bécasse

Ian My suspicions are that an 1880s LSWR terminus would not have had more than the pre-1889 Act requirement of shunt dollies, i.e. protecting the EXIT from sidings on to running lines. If you look at stations on the Bournemouth Direct line (which IIRC was the last line opened before the 1889 Act) it is reasonably clear that that was how it was done there - and some of the stations never gained any additional dollies right up to electrification. (The Netley-Fareham line though, which opened the day the Act came into force, did have a full set of dollies, which is a very useful pointer of when LSWR policy changed.) I also think that an fpl is unlikely to have been provided for the buffer-stop end release crossover. LSWR, and later SR, policy on such matters is a little confused, but most locations did NOT have fpls (or if they had an fpl it was not locked by a bar, only by the box interlocking). Even newly-built SR locations such as Allhallows did not have fpls on the release crossovers even though they were regularly traversed by loaded passenger stock (since, at Allhallows the normal service was worked by pull-and-push trains with the loco at the London end). Shunt movements (other than from sidings on to a running line) would have been authorised by running signals or by the signalman showing a flag from the box. It is possible that there would have been depression bars in places if the signalman couldn't see under the roof well. They were common fitments well into SR days (with a special blue star indicator to show their position) but I am not certain when they were first used, the 1880s may be a little early. One special use of depression bars was to electrically select whether a main or calling-on arm came off when the platform entry signal lever was pulled, but again it is possible that the 1880s is a little early.

Jim is quite right, of course, but I forget to add mention of need to chemically blacken the top surface after cleaning it of paint. Nickel silver can be tricky to blacken, but I have found that Birchwood Casey's Aluminium Black works OK and produces a surface appearance very close to the prototype appearance of the top of a conductor rail. To reiterate, the process of painting the rail was to make the model rail seem thicker, like the prototype conductor rail, rather than just colour it, although, in practice, the sides of the real rails (at least, ones that have been in place for any great time, as most are) are generally well coated with a blackish muck.

I would be inclined to look at Karlgarin code 125/7 rail. While it is still slightly taller and quite a bit thinner than the prototype scaled down, it is closer to the shape than anything else that I, personally, are aware of. Giving it a good thick coat of grubby dark grey paint and then cleaning the top with an abrasive track cleaner might be sufficient to make it look quite good.

Surely, Southern conductor rail was a fat, low profile flat bottom?

It wasn't just Pempoul that was there, this is me with my "croisée de l'étroit" caught by Francois Fontana at a quiet moment, most of the time it seemed more like Clapham Junction in the rush hour! And for the unenlightened, this is LR Presse's explanation (in French, naturally) of "les croisées de l'étroit" of which they seem very proud, incredibly they occupied a total space 11 metres by 6, some layout in HOe. The photos on the banner were taken at RAMMA at Sedan in October 2015, which was the first get together, there was another in October 2016 at Laval.

Chris is exactly right, but I suspect that it was ground signals in their entirety that were a problem in the blackout - not to mention rodding, signal wires, etc, etc.

Concerning the traces of white paint, it is quite possible that individual ground signals would have had white paint added to them as an ARP during the war years to make them more visible to men on the ground during the blackout. The relative but understandable scarcity of wartime photos makes it difficult to be at all certain what was done where. What is certain is that working on the ground at night close to railway lines was very hazardous during the blackout and this sadly resulted in a lot of deaths, my own wife's maternal grandfather amongst them.

Jerry You didn't read my post thoroughly. I said black powder poster paint and not black poster paint. The powder is used just as the more recent weathering powders would be, the main difference, so far as I can see, is that the tin contains about 1 kg of powder rather than the few milligrams that you seem to get in a typical weathering powder container. Furthermore, as you dust it down, and keep dusting it down, over model buildings, you get exactly the effect shown in those photos above, particularly if you, as I do, then dust them down further with some light grey powder paint. In fact, I dust and redust, sometimes with the brush loaded (in practice I just touch the surface of powder paint in the tin with the brush, so loaded is a bit of a misnomer) and sometimes with just the brush until I get exactly the effect I want. The beauty is that it only takes a few minutes at most. I then, sometimes, do use a few modern weathering powders to add hints of specific things - an area of wall that has some green mould on it, the marks left by a dripping pipe or gutter, or rust marks from a metal fitting - but the final effect always has subtlety as its name. I may be nowhere as good at all this as Martyn Welch, Emmanuel Nouailler or Marcel Ackle, but I have been doing it for all but half-a-century and my models do get nice complements at shows.

Precisely, and those of us who were around, and observant, 50 plus years ago will remember that these examples weren't untypical. I was an Oxford undergraduate in the mid-1960s and at the time there was a huge operation going on to clean up all the colleges and other university buildings. The contrast between the colour of a building before the scaffolding and tarpaulins went up and after they came down again was so dramatic as to be almost unbelievable, and, with little coal being burnt they have stayed more or less that way.

Returning to the relevant topic of the blackness of buildings, I have trawled through relevant books on the buses, trams and trolleybuses of London in my library to find contemporary photographs that show buildings well. It is clear from them that even brick buildings were well blackened - and, yes, I have made allowance for the fact that most photographic emulsions of the period didn't record red well, there are several shots that show the odd new building, and they are substantially lighter. In the case of Bath, this web page has several photos which show the effect well http://www.keytothecity.co.uk/postcard.php?Id=36&CityId=8&From=Key

You are right, Tim, CF isn't black enough. By shear coincidence, it was the first thing I noticed when I looked at the (very nice) photo that was posted on here a few days ago. However, bricks and rendering generally went less black than porous stone so there is more excuse for CF. I use black powder poster paint applied dry with a large soft brush and I keep brushing, generally up and down, until most of it has come off again. I also have some pale grey powder poster paint which I often use subsequently to the black to tone it down further (and produce those "distant viewer" effects). These powder poster paints are rather like weathering powders with the important difference that both colours are in large tins which probably cost a few shillings when they were purchased for an upper sixth project at school 53 years ago, and, even though the grey is getting a bit low in the tin, I think that they will see me out. They were used to weather Bembridge almost 50 years ago but they have been used as recently as this week preparing a reroofed model for Trainsmania.

There are plenty of Edwardian period post cards, particularly of tourist destinations such as Bath, and although they are obviously black and white (the coloured ones were hand-tinted and can't absolutely be relied on), the dirty, stained state of buildings tends to show up quite well if you look carefully. It was definitely coal burning that had the major effect, places that had a lot of industry (Stoke at the centre of the Potteries comes to mind as a particular example) often had buildings that were actually encrusted in soot.

This is actually a very common "problem" with historical layouts. Before the Clean Air Act began to bite about 1960, virtually all stone and brick buildings in towns were very significantly stained by the effects of acidic smoke and, indeed, in industrial areas could be almost black. It is an effect rarely modelled, perhaps because even older people only remember the buildings as they were after major cleaning programmes were put in place from the mid-1960s onwards. Brick buildings seem to have cleaned themselves over time but buildings constructed of the more porous stones actually had to cleaned. The effect is easily modelled. Black powder poster paint dusted over models with a soft brush replicates it "beautifully" and is very simple to do.

The trick with the track is to put fillers - plastic or card strips - between the sleepers so that there is little (or preferably) no height difference between the sleeper tops and the "ballast" top. Paint the ensemble with an appropriate gloss colour and sprinkle with a powder, also of an appropriate colour, while it is still wet. The rails will need cleaning up, of course, but that I have found that to be easier than it sounds. The LBSCR used shingle ballast, typically from the Crumbles at Eastbourne, and a dark sand paint and a grey powder might prove the best colour combination, perhaps with some subsequent "dry-brushing" to highlight the powder texture. However, like all these things, it needs a bit of trialling to get it right, but it is certainly possible. Incidentally, using the fillers, cut from equal width strips, makes sleeper spacing a doddle - and there is no need to glue them in, the gloss paint will fix them quite sufficiently. Good luck with the project!

If I am right in thinking that it is just a retainer not only will a single wire be perfectly adequate, but it will be a lot less fiddly to fit than two. The 3D print may appear large in the drawing but it is surely minuscule in reality. By the way, although I suggested using brass or p/b wire, I suspect that in practice I personally would use a reshaped staple for the purpose. They are easier to bend accurately than wire and they keep their bent shape well (which is, of course, what they are designed to do).

A single piece of brass or p/b wire folded into a sort of seriffed U shape and mounted along the c/l axis of the loco under the moulding. Grooves and the start of holes fore and aft on the moulding would help to spring the wire into, and then keep it in, place. Presumably it only needs to keep the radial truck in place when the loco is lifted.

Tim Now that CF is getting to be somewhere near complete, it would be interesting to see some photographic comparison(s) between the concept miniature (I can't remember whether it still exists, but presume so) and the layout as it has evolved in practice.

Such an arrangement must have been extremely rare. Like The Stationmaster, I couldn't immediately bring an example to mind. However, just as vehicle access to a goods yard was gated, so would this extended siding would have been, possibly using the same gate, and for the same reason, to keep trespassers off the railway system. The other end of station approach crossing would have been gated too. These gates would only have been the equivalent of 5-bar gates used for occupation crossings and the like - and, when opened for passage of rail vehicles, would not have provided protection between rail and road traffic in the way that level crossing gates did.

The station will be called "Macbeth" presumably?

Before nationalisation, they would have been referred to as Bath GW and Bath LMS in any official documentation or signing where otherwise confusion may have arisen, but these letters wouldn't have actually appeared on the station nameplates of course. It was quickly realised that they were inappropriate post-nationalisation but the ability to do anything about it was constrained by the materials shortages of the time, the most crucial examples were the first to be renamed. A further round in a similar vane (except that it was never reflected in physical station names) became necessary with the advent of APTIS ticketing machines which could issue tickets to anywhere, meaning that it became necessary to add county names in any case where station names were duplicated or even sounded similar. HAYES presented a particular difficulty since both examples were in Greater London.

And even that statement is marginally misleading as in some cases the BoT's requirement was met by providing independent brakes either side of wagon - so some wagon braking could be initiated from either side of a wagon but could only be released from the side where it had been initiated. Where this was done with wagons that already had brakes on one side but operating on both wheels, it was by no means unknown for the brake added the other side to work only on one wheel.

WD 2-8-0s wouldn't have been the only locos on the list to have had inadequate braking, Q1s wouldn't have stood a chance of stopping an unfitted goods on some of the banks, although they would have been OK, albeit a bit rough, on a short passenger set or on fitted ballast hoppers. There is no evidence, however, that Q1s ever got closer to the S&D than a very rare servicing visit to Templecombe shed after working the Monday morning pick up goods from Exmouth Junction.

As a guess, given that those locos that were permitted were subject to special speed restrictions, the non-permitted locos were marginally heavier, either overall or in maximum axle load, and that was sufficient to get them banned.

Well smoked.

Which is easily encompassed in 2FS by soldering in some 1mm square section brass when assembling the kit. If it is soldered in so that it is just proud it can be filed back to be all but invisible. It is a long while (like 50 years) since I last did a comparison in detail, but I think that there may be one or two other very minor differences but nothing that can't either be overcome or will be all but invisible in such a small scale.