mcowgill

I think they're different dimensions. Measured & Drawn shows 5' 0" over body but note that the ends of that measurement as shown on the drawing are not the overall width, the dimension is shown over the corner posts. R.E. Tustin's drawings of the van from the 1950s quote 4' 11.75" over body and 5' 4" over doors. Martin

Just catching up on the last few days photos, C1098 on the Ffestiniog at Penrhyndeudraeth is 'Merddin Emrys'. Earl of Merioneth was withdrawn in 1971, it was planned to scrap the superstructure and fit a new Hunslet boiler the same as we see on Merddin Emrys in your photo (new boiler 1970) but as it would mean losing the last traditional Fairlie outline loco a successful campaign led to the preservation of the old Earl as a static exhibit (now in the NRM York) and replacement with a new Earl of Merioneth (aka the Square) entering service in 1979. This has come full circle, the 1979 loco has been withdrawn and is stored with no plans to return it to service, it's being replaced by new build James Spooner built to the traditional outline. Martin

42 42085 has visited other railways, the Great Central and Bluebell and possibly others.

No real need for it, the England engines have regularly been turned for events & photo charters. Separate the loco from it's tender and they can both be turned on the wagon turntables at Boston Lodge.

Intoduced in 1984, £20 adjusted by RPI inflation is now £84

Didn't think I had a photo of 55005 after reallocation to York but just found this post-withdrawal at the Doncaster Open Day on 27/2/82 alongside 19. It's not very clear on the photo but the York coat of arms is just visible above the number of both locos (as on the photo of 55013 above) And here's some else's photo on the same day on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/60776612@N02/49592160492/in/photolist-2iyhMxS-2nYtyUz-c3vB3L-5BYzDL-8Z7qHQ-2nYeJ9b-KQTyw2-2jNmPxY-zQdFrG-yUjhaL-dR3YYr-seyNuq-zP3rYj-2mWsui4-2iMvvuu-2mcPKFE-2nwwjxH-2nzYHxC-8Z4Fea-a49uds-b3PPUc-t6zr9p-rX9mpS-2nXfpsQ-9xDdtM-24wZG87-2iConbR-o6ZaqB-2ijRgb2-GBTVy9-SKF4bh-nGfnwQ-2ijMFXf-dFjSxH-5H3M48-2nYNyAV-AJzdS4-9Sckqu-bxLCpV-b3PJSt-ajdkwY-bKU4A8-dNfeHJ-SPrRKx-oHsqeC-Drv4tv-2mFBhB5-2nDAXGe-qDz1yU-2mRWkAR

BR Database looks to be wrong, all the surviving Deltics ended up at York. The Gateshead and Haymarket allocations moved there in May 1979 probably to coincide with the start of the summer timetable, the Finsbury Park locos moved their during 1981 at varying dates but by the summer of 1981 all remaining Deltics were allocated to York, Martin

I don't need a 50... My BR(GE) branch doesn't justify one... Can't remember seeing one anywhere near here... It's set in the early to mid 60s... But then I didn't need a Finsbury Park racehorse, but one seems to have turned up 🤔

The biggest difference is the shorter cab, several inches were removed from the back half of Palmerston's cab supposedly to allow it to get into the darkest depths of the LNWR exchange yard at Blaenau. Martin

Talyllyn spent time at Boston Lodge in 2014, both road and rail transfer

From the diagrams it looks like the versions with the pony truck correctly have extended front frames, proper job! Martin

Colour Rail slide NG92 is a somewhat distant shot of Princess at Glan y Pwll in 1946, I'm not aware of any other pre-closure colour photos of an England engine. Here's the loco part of the image, sadly not very clear. The edge of the framing from the drops over the cylinders and forward looks too consistently light to be muck and rust, possibly the restoration repaint in green did restore an original red feature? Martin

The Talyllyn Railway's two original locomotives provide some insight into this. No 1 - Talyllyn was supplied as an 0-4-0ST with the firebox behind the rear axle and so had a long rear overhang and was criticised for 'excessive vertical oscillation' by the Captain Tyler when he inspected the line for the Board of Trade before opening. No 2 - Dolgoch is an 0-4-0WT and is a fairly extreme attempt to avoid Talyllyn's faults in the form of a Fletcher Patent Locomotive. The rear axle is behind the firebox which prevents a conventional inside motion to drive the valves - the firebox is in the way of the rods. Fletcher's Patent is a folded up valve gear that drives the valves from eccentrics on the leading axle allowing a longer wheelbase without overhang at the cost of complexity. More modern locomotives would use outside valve gear and avoid the issue. Talyllyn was rebuilt very early in it's life as an 0-4-2ST but with rigid frames rather than a trailing truck, so it ended up with a very long fixed wheelbase which led to the railway adding about half an inch to it's gauge to accommodate it.

Mk1s didn't have a suffix to the number, it was used (with a few stange exceptions) to indicate a pre-nationalisation build/design. The last passenger stock to carry them woud be the Thompson buffet cars, parcels stock remaining by 1982 with them would be Stanier 57' BGs and SR 4wheel PMVs

Ooh - an excuse to get out the scanner and dust off (not very well looking at the results) a few old photos. Spent lots of my youth riding these, my preference has got to be a Mk1 single door long or short pod in West Yorkshire/NBC red, a regular on the bus to and from school. Strangely I can't find a photo of a WY LN1 at the moment, but here are a few others SYPTE No 4 at Gainsborough, August 1978: Cumberland 369, Keswick June 1979: Then there's these photos of cousins at Bradford Interchange on 16th June 1981,the press launch of the Class 140. I'd seen it on test about ten days earlier on the Ikley branch then must have picked up something in the news about a launch in Bradford so I bunked off school and found that my 6th form attire of scruffy sports jacket with leather elbow patches with an SLR was enough to get me waved through with the press! Perhaps 140001 might be an interesting Rapido diversion...??? Martin

On the Lynton & Barnstaple only 'Lyn' went to Eastleigh for overhaul in 1928, all other overhauls were done on site at Pilton. Manning Wardle supplied a spare boiler for the 2-6-2Ts so boiler replacement and overhauls would normally be done at Pilton. Lyn also had a boiler replacement there in pre SR days. Martin

B****y '13 - it used to follow me round everywhere, got to be a big joke amongst my friends as we'd arrive back at Leeds after a day out and there would be 55013 sitting on a KX train. I even walked into Liverpool Lime Street and found it grinning back at me... I can forgve it now and needless to say I'm sure we'll meet again, but I'll wait for it to turn up in banger blue, that's how I'll always remember it, not bulled up late in it's life. So it's Finsbury Park white windows and Ballymoss this time round. Martin

Grandfather had a clothing factory hard up against Stanningley viaduct on the Bradford Exchange to Leeds line and when I was a youngster Dad would take me down there on a Saturday morning while he caught up on work. I'd sit on a tall stool in one of the offices adjacent to the line and watch Fairburn tanks and class 24s in amongst DMUs, until I got bored and went to race barrows around the factory (great things, centre axle with jockey wheels under each end front and back, with long wooden floors to charge up and down!) Martin

Richie, Again, don't think standard gauge norms apply to narrow gauge. Almost every narrow gauge line used flatbottom from the start, it's much older than most people think, first used in for standard gauge in the 1830s in the UK with the advantage for light lines that it can be spiked in place rather than needing chairs. I can't off the top of my head think of any British lines that used bullhead rail, however for modelling purposes you can use bullhead to represent the Ffestiniog in pre-restoration days, it used chaired double-headed rail (unlike bullhead which is asymmetric with a smaller foot) which could theoretically be turned over to swap the running surface and get more life out the rail, in practice the lower surface was uneven due to being in contact with the chairs. You wouldn't notice the difference between bullhead and double-headed at 4mm scale Then as this is narow gauge you need to allow for the wild and wacky... The Talyllyn had flatbottom rail spiked to intermediate sleepers but used a chair and wooden key at joints in place of fishplates. Tom Rolt's Railway Adventure tells of missing keys so when a loco ran onto end of a rail the crew watched the other end of the rail rise up as the train progressed up the valley! Martin

The boilers from the original Earl (aka Taliesin/Livingston Thompson) and Merddin Emrys were both on their last legs by the late 1960s so two new boilers were built by Hunslet to a simpler parallel/raised firebox design rather than the traditional 'wagon top' boilers and 2 feet longer than the existing boilers. Merddin received one of the new boilers in 1970 but the changes in appearance led to a campaign to preserve EofM/Tal/LT as a static relic and build a completely new superstructure for the second new boiler - that's how we got the 'Square', the 1979 new construction Earl of Merioneth and the 1885 loco was eventually cosmetically restored as Livingston Thompson, now at the NRM York Merddin has since been modified to a traditional outline with the longer Hunslet boiler and as such is a roughly 13" to 1 Foot scale replica of how it was in Victorian days. The Hunslet boilers have proved troublesome with serious cracking around the boiler/firebox joints, both MR & EofM have spent long periods out of service while specialist repairs were done, EofM now being withdrawn and stored out of use. David Lloyd George & the new James Spooner have taper boilers overcoming some of the structural weaknesses of the Hunslet boilers but retain the larger size of the Hunslet boilered locos, hence the dimensional liberties Bachmann needed to take to produce their DLG version Martin

There's a photo of one of the Mk1 suburban brakes in use here Martin

That looks like LMS Dynamometer car 45050, there is no vehicle between the coach and the first wagon, that's the widened end of the carriage - see https://www.prclt.co.uk/45050-dynamometer-car.html The AL6 locos were delivered from two sources, Doncaster and EE Vulcan Foundry in parallel so the numbers don't indicate how early/late they were being introduced to service, indeed E3173 is often quoted as the first delivered. Martin

I no longer have my copy of Essery & Jenkinson to confirm but I believe it's a Vulcan Foundry thing. The first Black 5's delivered were the batch built by Vulcan Foundry (5020-5069) including 5025 which makes it the oldest survivor. They seem to have spaced the LMS on the tender much closer than normal for the pre-1936 livery, I'm not sure if all the batch were delivered with the same style but there are plenty of photos of them like that. Crewe outshopped 5000-5019 after VF had delivered 5020-69 in the same livery but with LMS more widely spaced as on the Royal Scots & Jubilees, here's 5000 preserved in that style which was the normal arrangement (From Flickr, not my photo) The photo of 5407 you showed for comparison has the lettering at the same spacing but this is the 1936 pattern block letters rather than the earlier serif style. Martin

Not any more - it's now green and masquerading as long lost 45562 Alberta (not my photo, Flickr) https://www.flickr.com/photos/126693116@N06/51208018595/in/photolist-2m25tSk-2mafNL7-2jSg1Hy-2jruvvm-2jrtdeP-2k2qWPw-2iyV8Nk-2izi3hz-2m28mzM-2m2hJhK-2k1ofu9-2k1Mf5e-2jwxP4f-2jrViSS-2jDR7UK-2iz3hXZ-2m2e9TT-2iAkBRi-2iyWMd3-2izndv7-2m1NHKS-2jvTYmw-2jrUdDJ-2jAPT8y-2jybPif-2m1Sfkm-2jzbU1L-2jL26xC-2izh2Wy-2hQHBTi-2izBBie-2jjxL6y-2jAynhG-2isKkF8-2jDNko5-2hQ9WrS-2jz7nwY-2iz3ibu-2jT1T8Q-2m1yipY-2jNrXe9-2iz88vB-2mak4t2-2m5ji3h-2iz4rP8-2iBv7EN-2jzhtd2-2jE3uRD-2iyYkoP-2jrRCaS

Been meaning to post this for a while but it's been rather difficult taking and posting pictures of work when you're working from home! Now back in the office so here's the isolated remains of the scissors crossover at at what was then known as Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, Ipswich. We had a branch off the Felixstowe branch, this is all that remains of the private lines, I guess it wasn't in the way and probably too much trouble to lift. Just across from it by our catchpit is another reminder of the links to the branch, an LNER concrete hut continues in use as a store. Martin