IWCR

The ex LT Standard stock running on the Isle of Wight (built 1920's) was initially in BR overall Blue but later went into a Blue Grey "intercity" style livery. It actually suited it quite well. Pete

I have seen an instruction re carrying cattle in an ordinary van with sliding doors. (on a minor railway) This states a brick is to be placed in the door opening to provide ventilation and the door tied shut against it. Pete

You may be surprised to know that the first railway on the Island was in fact very near Shalfleet creek. It was on the west bank of the Western Havern branch of Newtown Creek. It was a narrow gauge tramway serving a country house and farm estate owned by John Nash. It was around 2 miles long and built in the 1830's. Pete

Quite a few posts I havnt "got". The butcher was one, I hadnt noticed the face at all. Could do with a question mark on the response options. Pete

Try Isle of Wight Steam Railway shop. I think they still have a small number of one of them. Pete

The pump would not be used for brakes, the loco and coach brake remained vacuum. The pump supplies compressed air for the Push Pull controls, these allow the regulator to be operated by means of a dual action compressed air cylinder controlled from the driving trailer, also an air supply to a whistle on the trailer end. The driver can also operate the brake from the trailer, (no air involved) The fireman operates the reversing lever instructed by means of a bell code. hence. 1) Yes 2) No 3) Yes On an air braked loco (such as IOW O2s) fitted with Push Pull the pump supplies the train brake as well hence runs all the time, these also use a larger diameter Westinghouse pump as the quantity of air needed is greater. Pete

The railway used to run onto a short pier near the lighthouse, when I was a child this still went into the sea and had decking, now the shingle is considerably beyond it. There is a trolley in the castle on the track with shells on it. Certainly no indication of any sort of loco being used. Ive never heard of anything along the spit itself, possibly a confusion here with Calshot Spit further along the Solent which had a steam hauled narrow gauge line serving the RAF Seaplane base. Pete

Re: Calf Float at the top. There is one of these on display at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway (with plastic calf). They were used on the ferry from Ryde to Portsmouth being loaded by crane into the cargo hold at the front. This trade went on quite late (the float is in unrestored BR blue), by then rail carriage of livestock on the island had ceased hence lorry delivery from the pier head must have taken place, Pete

Yes it could be done but an expensive model to cut up (and risk getting it wrong). It would also not be correct as these models are a later type of birdcage with a different moulding style. The Island brakes had also lost the Birdcage and had part of the brake van flush sheeted, doing this would make a mess of the finished livery anyway. These ran on the Island post WW2 hence correct liveries are Malachite or BR which are readily do-able, the elaborate lined SR Olive would be wrong. I believe it has been done however and hopefully someone will post details. Pete

Both ex IOW locos, 32646 has a LBSC chimney, 32678 a Drummond, The front footsteps and handrails were an Island mod fitted to the last three terriers over there. Not obvious but the front cab windows on 46 are also different, these are a hinged opening type from the LSWR O2. The chimney shown on 32646 still exists (the loco itself now carrys a Drummond), the LBSCR chimney is entirley fabricated, the copper cab is cosmetic and is just rivetted around the tube of the chimney. The base is also fabricated and the entire assembly is not very substantial at all, it could easily be bent in service. Pete

The Isle of Wight Push Pull set is genuine, it is formed of a pair of LCDR 4 vehicles which were converted to Push Pull set 484 in 1924. The equipment in the Driving Trailer however is not operational and the railway has no push pull fitted loco. A (very) long term desire is to fit at least one loco (the two Terriers both had Push Pull fittings in the past) and to bring the set into a fully operational condition. The only operating Push Pull stock I am aware of is some of the GWR autotrailers which use a mechanical system. Most (all?) standard gauge preservation era conversions are to allow propelling at low speed on lines which have no run round, generally a temporary measure during a line extension etc, normally just a window in the carriage end, a means of applying the brake and some sort of warning bell/whistle. The loco still being driven normally from its footplate. Pete

The Isle of Wight Beyer Peacocks came in a variety of sizes. The early ones were small, later purchases gradually increasing in size. A good book is: "A Locomotive History of Railways on the Isle of Wight" by D L Bradley, photos and dimensions of all but no drawings. An O gauge kit was available for an Isle of Wight Railway Beyer Peacock in whitemetal, this actually was correct for Isle of Wight Central No7 (which was ex MSWJR) in its later form, wrong for any of the actual Isle of Wight Railway Co locos, ive not looked in detail but with smaller wheels, new tanks and other details it could be probably built as one of the larger ones (Brading or Bonchurch). Pete

Website for railway is fine. https://iwsteamrailway.co.uk/about-us/contact/ Above is for any contact, at the moment there is minimal staffing and the phone may not be manned if you ring. The shop is also not open but any message would be forwarded and dealt with in due course. Pete

I think Haventreet station shop still has some, try the Isle of Wight Steam Railway website, the shop is currently being reorganised and postal sales should be available online very shortly if not now. Pete

The railways of course had locomotives available. You may well find shunting horses were more common in industrial private sidings by this time. Also I have seen references (pre-grouping) to railways hiring in horses on an occasional basis from local farmers, this may have been preferred in locations were traffic didnt warrant the railway keeping a horse full time itself, a coal merchant would likely use his own horses to move wagons. World War 1 requisitioned a huge number of horses (and fodder) for the military, this would have resulted in a reduction in the reliance on horse power at this time with only essential animals retained. Pete

Newport (Isle of Wight) had an unusual method of coal delivery for the gas works, the wagons were left on the the viaduct of the Ryde running line at night. The gas works was below the viaduct, coal was simply shoveled into a chute down the side of this. The empty wagons were then removed prior to the morning mail train. This viaduct also had an opening section to allow large boats to use the river, this was left open overnight and on one occasion a coal wagon ended up in the river. Pete

There are photos of Hay wagons in Ireland made from old carriages, just take the seats out and the roof off. Windows, doors and partitions just left in place. Potential interesting model? Pete

The Isle of Wight Railway did buy seven ex North London Railway carriages in 1898, these were 27' over headstocks and built circa 1864. The Cowes and Newport Railway had eight from new, these were not actually NLR owned but a batch of vehicles built specifically for the Island as an add on to a NLR order (the NLR engineer also was the IWCR engineer at the time), these were known as the Martin stock. Later in 1880 the Isle of Wight Central Railway had three second hand NLR carriages. Both IWR and IWCR stock ran on the line from Ryde St Johns to Ryde Pier which was a LBSCR / LSWR jointly owned line. The Freshwater Yarmouth and Newport Railway later had one off the IWCR vehicles second hand. Pete

Dont over do it. Unless in a major town or city centre there were few motor vehicles about in the 1930's compared to today. There may be one or two motor lorrys for your goods shed but horse and cart would still be common. The boss of the wagon works might just be able to afford a car, none of his staff though. I have an aerial photo of a small town near to me which was taken in the late 50's, most roads are clearly visible, nothing is parked at the roadside anywhere and only 2 or 3 vehicles are on the roads in total. Pete

Retubing a boiler was not considered a major job, it could be done fairly quickly with the boiler still in place on the frames. Likely the Scottish preserved locos were retubed, if not fully a selection would have been removed and checked with a partial retube as indicated. Locos in traffic would be dependant on use, conditions etc, looking at some express loco types such as on the East Coast Mainline shows some boilers being exchanged at periods as short as 5 years with major works being required such as replacement fireboxes. Pete

Yes workshops did mix their own paint but with the SR at least they had a centrally issued colour reference to match to (how well they did this may of course vary). Both Olive Green and Malachite darken with age and revarnishing, exposure to marine air is also said to effect its shade over time. The end result is that there is no perfect accurate shade which can be said to be correct. A newly painted loco or piece of stock should nominally conform to the colour of the time, after a year or three it may look very different. Pete

Looking at the maps showing virus hot spots is is notable that they closely match pollution hot spots. Yes greater population densities will give both but the SARS outbreak some years ago also did this and it seems that the virus was much more likely to give serious illness to persons who had been exposed to bad air pollution than others. Is the Corona-virus similar?, most of those currently infected are from city areas (as would be expected just from population densities), yes it will spread throughout the whole population but perhaps the proportion of serious illness could be lower among those living in less polluted areas?. This could mean a reduction in relative numbers as the virus spreads outwards into the countryside hopefully with smaller long term casualty numbers. Pete

From what I have read Red Cross Parcels were not used for contraband smuggling, they were considered off limits. There were however several other organisations sending parcels to POWs and private parcels from relatives etc. These were sometimes used for smuggling and some of these were actually UK government run / supplied. One such mentioned was the "Licensed Victuallers Association" which sent parcels with hidden extras. Pete

There was a layout with the operator in front of the fiddle yard, as you say no problem. The ones i'm referring to had operators right in the middle of the viewing area, one was a large layout, not so bad, the other was quite small. Both were very busy operating trains and the back of their head is not good to interact with the public. Pete

All Isle of Wight Terriers had the extended bunker fitted. These all kept them on return to the mainland and to the end of their operational lives. The larger bunker is beneficial for coal capacity and was preferred for the Hayling Isand service. As stated above 78 was refitted with an original pattern bunker during preservation and is now changing back. A further non IOW terrier, 62 was fitted with the extended bunker on the mainland in BR days, this may have used parts from a withdrawn IOW example, possibly 77. Pete