lazythread

C13934 - the pigeon van lives on in preservation and has been restored on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It's number is 70754.

On 13/11/2023 at 21:27, Gwiwer said:

I was on the first public train from Heathrow Central as it then was which was 1973 stock and bound for Cockfosters.  Upon arrival at Hatton Cross I swapped smartly to  the first westbound public train to Heathrow Central which was also 1973 stock and which, according to those aboard, had worked through from somewhere north of the central area.  That should not have been possible but the westbound was a few minutes late largely because of the number of enthusiasts aboard.  

 

So there were at least two 1973 stock trains in use that day.  I don't recall seeing anything else running beyond Hatton Cross but do remember that 1959 stock reached there once the first leg of the extension from hounslow West opened.  

 

HMQ, who opened the extension, might have had a special train just ahead of the first public trip which may have been the one that went back to Northfields.  

I forgot that LURS have published all the back issues of Undergroung News on their website - if you go to the February 1978 edition it gives full details including the individual car numbers of the trains.  The Queen did have her own train, including unit 244.

It was the Hatton Cross inauguration that used a 1973 stock specially for the opening journey as they were not yet in general service.

I commuted from Hounslow West to Barons Court, from August 1976 until late 1980 and the '59's were there in force to Heathrow for a while. LURS will know the date of the last '59 on the Piccadilly, I'm away from my books otherwise I'd look it up. It may well have been the special 3-car 1962 stock Aldwych unit - 1750-2750-1751 - as I think Aldwych was the last to get 1973 stock.

They put a 1973 stock train into service specially to open Heathrow and then I believe it went straight back into Northfields.

Piccadilly 1938 tube stock made it to Hatton Cross - just - they didn't have destination plates made up and displayed HOUNSLOW on the front.

After the gangway was added, 54287 was paired with Metro-Cammell class 101 DMBC 53155 to form unit L211. I rode on it a couple of times on the Marlow branch around 1990. 53155 was unique as the only Class 101 brake to gain a first class section.

Hi David, congratulations on reaching 1000 pages.

J1055 shows experimental window treatment on BSO E9249 - a very useful colour shot. I am not sure if this was the only coach so treated.

Regards

I'm giving Pop Up Designs a shout out here.

First, for their great laser cut kits of Scottish prototypes. I was looking for some suitable station buildings and canopies for a freelance layout and found exactly what I needed.

Second, for their lightning fast service. I've ordered twice from them, both times my order arrived next day.

I have no connection with them other than as a very happy repeat customer.

https://www.popupdesigns.co.uk/product-category/railway-scale-models/

That's a great video!!

Looking closely at the pannier, it seems to me that the chassis is binding, which is why it runs unevenly at slow speed. It seems to stiffen up when the right hand coupling rods are at the bottom of their rotation. There may be nothing wrong with your trackwork. I may be wrong but hope this helps.

The website is back up again.

Don't know if you'd get a Sulzer engine in a Hymek, they're too short. I believe the Maybach MD870 engine can go up to 2000HP, so remove the boiler and add an eth generator or an auxiliary engine. 

Now a Maybach MD870 will fit a Baby Deltic. Type 3/4 power with eth and air brakes.......

On 23/06/2020 at 20:01, acg5324 said:

Glad it’s bought back some memories.....good hopefully.

Thank you - very good memories.

Hi Andy, I worked in Charles House from 1976 to 1989, not for MI5 though. A few hours were spent in the Radnor and a few sandwiches were bought from Franks. Nice work!

Love your diesel shunter conversion. There were 10 similar Hudswell Clarke shunters, BR class D2/12. One survives, D2511 on the Keighley and Worth Valley railway.

The two Brian Hardy books were published by LURS in the 1980s, "UNDERGROUND" issues 14 and 15 which cover the Standard Stock in pictures. They come up for sale occasionally. Part 1 covers 1922-45 (ISSN 0306-8609) and Part 2, 1945 onwards  (ISBN 1 870324 15 3). They are well worth seeking out.

Was the guards compartment air conditioned by any chance? Looks like a warm day.

C8600 at Stocksfield is simply stunning Dave, thanks for including it.

Complaining here about not getting a reply does not help anybody. Tim Horn may well have seen and replied to both of your enquiries and been disappointed not to have heard back from you and lost your business.

There's a very easy workaround if you don't want to / can't use a phone to follow an email up.

I have two separate email accounts, one with BT, my internet provider, the other with GMX, which is free. They are linked so I only need to check the GMX inbox, which is great as all emails are stored in one non-geographic place.

I've experienced situations where a reply to my BT account has just not reached my inbox or spam folder. So I followed up with a call and the supplier did indeed reply very quickly but the mail never made it to me. I then emailed them using my GMX account and received a response immediately. We then agree only to use GMX and never have any problems. It's happened to both providers.

There have been times when emails I've sent don't get through to the other end and have not bounced back. So I use the alternative and they work normally. It's that easy.

I use my android phone and various PCs for emails and the non-communication problem isn't linked to one device, country or continent. I suspect some firewalls don't like certain email providers, but that's just my uninformed opinion.

I'd better add a disclaimer and say there are other email providers than BT and GMX

J6010 - well the R stock Driving Motor started life as a Q38 trailer

Dave,

J5932 and J5933 are Hammersmith and City / Circle Line C69 stock.J6393 and J6398 are newly delivered C77 stock (unpainted roofs are the giveaway). J6394 is indeed A stock.

Love all your photos.

Regards.

I remember the Poppy Hollow and Barley Dean layouts of "J L Flann" as they appeared in the Model Railway News a lifetime ago. Finding the Hintock thread here on RMweb was an exciting discovery for me and I've followed each episode keenly. A few years ago we stayed in Easton on Portland, which was, I'm sure many of you know, a major inspiration for the Hintock saga. We made sure we visited the site of the station there.

Thank you John, for letting us see into your wonderful world of the 1930s and also for sharing your  modelling techniques with us. RMweb won't be same now.

Beeching wasn't directly responsible for the earlier demise of steam, although the mass line closures during the 1960s helped. There were several reasons, the failure to update archaic working conditions causing staff recruitment and retention problems, clean air acts as a result of the lethal smogs during the 1950s, and the huge cost of running steam traction vs diminishing revenues, among others.

Critics will say that steam should have lasted longer, or that it didn't go quickly enough. Given the politics of the time and rapid changes to society post WW2, I think BR did pretty well. Britain didn't shrug off the economic shackles of two World Wars until the the end of the 20th Century and the railways suffered as a result.

I can't remember if Sam Berliner III's creations have been mentioned before here, but if you scroll down the linked page you'll find his "EERIE" 2-4-6-8-10-12 multiplex. And more........

http://sbiii.com/bwrkapoc.html#multplex

Sorry this is a bit late, I wanted to clarify the colours of the LT R stock trains.

Almost all of them were made up with different types of car, (R38, R47, R49, R59). The earlier cars, R38 and R47, were steel bodied and therefore painted. The R49 cars were aluminum bodied and most of them were also painted but a number, including one complete R49 train, were left unpainted. The aluminium R59 cars were all unpainted.

At first, the steel and painted aluminium cars were red, except for one R38 painted silver to match an unpainted R49 car. The R38 cars converted to run with R59 cars were also painted silver to match. All unpainted and silver painted cars had a red waistband (first plain, then with a "V" at the front ends).

So three colours for one stock, often within one train. During the 1960s the red painted R stock cars were repainted silver without the red waistband, and it was removed from unpainted cars. The similar all steel CO/CP trains were red and the R stock silver/aluminium, lovely. But by the late 60s changes to chemicals in the trainwashes were causing the silver paint to flake off and the colour was changed to a very pale grey, which looked like off-white. Unpainted cars were left unpainted.

For years, publications referred to the R stock as being painted silver, long after the event. As someone who used or saw these trains daily in the late 70s it grated, as they were obviously white, as anyone who looked could see. Hence this long TMI posting 

Great photos Dave. Please keep them coming.

Athough billed as second radius, the inner path seems to be a composite, and not a true arc. In places it's more first radius than second, particularly around the frog. Bachmann and Hornby 9Fs baulk at them, as do many other medium / largish steam locomotives, they're ok on the outer path.

With all this talk of RTR LT stock and the recent B0-B0 release I'm amazed that no one has mentioned the track.....and called for RTL 4-rail track!

 

As far as I know most is still bullhead/chaired but there may well be some FB as track is replaced. The easiest way to simulate this is with the Peco components but you have to drill the sleepers, fit the insulators and slide the rail in. For a more prototypical look the C&L components probably would look better and I believe they also do correct section rail.

 

Here is a small display section of C&L P4 RTL track with Peco insulators and code 60 FB rail. I think it looks pretty good but others have argued that the Peco code 60 is too thin when viewed from above.

 

L54_1e.JPG

Hi Jeff,

FB is now very much the predominant track type in tunnels as well as the open sections.

That's a nice Metropolitan Peckett and P4 track.

 

I can't help thinking that the motor unit used in this model is so compact that it leaves Bachmann and/or the LT Museum very well placed to introduce more LT EMU rolling stock, and I would not be surprised if we eventually saw A Stock, COP Stock, R Stock, and possibly even F Stock from Bachmann, all using this same motor unit. It may even be small enough to use in Tube Stock - RTR EFE '38 and '59 Stock?  

A 1937 stock flared bodyshell would cover the following,

Q38 Driving Motor,

Q38 Trailer (without cab windows)

C-O/P Driving Motor (with and without cab vent)

C-O/P Trailer (without cab windows)

R38 Driving Motor.

That's an awful lot of types to amortise costs over for one basic bodyshell. Of course there are detail and underframe equipment differences.

Add an R47/49/59 Non-Driving Motor bodyshell, and as an extra, an R49 Driving Motor bodyshell and you've covered a large part of LT's surface stock trains from 1937 to 1983 - Q38, COP and R stock. I'd be up for some.

As a further dream, and I don't know how commercially viable this would be, how about producing the the following, all non-powered (to run with a Q38 powered Driving Motor)

Q23 Driving Motor

Q27 Driving Motor

Q31/5 Trailer.

I'm sure many of you know that the District ran 6 or 8 car trains for many years (DM+T+T+DM+T+DM and T+DM added for 8 cars) and the Q stock was not in fixed sets. So these last 3 types could legitimately be sold individually as coaches, to enable you to mix and match your own District Line "Fish and Parcels" train.