bécasse

EoD were effectively in existence for only a few years at the end of Victoria's reign. Most of the work that they did for British companies seems to have used the appropriate companies standard signal design and that was certainly the case on the SECR and GER (even though EoD designed boxes were installed on the former). EoD did some overseas work, for example in Argentina, and it seems that something akin to that used on the H&BR was used there. https://www.flickr.com/photos/44833183@N06/9712084423/in/photostream/

Actually the BR (strictly Railway Executive) instruction of June 1948 would have had the auto trailers painted in lined crimson like other non-corridor stock. The waist-only lining didn't sit happily on a lot of the (often panelled) stock to which it was applied and was soon dropped from the livery, so that by the time of Riddles' instruction unlined crimson was indeed the rule. In respect of the auto trailers, this is of course hypothetical since the WR bent the rules and applied the main-line stock livery.

When freshly painted the red was quite bright but it must have contained a fair lead content as it weathered quickly to a much duller red of which the Precision Paints paint isn't a bad copy. As with white roofs, this effectively wasn't really weathering but the result of a chemical reaction which produced near-black lead sulphide within the paint. The Isle of Wight Steam Railway has always taken considerable trouble to try to get its colours historically correct and, over the years, both bright and dull reds have been seen there on brake van ends.

I have used very similar techniques with painted and roughened MDF. I found that adding a matt varnish coat tended to smooth the surface but that light sanding once the varnish was thoroughly dry roughened it again. Weathering powders are probably best used as the very final touch - the apparently dry matt varnish seems to be quite happy to "grab" them. I use artists' acrylic matt varnish in small bottles applied with, say, a no.5 artists' brush - it goes a surprisingly long way - and rinse the brushes with neat washing up liquid followed by copious water.

When laminating coupling rods I always use a high melting point solder that contains silver (not silver soldering though). The reason that I actually do that is because I like to start with small holes and then broach out all the rods together to the correct diameter, thus ensuring that they are all exactly the same length, and I discovered the hard way that the localised heat generated in the broaching process was quite sufficient to soften lower MP solders. However, it has the added bonus that it is quite difficult to melt or even soften the solder in the laminated rods when subsequently soldering up crankpins and the like, especially if you use an iron with a temperature-controlled bit.

I would not only second Tim's advice, which isn't just applicable to coupling rods by the way, but would add that, by some strange quirk, attempting to chemically blacken nickel silver, whilst often unsuccessful in terms of actual blackening (which depends on the precise nature of the alloy used), will usually (at least in my experience) still make it resistant to soldering.

This issue interested me because I was looking for very fine ballast material to use in a 4mm situation where the prototype would have used, at best, ash and clinker. For "proper" ballast I was already using what may be the Woodland Scenics' N gauge fine ballast (the jar is unlabelled but the contents look identical). However, today at an exhibition in Luxembourg I came across some real possibilities. The first, readily obtainable in the UK, is Noch 09376 Gleisschotter dunkelgrau (ballast dark grey) which is described as being for HO and TT scales but is certainly very fine; here it costs € 2,29 for 250 gm. The other, in a 450 ml plastic jar costing € 5,00, was completely new to me and is described as Gleisschotter Basalt dunkelgrau (ballast basalt dark grey) for N and T gauges; it is sold by a German company called tams elektronik and appears as fine as the Noch product if not finer and is slightly browner in colour (almost a peat colour in fact). This company actually sells quite a range of similar products and their website (only in German) can be found at https://tams-online.de/epages/642f1858-c39b-4b7d-af86-f6a1feaca0e4.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/642f1858-c39b-4b7d-af86-f6a1feaca0e4/Categories/Produkte/Schotter .

Oddly, I was at an exhibition today in the GDL where there was a layout depicting a test station (à la Rugby) which was emitting a lot of "smoke", and my immediate thoughts were as to how long it would be before the fire alarms started sounding. They didn't go off though. I had seen the particular layout twice before but hadn't then appreciated just how much smoke it produced.

I wouldn't have called the hotchpotch which is today's Didcot a "real site" either. It demonstrates bits and pieces of the old GWR as well as it can in the circumstances but it bears far less resemblance to any real GWR location than the model of Maindee East does. Ironic really, since the Didcot site was a genuine GWR loco shed once upon a time. My comment isn't intended as any form of criticism of the excellent work done at Didcot other than that they should be wary of being the pot calling the kettle black!

6674 might well have been there earlier in 1947. It is noted as being allocated to Pantyfynnon from 4w/e 29/12/1945 and moving to Stourbridge Junction from 4w/e 12/07/1947. However, GWR shed allocation records for that period generally appear to be (at least) "iffy", so that might not tell the whole story.

I always use one of the Birchwood Casey "blues" - Super Blue, Aluminium Blue and Brass Black will all darken brass satisfactorily (the final resulting colour varies slightly but that isn't obvious on small items) providing that it is clean before the "blue" is applied. I apply it sparingly with a brush and I never bother to rinse it afterwards - and have never experienced any problems as a result - if I have accidentally applied too much liquid, I dab it with a bit of tissue. Indeed, I see one of the great benefits of these "blues" is the ability to reapply it readily to worn edges of completed models, a task which is difficult with paint. I do have a small bottle of "blue", purchased at a Model Engineer exhibition perhaps half-a-century ago, which is labelled entirely in Italian and which I was warned needed to be thoroughly rinsed after application. The warning was well-founded, particularly for steel, where it quickly acts as a spectacular "grow your own rust" medium, so I only use it occasionally and for that very purpose. I have no real idea as to what it actually is although I have suspicions that it may have a cyanide base, consequently I only use it in a well ventilated area and I am very careful to keep it away from my skin. The Birchwood Casey "blues" though, need no more care than you would use for any chemical product.

I would have thought that brass axles would work-harden where they make rolling contact with the frames? That would certainly explain why there is little wear experienced even on CF locos.

The Dart Casting ones are for carriage cleaning platforms which were very narrow. These appear to be platform wall brackets (SR Civil Engineer's Exmouth Junction catalogue no. 7/1), which were 3'-0" wide at the top and took a 3'-0" wide (by 4'-0" long) coping on top, they were a complex trapezoidal shape although the front T-shaped upright was basically vertical. They were commonplace on the Southern of the 1950s and 60s although they usually had full width platforms behind them and often had "wall" panels between each upright. See pages 196 and 197 of the 2017 edition of Southern Nouveau for drawings.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the current route of the Met/Circle/H&C (and erstwhile widened) lines between Barbican (erstwhile Aldersgate) and Moorgate isn't the one that the railway followed at the time that Whitecross Street Goods was open. All four tracks of the railway were rerouted in the mid-1960s to facilitate the Barbican development, virtually the whole area (including Moorgate station) having been razed by the Luftwaffe in late-1940. Reference to detailed OS maps of various eras on the Old Maps or National Library of Scotland websites will help clarify the situation, although the fact that the railway was largely in tunnel confuses things slightly.

I produced a (hopefully) comprehensive listing of the original condition in which each standard 350hp diesel shunter (later classes 08 and 09) was outshopped - and when. Generally, it doesn't cover later changes but it does enable one to understand the original appearance of each loco in this large class. It can be found here https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/143114-br-standard-350hp-diesel-electric-shunting-locomotives-–-configuration-as-initially-out-shopped/&tab=comments#comment-3497664

They would surely have been either black or another dark colour during WWII as an ARP.

When in use as civil engineer's riding vans (a practice which continued for many years after they ceased to be used as brake vans), only civil engineer's staff travelled in them comfortably ensconced in the cabin, the train would have had a separate van (or two) for the guard which would not have been Toads. The brake column was retained to provide a "parking" brake. Incidentally, it was the low veranda sides coupled with the low roof and lack of internal handrails that made them dangerous, it was all too easy to be pitched over the side, receiving a nasty bang on the head from the roof on the way, if the van lurched suddenly (something commonplace on loose-coupled goods trains). I only rode on one in traffic once, and I was very grateful that, at the first stop, the driver invited me to join him in the comparative safety of the footplate (where there were at least handrails to hold on to).

One would have expected signal arms on the Southern at Salisbury to move at a steady pace. The signals of both East and West boxes were pneumatically worked (although East box was subsequently converted to electro-pneumatic operation, I am not sure now whether this was pre- or post-WWII). Both boxes had slides rather than levers, and certainly the ones in the East box required a considerable knack to pull or push back without getting caught by the locks.

I have wondered whether the van was being towed by a dmu as tail traffic (not that common but it did happen occasionally, although I don't know whether it was permitted on that route) and the dmu had engine problems and the van had to be detached. The only simple way of getting the van on its way would have been to propel it as it would have been sitting on, and blocking, a running road somewhere.

Some Engineer's Riding Vans were "converted" (by being renumbered) from piped Toads but many, perhaps the majority, were unfitted and remained unfitted in engineering service. Therefore it was immaterial whether the whole train was vacuum-braked, the riding van wasn't.

Indeed, with the exception of the installation of short-arm semaphores to replace dollies which could give direct access to block sections, the changes were only made on a renewal/resignalling basis, so the dates of introduction should be treated as "not before" dates. I have little doubt that the same applied on the WR.

The Southern Railway seems to have been the first to use yellow on black discs, although their use was limited to floodlit motor-worked round discs installed as part of colour light signal schemes starting, I think, with the ex-LSW main-line out of Waterloo in the late 1930s. Mechanically worked yellow ground signals on the SR continued to be miniature arms rather than discs (which the red ones were) until the late 1950s (probably 1958/59) when yellow on black discs started to appear instead. I have always assumed that this was the result of a BR edict which also outlawed the practice (not uncommon on the Southern) of discs permitting entry to a block section (other regions overcame the problem by providing an advanced starting signal). The discs concerned (which had often been elevated) were replaced by short-arm stop signals - resulting in the installation of a small number (perhaps a dozen) of yellow stop signals as well as rather more red ones. In most cases, the new signals had barely been installed before the yards concerned were eliminated!

And don't forget, with the old traditional LT signalling (although it predated even the formation of the LPTB) a red aspect indicated "train stop up, do not proceed" whereas a green aspect indicated "section ahead clear, proceed unless the red aspect is illuminated". As the lowering of the train stop was a mechanical process, there were always a couple of seconds when both aspects were alight.

Actually, Chris, I suspect that it might have been the other way round with lower platform being added at Bewdley, possibly in later BR days when H&S issues started to be taken seriously. It would have been possible to stand on just the bracket and, although it wouldn't have either felt or been particularly safe, it wouldn't have been worse than many tall/complex post situations. Signal climbing was never for the faint hearted!

Many decades indeed, some of the books and magazines have publication dates which predate the Club's founding in 1910.