Wickham Green too

At which point I'll introduce my latest pet hate : not 'railway' but 'train line' ........ UGH ! ( I've not YET heard anyone talk about a ' train line station' - but it'll happen ! )

Didn't someone say they always washed their ballast with soap and water? ......... going one better here !

Maybe the question should be re-phrased as 'What's the longest time that any branch was operated by a single class of locomotive?' ..... even the three Southern branches mentioned ( Lyme Regis, Hayling Islnd & Wenford Bridge ) started with something other than the locos we are familiar with - way back in the mists of time.

As Paul confirmed - a few posts back - these were, indeed, conversions - but from passenger stock rather than Freightliner flats.

Ah - but you can just imagine, given the quirkiness of the Island railways, carrying a calf in one of the electric units ! [ No jokes about Cow(e)s, please. ]

Believe it or not there were still calves in a Southern Special Cattle Van as late as October 1983 ! : -

Those windows are reminiscent of an RMB but are too close to the centre of the coach - maybe a different catering vehicle at one time ? The photo was taken on the last day of 1981 and the '82 Platform 5 lists Club cars S99645/6 & Exhibition coach S99647 converted at Salisbury in '81 : while the first two were Restaurant Buffets S1765/6 on Commonwealth bogies I think the other one - former BSK S34629 is the more likely for this conversion ! ( I was more interested in the surrounding Staniers, at the time, and two very nearly made it into preservation at the Mad Hints - unfortunately the inhabitants of Blazingsmoke only left us with a couple of smouldering wrecks.)

One more category of MK1 conversions hasn't been mentioned, I don't think : Exhibition Vans ! -

There MAY have been 'converted' freightliner flats - but there were four purpose-built bullion flats ( B99500-3 ) built at Derby in 1971 : B5 bogies enabled these to run fast enough to keep ahead of the felons.

...... or the crew cooking breakfast noises : what's the DCC code for frying bacon smell ?

My first interpretation was that most of it is now grey-primed metal and the boiler self-coloured black plastic ..... but I trust you're right ! Looking good - whatever - but shame about that horror sticking out from under the buffer beam ! ( maybe they'll leave that in the goodie bag - a 4-4-0 shouldn't have much use for a front coupling.)

...... and that was only the START of the rebuilding / re-sheeting !

......... and a couple of spare bogies trucks in case thirty six axles aren't enough !

Indeed - like the Maunsell coaches the Southern built for through working to the GWR & LMS : they were never converted to 'standard', even when gangway adaptors became commonplace. The odd thing about the Irish vans is that the need for Pullman-gangwayed Genny vans to run with MkII aircon stock was satisfied by heavily rebuilding some of the 'Dutch' vans rather than retro-fitting Mk1s.

Of course there was a whole fleet of Generating Steam Vans converted from BSKs & BCKs : -

Was that the plastic ( GRP ) bodied conversion ? - if not, that's one more.

IF you keep yer 'ed down ! Clearly there's room to run the 'S' stock on District lines where the 'D' stock previously lived ...... yet that seems to be finding an after-life on the National Network - presumably with severe restrictions !!?!

How wide is the 'S' stock ? ........ it's certainly not restricted to former Metropolitan lines so was it 'dumbed down' to a narrower standard.

Three years later and it wasn't going to be a Happy Christmas for ADB98000 Vic Berry's, Leicester : 23/12/90.

Fascinating stuff - and amazing that anyone could be bothered to track down the original vehicles for reconversion.

They'd have carried some sort of military drab colour in service and any external reference to the LNER would have been along the lines of 'On Hire From.....'. If these really are the coaches they claim to be - where were they stored between Eisenhower's last need for them over here and the mid '60s when they went to the 'States ?

One of the old brain cells has just sparked up ! ...... whatever happened to the MailCoach K22 kit ?

I've got that problem on my layout - almost as much rolling stock as space to put it !

for at least twenty seconds in accordance with Government guidelines.

Indeed - another reason to get lost in Stratford's spaghetti !