stewartingram

Wow! A picture of the real St.Ives - well done. Those 16t wagons would have been in use on the sand train to KGX, with the class 100 on the shuttle to Cambridge. That was soon switched to the old Huntingdon branch platform, which had seen little use for many years, thus leaving the main platforms clear for the sand train and its shunting and run-round. Stewart

and job for today is to take the roofbox green one apart to rip out the lights/pcb/fan drive. Stewart

Actually I have a better loco - I've got rid of those disgusting lights on a green loco! Stewart

Yes, and we are mighty fed up with all these bus replacements, be good to get the trains running again!

"Official" notice (see the logo!) on the wall of Baker St. staff loos, London Underground, note the urinals are o/o/u. ps - the floor was not wet... Stewart

Why not do it in one of the old Airfix 16t kit boxes....even smaller, just 1 wagon... Stewart

And going slightly off topic - notice the effects of the lighting in daylight? A "G" class Light Engine headcode, with a disc surrounding the lower centre light, but all 4 lights, with I believe white painted "reflectors", all (not) showing at about the same brilliance. Heljan (and all purchasers) take note with your W&M railbus! Stewart

A ST switch only has one lever movement. If it has a centre-off position it becomes a DT because there are 2 movements to complete the throw. It can be a simple ST CO or a DT CO centre-off. In the interests of keeping it as simple as I could, I deliberately omitted make-before-break etc so as not to complicate it. I agree that most common switches have sprung contacts; however consider a slide switch or a rotary switch. These can perform exactly the same electrical switching, but the contacts are not sprung over to a rest position. This is determined by the position of the operating knob or whatever. So an electrical definition of the switch contact actually remains the same. Good point about the DPDT - NO though, I confess to having just "plugged in" the relevant code to the original description! Hovever, it is technically possible to build one, just think of a 3 position rotary with NO contact on position 1 & 3, with NC only on position 2. Though why you would...? As I said there are many styles of switch. Even a simple toggle, with a centre off position (ie a DT switch) can be complicated by having a sprung loaded lever, so you cannot park it in one or other (or both) ends of the throws. Stewart

I have absolutely no idea of location, but when I saw the picture I immediately thought of North Norfolk, around Cromer way somewhere; why? Stewart

Simple explanation about relays and switch definitions, maybe this will help? A relay is only a remote controlled switch; Basically you operate 1 switch, which passes current to the relay COIL; by magnetic & mechanical operation the coil then moves the CONTACTS mounted on the relay. These CONTACTS actually function just as a switch would, hence the REMOTE SWITCH analogy. Relays come in many shapes, sizes, and spec as to operating voltage to work the coil, but don't get too worried about that for now. Switches also come in many shapes, such as Toggle, Push, Rotary, Slide, Microswitch etc but all contacts operate in a similar way. SWITCH CONTACTS, which are essentially the same thing as RELAY CONTACTS, can have 3 basic functions. 1) MAKE contact, otherwise known as NORMALLY OPEN. An example of this is a torchlight switch; nothing works until you turn it ON. 2) BREAK contact, otherwise known as NORMALLY CLOSED. Works the opposite way round to the MAKE CONTACT version. 3) PASSING contact, which starts as NORMALLY OPEN; as the switch is operated it goes through a MAKE operation, but the another BREAK operation after that. In other works, it cannot be left ON; a simple example would be the old Triang/Hornby point motor lever switches. Note that a CHANGEOVER contact combines 1) & 2). If the switch lever has only 1 movement, ie moves from one position to only one other, it is known as SINGLE THROW. A lever with 2 movements is DOUBLE THROW. Example: a Centre OFF position, with an ON position in either LEFT or RIGHT. All the above refers only to 1 POLE. ie a 1-wire circuit if you like. If you have 2 poles, in effect you have 2 separate switches (electrically) but actually coupled together mechanically. So you move 1 lever, but move 2 separate sets of contacts, which may be either of the same type, or different. A switch can actually have a number of poles, in practice anything over 4 pole is unusual. For each type of description, a simple code is often used. DPDT- NO is short for:DOUBLE POLE, DOUBLE THROW, NORMALLY OPEN. SPST - CO is SINGLE POLE, SINGLE THROW, CHANGEOVER DPST- NC is DOUBLE POLE, SINGLE THROW, NORMALLY CLOSED. Many other permutations are possible, but should now be easy to work out. Don't forget - relay contacts are only switches so follow the same rules. Hope this helps? Stewart

I lived at Cambridge and saw things first hand. When the steam locos were ousted, train heating was by the boilers fitted within diesel locos. As these were not coupled up until needed for service, they kept a handful of B1 locos to act as semi-mobile train heating boilers, coincedentally the new Model Rail has an article on these. They didn't last too long before the vans arrived. The ones we had at Cambridge were new build though I've heard rumours that some horseboxes were converted, never seen evidence though. Timescale would be about 1962-1963/4 for the B1's, giving way then to the vans; electric train heating of course made them redundant. The horseboxes had the same profile as Mk1 coaches (curved) whilst the vans were flat sided. Edit - just seen the above post from Paul saying they were conversions on old underframes, I stand corrected on the "new-build" but in pedant mode! Stewart

Mine came as a bare chassis block, I simply threw the pcb away as well as the lights. Much easier! Stewart

And just take note of the lighting - just 1 DIM OIL LAMP. Stewart

Just about right, but my interest is GE/East Anglia. Nice pic though. Stewart

The early Triang one, but that was too short, is the one you probably mean. And I've just backdated a Lima one too.... Stewart

Nice pic, but to me thats a standard 101, of whatever variation. I'm looking for the "pre-101" that never made TOPS. Thats the 79xxx number series, with the skirt below the bufferbeam. Stewart

And for a bit of variety try this one:-

Would look silly with a pantograph though. Stewart

No collector shoes fitted yet? Stewart

As it happens, yes I did! Stewart

I was hoping you wouldn't mention a J11.....more expense! Stewart

Can anyone point anything towards the M&GN with the 4F or am I imagining that they went that way? Stewart

Try this for size:

Daily Mirror perhaps? Stewart

The 101 was never one of "OUR" units at Cambridge in the green era. Mid-60's saw the introduction of the Leicester/Birmingham through workings, mostly using units from that end, which were a mix of mainly 101 & 104 cars,usually in mixed car formations. In fact I have a 6-car model, using a Lima 101 & Hornby (converted 110) 104, with 1 car in each unit in blue, the others in green. No, the Met-Camms for Cambridge were the pre-historic 79xxx series, with the bufferbeam skirts. Would be good to see those produced, even if I've only just done a conversion on a Lima 101 ! Stewart