talisman56

According to my Mallaband, official allocations to depots started 1st October 1972 and 7830 was allocated to Brighton. Durnsford Road (Wimbledon) did not have an allocation of 4VEPs at this point, all Veps on SW lines were allocated to Bournemouth (7701-20/30-38/40/43-49) or Fratton (7800-24). AFAIR 7830 was outshopped in July or August and may have been seen on SW lines between then and 1st October...

My, you were pedalling fast, then - I could never get mine to 60 in under 70 seconds...

Nice loco shed. I thought I read somewhere that Kew Gardens was missing a Greenhouse... :jester:

The wielder of the walking stick being in front of, or behind the layout?

The four corner squares will be 'single decker bus on bridge', 'double decker bus on bridge', 'coach on bridge' and 'charabanc on bridge'.

Most exhibitions open to the exhibitors for a couple of hours prior to the opening for the great unwashed to enable layout setup, etc. At Nailsea we also open on the Friday afternoon for the same purpose. Nothing is guaranteed to get on an Exhibition Managers nerves than a space where a layout should be less than an hour to opening time... As CJF said in one of his layout books: "... Nothing is more calculated to send an exhibition manager crazy than to discover that an exhibit he was assured was 16ft long now needs 18ft because the builder has added a bit to improve the model. It is a well known fact that those who offend in this fashion also turn up half an hour before the show opens with the bland assurance that 'it only takes 15 minutes to be up and running!' Then they wonder why they're never asked again." I'd rather turn up two hours before the show opens, get everything set up and tested, then if there's time, take a browse around the trade stalls for a few bargains...

Yes.

I have always felt that the function of joiners are to keep the track aligned correctly, and let them do that, regardless of their other function in maintaining electrical continuity or otherwise. In that I differ in opinion of the worth of the plastic joiners. All my track sections have individual feeds...

I use Peco Code 55 electrofrog points and lay them straight out of the box, with the addition of a wire soldered to the frog assembly powered from the switch on a SEEP PM-1 motor (belt and braces method). Insulated rail joiners are a must on the ends of the frog rails. No shorting issues and if the blade contact goes iffy then the frog wire ensures continuous power supply.

Looks like a shadow from the tensioning weights on the adjacent knitting support post...

Nip down to Clevedon on 7th December and you can do so! 'Dunestone' (such as it is) will be there, amongst other member's own layouts and a couple of the club layouts...

Having downloaded "Bullock's patented scale model relative velocity calculator" and adjusted it for 'N' scale and the distance to be travelled, any train entering the visible section of 'Dunestone' over the 20mph limited station approach pointwork should take approx. 9 seconds from tunnel mouth to bufferstops. I might have to put up a note to that effect...

The switch from series to parallel was part of the normal acceleration sequence. I found the following paragraph on the National Preservation forum from 'twofnine' that indicates the procedure (my emphasis): We honestly believe that constant use of a 400 on that branch, would burn the resistances out eventually, and eventually burn the motors out. The CEPs, CIGs, and the VEPs have a Normal and Series switch in the Driving Cab. And that is the only time the switch was ever used on the Folkestone Branch. It gave us full series, and the speed up from the harbour was not much more than 10 mph, and upon arrival at the east; the resistances were very hot. They had of course cooled down after departure on route to Victoria getting into Weak Field.

J6898 4VEP 7774 - when I was doing my commuting in the early 70s that was a Brighton unit. IIRC I recorded it as a substitute for a 4CIG on a London-Brighton non-stop three times in a fortnight...

"Standby to repel boarders!"

...and the Spanish, Dutch, Scots, Welsh and Irish...

I think we should be getting out of the EU ASAP - not only are they messing about with many aspects of our lives, they now have introduced a new measurement system without our knowledge or authorisation...

In the case of the second listed, could they not also add the extra 2 miles to any new station at Portishead?

Thank you, thank you, thank you - for both the tip about the SFGBs and the hint about the Amazon reviews - the former I shall keep in mind for that 'just in case' event, the latter I shall peruse when I feel in need of a belly-laugh...

The pull-push sets were made from high-window BCKs and drop-window Open Seconds...

The 'blue and grey coach' looked like a DMU driving power car undergoing restoration...

The headroom on the bridge in Lock Street must be about 6ft - no wonder it's closed to vehicles...

I take it that you were imbibing the Guinness then?

I would 'accidentally' knock the wipers on and they'd retreat fairly quickly...

That's quicker than it takes the local garage to do two wheels on the car!! Obviously not on an hourly rate...