stewartingram

My dear old lady next door (now deceased) changed some curtains, and donated them to me, complete with linings. I installed a curtain rod above the doors and hung them on that. They really do stop draughts. I'm not bothered that they are second hand, in a place where they can get grubby; they can be easily taken down and washed if required.

When I was working on the Underground (as a contractor for another company) we had to wear hi-vis with our company name on it. Later on, a number of our guys jumped ship to another company new to the Umderground; they too of course had to abide by LU rules and ear named hi-vis. In later years, that company tookon more contracts on the tube - I believe they were "warranty" jobs for new equipments intallations. So for those jobs they had to wear the appropriate named hi-vis. These guys worked on foot, lugging a wheeled toolcase &spare equipment - one of my (ex) workmateds told me he had 4 sets of clothing to carry all day!

I may have pics that I have downloaded, or in books, but not sure I can spend the time to search at the moment, maybe I have some in books as well. They were used on the Ketterng-St.Ives-Cambridge service due to weight restrictions. This was also the limiting factor on the Cambridge- Colchester route (often traversed for seaside specials). Another similar route was St.Ives-Ely. Though closed to passenger traffic, some seaside specials were run that way using the LMS version. Bear in mind that the Kettering trains, if they ever ran to Ely (unlikely), would have to reverse at St.Ives.

There was a Black 5 allocated to 34A for a while.

Much better. Modern trains though, I would have preferred Mk1 coaches, but I grew to them quite rapidly. Good lookers too.

My 1st car, in 1967, was an Austin A30. 12 years old when I got it, I ran it (on a shoestring) for another 12 years, before storing it in the garage. It eventually went to local club owners for spares. I did 250k miles in it, and did all my own maintenance. This was in the day of BMC mix & match engineering off the shelf, there were plenty of spares available from all sources - new,3rd parties, or scrapyards. Mine ended up with a bigger A35 engine, newer A35 gearbox, part of the floor from an A35 to accommodate this, different rear axle, van rear springs, etc.

I even found an older handbook for the early A30, which showed how to reset the engine to run on 80 octane fuel instead of 95 octane. (Basically - think aka paraffin?) My mate had a Minor, his theory was, if you used the starting handle, with the engine set up properly it should start instantly. He wasn't far wrong, it is what I aimed for (without any sophisticated tools). I loved that car, with the good old A series engine.

After a few years with a B series Marina, I was made redundant, and bought a 3 month old demonstrator Ital from the local dealer. It had an A+ engine; that lasted me 250k as well. I then swopped to Rover 800s, and eventually in 2007 to Rover 75, where we are today. But I have a Metro outside partially restored.....

2 hours ago, Sweetling Park said:

This is an interesting announcement and I would be interested in a FCC or GN liveried set if one were produced.

No No NO! I suffered those dratted things too long as a commuter. Marginally better than a 317 was, but they replaced our 365s with both 317 & 321 - an upgrade?

I've built a number of those over the years. Superb low speed control, even on old Triang Jinty chassis & similar.

How to make a crank?

Get bsome sheet material (plasticard or brass)

Cut in to suares, then halve them to make triangles.

Drill 3 holes.

Isn't modelling easier and cheaper if you do it yourself.....

When I purchased one of those (very good) Replica chassis, I also obtained some sideframes from Replica. I was building a 109 3D  mode, and had no sideframes. The ones they supplied may have been BR Mk1s, but are quite close to dmu bogies.

But they are building a new one.

Throw the supplied couplings away; replace them with a wire loop, inserted through holes in the bufferbeam, and araldited behind.

the coupling on the coach will hook onto the new loop.

I thought barrows always had to be parked parallel to the track in case of runaway?

27 minutes ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

Were they riding in a royal park? All royal parks have speed limits: 10 mph as a general rule, but some parks have 15 mph or 20 mph speed limits, and some did use to have a 30 mph limit, but I think the only 30 mph limits have now been reduced to 20 mph. Also local councils might be able to set speed limits for cyclists in their byelaws (but perhaps not on ordinary public roads open to all traffic - the example usually cited is 10 mph on Bournemouth promenade).

Cambridge. 30mph limit on Victoria Avenue(?) alongside Midsummer Common. Coming down the slope off the bridge and then maintaining the speed towards the city Centre.

11 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

The "rules of the road" do - the Highway Code applies to all road users, including pedestrians - but speed limits apply only to motor vehicles, not to cyclists or horse-drwn vehicles.

Around the time I was leaving school in 1964 we used to tailgate the local buses, even lightly touch the rear with the front wheel. One conductor reported one of my mates, and subsequently he was later clocked by the Police at well over 30 mph within the city speed limit (he had a racing style bike).He was fined for speeding. (Not for riding dangerously or whatever).

20 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

I always lock Romford crankpins in with Loctite threadlock. They would still be removable from Markits/Romford wheels with the application of a little heat, if you use superglue they will be there forever. I use them in Gibson wheels as well after drilling and tapping them 10BA.

Locking them in the wheels is essential, it can make a real mess of the motion work if they come unscrewed at speed.

 

When I started work at Pye in Cambridge in 1964, threadlock was not available. We used varnish insteda. This locked threads securely, but they were able to be undone a ta later date. Around 1970 we started using Loctite threadlock.

To this day. I still apply varnish, or paint, to threads to lock them (too tight to buy threadlock).

Next one? The Manea SR brake van?

It ran alongside the canal for much of its length.

If you want an example of saving money like this, you only have to walk into Tesco & look at the prices of Coco-Cola.

Tesco put both the retail price of the item, and also the price per litre (or some other measurement). Check the latter price for a single can/small bottle, or multiple packs thereof, against bigger bottles such as 2L bottles or others. The larger quantity that you purchase, the cheaper per unit iit becomes.

Hornby called the "tender drive/motor bogie" the Ringfield motor. It appeared in many diesel locos, sometimes replacing earlier types.

47 - (replacing the initial Fleischmann type)

52 (new)

25 (new)

21/29 - (new)

37 - (replaced the 31 type bogie)

35 -  (replaced the earlier bogie)

110 - (new)

I'm sure I may have missed some, and haven't mentioned all the steam tyoes.

I've had hundreds of them through me in my repair shop days. Contrary to popular opinion, I've always thought of them as good motors, easily serviced, and if put together with tlc, actually better than new. Add a decent controller and they were a motor for life. No need to replace with anything different.

Past my time but I believe they were later changed to a 5 pole armature type as well.

15 hours ago, Dungrange said:

Are there any tree experts, who can tell me what would have been the most common types of tree along the line of the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway around a century ago?  In particular, I'm interested in the area around Outwell Basin.

 

The caption to the above photograph refers to a line of Poplar trees, on the left of the image, which I think would have formed the tramline boundary (with the tramway itself behind that line of trees).  Unfortunately, these look rather too young to have been around in the early 1920s, so I don't know what would have been there before these were planted.  The photograph below seems to show the same line of trees, but from a different angle.

 

 

Both photographs seem to have been dated 19 April 2009.

 

 

I believe that these trees cross the line of the former tramway, so wouldn't have been around a century ago, but I'm assuming these might be typical of the regions, so what are they?

 

 

Again, I think these are on the line of the tramway (so not around a century ago), but again, what type of trees are these?

That last pic looks like one of the sections where the old canal has been filled in. If so, it must be new growth, possibly natural or possibly some planted.

I did at least expect those cows to run away from the lineside in the opening shot!

Are we going to do a "Titfield" with this one, and have some extras from "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines?

I scan them and keep them on the PC. In fact anything I buy that has an instruction leaflet, I scan; from a Tesco kettle, prescription tablets, or a diy furniture item. 

Blackpool Balloon trams from the 1930s (on rare occasions) in fleet service as a 'B' car

The tramway was rebuilt over 10 years ago, with new Flexity trams put into service (the 'A' fleet). 'Just in case' the need arose  they modifird a handful of Balloons, putting th 'tubby' doors on them so they could use the new platforms that the Flexity trams use. They are normally kept withe rest of the fleet at the old Rigby Road depot (now Tramtown) with the ''C' fleet, which are the Heritage trams, the latter not used in normal service.

However Tramtown is closed for a while due to renovation of the building, and some cars that are used have temporarily moved to the new depot at Starr Gate.

I'm not sure if the B trams have ever been used as planned in normal service, but the possibility is there, however they have been used on heritage tours.

Diverted ECML trains often came through March to Ely & Cambridge, rejoining the ECML at Hitchin. (And obviously in both up and down directions). I'm told there was a weight restriction somewhere on the loop (St.Ives bridges?) which barred them from the loop. 

However  - no internet then _ we were aware of diversions one weekend, and had spent the day spotting in Cambridge, with some timetable info we acquired somewhere. After teatime we left for home; my mate had to cycle back to Histon. He got stopped by the station LC gates being closed, and was astonished to see a Deltic on a diverted up train!