roythebus

I used to use Triang lubricating oil in the smoke units. But does anyone remember the adverts on the Railway Modeller where it had the words PUFF PUFF arranged in an inverted triangle coming ou of the chimney of a loco?

It would seem that Mk3 and 4 stock as well as Pendolinos have performed very well in crashes over the years with regards to coupling integrity. The buckeyes are a lot to do with that.

In Europe the DB trains from Germany lower the pan running in to the NS station at Eindhoven. A KoF shunter takes the DB loco off into a siding and places it ready for the next run to Germany. Similarly the NS loco will drop the pan to be towed out. The station sections are switchable from 1500vDC to 16.6kvAC. There's also a lot of swing or lifting bridges in Holland without catenary.

It was possibly me who mentioned it. I was 2nd man to a Rugby driver, 1975, working an up express. He shut off for the neutral section at Kings Langley, opened up but got no power. The line light was still on and the compressors were running, air kept up. We were doing <ahem) 100 at the time. I asked him if we were going to stop at Watford for assistance, he said no, we'll try for Euston. We got there without assistance albeit a bit slowly towards the end of the journey. I suspect the panel box must have realised we had a problem and gave us a clear run in. It's down hill all the way. "Modern" stock rolls quite nicely.

The Triang Mk1s were introduced in 1964 IIRC. Good models for their time as was the Brush Type 2.

The Trix/Lilliput version was introduced in about 1968, I was working in Patricks Toys in Fulham when they came in. At the time they were (and still are) excellent models despite the slightly smaller scale. They were made from new like all Trix models with a facility to fit Tri-ang couplings, presumably to try to increase their sales to Triang users. I recently bought about a dozen from various sellers on an internet auction site for a bout £6 each. They look nice as a bulk train. I'm sure I have a Hornby product which is a bit bigger than the Trix model and is on a plastic underframe.

The model shop at Woodchurch closed about 5 years ago.

£595? Maybe I should have had the foresight to have not converted mine to a 73...

I had a couple of cab rides on the YPs back in 1987, and a cab ride on the Nilgri Hills line 9steam of course).

I suspect if we remain in the EU there will be funds available for all sorts of things. Didn't the EU recently give NR a grant of £60m to resignal Cornwall? As for re-opening, back in 1973 when I became a guard at Rickmansworth, they were talking about extnding from Ricky to Watford Junction using the Watford-Ricky branch. It needed a bit of new track and a bridge. Here we are 45 years later and although work has started, it has ground to a halt because of arguments over who should pay for it. In the time it's taken to plan and build a couple of miles of track, France and Germany have built entire high speed networks. Says it all really.

If you want to see some leve; crossing stupidity, take a look at the Big Boy Comeback tour group on Facebook. Stupid Americans standing in the four foot as 500 tons of steam loco and about 1200 tons of passenger train bear down on them. Some have even placed cameras in the four foot and have made last minute adjustments... As for lineside photography, the rule over there seems to be "keep 25' from the track. Some scale it down to one foot to the millimetre. Big Boy seems to have the cylinder drain cocks an awful long time when there are people about.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, teach teachers.

Correct, the DEMUs could not work in multiple with electric stock or any locos. they can be hauled by any loco in emergency, or if used in service, hauled by an air braked loco.

I certainly worked unfitted goods when I was a secondman at Rugby in 1974/75. We had a variety of freight work, unfitted coal trains including the Southam Branch, the Rehill to "Up North somewhere" sand from Wembley to Crewe, with a change at Rugby, max speed 35mph.. Most long distance freight then was part fitted with a vacuum fitted head. Few drivers bothered with the vac brake though. On, and the Bletchley Brickliner, vac fitted with 2x25s, that was a heavy train. But then we also had the new Freightliner trains with 86s and 87s loading up to 1200 tons. I can't see how an unfitted train at 35mph would ever find a path on today's overcrowded railways!

Remember Triang also sold a kit version of the Mk1s and a few locos too under the CKD label. CKD stood for Completely Knocked Down. All you needed was a screwdriver to build them, I think they were 10/6d for 2 coaches (52.5p in new money). Trix also done their coaches and some locos in kit form as well, you could get the excellent AL1 for under a fiver. As for conversions, I think it was Chris Leigh who done a conversion to a Clacton electric in the 1962 Model Railway constructor using Triang coaches with Airfix railbus ends. The Model Railway Club has that year's MRC in their library.

Are these the wagons Trix used to make? Hornby done a modified version. From memeory of seeing a load of them at Diss in rhe mid 1960s, the Trix colour was a good match for them.

I bought one back in 1966 just after Triang took over Hornby dublo, cost me a £4/19/6d. It got cut up to make a class 73 ,amy years later as per the model Railway Constructor article. I ay still have some sideframes around for it and maybe a pantograph. I think i used the chassis later under a Triang AL1 body.

Of course. I think his name was Fred Green, ex Northampton man. Used to run a grocer shop in his spare time. Another old 'un at KX Sifd Stubbs, running into Stevenage on the down, approaching the last signal before the platform doing the ton, I reminded him we stop her..yes I know, put the air brake in and stopped on the mark! with a rising brake too. Lucky in both cases it was a dry rail.

An interesting topic. Having learnt how to use the Westinghouse brake as a guard with London Transport in 1970 I claim to know a bit about them, having used them in daily service when I became a driver at Waterloo. With the Westinghouse, they taught us that you get 3 applications then run out of auxiliary air to operate the brakes, so they took a deal of skill to work. Tales from the old boys at Waterloo were that it was possible with a 12 car Nelson to break the couplings between the last 2 units due to the differing speeds of brake application as you went down the train. I only drove 4 and 8 car SUBs and the Waterloo & City, all Westinghouse and never had a problem. Earlier in my career on bR I was a 2nd man at Rugby from late 1974. the class 81-86 were very rough riding at anything over 85 and at 100 it was almost impossible to leave a cup of tea on the desk without it spilling. That's why they modified the suspension on the 86s and the 87s had the side springs from new. At that time we still had vacuum braked sets, and one night I was with a driver doing the "midnight" (0012) Euston-Wolves. approaching Coventry we were going a bit fast, 110 IIRC and I reminded the driver we had to stop at Cov. He replied "yes I know", dropped the vac to zero and we stopped bang on the mark. I moved to KX and worked everything out of there except the HSTs, they were being introduced as I got promotion to driver on the Southern.

One of the first circular layouts I remember was probably at the Central Hall in about 1962 or 63. It was built by the Southend MRC. That stuck in my mind as being different. Fast forward to this year (2019), we had a nice US circular layout at the Folkestone exhibition, and an east Anglian branch line that was almost circular but was end-to-end, P4 as well with a brewery.

It looks fun and will work with small 0-6-0 engines and 2 short coaches, but you'll soon get bored with it just watching trains go round. If that's what you want, build it and have fun. we all had to make a start somewhere.

Try asking the Swiss Railway Society. They will probably have the answer.

A friend recently posted on FB a picture of an HST power car running light along the GN main line through Welwyn Garden city, going light to bounds Green to sub for one that had been involved in a "shunting incident". Another prototype for everything. I don't know if it's possible to post a link to the FB photo on here.

Brake van stove pipes had to be modified with retraining straps after about 1960. With the expansion of the 25kv ohle there was a danger the guard would lift the stove pipe to clear it and zapp!

Suitable for the Irish monorail?