Arun Sharma

Mike - Of course you're correct - it is brick. Senior moment. Given that Brunel had a house very close to Steventon, may be part of the reason why that bridge was one of those listed.

The Steventon High Street bridge is a spectacularly ugly concrete thing but I understand that it is also a listed structure. That may well have had an influence on whether track lowering or bridge alteration was seen as the way ahead.

As far as I know, the only 'major industrial development' at Wantage Road is the Williams F1 factory - which is closed for several weeks during the summer under F1 rules.

 

However the road is also the only road north out of Wantage and Grove for the residents of both towns.

The problem was not the bridge by the Volunteer PH - It was that long-term simultaneous work was taking place on the main A34 bridge at Didcot and hence the two main [and only extant] routes routes south from Oxford [A34 and A338] would have been dramatically obstructed simultaneously. Not surprisingly the local councils said, "Not on yer nelly" or words to that effect. If I was being unkind, I would suggest that whoever thought up such a scheme had not spent more than two seconds seeking local knowledge or was unable to read an AA 3miles to the inch road map.

Had a wander around Birmingham [en-route CMA]  today in heavy rain on a day when OHLE had been bought down in the Coventry area. It seems I chose the day when HM The Queen was visiting. Around 1330 [after the Visitors, police and press had gone] only unit 35 was left with its display commemorating the event.

I use Helicon software for focus stacking - Mainly to photograph 0gauge models. An example is in the Tramway>trackless trollies area of "Special Interests" where I photographed a 1/43rd scale trolleybus. Pretty impressed with the software and I suspect it might have rendered my old Nikon 85mm tilt/shift lens obsolete.

Doing the test build and writing instructions at the moment for the Radley Models 1/43rd scale London K3 class trolleybus. This was a small class of 25 buses that followed on from the previous 275 K1 and K2 classes- the major differences being the removal of route stencil holders and [compared to the K1] a rather more compact pair of radio suppressors attached to the trolley gantry. Additionally they had the side lights mounted in the front valance rather than as "ears" sticking out of the cab.  Working out the correct order of build is something of a pain at times and sometimes you end up taking a step back after two steps forward. However, all that remains really is to put in some handrails, glazing the two decks and then adding the wheels. These are specially done 1/43rd scale WM castings which gives the model some considerable mass.

Many thanks to Mister Spoons for allowing me to download his seating moquette pattern. The alternative "RT-type" moquette will be available as a free download from www.radleymodels.com website in due course. 

Currently aiming for a late June kit release.

Ed - You may be interested to know that Tim Shackleton in his Wild Swan published book "Plastic Bodied Locos" did a pretty extensive 25 page review of un-rebuilt WC pacifics based around his model of Coombe Martin. Well worth digging out a copy if you're interested in that particular engine. The front cover has a colour pic of his model - cycling lion on the tender, red nameplate and scroll but no crest. He does mention that the scrolls moved six inches vertically upwards after the 1953 overhaul!

If you're interested, the ISBN is 1-874103-52-6

Ted

Why not take a look at www.radleymodels.com  - they have ancient and modernish UK-pattern 1/43rd scaleroad vehicles and buses. The spelling on the site is a bit strange but Phil's going to be at the ALSRM show [Reading] this coming weekend with the road vehicles displayed on the stand.

That's an interesting point of view Indomitable026. I did say that I had carried out the test build of a new kit - I had assumed that most people reading this forum would realise that test builds of new kits are done by the designer. After all who else would know the designer's intent!

Are we all to assume from your comment that you consider kit design and subsequent test building a rather less worthy activity in the great scheme of things than kit conversions?

If so, then you might find yourself in a tiny minority in this forum and I shall happily carry on designing kits and RTR for others to sell.

Ted675 - not my real name of course

This is the test build of the 7mm version of 20003 as produced by Radley Models - complete with Markits Spencer-Moulton HD buffers and a Judith Edge N-S pantograph. The centre roof section containing the pantograph hasn't been glued in place as this particular model will be a stand demo one and thus regularly in transit - with the pantograph and roof bit securely packed in bubblewrap!

Transfers for this scale and period [1957-63ish] are readily available from Fox and they even produce the number sets. Not a difficult kit to build - basically just adding various lost wax bits to some large resin castings. The build has been photographed all the way through and will form the instruction sheets and probably also a downloadable *.pdf in due course.

The 1992 stock in NSE livery was built as an extra build order for the line and I believe originally was identical apart from colour to the Central Line 1992 stock. However, since then the central line version stock has been modified for automatic train operation and thus is no longer compatible with the W&C stock. I don't know whether the body shell [at the cab end] mods and bogie mods done to the 1992 Central Line stock have been replicated on the W&C cars. The handrails etc inside the cars are of course red on the Central Line stock and Teal blue/green on the W&C stock.

Interesting that in its whole existence from 1898 to 2014, there have only been three types of passenger rolling stock used on the line. The original stock which lasted till 1940 [well shown in the film - for which thanks!], the 1940 Bulleid stock and its [currently serving] replacement, the modified 1992 LT tube stock.

Many thanks for those replies - especially impressed by pictures of my [almost] all-time favourite tube stock.

Ted675

Thank you all very much for your prompt and helpful replies. 

Ted675

Many of you will know that the 1940s W&C Stock received heavy overhaul at Lancing and Eastleigh and that it did run on the mainline to get there. However on the occasions that cars and units needed to be towed a wooden matchwagon was coupled to the Ward [tube-sized buckeye] coupler on the car and the other end of the wagon coupled to a loco. My question is this, " Does anyone know what locos in both steam and diesel/electro-diesel days would have been used for these tows?". I'm guessing that it would have been something fairly large like an S15 but that is simply a guess - Any ideas anyone?

Ted675