alaneggleston

 lots of people need to be told by the guard/ ticket inspector that they need to be in the front 3 for Yeovil.

Being pedantic, actually its only Tisbury, Feniton and Whimple.  All the other stations will accommodate 6 car trains, but I get (and agree with) what you mean.

 and a significant increase in table bay seats! 

 

 

Good, but how long before some bright spark decides that by removing a couple of tables they can slip in some more airline style seating?

Not my area of expertise, but a 2 part mast would probably be more complicated (expensive) to make in the first place, and would have a point of failure that isn't present with the one part mast.

 

Correct on both points. Purchasing and galvanising an extra couple of metres of steel beam is cheaper than to design, manufacture and fit a bolt on extension and as you say eliminates a possible future joint failure.

P.S.

I'm still wondering how much cheaper the project would have been if they didn't tip all the excavated spoil and concrete into Olympic sized swimming pools instead of landfill. They seemed obsessed by how many it would fill, yet there's only about ten in the country.

The Media and the BBC in particular seem not to understand standard units of measurement,  its either Olympic sized swimming pools, lengths of football pitches or the height of double deck buses, in particular London buses which they clearly believe are different in size from those around the rest of the country!

And what about the midges?

Free, with every Scottish holiday!

And for working Anglo-Scottish services one should be named Devolution !

Or  'Independence' if the SNP could choose a name.

Students of GWR antiquities should note that the reversing siding at Bedwyn currently has a rare "long legged" stop block fitted, right next to a public footpath. When the siding is extended to accommodate 5 car trains I'm sure that will disappear.

 

 

If it's that rare is there any chance of someone at NR arranging for it to disappear to a heritage railway?

A quick look at my bookshelves came up with the following:

 

“Branch Lines Around Plymouth” by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith; Pub. Middleton Press, 1997, which shows track plans and photos on the Turnchapel branch.

 

“Plymouth Steam 1954-1963” by Ian H. Lane; Pub: Ian Allan, 1984. Mostly a pictorial record, but gives closure dates (Sept. ‘51 to passenger, Sept ’61 to freight).

 

“An Illustrated History of Plymouth’s Railways” by Martin Smith; Pub: Irwell Press, 1995.  Track Plans, photos and some historical notes.

 

“LSWR West Country Lines Then and Now” by Mac Hawkins; Pub: Grange books, 1993.  Some photos, track plan, and a few notes.

 

“Steam around Plymouth” by Bernard Mills; Pub Tempus 2003.  A few photos.  Bernard has written a number of books on the subject of railways around Plymouth.

 

“The Turnchapel and Yealmpton Branch Lines” by Colin Henry Bastin; Pub. C.H. Bastin Publishing, 1989. This booklet looks to be a home-made affair of about 30 pages, There are some historical notes, and a 1932 time table, which boasts of up to 28 trains on weekdays.

 

John

And to add to that list:  The Branch Lines of Devon: Plymouth, West & North Devon by Colin Maggs, Pub: Amberley  2012

Like the good old days; a pair of Class 442 units on BM Depot.

 

DSCN4664.JPG

 

Though these were on a railtour from Waterloo.

Interesting to see a 158/159? in BM Depot. Are SWT still using158s on the Lymington branch?

Class 444s couple/decouple with passengers aboard every day. Are there different regs for the Class 800 family?

As do 159s at Salisbury

BTW - getting back to the Goring Gap moaners their flavour of the month has moved away from electrification to the proposed Tesco mini-store which apparently is an even greater evil and threat to Goring-kind than either GWML ohle or archimedes tubes generating electricity near Goring Lock.

It gives them something else to moan about, clearly for them variety is the spice of life.

And so onto Iver.

 

Iver is still quite rural. Least said about the station building though.

DSCN1112.JPG

 

 

Something for the modern day modeller with a small layout?.

Yes Martyn - Heathrow Connect ceases once Crossrail starts running to LHR

IIRC Heathrow Connect will cease, with Crossrail effectively providing the same service.

What's the plan for the Class 360/2s? I assume they are compatible with the 360/1s and does Greater Anglia want them? 

Churston is the next nearest turntable with servicing facility at Paignton. Buckfastleigh has very short sightedly just sold their turntable. A gross misjudgement in my opinion.

Have they sold it for re-use elsewhere or scrap?

Hi folks,

 

Hope it's ok to resurrect this thread.

 

I've been trying to research the MOD railway installation at Dinton Business Park which is mentioned a number of times in the above thread.  The site was certainly rail connected and according to a local chap who remembers the railway it was a narrow gauge network connecting to the explosive storage site further up Catherine Ford Lane. The aerial views in the above discussions show the rough line of the backbone of the network but does anyone have any more detail of how it connected to the RAF Chilmark network or if it connected directly to the BR, 'withered arm', line at Dinton?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

HC

You should also look at Irwell Press: Mainline to the West: Part 2 Salisbury to Yeovil Junction (£24.95 if you can run to that).  Sixteen pages on Dinton and Chilmark including map of extensive station and siding layout in 1956 and station layouts for 1915 & 1944, the latter showing the air ministry sidings.

I was not aware of electric lamps being provided. Mine must have been missing too.

Mine too!

Weren't the 43 (production HST power cars) a duplication of 43 (NB Warship) class designation?

Is this why the HSTs first carried six figure numbers commencing 253 or 254 or did those numbers only apply to the complete train set?

Hopefully not with the SWT door modification which locks the door behind the leading cab OOU, that's a pain in the arse.

 

Great Western

Just why do SWT lock this door when F/GWR do not?

The new canopies at Maidenhead looj awful but i do wonder if there was some sort of =bargeboards/weatherboards to add to them.  The only section by the retained older buildings on the Up Relief/branch platforms has been given new bargeboarding - in a rather peculiar style which looks like an exaggerated version of the original.

When I retired at Christmas 2014 the Wiltshire engineering company that I worked for had just finished fabricating (not their design by the way) the support steelwork for the new station canopies. I would be most grateful if anybody who is a user of Maidenhead Station or who is working there could post a few pictures on this site.

Thanks in advance

Alan

Could someone please advise in which year did BR first start applying wasp stripes to these locos?

Thanks in advance.

Probably as the Courier dropped them from significantly higher

And couriers are significantly more practiced/skilled at dropping parcels!

Antics have stock of both BR liveries and are the same price as Hattons are showing for Bodiam. Have to admit a slight bias here as I'm in the same model railway group as several employees. I know they've all been out of the boxes and checked for damage too...

Matt,

Thanks for that information, I had been hesitating about purchasing another one due to the ongoing damage reports.  Order now placed with Antics.

Hi Peter,

 

2) yes - 32644 with the condensing pipes and tank vents also removed - loco scrapped in 1951- there may have been others. I think that there might be a photo of it in this livery on Flickr.

 

 

DSCF2364.JPG

 

DSCF2366.JPG

 

my version - on a San Cheng model.

 

cheers

 

Mike

There is also a photograph of 32644 in BR black with sunshine lettering on P71 in the Tom Middlemass book 'Stroudley and his Terriers'

Images of the recent releases are put up by Hattons

CME,

Ref your post #836: Looking at the Hattons photos that chimney gap in the A1X is horrendous, an explanation from Dapol as to why the difference with the A1 would be nice but I guess with them that's probably not going to happen.