Jim Martin

Many thanks for all the replies. It looks like a pile dumped in each wagon will do for my purposes; but the PVA-sprayer is great! I won't need one but it would make a nifty detail on a shunting plank based on loading hoppers. Jim

I'm thinking of modelling a rake of PNA wagons with sand loads, and I have a few questions: Is sand just dumped into wagons and away we go? It seems to me that this would lead to losses on an epic scale, given that even a fairly modest speed would produce a 50mph or more slipstream. Alternatively, I know that in the USA powder loads are sometimes protected by spraying some sort of polymer over them, which forms a skin across the top but which is easily removed prior to unloading. I seem to recall reading about this being done in the UK but I can't remember where I saw this or what particular operation was being described. Is it something that's done in this country or am I mis-remembering? I'm thinking about 2006-ish. Thanks for any help Jim

That's a nice site. Thanks for posting Jim

The Interfrigo van looks good, too. Have you written that up anywhere? Jim

Lots of interesting replies here! Many thanks to everyone. It's a very dense railway environment. I was struck by a couple of things apart from the arches which I originally posted about: the LNWR's Haydon Square depot (the start of the arches leading to this are also still visible from trains going into Fenchurch Street) and the PLA's depot, shown as "London Docks Goods" on the RCH map), which looks to have been totally obliterated but which seems to have straddled East Smithfield. A fascinating area. Jim

I don't know about your ability to finish anything, but your ability to start things seems second to none! I had a look at this building on Google Streetview (mainly to see how closely the chimney resembled the prototype, to be honest) and I was wondering when this building was converted into apartments. Was that happening in this area back in the 70s? Jim

If you mean the "Retrospectrum" series, I have a list of all the articles from Issue 99 onwards (that was the first copy I bought). I can post it tonight if you'd like. Jim

This is hardly a unique situation. The Dartford crossing of the Thames uses exactly the same system. Jim

I quite often have cause to travel on the old LT&S line (family in Upminster, occasional work in Southend), so I'm a regular-ish user of Fenchurch Street station. Yesterday I noticed a viaduct curving away on the north side of the line, and I was wondering what it was originally built for. It's a block or two to the east of where the line crosses Leman Street: the arches actually end at Back Church Lane. The structure looks wide enough for at least two tracks and if anything it gets slightly wider towards the end, which makes me wonder if it might have opened out into a goods depot between Leman Street and Back Church Lane. Can anyone enlighten me about this? Thanks Jim

I was looking at some of your earlier buildings (on Hedges Hill Cutting and Stony Lane) recently and I was wondering if there was a particular reason why you seem to have moved away from brick papers to embossed styrene? Jim

Mine arrived yesterday too. Looks very good. Obviously I'm pretty chuffed about my article, but the highlight for me was the GWR petrol-electric railcar. That is just exquisite.

In a similar vein, I'm quite tempted by "Fool If You Think It's Over" Jim

Do you ever get any problems with differences in expansion in mixed-material models like these, or is it not an issue on structures of this size (or is it just that they aren't going to be exposed to much variation in temperature)? Jim

Please don't. Someone from Virgin might be reading this. Jim

It's an "f". Additionally, "ff" meant that a wagon was passed for UK operation via the Tunnel only, and "fff" meant that it was passed for UK operation via train ferry only (I don't recall ever seeing either of these in practice). This is all set out in UIC booklet 438-2. I assume that this is online, because I have a copy of it. The first (upper case) letter denotes the general type of wagon, then the string of lower-case letters (which are just listed in alphabetical order) relate to various operational factors. These can vary in meaning, depending on the main category, but the "f" is always about use in the UK. Jim

These were taken from the Secure Parking (that's what it's called), looking directly away from the station. The car park is immediately to the right of the footbridge shown in Michael Edge's plan above, so it sits right on top of where all the pointwork was. The first shot shows the area where the loco yard and turntable were. The line to Brunswick ran into a tunnel on the right-hand side, where the white awning is (these pictures weren't all taken on the same day, which is why the awning isn't in all of them). This one shows the backs of the buildings on Bold Street, on the south side of the station. Finally, this shot shows the girder that supported the wall immediately above the entrance to the tunnel. This is just visible in the second photo of the signal box in the thread linked to by Apollo above (on the left of the photo, beyond the box: the box was a bit to the right of this picture). Jim

Another question: what do you use to stick styrene cladding to the carcass of the building? I recall seeing you mention super glue somewhere, but surely you don't coat the whole side of a building with super glue?? Jim

A multi-storey car park has been built in the hole in the ground where the station throat used to be. Access is restricted, as multi-storeys go, to people who are actually parking there: in fact that's their usp. If you do park in there, though, you get an excellent view of the buidings that back onto the site. I have some photos but I can't post them right now: I'll put a couple up tonight. Jim

Roughly what's the footprint of the entire ensemble? Jim

There's a drawing of a Lavatory Luggage Composite (Type 10A) on the GER Society website at https://www.gersociety.org.uk/index.php/rolling-stock/carriages/types-9-13 which illustrates the sort of thing I was referring to above (you have to scroll down a little bit, but not far). Jim

Not necessarily. Some companies built coaches without gangways, but with short internal corridors so that passengers had access to a toilet. As far as I know, coaches like this didn't have a full-length corridor with the toilets at the end: they'd be the type where there'd be a couple of corridors, then a couple of toilets (probably paired widthways across the coach, with one serving the compartments towards the carriage end and the other serving those towards the centre), then a couple more compartments, then another pair of toilets, then another pair of compartments. The presence of a corridor notwithstanding, these would still be termed "non-corridor" coaches. Jim

If I can take you back to the "X" building for a minute; How do you attach the sheet of clear styrene that makes up the front of the building to the card carcass? Is it currently still removable pending fitting interior details? Do you have any problem with frontages based on styrene or acrylic warping, when combined with card carcasses? You mentioned somewhere (I can't find it right now) that you use sticky labels for some detailing; is the adhesive on the labels enough on it's own? Does it not start to curl up after a while? Thanks. Loving the models here: excellent work. Jim

I remember reading that the only major town for which the GCR was the quickest route to London was Stratford-on-Avon. In 1923 the quickest train from Leicester to St Pancras took 1:47 (and there were several of them, at 10:23, 12:23, 14:33, 16:48 and 19:28) while the 16:48 to Marylebone was the quickest train on the GC route, taking 1:50. The GC was slightly longer, though, so that train was the fastest Leicester-London service, averaging just over 56mph as opposed to about 55.5mph for the Midland trains. Jim

That's quite a transformation. I was thinking that the yellow was a poor choice as a base colour, but you've achieved what looks to me like a very convincing appearance. Jim

Original photo is at https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/view-item?i=55531&WINID=1503245393601. The site gives the date as 1966. Jim