Titan

They were built at the same time as the very first MK2s, so I would expect so. Like the first Mk2s they were vacuum brake only, and remained so for their entire career. Hence could not be hauled by class 87.

The brakes were fail safe - I think spring applied and hydraulic pressure to release. However the brakes had been criminally tampered with. They had failed, and rather than fix them properly they had been partially dismantled, and worse the hoses had been filled with ball bearings so that if the hoses were felt they would appear to be working properly - hoses hard with pressure and brakes off. Brief details here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4624312.stm

There will be stabling sidings built beyond, just before Hard Place.

It might sound counter intuitive but you are more likely to have canals closed due to lack of water in the off season when they are little used. The reason being is that locks leak. When there is a good flow of traffic there is plenty of water moving down the system to keep it all topped up. If the locks on the lower levels leak more than the locks on the upper levels, without regular boat passage the middle/lower levels run out of water. The shorter the distance between the locks, and the worse the leaks the quicker the canal runs out of water. I have on at least one occasion when moving my boat in December had to sit for about an hour with paddles on both ends of a lock open in order to transfer enough water to a lower level to make it navigable. Luckily the upper level was much longer than the lower level so by the time the lower level had enough water to float my boat, the upper level had only dropped an inch or so.

I think what he is getting at is when a train comes off lease, if it can't be leased again it is only worth scrap, perhaps a little more if it can be exported. When a 3 year old (or less) car comes off lease it is worth considerably more than scrap and is therefore much less of a liability.

Something is not right there - the 08 is dipping towards the nose. It looks like the springs to the front are compressed and the rear lightly loaded. The coupling rods are not parallel to the footplate. Either there is a very severe track twist or the track has spread and the far side front wheel is on the dirt... It also looks like it may have suffered a slipped crank, the leading balance weight on the wheel does not line up with the others. This photo which must have been taken at a similar time shows them all aligned: https://www.flickr.com/photos/37190-dalzell/14757204482/in/photostream/ A photo showing the other side could be very interesting!

Perhaps Daniel Craig will go to HO heaven?

Four legged Sh**ting type?

Thing is I believe that the canals are now busier than they have ever been, particularly during the summer. Not unknown for the queuing time for locks to be hours. Of course it is now almost all leisure traffic.

I would expect you to at least cover a reasonable proportion of the maintenance costs and bills.

Surely after so many years of operation the loans should be pretty much paid back by now? Pretty bad management somewhere if they haven't.

I do wonder if you have a point about the XP64 stock colour. The Class 86's are clearly lighter in shade than the later BR blue, yet not really light enough for Electric Blue. The colour for the 86's could well have been specified not long after after the XP64 train was displayed, and if that colour had be used would it not have been referred to as the new BR blue. I can't see any reference to the class 86's being painted in later BR blue in the article, although it does mention the class 310's being delivered in this scheme.

These should be plenty small enough: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200pcs-2mm-x1mm-Round-Disc-Magnets-Neodymium-Rare-Earth-N35-Strong-Magnet-/371931460892?hash=item5698d7b51c:g:yFkAAOSw3ZRZAOec One of their modelling uses so far has I believe been coupling scale vacuum hoses together... Having said that a lot of catenary wire is coated steel, so could have very interesting effects. A form of magnadhesion in reverse?

Cos age is all that matters! Seems that some people would much rather have a worse new train than a better old one because the only thing that matters is age.

They do have extra shoes too - six each side, although this is more to do with spreading the current draw between more shoes as they draw an awful lot of current. There was some clever control - it could sense the current through individual shoes and when it detected that only one shoe was drawing power it would ramp down the power demand so as to reduce the arc drawn when it left the rail. But no ability to store traction energy in any way.

Blimey. Even I would have sworn that was not electric blue!

But all of the coaches, even the lighter ones, are still darker than the loco. If you can post a picture of a SYP AL6 where even just one of the coaches blue is as light as the loco you might be a little more convincing...

I m guessing that the bogie side frames came from a 15X DMU? You may want to consider removing the molding of the brake shoes as unlike the 15X the 508 would have had disc brakes.

Rather than comparing locos, it might be better to compare to the rolling stock. The blue on these coaches looks a lot darker than the 86 hauling it. Same film, Same lighting, no shadows etc.

Since when did the point of policing become making a profit instead of preventing crime?

Looking at the ex 508 trailers that were used in the 455 build shows quite well the difference in profile and height when compared to a Mk3 derrived unit:

It also shows quite clearly the miniature buffers, presumably to provide some protection to the frame in the event of colliding with something else equipped with buffers...

The Deltic is almost certainly 9019. It was modified for royal train duties, which involved cutting a small hole in the nose to pass the special communications cable through. You can just see the small plated over hole just below and to the right (as you look at it) of the left headboard clip. It was cut at one end only. In the end she was never used for royal train duty. She still carries this plated over hole today as can be seen here: So unless 9021 also had the mod it ain't her...

Don't think that narrows it down much...