37409

RETB didn't come in until 7th December 1987 on the Mallaig Extension, 27th March 1988 from Helensburgh Upper to Crainlarich/Crainlarich to Oban, and the final section from Crainlarich to Fort William on 28th May 1988 according to http://www.scot-rail.co.uk/page/RETB 37's started on the WHL in 1980 with the 27's finally disappearing by 1981. The 37/4's started to make an appearance in 1985, by 1986 all passenger services were /4's. Steam started in 1985. If you base your layout in the 1980-early 1988 period you can have blue 27's making the odd appearance, blue and Large Logo 37/0's, LL 37/4's and 37401 in Intercity livery, Black5's and still keep the semaphores. EDIT:- You could also have 37423 in unbranded Three Tone Grey Railfreight livery as that got repainted in Feb '88 but didn't get its decals and name until May.

I'm sure that originally the plan included a new access into the RTC from the down main to save trains coming or going from/to the Spondon direction from having to reverse in the station, but looking at those plans it seems that this idea has been dropped.

Ah, Flying Scotsman, or as once described by a driver I know as a 220psi boier on a 180 psi chassis with indifferent valve gear that requires works attention every 6 weeks just to keep it running. He may, of course, be biased due to being an ex SR man used to Maunsell's S and N15's whose only modification was to have their snifting valves removed......

As far as I'm aware, dogs started in '81 on 37's and spread to other locos shortly after. In '83 Inverness joined in with the stag with Motherwell and Haymarket adding Salmon and Castles respectively in '84. By 1985 they were pretty common on all classes.

26/0 with cantrail grilles extending full length to the rad grilles. 26/1 with cantrail grilles stopping short by 3 grilles. Stags/Dogs/Castles/nothing

Check for photos of the prototype because most, if not all, of the /4's didn't originally come with orange lines. Depending on what timeframe you're modelling you might not need them, I think it was late 1988 when the orange cantrail stripes started to be added.

I remember chatting to a WHL driver in the late '80's and he was getting on for retirement age and had joined the railways aged 16 at Fort William Shed. In his 48 years on the railway he'd never worked south of Ardlui making his total route knowledge Ardlui - Mallaig, less than 130 miles.

Unfortunately it's a valid move under the 1964 re-write of the Sandringham Shuffle (more a clarification than a re-write, but who are we to argue?) The next question is; Is a Sandringham Shuffle allowed given we're playing extended laterals?

Ah, but Frobishers Guide to 1927 Ammendments clearly states (Chapter 17, para 5) that both Penge East and Penge West are Tertiary Appointments and available to all players once the Laterals are firmly established. I will allow that i did not differentiate which of the two Penges I was playing, but in my defence only Penge West is playable after Bounds Green so I thought it was obvious. Luckily it hasn't affected play. Sincere apologies for my omission.

Ah, right, gotcha. With the line of stabled engines outside the shed and that row of coaches hiding platform 4 distracting people from the fact that nothing is entering or leaving the station, could you 'move' the signal gantry that used to be a bit further out closer to the platform ends and use that a scenic break?

I'd not heard that about the bus/coach version of I-Shift, is that also a 14spd unit like the trucks? The truck version is pretty reliable with many that I know of well over a million kms on them. Clutches tend to need replacing after about 750,000kms though (depending on the type of work this can get as low a 500,000). I had a 55 plate FH12 that had 1.1 million on it and all of that on full load work out of Derbyshire concrete plants so a good 45min run of hills and dale to reach a motorway and never had any issues with the gearbox. In my opinion it is a far smoother and driver friendly unit compared to the AS-Tronic.

Won't the line of coaches be 'behind' the fiddle yard though so all your fiddling will be done in front of it?

PENGE

Tricky, very tricky, Do I go for a Cardwellian Slide and risk the laterals, or shall I invoke a Brooke-Taylor Gambit and slow the Rotational Constant? No, time for a Inverse Slide Heathrow Terminal 5

Something that people either tend to forget, or maybe not even know, regarding 'high performance' or high octane' fuels is that their benefits (or otherwise) depend on what the car in question is designed to take. Most 'ordinary' cars are designed and mapped to run on normal 95 octane fuel, that is to say that the injection and especially ignition systems are set up for lower octane fuels only with retarded spark and less precise metering. Adding a higher octane fuel will have no benefit at all on performance/power as the engine isn't designed to be run at the higher tolerances needed to take advantage of this. Older performance cars are designed to run on the higher octane fuels as more power can be extracted from the fuel and running them on a lower octane rated fuel can be detrimental to their health as 'pinking' or pre-ignition or 'knock' (getting the 'bang' in the wrong place) will most likely occur and that can lead to burnt valves, holed pistons, bent rods and a number of other fun problems. Running on 95 is not a good idea. Luckily more modern performance cars (those with electronic injection and ignition) have systems in place to detect knock and will then retard the ignition/reduce turbo boost to compensate and so can run on 95 octane fuel, but with reduced performance. Using 97/98/100 octane fuel will give full performance, but they can safely be run on 95. It all depends on what the handbook says; my 1988 Mercedes 500SEC (KE-Jet injection and EZK ignition with knock sensors) says 95 minimum, 97 optimum so it's mapped to run on 97 and the system can cope with 95 but no lower (unless an octane booster is used presumably [can you even get 93 anymore?]) I've found it loses 1-2mpg on 95 and is a bit less 'lively' compared to when run on 97 so financially there's little benefit to using cheaper standard fuel. As there's no outlet for 97+ in my town it is, however, cheaper to fill on 95 than use a gallon going somewhere else to get it. Pottering about town doesn't need the extra performance benefit so it gets 95 normally and a fill of 97+ when heading off on a trip.

"Notice : Engines must not be removed without ----- authority" is the best I can come up with.

It'd give a nice operating potential with the odd Railtour/Land Cruise and freights passing the depot, but wouldn't that mean a new fiddle yard on the right hand end to represent both the Harbour Branch and the Kyle/Far North lines? I suppose you could leave them as non-functional when space is restricted, but add the FY when space allows depending on what you get allocated by exhibition managers and/or Domestic Authorities.

Agreed, but when you then add in factors like; Was it renumbered/converted to a 27/1 or 27/2 & if so when? If a 27/2 did it get the full complement of grilles? Did it get the grilles, but only in stages (e.g. 27210)? When was it renumbered back to be a 27/0? Did it get its droplights converted to sliding windows and when? Did it carry a depot logo? If so was it a small dog high, a larger dog low, a white stag, a yellow stag or a castle? Did it have snow-ploughs and if so when? Then add in the fact that they were all withdrawn in the pre digital photo era and that a google search for '270xx loco' brings back images of everything but the required 27 and it's enough to make you gnaw your own foot off. Enjoy the research (he says sitting here minus a foot)........

Having just renumbered 6 old Lima 27's for use on my West Highland layout set in the mid '80's just be aware that BR in their wisdom decided to alter the cab windows during their life-span converting many of the later build ones from drop-lights to sliding windows. It makes picking a suitable identity a mine-field, esp given that most (not all) Lima 27's have droplights!

I'm reliably informed that Dettol works superbly as a paint stripper.

Bear in mind the DMU's were very rare north of Crainlarich, and the Std 4 tank was really a former C&O/Caley machine, again rare north of Crainlarich. A Std 4 2-6-0 could be included as the odd one worked the Extension, J36's lasted until the end as Fort William pilots, a Brush Type2 spent some time at Fort William on trials and, of course, don't forget Std 6 Clan Cameron used first as a test and then again on a railtour.

In summer 1990 the Dundee-Montrose, Montrose-Perth workings were often an ex Motorail FK and a Mk2z/a/b/c half brake (can't remember what flavour mk2 it was, sorry.) with either a 26 or 37 on the front.

I expect the cost of maintaining the bridge between B Town and B Jnc may have been an issue (or maybe an excuse).

Am I allowed to join in this game? I've been involved in the long running games on pprune and Volvo Owners Club. I had to take a break from online games due to an extended period coaching the Devon & Somerset Constabulary team in their regional finals of the European Mornington Crescent Security Forces Championship; what a palaver that turned out to be - they seemed to think that playing Inverse Slides when the Rotational Constant was below +0.7 was totally acceptable! Anyway, if you'll allow me, may I invoke a Prometheus Stratagem and move play to Penge

As I'm on DC and using insulfrog points adding droppers will mean I need switches to isolate the track they feed causing more wiring runs and extra spaghetti. Is it still worth putting a wire bypassing each side of a fishplate? I realise that the dropper/switch is a better solution to voltage drop, but at least this way I'd only get voltage drop from the rails and not the joiners?