RJS1977

How about a man in brightly coloured clothing, carrying a brown book and being recorded by a film crew?

I have a vague recollection of reading something in RM in the 80s about Buckingham going to Central Hall for a "very definitely one-off appearance" - unfortunately all the 80s RMs are back at my parents'!

Aha - I've just realised what the advert is on the side of Arkwright's in the new Open All Hours episodes! Been trying to make that out for the last 6 weeks...

The 1984 Model Railway Constructor Annual features three photos of 0-6-0 tender locos on CS lines,including a rear view of No (310)65 as per post 4459.

I'm a little surprised nobody's come up with this one yet:

Hmm... I'm struggling to think of overbridges near me that are on bus routes! I suppose Tilehurst Road and Bath Road are probably the nearest but I'm not sure either really have a good vantage point to see both rail and road - Tilehurst Rd possibly from Reading West I suppose.

Does the bus in the background belong to the San Monique Transport Dept by any chance? Funnily enough I was only thinking about incorporating that bus on a layout the other day!

Reminds me of a mate of mine who decided to check his car over before setting off on a long journey. The tyre, water,oil, washer fluid etc all looked OK, so he called his wife out to help him check the lights while he sat in the car and turned them on and off. First he turned the headlamps on. "Are they working?" he asked. "Yes, they are," she replied. Then he pressed the brake pedal. "Are the brake lights working?" "Yes they are." Then he pushed the indicator stalk down. "Are the left indicators working?" "Yes they are, no they're not, yes they are...."

On the contrary, I was quite surprised when operating a friend's layout at a show last weekend to see that the non-viewing side of the station building had not just doors and windows, but enamel adverts as well!

Haven't quite done it,but there is a cameo on the layout my father and I are building with a BMW Mini driver arguing with a traffic warden over the ticket on his windscreen! (Just visible in the bottom right corner of this picture).

Been done - ISTR someone in one of the magazines naming a SR schools St. Trinians and crewing it with schoolgirls!

But wouldn't the offset gangways stymie having two vehicles in the train opposite ways round?

Even later to this topic, here's a question of my own: The TPO vehicles which could pick up and drop off mailbags on the move only had the equipment on one side. So, would they need to be turned for the return journey? Would this have been done on turntables? And would all the other coaches with offset gangways also need to be turned so they would still match up? Given the number of loco shed layouts I'm surprised I've never seen it being done on a layout if this was indeed the case.

Much like the victim in The Mirror Cracked who went out to meet her favourite film star despite suffering from rubella, with tragic results... (based on a true story),

I saw it outside Paddington station yesterday morning....

[Reminds me of the story Brian Johnston used to tell of his Army training days when about a dozen of them had to strip down a tank engine (i.e. the engine from a tank, not Thomas!) each and reassemble it, and not have any bolts left over. So each one of them slipped the left over bolts they had into the next person's pockets when they thought they weren't looking. CO comes down the line, inspects the engines and asks the soldiers to turn out their pockets. The first has no spare bolts, nor does the second etc... until the last guy turned out his pockets and dropped more bolts than were in his engine to start off with!]

I may be wrong,but isn't the mesh there to act as a Faraday cage round any technicians working on the signals, rather than to protect the signals themselves? It certainly wouldn't have any effect on the AC return current impacting on the track circuits as per a previous post.

I think a lot will depend on the specific requirements of the bridge. Obviously in some places the road is too low for the arches to be raised, so a horizontal span has to go in (which obviously can't be brick). Of course,other arch bridges (like the one just east of Cholsey) will be high enough not to need anything doing to them at all.

At least 100mph on one notable occasion IIRC....

Odd, there was a trader selling it at the Guildford show on Saturday!

Didn't Roger Moore drive one of those in Octopussy?

Especially if Henrietta could also be sold as the Titfield coach to run with the 14XX and Toad...

Different market though - Roco is aimed at the (fairly exclusive) collectors' end of the market - TTTE is aimed at the beginners' end (mostly children,of course) so realistically needs to be available at "pocket money" prices or at least at prices parents are willing to pay. Of course, there also needs to be more aimed at the gap between the collectors market and Thomas - the Railroad range is (a) somewhat limited and (b)mostly consists of "big engines" at the top end of the Railroad scale (at the very least the Pannier and Jinty need to be available on their own rather than as sets, preferrably with a couple of medium sized locos like Dean Goods and 4F thrown in).

Paddy Check the launch date on that one.... ;-) Richard

Other than to supply the people who are unwilling/can't afford to fork out well over £100 for a small tank engine!