bécasse

The Great Western Railway's Lipson Vale Halt https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lipson-Vale-Railway-Station-Photo-Mutley-Laira-Plymouth-to-Devonport-1-/251629966223, located east of Mutley station in Plymouth and therefore passed through by LSWR trains en route to/from Friary, which was opened in 1904 appears to have had a remarkably similar construction (albeit with longer platforms) to Grogley Halt, opened two years later. The LSWR had remarkably few stations with rudimentary timber platforms and, given that the LSWR's DE Exeter would have been aware of Lipson Vale's construction, one has to wonder whether the design was copied (albeit not slavishly) inclusive of the pagoda hut. Eventually, I haven't been able to trace a date, LSWR local trains to/from Friary started to serve Lipson Vale as well as North Road and Mutley and, even more remarkably, continued to do so for almost another 12 years after the last GWR trains were withdrawn in July 1930.

As far as I am aware, all the c/i huts used by the GWR were in fact proprietary products (my memory drags up Joseph Ash of Birmingham, but I have been unable to check that so it may not be right), even though official GWR drawings undoubtedly existed. Certainly I once came across a "pagoda" hut in use as a park pavilion in a location that made a GW provenance most unlikely. It is possible that a LSWR official saw their use by the GWR and considered them suitable (particularly in terms of cost and ease of installation) for the three B&W locations, or a salesman may have made an opportune visit to the District Engineer at Exeter (who seems to have had greater authority than the other LSWR DEs). The LSWR wasn't a big user of c/i and those structures used elsewhere (on the Basingstoke-Alton and Bulford lines for example) seem to have been sourced elsewhere, possibly to a precise LSWR specification; I have never been able to identify their supplier. As to a construction date, the three halts opened in July 1906 and examination of the timber sub-structure of Grogley suggests that it was always the intention to provide shelters of this size, so they may have been installed by the winter of 1906/7. The layout at Boscarne Junction was improved and the signal box there extended in the summer of 1914 and, if they hadn't already been installed earlier it is possible that their provision was authorised at the same time. The rail motors were withdrawn during the latter part of the Great War and services cut back, so it is unlikely that their provision dates from later than 1914.

The vast majority of permanent speed restrictions were not marked in any way, although the exact practice varied according to the previous owning company, drivers being expected to know speed restrictions as part of their route knowledge. Somewhen c1960 the (ex-LNER) cut-out speed restriction signs started to be adopted BR-wide (and implementation was quite rapid, initially painted white, but later yellow. Even with these there was no "end of restriction" sign, although, of course, there might be a sign for another restriction lower than the norm for the area. Temporary (usually p.w.) restrictions were marked with advance warning yellow fishtail signs which indicated the actual speed limit plus © (commencement) and T (termination) signs - all back lit. The Southern Railway marked a very small number of severe permeant restrictions with boards signs similar to the temporary © (but displaying a pyramid shape rather than a C) and T signs but with no advanced warning. Finally, it wasn't just steam locomotives that weren't fitted with speedometers, until the mid-1970s they weren't fitted to any Southern suburban electric units either. A lack exploited by ASLEF during "work-to-rules" to bring the service to a complete stop while the drivers still had to be paid (as it was the management's fault that there was no way of ensuring drivers didn't exceed the speed limits laid down).

My recollection is that the NS locos weren't identical to the BR ones even if they looked superficially similar. In particular I think that the cab roof shape was different (from the EE standard) on the BR ones in order to fit the restrictive BR loading gauge better. If I am right, I suspect that it would be possible to modify a model based on the BR 08 during construction to better represent the NS locos.

Not just Reading, of course. The Elephant Room at Wimbledon (SR S&T) in the mid-1960s could best be likened to Alladin's Cave, clearly, quite apart from new stuff, anything that had been recovered and was still serviceable had never been thrown away.

Exactly my point, why hold two different sizes of enamelled disc when one size is sufficient, the smaller size being required in order to fit the multiple-disc design. Even if the bolt holes were differently spaced on the new-design single disc ground signal, it would have been a simple matter to start including the relevant bolt holes in the manufacture of the enamelled disc. Sometime in the early-1960s (inspired by Beeching, perhaps), BR started to take procurement seriously and asked pointed questions about why something slightly different from standard was essential and why the standard item wouldn't do - I remember being asked to justify why a particular printed tabular document had to be totally reset every year, I pointed out that the calendar changed every year so days that matched to dates last year, didn't this, hence the resetting.

Yes, my recollection is that there were two series strings of three bulbs, the idea being that if one side "blew" the other side provided sufficient light. If both sides blew the procedure was to open the "cupboard" door into the cab and there was provision for mounting a oil hand lamp (or later a Bardic) to illuminate the head code - and, yes, I have seen it done, once.

I wonder if a more likely reason was standardising stores items. Given that the smaller discs still had to be held in store even for new works let alone for like-for-like replacements, there would have been a real cost to holding the larger discs too. As the railway became more cost-conscious it is a consequence that would have dawned on someone - it might even have come in as a staff suggestion.

On the assumption that the light referred to is the one that illuminated the head code panel, the answer is that they were surprisingly dim in reality. Remember that most steam locos had only oil lamps at the front (and even Bulleid's electric loco lamps weren't much brighter). The level of illumination then was in total contrast to today's brightly lit railway, on stations as well as on trains.

It isn't as simple as it sounds, condensation can quickly become a major problem.

Whilst I don't have personal experience of travelling via Bournemouth West, I have seen photos of the Bulleid set arriving at Portishead with the caption stating that they had originated at London Waterloo and the Portishead branch closed before Bournemouth West. Furthermore, it was my understanding that at the time of the "temporary" closure of Bournemouth West (which I vaguely remember as taking effect in the middle of August 1965 with virtually no public notice), the carriage workings weren't altered although they worked to/from stabling sidings rather than BW itself (propelled from/to Branksome?). That would have made great sense as suddenly changing very involved carriage working diagrams, which were sometimes 3 days long, in the middle of the busy period would have involved a huge amount of work for which the resources were probably not available. Although I think that these trains ran six days a week, I am not sure that the carriage workings would have been the same on Saturdays, at least during the summer timetable.

The Terriers are likely to have been in Marsh umber livery (which was a pretty plain brown) by the time that the Great War erupted. I too think it unlikely that they would have been repainted beyond having their numbers and L B S C tank side lettering painted out (which could well have been done at Brighton before they were handed over).

The Hornby model was redimensioned in almost every respect to enable it to fit a chassis. Altering it is possible but a huge amount of work, even though there is quite a reasonable replacement chassis kit available from Branchlines. The Judith Edge kit is, as near as I can tell, accurate and not too difficult to build. Mike Edge, the kit designer, has a good reputation.

Those "red" carriages are exactly as I remember ones on the Southern. I have long had a suspicion that appearance of the red colour was highly dependent on the undercoat under it, particularly after a year or two in service. It was notable (and obvious in contemporary photos) that vehicles painted by the WR, presumably at Swindon, weathered to a much lighter colour in service - and I doubt whether the difference was due to the colour of the top coat.

I still remember the advice given to me by the bobby in Hampton Court box back in 1963 - "when you are turning the gate wheel, never, ever, look at the road, the gates will do far more damage to an errant car than the car will do to them and the word (that once the gates start closing they carry on until they are closed) soon gets around."

Perhaps the layout should have been built mirror image, that really would have caused confusion among the more learned! I do actually know of one past layout, admittedly not 2FS, that, although it was generally a scale model of a prototype, was built mirror image because it looked better - and remarkably few people spotted it; its exhibition appearances included IMREX.

Yup, some bloke on rmweb seems to be collaring the lot.

I am fairly certain that there weren't any Banbury-GC line locals by the mid-1960s. I was an Oxford undergraduate 1964-67 and I spent a long time puzzling out how it would be possible to travel over the line. Eventually I caught the northbound through train from Oxford and got of it at Rugby Central, I then caught a lovely traditional Midland Red single decker bus to Leamington and a train back to Oxford from there. I presume that from the "north" it was possible to do a day return trip using the SB and NB through trains, but this wasn't possible from the south.

Yes, I knew that, which is why I said inter-alia. However, locos were regularly allocated to sub-sheds and, given that Ns seem to have been the preferred traction on the North Cornwall line (and certainly regularly worked that train) it is quite likely that a 72A N would have been regularly outstationed at Okehampton. There were probably cyclic diagrams that ensured that oustationed locos regularly visited the parent shed for any servicing that Okehampton couldn't do itself (although it was a fair size for a sub-shed).

Er, 72A was the code for Okehampton shed (inter alia), a shed that might well have provided the loco to work the 5.51 pm starter from there to Padstow.

Note that there were quite a lot of fine details which differed on early members of what became the 08 class and Bachmann didn't incorporate them in the model, although it is by no means impossible to make the changes oneself. The earliest examples were vacuum fitted but it was quickly realised that this was a waste of time and money for those locos which would spend all their lives shunting yards (but not, for example, for station pilots) so a substantial batch were delivered unfitted. Working out exactly what a particular example looked like in the plain black era can be quite a minefield, particularly given the dearth of contemporary photos - nobody wasted valuable film on diesel shunters!

I don't possess anything like a full North Cornwall line TT for 1960 but among the few records that I have I note that (at least on Saturdays) there was a departure from Okehampton at 5.51 pm for Padstow and Bude connecting out of the 1.00 pm from London Waterloo - this would have been at Halwill at 6.20 pm which is exactly the time suggested by the shadows of the sun. Photos suggest that this train was normally formed of a pair of Maunsell BSK-BCK 2-sets as far as Halwill where it split.

W4320S was among the small number of diagram 2123 semi-open third (later second) brakes that was passed to the WR in 1963/64 so it seems likely that it was the vehicle depicted. It had been one of the earliest vehicles of what became quite a numerous type, having entered service in the last few months of the Southern Railway and may, therefore, have always been green.

Declining the STJ-Acton coal traffic may have been, but when I was an Oxford undergraduate 1964-67 the best description that could be applied to the Brush 4 hauled coal trains that I happened to see on the mainline was bouncing, especially going west empty. My only surprise was that derailments were as infrequent as they were!

A few moments thought about what the locking does, even for just two or three levers, should be sufficient to tell you whether columns 2 and 4 are "released by" and "releases" (most likely) or "releases" and "released by".