phil_sutters

It's a cropped version of that photo appears in PO Wagons of Somerset. Now you have the evidence, photographic and dimensional, you can decide whether a slightly stretched version of my one will do, or whether to start from scratch!

I think that although it is described as being built at Highbridge, the design looks very close to the Midland Railway Diagram D407, shown in Peter Tatlow's Historic Carriage Drawings - volume 3. That is what I laid the lettering over. Before everyone gets too carried away, I do not claim to have reproduced the lettering 100% accurately. I used Arial bold, but 'simplified' the text in Photoshop Elements and then squeezed or stretched the sections to fit the layout seen in the photo, which is at an angle. I also made a simplified version of the shading. If someone wants to put this livery into production I would suggest that they go back to the source photo and work up their own version. I am happy with mine for my purposes, but I wouldn't want to be responsible for pre-grouping layouts across the land having inaccurate models running on them.

It's a thought, but I'll see how it goes and what it looks like. I am not a finescale modeller by any means. I don't think that there is a ready-made MR 25ft CCT even in kit form, so it would mean scratch building the body and converting a chassis.

As I have drafted it using the sources I declared as a starting point, I guess I own the copyright, although when one uses someone else's work in the mix, as with Peter Tatlow's original drawing, it is difficult to know what the legal status is. I have no objection to its use. I do have versions without the drawing underneath it should that be needed. The blue may well need to be darkened for printing. This shade gets darkened when printed by my online photo processor. How it looks to you depends on the brightness of your computer screen.

The LNWR weren't the only ones. This is one that I have started to develop from a photo in PO wagons of Somerset by Richard Kelham, using a shortened Parkside LMS CCT as the basis. The drawing under the blue has been adapted from one in Peter Tatlow's Historic Railway Carriages - Vol.3. I have made one false start and am making some revisions to the construction. Any member of the gentry, landed or otherwise could order a car with custom-built body work from any builder anywhere in the country, so this could turn up on any pre-1924 layout. The van was built by the S&DJR in 1908/9 and Fuller's stopped making custom bodies in 1924, although they continued as a motor car distributor. The S&DJR built it on the basis that they could use it when not needed by Fullers. I have had the sides and ends printed as standard 7.5" x 5" photo prints. The shade and scale were my notations to gauge how the size and colour were printed. I know that I have to brighten my photos before printing because my current screen is brighter than my previous one and what I send to the printers (Photobox) comes out darker than I see it on screen. I sent off several variations of size and colour to assess the best one. Detailing will be added on top of the printed surfaces - e.g. door furniture, strapping on the end doors and handrails. There are rivets through the side panels, just above and between the two lower lines of lettering. I haven't shown these, although there are one or two black dots which I think come from the origial drawing and don't correspond with those on this vehicle.

Burnham and District MRC had a lengthy series of often imaginary PO and company wagons they commissioned as fund-raisers for a variety of charities. They had a pale blue Cromer Crab and Fish van. Their range now no longer available, barring one or two remainders, can be seen on their site, with archived series on the right with rather low-key 'buttons'

Hi Roger I guess that being a member of the site means that I access it differently. I have created a new album with Dad's Hereford photos. I think I have found all of them, but will add any that I find I have missed if and when any turn up. I hope that this will take you there. http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/album/1274428 Once in my albums, you should be able to see others, should you want to. Click on 'Railways including tramways' under 'Hereford' in the album title. Linking to a search result obviously doesn't work for a visitor to the site. Best wishes Phil

Having unearthed the little print of Herr Krause and his sailplane among pre-WW2 family photos, I decided to find out who Krause was and why the crowd was so large. The answers can be found in this archived magazine 'special progamme' edition https://www.sailplaneandgliding.co.uk/archive-item/souvenir-programme-sailplane-glider-approx-1931 Our family interest comes from my great-uncle Percy's enthusiasm for the sport, so I have added a couple of photos of him and his glider, which was a bit more basic.

Hi Roger Assuming the link was the one I get when I click on the link above, the bulk of the photos are by my late father, John Sutters, who grew up in Hereford. The rest are from other enthusiasts who use the ipernity photo-sharing site and who have photos taken in Hereford. Best wishes Phil

As a youngster I used to pick blackberries, which were collected by greengrocer, Mervyn Knight, whose shop was by the S&DJR level crossing over the A39 in Highbridge. He, I understood, sold them on for dye making. Later in life, for domestic and fund-raising jam-making, my family and I used to pick blackberries in Camberwell Old Cemetery. You could stand in one spot and almost fill a 1 litre ice-cream tub. We liked to describe our delicious bramble jam as full-bodied.

The good old Airfix/Dapol church could make quite a reasonable representation of Litlington church, albeit with random stone rather than flint. The spire would need to be added. It starts as square and then transitions to octagonal - a bit tricky to get right. I know as I made a 1/32 (+/-) scale model of our church, for the Sunday school, and it has a similar spire.

For a tour of the Cuckmere valley may I recommend the Cuckmere Rambler bus, which runs a circular route from Seaford Library (or Morrisons) both within a few minutes walk of Seaford station, down to Exceat, alight for the Seven Sisters Country Park visitors' centre, on via Litlington, Lullington, and Wilmington to Berwick railway station and then back to Seaford via Alfriston & High & Over. The scenery is delightful and there are some beautiful old Downland churches along the route. The service resumes after its winter break on 30th March. It runs hourly on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The buses are driven by volunteers, but it is a public service bus - route 47, so OAP passes are accepted - should you have one. https://www.cuckmerebuses.org.uk/47.htm By the way, place no reliance on the South Downs National Park for bus information. E.g. they show the 13X Brighton to Eastbourne as hourly, 9 times a day, daily. During the summer from June to early-September is is daily but with only three buses each way at three & a half or four hour intervals. Out of season it runs on Sundays and Bank holidays only, at the same intervals, except for the Easter weekend when it does run hourly. Given that they are supposed to be promoting the use of public transport to and though the Park, I find their reluctance to update their travel information very disappointing. I have had several run-ins with them on the subject. Sorry to mention buses but unfortunately the LBSCR never made it down the Cuckmere valley, although it crossed the river a bit to the east of Berwick station.

Work is apparently under way to build a new road bridge over the railway east of Newhaven Harbour station to help the development of the East Quay area, which was the location of the western end of the beach tramway. When a new footbridge replaced an old concrete SR bridge, that had been supported by a wooden trestle for a number of years, I was surprised to see how wide the stairs and central span were. One could walk across about five abreast, although the path on the seaward side was a very narrow mud-track. Now I realize that this was in readiness for the developments. I am surprised that the cost of a bridge with its approach roads can be justified, with only two trains each way per hour, with one or two additional ones at rush hours. Currently East Quay is served by a level crossing just east of the Harbour station. The traffic is all low speed due to security checks at the docks entrance, so that aspect of crossing safety doesn't really apply.

Be aware that the Environment Agency have been looking at proposals that the shingle bank at Cuckmere Haven will not be artificially reformed and that potentially the valley could be flooded up to the A259 crossing. Seaford's shingle bank defences are rebuilt twice a year with huge caterpillar shovels, dumper trucks and bulldozers shifting shingle from the ends to the middle of the beach. It could be that Cuckmere's four cottages don't warrant the expense. This is the area that could be inundated. The cottages can just be seen to the right of the sea on the horizon. The narrow gauge shingle extraction railway, I believe, followed the path shown at the bottom of the picture.

You could put a pitched roof and brick gable ends on to get something like this on Burgess Hill station.

There are a couple of photos of M&C trains in J E Kite's 1850 ~ 1925 Vintage Album - 0-4-2 No.4 on a passenger train and 0-4-2T No. 18 shunting goods stock - both at Carlisle.

While taking a line south from the line between Berwick and Polegate would be more or less on the level, making an extension from Seaford station eastwards would involve crossing the part of the South Downs that ends at Seaford Head. The A259 takes the easiest route into the Cuckmere valley, dropping from 47 metres to 5 metres in a kilometre - an average of 1 in 25 - steeper in the middle. Your route crossing the Downs south of the Alfriston road would have to climb to at least 60 or 70 metres from Seaford station, near sea-level and that is the easy bit. The drop into the Cuckmere valley is very steep indeed. On the line you are showing you drop from 70 metres to sea/river level in 600 metres. High & Over is called that for a reason! You can see where the ridge of the Downs lie on your map. They are the darker green shades. An OS map with contour lines will show what your navvies would have to contend with in more detail. For those who don't know the area I will add some photos. I don't know what the pre-grouping farming practices were, but there are a fair number of cows up and down the valley now.

In the bowels of the earth below Brighton station lie these treasures!

I knew I had seen one among Dad's photos. although it is in the BR period I don't have any details of the date or location as this was a loose negative. As I haven't digitized his spotting books, and given the quantity I am not likely to, I can't use that resource, but my guess that it is in mid-Wales or the Marches. Sorry that my only example is so horribly post-grouping!

I can only see what you can, but it does look as though that is the case. The further set of coaches seems to have a tail lamp on it. Local trains on the S&D whether on the Bath to Templecombe line or the Somerset Central were often two or three coaches, with whatever motive power was available.

These all look unlined under the grime!

Thanks to having to search through the new-look website (and consequently stumbled upon this thread) and because I can't refer you to these photos in my now-vanished gallery, here are Dad's only three photos of the tramway. I realize that they are a bit early for you, but thought that they might be of interest.

If they are of any interest, I have tagged my father's photos taken in Hereford with 'railways in Hereford' on my photosharing pages at the ipernity website, as the RMweb galleries seem to have vanished. You should be able to go there straight from here - http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/album/1274428 You can see a shot of our vicarage layout here - http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/26452663/in/album/512733

I rather like these that were revealed at Richmond station http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/rail/richmond-station-old-railway-posters.htm