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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.

Other than at terminal points, "road" vans were normally loaded and unloaded at the station platform while an shunting required was taking place. Many stations possessed a lock-up shed (occasionally incorporated into the station building) to facilitate timely loading/unloading and the safe storage of delivered or to-be-collected items. Road vans carried items rated at goods tariffs, more urgent items travelled in the vans of passenger trains and were passenger tariff rated - handling at stations was similar though.

Not really many variants. The early "shaped" disc appears to have been produced enamelled white all round (apart, of course, from the red bar) which is quite logical. One presumes that it proved difficult to keep the back of the disc clean and so the lamp blinder was painted white instead and this became the new standard arrangement, carried forward on to round discs when they appeared (with back faces enamelled black). The white backs of the original discs would have been allowed to become grimy over time, other than in odd locations with keen S&T gangs who still cleaned them. All those gwr.org photos are consistent with that analysis.

A couple of general comments. Firstly, in most railway workshops (at Eastleigh, for example) drawings weren't used on the shop floor. The foreman was told what was required and what material would be provided and construction went on from there. The men on the shop floor would have their own trade practices (learnt when they were apprentices) and one of the most important of these was that the job was always done the easiest way. That probably explains, for example, the differences between the MR and SDJR luggage doors, at Highbridge, with only a few to build, it was probably easier to make two equal width doors, whereas at Derby, where large numbers of standard width doors would have been on hand, it was probably easier to take one standard width door and then make the second to the non-standard width. Secondly, it is important to remember that old photos don't necessarily show typical workings. Before (perhaps) 1960, most amateur railway photographs showing general working were taken on Saturday afternoons (or on Mondays by clergymen!), and while Saturday timetables were often very similar to those for Mondays to Fridays, the traffic working wasn't.

But the real railway only ever had one. Apparently it seemed like a really good idea at the time since there were (or would have been in time) a good number of "Bulleid" compartment trailers going spare and ripe for conversion, and the intention was to actually use them between two passenger units in service trains. (That really happened, incidentally, I remember seeing a 4CEP-deicer-4CEP formed service train depart towards London from Ashford one Sunday in early 1962.) However, fitting proper drawgear and buckeye couplings to both ends of a formerly close-coupled trailer proved problematic and expensive, and the intended scheme never went further than the prototype. I believe that at least one preserved line looked at ex-SR trailer vehicles as a potential source of "historic" rolling stock until they were told how difficult conversion would have been.

Electrification.

You seem to be able to route down trains into the up loop without any provision within the up loop for preventing them going any further. It would be a very unlikely provision during most of the semaphore era anyway - the most likely arrangement would be to have no facing crossover at the approach in the down direction and then a long trailing crossover on the up side so down terminating trains would offload in the down loop, continue empty in the down direction and then reverse back over the long trailing crossover into the up loop. There would probably have been a layover siding (with a run round loop for loco hauled trains) if terminating trains normally spent any great time before returning.

On the prototype it was the other way round. All the Class 24s and the earlier Class 25s had the three panels occupying the same (wide) arc of the roof so the beading was all in-line. However the later Class 25s had an extra line of ventilation panels installed along the cantrail both sides and this necessitated a reduction in the width of the central panel. The vast majority of manufacturers in both 2mm and 4mm scale have taken this later design as the starting point for their models, even without the cantrail ventilation grills. Getting the cab "brow" shape right has been an issue for model manufacturers, I am told because no detail drawings exist, and reviews of new models as they emerged were naturally drawn to that feature, so reviewers overlooked the width of the central panel issue. It is noteworthy that Brassmasters who produce(d) a wonderful range of detailing parts for Class 24/25s in 4mm scale overlooked the issue too - it could have been corrected by fitting a new two-part etched central panel. However, once the error is corrected it is amazing how "correct" the model suddenly looks.

I am made suspicious by the newly white-leaded (or whatever white sealant they were using in the early 1960s) roof. There really were very few in traffic by that date, mainly on freight-only branch line duties, and I suspect that this is an engineer's riding van attached to a train of empty open wagons which are ready to be filled with spoil come the next weekend.

The roof panel issue is an obvious glaring error (which affects more than one 4mm scale version too) - not least because the roof is the most visible part of most model diesel locos. Correcting it, using microstrip perhaps, will make a huge difference to the appearance of your model, especially considering all the other excellent work that you have done to improve its appearance.

They were banned from long-distance freights from 1957 because they didn't have duckets. Most probably disappeared from general traffic use fairly soon after that although there would have been exceptions. They continued to be used as barrier wagons on tank trains (fitted/piped examples only) and, of course, many found employment for a considerable period as engineers' riding vans (and not just on the WR).