robertcwp

I think these must date from the early days of the layout when it was still under development. More recently, Graham rebuilt the cement terminal end to add the potential for through running along the back. 20180210_131504_m by Robert Carroll, on Flickr P1050615as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr 20160417_103035am by Robert Carroll, on Flickr The layout has no more exhibition bookings. Its last show to date was Loughborough last August and the one before that was pre-pandemic at Swansea in 2019.

The P4 layout 'Harton Gill', largely the work of Graham Broad, which I have helped to operate at many exhibitions is small (four 4' x 2' boards and some cassettes) is interesting to operate and hopefully to watch as an exhibition visitor. There is no set sequence but there is scope for three different things to be happening at once. Graham's new layout is a bit bigger (24' x 2') and I have not yet seen it. It's currently stored temporarily following a house move and is awaiting the construction of a new railway room to house it. It should also be interesting to operate and to watch, with an end-to-end line at the back and shunting going on at the front. I like operating Retford and have written the basic sequence for it. It has potential for additional operators, such as to shunt the goods yard, but even without that, there is plenty to do. The sequence I wrote has over 100 moves and is designed to move all the trains (some more than once) and includes some shunting in and out of carriage sidings. Not yet tested is the planned setting back into the goods yard of a transfer freight from the Whisker Hill direction. The sequence is as much about checking it all works and runs properly as anything else. It takes a few hours to get through everything as even an express takes around two minutes to do a circuit of the GN. Little Bytham is also interesting from an operating point of view as it combines through expresses and freights with stopping trains, shunting and setting back and occasional switching between fast and slow lines. What I don't like at exhibitions is layouts where things go wrong all the time or which are not used to their potential.

Diag 73 FOs built new with Commonwealth bogies from 1961 were 3101-51 plus the trial batch on E3076-80 in 1956. None had B4 bogies from new although many gained them from the mid-1960s.

It’s not new. It’s been there for decades.

Retford is another layout that benefits from the availability of RTR stock but few passenger trains on the GN side are wholly RTR. The King's Cross-Glasgow comes close. The loco is DJH (built by Sandra), all the stock is RTR except the ex-streamlined twin, which is Mailcoach, built by Brian Kirby. The others are all Bachmann Mark 1s except one Hornby Mark 1 FO and a Bachmann Thompson SK. If Hornby does the new Coronation stock in BR liveries (with the additional doors), the whole train could be done RTR, as could the West Riding. The existing West Riding set is all kit-built apart from a Hornby BSO at the end, which replaced a carriage that moved to the Talisman to replace one that was missing. Although there are lots of kit-built wagons on Retford, recent additions to restock the layout (it was depleted somewhat when Sandra acquired it) have mostly been RTR, often acquired at good prices from stands at exhibitions.

Renumbering wagons is well into the 'life's too short' category for me, as is fiddling about to get them absolutely right. The renumbering issue also applies to carriages. Such things matter much more to some than others. You have to be pretty close to see the numbers are the same but I can see at 20 feet away (or more) whether a train has a tail lamp or is in a prototypical formation, and much more.

I reckon I fall into all three categories here. Don't know and don't much care would apply to lots of layouts I see that depict things I know little or nothing about and don't have much interest in. Do know and can give chapter and verse - BR up to about 1980 passenger trains and units. Know it looks wrong but don't necessarily know what would make it right - most freight, although I am getting better at this for the early BR years.

5-10% might be optimistic for most shows!

Some show attendees will appreciate an accurate train formation.

The Statement of Affairs has now been published on Companies House website here.

Thanks for this but, unfortunately, my computer tells me the file is suspicious due to a virus or potentially unwanted software!

Thanks for reminding me of the conversation about the tender. I believe lumps of iron ore have been found on the trackbed of the branch from Highdyke. 50 years from closure, it may be difficult to find now.

On the subject of A4 tenders, is there a summary of them anywhere? Yea don gives tender numbers but I could not quickly find where there is a list of which type each number was.

I didn't realise we were under surveillance. 😁 I cannot now recall the exact conversation but it was probably related to what was in period for the late 1950s. I think we might have noted the overhead warning flashes too.

Not necessary to change the whistle for horns. Some Phase I Beps and Ceps retained whistles after they received yellow panels. A late 1960s Ian Allan abc has a photo of a GSYP Bep with whistle but I cannot recall the number. I thought of doing a similar forward dating of a green Bep but the buffet car bogies are the awkward bit. It might be possible to fit normal Commonwealths or cut the side frames off and put CW ones on instead.

It might be unlikely that such stock appeared at Little Bytham. However, SR stock did appear on the southern end of the East Coast Main Line, such as here: 60047_nrHatfield_sbound_20-8-61 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr I have no idea what the working was.

The headcodes on the two passenger trains displaying them correspond to the 1969-70 timetable, but not earlier timetables. So, I think summer 1969 is most likely, or possibly 1970.

Yes, the Queen of Scots. Front two cars of the down train were detached at Leeds Central where the train reversed. They were then added to what became the front of the up working after arrival, so they were the leading two cars both ways. On the Harrogate Sunday Pullman, they worked to/from Bradford.

The formation seems to have changed in 1959 to put the catering right at the front for easy detachment at Leeds Central. Never mind the inconvenience for the passengers, especially those towards the rear of the train.

However, both these trains were listed as Mark 2a air braked stock in the May 1969 carriage workings and the 1Lxx headcodes were not used on the ECLM prior to May 1969 so far as I am aware.

This is from the 1959 carriage workings: 1300 Sunday Kings Cross-Leeds 1959 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr In 1960, the RK was replaced by an RF.

1A67 was the up Yorkshire Pullman in the 1967-8 timetable.

Do you have a year for these images? In the May 1969 timetable, 1A27 was the 13.00 Newcastle-King's Cross. 1L16 was the 13.20 King's Cross-Leeds.

1N83 was the Bournemouth-York/Newcastle through train. This image will be from a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, when the SR set worked north.

That is one of the three c1953 kitchen buffet conversions of what were originally Gresley restaurant thirds built in early LNER days. They had been in ambulance trains in WW2 if I recall correctly. There is no kit available so far as I am aware but one would come in very handy for Retford as both boat trains currently have Hornby Gresley buffet cars. One set will have an ex-GER car, which Sandra is building.