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Actually started there, 3rd August 1973 Andy :-)

This controller is NOT man enough for O gauge on its own - A booster station will be required! :-(

This is the best I can do for what you've supplied

A bit of progress yesterday at the York area NGS meeting. Quite a lot of the windows added into the TWA building.

 

 

I've started to set up the signage for this building but am struggling with the slogan on the top of the roof. It appear to have an airliner either end then TWA and something something America to America.....I've not been able to find a better picture than this one 

of mine..........anyone out there know what it says or able to manipulate the image?

 

 

A bit of progress yesterday at the York area NGS meeting. Quite a lot of the windows added into the TWA building.

 

 

I've started to set up the signage for this building but am struggling with the slogan on the top of the roof. It appear to have an airliner either end then TWA and something something America to America.....I've not been able to find a better picture than this one 

of mine..........anyone out there know what it says or able to manipulate the image?

 

 

The Siemens units were used on the Earls Court services and were an early casualty to other forms of commuter traffic. The LMS put them in store as noted by Simon. BR rebuilt them into AC overhead units and ran them on the Lancaster, Morecombe and Heysham  services in the late 50s early 60s.

Thank you for the clarification! :-)

Are you referring to the 'Lindbergs' on Merseyside?..... They looked like the GEC compartment units! :-)

I recently came across this photo I took of 47220 at Truro which I think was taken in the summer of 1986 (it could be later but not earlier as 47220 was repainted into Railfreight livery in May of that year and still looks pretty clean). I seem to remember the train set back into the siding as per the topic title, leaving some of the rear wagons there. I can't remember what happened after that as I presumably didn't hang around long enough to find out. My 1990 Baker's Rail Atlas doesn't show any siding there so I suppose at some point in the late 80s it was lifted. What would the siding have been used for towards the end of its life? I've done a search on here and the Cornwall Railway Society site but couldn't find anything apart from a reference to loads being delivered for Farm Industries. Apologies for the photo quality; I was still finding my way around a fairly basic SLR camera.

 

 47220 at Truro.jpg

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! :-)

May be easier to form into tight curves?  Flat bottom is likely to be stiffer in the foot than in the head, so prone to twist if bent. 

Bullhead is much quicker and easier to change in an emergency! :-)

I quick check of my SR Freight WTT shows BD as a Dover to LMR via Chatham and the WLL......so OK.

 

Now then a couple of photos to explain the lack of posts and progress from me ........................KPA is being dismantled..............................................cos.......................

 

 

.......................after only being on the market for a week it looks like we've sold our house.......just as well as we had an offer in on a house in Haxby, York that has been waiting since the end of January for acceptance because our house wasn't even on the market!

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! :-)

With regards to the southbound signals next to Hammersmith Road Bridge, it does, thank you. I hadn't considered that the junction for Earls Court was that close and that it would have had a splitting distant. Since both distants have to be interlocked at the signal with the home, it must have made for some interesting lever arrangements at the bottom of the signal post. I'll have a closer look at the Reading Show next month.

 

Jim

Both distants would have separate slotting mechanisms worked by a combination of the main arm position and separate levers at Earls Court Jcn! :-)

What has me puzzled is why the right hand arm has only a distant on it. There is doubtless an explanation, probably connected with Addison Road having had more than one box. The middle post is patently the through route, in which case I would read the top arm as Addison Road North's Up starter and the distant under it as Addison Road South's. The left hand post presumably works on the principle that asall trains would be stopping, or at least at restricted speed, there is no purpose to a distant. It is the right hand post that is the puzzle, as with only a distant, there is no signal protecting what is obviously a diverging movement.

 

Jim

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! :-)

The collieries at Shepherdswell, Snowdon and Betteshanger all had OLE for the 71's to work into the sidings at each location.

 

Kent miners were regarded as some of the most militant, many originally came down from the Potteries.

 

Quantities of minestone waste from Betteshanger were used to construct the new embankments between Selhurst and East Croydon in the early 1980's.

'Didn't know that Betteshanger had wires!  :-)

'Think you'll find they actually lasted until the miner's strike in 1984!  :-)

First Class Howard - WELL DONE!   :-)

Jeiaru Kamotsu banzai!

 

Lovely locos!

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.

:-(

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

:-)

Well there you go - mind you, it has probably had a change of supplier/franchise since my days

:-)

A consequence of Reading's interest in applying work study techniques to the way in which lever frames were used - similar things happened in other places when frames were renewed or major re-locking jobs took place.

 

And here's a 1964 view from a window of South 'box should anyone be interested (far better than going off to some exhibition with my mum & dad) -

 

92220 Kensington (O) 190964.jpg

:-)

The principle was used on the LM as well in later installations!

:-)

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!

:-)

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!

:-)

......its a garden now to this block of flats

CRUMBS! - What a difference 40yrs makes..........

:-)

wonder if anyone can remember what brand BP, Esso etc it might have been.

I have a hunch that it was a 'SHELL' garage - However, it was a long time ago for me!

:-)

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!

:-)