Tom Burnham

I believe maltings also used anthracite for process heating. Otherwise I guess general purpose household coal would mostly have come from the Notts, Derbys and South Yorks coalfield. As well as wagons of collieries and local merchants there were also the larger regional and national coal factors and larger consumers might well have ordered direct from them by the wagon load rather than in smaller quantities from the local merchant.

As I understand it, headshunts weren't an absolute requirement, and there were plenty of places where you had to use the main running line(s) for shunting. Sidcup on the South Eastern Railway Dartford Loop line only acquired a headshunt in the 1930s (a few years after electrification) when housebuilding took off in the area. But clearly it would be better to avoid shunting on the main line if it was busy, both for safety and avoiding delays to through trains.

In 2019 we'd booked to go to Brussels from Ashford on one of the few trains that still stopped there. We caught a very early train from Staplehurst which gave time for a cancellation on Southeastern. On arrival at the Eurostar reception, we were told the Brussels train wasn't stopping there and we could go by SE high speed to Ebbsfleet and get on the Eurostar there. We just about made it - us and a few other passengers were whisked through check- in at the last minute. The train was one of the newer Eurostar sets which at that time weren't able to use the platform tracks at Ashford so presumably it was a late substitution for the rostered original type train. There was quite a lot of money spent on upgrading the signalling to allow the newer trains to stop at Ashford which has seen almost no use. Kent County Council made a contribution I believe which makes the lack of Eurostar services from anywhere in the county even more galling for a KCC Council tax payer. Also, just as we were boarding the SE train to Ebbsfleet, there was a ping as a text arrived from Eurostar telling us to go to Ebbsfleet. We'd have had no chance by car from Ashford to Ebbsfleet, so just as well we decided not to drive and leave the car in the multistorey next to Ashford International!

No, some Javelin services use the spur from Ebbsfleet to get on to the North Kent line via Gravesend, but there are no non-HS1 services and the track layout doesn't facilitate that. It's not very useful as a transport interchange, compared with Ashford, for example.

I've changed from Southeastern to Eurostar at Ashford, and the subway between the domestic platforms leads into the reception area of the international station. Certainly an easier transfer than Thameslink to Eurostar at St Pancras!

Well yes, it's the HS1 tunnels under the Thames rather than the Channel tunnel. Reports so far are vague about where the water came from.

My photos of diesel loco tablet catchers on the Further North line - Wick 1968 - Thurso 1973 -

In the 1968-71 period, Cambridge Buffet Expresses were 6 Mk 1s plus a Gresley buffet car, as stated. Hauled by either Class 31 or a Class 47 (using TOPS nomenclature) - the 47s kept time very easily, 31s not so much. The 9-coach LV to Kings Lynn trains always had a Class 37.

Yes, I'd have thought that load would need to be banked or double headed or even both...

William Barlow's brother, Peter Barlow, was engineer to the South Eastern Railway in the 1840s and introduced his own design of cast iron sleepers, which he hoped would last longer but in practice were prone to fracture and did not grip the ballast as well. Evidently novel track construction was a Barlow family thing.

I'd guess that E&V is Engine and (Brake) Van. Southern Region timetables of around 1970 use * to mean 'Stops and shunts for other trains to pass' so you're probably right in your interpretation. Presumably trams wouldn't need to pass another one at every depot, so mostly it would be just shunting.

Certainly - but not to resorts in Devon and Cornwall.

Gerry Fiennes wrote about this issue in "I tried to run a railway", when he was GM of the Western Region in the early to mid 1960s. He thought there was not much to choose between the Westbury and Salisbury routes for London to Exeter, but for the 60 percent of traffic to/from west of Exeter, the Westbury line was preferable. He mentions the second Beeching report, on development of trunk routes, in which Salisbury to Exeter, Reading-Westbury-Taunton and everything in Cornwall were shown as "not for development". Eventually all were saved but he comments that Salisbury - Exeter would have to live on the traffic generated by intermediate towns. Notes that the loss of holiday traffic to the West Country meant that considerable rationalisation would be possible which could mean the lines paying their way. An interesting read. Fiennes of course was an LNER man who hadn't been brought up to see things through rose tinted spectacles.

It would have been a Lady Typewriter!

Always useful to have a Terrier on hand!

Thanks - that's an interesting working. I guess the object was to provide an easier route for passengers arriving at Paddington than the Inner Circle from there to Victoria, particularly for families with Edwardian amounts of luggage. The route from Paddington to Latimer Road was over the Hammersmith & City Railway rather than the Metropolitan proper, and the GW was a partner in that, as it was in the West London and West London Extension Railways, so no entirely foreign metals were involved. Incidentally, running a train from the main line platforms at Paddington to or from the H&C must have notably interfered with smooth operation of the station.

The 126 mph was very much a one-off. The LNER streamliners I believe had special rules for double block signalling but no doubt someone will know chapter and verse.

Just checked. The slate grey paint was actually zinc based, not lead. Neither it nor the short-lived wartime economy green were varnished.

I've read that the lead-based grey paint used tended to darken gradually by reaction with sulphides in smoke and the atmosphere generally until it was practically black.

The Kent & East Sussex had a certain amount of relaying (using secondhand steel sleepered track) during WW2 with a view to it being a possible diversionary route if Tonbridge was out of action due to bombing. As far as I'm aware that was never needed (though I'd be pleased to be proved wrong) but it's an interesting question what motive power would have been used. Terriers and P class tanks were the only Southern locos that had been used between Rolvenden and Robertsbridge.

I can't comment on the NYMR situation, having visited 3 times over the last 50 years, but from general experience, "armchair" members do have their uses. Perhaps less so in the case of enthusiasts who live 200 miles away, but having a sympathetic body of residents - perhaps only vaguely interested in railways as such - in the local area can be very useful in terms of relations with public bodies, grant making trusts and the like. It's also very important how all staff, be they paid or volunteers, interact with the paying public. Even when you're picking up litter you're likely to be asked when the next train is, where the loos are or whether there's a café. Staff treating passengers/visitors in a friendly and helpful way will certainly be reflected in repeat business and in reviews on TripAdvisor and the like which we all check nowadays.

As far as horses by passenger train goes, Siegfried Sassoon's "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man" is set just before WW1 and describes travelling to hunts in Kent and East Sussex. The nearest station to his fictional village is a thinly disguised Paddock Wood, and it would seem that horseboxes could be attached to trains at relatively short notice and if necessary transferred to other routes, and even to the Brighton line, presumably via Tunbridge Wells. I can't recall seeing arrangements for this sort of movement described in special traffic notices of the period so presumably the workings were set up ad hoc by stationmasters and inspectors.

Hornsby Akroyd? Allegedly the first of the breed, built for Woolwich Arsenal, could be heard working across a mile or so of marshland.

Thanks both, my memory from some 30 years ago was evidently at fault, Outer Circle it would have been.

The late Dr Hedley Clarke (expert on LT roundel station nameboards and on the North London Railway) claimed that his grandfather, an L&NWR driver, drove on the Middle Circle. Much more imaginative than the Flying Scotsman...