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I would guess it was just what they had available at the time

If the wagons are all fitted there is no reason why you couldn't run without a brake van although technically at that time a guard shouldn't have been up with driver. However there were lots of variables with trip working, like how far it was going, also whether the yard in question was easier to shunt without a van - remember trip working was local and the crew would all be very familiar with yards and what was quickest - but in the 70s/80s there were still a lot of old drivers around who didn't like guards anywhere near them! plus of course you still had secondmen at that time crowding the cab. Personally I wouldn't have minded having the guard up in the cab - especially if it meant making the job easier and quicker, traincrew were always up for an early finish! Remember things were a lot more 'relaxed' then than now and things were done then that wouldn't be now, so if you wish you can quite happily run a trip without a van.

The worst levers are the straight ones - as they don't self return - especially as some staff had/have the habit of not returning them after pulling them - possibly purposely 🤬 - so the next person along would nearly put their back out pulling a lever with no resistance

Given the complete pile of cr4p that Grant shapps and his colleagues have been saying about railway staff and their conditions today I'm not at all surprised that the map is a figment of someone's imagination

There is no particular colour they should be, the pipe colour there meant nothing to ops staff they were just painted whatever was to hand - on my two I've painted them on one white and on the other black

The inner cabin ends come out easily too - though you have to squeeze the sides apart slightly to slide them up

Snap - mines doing exactly the same

That last picture is superb, you have to look closely not to think its real

Unfortunately I will probably agree to do the same, as although it really bugs me, I hate doing handrails and it took me absolutely ages and many tries to do them on that slaters kit above

Yes I agree Paul that some had the triple handrails but they were the early diagram built ones, and as far as I'm aware none of those were air piped? And are not in the number range Dapol have painted on the models. You are right too about the 'eyebrow' rainstrips, I never saw any like that either, rainstrips were just simple wooden battens, and especially if the van roof had ever been refelted/canvassed the wagon repairers would just nail on new battens on at whatever angle they fancied! (This is also applies to any wooden roofed vans) I currently have a couple on the bench - with a slaters built one behind - These are still very much work in progress but shows how i have altered the strips on mine.

Quite nice models, interesting putting them next to a slaters kit built one, the dimensions are pretty much identical. The biggest problem I can see with these - which you can't unsee once you have! - is that the side handrails should be one continuous piece not three separate ones as they have modelled. They are going to be a pain to correct, I've left mine at the moment as I dislike doing handrails! Edit to add, be careful with the corner sidelamp brackets they are very fragile, I've already broken one off

I think it was only the early ones that had the centre ladder, not sure of numbers but they were definitely in the minority

If the wagon was fitted with a changeover lever it should! have had one of these symbols on the side pointing down towards the lever Rough sketch! They were painted white, you probably won't need the detail, but the rounded top one meant that you only had to change the lever, whilst the flat top indicated that you had to pull the strings - release the vacuum - when changing over. I think I've got that right - it's a long time since I saw one! 🙂

Yes these were the later 10ft wheelbase. The changeover lever had empty/loaded positions which should've been changed over accordingly but - in my experience - were very rarely changed, and in later years a lot of them were seized anyway. These wagons had two vacuum cylinders 18" and 21" IIRC and again IIRC one worked in the empty position and both worked when in loaded position.

Still struggling with time and mojo, so I've not done much lately. But I have just replaced the missing photos from earlier in the thread, and as I was here thought I'd post some 'here's some I did earlier' photos. These are MSV stone wagons - ex Iron ore tipplers. They are all built from ABS kits, although all have added bits. Imo Adrian used to get a lot of unwarranted criticism/abuse on the forums and he actually made very good kits with excellent castings. These kits were Brass bodies with the rest in his usual white metal. I had problems fitting the wheels squarely on the first one, so I fitted them all with WEP internal bearings with one rocking axle. They came as unfitted wagons so all the brake gear was added, the brake blocks and bow girders are again ABS, with the levers and other bits of linkage cobbled together from Ambis bits and wire. The cylinders were made from some plastic tube, and the changeover levers from plasticard and wire. The photos have reminded me that I still need to fit vacuum pipes to some of them. I have made six so far and although I quite fancy a few more, that's probably more than enough! Finally I couldn't resist a photo of all the vac stone wagons I've built so far 🙂

Not that unusual, seen shunters do that quite often, although more often than not it would just have been thrown on the hook. What is unusual though is the bow shackle attached to the end of it, I assume they've been using the pilot to pull a cable somewhere. - Maybe a bit of cable shunting!

When I was in school - many years ago! - we had the same coach for a few years and I always recognised it in the car (bus) park by its numerplate, but they were all old vehicles. Its quite noticable now that most school buses, and coaches in general, have personal numberplates so that you are unable to tell how old they are!

No problem, if the working manual ( white pages) is the only thing you've got at the moment then you haven't yet got any timetables. But I'm sure you'll find some interesting things in there

That's not a timetable, that's a table of maximum loads, For the types of locos across the top On the routes down the left side

Often happened with 37's too - usually cured by doing a shunt and coupling the other end.

Don't think we've had this one before?

Yes thanks for the links, interesting reports. There seems to be little investigation/explanation into why the drain was not built as designed, perhaps because Carillion are no more? Also as a Driver of many years I can honestly say that airbags or seat belts would've given me very little comfort when thinking about derailments/collisions, and in fact I think seat belts would be a hindrance in many occasions.

The modern railway is pretty crap isn't it. I'd have let you in though! Right up until I retired I still went into passenger companies cabins if I needed to, had a few comments made out loud about strangers, but nobody ever had the guts to say something to my face. Sad when we were/are all trying to do the same job.

So no facilities for you then - or is it a friendly cabin?

What facilities are there for Landor St now then Jim? I guess it's still a relieving point?