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I have, but there was nowhere on the Southern post the mid 1920s where CJF's Minories concept could be seen (although Ryde Pier Head came close on summer Saturdays) and the OP had mentioned the use of electric stock anyway. Liverpool Street west side (platforms 1 to 3) was indeed at impressive sight at peak hours pre-electrification and, with N7s more or less readily available from Oxford and those uncomfortable Quinarts in the new Isinglass range, it can now be reproduced relatively simply in model form.

The number plate doesn't seem to conform to any European country style, the only two countries whose plates comprise two alpha groups followed by a numeric group are Germany and Montenegro* and in both cases the second alpha group comprises two letters, not one. The style of the letters and numbers suggest that the plate was actually made in an Eastern European country, they are certainly not Germanic. * and there isn't a DO area code in Montenegro anyway.

I think that the only difference from my previous post is that the exit from the loco spur would now only have a motor worked disc and not a three/four-aspect c/l signal. It is possible that there would also be a motor-worked disc with red bar on a white background at the entry to the loco spur but I suspect that, post the introduction of motor-worked discs c1937, only the disc further out would have been provided. Before 1937, when miniature red and green colour light signals were used as shunt signals rather than motor-worked discs, a miniature two- aspect signal would have been provided at this location (and every other location where I have specified a motor-worked disc). However this style of signalling was only installed between Charing Cross and Cannon Street and North Kent East Junction and at Holborn Viaduct and Blackfriars (in the late 1920s), and on the Brighton main line south of Coulsdon down to Brighton itself (in the early 1930s), and would thus look especially out of place on a small layout like this.

The photos of Nunhead depict Southern REGION, rather than Southern Railway, concrete fence and platform panels, probably dating from the mid-1950s. There was a major redesign of Exmouth Junction products immediately after WWII which I suspect might have been intended to reduce the amount of steel reinforcing required (steel being in short supply at the time), and although the drawings were clearly done prior to nationalisation, very few actual products appeared prior to 1948 making it easiest to think of the redesigns as purely Southern Region.

I am not sure that you need any signalling. On secondary lines timetable block was used with trains proceeding from station to station in accordance with what the working book said, the actual departures being authorised by the display of a green baton by the chef de gare. He (or she) would also issue drivers with instructions to vary from the timetable if that became necessary (because of late running, for example). Ex-PLM lines often had portable carrés, a small battery(?) box with an equally small carré mounted above it, the ensemble being placed on the platform edge facing the driver at the desired stopping point. I am not sure whether they were used on ex-Midi lines or not and I haven't seen them used in the north of France. Timetable block may seem insecure compared with the arrangements for single lines in the UK, but it was cheap and worked well. I have seen no evidence to suggest that it facilitated any greater number of accidents in practice than the "more secure" British systems.

As passenger-rated vehicles, Fruit Ds would tend to be used, at least during the relevant season, for perishable fruit which needed to be got rapidly to market (picked on day 1, sold on day 2). Strawberries, already packed in plummets ready for sale, would be an obvious example but the season was very short. Fruit Ds would also have been obvious candidates for helping to cope with other seasonal traffics - Christmas parcels and holidaymakers' luggage in advance, for example. In some respects, the Fruit Ds were the Great Western equivalent of the Southern's U-vans.

Post the revised plan and I will make suggestions but do bear in mind that this layout is going to be very fictional, BILs mean Central or Western sections and there were no small terminal stations on either with colour light signalling during that era, Portsmouth Harbour* perhaps being the closest example. Even on the Eastern section, Holborn Viaduct was the only small terminal with colour light signalling (installed in the late 1920s and therefore a little different) until 1959 (Sheerness-on-Sea) and 1962 (Bromley North). * Ironically though, Portsmouth Harbour did see Bulleid Pacifics, at least around dawn, as well as BILs and HALs (although it's mainstream units were CORs, BUFs and RESs).

With the "parcels line" inaccessible from the arrival road and without any run round facilities, it is most unlikely that it would have been used for anything other than stabling (so I will refer to it as the stabling siding). The three passenger platforms will be numbered 1, 2 and 3 from the top (making the stabling siding, in effect, platform 0). The precise signalling arrangements would depend on the date of the c/l installation but on the assumption that this was between the late 1930s and the late 1950s they would comprise: arrival road: 3-aspect signal with theatre light route indicator displaying 1, 2, 3 for the three platforms, the signal would display a green aspect if the relevant platform was completely clear, otherwise single yellow. back shunt adjacent to arrival road: ground level single floodlit round disc with red bar on white, motor-worked. departure road (for shunting moves back into platforms or stabling siding): ground level single floodlit round disc with red bar on white , motor worked. stabling siding and each platform: 3-aspect (could be 4-aspect) signal plus single floodlit round disc with red bar on white, motor worked, mounted alongside each other. Both the stabling and back-shunt sidings would be trapped and the three platforms are likely to have fouling bars at intervals - marked by white star on blue illuminated signs on the platforms.

It was published more than 70 years ago so it is out of copyright (although the source still has to be acknowledged).

Which is interesting as my starting point is always to set the bit temperature to 100° above the melting point of the solder so 170° for low melting point solder. I might increase this slightly when soldering large blocks of white metal together (but first I try using a larger size bit if possible) and I would certainly decrease it, perhaps as low as 120°, if soldering a small item. One important issue is that when soldering white metal to tinned brass using 70° MP solder, it is essential to avoid melting the solder that was used to pre-tin the brass as the resulting amalgam is cr*p. In such cases I now always pre-tin the brass using a high MP solder (and keeping the bit temperature well below that MP) which avoids the problem.

But at the same time it was (seriously) considering the use of the standards on the Isle of Wight where their marginally smaller envelope would have needed less modification to fit the loading gauge than would have been needed with the Ivatts. I still think that the cost of spares (and especially boiler spares) was a red herring, a paper reason to get rid of a class of loco that the men didn't, for some reason, like. Post Beeching and the rise of the bean counters, the more enlightened members of senior management became very adept at finding financial justification for doing things.

Peco Insulaxles you mean?

Of course, just to confuse the issue, the LBSCR had workable limit of shunt signs, effectively identical to their normal revolving dollies but with the letter L on their face.

IIRC all the Western's dmus were out of gauge for the Highworth branch. Even on hauled trains only specially modified and appropriately branded passenger rolling stock was permitted.

Ken Garland's lovely book on Mr Beck's Underground Maps, published by Capital Publishing in 1994, is well worth a read, and there have been a couple of books since, one again published by Capital and the other, IIRC, by the LT Museum. It's certainly a fascinating subject.

John Hinson's site has a whole string of Midland-originating signal layouts and John spent a fair bit of his signalling career working ex-Midland boxes. Bakewell isn't so different, for example, and certainly confirms both the use of a dolly at the exit from the sidings and the use of a single dolly controlling setting back moves from the up platform even though there was more than one possible route.

It is very nice Jerry. I'm old enough to remember them shunting Hither Green Sidings before the diesel shunters arrived as well as having seen them on both freight and passenger workings - indeed, I have travelled behind one a couple of times. One minor point, I haven't checked (folly!) but I have a sneaking suspicion that the steam reverser cylinders should be lined (not, of course, that I ever saw them in any SECR livery let alone the pre-Great War one).

No, the Southern footplate staff unquestionably much preferred the Ivatts to the similar standard version (although I have no idea why) and ASLEF's views, most of which were actually quite sensible, were always taken seriously by the Southern management. It may be that the arrival of a block allocation of standards in East Kent where the men had little or no experience of the Ivatts proved acceptable (because they were compared with what they replaced - although H class 0-4-4TS were very well thought of, M7s and ex-Brighton locos less so), but once they were moved somewhere where the men did know the Ivatts well the comparison became obvious and words were said. There was always an incentive for BR corporately to keep the same locos within the Southern Region (and Western Region for that matter) because of the non-standard lamp iron arrangements.

The four 84XXX type 2s transferred to Exmouth Junction in 1961 were all already Southern Region locos and were "freed up" by the interim Kent electrification stage in June that year. For some reason the Southern engine men much preferred the Ivatt type 2s on which the standard versions were based and this preference, which led to their priority ousting from the SED, seems to have transferred with them to Exmouth Junction (which already had plenty of experience with the Ivatts) as they were replaced by Ivatts there at the end of the summer timetable. The 2-6-2Ts were needed at Exmouth Junction in 1961 as all three Adams radials (for the Lyme Regis branch) were withdrawn that year, the first early in the year, the other two in the summer (presumably once it had been established that 2-6-2Ts could work the branch satisfactorily in practice and not just theoretically). There may have been some feature of the standard locos which in theory made them a better choice for the Lyme Regis branch than the Ivatts (and perhaps later made them a better theoretical choice for the IoW), but the Ivatts quickly won out, they were certainly very capable little locos.

They worked various services in North Cornwall during each summer 1960 - 1964 and almost certainly earlier, and notably the Bude branch. Don't forget that just about all the sheds in that area were subs of 72A.

These Mehano lightweight hand-held controllers are very popular on the French exhibition circuit. I picked one up secondhand for about € 15 at a bourse. Reversal was initially a bit of a puzzle, as you turn the knob past the zero point and then back, but one quickly gets used to the arrangement and it does ensure that one never tries to reverse something under power.

If I am soldering two flimsy etches together, I use a high melting-point silver-content solder which adds a surprising amount of extra strength - although to be fair the solder is specifically aimed at amateur jewellers needing strong joints. In practice, I use that solder as a matter of course when making up coupling rods as its higher MP makes it much more "ping" resistant when broaching out the pin holes.

These days, when it is so easy to incorporate photos into a word-processed text file, I would suggest that a "list" comprising photos of your locos along with their codes might be better than a list of identifying features. Only if two or more locos look alike do you need to do more - and the best way would probably be to make them look dissimilar. Not my original idea incidentally as I have seen at least one layout at a show with such a photographic list alongside its DCC controller (and I have a feeling that that controller had selection buttons so even the codes didn't have to be given).

I would talk to Dave sooner rather than later, he is quite knowledgable on South Western stock. The set would have been converted to electric lighting when the conversion to air-operated pull-and-push equipment was done if, indeed, it hadn't been done earlier. Noting the present livery of the model, in LSWR days (and the first few years of the SR era) the pull-and-push equipment would have been wire and pulley.

Never mind mum, I have distinct childhood memories of sitting in that parlour looking out at the rain pouring down outside accompanied by my parents and little sister and my uncle, aunt and two cousins. I would have probably been four or five at the time c1950.