Wickham Green too

....... 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.)

OK, you've got better eyesight than I have ! .............. unfortunately it's still not anything SECR as they had continuous handrails looping round the top of the 'box.

Next day - or more likely several days later ...... the wagon owners ( where they weren't the local coal merchant himself ) would have liked a quick return of their vehicle for the next revenue-earning trip but the coal merchants were often happy to retain this 'storage-bin-on-wheels' until they'd bagged the contents .......... hence the Railways, collieries and wagon hire companies charged 'demurrage' on any wagon retained for more than a set period.

Hmmmmmm .................... what I thought looked like a Wainwright 'C' appears to have a smokebox numberplate - so either the photo is quite a while AFTER the war or ( more likely ) it's actually an LMS constituent loco !

Sometimes you just get extra-shiny wheels that just won't grip : I have a Bachmann Lord Nelson that struggles with the rice pudding skin test yet my - relative lightweight - C class had 41 wagons the other day ................................. sorry, that doesn't help you one iota !

Painted grey - so they're Loriots ........................ 42024 is Loriot B, built ( as Loriot A ) as 1889/90 and - as Train&Armour has beaten me to it - 42158 is a Loriot E built some time between 1908 & 1927. The smokebox looks very much like a Wainwright 'C' and the chimney seems horribly familiar - so it's probably 'somewhere in Southern England' ..... but where ??!?

That Mk1 BFK looks very much like a MkII to me !!?!

A slight 'Off Topic' if I may ...... you'd never see a 'foreign' loco coal wagon on any of the railways before nationalisation - and rarely afterwards ................. if your Schools had to shunt its own coal wagons they would quite likely have been from Stephenson Clarke - though 'all' Private Owners wagons were pooled by this time.

Yes, referring to post-war South Eastern Section services formerly operated with Pullman Cars, Mike King says "The Southern had not built any narrow-bodied catering vehicles, which compelled the retention of the Pullman Cars on ( the Hastings ) route. To replace the others 14 Maunsell Restaurant cars were reallocated to the South Eastern section, being staffed & provisioned by the Pullman Car Co. All 14 cars were rebuilt into Diagram 2666 Buffet cars in 1953/4, continuing to provide a Pullman Car Co presence on ordinary services to the Kent coast." But definitely NOT Bulleid buffets ( etc ) - they stayed firmly west of Waterloo ! ( there weren't a lot anyway )

A little odd that wasn't done earlier - maybe when the flying junction was put in at the Somerset end of the Berks & Hants !

............... but don't hold your breath.

...... and presumably the 'Fast' lines tend to be used by 'Fast' ( passenger ) trains rather than over-height freights.

Must've been right at the end of the year as my records show me photting 506s in early December ( MUST get them scanned ) .......... I think the contact wire had been upgraded earlier and I believe I've got an offcut of the old type carefully filed away - somewhere !

Unless you want to make butter ........... Slinn & Clarke do say that the actual volute springs were replaced with coils - but I guess that didn't cure the problem.

One of those - presumably the Reddish one - would have been retained for the Hadfield 'stump' unless replaced by something completely different.

The HMRS book isn't specific on that, just noting volutes as "Used under .... diagrams O.11 and O.12" - though 'American' bogies are also listed for those diagrams. The only photographic evidence is of No.1359 ( O.11 ), when new, and only two later changes are listed for this Lot ....... though, as they say, "with no change of wheelbase, there was no impelling reason to note a change of bogie". There are photos of "Siphon Bogies" later in the book but the volute example illustrated isn't under a Siphon.

As Cor-onGRT4 says only a relative handful of Open Thirds got incorporated in sets - post war - but like any other Third they might have been inserted in a set or hooked on the end of a train as a 'swinger' any time. Rule 1 of Southern coaching stock : you can never have enough loose Thirds !

Does this not come within the scope of route and traction knowledge ?

9' American, 9' volute, 7', 8'6'' or 9' pressed steel ..... according to the HMRS Siphon 'bible'.

........... got to be that close or they don't scratch the paintwork. ( sorry vynyls )

At MY normal rate of progress I haven't got any grandchildren ............... nor children, for that matter. ( My nephew's expecting a sprog next month* - does that count ? ) * well, it's his wife that's expecting, of course !

Nah - the 13s were converted, used & scrapped long before that !

Very few in the model railway trade have the flexibility to do anything similar - certainly none of the big players - though their suppliers MIGHT have been able to switch for their domestic ( Chinese ) needs by now.

There are four 'Barnums' in preservation : this one joined the other three at Ruddington ( GCR-N ) some time ago - though the NRM have recently reclaimed theirs !

There will probably always be a need for something small to give brakevan rides - whether that be P, A1X or Normandy !