Wheatley

Provided they aren't covered in fluff they can be refreshed by brushing over with decal emulsion (Microscale Liquid Decal Film or similar) after which they will behave like Pressfix decals. Alternatively, it they can still be used as Methfix but they won't stick dry, let the tissue float off and the adjust the position before pressing gently into place with a cotton bud etc. You will have to rescue them from the cotton bud occasionally, but one they've dried out they can be sealed with varnish* to make them stay put. I find the second method a major faff and only use it if that sheet has the only remaining decal of that type on it ! *Not Kleer - meths fogs it.

Lima vans - correct, the CCT on the right is a BR Mk1 vehicle, mid 1950s onwards. The bogie van is fine apart from the BR bogies, which can be replaced with spares from Bachmann. Hornby - BR Mk1 brake third on the left, the POS (Post Office, Sorting) on the right is surprisingly accurate for an LMS vehicle apart from the bogies (BR again) and the toy operating bits. It's pretty close to one of the 57' designs albeit with some 60' features (the toilet window I think). They did operate in ones and twos attached to passenger trains, not just in full TPOs. Dapol - Period 2 non-corridor lav composite, usually a suburban coach but could be used as a strengthener. The brake third is Period 3 and accurate. If you want to keep the Dapol bogies use brass pinpoints to keep the wheelsets in, otherwise swap for Bachmann LMS bogies. Both accurate but a bit basic by current standards. 'Tri-ang' - Hornby 1980s vintage I believe, generic Period 3 LMS composite, kind of looks like all of them without being accurate for any of them. Generic bogies again. The heavy lines on the roof are correct, if poorly done on the Hornby ones and a bit overdone on the Airfix/Dapol ones. The lines on LMS coach roofs were prominent flat strips covering the butt joints between the roof panels, whereas those on most Mk1s were welds. Mainline - correct, Period 1 BTK, and an accurate model of it too although in the later livery. The other one is an Airfix/Dapol composite, I think, accurate if it is, but a bit light on underframe detail and it looks as though the windows might have been replaced, the Airfix/Dapol ones usually have a heavy prismatic effect. Finally - Hornby or possibly Tri-ang BR Mk1 brake third. As for what you could use, all the LMS coaches there are in the later 'simplified liveries, and the Period 3 coaches are suitable for 1933 onwards (dates vary for each diagram). The Precedents were almost gone by 1933, so really only the Mainline MK1 and the non-corridor composite out of that lot, and then perhaps only in the earlier fully lined livery. But it's your trainset and Rule 1 applies. Have a look at Ben Alder's Far North Line - he's got locos on there which only ever existed on paper, never mind didn't survive that long, and it's totally convincing.

Diagram books for 1st gen multiple units are on the Barrowmore site, all should have at least a basic side elevation. For 2nd gen multiple units 'as built' the BR Traction Manuals have a 3 view line drawing in them but good luck finding them on line, I can't. For anything later the drawings will usually be electronic and only accessible to the manufacturer, TOC etc. Training manuals these days tend to use photos rather than drawings because they are usually produced in house; no TOCs employs draughtsmen or technical illustrators afaik, but anyone can use a camera. As far as I'm aware none of them employ archivists either so unless you accidentally drop on the right person they won't be able to help.

Very nice indeed Steve, not many others around either ;-) The GUV did have the curved-under ends, there's a very clear photo in one of the Chenoa "Railways in Profile" volumes.

No other plastic kits of semaphores as far as I'm aware but the Ratio and MSE parts can be cross-kitted. Typically MSE arms and counterbalance weights etc on Ratio posts. Someones does (or did) one piece brass ladders in quite thick brass, they don't have the finesse of the MSE ones with separate treads and stiles but they are way above the Ratio ones.

That's a far more sensible height. This was my first box, we didn't clean the windows very often.

This is the connection with the main line between Carron and Dailuaine halt, I believe that is Carron's distant signal. https://flic.kr/p/WpKq1f There are some stunning photos of the pugs working at Dailuaine and Balmenach distilleries in that album too. The juxtoposition between the gorgeous Barclay pug and the monstrous 7 storey asbestos granary at the latter is just crying out to be modelled !

Dailuaine was connected to the LNER/BR line by a tablet operated ground frame, although how exactly the tablet would be acquired to release it is a good question - quite possibly by walking to Carron box to collect it if it was only half a mile ! http://gnsra.org.uk/index_htm_files/Abs 21 Signalling May 2014.pdf - page 15 refers. Local instructions would have set out exactly how things were carried out but good luck finding a copy of those ! Normal practice elsewhere on BR where unfitted trains were permitted to run over passenger lines without brakevans (there were a few, as late as the 1980s) would be for the last vehicle to carry a tail lamp on the draw hook, that's why the handle of a BR oil tail lamp is such an odd shape. It doesn't stop anything running away but it does give you an indication on arrival at Carron that you've left a bit behind somewhere. As it was regular movement the distillery crew would have been passed out on the rules which applied to them as mentioned earlier. Elsewhere, where mainline movements were less frequent then a BR crew would be provided to conduct, an example of this would be NCB locos moving between collieries or between colliery and central workshops for overhaul.

Rails around the veranda and rails across the window are both there to stop you falling off whilst cleaning the windows, the latter by holding onto the bar with one hand whilst cleaning the window with the other. You can decide for yourself whether cleaning windows one-handed makes you more or less likely to fall off ! They will not stop you falling out of the window, generally being fixed at just the right height to bang your head on rather than lean against. Window washing to be carried out using parrafin and newspaper, none of this newfangled soap stuff.

It's unlikely that there was an advanced starter beyond your Shunt Ahead signal, the driver would know that he had authority to proceed only as far as was necessary to clear the points to set back.

That would work if the foam is thick enough. Cut a hole in the board directly below it so you can drop the motor out for repair or replacement if required otherwise you'll be lifting track if one ever fails.

Solenoid point motors will work via wire-in-tube provided there aren't too many bends in the tube. http://lytchettmanor.co.uk.websitebuilder.prositehosting.co.uk/lytchett-manor/mercontrol---point-control

Have to agree with Fenman here re Shildon. It's first on my list of places to revisit once we're allowed out, despite having to drive past NRM York to get to it. As modern museums go it's one of the better ones.

I suspect that if it was BR policy then it was either a local one, or it was largely ignored. BR shunters sold into NCB service seem to have been sold 'as is' - it wouldn't have taken long to peel the stickers off if BR was that bothered. In the 1990s there was a policy on not letting steam charter passengers wander about on the track during water stops. My boss at the time decided that the way to deal with this at Garsdale was to ignore it and issue an instruction that Garsdale box was to block back to Kirkby Stephen to allow them to do exactly that not only with permission but protected by the block ! "They aren't trespassing if they're invited". He ignored the Regional Railways painting schedule for signalboxes too, which is why they are all maroon and cream to this day.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usp0002qu8/executive 1986 apparently.

This is part of the Hendry Union Connectivity Review which is also considering the Boris Bridge. There's no guarantee either will be built, he could decide to subsidise air links or upgrade the A55 to motorway instead. Or not.

Don't know about the GCR Coal Railway but I do know a bit about the Worsborough Tramway. I had a job in Worsborough Country Park in the summer of 1987, the bridge which took the tramway from the canal basin over the river towards the Red Lion / Button Mill / whatever it's called now was still in use by us in Landrovers, it was a very overgrown stone arch with no parapets, just a wooden railing and I'd be suprised if the Council Engineer knew we were taking vehicles over it. None of us dared to take the big tractor over it, that went in via the gate on West Street. From there the tramway follows the south side of Worsborough Res before it disappears under the M1. Carry on towards Wentworth Castle, in the fields somewhere to the SE of it the tramway went through a tunnel to avoid spoiling the view from the house, part of which is still there. We went in there one evening on a school trip to watch the bats which roost in it, I doubt that's still allowed. The Borough Engineer for Worsborough was at one time a lovely man called John Shepherd, he attended my parents' church and gave me a tracing of a map of the tramway when it was operational. He was in his 90s by then I believe. It's in the loft somewhere, if I can find it I'll photograph it for you. Part of the job involved patrolling the railway line from Worsborough Bridge up to West Silkstone Jcn in Landrovers to check on the anti-motorbike barriers, including walking through the tunnels without a torch for a dare, but that's another story.

No. Either replace with a new drawbar with the holes close together, or reposition the tender 'peg' a bit further back. Beware of the tender cab roof 'lip' catching the cab roof proper though, you might have to doctor the front corners a bit. Mine goes round r3 curves (just) with a 4mm gap.

Yes, they're only correct for some of the numerous variants, it may be necessary to shorten bogies or make new ends for others.

The Airfix or Dapol roof will be closer than the BR MK1 roof. Some of them were built with a flatter roof, more like a LNWR cove roof, not quite as flat as a NBR one, but not all. They are a nightmare group of coaches for detail differences, multiple diagrams built in penny numbers for specific bits of specific services. Vacuum brake arrangements seem to have depended on what was lying around on the floor when they were converted, those done at Newton Heath used recovered ex-L&Y horizontal vac cylinders for example. For underframe arrangements, it's basically a 4 bar truss as my pic above but with much variation of detail fittings. I can't remember now if I guessed the position of the dynamo or took it from Jenkinson's drawing. If anyone wants a 'proper' one, Caley Coaches do rather nice etched kits for several of them. Edit - here's a real Tri-ang one in 1953, it's the same diagram as mine (I think) but the battery boxes are in different positions: https://newtonabbotrailwaystudies.co.uk/portfolio-item/20389-grampian-bck-brlmr-ex-cr-grampian-full-brake-at-bolton-great-moor-street-26-07-1953/

Indeed. There aren't any on Dent Head viaduct, half a viaduct is a frighteningly long way to run with one coming in each direction.

Hopefully TSE will correct me if I'm wrong, but Ratio do these or something close as kits. Their ref 714 for the 4 compt brake third, and 711 for the composite (which is actually a first with the third class compartments reduced in length by internal partitions according to Jenkinson). The kits represent the 8'6" wide version with 10'0" bogies, others were 9'0" wide and/or with 8'0" bogies. It's quite an attractive set and I like the Ratio kits, I wonder if any ended up in SW Scotland ? :-)

Except where the Brittanias were too heavy. They were barred from the Port Road because of weight restrictions (the timber viaduct over the Cree I believe), which is why the Clans were used. The alternative was usually two Black Fives.

There's a fairly recent thread on here covering Clan performance. Short version - they were well thought of by the depots which used them in Class 6 (eg Jubilee) diagrams and didn't try to use them like Brittanias.

8I'm going to stick my neck out and say Midland, based on the duckets and the fact that that it's a BT/C/BT set, it appears to be close coupled and it matches the description if not exactly the actual drawings of the various Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Metropolitan and Nottingham sets on pages 98/99 of 'Historic Carriage Drawings'. 4 compt BT matches as does the 7 compt composite, although it shoild be 4 first 3 third. They're the Ratio coaches, exvept the layout of the brake compartments doesn't quite match the drawing. Jenkinson gives extinction dates around 1957-9 for most of them.