Caledonian

Reading Hoole more closely he actually details headcodes for three routes in the 1905 WTT Central Station-Tynemouth and New Bridge Street/Manors North - via Riverside: code was green lamp on the right and white on the left, with no lamp in the middle Central Station - Tynemouth, Monkseaton and New Bridge Street/Manors North - via Heaton: code was white on the right and green on the right with no lamp in the middle Central, Monkseaton and Tynemouth via Benton was white, green, white. The codes then changed in 1922 and are really only to be understood if you're familiar with the Tyneside network, but clearly the same type of codes would have been used on the routes operated by 3170 and 3171 in Yorkshire.

Tasty, the Edwardian Enginemen look as if they might fit the bill

Bit late in the day perhaps, but Ken Hoole published a chart of three-lamp codes for the contemporary Tyneside electric cars. [The North Eastern Electrics, Oakwood1987 page76] Basically, they are destination codes, for example cars running into Newcastle Central in 1905 displayed a green lamp on the left and a white on the right, with no lamp in the centre. One running up to South Gosforth and Monkseaton had only a white on the right. These particular codes were only relevant for Tyneside, but presumably the same principle applied to other routes

I'm in possession of a Rails/Heljan 1903 NER railbus, which is quite magnificent but of course noticeably empty. Passengers are straightforward, but the crew may not be. All the staff working the contemporary electrics on Tyneside were smartly dressed in passenger guards' uniforms - dark blue, with a double-breasted jacket and peaked cap. This included the driver. Would I be right in thinking the same was true true of drivers of the petrol driven railbuses - ie; NOT a greasy overalled train driver, and if so any recommendations for a suitable figure

Looks pretty good to me. Although the bowing looks obvious at first sight it's the sort of thing that tended to happen - after all its an 1870s vintage vehicle thirty years on or more

It's worth observing that in my experience the tampo printing on Rapido wagons is very easy to remove without leaving scarring, so if you like the colour but not the lettering a change of identity is far easier than with say a Bachmann or Hornby equivalent

Ah, but funny things happened. In the first place that "loco coal" had to come from somewhere. Secondly, notwithstanding what it said on the packet... Spread across pages 56 and 57 of the December issue of Hornby Magazine is a superb photie* of 111 The Great Bear standing at Old Oak Common [London] at some time before 1924. Of itself there's nothing remarkable about this, but standing behind the loco is an elevated track bearing a load of Great Western loco coal wagons. Again nothing remarkable and Rapido are intent on making them available, but at the back... at the left hand edge of the photie is a Caledonian Railway coal wagon ! *Rail Archive Stephenson

Just a quick update on this one. Disappointed, as I said, that my mystery box didn't include a Wisbech and Upwell Train Pack. Rather wanted one, so went out and bought one, then discovered that the three Southern opens which were included in the box look remarkably like the Great Eastern's dia. 55 wagons, so hey, just what I needed to hang on the back of my Model Rail/Rapido J70 and keep the new Train Pack company.

Splendid ! ... and how about the Caley dia67 s ?

Yes, I remember sharing a compartment with a somewhat confused Bishop of Durham who had too hastily boarded the "wrong" end

Another question - but changing the subject The pack contains trams no.7 and no.8, of which 7 includes a First Class section Was there a convention anent which end it went? On the ECML of course First Class is always at the King's Cross end whether leaving or arriving so's the higher priced passengers don't have so far to walk to board or leave the train

Thanks Gents Narrow Planet it is 👍

Finally succumbed to getting a pre-1919 pack, and very pleased with it. The cow-catcher on the front end of the engine wasn't a problem cos I already had a spare unperforated one from a Model Rail LNER engine, but a bit disappointed that there was no etched number plate to paste over the printed one. Is there an established supplier of the right size and number [127] ?

On yonder hill there stood a coo... sorry

Looks splendid, pity about the B Set hanging on the back. Look forward to something more appropriate 😁

Seems to have worked. Paid the deposit on the Jones and that then cleared the basket for the dia.67 vans 👍

Tasty, tasty, very very tasty

Didn't quite enter into the spirit of this exercise, did we ? I'll cheerfully admit that I was a little disappointed myself with my [£250] selection - it didn't include a Wisbeach and Upwell train set. Bummer But... LMS open - splendid, I actually wanted another and the tampo printing on Rapido stock is so light that numbers can be removed or changed just by breathing on them [I exaggerate, but not by much] Three southern eight-plank wagons. Not so useful as LMS but still splendid models and fit to run with most of my post Caledonian stock Dynamometer car - what on earth am I going to do with that [operationally]? Nothing at the moment, but it looks absolutely marvellous sitting above my laptop as I write Three OAA wagons. Initially deep disappointment about this one, but hey, I also have two 08s and a class 24 sitting idle in a cupboard, so out they came and got dusted off GW Toad. Hurrah. Its a grey one [NOT bright yellow thank the Lord] so I can enjoy it for what a superior model it is and hang it on the back of my GW pannier which like all modellers I happen to have Bright yellow Mink with Rapido printed on the side. As mentioned above, not very useful, but a quick respray later, and... So no, I might have wished/hoped for alternatives - at least one Upwell tramcar would have been nice - but I didn't go out and order anything specific. I ordered a surprise box filled with surprise contents [the calendar and pens and stuff wasn't a surprise] so I really can't complain or grumble at all at what I got

Just tried that and got this: "We cannot add this product to your current cart as it will ship at a different time than the item in the cart. Please order these items seperately. We apologise for the inconvenience." [I currently have four Caledonian vans in my cart - do I clear them out and start again?]

Now that the [very] pretty coloured ones have arrived for checking and showing off, is there a closing date yet for pre-ordering ?

Anybody know what happened to the Backworth platelayer's van ? I've seen a photie dated 1972 which takes it into the preservation era.

Doomed... I'm doomed. Well at least that's what my wallet is telling me. Mind you, its my own fault, I shouldn't have converted those Southern look-alikes

But more useful...

Anybody else cleaned theirs up and resprayed it as a service vehicle ? 😈

I'm inclined to wonder, given the obvious scale of the enterprise, whether it is in fact Gretna