adanapress

A postal inquiry in the last few days to Mr Brice at Skinley Drawings, says that the service is suspended since April and that the masters are presently in store pending arrangements for their future. I certainly hope that is to be a good future.

Thanks for that Nigel

Charging section of OHLE - Isn't that what the DRUMM trains in Ireland had?

For the Thames Valley banches, might the Overhead/Battery unit currently on test (and just having hit 100mph I gather) be part of a solution?

Have bought a 4mm scale card kit for the Oerlikon stock, does anyone know where one can purchase scale drawings for this stock? Are Skinley still in business?

Further abut the film, it was largely shot on the then closed Limpley Stoke branch, and the rushes (aka 'lavenders') were viewed daily in a water mill building using the power generated by the mill's wheel/generator set. This was called Oakle Pitcher Mill, on the farm of the same name, Its owner who installed the generator plant, having died in WW2 while serving as a Lancaster rear gunner.

The British Film Institute library has a substantial file on the making of the film. This includes a few very useful sharp and close up shots of use to modellers. Lion of course still exists and could be photographed in its museum location, with permission naturally

And that at Streatham High Street, with just a few feet of track surviving outside, was extant let me see, maybe fifteen years ago, now? I don't know. Of course not a depot but the northern entrance to the London Kingsway Subway survives, with its few yards of conduit track on a remarkably steep slope.

Vine Street bridge near Farringdon Station in London used to have 2 or 3 trolleybus poles still standing and i seem to recall some on the Silvertown Viaduct in east London.

There's a sad missed opportunity currently being built south of Nottingham, The Nottingham NET tram network is being extended (hooray) but its southernmost terminal is to be a 'park-and-ride' car park in the middle of no-where much. Its not as near as it could have been to the northern terminal at Ruddington of the current The Great Central Railway (Northern). Which would have provided a cross platform interchange for trains to Loughbrough (the missing link bridge will be built fairly soon) and Leicester North, providing extensive commuting opportunities. So much for joined up planning. .

I was once told that the L.T. Epping Ongar line was fed only from the Epping end - from the sub-ststion there, and the voltage drop over the distance was such that the three car Cravens set then used, when departing Southbound from Ongar, was indeed only getting about 240 volts. I do know for sure that the start was extremely sluggish.

For Pacific 231G, a BOD is general stuff and a Corps Ordnance Depot the same but smaller, its a C Ammunition D what has the bangs ,like the RNADs, (Trecwn with the narrow guage internal and a main line sized four platform station for the staff trains etc) all gone now. Bicester was like a colossal Department store, you handed in your 'shopping list', and not too long after it was ready at the loading dock,. unless very heavy stuff, or special MOD list (binoculars and compasses for example) which went via other routes - sometimes for BAOR in their own special night trains with the olive green painted vans. Staff at Bicester, Didcot and all the rest were a weird mixture of RAOC soldiers and Civil Servants, where an Executive Officer Grade 2 was equivalent to a Leiutenant, and you called her marm but didnt salute!

One other thought Clifford, I know its out of strict period, but its a rare excuse to make a model of the ex Wisbech & Upwell Double Ended Sentinel tram loco, which the W & U didnt like and migrated to Yarmouth Quays. Also to recall that the Free Polish Navy ran trawlers (and MTBs I think) out of the Yarmouth Fish Dock wharf during WW2, if you have a waters edge that is..

Bicester Ordnance Depot in the 1950s was not only rail connected, but it was extremely busy. National Service was still in full operation, and the supplies therefor were quite often provided from there. The range was staggering, how about mule harness for a division!, and American Ordnance officers checking the bottom shelves that the US had paid for, just in case the naugnty Brits had used some! Locos right inside the buildings I seem to recall, but it was a long time ago. Certainly a very extensive rail netowrk in very active use, all coming off the Oxford-Bletchely line via the MODs own extensive sidings..

When these things were new-ish there were plenty of articles in the mags about how to get a better length, a little nearer scale. Can anyone point me to any of those articles. It'll be a long time ago for sure. No jeering please, at 76 I have to do my modelling quite literally on pennies, and I have spare bodies. (After all, someone had to make 'Daisy' for the Reverend Wilbert Awdry.)

I wonder if anyone remembers what happened to the Roadrailer project, and wether anyone with the passing of the years now dares say out loud why that was.

Thank you gentlemen, one and all, just the breadth of info I needed. Now, I wonder if I really can make one work ....

Acquiring many models of these boxes might be a tad expensive, so may I draw the attention of any cash-strapped modellers to the possibilities available using the safety shroud from bic disposable razors, normally thrown away. They might have other uses too. And maybe the handles?.

Hi, Clifford, If its any help. I've got a strange night time painting done ca. 1939/40 of 'The Camden' pub on the Fish Quay a bit further along, my Aunt Audrey was the licensee, and I lived there for a while during WW2. Being then only 4/5 years old, sadly I have no memories of trains in the area.

Indeed card is an excellent basis for modelling, available as it is in so many thicknesses and qualities and also with many grained finishes. Ask a printer friend if he can organise free sample sheets for you, A4 size used to be easily available. To deal with the damp worry, rub on a mixture of shellac in meths, both sides, and allow to dry (somewhere outside the house!). This would normally take only an hour or two. The resulting card cuts almost as crisply as polystyrene, given really sharp blades, and most of the usual glues will work well. Back in the 1950s I worked a good deal with this, and produced reasonable (1950s standard!) models.

Now from the point of view of one born in 1935, I can clearly recall Grandpa saying that" there were those brought up, some were dragged up, and there were even those scraped up!" He was the artist that invented, Tiger Tim and the Bruin Boys (in 'Rainbow' comic for the little ones) about 1885, and and Caseys Court in 'Chips', and tons else - anyone remember those?

Can anyone point me to information regarding the use here and there of slightly adapted farm tractors as shunters in various East Anglian sidings. Or is my memory entirely at fault? I seem to recall very large, lashed up wooden bufferbeams, but thats about all I recall! ..

Sorry folks, re my last post, that should read SheNfield.

Somewhere I've got a photo of a Shefield unit roof, taken at Liverpool Street in 1500v days long long before buildings now that view impossible. With the old 'X' frame panto. If anyone wants. let me know. Might be same as a 506. Adanapress

If looking for a suggestion for a background building there is a large lovely and old watermill just down the hill. From White Notley, or was it Cressing, my memory begins to fail me.