31A

Seems familiar....

You're welcome, Phil! It really wasn't much work ....

So, with this extra storage, there is scope to increase the number of parcels vans in use! I've got some ideas for more interesting ones, but 'low hanging fruit' was harvested by raiding the Box Mountain and extracting a Bachmann Mk1 BG. It's a very nice model and not much needs to be done to it, but there are some areas for improvement. I like these Bachmann Mk1s as they can easily be completely disassembled, which makes it easier when it comes to removing (or at least reducing) the spurious 'ribs' on the roofs. Having got the roof off, it's an easy job to do this. The only tool I used was the square end of a metal rule, used a kind of 'pushing scraper'. The end of the rule isn't sharpened in any way, which is probably a good thing as it means there's less risk of damaging the other detail on the roof. Most of what you can see of the 'ribs' in this picture to the right of my hand is actually the variation in colour where the bare plastic has been exposed. Having done that and before reassembling the coach, it's an easy job to give the roof a quick squirt or two of Railmatch Roof Dirt paint. The other thing I did was to provide lamp irons on the gangway ends, so that I can hang a tail lamp on the coach as necessary. These are made from a short bit of 0.7mm brass wire, bent to a right angle and with the upright part filed flat. Then the lamp iron is mounted in a hole drilled in the side of the gangway, just inboard of the end. Before reassembly, I painted the floor / ends and bogies with my usual weathering grot colour, a mix of Humbrol Matt Black 33 and Dark Earth 29. I prefer to do this with the coach taken apart, as it's easier to control where the paint goes, but having put it back together again, I finished off the weathering with some more of the same on the coach sides. Finally, I've used neat matt black for grease around the axle boxes and on the buffers, and a thin wash of same over the roof just to add a bit of variation to the colour. Ready for traffic;

I'm not sure what type the bogie hoppers were, they were pretty nondescript things, but here's a picture of the train in KX Goods after it had gone over to the bogie wagons: https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/14293875913/in/album-72157632932040983/ In the second half of the 1980s I lived in a flat near the cycleway bridge, overlooking the north end of Cambridge station and the yard. At the beginning of that time the shunting was very entertaining, particularly of the sand train hoppers in the evenings - I assume they must have been cutting out cripples or wagons that were due overhaul, but it often seemed quite complicated! After the bogie hoppers came in there was hardly any shunting needed of them, and with the demise of Speedlink, by the end of the decade there was hardly any shunting left at all to watch.

Recently I've been trying to "rationalise" the rolling stock storage for the layout (aka making room for more!) and bought a couple more 7 litre Really Useful Boxes, to go with the ones I've already got. I make tray inserts for them from 4mm Foamboard. If the 'slots' run across the short side of the box, they're not quite long enough for big locos after I've put the insert in, so this time I've made the 'slots' run lengthwise. The dividers just need to be tall enough to stop vehicles from falling over, but low enough that you can easily pick them up. As you can see, they then take one full length loco (or coach) per slot, but can be divided up to take two shorter vehicles per slot. The dividers are off cuts of the foam board and are just wedged into place so they are adjustable. This is especially useful for parcels vehicles.

Quite a late use of them was on the sand traffic from Fen Drayton (near St. Ives, Cambs) to various places on the GN. Eventually they were replaced by some bogie hoppers, but it must have been well into the 1980s by the time that happened. https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/8534810032/in/album-72157632935569242/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/8534903148/in/album-72157632932040983/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/14273206894/in/album-72157632932040983/

Talking of J6s, here's one I made maybe 30 or so years ago from a Nu Cast kit. I think it's on its second motor and gearbox; it now has a can motor of some sort and a Branchlines 80:1 gearbox and is a very smooth runner. I did buy a London Road Models kit a couple of months ago but so far haven't summoned up the courage to make a start on it! My excuse is that I haven't got a gearbox for it yet!

Sorry, don't think so. Pretty sure it's Huntingdon. There's no canopy like that at Sandy (and never has been), and you can see the railings of the bridge over the river at the south end in the lower photo.

Looks like Huntingdon station.

Sorry, I'd forgotten Mr. Wheatley had mentioned them already. It does seem strange the way they've left them, though. That makes sense, thanks! When the old bridge approach ramp is taken away the walls at that point will seem very high above the new road!

They do look a bit like wells!

I went for a walk along the City Walls this afternoon, to see how this was coming along. Here is a general view of the work site. The old bridge has completely gone, but the ramp leading up to it is still there, on the left hand side. Apparently it is being left for now, until a new retaining wall is built to stop the Walls collapsing! This view is looking along the course of the lines to the old station, which formerly passed under the bridge and through the archway in the City Walls the I was standing on. The new (temporary) entrance to the station car park, off the new (temporary) Queen Street can be seen. At the moment pedestrians have to walk on the far side of the "Portakabin City". For some reason, a fragment of one of the bridge piers remains, behind the digger's jib, and has had new block walls built on either side of it. I've no idea what's inside, but I don't think it's there on the images of the finished project! The third picture is looking towards the station buildings. The building on the left is the present Train Crew Signing On Point, and the building to its right with the sloping roof is the "Cycle Heaven" bike shop, formerly the Parcels Office. This is the part of the station that was most damaged in the 1942 Air Raid, and these buildings were replacements for ones which were damaged. You can see how the brickwork of the train shed wall is different, behind the Signing On Point. Original window arches can be seen on the left hand wall of the Signing On Point (masked by the lean to lobby), but the rest of the buildings are from the1940s. Both buildings are planned to be demolished as part of this redevelopment, and the plans show the new taxi rank in this area. In the foreground are two strange cylindrical brick columns; one has a piece of board on top and the other is surrounded by temporary barriers. I assume these were underneath the old bridge and invisible until it was demolished; I wonder whether they are to do with the drainage system? The grey roof at the front is a bike shed which I think was provided for the Hudson House railway office building, which was behind the Walls and has now been replaced by some swanky modern flats and offices.

Thank you, very interesting - I may investigate.

Apologies! Having looked at the Atlas again in broad daylight I think the symbol they have used for the Tempelhof line indicates "former line, removed or out of use, freight only line". Dashed grey line rather than dashed black. The Schweers and Wall atlases are brilliant but the symbols used are so comprehensive they sometimes confuse me!

The latest edition of the Schweers and Wall "Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland" indicates it to be a freight-only line, rather than disused, abandoned or dismantled. Although it's difficult to imagine what purpose it could serve!

Far too tidy! 🤣🤣 Looks very smart. Good library! Did you buy the workbench, or did you make it?

I have never paid in advance; mainly in case I don't go for whatever reason. Apart from sometimes the possibility of getting in a bit earlier, I struggle to see much advantage. The big shows I've visited, e.g. Doncaster, Glasgow and Warley, are so well organised these days with contactless payment etc. that the queuing time to pay on the day has usually been very short. Smaller local ones, there's hardly any queuing involved anyway.

So that's what it looks like! Despite visiting and passing through Brussels many times over the years I've never got off there; in fact I don't think I've ever been on a train that has stopped there. The same can be said of the other small station on the connecting line, Chapelle/Kapellekerk which is on the surface just as you come out of the tunnel approaching Midi, and looks even more derelict. I used to visit Belgium frequently for its railways and beer but on returning last year after a break during the pandemic I got the impression that Brussels had 'gone downhill' in the meantime, or maybe my memory played tricks. But as other parts of Belgium go, I like Ghent as a city and Ghent St. Peters station for watching trains; at least it has some loco hauled passenger trains, and some freight passes through. Agree Antwerp is also very good.

I'd always used scraps of wood as a base for soldering but got fed up with having to clean charred residue from he work (and smoke getting in my eyes!) so recently I've been using a ceramic tile; no idea where it came from but it could be the sort of thing you'd put on a kitchen wall for example. I thought it might act as too much of a heat sink, and it does a bit but not so much so that you can't use it for soldering on, and the work comes out nice and clean. I picked up a Squires leaflet at the Bristol show which lists a flexible Soldering Mat, which I thought might be useful and may be something like the item @Bucoops has referenced from Ebay, although I can't find it in Squires web site!

They have been doing it for some time; I remember being asked when I visited a couple of years ago before the Annual Passes were 'a thing'.

You're not obliged to gift aid when you buy your annual pass, or at least I wasn't when I bought mine last year - they give you the option. I intend to buy one for this year sometime soon.

Perhaps a model of Fenchurch Street signal box would look good? https://www.wbsframe.mste.co.uk/public/Fenchurch_Street.html

I think it was fairly usual to 'draw up' long trains after station work in the front section had been completed to get the rear section on the platform, I remember seeing it being done in the 1970s, Huntingdon being a place which comes to mind. There may also have been parcels traffic for the station in the overhanging section for example, although I expect that would have been taken into account when loading where possible. It wasn't a quick thing to do but might possibly be a reason for some station stop times being longer than would seem necessary on the face of it. Another way of dealing with it, if a regular occurrence, was window labels on the relevant coaches advising passengers for 'short' stations not to travel in them. Again on the GN, loco hauled trains used to have printed window labels covering stops at Biggleswade, Sandy, St. Neots etc.

Oh I see what you mean, sorry Russ. I’m not sure whether they’re actually working at nights (someone else might know better) but I live about 10 minutes walk away and have the window open at nights, and thought the other night I couldn’t hear any noise from it. I may have just been lucky and the wind was in the other direction ….

Sorry Russ, but I can't see how it'll make any difference to the Premier Inn! The new road will start well to the station side of it.