The Pilotman

I'm pleased to see that expression is still in use!

Thank goodness, Gilbert! Great minds etc. After I posted it, I thought my facetiousness might be out of place on your excellent thread. Luckily not

Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango? I'll get my coat.....

Is that a brace of Vauxhall Vivas I spy in the car park in C7398?

Hatton's shows the Capital Connection set has the following coaches: Mk1 RMB, Mk2 TSO and Mk2 BSO, so no FK, alas. It also says that coach numbers are yet to be confirmed. So the NSE buffet coach is new but, at best, it will be a renumbering of the existing NSE Mk2s by the look of it.

I thought you were trying to trick us there for a minute David; that tower in Grimsby Docks wouldn't look out of place in Bologna or Florence. Great pictures, as always.

Correct Rick. That would have been in the late 80s or early 90s. It was a loco plus four coaches (BG, two Mk3 sleepers and some sort of Mk2 aircon coach). For at least some of the time it was a loco change at Reading (booked times were 2235-2245) so used the old west end bay (platform 7). I signalled it in there myself on many occasions. I have a feeling it may even have started from Poole and I'm fairly sure the train it combined with at New Street came from Plymouth. I could be wrong about that but I certainly travelled on a Plymouth to Scotland sleeper around that time.

Expected June/July now according to an email just received from Hatton's.

You're not wrong there. These are the last major gap in my wagon fleet.

The St. Blazey to Cliffe Vale run would be such a train. Plenty of photos around with at least ten in the consist. But, as others have suggested, smaller numbers were common in Speedlink trains. I have a photo somewhere of a 31 on the sea wall at Dawlish with just one in tow.

Agreed. They're almost like one of those "spot the difference" puzzles. In the second picture the trees have a few more leaves, the 47 has a dented front and an ETH cable (is the first shot of one of the early "generator" 47s?) and the up fast signal is off (and, as Jonny says, the short post has gone) but otherwise, they are virtually identical. Remarkable! Or did you photoshop the concrete post out David?In any case, great pictures, as usual!

Just a thought but I think it could be better to model either the west or east end of the cutting rather than the middle. If you model the west end, you will keep the bit where the up relief line weaves around the A4 bridge pier (the two bridges on the far left of your photo) so at least there is some variation from four parallel lines. If you model the east end, perhaps you could shorten reality a bit and have the Warren Road bridge (just right of centre in your photo) as the western end. It's the nicest looking of the bridges in Sonning Cutting. Either way, the trains won't be "hidden" in a cutting for the whole layout.

Don't you mean "The Cornish Retailer"?

J1186 is a belter! It looks like a bitterly cold day in York but I bet it was worth it to hear that chopper clattering across all those diamond crossings.

Christmas Eve 2015, 7.15pm. As people all over Germany gather with family and friends to open their presents, countless railway staff were still hard at work getting people (me included) to where they wanted to be. The driver of train RE 10133 from Aachen to Paderborn checks the doors before departing from a very quiet Dortmund Hbf. (Photo taken with an iPad)

Come on guys, this is Dave's photo thread and he has already asked nicely once in post #5284.

That's just east of Twyford station; the train is on the up relief line. The signal you can see at the rear of the train (R112 if my memory is correct) has a junction indicator for the route onto the up relief, from where the Henley-on-Thames branch can be accessed.Judging by the look of the train, it's most likely a Waterston to Colnbrook.

If you need some more Mk3 DVTs, Cheltenham Model Centre have got them on offer today at £25 each. Two InterCity and one Network Rail version left last time I looked.

On first glance I thought it was in D1000-style Desert Sand livery...

There is a cracking shot of a block train of these wagons returning empty from Cliffe Vale to St. Blazey here: http://www.hondawanderer.com/37042_Cockwood_Harbour_1999.htm This is an excellent site for browsing and could easily eat up a whole day if you're not careful...

Did they use his proper name, or does the nameplate just say "Flash"? (because that's what he was always known as).

Did you get held up by Mexican bandits?

And the first second class coach isn't a TGS yet either.

You might be. I think you may be getting the goods loops and sidings mixed up.

The BS on the signal would be for Banbury South.