Wickham Green

Dunsignalling : "....... with the main lines running BR late steam/third rail (much of the infrastructure remained unchanged until steam vanished) with the branch being a heritage site in its fairly early stages and a pre-ban base for main line railtour locos." - sounds like it might have a connection to the main line at Haywards Heath !!?! Anglian : "For example, if I build a Southern layout set in the early 1920's at a push I can still have some pre-grouping stock awaiting repaint," - or early/mid thirties - it took AGES for pre-grouping liveries to disappear completely - though they normally got post-grouping insignia on the old colour in the meantime : depends on the status of the loco/vehicle in question, of course.

Don't forget that the ex Jugoslav locos are post-war built and not ex U.S.A.T.C. - so undoubtedly exhibited differences anyway ......... I can't comment on their original appearnce without sources in front of me but I seem to recall that a number of the USA tank 'near copies' around the world were actually built with enclosed cabs which might have been inspired by the Southern's conversions.

Didn't one of the Southern ones actually make a tentative forray north of the Thames at one time !!?! YEP ! ........... and no : it was TWO that escaped - briefly. Bradley states "In Early September 1955 Nos. 30061/6 were loaned to the London Midland Region, the former .... at Kentish Town .... whjile No. 30066 travelled to Bank Hall, Liverpool. .... both were back at Southampton by the end of October 1955." ............. a brief time-slot, maybe, but Bank Hall's most definitely 'up north' ( in most peoples' books anyway ) ! As for haulage ? : should be prodigious if the chassis's made of depleted uranium for weight !

I wonder what inspired the lads in Yorkshire to paint 72 brown ?

You obviously never went carriage body hunting in north east Scotland .......................

Weren't there a couple of other ( ex-L.N.E.R.) boilers found at the same time / place ? .................... they don't seem to feature in other 'new build' projects : were they just too far gone ??!?

Didn't one of the Southern ones actually make a tentative forray north of the Thames at one time !!?!

I did notice there was probably a chronological inconsistency in what I said - but who'd buy a chocolate bar called "Snickers" - whatever that means - instead of "Marathon" with its implication of prowess and endurance ? ......... I never have !

Probably not QUITE that old as pre-grouping liveries - albeit often with post-grouping insignia - lasted well into the 'thirties ....... the lower the 'caste' of the item, the longer, of course. Anyway trains, like chocolate boxes, were decorated to appeal to the taste of their day ............... though I certainly don't fancy the chocolate advertised by many of today's 'Train Operators' .................. not to mention a certain episode when everything was wrapped in matt blue wirth a white zig-zag : "This is the Age of the Snickers" ....... UGH !

There will 'always' be a market for B.R. Mk1s, say, because their geographical coverage was universal - but the further you go back in time the smaller your potential audience becomes simply beacuse the Companies become smaller ............. it'll be interesting to see how popular the forthcoming 'birdcage' coaches are in S.E.C.R. 'Dark Lake' ( it might depend on how 'gorgeous' Bachmann's rendition of that colour is ) : I feel malachite green might have sold better ( wider geographical covereage - but did all such coaches carry it ? ) - but maybe that's for the future ?

Prexactly .......... but Network Rail aren't going to tolerate anything like that for much longer so it ll be irrelevant and locked out of use !

I'm sure I've seen an AUSSIE steam passenger locomotive in green and yellow - so your memory might be thinking along the same lines !!?!.

That should probably be "colors" ? ................... allegedly something to do with Henry Ford .................. ! ..................................

....... for those of you watching in black and white ......................................

Uless I've missed something in the acres of 'reply quoting' above I don't think anyone's mentioned the Third Way ! ....... a ready-to-run model of every loco ( coach or wagon ) variant would be nice and most of us would find that preferable to building a kit ( of chosen variety ) - but what's happened to the aftermarket ? How many of us put an Alan Gibson later-style cab on a Mainline pannier tank body when there was no option - surely with resin casting or 3D printing some back-street ( shed ? ) manufacturer could turn out the necessary conversion kit to back-date the atlantic or E4 etc. !!?! ( Or, perhaps, a mainstream kit manufacturer who's established 'full' kit for that loco has suddenly lost the bulk of its potential market ! )

..... YET - he says with fingers crossed !

Maybe it's being held to ransom until Hinkley Point gets the go-ahead ? ....... it's not only Chinese politicians can procrastinate !

Apart from the spec that said they need to be to European loading gauge and have European style coupling / buffing gear ............ er - and they normally paint the latter red on that side of the 'pond'.

They might not have known what a buffer beam was but one seems to have miraculously appeared on each end of the loco ............. complete with buffers - which would definitely have been foreign to them until someone sent them a spec. ( Probably sent them a fax and the colour sample came out black ....................... yes, I've seen it done ! ) For the younger members of our audience, I'd better explain that 'fax' is short for Facsimile Transmission and is what we old timers used to send eachother before e-mails were invented .......... a step up from Telex, really !

Chinese time is, indeed, elastic - but only when it suits them ........ Chinese delivery schedule for a Brighton Atlantic is one thing - but it's a totally different matter when someone suggests delaying their little project at Hinkley Point ! [ If you see no further posts from me the Triads have found my hidedout ! ]

Just a thought ........... did nobody tell the Americans that buffer beams are supposed to be painted ( bufferbeam ) red ??!?

Not to mention two varieties of cattle wagons from Hornby, an L.S.W.R. brake van from D.J.Models and a B4 tank from Dapol .............. though the latter two have gone rather quiet of late !

As loose stock they'd generally have been 'outside' the set - but a number of the Thirds were ( permanently ) formed within sets : not sure about S.W. section but certainly in S.E. div sets with S.E.C.R. stock.

You may have just received the answer to that ! ......... Kernow have just e-mailed me to ask for updated card details ( by 'phone or replacement order ) .................

it's the other way round - it's the Southern cabs which are different : they were all modified at Eastleigh ....... compare with the N.C.B. or original U.S.A.T.C. models for instance.