jwealleans

Think you may find that's 2015, Tom. (and no, it's Corfe).

Because it's you, David, here's a train. It's not actually at Grantham, but it is on the way.

Some progress on the PBV but no photos - I'll do one tonight after I've fitted the roof. I've been busy with last minute preparations for BH - including this (poor photo on a phone). Running trials for the C1 which, it transpired, had had a gearbox problem. One of the intermediate shafts in the HighFlyer box had moved out of its locating hole at one side and was running at an angle. It has to be said that it didn't affect running forwards at all and we only found it when running backwards through pointwork. I thought I must have forgotten to Loctite it, but the spacing washer was very thoroughly attached to the shaft, so it had either failed or not run into the right places. It needed a thorough test in reverse, therefore, once sorted, but having removed the rear coupling in order to fit a Kadee, reverse running was the only available option. Here it's also testing some parcels vans with recently sprung buffers round 3' curves.

That WD looks much better in the last picture. Just as an aside, the tool holder in the prototype picture is available from 247 Developments and makes a surprising difference to the loco when fitted.

In the version I've heard, Churchill had planned what was quite a circuitous route from Waterloo (Paddington having been the official choice), but told the military officer sent to seek his approval for the plans that in the event de Gaulle predeceased him, they could depart from wherever they liked. Edit - sadly perhaps not true. Brief research on the Internet produced this: At first sight, railway geography would seem to support the myth. To get from London to Bladon, Waterloo would not be your first choice of station. The obvious departure station would be Paddington, from which a train can get to central Oxfordshire very directly. However, if the organisers definitely wanted to include a journey down the Thames, the problem is that Paddington is a long way from the river: it would be a case of a road procession from St Pauls to Tower Hill, a barge from there to the West End followed by a second road procession through Mayfair and Bayswater. Waterloo is not only almost on the riverbank, but there is a fairly direct rail route from there to Reading, where the train can join the main line from Paddington and on to Oxfordshire. Moreover, for obvious reasons the train was hauled by the locomotive “Winston Churchill”. Although the railways were nationalised in 1947, in England and Wales the former railway companies had survived as largely-autonomous “Regions” within British Railways. “Winston Churchill” was built by the Southern Railway, and in 1965 (although only a few months from withdrawal) was based at Salisbury, on the Southern Region’s lines out of Waterloo. It is probably safe to say that at that time there were no loco crew at all on British Rail who were qualified both to drive “Winston Churchill” and to drive trains from Paddington to Reading; on the other hand almost all Waterloo-Reading line steam crews would have been able to handle the engine. It is also likely that special work would have been needed to make sure that a Southern Region engine would even have been able to run on the Paddington-Reading line safely. In other words, using Waterloo solved two issues: how to get the procession from boat to train easily, and also how to ensure the right engine could be used on the train with minimal special effort. I hope the above is helpful to you. On balance, I think it is highly unlikely that the use of Waterloo was purely to annoy De Gaulle – although I can imagine that when it became apparent that Waterloo would be the most straightforward terminus to use, it would have raised a few wry smiles on the planning committee!’ (From 'Beachcombing's Bizarre History' here).

That doesn't surprise me in the slightest. They crop up very frequently in Dr Ian C Allen's photographs of the GE area and seem to have been very popular. The Hornby model is very nice and we replaced a kit built one on Thurston with one last year. They did seem to attract the dirt, though - perhaps none of the numbers were legible so no-one could tell that they were the vehicles Control kept asking about?

I did. My dad owned both your examples and I could have sworn they were both badged 'Trader'. Either way, that is what it is and fairly new as well looking at the state of it.

Nice Thames Trader flatbed under Crescent Bridge as well.

Found this one in the middle of Thirsk some time ago and Adrian Walby has kindly photographed it. It looks to me like a 6 wheeler and is still lettered 'York District' from what must have been departmental service.

No pressure, then.....

I think I'm right in saying that Tony may have built a Pro-Scale V2......

Beg pardon, M'Lud.

Were you prosecuting or defending?

Looks to me like some lateral springing arrangement. I'd be interested to see that too - it might apply equally to my B16 which has a bit of a shimmy at speed.

That rake was all fish, Tom and entirely Graeme's and Craig's work. I think almost every other fitted vehicle we had to hand went into the rake 3 pictures further back, which is the 3.35 KX - Niddrie, the 'Scotch Goods'.

Graeme KIng has posted some of his photos including a good one of the building here.

I think I'm right in saying the caps were a post war addition, or only became very common post war.

Oy!

A mockup of the warehouse has appeared, courtesy of Paul Bolton. He says it's a mockup - I say I've seen worse buildings on exhibition layouts at shows. I'm sure Robert has a photo of it. Worth pointing out that in that lovely shot of Tony's of the C1 departing north, there are 2 D & S, 1 Peter K and 3 Graeme King coaches behind the tender and you'd do very well to tell which is which. Barry, the brake van track cleaner was fine and even removed a small amount of dirt (the track was pretty clean). The CCT didn't get a run on Sunday so I'm taking it to Ormesby tonight to try out. We managed either 15 or 16 A4s in the sequence, so the platform enders at Barrow Hill are going to have to be keen and bring plenty of cheese sarnies and Vimto if they want to see all 35.

What powders are you using, Gilbert? I find the MIG ones will stick to almost anything.

Oh, come on, Gilbert, they're on the HMRS sheet. At least .3 mm high, white on a white background.... I fail to understand how you cannot have seen them. Never mind, I'm sure you'll have them all sorted by Monday. It's not as if you have a lot of locos to do.

Could we dry it out in Graeme's electric underpants?

Started something else this week after getting everything ready for this weekend. In fact, this would be fine on Grantham as well, but it's been sitting near the top of the 'to do' pile for quite some time and I finally got round to starting it yesterday. Bill Bedford GNR diagram 303 Passenger Brake Van. This diagram was 29' long as opposed to the 32' version which D & S have done. Bill's kits are always a bit of an adventure, but so far it's going together well. It runs beautifully on the sprung suspension which is designed in. No castings, as is usual - I'll see what I can round up and ask Dan Pinnock if he'll supply the rest.

Yes, or even darker. They're impregnated with coal dust. If you can get a look at it, The 4mm Coal Wagon by John Hayes will give you a thorough tour of all the internal ironwork on one of these - there's almost as much inside as out. Paul Bartlett's wagon site may help, but I suspect this type of wagon had all but gone when Paul started taking pictures. I think I'm right in saying that Vauxhall Colliery closed in 1923 so you might do well to find pictures of one of these. John Hayes does cover this very kit, though (which is where I picked up the 1923 fact, IIRC).

Not so. Alan and now Colin will both supply frames with holes instead of hornblock cutouts if you specify 'rigid' when you order them.