adanapress

2 foot gauge tracks embedded in the surface of a small jetty on Salt Cay in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

I think that in the 1940s one asked at the Post Office in Highworth for that Department, and lo, transport would arrive. They originally taught the Auxiliary Unit folk for the UK and after that the SOE folk for all over Europe House now totally demolished I believe. . .

Lovely model, used to live at Strumpshaw, in the house of the District Motive Power chap, my Uncle the late Geoff Ford, one of the last of Gresley's Premium Apprentices. Ought to have a goat somewhere about by the way its a local thing. .

Maybe some of the 08s built during WW2 still do odd trip working in the Netherlands -.. .. .. perhaps Theres quite a few still about.

In company with the District Motive Power boss from Norwich, once and only the once saw a Sentinel with its nose just sticking out of some sort of archway at or adjacent to Lowestoft station in what must have been 1954-55. Sorry to say that all I recall of livery was that it was quite extraordinary dirty, Geoff said that it had been used by the pw folk. Looked abandoned to me.

To get those waiting passengers from St Pancras to somewhere helpful, nobody ever considers running some kind of stock from Platform 5 at St Pancras, then Regents Canal Junction and Silo Curve Junction then Camden Road, , Willesden, and the Southern Region to Swanley and Fawkham Junction and thereby get to somewhere helpful. So its a very long way round, and some of it slow, and theres no suitable stock or locos but some of the all round pain could be less ... Once upon a time it might have been possible .. with the management of a different generation..sigh ..

Another odd thing about this area is that somehow crammed in between the cutting wall adjacent to the EASTBOUND L.T. . Farringdon platform was a trade typesetting firm with a series of tiny rooms one above another down to sort of track level. ( Linotype by the way not Monotype) Their very unobtrusive front door opened onto the street above.

In the earlier W & U days there was very likely coprolite traffic. Thats to say prehistoric fossilized shark poo, quite an industry back then in the North Norfolk high ridge, supplying farms all over East Anglia. Fertilzer source of nitrogen for the soil I believe. At a distance a heap of it looks like dark gravel.

AS the author of a private press limited edition small book about the line - the first book on the line I believe, I can say that Mr Paye's book is 'the' definitive work - academic research of the very highest standard. I had a cab ride on the line (laid on by the Rev, Awdry) in the later diesel days, and I can say that operation was indeed laid back. The ride was very rough indeed. The load was two or three 21 ton coal wagons, all for Upwell, and nothing to come back, (this was January, so very mcuh out of season), The crew said that whilst coal inwards was vastly less now that the fens pumping station were all now oil fired, the fruit outwards still held up in season, tho' not the very very long van trains of previous years. I noticed that the points at Outwell Village to the wharf road, still had a locking key rusted solid in position.

A simple query, who makes the best moulded brickwork sheets for me to cut and scratchbuild various 00 gauge walls.?

Perhaps I may add that Peter Paye's research is , if a little dry in style. for the research its the best. On the other hand 'The Wisbech and Upwell Centenary ' by Andrew C. Ingram has an unusually good collection of photographs. They include several of those from my private press limited edition book on the tramway of long ago, never available to the general public. Andrew's title has an ISBN - 0-907087 20 5 and its excellently well printed.

As Michael says, Kingsway going towards Aldwych, and that ramp is still to be seen today still with trackI used it once and I do recall it was very noisy indeed, waiting on that i platform at the Holborn stop.

With a Dutch friend I once stood in the large (and not very well kept) garden of a rather upmarket Dutch restaurant, in the garden was a small spring and a tiny stream running from it maybe 4 inches wide. This side was Dutch and the other was Belgium. I remember thinking how silly the whole border business was. Mind you the Dutch, on the weekends long ago, used to drive down to a Belgian enclave to buy butter Enclave? look it up - Baarle-Nassau etc etc.

I can at least tell you that the bill for just the dyeing of, (not the material itself) of the leather for the specially made chair for the late E..n Mc ...........'s office in Fleet Street a long time ago was £183 - in those days a lot of money. My impression is that the family were removed from active participation in the business ( in so far as there was any ) by the banks long ago. I wonder if that Constable is still above the fireplace in Mayfair ... heigh ho its so long ago ... The Bemrose lot were very tough hard cases as I recall .... Retired Printer Editor : remove quickly please ....

An Eastern Class 15 Diesel in OO, the Heljan one is nice but far too expensive. On maybe as a kit ?? , why not, the old Airfix.and Kitmaster ones sold well for years and years, some even now. . .

Gong back to banking for a moment, within the last two months I saw an 08 being gently nudged a few yards by a lorry !, to make an advantageous position for loading. I'm being a shade vague 'to protect the innocent', but I do have a photo which might be released in a few years time. I don't know. this might even be a commonplace.

Some of the National Service herberts I trained at Blackdown in 1956 were posted to Weedon, I know not what they were doing, bit I do recall they were the very slightly brighter ones. Also in another life I report that during Mrs Thatchers privatisation period one of those larger warehouses held many thousands of tons of paper in reels, at my behest. oddly the floor was sandy and the fork lifts struggled a bit. It was the biggest print job since ration books in 1938, most of the industry co=operated.on the night. We shall not see its like again. . The R.A.O.C.( and its civilian cohorts ) itself no longer exists!

I think someone was saying that the section Aylesbury to Quainton Road isn't to passenger standards. Being pedantic, I believe about half is, ending at Aylesbury Vale Park and Ride Station bay platform. In passing, I wonder how successful that has been , i.e. how many passengers, anyone know?

Do I understand rightly that Tempsford is to be a full interchange station with the ECML? And if so, does anyone know what arrangements are proposed?

Theres an interesting side comment in the newly published plans, they mention the possibility of 'sharing the corridor' with the works allegedly soon to start on the Caxton Gibbet=Black Cat roundabout road improvement scheme. I wonder what sharing means in engineering terms, , a common cutting maybe ...?

Does anyone have detail of the livery on Italian steam locos during WW2. Not Reichsbahn that might have been visiting, actual Italian locos. Info needed to identify an existing WW2 painting of a wreck. .

Have you looked at the old Triang/Hornby R157 Diesel Railcar bogie. Theres a good deal of detail you may wish to grind off the bogie sides, and is a hard grade of the dreaded mazak, but they run really well, and well lubricated can run quite slowly. Can be got fairly cheap-ish second hand, but some spares are getting hard to find. I have lots of these bogies and love them all, well most of them! (re-wheeled of course)

I;m also interested in that list, I believe they made a diesel electric that looked a bit like a BR Class 15 that went to West Africa. I seek confirmation and detail, it was a one off I think.

As a boy scout I went, with loads of others, in around 1952 or 3 to a semi=permanent scout camp near the intermediate station on the line - called Combpyne or something like that. I do recall an extremely winding track and deal of track squealing noises. Don't recall much else I'm afraid, except we did definitely have to 'change trains' at the Junction, no kind of 'though' train for us. I think I recall only two coaches.

If you arrived by steam train in the ..um 1946-9 period the place was of course still open to the sky. The outermost walls still had remains of roof supports and the streets around were still in the bombed site condition, very much so. one of the worst areas of desctruction in the City.. One point of interest. at the buffers end of the steam train platforms there was a very strange plinthed machine. Very rusty more or less in derilict condition. It was one of the original electric tube locomotives, maybe ex City and South London or just possibly ex Central line., why plinthed there I've no idea.