LMS2968

Black or green.

Any photos?

Welcome back, Mate! We've missed you!

When working opens, there was a difference between loaded and empty. The empties were obviously lighter so acceleration and braking were more rapid. But once you got them moving the empties were slower. As another guard put, 'The wind gets into the wagons and slows them down.' In practice, empties have two front faces moving through the air while loaded have only one. And yes, you could feel the difference.

Hence Gastarbeiter - foreign workers.

You certainly wouldn't want to be doing 107 mph on a Standard Five anywhere. They were hardly the best riding of engines, even when compared with the Stanier version, which could be lively, to say the least.

Are you suggesting they sell figures with a scale 80 feet arm?

They were not unknown but unusual and far from ideal.

You also need to be aware that the there will be parts of the arc of the wheel, including the flanges, outside the wheelbase itself and these must also clear the rails leading up to the table.

So unless I'm missing something, the only direction available is back the way the train came?

No, they drove from the right. Many pre-grouping companies drove from the right but the LMS, LNER and SR standardised on the left. The GWR, as ever, went its own way.

That by definition would have to be a distant signal, otherwise it's a stop block, and the tern is Fixed Distant. There are some in preservation; there are or possibly were one or two on the Severn Valley Railway

As I said, I was a bit puzzled but the one I recall was a circular dummy, unusual in being yellow. I wish I could remember where it was and its purpose.

I don't think these dummies were exclusively WR. I'm sure I have seen one of these and remember being a bit puzzled by it. It might have been on the old Liverpool & Manchester line but after fifty years, who knows?

They should leave stones lying around for them to throw . . .

The usual way was to put some on the far side of the stop block!

Lime Street tunnel being opened out to series of cuttings linked by four-track tunnels. https://janfordsworld.blogspot.com/2015_03_19_archive.html  The photos seem to have disappeared! https://janfordsworld.blogspot.com/2015/03/edge-hill-cutting.html

I think we've been through the 8F and yellow stripe situation before, but the three ex-Middle East engines, 8773/74/75, were fitted with bigger top feeds containing shut-off valves to deal with the atrocious water in the desert. The valves were operated by a vertical spindle, one each side, and these spindles were above the loading gauge limit; no other 8Fs were involved. When the stripe appeared, 8773 was given it; 8775 had had its spindles cut off so was exempt, while 8774 still had the spindles but didn't get the stripe. In 1966, 8773 had a Heavy Intermediate overhaul at Crewe and was given a new boiler, the opportunity was taken at the same time to fit a standard top feed so she became within the loading gauge. Despite this, the stripe was reapplied and carried until withdrawal in August 1968.

J2102 - When the real thing, etc.? Even a bus on the bridge!

I can only assume that you did things differently in South Wales to us Northerners! If the WWT called for four wagons as the fitted head, that's what was bagged up, whatever was behind them. Getting carried away and piping up a whole lot of extras was likely to incur the wrath of the shunters when you arrived at your destination. It wasn't just a matter of their having to go between to unhook but they'd also have to pull the strings to allow any further shunting or remarshalling. They objected to being kept away from the teapot for so long.

I still have my notes from when I did my guards training way back in 1973, and even that late we covered livestock working as below. Note it states,". . . usually marshalled next to the loco."

It would most likely be that the train reverses en route and it saves the time of having to move the van from one end to the other. It wasn't uncommon for the engine to work one leg tender first. It would be headed to give the best direction chimney first depending on distance, gradients and possibly wind direction.

The tablet catchers allowed the tablets to be picked up and given up at a higher speed; their absence meant that the train had to run slower or even stop during the exchange. They also made the exchanges safer. Their lack made them inconvenient but still possible.

An example of this was Baby Scot 5509 which carried the name, The Derbyshire Yeomanry, but known locally as The Derby Yo-yo due to the number of times it entered and came out of those works. It was allocated to that shed from 20/10/51 to 30/08/58, presumably to be handy for the works, the Western Division, hosting all other class members, had obviously chosen to get rid of it. In 1958 it was again transferred, this time to Newton Heath where it stayed to the end, never darkening the door of the Western Division again.

. . . or the worst!