often different, winter or summer. Captions rarely give a precise date (and, if they do, it is often wrong) so this can be a real trap for the unwary. Photographs taken by Reverend enthusiasts can, however, be useful - their day off was Monday!

The Southern Railway platform edge slabs for pre-cast platforms were 4'-6" long (along the platform edge) and 4'-3" wide. The later Southern Region ones were slightly different but this looks like a Southern Railway structure. 4'-3" is too narrow on its own for a public platform but was considered acceptable for staff halts.

Ah. I had wondered if no.14 was a standard gauge location, and obviously somewhere on the British mainland, not Ireland at all! I still don't recognise it.

Apart from the obvious photo of the L&M van, the other shots all look as if they may well be on the Settle & Carlisle.

Numbers 24 and 25 are of former Cork, Blackrock & Passage locos in the yard at Ballinamore after their transfer to the Cavan & Leitrim - the C&L carriage just visible in number 25 is very distinctive. Number 23 is at Kilkee on the West Clare and depicts that railway's 0-6-2T no.5 (I think) and original compartment carriages. I think that no.5 survived, plinthed at Ellis. I am sorry but I don't immediately recognise no.14 but there were a number of locations where three foot gauge lines ran close to the sea in both the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Drawings of the loco shed at Snailbeach can be found here .

Until the frequency reductions implemented in September 1958 the Charing Cross-Tattenham Corner/Caterham trains ran every 20 minutes. The approximate journey time to/from Tattenham Corner was 54 minutes and to/from Caterham 40 minutes, so 6 units were required to work the Tattenham Corner trains and 5 to work the Caterham ones. However, the Tattenham Corner unit lead between Charing Cross and Purley in both directions, so a unit that worked to Tattenham Corner on one round trip worked to Caterham on the next and the Tattenham Corner headcode [01 on EPB stock] was displayed throughout between Charing Cross and Tattenham Corner in both directions, with the Caterham headcode [93 on EPB stock] only normally seen between Purley and Caterham (again in both direction). More modern 4-SUB stock displayed the same numerical headcodes as EPB stock, albeit usually using stencils rather than roller blinds, but the older 4-SUBs, and all "3-SUBs", displayed the letter stencil S with two dots over the letter for Tattenham Corner and one dot for Caterham.

But locos didn't carry their own discs (and probably not lamps either, that was a GWR practice) as should be obvious from the fact that one of the discs displayed the duty number.

Worked semaphore distants were quite rare because the Southern Railway fixed many of them as an economy measure (on the grounds that it made little difference to the speed of approach to a terminal station), so the fact that this one was retained, and that the two available routes shared the same home (with an indicator, of course), suggests that it could be cleared for either route.

I agree in respect of the Brighton, but the South Western used "socket" fittings for lamps and discs and photos (albeit difficult to date precisely) seem to suggest that either these had been changed to irons before the vesting date or some sort of semi-permanent adaptor had been fitted - photos of the period can be annoying indistinct in respect of this sort of detail.

Most, if not all, the locos that passed through Brighton works seem to have been done so that was probably quite a hefty proportion of the 50. Photographs reveal that at least some of the 50 retained WD-style numbers, although that might just have been while they were awaiting their turn for a works visit.

In some ways Caterham was a most unusual Southern London outskirts terminal. Firstly, there was the nearby Guards' Depot (the first "modern" military barracks in Britain) which meant that the station had to have provision for occasional but potentially substantial military traffic. Secondly, after electrification in 1928 the normal service pattern was for off-peak services to/from Charing Cross but peak-hour services which went only as far as London Bridge. Furthermore this service was combined between London and Purley with trains to/from Tattenham Corner, the norm, in the days of the original "3-SUB" units, being 3-cars to/from Caterham and 3-cars off-peak/6-cars on-peak to/from Tattenham Corner. When the "3-SUB" units were made up to 4-SUBs post WWII, the norm became 4-cars to/from Caterham and 4-cars to/from Tattenham Corner but this led to complaints of overcrowding on the Tattenham line where peak-hour provision was reduced by 2-cars per train. Consequently, once 2-EPB units became available in the mid-1950s, the peak-hour trains were worked by 4- and 2-EPB units instead of SUBs with 4-EPB going to Caterham and 6-EPB (2+4) going to Tattenham Corner, and this pattern remained unchanged for several decades. Although services were more frequent at peak hours, the fact that they worked a shorter route (turning back at London Bridge) meant that the only extra stock required was the 2-EPB strengtheners added at Tattenham Corner (and stabled there at other times). As a result of this there was never any need to stable units at Caterham other than overnight, probably the only London area Southern terminal which normally had no units stabled in the platforms during the day. Incidentally on Epsom race days complete 10-EPB trains ran all day between Charing Cross and Tattenham Corner with Caterham served by a 4-EPB shuttle to/from Purley.

I think that the top prize for preparedness must go to the pre-grouping companies that made up the Southern Railway. Photos that are precisely datable suggest that most, if not all, of the locomotive fleets of these companies had been fitted with the necessary lamp irons to display the new SR codes prior to the vesting date of 1 January 1923.

WD locos shopped at Brighton 1946-1948 seem to have had "sunshine" numbers (and in a few, later, cases "BRITISH RAILWAYS") applied. There is more information on this thread.

However, the route indicator that appears, distantly, in one of the photos on that link is the other (and much more common) sort of SR route indicator which worked rather differently. One (signal box) lever worked the appropriate route number/letter which remained hidden behind a shield until the actual signal was pulled off when the shield cleared revealing the route. (Thus the "semi-circular" route indicator needed only two levers for two routes, the other type needed three levers for two routes.) I have a drawing for the more common type but not the semi-circular "Redhill" type even though I was well familiar with them. On Southern Electric routes, "spare" units were habitually stored in terminal platform roads between morning and evening (or Saturday midday) peaks.

Unless, of course, you operated the notorious "Sykes key" which reset the whole caboodle.

Most Southern Electric terminals in the London suburban area had fouling bars together with indicators (a white star on a blue background) on the adjacent platform indicating their position. Stock (and locos) were required to stand such that at least some wheels were on the bar.

The branch was definitely Sykes Lock & Block. One of the Whyteleafs had a busy level crossing which had to be closed before the block could be cleared (normally LC gates don't count as an obstruction but they did in this case), and a practice developed of closing the gates to clear the block and then using the Sykes key so that the gates could be opened again, protected by signals of course. Just one of the regular illegitimate uses of the Sykes key in that immediate area. Its use on the main line was even more prolific since the rush hour service couldn't be worked to time otherwise, the practice ceased after the Purley Oaks accident of November 1947 pushing the project to resignal the area to the top of the list (although post-war circumstances meant that it was still five years before it happened).

I always assumed that OOC made up the sets for departures from Paddington by rolling dice. Most trains certainly looked as if they had been made up in a random fashion.

The turntables at either end of the Glyn Valley Tramway, which were obviously used to turn their three tram engines (but not the Baldwin), were almost certainly standard gauge wagon turntables with narrow gauge rails and strengthening plates. While no photos exist of them "stripped down", there is a photo showing the hole that remained post-closure/clearance and it matches exactly what one would expect for a wagon turntable. Circumstantial evidence suggests that they probably came from the Caledonia Foundry at Stoke which was later owned by Kerr Stuart.