Jump to content
 

Horizontal

Members
  • Posts

    185
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Horizontal

  1. Actually started there, 3rd August 1973 Andy :-)
  2. This controller is NOT man enough for O gauge on its own - A booster station will be required! :-(
  3. This is the best I can do for what you've supplied
  4. Are you referring to the 'Lindbergs' on Merseyside?..... They looked like the GEC compartment units! :-)
  5. There were two sidings on the down side on the eastern side of the level crossing opposite the box. They formerly gave access into a goods shed - The Chacewater cement train sometimes detached a few 'Vanfits' there! :-)
  6. Bullhead is much quicker and easier to change in an emergency! :-)
  7. HAXBY?......Well I never. - My daughter lives only a couple of miles from there - Here's hoping you will allow me to see my old station in miniature once you're settled in! :-)
  8. Both distants would have separate slotting mechanisms worked by a combination of the main arm position and separate levers at Earls Court Jcn! :-)
  9. For the northbound signals next to the footbridge, the distant signals are Kensington North's down inner distants, which are on the same posts as the Kensington South's down starters - The signals read as follows from left to right: Kensington South Down Platform to Down Platform Starter with Kensington North's Down Platform Distant and subsidiary under it, Kensington South Down Platform Starter to Down Main with Kensington North Down Main Inner Distant and subsidiary under it, Kensington South Down Main Starter with Kensington North Down Inner Distant and subsidiary under it. There is a mid-platform facing connection from the Down Platform Line to the Down Main Line immediately ahead of the signals - With regards to the southbound signals next to Hammersmith Road Bridge, they read as follows: Up Main to Up Goods Line, Up Main Starting with Earls Court Jcn's Up Main Line Distant Below. On the right is Earls Court Jcn's Splitting Distant which reads to the LT's District Line into Earls Court itself - 'Hope this helps! :-)
  10. 'Didn't know that Betteshanger had wires! :-)
  11. 'Think you'll find they actually lasted until the miner's strike in 1984! :-)
  12. First Class Howard - WELL DONE! :-)
  13. Yesterday during my visit to a Model Railway Show in the North of England, I came across a Garden Railway Society Stand, and on it I saw what was probably the 'naffest' and most offensive thing that I've seen at an exhibition yet........ Lying just outside the running line on the end curve was a decapitated figure of what was obviously supposed to be a track worker, who had succumbed to an accident. The head of this figure was lying between the running rails, and trains were passing over it. I discretely expressed my disgust at what I had seen to one of the people who was manning the stand, and he informed me in no uncertain terms that he actually agreed with me entirely. At that point, a more senior person on the stand came over, and I also expressed my disgust to him, to which there was a reaction in the form of, “So”? Obviously to whoever created this scenario, it was his(her?) idea of a joke. But, as a retired professional railwayman with over 30 years experience in the operating department, and as a person who in the past has had to deal with this in reality, I can tell you that it’s no joke, and I find the portrayal of such scenarios as this, in this kind of manner to be thoroughly offensive. >:-( Whoever put that scenario on the layout, obviously has no idea of the effect that the real life situation has on railway staff, whether they are known to the deceased, or not - God knows what the reaction of any train driver who has been involved with an incident like that would have been if he or she had seen it! Surely, scenarios like that have no part in our hobby whatever the scale, and particularly on a layout that is representing a national society at an exhibition. :-(
  14. I believe that the 33s ran from Ferme Park on the ER via the Widened Lines and Blackfriars to Hither Green via Snow Hill tunnel until the late 60s when the line was closed :-)
  15. Well there you go - mind you, it has probably had a change of supplier/franchise since my days :-)
  16. Note the lamp-heads had not yet been placed on top of the posts at the time that shot was taken! :-)
  17. The principle was used on the LM as well in later installations! :-)
  18. Both Kensington boxes, although of LNW parentage, had WR 5"VT frames in them The North Main Box had a frame fitted in it that was originally destined for South Wales, but it was diverted by the S&T workshops at Reading, to Kensington North to replace its old Webb Frame in 1956 The South Box had its frame fitted in 1958, when the Middle box was abolished and the South end of the station remodelled in conection with the separation of the LT line in the SW Bay. The North Box had 65 levers, with an extra lever (66) added to release the new ground frame into the Wood Lane Milk Depot when Viaduct Jcn Box was abolished in 1976. A self-restoring catch point was provided ahead of the 3 Aspect Down Starting Signal (No.63) at the former Uxbridge Rd station site, and bi-directional working was then introduced over the Down Line between North Main and Viaduct Jcn - At this time, the twin Up Line GW home signals which were mounted on a bracket that was offset to the right on the north side of Addison Gardens Bridge were replaced by a 4 aspect colour light signal with cat's eyes and position 4 route indicator, and also, North Pole Jcn's Up Starting Signal, which was slotted with Viaduct Jcn's Up Distant signal was replaced with a plain 4 aspect colour light signal. In 1958, the 72 lever South frame took on a new format for its day, in that the levers that were most used were located in the centre of the frame, with the Down Distant Signals being at No.29, and the Up Distant being at No.56. All the main stop signals were in between these two levers. Unlike at North Main, this saved the Signalman many miles of walking from one end of the box within his shift 'Hope this is of some interest or help! :-)
  19. All this has taken me back inside North Main Box The signalman there was not allowed to pull his Up Distant Signals until the South Main Signalman had pulled his Up Distant (No.56), which was situated under the Up Starting Signal on the gantry outside the Box - Instead of an electric repeater being provided on the block shelf to show the position of this signal, a white metal disc inscribed with the words 'UP DISTANT OFF' was situated behind the frame - This was directly mechanically linked to the South's Distant Signal, with the normal position of the disc being face-down in the horizontal position - But, when the South Signalman pulled his Up Distant Signal, the disc would turn upward and face towards the Signalman in the North Box with quite some crash, which sometimes shook the entire structure - The intensity of this crash would give some idea to the North Signalman as to who was on duty in the South Box, as some of the Signalmen in the South Box were more zealous with their lever-pulling than others....... Ahhhh, happy memories! :-)
  20. ......its a garden now to this block of flats CRUMBS! - What a difference 40yrs makes.......... :-)
  21. I have a hunch that it was a 'SHELL' garage - However, it was a long time ago for me! :-)
  22. Yes, I think that many a poor man went 'a**e-over-t*t' down them - Even I thought that they were quite dangerous! I remember one poor Signalman who went down the steps down at Chelsea Box in 1974 - He was never the same jovial person again - Very sad! :-)
×
×
  • Create New...