robertcwp

There is no reason why they should not have been. The BR crimson CL in the photo carries the number E88090, which was built as 63288 (Great Eastern section) in 1927 and withdrawn in 1959, so it would have been around for five years after the BR Standard non-gangwayed stock appeared. Mixed sets of Mark I and Thompson stock seem to have been more common. The Thompson non-gangwayed stock was far more numerous than the non-articulated Gresley stock, though the vast majority of the Thompson stock was not built until after nationalisation.

I agree it is a poor choice - I would have much preferred a brake composite or even a non-gangwayed full brake. The other three types will allow lots of prototypical formations to be modelled. A basic formation of BT-CL-BT was common, supplemented by Thirds where necessary.

The 1975 carriage workings show the local service generally 2 Hap Strood-Maidstone West and Strood-Paddock Wood. Some other stock appeared, eg EPBs on peak-hour through services to/from Cannon Street or Charing Cross via Dartford. Also a 4 Vep was listed on the 0713 Strood-Paddock Wood (with 4 Hap detached Maidstone West) and 0805 return, which was through to Charing Cross, picking up another 4 Vep (ex Gillingham) at Strood. There was an 0724 Charing Cross-Maidstone West, headcode 02 (via Tonbridge I think) formed 4 Cep/2 Hap, which then formed the 0845 Maidstone West-Charing Cross, via Strood, collectingn another 4 Hap ex-Gillingham at Strood. Evening peak departures from Charing Cross included the 1806 headcode 82 (via Greenwich) to Gillingham and Maidstone West, formed 4 EPB for Gillingham and 6 Hap for Maidstone, and an 1804 headcode 4 for Ashford and Maidstone West formed 6 Hap for Ashford, 4 EPB for Maidstone, dividing at Tonbridge. Cannon Street had a 1752 headcode 91 to Ramsgate via Canterbury West, Ashford and Maidstone West, formed of a 4 Cep for each and dividing at Tonbridge and Ashford. Here are a couple of Haps on the local services: 6154 6121

Having looked again at some photos, I suspect that the raised metal arrows might have continued beyond 7720. Have a look at this one: Full image is here.

Ends are critical to the look of a model and Hornby's ends just don't look right. I agree that the gangway door is too far back, the cab front windows don't look right and the horns are too small. The cab windows would probably be the most awkward to deal with.

Unpainted aluminium window frames came in from 7711. Here is a new 7712 with them.

7809-15 also came out in blue. Here is 7809. 7701-10 had the window frames painted blue, like this. 7701-20 had raised metal double arrows. Later units had transfers, and these changed in size during the build. Compare 7809 above with this view of 7734.

If you look carefully, you can see through the glass partition to the white antimacassars on the headrests in first class in this view of 7756 at Horsham in 1979. Note also the modified glazing and the orange curtains.

The bar across the buffers is to receive a sprat & winkle coupling, which I use at the ends of coaching stock rakes and on wagons (though not all wagons otherwise I would be here for the rest of time fitting them). Tension locks are used within rakes for convenience and flexibility.

More new toys to play with. D823 having its first service run. I'm not keen on the lights as both cabs light up on DC. Neither cab would normally have the lights on in operation (so far as I am aware). P1050464as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr Mailcoach 'Tourist Stock' buffet car built by Brian Kirby: P1050462as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

First outing today for some Bachmann BGs repainted plain crimson and plain maroon by Brian Kirby - just to make sure Bachmann introduce these livery variants next year. P1050459as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr P1050460as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr Also a test run for a Hornby Met-Cam unit with repainted ends, also by Brian. Still needs end detailing added and out of place period-wise on the layout at present: P1050461as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr The unit modelled is the one that was used on a tour over what was left of the GC London Extension shortly before closure in 1969. Here is the real thing at Arkwright Street: 101_ArkwrightStreet_RCTS TheForester_19-4-69 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

See also the PDF attached to this post.

There are some Woodhead images in my collection - in the Great Central set.

I wondered why one of my Western photo collection suddenly had 65 hits in one day. The only one of the major hydraulic classes where the roof fan grilles were on the roof centre line were the D800 Warships. Hymeks had an offset grille, as did Westerns. One of Lima's many mistakes on their Western was to put the grilles on the centre line of the roof. On the Western, the walkways were on the roof centre line. This shot is a better illustration.

A few more. Firstly a very full station: P1050450as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr Two views of RU prototype W1900 - a Bachmann model, which is of a standard RU, but with two windows on the corridor side altered by Brian Kirby to bring it closer in appearance to the prototype: [P1050444as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr P1050445as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

It will soon be time to move the layout on a bit in terms of period, with the appearance of yellow panels and disappearance of most of the crimson/cream stock and some steam classes. Time for some more photos. A new Bachmann 03: P1050439as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr Hornby (ex-Lima) Met-Cam unit: [P1050432as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr Blue Pullman - the next time a Midland set appears on the layout it will, hopefully, be the new Bachmann one instead of this one: P1050440as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr View looking from the back of the layout: P1050438as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr Push-pull, built by Brian Kirby: P1050435as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr A 30 approaches the station: P1050434as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr Silver Fox 10203, also soon to be replaced with something better, hopefully: P1050430as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr An 08 propels a Maunsell set from an inter-regional service into the carriage sidings: P1050429as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr W34W in crimson hauls a Hawksworth BG: P1050428as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr A Clan makes an appearance: P1050425as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr 10203 again: P1050423as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr Cravens and Met-Cam units in platforms 7 and 6 respectively: P1050422as by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

I have now had a more extensive look and it is a useful reference source. The annual totals of vehicles of each class in stock highlight something - the largest classes in terms of vehicle numbers for which there have been no RTR 00 models appear to be: 116: 320 vehicles (Derby 3-car suburban) 104: 302 vehicles (BRCW 2- 3- and 4-car sets) 120: 194 vehicles (Swindon Cross-country) The combined total for the Derby 4-car suburban Classes 115 and 127 is 284 vehicles. The book includes small versions of the BR diagrams from the diagram book. In consequence, they carry over the errors in the official diagrams, notably they cannot be relied upon for the guard's door arrangement for Metro-Cammell vehicles, which appears to have changed between the original lightweight yellow diamond vehicles and the first blue square vehicles, then changed again for later blue square ones. Similarly, the end variations on some DMU classes may match the diagram book but not necessarily what was built. Seems to be very little to quibble about though, and looks much more thorough and accurate than the notoriously error-strewn Brian Morrison book of a few years ago (though that one was much better for photos).

British Railways First Generation DMUs by Hugh Longworth, published by Ian Allan under the OPC imprint, £24.99. 272 pages large format hardback. Goes through all classes with diagrams, numbers, built, withdrawn and scrapped dates, allocations when new and in 1960 and 10-yearly intervals thereafter. Looks to be a thorough work with no obvious howlers at first glance. Not a vast number photos I haven't seen before but, in contrast with some other recent IA books, they are reproduced well.

The notes state clearly that they are formations extracted from the carriage workings, and I agree you need to cross-check with photos. The Merchant Venturer was one of the Festival of Britain trains with BR Standard Stock in Summer 1951 and interestingly it is not listed as BR Standard Stock in the Winter 1951-2 workings, suggesting that the Bristolian set listed came largely from the Merchant Venturer minus the catering cars. Photos are more plentiful from the mid-1950s onwards and The Bristolian is a train that usually matches exactly between carriage workings and photos/film (lots of trains don't match). That does not guarantee such a match in 1951 though. The problem with photos is dating - captions are often inaccurate so you need to look for additional evidence, eg condition of loco. It's possible the train was a set of Mark I stock apart from the buffet car by Autumn 1951 as the stock had been introduced earlier that year. In fact, very early on the WR and LMR tended to keep their few sets of Mark I stock together until gangway adaptors had been fitted more generally to their stock of pre-nationalisation designs. There were contemporary reports of this problem in 1951 - the LMR even ended up borrowing vehicles from the SR and ER that had Pullman gangways and buck-eye couplings to substitute for non-available BR Standards in the Royal Scot - a published photo of that train with a Bulleid coach in the set confirms this happened. For a photo of a full Mark I set on the Bristolian (apart from buffet car) in 1953 see 'Locomotive Headboards - The Complete Story' by Dave Peel (Sutton Publishing 2006) page 20. Never mind the caption, the photo can be dated to 1953 by the Coronation crown on the headboard. However, the one slightly odd thing is that the train appears to be running on the relief lines.

This might help. I don't think the crown was carried for the whole of 1953 - only the period around the Coronation. Bristolian Notes 4-4-11.pdf

I have a 1982 Scottish Region carriage working book (with a few pages missing). It was up in PDF form on my Yahoo Group and can still be made available.

I have at last been putting my Hornby Hawksworth coaches into service on my layout. I found it was not difficult to cut back the gangways so they were behind the buffers where I was fitting Sprat & Winkle couplings. I did this by removing the gangways and cutting off the back. The gangway faceplate keeps the gangway in shape. I found virtually every wheelset to have sub-standard back-to-backs. Not by much, but they didn't fit my 14.5 mm gauge so all needed adjusting. Where tension locks were retained I substituted spare Bachmann ones of similar size but with shorter hooks, which closes up the gap between vehicles. I found several were very prone to derailing, which appeared to be because the coupling mechanisms caught on the bogies. This seemed to arise mainly when coming off of a curve. A small amount of oil on the mechanism seemed to help. I have not yet tackled the curtains.

Here is my Diagram 16 RF built by Brian Kirby on a Bachmann RU base using etched sides made by Bob Reid: Comet and Southern Pride both do the other Mark I RF, the very different Diagram 17 built for the LMR in the early 1960s.

That's fine if all your other stock has those couplings or if you run fixed rakes. However, the Hawksworth coaches will be mixed with various others and my standard is tension lock within rakes and likely to remain so unfortunately. Bit like being stuck with 00. I have used the Roco ones on the Maunsell set as that is a fixed set, and they work well.

For the Staniers, I found the replacement long gangways were a kind of stretch fit but all mine went in OK with a bit of encouragement and without the need for any glue. Keep the short gangways as if you cut off the lugs you can glue them to the end of a Hawksworth if you need a retracted gangway. I have found the gangways on the Hawksworths are glued on but will come off without too much difficulty with the aid of a sharp knife. I put ex-Stanier gangways on both ends of my Hawksworth crimson/cream BG as I needed the gangway ends to be behind the buffers for fitting Sprat & Winkle couplings. I gave the vehicle a test today and it was fine. Also, the Hornby tension lock couplings are too long. I use tension locks within rakes and am not going to modify over 400 coaches of lots of makes, so am stuck with them. I found that a straight Bachmann coupling fits and reduces the gap between vehicles as the Bachmann ones have shorter hooks. I tried this on a Hawksworth SK today. The Bachmann couplings I used were spares and had the number 2 on them. They come in various sizes I believe.