TonyA

No photo but when I just went out to get in the washing (don't ask!), I nearly tripped over a badger. Judging by the speed of his departure, he was almost as scared as I was. This is the first time I have seen one in our garden. However, I have seen them on the railway embankment at the bottom of the garden and this is just 9 miles from London Bridge. Tony

Somewhere around 1952, my father built a large layout in a room on the top floor. It consisted of a large circuit with a branch line and was mainly GWR with a Graham Farish King and 81xx and a Gaiety 57xx pannier. I was allowed to look but not touch which was probably just as well. The controller consisted of a couple of rheostats and lots of Air Ministry switches together with two uncased transformers. After my father died in 1957, we moved house and the layout was dismantled. Fast forward to 1962 when I spotted ads for the reformed Graham Farish in Railway Modeller and started planning my own layout. There followed various attempts at getting something built until 2001 when early retirement kicked in I actually finished something. The rest is history. Tony

In preparation for the layout that I hope to build “one day”, I decided to try a bit of scratch building. This is my attempt at a small Bavarian halt in the late 1930s, based on the one at Hellengerst on the line from Kempten to Isny. I believe it is an Agenturgebäude type A1, which consisted of a goods shed, office and restroom. The restroom is the small extension on the platform at the front under the gable roof - and it was a swine to fit. As you can see from the mug, any layout that uses it will be based on the Fränkische Schweiz, northeast of Nürnberg. However, at the moment it is just sitting on a spare bit of board and waiting for inspiration to hit me. Meanwhile, you can see the original here. http://www.kbaystb.de/kbaystb-kbaystb/kbaystb-bahnhoefe/kbaystb-bahnhoefe_haag-hurzfurt/kbaystb-bahnhoefe-hellengerst/kbaystb-bahnhoefe_hellengerst.htm Tony

That would explain why you missed some great layouts at Chatham today. This one took me right back to Central Hall in the 1960s. Tony

I believe there was one on the Carl Arendt website but I cannot recall when. I will look tomorrow unless anyone can find it in the meantime. Tony

PC George Dixon was also dead before the TV series started in 1955. He was killed by Dirk Bogarde in The Blue Lamp (1950). Tony

Gutted to have been unable to get there this year. Does anyone have any photos taken at the show? Tony

You make me jealous. I wish I was there to take my grandson. Glad to see that the snow from two weeks ago has gone. I have also seen that the 2017 Narrow Gauge Ontario Show was in Schomberg near to where the family were house hunting. Can't wait for my first trip there. Very best of luck with the show. Tony

Network Rail planner stopped working on my PC some time ago. I cannot even enter the starting station name without it crashing. However, it works fine on my iPhone. Are PCs now regarded as obsolete by NR? Tony

Danmk1, The biggest difficulty with producing transfers for Longmoor is that they did not teach sign writing as an army trade. Therefore the font does not correspond exactly to any standard form. Also, in the later days, lettering of vehicles was done by whoever was available and this resulted in some variations. Most noticeable was the letter M in LMR. The centre stroke normally went to the base line but on some vehicles such as 878 Basra after about 1965 it ended half way down. The best bet is to look at the photos from the relevant date. When I did some experiments a couple of years ago, Gill Sans in bold was the nearest I could find for the letters and British Dark Normal Regular for the numbers. However, these were not 100% accurate. Tony

My information is that Major White who was Officer i/c Paint Shop from 1962-4 noted that the blue paint, at that time Oxford Blue, had a tendency to fade. He conducted an experiment with various makes of paint by painting sample sheets of steel and leaving them on the roof of the paint shop for some months. The one that survived best was Dulux and this was used in future. However, I assume it was not totally immune to fading. I would expect Sir Guy, the 08, WD156, WD196 and the Mk 1 suburbans to have received the same paint. WD157 could have been in the same blue, depending on date. 79250 and S100 were much earlier, both having been withdrawn in 1957/8. It is therefore perfectly reasonable that all models are different shades but they all represent different dates between 1948 and 1969 with very limited overlap. For example, I believe only WD156, WD196 and the 08 could have hauled the blue Mk 1 suburbans. The only solution is to invoke Rule 1. Tony

I assume she was the wife of Major-General Pat Claxton who, in 1970, was Transport Officer in Chief (Army). He performed the handover ceremony of Gordon and the Blue Saloons to the Longmoor Trust. Tony

The only track plan in the book is of King's Newton Depot from a postwar 6" Ordnance Survey. The appendices give brief details of locomotives including notes made by Dick Riley of a visit in October 1943. I have heard that a new book is in preparation but I do not have details of any publisher or publication date. Tony

I was told that it made it easier to spot cracks. A wipe with an oily rag would show them up nicely. This is quoted from Anstrich und Bezeichnung von Lokomotiven by Wolfgang Diener. Tony

Sir Guy Williams is modelled as running after 1962 whereas Major General McMullen is as running before June 1950 when the livery was much darker. If you wanted to run them together, both locomotives would need considerable changes both to livery and, in the case of Major General McMullen, conversion to oil burning. Major General McMullen was withdrawn in 1957 and Sir Guy Williams was withdrawn in mid 1965. There were a pair of ex-SECR birdcage brakes but not the ones modelled by Bachmann. The Mk 1 suburban stock appeared in blue long after both locomotives were scrapped. They first appeared in early 1965 but were not repainted in blue until 1967/8. The most appropriate coach for Major General McMullen would be the 6-wheel inspection saloon or other blue saloons as it was used for the Major General's visits. Other coaches are as listed in volume 3 of The Longmoor Military Railway, a new history. From a modelling point of view, there are etched kits for the ex-LSWR blue saloon and the SECR birdcage brakes but I cannot find the details at the moment. Tony

Thanks for the information. I hope I will be visiting Toronto for some years to come and I will keep the show dates in mind. Tony

Is it always this time of year? I can't be there this year but I could schedule a visit to my newly emigrated family in Toronto for next year. Tony

At risk of staying OT, the use of signature as as distinctive way of writing your name is comparatively modern. It does not appear in Webster's Dictionary of 1827. The closest description there is "a mark upon any matter, particularly upon plants, by which their nature or medicinal use is pointed out." This could arguably be closer to the way Nearholmer used it. Meanwhile, back to Light Railways ... Tony

One thing that I have not seen mentioned (apologies if I missed it) is the change to BST which on any other weekend would be equivalent to closing at 18:00 on Saturday. In the old days, the show was in the week after Easter when you normally avoided the change of the clocks and had a Bank Holiday as well. Tony

One feature that I do remember reading about was the total absence of Ladies toilets, which was attributed to the fact that the Colonel was a bachelor. The other thing was the prevalence of flies around the Gents toilet during dry weather, though that might be harder to model except in very large scale. Tony

You could have a compromise solution. http://modelrailwaylayoutsplans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/112.jpg Either way, my vote is to keep the downstairs toilet. Tony

It is a Belgian locomotive type #3, no. 809. There is a description here. http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/belgian/smashsys.htm The extra wheel was to reduce the axle load and the thing between the front drivers is a sledge brake.. Tony

And you wonder why I am reluctant to help with your PC problems! Tony

Gone in 60 years...

In Lokomotiv-Schicksale from Verlag Slezak, there is a photo of WD188 (GWR 2435) at Vienna Hütteldorf MPD in 1948. It also says that there are photographs of WD160 and WD200 in the USSR in Lokomotiven ziehen in den Krieg Vol.3 from the same publisher. RCTS Locomotives of the GWR Part 14 says that WD188 was the one photographed at Orscha in 1943 so presumably this was not re-gauged. It also has a photo of GWR 2308 as TCCD 33041 "derelict somewhere in Turkey in the 1950s". Tony