Deonyi

Thank you all for your helpful posts; they are most appreciated. I shall make sure to look into the books referenced by other members here, as they seem like they would be what I am looking for. Of course, I agree that Beeching probably has been blamed too much for the closures which probably were necessary at the time. Similar things happened here in Victoria during the 20th century, when miles and miles of track and stations were closed, including a number of inner-city Melbourne lines. I suppose it really does shew the era was that of the motor car.

Obviously, after the Beeching cuts the British rail network has thinned considerably, but before the cuts what was the 'coverage' per se like? I assume most towns would have had one or two railway stations, but for smaller villages was it likely that there would have been a station within ten miles (excluding Scotland)? Looking at old OS maps, it seems to be the case, with Dartmoor being maybe the greatest expanse outside of the northern counties without a railway line, however I'm not too sure. 

Also, is there any BR pre-Beeching map of the entire railway network anywhere? I thought the Handbook of Stations might have had one but it seems not.

I assume that would be track distance though, not as the crow flies.

I had quite forgotten about 'via' stations. That makes sense. Thanks.

Were they point to point fares from each station to another? With the number of stations that would be around 2500! times variants.  

EDIT: So I looked fare manuals up. 471 volumes at the National Archives. How would fares have been calculated before computers came about then?

I wonder if anyone here knows how fares were calculated before the advent of electronic means. Not particularly related to railway modelling, but one's interests do tend to seep out of the modelling field! Obviously the fares for local stations would be known, and printed on tickets, but how would fares for rarely used routes be calculated which would necessitate a handwritten ticket? The Handbook of Stations doesn't give any clues, but I presume there must have been a way to do so, at least in pre-British Rail days, manually. 

Surely you could just cut the air vent holes into the styrene to expel air?

Now I'm not sure how these are supposed to look, but could you not cover up the black cutout with a piece of styrene with air intake holes painted yellow with some filler? But it looks good.

I'm not trying to be fussy but doesn't the Stirling Single have square buffer housings?

Just letting you know that according to Sizzix customer service, their 'eclips2' can cut 1mm styrene using double passes. And its cutting blade pressure I believe is higher than the silhouette. I will have to wait for it to come though; curse Father Christmas and his snail sleigh!

Dane