Wheatley

Two hours ? How long does it take to find half a brick ?

Scenic railway modelling was still very much an emerging art form in the 70s, although more refined in the 80s. Scenic modelling as we understand it now really entered the mainstream with Barry Norman's Petherick' in the late 80s. A lot of the pioneer layouts most of us were taking inspiriation from didn't have ballast - Madder Valley, David Jenkinson's various 'Long Drag' layouts for example, and although others like Buckingham GC did, track and infrastructure was very much the poor relation, largely I suspect through lack of readily available information. I remember 'finishing' my 8x6 layout around 1980 by lifting all the track (Hornby System 6 pinned down), glueing a layer of ballast onto the bare chipboard, and nailing the track back on top - 14 yr old me thought it looked so cool with 'proper' ballast ! Even the scenic bits were invariably flock, brickpaper and rubberised lichen. 'Realistic' for us meant sticking flock on the rubberised lichen to look like leaves. Realistic ballast with the sleepers in it rather than on it was more common from the 80s onwards, but the first layout I remember seeing with the lineside done properly - actual point rodding, signal wires, detectors, compensators etc - was Steve Hall's Halifax King Cross in MRJ in 1997.

Your industrial gloom may be perfectly authentic but if people can't see the model clearly they'll walk past and go and look at something else. You're already challenging a lot of exhibition goers by exhibiting something foreign, they don't need more excuses to ignore you. It's a bit like authentic operation of GWR branch line terminii - if you run one train and tell the watching crowd that the next one isn't until half past two this afternoon, you won't get many more invitations. The thing with lighting is you can control it if you set it up properly, arrange it so some sections can be switched off if not needed or experiment with colours - there's a noticeable pink/sepia cast to your first clip. It doesn't have to look like high noon in Southern California, but theatres don't convey the impression of night time by just turning all the lights off.

The Secretary of State for Transport owns the trademark to the double arrows, but the NSE Society has managed to trademark the entire NSE livery ! https://www.nsers.org/trademark.html BRB Residuary went in Dave's bonfire of the Quangos in 2013. Its former responsibilities are dispered between the DfT, RSSB, Highways England and London & Continental Railways.

What also became more common after privatisation was the belief amongst the private TOCs (or at least, the corporate branding wonks in their owning groups) that their 'brand identity' was something to be protected at all costs and not given away to load of nerdy soap dodgers to bring into disrepute. What I always failed to understand was how a toy train with a corporate logo on it could bring a train company's reputation into disrepute. It's not like Hornby et al were producing sex toys or cluster bombs. Others of course realised that their brand could be flogged to the highest bidder, which is how we ended up with horrors like this - https://www.bradford.co.uk/fstreebge.html

Not much involving cheese got past Parmley, he later left the railway to co-found Appleby Creamery when the Express dairy shut. Not a circus train but I have got most of the vehicles together for the Last Farm Move on BR, from Gloucestershire to Wigtownshire in 1962. A pedigree beef herd needs a lot of Beetles...

One Saturday afternoon at Appleby in the 1990s, whilst clearing up after the day's various steam and deisel excursions, I found a carrier bag with a large full Wensleydale cheese in it, obviously left by one of the throng of tourists who had decamped from one of them for a couple of hours in town. Stationmaster and ex-cheesemaker Parmley (well, Railman, but it was definitely his station) was consulted, who recognised it and and believed that it belonged to a lady now heading back towards London via the WCML. He then produced a cheese corer from his pocket (!), sampled it and declared it to be excellent. The Passenger Information Manual was consulted which confirmed that perishable lost property could be disposed of by whatever means were locally expedient. It took us two days to eat it. The cameo is excellent, I have a couple of Airfix WW1 tommies somewhere relaxing on the back of a coal merchant's lorry.

Assuming I've found the right order, the TWAO is held by the Trust - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2010/2136/contents/made Section 2(1) - "the undertaker” (“yr ymgymerwr”) means the Trust and following any sale, lease or underlease under article 17 (transfer of railways by undertaker) this expression shall mean or include the transferee within the meaning of that article;" Section 13.—(1) "The undertaker may operate and use the extension railway and other authorised works as a system, or part of a system, of transport for the carriage of passengers and goods."

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.