stovepipe

Quite right too . Mine's on it's way...

One at TMC https://www.themodelcentre.com/r3873-Hornby-oo-gauge-br-class-370-advanced-passenger-train-sets-370-003-and-370-004-5-car-pack-era-7

A good choice also Condition was current from Feb '74, until Oct '75 or possibly even a bit earlier.

So for those items ordered with only one yearly price increase of 10%, you would have been very slightly better off going to a retailer. But for anything with two yearly increases of 10%, it would have been cheaper to order directly from Hornby - assuming the retailers pass on the Jan 2022 increase of course. We shall see... Original retailer NDM was £98.99, but cost £108.99 when it arrived.

It is very difficult to say, even on a blow up, but there does seem to be a number of roof vents on the nearest end of the Maroon coach. The underframe area doesn't seem be completely filled with equipment which might point to an RU as you say. However I'm none too clear on what the roofs on RUs looked like before the rebuilding programme of the 1970s. I also hadn't appreciated that there are no more coaches after the bridge, so the consist is 8 coaches, which the 16.15 to Bristol was due to be every day apart from Summer Saturdays (when the two SOs were added at the front, or rear in this case).

I think the 16.15 Newcastle - Bristol is a good shout. There isn't much in the way of shadows, but what there is, seems to indicate it's afternoon at this location. I don't have a WTT for 1968, but the same train was 1V99 in 1970.

That may be the case but for the fact that all of the non-ECML trains leaving Newcastle, and planned to contain a full BG, ran all year round, just with less second class coaches outside the summer season. None of the summer-dated trains to Paignton, Llandudno, Stranraer, Eastbourne, Portsmouth, Margate, Torquay, and Bournemouth used a BG - in fact they used the same two or three sets on various days of the week.

Yes that thought occured to me in the wee hours of this morning, and the only other option, via the ex-MR line through MIllers Dale, had closed the previous year. Yes perhaps that is more likely - but not sure it matches very well with the planned formations. The day given was a Saturday, the last one of the summer timetable, so would expect to see: 08.42 BG+SK+CK+FK+RMB+2TSO+2SK+TSO+BSK (11) 09.50 BG+2CK+RB+RUO+2TSO+2SK+BSK (10) 15.42 BSK+CK+FK+RU+2TSO+2SK+BSK (9) However there was a 16.15 to Bristol: 2SK+BSK+SK+RMB+2CK+2SK+BG (10) on leaving Newcastle, which matches pretty well, except the formation appears to be in reverse - which was always possible at Newcastle.

Photo embedded for convenience. I think this is potentially the regular 5M48 Heaton - Red Bank CS working, with the head code from an earlier working. Certainly there nothing obvious in the WTT for the following year. Strangely I have come across a 3M27 working but it was for a Guide Bridge to Nottingham parcels working - not sure why that would be under a M route code, but there it is. With D77 from Toton, its not impossible that it could have been used for that working.

Deleted - grasped the wrong-end of the, erm, tablet

Something I picked up from a contemporary Modern Railways magazine. I’d have to check the reference, but it was in an article talking about the delayed press run in June 1980. Perhaps the press man got his 3 and 5 mixed up in his notes?

There were only a small number of occasions when an 11-car formation was used - in the spring of 1985 involving 370003 and 370007, with 49003 and 49006. None of the other cars are known. Of the approx 200 observations I have collected, there are less than 10 that have complete car listings, and those are mostly my own observations. In all cases they are not matching sets of numbers. There is only one 9-car working noted, but many 10 car-formations in the period of public service and BR staff useage from 1981-84. The driving trailers most often used were 370001/3/6/7, with 49001/3/6. I suspect that not all the cars were fitted with the Mk3 tilt pack (from late 1980), and it seems those that were not were rarely seen on test or in service from then on. It also worth repeating that the 14-car formation were only ever seen in the period Aug 1980 to July 1981, and then never again.

Yes I noticed that too, and no, no-one ever has found the photo that shows that livery. And they are unlikely ever to in my opinion. There are enough colour photos of fish vans around to show that they were either white or ice blue in fish traffic, and why would you model the one with a weird paint job, if it even exists, when all the other evidence points to all over ice blue? It really is quite frustrating, and they'll be in the bargain bin again before long.

Wasn't that Bachman with the SECR C Class in 2012?

I think he meant complement, but even so, there’s really no suggestion that smoke comes through the fans. Clearly he is suggesting exhaust smoke generators could be next feature to be added.

It was mainly about axle loading and route availability I think.

Interesting video. I really hope we don't have another packing fail in progress.... though perhaps the fact that OORail's 5-car set was airfreighted from Hong Kong to the USA means it will not be typical of the ones arriving here by sea?

A quick trawl through the RCTS & P5 coaching stock books show the numbers in revenue service nose-dived pretty sharply at the end of the 1970s. Dec 1974 132 Dec 1975 121 Dec 1977 116 Jan 1980 22 (of which only 2 were the steam heat GWR build) Dec 1982 8 Nov 1983 0

Another excellent choice!

I imagine that'll be on the 70s sheet. 1Sxx was only used for York/Leeds/Newcastle to Edinburgh for most of the 1960s. The KX -EW trains were 1Axx, only changing to 1Sxx from 5 May 1969. As ever Napier Chronicles for all things Deltic. http://www.napier-chronicles.co.uk/wtt69-70.htm

Very interesting photos there Nige. I've had a quick scan through Modern Railways, and there are a couple of workings with BRCW type 2s noted in this period. 1st Feb 1963 D5382+5385 heading south through Purley on special coal working. Easter Sunday 1963 D5381 on a Bedford to Brighton excursion, which it worked throughout

It's certainly something of a shock, and that to someone familar with seeing a rat at Neasden South Jn in later times. Not so far from the Cricklewood - Acton line, so perhaps it wasn't quite as unusual as all that. I do wonder what the trip working was though - possibly a Croxley tip, or maybe a works delivery to an LT depot?

I've received mine, thankfully safe and sound from MRD (in a nice big box with bubble cushion packaging). I think the problem is that unless the bogie is properly aligned it doesn't sit down in the space designed for it, meaning when the clamshell is closed up, the stresses are placed on the deflectors. A heavy bump from the right (wrong) direction could be the point when they break off.

And another one. D5386 passing under the Batchworth Lane bridge near Northwood with an up train of oil tankers 17 Feb 63

Another one on the 3rd rail. D5408 at Clapham Jct in 1964