corneliuslundie

You are right. And I have recently had new glasses. So max 175 tons. Jonathan

C6101. Superpower for just six wagons, perhaps 150 tons. But very modellable, Jonathan

Is it an election ploy? J

I was certainly told at the time that the LHR livery was because of BR opposition. Perhaps it was local rather than national. Certainly, as stated, the SVR had locos and carriages in BR livery. But of course my informant may have been wrong. Jonathan

The 805 testing seems to be cancelled quite often. Odd if they want to get them into service. Or are there problems? (if you are allowed to say) Jonathan

Interesting to see D2117. I assume that this was at the time when BR was objecting to the preserved railways using BR livery. There was at least one steam loco also in L&H livery, I seem to remember, presumably a BR standard tank, though it was a very long time ago and all I can remember is being disappointed. Jonathan

I am sure that John Lewis has answered your question in his forthcoming book from Wild Swan on GWR Siphons, now due out in May or June I understand. Jonathan

Well, nearly three months. I haven't been idle, honest. First an interesting experiment. At last year's Scalefour Crewe I met an acquaintance and we started talking about private owner wagon liveries, especially South Wales ones which were usually black with white lettering. He told me that he does his by painting the wagon side white and then using decal film for the black. I decided to try this and bought some film. I had used decal film before for black lettering on some BCR vans for the club layout but couldn't find the brand I had used, so I bought some on-line. It was much cheaper but when it came the instructions said that after the decal had been applied the object should be baked in an oven at 150 C for 15 minutes. Well, a test with some spare kit parts showed that they sagged a great deal so heating the wagon was out of the question. Anyway, I thought it was worth a try. The first two were failures as I didn't manage to get the decal flat and correctly positioned, but I then managed reasonably successfully to apply decals to both sides of a wagon. I used Microscale Microset to bed the decal down and get it to wrap around the various projections on the wagon side. Then I used matt varnish. This is the result: Seen on the partially ballasted track of the layout's "scenic" board. Reasonably successful. I have three more wagons to do but shall need to reprint the decals for the one which didn't work. And the other thing I have been doing is adding the magnetic coupling links to the vehicles which had never had them - over 100. In doing so I opened a stock box and discovered a whole batch of wagons for the local colliery including five which had never been completely lettered. These have now been lettered and here are some of them: You will notice that the three are for the same colliery but with different lettering styles. Also they are brown - they already were. The different styles are supposed to represent a small colliery which buys wagons a few at a time, sometimes second-hand, and has them lettered differently at the whim of the owner. There is even one with Nantcwmdu spelt with a double d as though it is mutated. The real reason is that I soon run out of the relevant letters on any transfer sheet. Incidentally, the load and tare lettering is from an old PC transfer sheet of Southern Railway wagon lettering. The colliery has also acquired a brakevan second hand from the Midland Railway, probably via a dealer. As usual, the photo shows up imperfections in the painting, which will have to be rectified. And apologies for the angle. The colliery branch is on a gradient bit is not that steep! Anyway, now to finish the ballasting so I can start the scenic work, and another 30 or so wagons needing their coupling links. Jonathan

That J50 in JVol4278 is making a lot of smoke. Trying to pretend it is working hard? Jonathan

Thanks both. I'll investigate. Jonathan

I am hoping that this erudite group of railway enthusiasts interested in the Lambourn Valley Railway may be able to help me. Three LVR locomotives ended up in the possession of the Cambrian Railways. I am preparing a book of Cambrian Railways drawings on behalf of the Welsh Railways Research Circle, I have a good drawing of the Hunslet locomotive but have not found any of the Chapman & Furneaux locomotives. Is anyone able to point me to one? Jonathan David

But that justifies my wagon for the fictional colliery where the lettering is differently spaced and arranged on each side - because I messed up the spacing on the first side and didn't have enough of the relevant letters to redo it. Jonathan

Oops. I meant not a Gloster wagon. J

Only not a Gloster V hanger J

So how long before Dominique is made redundant? I can't see many new jobs in the offing. Jonathan

C3719: I like the range of hats - and is that actually a jacket with a high vis shoulder area? Jonathan

Not one anyone is likely to be able to recreate on a model, except perhaps in T gauge. 15 metres long in 4 mm. And not sure a 4 mm Class 66 would cope. Jonathan

"they came over bleating and started following me" You mean you forgot to take the Sweetlick"? Jonathan

You wouldn't have taken that many photos 30 years ago. Many thanks for all the pics you post. Very informative of the current railway. But they don't make me want to model it. Jonathan

Interesting, the second recent photo of a fly-ash train. In both cases pretty long trains. A challenge to model. Jonathan

"The usual London Terminus for GWR when Paddington is inaccessible is Reading." Rather a long walk to the nearest Tube station. Seriously, are those in charge trying to drive traffic off the railway? A few years ago a way would have been found to continue using Paddington whatever engineering work was going on. I assume the change is partly because of the foolish decision by NR to ban all work near live railway lines after the incident in South Wales where its staff ignored the rules and were killed. So send people on the roads instead, where there are several deaths every day. Jonathan

I am sure J3189 is correctly captioned, but amusing that not a point in sight. Jonathan

Yep, Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley. They cut down some O8s after that. What happens when you convert a canal to a railway. Jonathan

"confused by the capital C" blame the spell chucker. But yes, the Swansea Wagon Co makes sense. An interesting wagon but a bit early for me. Amused that Canadian Redwoods are in the news today. We shall all have to add higher backscenes. Jonathan

Just a note to thank those who regularly post updates and videos on here to keep the rest of us informed. Much appreciated. Jonathan