31A

Hi John, I've got two BR black Hornby 'Trouts' - the first was the one they did a while ago with factory applied weathering and coloured patch insignia on the sides (which I was able to remove to back date it to c.1960 condition) and the second was the one they've released more recently branded for return to Scunthorpe. The first one didn't seem to be assembled quite correctly, such that the gap between the upper and lower halves of the side stanchions was more apparent than it should be, this being more evident on one side of the wagon than the other. I thought that if I could dismantle it I should be abel to reassemble it correctly, but it has so far defied my attempts to do this! Some screws are visible underneath but taking these out didn't seem to help, and it would somehow be necessary to separate the end stanchions from the headstocks and remove the control wheels (among other things). Interesting that Chris thinks it can be dismantled - possibly as sometimes the case with RTR rolling stock, it depends how much glue the factory used? The second one however is much better assembled, and I haven't tried to dismantle it.

The council depot where the dustcarts are standing had a private siding into it at one time - you can just see the gate (similar in appearance to a level crossing gate) behind the concrete platelayers hut.

Thanks Chris. Exhibition trains were reasonably frequent visitors in those days; they were often painted in the colours of whoever the promoter was. I think the coaches were based at Salisbury (?) where they were fitted out for each exhibition.

Thans for some more nice pictures of Cambridge, Chris! That steam crane, again. Those dark blue coaches in the second shot look like some kind of exhibition train? The flats I lived in for a while visible just to their right, with views over the yard from my kitchen window! I think you'd struggle to get those last two today, not because of the overhead wires or lack of 31s but you'd get run over trying to get across Mill Road!

Wouldn't have thought it had taken long to get into that state - I wouldn't have thought it had been painted blue for very long then.

Departure time....

That's the way they did go. They stopped in Cambridge yard to detach the brake van used by the Guard to close the level crossing gates behind the train on the Fen Drayton branch. At one time it was booked south of Hitching via Hertford North and was involved in a specatular derailment round there which resulted in several 21 tonnes lying at the foot of the embankment for some time!

It seems to be painted green; I'm not sure what railway administration would have had ferry vans painted that colour although possibly Belgian wagons were at one time, although it may be just a trick of the light?

Really good news especially from the point of view of the loco detailing parts, which goes a long way to filling the gap left by the demise of Crownline and recent doubtful availability of certain other ranges.

60077 waits outside Finsbury square to back down onto her train .....

I've put this picture up in another thread recently, but here's a real Brush 2 that I thought might also be appropriate here:

Thanks Keefer - loads isn't there? I'd forgotten about the two preserved BR non-ganwayed coaches which were in the Fyffes warehouse siding (near Brooklands Avenue) for a while.

Hi Martin, sorry to hear about the work situation and hope things work out for the better soon; in the meantime, always good to have more time for modelling! All the best, Steve

Thanks Brian, I don't have that book but may have a look for it. There certainly was some interesting traffic dealt with there; it wasn't unknown for a convoy of military vehicles to be making their way down Station Road, having been unloaded from 'Warflats' etc. Almost unrecognisable today, sadly!

No it wasn't that crane, Chris - it was the Loco Dept. breakdown crane that used to spend most of its time in the 'dump' sidings that formed part of the stabling point, leading up towards the North Box and Mill Road bridge. Will look up the details later, but think it was the kind of Cowans Sheldon crane that the old Hornby Dublo model was based on. The one in your picture looks like the Civil Engineer's steam crane that was used in remodelling the track layout prior to the new signalling system being introduced. Interesting picture in other ways too - you can see the end of a steel carrying bogie wagon in the Coalfields yard as a reminder of when steel coil was a regular inward traffic for a fairly short time; not sure whether this was in connection with some specific building or construction job locally, or quite why it happened?

The old cattle docks provided an unusual viewpoint for freight activity at Cambridge, at that time, if you went right round there. Once we spent most of the school lunch hour watching the breakdown crane retailing an 08 in that area. There were several dead end sidings that came up to the cattle docks as I recall; at one time in the mid '70s they contained a lot of Transfesa vans that seemed to be stored there for some reason!

Some phrase to do with 'eye of the beholder' springs to mind!

The Cattle Market railings aren't a patch on the old ones....

Thanks again for posting these pictures, Chris. The ones of Bury are very interesting - although the passenger train service is quite possibly more frequent now than it was in 1968/9, what an impression it still gave then of being a 'railway centre' (despite the loco depot and branch lines having closed) with evidence of buoyant freight traffic locally at the time. Thinking about it, perhaps the same applies at various places. Interesting ECML pictures too; I note from my travels up and down the Main Line that Doncaster Carr Loco has been demolished and erased over the past year, having for a long time been one of the few diesel depots still functioning that was recognisable from steam days (although I think part of the office buildings at Neville Hill go back to North Eastern days).

Just been watching the 'Power of East Coast Steam' dvd (Transport Video Publishing) which gives a clear view at 10mins 20 secs of the rear of B1 61203's tender, shunting in King's Cross Passenger Loco. The rear coal plate is in the later 'forward' position (as per Hornby's B1 61270, and K1 models so far released), and very clearly no reinforcing angle irons on it either, i.e. as per Hornby's model of these tenders.

Hi Porcy, and apologies (and to everybody else); yes, a typo on my part I'm afraid - the Green Book does say 62020 with tender 4067 5/52-wdl.

OK I wasn't going to get involved in this, as the very slight differences in the frame ends between the B1 tenders modelled by Hornby, and those attached to K1s, don't change my opinion that I am very grateful for all the high quality LNER / ER locos that Hornby have produced in recent years, including several which I never dreamt would be available RTR and with more to come, and won't deter me from buying a K1 when the version I want arrives in due course. However out of curiosity I dug out the relevant RCTS volumes. Part 2B includes the B1s, and gives details of their tenders - basically, tenders numbered 4030-4329 (originally coupled to locos 61040-61399) had curved frame ends and the others (numbered 4330-4399) had straight frame ends. Of the latter, 4340-9 had riveted rather than welded tanks. Part 6A covers the Peppercorn K1s, and says that 'ordinary B1 tenders, amongst which were the type with riveted tanks, were also noted attached to K1s from time to time, including:- Tender no. 4036 - loco 62066 1/53-wdl., tender no. 4067 - loco no. 62020 5/52-wdl., tender no. 4085 - loco no. 62045 4/61-11/63, loco no. 62046 11/63-wdl., tender no. 4248 - loco no. 62063 1/63-wdl., tender no. 4366 - loco no. 62007 8/63-wdl.' Of these, the first four would have had curved frame ends.

Nice picture of the inside of a tender; a challenge to try painting a model to look like that!

Interesting post - thanks. By 'missing bits' on the tender I presume you mean the angle iron strengtheners up the back of the rear coal plate, which were only present on the coal plates in the later forward position? If so the same applies to the tender provided with the recently released B1 61270 and I considered adding these (as you say, would have been easy enough with some plasticard or even Plastruct T-section), but then I found an image which appeared to show a B1's tender which didn't have them so I decided to give the benefit of the doubt and leave well alone! Admittedly it was a shot on a DVD and not in the best of light but I wondered whether not all tenders had these strengtheners fitted.

Your memory is not faulty Ian - they certainly did head freights down the York Road tunnel towards Moorgate, and turned off at Farringdon to reach various parts of South London. Scope for Southern modellers to include one!