EddieB

Yes, 7'7" is nearer the mark [compares with 6'8" for Mallard]. With a boiler rating 236 psi (16.3 bar) [250 psi] and 3 cylinders of 20" diameter [3 cyls, 18.5" ø], I'd say that the only things keeping 18-201 from challenging the steam record are the speed limit restriction (like certain German cars?) and then possibly a higher boiler pressure.

Another one was located about a mile North of Saffron Walden. There were two sidings off the branch line and, having no run-round facilities, wagons were propelled the short distance up grade from Saffron Walden. From memory, the facility opened during WW2 and fell into disuse in the 'fifties.

If modelling the recent era, you absolutely must have a static preserved 1524mm gauge Finnish steam locomotive parked in the timber yard. Enfield Timber has/had a number of these locomotives scattered about (locations change). Here is VR Hr1 1016 (Tampella 946/1955) in the timber yard adjacent to Southbury station, August 2001. (The locomotive has since moved to a private collection and is no longer on public display).

At risk of repeatng what I posted on a related thread, too much railway photography is undervalued and yes, it is worth it, because at least two bidders are prepared to pay in excess of £100. How do you value an unrepeatable photograph, sold with copyright? From what I can see, it looks a good image of publishable quality (pity the lister didn't say what film stock it was shot on), well lit and of obvious historical value and offered with a starting price of £4.99.

There's one going on eBay at the moment - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RARE-Wills-LMS-Deeley-Flatiron-0-6-4-loco-kit-built-/330530259291?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item4cf523815b. Looks black in the first picture, maroon in the others. The Flatiron was the first whitemetal loco kit I built (and it shows!), based on the original "Jinty" chassis option. In many ways I think an unbuilt kit would attract more interest than a partially built kit and the same over a finished kit - unless it was built and finished to the highest standards. The distinctive looks has made the prototype a popular model, even if the class were poor runners (like my model) and lasted only into the late 'thirties. I have a few photographs (mainly Photomatic) which I cannot post because of copyright. There are some links below (the last with quite a few images). http://www.old-dalby.com/images/nottm1930-2.jpg http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrbg143.htm http://kettlesgalore.fotopic.net/p65810378.html

You'll need to save hard: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Blec-PDR-75-Power-Rake-/120683522104?pt=UK_BOI_FarmingEquipment_RL&hash=item1c194c6838 [sorry]

No, if I had that information I would have replied earlier in this thread. Nearly all photos I've seen are in black and white and relate to "in service" times, by which time all appear to have carried the standard dark green - and no personal recollections either, I wasn't born when they were first introduced!

Railway Bylines Summer Special No. 2 has a photo feature on the W&M railbuses, mainly compiled from early publicity photos shortly after delivery at Stratford and while running trials on the Witham-Maldon branch, before speed whiskers were applied. From the tonal range and mild vignetting of the images reproduced, I would infer that the originals were in colour, and indeed the colour image linked to on Flickr in an earlier post is to be found within the photo feature. Interestingly, Railway Bylines gives the date of this image (and others in the same spot) as June 1958, and draws attention to the towing instructions painted in white on the bufferbeam - which are stated to have been added a short while after delivery. On the other hand, a previous double page spread appears to show E79961 in exactly the same position at Stratford, in the company of Brush Type 2 D5501, that image being dated to April 1958. Certainly the photos of the railbuses trialling on the Witham-Maldon branch are without speed whiskers, and it may well be that these hadn't been added by June 1958, if some of the pictures taken at Stratford indeed date to that month (which I now doubt). Paye (op cit) notes that some railbuses were sent to Cambridge in April 1958 for testing on the Saffron Waldon and Mildenhall branches. Two of the Witham-Maldon publicity photographs were used to promote the new service/timetable on the Saffron Walden branch, which I can confirm (from signal box records) was inaugurated on the date advertised, Monday 7th July 1958. While I have collected numerous photographs and illustrations in books of the W&M railbuses in service, early photographs of them on the Saffron Walden branch seem to be rare and I'm not aware of seeing any without speed whiskers or warning panels. It may be worth mentioning that when the railbuses acquired their yellow warning panels, there were two sizes of "small" panels. E79961/2/4 had larger panels than E79960/3 . Hopefully these represent the different styles modelled by Heljan.

You need Miles for the Lancashire & Yorkshire version. Er, sorry that's Platting, not Plattling!

The listing appears to have been removed. Something fishy, perhaps (and not just in the bathwater).

At least there's a description for that, if no photo. But what about this, then: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/triang-horrnby-loco-coach-spare-parts-/170593693733?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item27b82d3025 ? Whatever could that be? (I won't be trying to find out, for sure!) Or, of course, there's the old empty box... Perhaps they should realise that those percentages are based on the proportion of positive feedback, rather than the star ratings. Their negative feedback tells a lot about this seller.

Or will 70012 end up on eBay ("excellent boxed condition")? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Heljan-4651-CLASS-47-792-ROBIN-HOOD-EWS-DIESEL-LOCO-/130464137132?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item1e6044bfac

Sick as a parrot?

That's a bit seep, I mean steep! Basically it's a dealer's minimum charge - seems to be fairly standard (but usually nearer the £4 mark) - and I wonder how much custom has been lost over high postal charges for small items.

How about this then? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260706966470&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT £17.66 for a used BRILL. Which happens still to be available "new" from Irwell Press for £2.75 + £1.10 p&p (consolation for the beaten bidder?)

A good picture under difficult conditions, I'm guessing this was taken on a digital camera, but the "brownish cast" suggests film stock. For obvious reasons you couldn't use flash (loco first towards Belfast, but same applies even if this was the trailing end) and the high contrast (high ASA?) means that shadow detail has been lost. A little more exposure might have helped - half a stop, say. The night conditions and the fluorescent lamp lights have made it difficult to achieve a neutral (white) balance, but this isn't really too much of a problem. When I said "brownish cast", that's because in low light our eyes are more sensitive to blue and truer renditions of low light from film or digital can appear brownish. Some photographers used to use tungsten-balanced film (or an 80A filter with daylight film) to give a blue effect, but to my eyes this tends to be overdone - perhaps a more subtle 82-series "cooling" filter may be more pleasing. Personal perceptions, offered constructively, your mileage may vary.

Don't know if your camera/flash system supports "second curtain sychronisation" but that would help create a better impression of movement. The light trails would lead into the flash exposure rather than out of it (if that makes sense). My old (film!) SLR system only supports SSC with an expensive, dedicated on-camera flash, but a more recent digital compact from the same stable includes the feature as standard (if I can remember how to set it without a manual in the field). HTH.

Whether it was the higher speed of an 09 or not, the attached photo shows what can go wrong when vehicles are being propelled (rather poor, as it was taken through a GUV on an Instamatic). Thanks to a little too much push from D4102, PMV S1386 and CCT 35577M have gotten to know each other rather well. Waterloo, October 1973. As the French would say, they have reached a fourgon conclusion...

There used to be a gravity shunt at Oberammergau in the days of the E69 steeple cabs. The loco would reverse its (empty) carriages up the incline of the station throat, move clear, and the train would roll back downhill into the platform road under the control of the guard. Hey, there was a fantastic article about Oberammergau in Continental Railway Modeller back in early 1980 (he said modestly, ahem).

There are plenty of other examples I'm sure, but the one that comes to mind is of a class 08 pilot shunting stock at Euston and propelling a rake of a dozen empty carriages into the departure platforms from the carriage sidings. On the Continent, there used to be no qualms about propelling carriages full of passengers as part of a shunt - Milano Centrale and Frankfurt HBf come to mind. Propelling freight trains was probably quite rare, but I understand that trip workings to the Air Ministry sidings and later to the Acrow's Factory sidings on the Saffron Walden branch were propelled forward from Saffron Walden, these sidings having been laid out "facing" the opposite direction to the main traffic flow. Some photographic evidence would be much appreciated - but I don't think any exists!

You're right, the loco preserved as GER 87 was 68633 (built as Stratford no. 1249 of 1904). The class 08 pilot painted GER Blue was 08 833. It wasn't the only 08 to perform such duties, for example I noted 08 541 and 957 at other times.

I wonder if these models are going to cause a rush of models of the Saffron Walden branch. For me it's enough to pick up (almost) where I left off thirty-something years ago. Long before the Silver Fox, I did start making bits of a W&M body to fit on a Piko CSD M131.1 railcar chassis - dimensions taken from a broadside photo at Weybourne - but like 90% of projects from those days it never came to anything. (Much the same these days, for different reasons).

3 pictures from October 1989. The Garratt is 15th class 372, the Zambian diesel 019 working the early morning transfer freight is a long-nose U20C (ought to be put in a glass case?).

There's a reference to the LOG locos here: http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/zambia02.htm which implies that they were on some sort of loan or transfer from Spoornet.

I must say those photographs are stirring some memories! I made a couple of visits to Victoria Falls in the 'eighties, when many of the Zimbabwe services were still steam worked (15A class, predominantly). At that time cross-border freight was worked by Zambian Railways diesels (there were no passenger services over the bridge). On both occasions we crossed over into Zambia, and made one visit to the railway museum at Livingstone (Zambesi Sawmills). Photography at railway installations in Zambia was officially prohibited, but I did manage a few pictures at the shed/dump in Livingstone in 1982. On the other hand, there were no restrictions at Victoria Falls station and surroundings in Zimbabwe (a comparatively safe place to observe and photograph Zambian motive power). The NRZ 10A class are GM GT22 LC-2 with construction shared between EMD La Grange (nos 1001-35) and Canada (nos 1036-61). All were supplied in the present yellow livery between November 1981 and June 1982. For full details, including builders numbers, I'd highly recommend "Locomotives of Zimbabwe" by ED Hamer - an excellent book for anyone interested in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. The SAR 35.400 series are GE U15C (35.401-500) constructed in South Africa (to the same design as the US constructed 35.000 series) between 1976 and 1980. As is evident from the pictures, some have been sold to private companies - I am not familiar where the owner of the loco shown is based. An indespensible series books to be recommended are "Railways of Southern Africa Locomotive Guide" by John Middleton, which covered all the main railway systems of that region, their loco types and allocations and preserved locos.. Unfortunately the last edition was released in 2002, but John recently posted an update on the SAR-L Yahoo Group. (Sadly this is probably out of date now given the appalling vandalism of once preserved steam locos that seems to be officially sanctioned in South Africa.)