Wickham Green too

My Ratio vans - simple plank version - came with them as standard ......... is that no longer the case ?

.......... er - when we're allowed to go shopping for ( allegedly ) non-essentials .......... then i'll be right behind you in the queue !

Well, the continuous drawgear should hold OK - but whether there'd be any woodwork around it's a different matter !!?!

Keep it quiet or the Stairfoot set might disappear at dead of night !

This could be a candidate - - though I can find no reference to her being broken up.

Ah - but was it actually panned at speed or is the backscene / foreground cunningly painted to make us think that it was ??!?

In the early fifties the 16T mineral wagon was very much a replacement for the fleet of decrepit former Private Owner coal wagons so is unlikely to have been seen in any other traffic. There were, though, privately-owned five-plank RCH 1923 wagons and similar-sized steel opens ( some of either ending up with M36xxxx & M48xxxx numbers ). At this time, of course, ballast was often sourced more locally so any suitable-looking wagon to hand might have been used : it was only the Southern that had really long distance ballast flows, in bogie hoppers, from Meldon ........ not unlike the ICI hoppers shipping limestone from the Peak District. Other uses for limestone might involve burning it to quicklime - which required specialised wagons - or tarring for roadstone ( the Southern, at least labelling wagons which were not to be used for anything else ).

Try your local supermarket ...... they've usually got a selection of IPAs among the beers ( essential shopping, only, of course ).

Maybe Met police in disguise !

I've never cruised on anything larger than S.S. Shieldhall - above - but from what I've heard a lot of cruise 'packages' involve flying from wherever to A, cruising to B and flying home - so the ship has a far longer circuit, carrying different passengers for different segments. ( No doubt the whole thing's available, complete, if you've got the dosh .... and the patience ! )

Thank - yes that was my drift ..... though pure speculation on my part : I guess the livery was copied from a packet of frozen somethingorother !

..... but there are proper ships there too !

Probably not even a copy of a real MOTOR van !

Did the old meter still take shillings ?

The Southern did inherit a couple of Manning Wardles from the SECR and one from the FYNR ......... but this is sure to be a contractor's loco.

While on the subject of Provincial railcars - how about a Pacer you'd not have found in your Platform 5 !?

..... in round-ish figures ! : a quick trawl of drawings shows this figure for GWR & LMS coaches, 3'7'' for Southern and 3'6'' for Pullman and BR Mk1 ............................... though any difference is of little importance below, perhaps, Gauge 1.

Well, someone a Google thinks its a genuine one worth nicking anyway !

Does it not say - maybe hidden somewhere in the intro - "Drawings reproduced at a constant scale of ..... unless otherwise stated." ? - that's often how publishers try to catch us out !

Big head !

Single- or three-phase is AC ........ but it's DC on the Southern don't forget !

This would have been built thrown together at a time when most if not all 56' stock was still in regular use ....... there was a ready supply of shorter bogie stock in the thirties when bodies were being mounted on longer frames for electric or loco-hauled use.

Frequent practice, undoubtedly - but frowned upon by officialdom .......... I rescued a rather nice piece of Southern Railway enamel from oblivion umpteen years ago : "... propping up or otherwise fixing Wagon Doors for the support of Coal Weighting Machines .... is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ..."

Was his overall height marked inside his helmet ?

....... and think about WHEN your goods train arrived : on my local line it was generally about three in the morning when any self-respecting coal merchant would still be tucked up in bed. ( Admittedly, though a branch, this line is electrified and the goods effectively segregated from daytime passenger workings.)