Fat Controller

And there's me thinking Heath-Robinson was British! It looks like something the school groundsman would get out if it had been raining all week and there was an important match on Saturday...

Those milk tanks look just as I remember them on the Whitland- Kensington workings in the early 1970s. I wonder if one of the etching suppliers might be persuaded to do some of the various combinations of ladders and platforms which were a characteristic feature of these wagons?

It's a very early Matissa tamper, isn't it? A bit more primitive than the current types...

According to the plan in 'Great Western Stations, Volume 2', Torquay had a middle siding, a loop, which lasted as such until 1965. After this, it became a single-ended siding, accessed from the Down end. Neath (not S W England, I know) had a through road with a double-slip at the Up end, with access from both Up and Down Main part way along its length. The part of this siding between the platforms lasted until 1967, though the section beyond the double slip was taken out-of-use a few years earlier. What was the arrangement at Frome? I believe this kept the Brunel roof until recently; indeed it may still be there.

Owens operate a national logistics service, so you see their lorries all over the shop- we even get them through the Channel Tunnel. Their base is in Dafen, Llanelli, but they have a depot at Corporation Road, Newport, which is a stone's throw from where your layout seems to be based. If you want more gen on them, have a look at:- http://www.owens-logistics.com/default.aspx Mind you, from what I saw of the queueing lorries at CELSA last week, you could have vehicles from all over Europe. Sadly, Llanelli hasn't had a steelworks since the days when Phil Bennett, Derek Quinell and Ray Gravell played for Scarlets- all that's left of the steel industry there is Trostre tinplate works. The rest's a park and a golf course now.

Excellent work, Merfyn- duly added to my Favourites list. One or two surprises for me- the four-axle mobile crane at Wolverhampton being one. The other was of a Ford Cargo hauling containers out of Pengam- I didn't think they were rated for anything that heavy.

Nice work. The 'RR' refers to Round Oak Rail, I think, being the West Midlands terminal that many of these wagons work to- there were some in the hybrid VTG/Tiphook livery which had 'Local' in the same position, which worked between Llanwern and Newport Docks. These wagons never seem to work to and from the Continent anymore- all the export/import traffic has gone over to the SNCF wagons.

Looks like one to me- bet LMR Control were wondering where it had got to.

Probably worked over on iron-ore trains from Northamptonshire or Leicestershire for East Moors (Cardiff)

The four vans seem to have been allocated to specific workings in their early days:- 1397 Faringdon and Cricklewood (3/38) Frome and Cricklewood (8/37) Ealing and Cricklewood (2/40) 1399 Lavington and Cricklewood (10/31) Frome and Cricklewood (5/37) 1400 Return to Stratford upon Avon (5/47) Information from the HMRS book on Siphons. 1399 is preserved on the Severn Valley Railway.

Until the beginning of the 1960s, the WR had three purpose-built brake vans for milk trains. After that, ordinary passenger full-brakes would have been used- during the period in question, they would probably have been older Collett 57' ones, as the Hawkesworth and Mark 1 stock would have been used for front-line passenger work. Another possibility would have been either 6-wheel Stove Rs (ex-LMS- available from Hornby Magazine/Dapol soon)) or SR Van B (Ratio kit) or Van C (Hornby)- these all had the advantage of having stoves to keep the guard cosy, in the event of steam-heating being unavailable.

Have you thought about using MJT compensating W-irons ( http://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt.php#SuspensionSystems-WagonCompensationUnits ) ref 2297? I've done this with quite a few of the Cambrian air-braked wagons; it certainly improves running, but don't fit Bachmann split axle wheels sets as I did on one....

I wonder where they were going? I remember, towards the end of the 1960s, the then Llanelli Steel Company bought two BR Hunslets of this type, along with an 0-4-0 version and a handful of 03 shunters, to replace their steam locos. BSC Landore (formerly RT&B Landore) had a couple of 0-4-0 North British shunters- one is now preserved, I think. They weren't terribly reliable, IIRC. There were a few other of their industrial types south of the border I believe.

The Langley model of the Chaseside is of a later (late 1950s) version- it's slightly less 'Heath Robinson' in conception. My dad had one when I was a kid- it was already obselete in comparison with the Drott tracked loader and the early hydraulic shovels, which is probably how he got it cheap...

Sorry about that- I was thinking back to O-level geography, which was a very long time ago.

I'm surprised the neighbours haven't nicked that... Though these pipes are obviously gash,there are often 4" lagged steam pipes on similar structures in industrial plants of all sorts. These should have 'steam traps' at intervals which blow the condensate out. I'll be down for Wales- Australia in early November. 'Old A'? B

I wouldn't think that pipeline would still be in use- it would have been used to carry either 'producer gas' from the blast furnaces or 'town gas' from the coke ovens for use in reheating ingots for rolling or similar purposes, so it would have been redundant when these bits of East Moors closed. You wouldn't find that large a pipe carrying liquid on such spindly supports either, or at such a height- they tend to sit on concrete and brick saddles, just clear of the ground. I presume AS&W kept the pipe-run in place because it was either too expensive to demolish, or because it served as a support for cable-runs between different sites.

Cardiff Tidal was/is the BR yard alongside the Celsa plant. I suspect the propelling move with a van was a Llanwern to Birdport coil train- Birdport being a new terminal which has been constructed over the East Usk branch east of Newport. The line to Uskmouth/ Fifoots Point power station runs through the unloading shed. Steel trains are propelled along the branch in one direction, there being no loop at Birdport, hence the need for a brake van at the opposite end of the train to the loco.

Lyon had trolley-buses, electro-diesel buses and diesel buses with identical bodies, built by Berliet (later Renault Industrial Vehicles). The electro-diesel ones would use the overhead until they arrived in the outer suburbs, then revert to diesel. They were sufficently similar for the driver of one I was travelling on to try and overtake another on one of the main routes- he'd forgotten he was running on electric. Sadly, most of the urban routes seem to have been replaced by trams in recent years.

I just happened upon this set of photos on Paul Bartlett's other site:- http://paulbartlettsotherrailwayphotos.fotopic.net/c1820179.html Some interesting trailers on there- any idea on the 'livestock' one, Merfyn?

As has been mentioned on here in one of the previous incarnations of the site, a number of Hawksworth coaches (corridor 2nds?) were retained until the back end of the 1960s, as they they had wider compartment doors, and so could be used to stow refreshment trolleys. At least one made it into blue and grey, and was photographed as the lead vehicle in the Cornish Riviera in 1968 or 1969- the photo's in 'Heyday of the Warships', IIRC.

I was going to upgrade my 92 in similar fashion, but it's gone on to long-term loan to the chaps who maintain them for Europorte2. If anyone's tempted to try an upgrade, I would suggest contacting East Kent Models, or one of the other specialist Hornby spare parts specialists, and just buying the bits required. The part numbers can be found by going to the relevant 'Service Sheet' page on the Hornby web-site.

Whilst I would agree that the Dapol wagon represents a wagon built to Berne gauge, rather than to the more restrictive UK one, there were wagons to a similar design introduced for 'Ferry' traffic in the late 1950s- these lasted into the 1970s, when the type shown on Paul Bartlett's site were introduced. Apart from the body shape - 'square' end on the earlier ones and sloping roof ends on the later ones- the doors were larger on the later vehicles, to facilitate loading pallets, whilst the refrigeration system was changed from one based on melting ice in roof compartments to an electric one using axle-driven generators. The majority of wagons were Italian-registered, but I believe there were also some Spanish-registered ones, operated by Transfesa and painted silver. Page 85 of 'Working Wagons, Volume 1' by David Larkin has a photo of a Belgian-registered example ( though intended for through working to Iberia)- the facing page shows an even earlier style, with an apex-roof and ice hatches in the sides, registered by FS (Italy)in 1949.

Jon, I could have a go if you like- shame they haven't got E-mail/web site, isn't it?

Just found this photo on Ernie's site showing a chocolate and cream Hawkesworth on a very secondary service...:- http://railwaysofcornwall.fotopic.net/p64054547.html