IWCR

Ok Will need to print and scan drawings, probably Saturday. The Fountain garage is drawn from original plans and the sole remaining wall, the adjoining semi detached house is included drawn from photos and site visit. Just done the 8 house terrace in Granville road (behind the signal box), do you want this? A copy of the photo showing the pump location would be useful, in the only photo I have the building is well on fire and the roof partly collapsed, foreground details obscured by the crowd of onlookers.. Pete

Excellent news, I will be interested in IOW ones as well. (In N gauge) Bachmann not doing the 54' was a disappointment but for BR mainland prototypes was probably the only option, I think most of the 54' went to the Island and few if any would have received BR livery and use on the mainland. There are a lot of variations in the LBSC vehicles. I have now found my details for IOW Mets and will send you these soon. (and I still need to give you contact details for the Drewry Tram). Your Drewry Railcar looks good, I will dig out pictures of the IOW one, this was bought by the Freshwater Yarmouth & Newport Railway in 1913, very similar in appearance to your model but longer having 3 seat bays. Relegated to Inspection use by the SR in 1924 , finally scrapped in 1927. Pete

Not a switch. I think these are a level peg for referencing rail height, possibly with some cant involved. No doubt someone Pway oriented will soon say how there are used. Pete

Yes can do. Just a check: The Fountain Garage I have drawn up is the large one to the north of the station building on the opposite side of Terminus Road (burnt down in the 1980's.) I have not yet drawn the Fountain Coach garage which was to the south of the station building in Carvel Lane. I have drawn the house with archway which originally fronted this (built when it was the mews for the Fountain Hotel) Probably no use for your timescale as it was bombed in WW2 and the only remaining piece was a stub of wall next to the station. Pete

Grocers shop was "John Jefferys & Sons" Drawing for this now done, (All properties south side of Terminus Road done.) Drawing underway for the Granville Road terrace which is prominent behind the signal box. Cowes (N) now has all trackwork complete on the station board, wired and tested. Next stage point control and track painting Platform and some buildings underway (Royal Oak, Grocers, Ganges, Fountain Garage) Next baseboard (st marys road & bridge) built. Pete

Was the Ivatt 2 normally used on this line?. I know the photo shows a well known event with one used in conjunction with a railtour but I would have thought the wheelbase was a bit long. Was this the only occasion? Pete

Crossovers, I found one on a 2500 map I was looking at which only had one rail, the other not being shown at all. Regarding Satellite views, yes very useful but again be careful, these are made from many individual photos joined together, they are tweaked and adjusted to match the adjoining ones hence buildings etc in the centre of a picture may be a good plan view, those towards the edge rather oblique, possibly not well matched to their other half on the next photo. For an overall view generally good but zoomed in for fine detail less so. Pete

Im not familiar with the E4X but certainly some other Brighton classes would carry boilers which could be from different batches built over the years. The E1's which I have been looking at had 4 different boilers for which I have found drawings for, two of these had side mounted clacks, one had backhead mounted injectors/clacks and the last had fittings & pipework for both options. What a specific loco carried on a given date would depend on what was available when overhauled. Wartime photos are obviously rare and postwar film was difficult to obtain hence Malachite era photos are not common. Wartime repaints would initially be in unlined Olive, then later overall Black but some locos may well have still been in lined Olive by the wars end. Malachite would then be likely but I cannot confirm this. Pete

The sirens were used post war for Fire Brigade call outs (non-full time areas). I cant remember when they ceased to be used but presumably the 80's when pagers came into use. Pete

I also find this very annoying, is there any way of blocking these? Pete

That was an excellent throw. Exactly positioned to be reached from an opening window. .......... or placed there from the window to make a suitable picture. Pete

All very high tech, the indicator was basically a vertical spring loaded rod, This was pushed upwards by a shallow ramp when nearing the track end. Markings on the rod showed the remaining distance. Pete

Clicking on the link locks my computer up, I have to shut down everything and restart. Running Firefox and Vista. Pete

Ryde Pier Tramway Standard gauge double track railway. Each line had a Drewry railcar with a trailer car (one with a luggage trolley as well). Driven from the leading end of the railcar. A wing mirror was used when running backwards along with a cab indicator which operated when nearing the stops. Pete

The 2500 scale maps (and 1250 in urban areas) are the best you are going to get for any location unless you can locate the railways own detail track plans. Each rail is shown on these along with signal posts, telegraph poles etc but occasionally something is missed by the surveyor or misinterpreted by the person producing the map itself. They are not perfect and as stated above may be a mixture of features from differing dates but as a starting point there is nothing better. Use them as a guide and reference photos for your specific period. Pete

Dont know of a specific S&D one but many town goods yards had a small scale oil terminal at one time, generally for Naptha (Paraffin), this would be one or two raised storage tanks and a small hut for the pump, supplied by a single tank wagon as required. The Anglo American Oil Co was one company with "Royal Daylight" branded tank wagons. This traffic was much reduced by the 1920's with the spread of electricity and the use of motor lorries for deliveries. Pete

From the title I thought you were modelling the Cowes extension which never actually happened. This was a plan by the Isle of Wight Central to extend beyond the Cowes Terminus, crossing Carvel Lane and the High street by bridge to a new terminus on Fountain Quay to directly serve the ferries. Likely the original Cowes would have closed to passengers but would have been retained for goods. Plans were approved and some properties were purchased before the idea was abandoned. Pete

Loco looks like it has been out of use for some time. There is a plate over the flange for the clack valve which is missing. (Not a certainty as one pattern of the boilers fitted had provision for both side mounted and backhead mounted clacks, choose as required) The Smokebox is rusty, this would have been black. The boiler cladding and splashers may just be weathered with rust and the old paintwork showing through (LBSC umber). There are also areas on the cab and footsteps. The number has weathered with streaking down the tanks. Pete

DFT decision has been delayed further, no date specified. Pete

Re: The Brass Splasher Beading In SR Bulleid Black and BR Black these are officially painted over on similar locos of other classes that I am aware of, however: it was quite common for crews to clean the paint off and expose the brass again to embellish their loco. Pete

Bradley was a prolific writer who produced much good information. However; some of this was assumption and has since been proved incorrect. Whilst he can be taken as a good guide any specific details should be verified from other sources. Just because his books state something as fact, this cannot be taken as 100% correct. I am aware of one of his books which is being revised & updated and a significant proportion of the information has been found to be wrong. Pete

The Isle of Wight Railway runs a rake up to 7 victorian 4 wheelers every time the service has two trains running. The full set is of mixed origin however a set of 4 LCDR vehicles has been run on their own. All have a IOW pedigree. These are in Southern livery which is appropriate to their period of use on the Island. 3 of the railways preserved locomotives would have been used with these at the time. A start has been made on an original IWR rake which will contain several vehicles from the 1860's built for the opening of the line from Ryde to Shanklin but this will be some time. Pete

Yes the final 4 wheelers in suburban traffic will have largely been downgraded 6 wheelers. A train of mainly third class close coupled vehicles was about as high capacity you could get. The early LCDR bogie carriages were to the same design and construction but longer, with the use of normal couplings between vehicles there overall capacity was actually less, I think these were intended for mainline use. These went from the early 30's as newer vehicles became available. The SECR 100 seat thirds were originally built for the suburban traffic, I dont know how many were built but this was the early 20's and electrification became the desired way ahead instead. Pete

The main line services tended to have the better, newer stock, by 1923 when the Southern started much of this was already using bogie vehicles. Many six wheelers displaced then replaced earlier 4 wheelers for suburban use, these normally had the centre wheelset removed making them in turn 4 wheelers. This gives a lighter vehicle hence more train for a given loco size, the lower speeds means the third axle is not of any real benefit. This appears to have occurred around 1919/20. The overall need being for very high capacity sets meant these were still in use in the London suburbs even after many country branch lines were using bogie vehicles. I'm not familiar with SECR sets but at least one LBSC set had a seating capacity of over 800. Some 6 wheelers did carry on in use on secondary lines but these tended to be away from London. During the 20's and 30's most of the London area network was electrified hence a huge number of carriages were replaced with electric stock (some of the more recent vehicles were modified as electric trailers). The electric trains had a smaller overall capacity but ran a more intensive service. There was much progressive cascading of the loco hauled stock with the more recent sets being used to replace the older wherever it was, town or country. The remaining 4 and 6 wheelers being the first to go followed by the early bogie carriages. Other than completing outstanding pre- grouping orders the SR built no Loco hauled suburban carriages during its entire existence, it had no need to. The Isle of Wight Railways are not specifically relevant to London services other than for much of their existence they ran with London cast offs (and still do), what came and when is a good indicator of what London has finished with. Although the LCDR 4 wheelers were already at the end of their useful lives in 1926 they were an improvement on the then Island stock some of which dated to the 1860's Pete

The Isle of Wight carriage fleet was virtually totally re-equipped with LCDR 4 wheelers between 1926 and 1930 (approx 90 carriages). Most of these would have come from London suburban services and many had originally been built as 6 wheelers before conversion to 4 for suburban use. Likely this reflected the end of their use in London hence being readily available. The early part of this period would probably have seen some sets still in SECR livery, the end would be SR. All transferred carriages were refurbished and arrived in SR olive. These were closely followed by LCDR bogie carriages from 1931 onwards which replaced the 4 wheelers, some of which only ran 5 years on the Island. The fact these were also available in quantity so soon after would indicate the mainland 4 wheel sets had all gone by then or they would have been used in London in their place. I would suggest 1928/29 for the end of 4 wheel sets in London. The 6 wheel stock was for main line use and had likely already gone by then. Pete