roythebus

The kit arrived today, there's 13 pages of instructions to read through first...about 50 pictures, and a lot of parts. I would reckon about 15 hours to complete the kit, plus a bit more for painting it, but I may be wrong.

Reviving this old topic, a banker was always at the rear of a train and in certain circumstances would bot be coupled to the train, it would just buffer up and push; when it got to the top of the hill it would drop back, give a whistle code to let the driver on the train engine(s) know it was clear and they could carry on. A pilot engine on the front would of necessity be coupled! Whether the brake pipes (if fitted) would be coupled would again be down to local instructions! It could be that an unfitted LMS 0-6-0 could assist a passenger train, in which case the 2nd loco would be the "train engine" as that driver would control the brake. If the leading loco was brake fitted, that would become the "train engine" as the driver had control of the brake. The instances of that happening today I can think of are on heritage railways when an air braked only loco is "on loan". for instance, the Isle of Wight 02 is air-braked only. When it went to Swanage it worked with the DEMU as that was air-braked so no problem. When it worked vacuum braked stock, it was coupled to the front of the train engine and in effect assisted the train engine as that driver would have control of the vacuum brake. Similarly one of the Island Army locos is vacuum fitted and has an air brake pump and air brake valve, but the air brake does not work on the loco. So it can work either, but when it's working on the island, is always a "swinger" inasmuch as the loco brake does not work with the air brake. Complicated huh?

The K&ESR is closed as from now, having cancelled the Mothers' Day services; Spa Valley also closed. The KESR says in its internal memo that the finances are sound enough to weather the storm this time and will re-open as soon as it's safe to do so.

No, the jumpers are in the wrong place.

With coaching stock, generally if it had a Pullman style corridor connection it had a buckeye coupling. So did A4 corridor tenders.

I've just ordered one of the kits, I don't know how long it will take to build so couldn't put a price on it yet. the kit is £52.20

There's a village in Belgium called Graid Station. And yes, it still has a station. Re Berkswell, my cousin owns Berkswell windmill if anyone's passing that way.

I've got a decent Bachmann original blue Warship with the Lima style can motor but the gears are badly worn. does anyone have a decent motor bogie going spare? Either that or I've got a blue Warship non-runner for grabs... Pity the body is not interchangeable with the later flywheel motored chassis.

There's also Klondyke sidings at Neasden Met depot; "The Alps" at Neasden, Upminster and Ealing Common are the raised dead-end sidings round the back of the depot usually used for dumping dead stock.

"The Volunteer" was a siding on the up side south of Wimbledon. Story is that it was used to load volunteers going off to the Boer War. You can still see the site of it (the siding that is).

Deffo Sandling Junction. The Folkestone & Hythe MRC has a superb layout of Hythe in OO gauge.

Before the advent of mechanical handling most things would have been piled on nets or sheets and lifted by crane. See any pictures of London's docks to see how ships were unloaded.

I just wish I'd had a decent camera when I was secondman at Rugby in 1974!

Rye to Ore possibly? single track with double track width.

I've just found a pair of Trix AL1 bogies, one with motor, the wheels have plastic inserts to represent the internal springing, but missing the side frames. Also an AL1 body converted to look like an AL6. anyone interested?

Rummaging through my box of bits, I've got an EMU motor coach body if anyone needs one. It's missing the ends and roof, but they may well be around somewhere else. Also 2 coach underframes.

I've not been following all this thread but my views expressed elsewhere are that HS2 is necessary to ease congestion on the WCML. It has been badly presented as a new high speed railway; I think had i been promoted as a conventional railway with high speed facility, say 125mph, it would have been more acceptable. Just promoting the 20 minutes shaved off the journy time from A to B just doesn't seem to wash any more. But you just can't seem to get that point across to people at all. My cousin lives near the line of route and owns the historic Berkswell Windmill, so is rightly concerned as to how HS2 would affect her historic building. My younger son is one of the "tree huggers" as part of XR. XR need to be educated as to the benefits of any railway line. A lot of railway people support their aims and views, but NOT when it comes to interfering with the environmentally friendly transport trying to save the planet!

Probably carriage turntables, they seemed to abound in the 1800s. Kings Cross and euston had then when originally built.

Try a small grinding disc to remove the errant solder in case it's weld!

I've asked Dave Mulpeter, he was a driver at Brighton and later area manager at Lewes around that time.

I have an ioW 02 and it will happily pull 6 mk1s round my rather undulating layout/test track, but I think i may have put some additional lead weight under the chassis.

There's some sensible views on here from the professional railwaymen. This topic was discussed on the FB "Lost Boys" group, a group of drivers and secondmen from 1968-1988, the last of the traditionally trained locomen. They were amazed that this has been dropped from the rule books as indeed I was. It would seem that the unfortunate victim also ignored what should be Rule 1 in every Railway Rule Book, NEVER assume anything! He was apparently a man with quite a bit of seniority, maybe just outside the "Lost Boy" era. There was a lot of questioning what gap you should leave when walking between trains. 50'-60' some said, others 6'. the trouble is as others have said, when you're working on the ground as aprt of the job, not going to or from "the job" there is often no walking route. That's where the 6 foot rule used to come into play except when going between to couple or uncouple. It's a rule on heritage railways that a loco should sound the whistle or horn before every movement, but the nimbys have put paid to that on the big railway. The other rule we have is the written 60' between stationary vehicles. Remember the guard who was killed on the NYMR? He had sufficient gap but the loco unexpectedly went back onto the train!

Thanks for that David. I was secondman at Rugby at the time of that and the Nuneaton crash but don't remember much about either of them except the 86 down the bank at Watford.

RTT was useful a couple of weeks ago when the Flying Razor Blades was moved to Alton. Someone on local radio hear dabout it passing through Farnham, so a quick look on RTT and a phone call to BBC local radio showed the other caller had about 10 minutes to get to Farnham to see it. It took an odd route, not via the main line from Woking as expected, but Guildford, across the branch to Aldershot, then Alton with a long-ish break at Farnham for some reason. I think it went via Clapham Junction, East Putney and the District to Wimbledon for good measure, or maybe via Staines and Weybridge.

I use one Tortoise motor to work both ends of crossovers using their wire and tube method. It's a bit fiddly but saves quite a bit of money.