Bernard Lamb

In my take on it the parcels siding is at the front rather than the back and I have added a loco release crossover to make a run round move for shunting possible. It works well but you need disipline to limit the amount of stock, in order not to create a blockage. It works well with two coaches and a couple of vans as tail traffic with steam power and goods trains of around 6-7 wagons.

Benard

11 hours ago, Ian Rathbone said:

Further to the valve gear discussion, as well as the rebuilt Bulleid Pacifics Maunsell’s N, N1, U, U1, W & Z  classes all had ‘backward leaning’ return cranks. These are the only examples of British locomotives that I know of. The other difference with the Bulleids is that the radius rod attaches to the combination lever below the valve rod.

 

Of course all Tony’s 3 cylinder engines should have their opposing cranks set at 120 deg rather than 90, but I won’t go there.

 

Ian R

The American built S160s are an interesting mix in respect of this point, if I understand it correctly, mainly upper but one batch lower.

Bernard

7 minutes ago, atom3624 said:

I've tried that with these 2 - thanks anyway.  I'd have to remove the pesky 4-pin plug each time as the tender screw location is right alongside the socket.  Without the plug, you can; leaving the plug in place (preferred) you cannot.

It just seems as if so many design details are excellent, but some are simply 'afterthoughts', that 'diesel fitter' thing (diesel [aka these will] fit her ... get the picture!!).

With both SWAS and W1 there's no 'slot' where the closed coupling could move into to permit closer coupling.

I've done this with quite a few locomotives, as there's 'nowhere to go'.  The other option is simply I custom make drawbar links each time (couldn't think of the correct phrase initially!).

Al.

Usually the best option.

These days I tend to do this straight away rather than mess around trying to get the supplied part to work as I require.

Bernard

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Sherry's recent experiences of HMRC are far from unpleasant, and do not bespeak grabbing every last cent. As well as owning her flat, she also owns another, in a Grade 2 listed building in a rather poor part of town. She declares the modest rental income, but has found that if she claims for works done - it was a four-figure sum in recent times - invoices and itemising are not even asked for, and the claim is allowed without question. She does reference the management company which runs the rental agreement.

That sounds about right.

I have never had figures questioned, or further documents asked for, in respect of SWMBO's self employment figures when I filled in her tax return.

HMRC presumably have an algorithm that decides that any figures that are sent in are within the typical range for the sort of work that is being done. They have a pretty good idea of what profit margin is viable for a particular type of work. If you claim a ridiculous amount as expenses then they will pick it up. If you state that your income is lower than reasonably expected they will also pick it up.

What our friend did to upset them I know not. If they did take action as he describes he must have been up to something very much out of the ordinary.

Bernard

5 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I was on a container ship field testing a containerised vertical launch SAM system. We all had to sign the official secrets act etc, which seemed stupid when the forward hatch covers were empty save for two containers, one of which had a radar radome and the other had a mushroom farm of missile cells obvious to all the container drivers and stevedores in the ports we visited and with BAE - Lockheed on the boxes.

I have come across some surprising objects  carried around in Enterprise hired white vans.😄

Bernard

My daughter and her partner went to stay with friends in Amsterdam for the New Year. They got the last train out before the cancellations started. They came back this afternoon, again without any delays. I reckon they were very lucky. As the train approached Calais everybodys phone started ringing with a general alert about high winds and floods. This was repeated on arrival in Kent. Alighting at Ashford, if that idea had been put into operation, would have been quite a welcome to England. How are these warning calls triggered?

Bernard

On 31/12/2023 at 17:16, doilum said:

I seem to recall that the miners concessionary allowance was a ton per month. Few managed to burn this full amount leading to a thriving black market in cheap coal. But that is another story.

Rather a means to top up a relatively small pension, than an iillegal activity, for many of them.

Bernard

Yes, very nice. Liliput did one in H0 many moons ago, Basically a tank version of the 01.

Bernard

14 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Maybe but I lived through the whole saga of closure here in Aylesbury there was even talk of closing to Amersham but sense prevailed     unlike with our main line north if work had been put in we would have had  a service to the north.Certainly  passenger numbers had dropped but this was because of station closures  poor services all planned to ensure that passengers went elsewhere something that BR were very good at. It is very interesting to go along the route now as HS2 progresses vast earthworks and soon trains passing at high speed if only we had the foresight back in the sixties there would be alternative lines to the north through areas of high population .But we had one of many governments that have consistently ignored our  needs at least we hopefully have a railway there will actually be of use even it does not go to the north and Scotland but never mind they will build new motorways regardless of the environment  what a world we live in .Mynext post will be about how work is progressing around Wendover.

The problem is that we now seem to be in no man's land.

With the northern section abandoned and Euston out of sight over the horizon, what is the purpose of the new line? Other than as a WCML relief route.

There was  meeting of various local interests in the Chilterns recently and they raised this question. One idea was for two new stations to be built to serve the population that the line passes through. One near Aylesbury and the other at Calvert, to link up witth the east west line. Add in, what to me should have been done long ago, a link from Aylesbury to MK, and there would be a reasonable system to cater fro the expected increase in population. Of course that would need encouragement for people to actually use the trains

Long ago Verney Junction was proposed as the new Crewe. Transport in the area has struggled ever since, because of a lack of joined up thinking.

Bernard

Before the tramway was built coal came in by barge, as it did to the earlier gas works in the town center.

The adjacent lock on the canal  near the newer works still has this sign. Well maintained even though redudant for over 50 years.

What I only learnt recently, while doing research for a talk on the local river system, was that the rails for the tram way were made by Krupp in Essen. Some lengths are still in situ.

Bernard 

On 28/12/2023 at 14:27, Bucoops said:

I've had to access to quite high security areas at times, be it HMG, HMP, RAF, and a particular favourite, USAF. 

 

Having MP5/M16/Whatever the literal weapon of choice was,  trained in your general direction whilst sniffer dogs and so on go through your vehicle (which is full of tools that could be considered weapons!) was always great for the anxiety. What cracked me up on some sites was when the person escorting me wasn't allowed somewhere but I was - "just go and fetch key number 25 from that rack over there then bring it back then we can go and open area 51 which I will have to watch through the window". Very weird.

 

I'm amazed I haven't had to sign the Official Secrets Act. 

A favouite of mine was Upper Heyford. One day, after several hours with two US Marines covering every step I took, I had finished my job, in the armoury on that occassion, hence the extra close surveilance, and was being driven back to the gate house. My civilian driver drove as near as he could to an open hangar and I got a glimpse of the stealth bomber. The story was that it had flown in the night before and the RAF did not know it was here. I asked my MOD contact and he said that we knew it was there but would not tell the Yanks that we could follow it. Allies but not exactly close friends.

I always found it interesting that different establishments had different security levels and procedures. Not always in line with the general perception of the importance of the site. 

Re your comment on who could go where. I was involved with a construction  job that had a high level of vetting. A friend of mine just happened to be installing some equipment in the same building. His Gemany boss was interested in visiting the site to see how the equipment performed in service. He was most upset when he was denied accesss.

Bernard

On 24/12/2023 at 10:36, 009 micro modeller said:

I know (Berkhamsted for instance being a good example of a smaller works), although I think my layout will be sufficiently rural that it won’t be particularly near a gasworks and will mostly take household coal.

 

 

 

Berko gas works was a long way from the station. It was served by a private tramway from the goods yard until 1955. This site was actually quite large and replaced a smaller works that was situated in the center of the  town. The coal was still delivered to the station in PO wagons right until the end of the tramway operation. House coal was usually in standard 16 tonners by then. Smaller stations bagged this, by using the drop down side door as a loading table, straight on to a flat bed lorry at this period. HC Casserley took several photographs of the gas works area. He lived just at the back of the station.

Bernard

15 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

My final opinion: It's awful. Build it if you want to learn why it's awful but make sure you can re-use the track in a better plan afterwards.

 

If you're truly interested in the hobby then spend some time understanding the basics of how the real railway worked, or works, and study other layout plans (not the rubbish on freetrackplans).

 

The most sensible post in this thread,

The solid board will be far too heavy to move. It would also need some heavy duty casters with levelling facilities. You might be able to reach across the width now, but what about in ten years time?

A simple station to fiddle yard, on a much narrower board, along the lines of various layouts by Ian Futers for example, would provide a far better start as a learning curve. Forget DCC and just use a Gaugemester Combi. A short DMU and a 37 and you can try things to your heart's content. You can also play with cheap card building kits and find out if your interest lies in that side of the hobby. Have a couple of years of fun and then look at your longer term plans based on what you have discovered. 

Bernard

17 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Don't overlook how far "Crown Immunity" extended, or was (more accurately I should say) exploited.  At a government site where I worked there had been a fatal accident some years earlier.  Nowadays the HSE would be straight on site with production stopped (and people would be prosecuted), but then they just played the Official Secrets Act card and so it was never made public, although it was a straightforward industrial accident with no security implications whatsoever.

I could name two sites that I have visited that officially were civillian training colleges. The government pumped millions into them. Eventually they were sold off, but still remained vital to government policy and continued with the same private courses as well as the advertized ones. If you had permission to be on site, then people would talk openly about various things that were going on. There were however some buildings that were strictly off limits. I am sure that any accident would have had the details hidden behind a cover story.

Bernard

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

We bought our first house from a chap who was a Safety Officer in a rather hush-hush Govt owned establishment.  If some of the electrical wiring in that house,  particularly to the garage, was any guide I'm surprised that a good chunk of 'southern England' isn't plastered with the results of a large release of the radioactive material made where he worked.

When I was involved in ultrasonic material testing, I had to attend various training courses. The chap in charge of these would use real examples for us to work on. One was to find a way of checking for corrossion on the bolts that held down the chimneys in a certain rather secret establishment. It was not possible to check these on site as the time allowed in the area made it too dangerous, due to the radioactivity level. Fortnately we came up with a probe that could check each bolt in a very short time. Back in those days such a cavalier attitude, of build it first and worry later, was fairly common, particularly so in certain sectors where nobody knew what was going on and had no means of gaining access to find out.

Bernard 

The Glasgow version.

4 hours ago, PaulG said:

 

 

WD 2-10-0 73774-99 90750-90774 ( built June-Sept 1945)

The BRDatabase notes that 73774-73783 (90750-90769) were sent to March shed in June/July 1945, presumably on construction. In June 1947 they were "in store" at Longmoor and a number of them in January 1948 were at Eastleigh Works being overhauled, where presumably they were renumbered into British Railways 907XX series.

 

The British Transport Commission purchased 533 2-8-0 and 25 2-10-0 in October 1948, which were "on paper" taken into Eastern Region stock (see Heavy Goods Engines of the War Department Vol 3 by JWP Rowledge) albeit the 2-10-0 locomotives were all allocated to Scotland, albeit 90757 was sent on loan to the Southern for a few days in September 1952 on test runs.

 

Paul

 

All very good. However Fedo is asking about the last sheds as he refers to the late crest models.

I have no information about one of them mothing to March in that period.

Bernard

2 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

That took me a while. OK once I sussed it's a Dunnock, not a Wren! 

Well done.

It might be a bit too deep for some people. As was the last time the famous tea cakes appeared in this thread.

Bernard

5 hours ago, Methuselah said:

Ditto. Yet another Americanism creeping in - that and the wretched 'Train station'. Arrgghhh.....

But ironically, Arriva buses go to the railway station in my neck of the woods.

Bernard

This turned up on facebook.

Well done all of them.

Bernard

OK let's join in.

Wishing all readers and contributors to the German section of RMweb a Very Happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year. 

If Father Christmas is reading this, a new Roco DR BR38 would be rather nice.😀

Re the photo. If you walk to the end of the right hand siding you will reach a road. Turn right and the family weekend bouse is about 200m along this road.

Bernard