roythebus

Peco individualay was spiked track, flat bottom rail held in with flat spikes with offset head which you had to push through sleepers into a softboard base. I suspect the bullhead rail was code 95, used by Ray Rippon and others, but dearer than the Jones Bros stuff.

Wasn't it Brook-Smith who devised that track, similar to that used on the MRC's Longridge, Brampton Sands and Calshot layout of the early 1960s that you and I were involved with in those days? ISTR the Kings Cross rail was introduced circa 1966 by the late Keith Dan and others. the shop in york Way certainly stocked it when I worked there in 1968/69, along with stamped brass chairs punched out on a fly press in the basement. The only other "scale" rail was Jones Brothers TT flat-bottom rail which looked right fo scale 00 rail. Commercial bullhead rail was chunkier and seemed to match code 100 to BRMSB standards. And I will repeat that the late Frank Dyer of Borchester fame used the 16.2 gauge for his Borchester layouts from the mid 1960s and built the MRC's Dyers end trackwork using 16.2 gauge. We never had any problems with commercial or BRMSB stock running on it. Maybe Frank was THE first to use 16.2?

Reminds me of the incident during the miners' strike.. it was decided to use open top containers to move coal on Freightliners. One was via the North London Line from the ECML, Finsbury Park, Canonbury to Dalston Junction where the loco ran round to go the other way to the NLL. Dalston Junction was a well know spot for bad lads. The coal line was discovered quite early in the dispute and railwaymen had already "blacked" the movement of coal by rail in support of the miners. Well, the baddies found the train regularly stopped at the Dalston Junction home signal for a while, waiting for trains to Broad Street and the loco ran round and decided to help themselves to coal. Train staff became suspicious and they too found the containers contained coal being taken from the tops of the wagons. That coal train was left there an awful long time as the railwaymen decided to "black" further movement of the train.

It's all very well but what you are forgetting are things like train weight, gradient and rail conditions. I remember as a secondman being let loose on an 87 with a 1300 tonne freightliner from Wembley one wet November evening in 1975. It was around the end of the evening peak and we were surprised at being put fast line. I had problems getting the loa moving with the wet rail and we came to a stand near Carpenders Park, the driver got on the phone to advise the box of the problem. I managed to get us moving again and crept through Watford Junction. The driver told me that once we're in Watford tunnel, open it up, use the dry rail in the tunnel to get a decent speed. all very well until we went under the first ventilation shaft. Whizz, bang, wheelslip and the overloads tripped. By the time I'd reset we were down to 20 again and leaving the tunnel It was only when we got over the top at Tring that we could get any speed. I hate to think how many expresses had been held up by this episode.

Reminds me of a chap I worked with on the Underground back in 1970, he was a redundant 81A fireman. He told of working a troup train from Kensington to somewhere in the west in the bad winter of 1962/63 and being stopped a tNorth Pole Junction for a while. When he went to the box to obey Rule 55, a squaddy hung out of the window and asked "where the f**k are we?" "North Pole mate" came the reply. "Very bloody funny" said the squaddy.

Have a look o Facebook, Hammersmith Palais Old School (despite the name) is the local history group for the area. The only diary I remember round there was at White City where the GWR line went from the WLL towards Ruislip. that was closed in the late 1970s I think when Westway was built.

Having seen the "new" 81 shown at Harrow & Wealdstone in an exhibition on the Belmont bay platform circa 1966, I can't remember what colour the cab was! Having worked on the AC locos as a secondman in 1974/75 the cab desks were usually grey. Cab ceilings were nicotine yellow as a lot of footplate crew smoked like chimneys in those days. As for handling, all much of a muchness. the driver had to keep an eye on the ammeters and make sure the needles didn't go into the red for more that a few seconds as that could cause the overloads to trip out. He then had to wait for the tap changer to run back to the off position, reset the overloads, then notch up again. What was of more concern was the ride quality. the 81/85/86 as originally built had similar bogie design and were notoriously rough riders, so much so that it was impossible to fill the cup with tea and not spill any! The 82-84 had a better bogie design and were a lot better ride, but other problems with them meant early withdrawal. The fitment of side coil springs improved the ride somewhat. The white pip on the buffer beam was for control air, this would have provided air on a second loco to operate the air brake on that loco if it was being towed dead. That would have been actuated by an air/vacuum valve on the loco so the operation of the vacuum brake valve in the leading loco would apply the air brake on the second loco. The urinal was somewhere in the equipment compartment or the cab door! As for exact colours, there's no such thing. every batch of paint varies. I've tried getting "London Bus Red" from TR Williamson and they list at least 12 shades of it.

The Flat Earth Society has members all round the globe.

There's some discussion on a couple of FB staff groups saying the cause may have been a power surge causing a set of points moving under the train. A similar incient was possibly yhe cause of the fairly recent derailment at Eastleigh.

Which then leads to the question how does one stable and secure a class 3 or 5 train if there's no brake van? Brakes have been known to leak off and things roll away. Presumably local instructions to use wheel chocks or scotches?

How long is a topic about brake vans?

I'm not aware of any rule like that. On the ECML we had 8 car (and more) trains with the guard at the front as that's where the brake coach was. Maybe it was different in steam days.

ha, that's what I thought.

great stuff. thanks. can't do caps, the cat has come between me and laptop..

I did wonder what would happen with Adrian's stock of kits and patterns. he bought my range of GS Models bus kits back in 1981! Did he do any motor bogie kits for the Bec Felthams as I've found 3 of those in a cupboard in various statges of builbing.

Is it not possible t switch servos from a DPDT switch rather than electronics? I hate electronics with a vengeance! Swirtches are far easier to understand. Either they work or they dont.

Rummaging through my drawers (as one does) I've found 2 Farish OO gauge suburban coach bodies. I may have bogies to go with them. Anyone interested in them? they had formed tinpalte roofs buth they seem to vave vanished.

I got a decent brick wagon in a shop in Hythe Kent not so long ago. I've read on gere it is a very good model. Mine now runs on Ration diamond frame bogies and has cast metal ABSwain buffers fitted, along with Kadee couplers. I still need to do a bit of work on the brake gear to finish it off. The bogies on mine were fairly modern as they had closed axle boxes and pin-point wheels fitted from new.

Tri-ang-Hornby made an adaptor track in about 1964. I had a couple from the factory before they were on general release. At grammar school there were a few of us with model railways and we put on a small show for the summer fair in the science lab. One lad had a lot of HD, I had some Tri-ang stuff, so the adaptors were acquired! I knew the Trind rep as i worked part-time in a toy shop at the time. The lad with the Trix-Twin had a table to himself as his stuff wouldn't run on DC sow e were told.

Presumably the Replica Railways motorised underframe will do the job as well? Are the DC kits plastic sides? I'm a bit reluctant to cut up rather expensive Bachy units to make this one, I've probably got enough Lima underframes lying round. they were going cheap back in the 1980s. a bloke at Waterloo was selling them as "trains sets but without the engine" for tenner a set. a bargain or what?

I've got a built up Anbrico railbus, it runs rather nicely but needs finishing if that's any help. I can't remember if that's a Wickham.

I've just bought 3 packs of 10 if that's any help! PM me your address and i'll send you one axle with wheels.

So with this choice, what would others recommend? What are the sides made from? Etch/plastic overlays or what?

I compiled my list from memory whcih was last updated circa 1977 when I was secondman at KX! As for staff travelling for their duty, I lived in Northampton from mid 1973 (had to move there to get an affordable house). I transferred to the Met Line from the District and managed that every day for about 7 months, then packed it in and went coach driving for a while then went on BR at Rugby in November 1974. During that time there was a number of drivers and other trian crew doing that journey, an 81A driver, a chirpy cockney old school geezer, I can't remember his name, a couple of Euston and Stonebridge drivers one of whom was S.L.Jones, known as "Slow Line" Jones for some reason. Clive Everitt was a Waterloo amn who lived in Northampton, Bill Warriner a Rugby man who also travelled to Waterloo, and a number of LT staff who joined the trains at Bletchley and stations south. Not forgetting Derrick Collier who travelled to Waterloo from Crewe for his job for many years. We had an hourly service from Northampton in those days, with a couple of early morning up services from Manchester and Liverpool at about 0345 and 0355 I think, then the first service train about 0450. Late traisn going home were the 2255 (I think) then "the midnight", actually the 0015 semi fast to Wolves. These days I understand there's at least 2 trains an hour from Northampton to London. Luxury.

Thanks, that'll save me a lot of chopping up!