Nick Holliday

According to IMDB website, the scene was filmed at Cole Green station on the GNR Welwyn to Hertford branch. image from the Disused Stations website

Is this the right place? Unfortunately the 1934 edition is the latest on the NLS website.

You could always take a leaf out of the Brighton’s Croydon book, where there was the boring East, West and South, but the added zest of Central and New. New Brighton sounds good, but it might upset the citizens of the Wirral, but duplicate station names did exist, and it might provide an excuse for some interesting northern visitors!

This photo, from the Harmsworth Self-Educator, shows clearly the cross-section of the pigs produced at that iron works, others may be different. More of a truncated triangular shape, perhaps. Many had the name moulded onto the bottom face, probably a detail too far.

The Ratio kit is of Midland Railway origin, and I would suggest that the prototype is of similar ancestry. The style of windows and panelling is unlike most North Western designs, although perhaps not impossible.

Could you paint the whole thing white, and then apply the black, then, whilst wet, wiping the face to reveal the white?

PO wagons, at least native ones, were relatively rare on the NER, as the railway company had control of most coal traffic, with their own hopper wagons, suitable for their coal drops, being popular. However, it might be possible for local merchants to have ordered coal from “foreign “ mines or coal factors, to meet special requirements, such as Welsh anthracite, but it would probably be only one or two wagons at a time. Bulk flows were generally confined to pit to dock traffic, apart from supplies to major power stations like Birmingham. During WW1 the private traders wagons were not pooled, so they usually remained in their peace time habitats. Most of them were actually on hire and, as part of the agreements, they were required to be repainted at regular intervals, and, as a result, would probably looked in better condition than some of the railway company owned stock.

Searchable index on the Lightmoor Press website.

This photo demonstrates that there was no fixed design, size or livery! Possibly taken at Eastbourne, from background, or perhaps Fratton, based on owner.

All you need to do is go to the High Level website, and look at downloads and select https://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/_files/ugd/27e471_881f108a2e4744a3ae45c0e71e5d3c88.pdf

One thing we may be overlooking is that, certainly in the Weald, in south east England, according to this piece in the Sussex Industrial Archaeological Society journal, http://www.sussexias.co.uk/articles/articles_lime_kilns.htm it was normal for each farm to have its own simple kiln, and they would burn their lime as required, using chalk from up to 12 miles away. I suspect that the NER wagons were used to carry limestone, which would be hauled away from the station to the farm in open carts. Transporting burnt lime in open wagons seems fraught with problems, and would probably require some form of specialised flooring to prevent rot. Otherwise the lime would be bagged, as it would be in the vans, but for agricultural use this would not be too sensible given the quantities that would be required to treat fields.

I think you need a Ford Anglia too! It is the Whomping Willow, isn’t it?

There seems to be plenty of tutorials for left-handed guitar players such as this one I found floating in the big river. https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Play-Left-Handed-Guitar/dp/B08VCM9GWK?asin=B08VCM9GWK&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1 I must admit that I have always been puzzled by this. As a right-handler, I’ve always found my left hand is struggling with the chord shapes, whilst the right hand is cruising, so I’ve always thought it should be easier for a left-hander to play right-handed, but obviously this isn’t true.

This article gives plenty of background to this train. https://www.victorianvoices.net/ARTICLES/MISC/LadiesRealm/LR1902-HospitalTrain.pdf

I remember that so well. Thanks for mentioning it. I had dreams of emulating it by building a layout running around the walls of my bedroom. Never happened of course: O levels, A levels, Uni, growing up etc. I only discovered in the past few years that it was done by a gentleman named Bob Symes who, apparently, was well known in railway modelling circles in those days. There's a video on YouTube somewhere where he says how he filmed it. It was O gauge and the loco only ran over a few yards of track IRC. The rest was done by very clever camera work and editing. The film, made by Bob Symes (Robert Symes-Shutzmann - full name) can be seen here, starting at 4:00 As he explains before it starts, it was made in a BBC2 sound stage, which had been made redundant due to the new colour stage being opened, so the actual year it was made was sometime between 1964 when BB2 started, and 1968 when colour broadcasts began, probably nearer the latter date. It seems as if the film was intended only for personal use, but the Controller of BBC2 came upon it, and decided it would be suitable as a filler, but long after the more familiar interludes (potter's wheel etc.). Use was made of his Payerbrook & Fairlie layout, which had appeared at at least one MRC show in Westminster, which was definitely 00 gauge. I think there was a short set of straight track, with a tunnel and an underbridge, which looks suspiciously like the Hornby bridge then available, with the odd panel in the centre. An article in, I think, Model Railway Constructor showed how it was filmed, with a camera dolly running parallel with the track for most shots, with the mask of a carriage window used for some shots, and clever editing made the run look infinitely longer than it was. The final shot shows the train stopping at one of the stations on the P&F, and a hand removes the loco.

Came across this brief snippet on YouTube showing one of the early Southern diesels, probably 10202 being refilled at Waterloo. Short but showing how it was done in those pioneering days. Sorry, I can’t work out how to insert the actual video, but it should be easy to find.

There were more GWR locomotives available much earlier than 1970. From around 1950, Gaiety was producing a fairly accurate Pannier tank; cast metal body with a robust chassis. This was available in a number of variations until the sixties. The main concern was some rather sturdy boiler fittings, which a keen modeller could easily address. Rev. Awdry is said to have been inspired by this model when he created Duck. Another manufacturer active in the fifties was Graham Farish. They produced a small range of OO locos, mostly forgettable but including a GWR King and, apparently, a large Prairie. This range was abandoned by 1959, but, in a relaunch in 1961, bounced back with the Prairie and the 94xx pannier tank, together with a GWR Toad brake van. Not exactly bucolic Western branch stock, but better than nothing, until the Keyser 14xx kit appeared.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there was a real Stroudley E2 loco. In 1894 he produced No 157, Barcelona, which he called an E Special. https://www.lbscr.org/Rolling-Stock/Locomotives/Stroudley/ES.xhtml It was designed to haul goods trains on the Cuckoo Line, and was basically an E with a larger boiler and Gladstone cylinders. Although Marsh did allocate E2, the nomenclature never stuck, and it was called E1 before the Billinton tanks appeared. According to Bradley it came out in passenger livery, although designed for more humble duties, but was painted goods green in 1890. It was withdrawn in 1922.

Given that Ernest Carter’s livery book was published in 1952 and Oswald Nock’s L&YR book came out in 1969, there’s a strong possibility that OSN was merely quoting, as I did above, that single reference. Effectively a “re-tweet” that unfortunately does not validate it.

Having built a model of Fittleworth https://www.scalefour.org/layouts/fittleworth.html which had cassette fiddle yards at each end, with reduced space I am thinking of operating with a single fiddle yard at the non-platform end, which also allows a separate headshunt. I would strongly recommend you reverse your plan so that it works in a similar way. At the moment with a headshunt that only just takes a tender loco, and the rear siding's turnout is only a couple of wagons away from the headshunt turnout, you will only be able to move one or two wagons at a time, making shunting of a long train a nightmare. With your fiddle yard effectively at the other end you can run longer strings of wagons in and out of the yard, and you could incorporate a separate headshunt which would allow you to shuttle passenger trains in and out whilst still shunting the yard. I have very very crudely sketched out how it might work. Obviously the curved bit needs to be straightened out, but you can move the key point at the entrance to the station further out to increase the length of train the run-round loop can handle. If you retain the bridge at the end of the platform, it can suggest that the line extends further, and perhaps a second fiddle yard could be added if you find the extra space, or take it to an exhibition. There are plenty of prototype examples where running round the passenger train is done away from the platform.

I think a greater factor was that all three classes persisted on the continent until the nineteen fifties, at least. I can recall wooden seats in third class on a trip to Greece in 1960. This meant there was felt to be a need to accommodate passengers in suitably appointed carriages, after their short sea crossing over the Channel to the south coast ports.

I'm not sure that the probable culprit is actually aiming for world domination. I can't see how this is pushing other bloggers out of their way. I suspect that they are not sure how a blog works (I don't) and think that editing is the way to do it. This is counter-productive as each "new" entry appears identical at first sight to previous ones, and I would think that most readers will just ignore it completely, even if the latest entry might actually be interesting. I believe a bit of guidance and education from the RMweb team would help to resolve some of these issues.

The Image Leicester website https://imageleicestershire.org.uk/collection?key=T3siUCI6eyJ0eXBlIjoxLCJpZHMiOlszNl19fQ&WINID=1676569521207 has around 100 photos of the locos used in the construction of the GCR London Extension. Among the views of, mainly, Manning Wardle locos, there are several views of open cabs, some without locomen getting in the way!

3SMR list handrail knobs, but are the ones you have issues with?

The reference you are after is from E F Carter's book on liveries. 1876 - There was apparently a great variety in engine number-plates. Engines built or rebuilt at Miles Platting Works had vermilion plates, some with an outer border of dark brown. Engines built by Sharp, Stewart were dark indigo. Those built by Kitsons were generally blue of an indigo shade, whilst those engines by the Vulcan Foundry had pale blue plates. Neilson-built engines had chocolate-coloured plates, and those from Beyer, Peacock the same green as the locomotive bodies. The trouble is he doesn't state his sources, and just seemed to record everything he found, without checking, so there are several contradictory entries throughout the book. To put this one in context, there are 8 different entries for the year, which all refer to numberplates, yet none of the others mention this rainbow effect. I suspect the L&YR Society has discussed this in the past, but there doesn't seem to be anything about it in the book on L&Y locos.