Wickham Green

Bradley details all these tender swaps in order to get L12s & T9s suitable for the Central &/or Eastern Section ............... and I think a number of 700s were involved as the LSWR 6Wh tenders came in two different wheelbases and short ones had to be selected to go east.

Without photos in front of me, I'd guess your' guess is perfectly correct ........ screw or three-link couplings SHOULDN'T hang that low - but there are always exceptions - moreover GWR & BR ATC/AWS ( call it what you will ) had low-slung fittings on the locos which could, theoretically come loose and dangle .............................. though the danger may be relatively low at your Branch Line Termini, damage cause to a facing turnout could have serious consequences !

Ah - yes, I'd forgotten the C8s ....... very much a 'hidden' class - seemingly lower profile than their Adams predecessors and certainly lower profile than any of their successors.

I think it's covered in the NER wagons books : NERA and/or Tatlow.

Not sure the D15s ran with watercarts (?) ..... what about K10s though ? ................ then there were a number of Drummond 'oddballs' : his pre-T14 4-6-0s and the double singles. I've heard it suggested that Bulleid considered eight-wheelers for some of his Pacifics - but would they have been a sort of curved-sided 'Nelson' tender or would they have a rigid chassis in the Gresley mould - considering the guy's background ? ( "What If" models invited ! ) One thing's for certain, the Q1s would have benefited from eight-wheel tenders - and they'd not have been hampered by turntable length like the Pacifics.

Yes, it had occurred to me that the outstanding portion of my 'Average life expectancy ...... 81 years' had dropped by by about a quarter since the van was announced !

That reminds me of this oddity - photographed ( in 2008 ) at New Beckenham. The station was rebuilt in 1904 - but these drain covers must date from closer to the working union of the S.E.R. & L.C.D.R. in 1899 and before the better-known initials S.E.C.R. were established !

........ and lifespan !

I understand there's a new PhD course opening to investigate the creation of a laser beam which will follow a W8 loading gauge ..............................

Saw a nice one the other day : two lines of traffic slowly approaching traffic lights at red and one car shot across from the left hand lane in front of everyone in the right hand lane to get pole position there ........................ unfortunately there's a significant phasing delay for the 'turning right' lane so he had to sit and watch as all the left lane got past him - serves him right.

Good point ....... unlike a side tank loco, the panniers have got to come off for a boiler change.

Don't tell Ms.Sturgeon about any thought of extending into England !

Can the colour be worked out from the build date and - theoretical - repainting frequency ? : my model of 4610 is based on a loco built in '42 and may have been green or black to start with ( Building of this batch and adoption of black are noted - separately - in the same Railway Mag ! ) ........ I've guessed it was black and guessed it wasn't repainted before 1948 ( my layout ) 'cos of the war - but under the filth nobody can tell anyway !

There were a number of coal/water variants across the C, D & E classes but I am not aware of any visible differences from this - maybe a different position for the bunker rear/tank front ........ which wouldn't be visible under a load of coal anyway. OH - one significant difference between the D & E classes that I omitted earlier is the shallower running plate angle on the E ......... most noticeable when the tenders got swapped - as many did once the rebuilding programme got underway ! ( Prototypes to be chosen carefully ! )

How complete is complete ?

....... and anything growing in brickwork was dealt with before it did much damage.

The Belpaire firebox and extended smokebox shouldn't pose significant difficulties - and there are no other really great cosmetic differences between the 'D' and 'E'. The longer wheelbase of the 'E' would, though, necessitate some redesigning of the chassis - and, perhaps, could create clearance issues even though the wheels are marginally smaller.

Yes solebars should be body colour on virtually everything before BR days : exceptions were steel solebars on the LNER and on LMS wagons built at Wolverton from sometime during WW2.

If the mine was at the top of the hills and the destination at the bottom ( natural if it's a port ) it should be possible to do away with all the locos and make the whole thing self-acting.

'Oli on the Rails' should give you all you need about traffic flows : https://hmrs.org.uk/oil-on-the-rails-150219.html ......... six quid new - FROM thirty five on Amazon !!!!

If in doubt about Wainwright's loco livery, give yourself a day out in York and have a good look at the 'D' class : it was painted at Ashford at a time when others would have remembered the class being built - so should be authentic !

I guess it's compulsory ........................ OK - The Stationmaster beat me to it ! Could pink ducting signify fibre optic rather than electric data cable p'raps ?

Hopefully there would normally be a simple correlation with the number of axles !

That looks better .................. the roof won't stay white for long once it goes in traffic !

You could always try Phoenix : https://www.phoenix-paints.co.uk/products/precisionrailway/pregroup/secrpregroup There's no Livery Register as such - but SecSoc ( http://www.southeasternandchathamrailway.org.uk/ ) are working on one - hopefully similar to the recent HMRS volumes.