Fat Controller

I've not found a site for L'Obsidienne, but I did find the site for AMF87, who seem to do quite a range of bits. Look under the 'Gamme AMF' section for these. www.amf87.fr/obsidienne.htm I've had a look through for Interfrigo bits, but couldn't find any.

Just had an E-mail from Hattons to say they're in.

No idea why it's called this, but 'orpherline' is a female orphan- there's probably some sort of obscure pun involved.

Orpheline generally has a lot of second-hand (often including British-outline stuff) at reasonable prices. If you walk to the top of the street (away from the Seine), you get a view of the cutting on the approach to Gare d'Austerlitz, which is the Paris terminus that sees the most loco-hauled movements. The shop is in the same block as the RFF (French version of Network Rail) headquarters, where quite a few former colleagues have ended up.

They're not that close to Gare Du Nord- though I have walked it (and on to Gare du Lyon). Take Line 4 to Barbes Rochechouart, then Line 2 to Place de Clichy. One of the Douai shops specialises in N-gauge. Be prepared for a heart-attack when you see the prices for French N-gauge...

I had a look at my very early copy of 'Baker' to see if there was anywhere in Essex that might have taken alumina from Burntisland, but there was nothing really obvious. Two possibilities come to mind:- Might it have been used in the manufacture of high-alumina cement, in which case the cement plants around Thurrock and Greys could be a destination? Could it have been intended for Norton Abrasives at Welwyn Garden City? Not Essex, I know, but relatively close.

I suspect 'dried hydrate' might be 'slaked' (hydrated) lime, which has been dried to allow it to flow more easily. I'd always thought that the modified grain hoppers were for lime traffic from Dowlow or Hindlow? A lot of the lime traffic wasn't for industrial use, I believe, but for use in water treatment plants- presumably in those where the water running into reservoirs is relatively acidic.

Last things first- Paul Bartlett's the man as usual:- http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c50309.html They were always painted bauxite, but received an extra coat of paint, so kept their colour better than some. Traffic carried was fine powder of various types (but not cement), including lime, glass-making sand. Unloading was by air, as with the Presflos. Amongst places they operated from were Whitehaven, Peak Forest, Chelford and Oakamoor. I think the last went in 1978 or thereabout. It was unusual to see more than a handful in a train, unlike the Presflos.

To further muddy the waters... The box is not an ISO one, but one of the original Freightliner bottom-lift ones. I thought these had gone by the mid-1970s. I would suggest that the van could have appeared like that from about 1974- the application of TOPS coding had already started by then on the WR, and this van would probably have originally come from the Western on the original ABN service from Bristol to Glasgow. The crane at Elgin survived in use into fairly recent times, largely for transhipping containers for various MoD establishments in the area.

A lovely shot which I don't recollect seeing before- I wonder where it was taken? The crane will be available next year from Corgi, I note from the John Ayrey site:- http://www.ayrey.co.uk/reframe.asp?itemdet.asp?itemid=648008&id=130 That trailer in the background is one of those intended to carry things like large sheets of plate glass, isn't it?

Thanks for that, Dave- who'd have thought it? A rail-connected false teeth factory- it sounds like something from the Goon Show. I'm suprised they got through enough to justify wagon-load delivery, though. Look forward to that book; if it's to the same standards as your previous works, it should be a good 'un.

It's almost certain that china clay would have been taken by coastal shipping to the Mersey, and thence onward by narrow-boat via the Trent and Mersey canal. I can't think, offhand, of any older pot-banks that had rail connections (Wedgewoods at Barlaston did have a private siding, but that was fairly modern), but many of the bigger ones were situated near either the Trent and Mersey or Caldon canals, and had wharfs on them. Uses for paper filler and scouring creams are fairly recent, whilst most non-bone-china would have used local clay (even now, the ceramic industry probably uses more kaolin for glazes than for ware-making, I believe), so exports of kaolin outside Cornwall would not have been on the scale of more recent times.

Any idea of what industry used it there?

This was china clay for use as a filler for coated papers (some was also used by detergent plants around Warrington for certain well-known cleaning products)- for many years, this has probably been the biggest market for kaolin. It went to paper mills in the North-West (Blackburn area) and also various locations in Scotland- routeing was via the Settle and Carlisle, I believe. It didn't cease, so much as go over to air-braked stock working in Speedlink trains; look out for the Tullis-Russell hoppers going to Markinch and the high-sided opens (Standard Railcar/RLS) working to Corpach. Other clay was latterly conveyed as slurry in tank wagons. When Speedlink stopped, Tiger Railcar, who leased wagons to some of the customers, stepped in and ran a block train themselves. More recently, wagons have been conveyed by Enterprise services- I believe there is still traffic to PD Stirling at Mossend, and possibly other locations, whilst there are still block trains of slurry from Antwerp to Irvine. These replaced block trains from Cornwall a few years ago.

No- they're used for short-term traffic flows, such as coal to Clitheroe or Penyfford cement works from various locations, contaminated sand from Truro to Humberside, coal for blending between various sites in South Wales and other similar traffic. I don't believe they're used that often in engineers' workings, as the high sides make loading from below track level difficult, and tempt people to overload them. This is why numbers were cut down to give the lower-sided MFA, which I believe Bachmann also make.

SNCF use double-deck stock, both self-propelled and push-pull fitted, throughout France. I can recommend the upper deck on runs like St Lazare to Rouen, and on the TGVs down the Rhone corridor. They are used widely on some Paris suburban services, but have to have longer dwell-times at stations. One thing to note is not only is most European stock higher and wider than the UK norm, but it can be wider further down, as platforms are lower. This makes designing double-deck stock much easier, as the centre floor section of the vehicle, between the bogies, can be dropped to give an extra foot or so of headroom. If you look at the DD stock that goes to Gare du Lyon on RER D, you'll see that the heads of sitting passengers on the lower deck is at about knee-level to people on the platform...

Were the Park Royals transferred to cover Swindon sets being sent off for asbestos stripping? I'm certain I remember seeing one at Llanelli during the period in question.

Didn't some of the Ashford ones end up at Sellinge for a while? I'm sure I saw one in the distance when I drove past once. The site of the former 'Ashford Steam Centre' (Ashford shed, in the fork of the Canterbury and Dover lines) is currently being developed as a housing estate- they will have a magnificent view of the underside of the CTRL viaduct! Not a place to live if you're a light sleeper.

Not just Mk1 stock, either- some Bulleid stock also travelled north, whilst some Thompson stock was sent to Paddington - Birkenhead services to release Mk1 stock.

As a slight aside, I believe NCL/Lynx retained trailers with Scammell couplings into the days when all the Fords and Bedfords had been replaced by Volvo FL7s- they were used for contract-hire deliveries to Woolworths and M&S, who had some very restricted accesses. There were certainly some working in the North-East when we lived there in the 1980s.

I think a few Toad B did last in departmental service until quite late- I'm sure I've seen photos of one somewhere, but I couldn't find one in the usual place.

These are Medfits:- http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c87052.html Parkside do a model. They're a type that didn't spend long in revenue use, but lasted in departmental use into the 1980s- there were a couple of the 'Pooley' ones rotting away in Pinnox sidings, Longport, until fairly recently. The van looks as though it could be the same length as the wagons, in which case it's probably one of the original design of LNER brake that Mainline used to model. Doing routine work, even when closure was imminent, was a feature of many of the nationalised industries- indeed, the arrival of the painting gang was often regarded as a portent. Part of it was probably due to the principle that, once money was budgetted to a certain project in a given year, then it had to be spent, or the following year's budget would be reduced by a corresponding amount. There was no possiblity of saving that money for the following year, or using it on another project without masses of paperwork.

The traffic was handled at Salkeld Street at the time- when this was closed, it went to Deanside Transit, I believe. The black livery was being applied to former NCL lorries at this time, with rebranding as 'Lynx'; some tractor units for Railfreight contracts were finished in 'Railfreight Red'.

Ian, Just bought 'Heyday of the Hydraulics' which has quite a few photos of 'Hymek' hauled workings:- 10/06/1968 D7046 with 6 on as 09:50 Cardiff- Portsmouth Both end vehicles (BSK?) are maroon, the rest blue and grey, and the train has a RMB as 4th vehicle. 26/10/1971 7007 with 6 on as 09:15 Cardiff- Portsmouth- one end vehicle is a BG, and there is no buffet. 10/04/1970 7096 with 6 on- BG and no buffet.

The late sixties did see Swindon Intercity units on this run. There was also a Saturday working with a 33/0 and loco-hauled stock- this may have worked from further east than Pompey- which I saw at STJ. In the early seventies, it was almost always Hymeks- the train sometimes including a Stanier BG- going over to 31s in 1974/5. Someone with a sense of humour in Control sometimes substituted a DEMU for this- I remember the pained expression on my then girlfriend's face when she alighted after travelling from Soton to Bristol, having used a compartment with no access to a toilet. The 31s were sluggish in the extreme, but this did at least extend the time for fond farewells when the train left Temple Meads.....