C126

Fascinating layout/arrangement.  I assume @Wickham Green too 's Grampusmobile gates are where the line went through to the docks?

2 hours ago, workev2000 said:

As requested I have uploaded a reduced-size sample from the TTFM Magazine, an article based on the 1955 Modernisation Plan.

 

The Magazine includes high-resolution images, rather than the sampled version in this PDF.
 

TTFM Sample.pdf 3.3 MB · 12 downloads

Thanks.  Looks good.  Do we get a prize for spotting the typos?  🙂

31 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

When did the SR become a fully-fitted region? Can you dispense with the brake van? 

1st August, 1977.

8 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Can we get an 09 allocated to the branch? Dare we try an 07? Probably best not, because it couldn’t be trusted not to get hot axle boxes and expire across the junction at Hampden Park. An 03? Now, that might be worth a try.

Were there not 04s allocated to Brighton as well once?  Something a little different and equally handsome.

2 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

You could turn a pallet truck in the width of a wagon, but it wasn't easy.

So can one say a general rule was: 'Vanfits, etc., were used only for non-palleted sundries'?  I know there will have been many exceptions, but...

Reading the latest Waitrose Food magazine (March 2024) last night, I was ridiculously excited to come across a South Indian Pineapple Chutney recipe:

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/south-indian-pineapple-chutney

Seven spices, and asefoetida instead of garlic, but I hope to have a try of it soon.  This is for one fresh pineapple's worth, so I must work out what it is in tinned chunks.  If anyone else attempts it, please let us know here.  Thanks and best wishes.

Sorry for both being dim and dragging this (a little) off-topic, but were not vans without full-width doors (e.g., Vanfit, Vanwide, VIX Ferry-van) loaded with pallets using a man with a pallet-truck aboard?  How was the full length of a wagon used if not?  Or were pallets not loaded into such wagons?  Thanks.

23 minutes ago, Geep7 said:

The goods train would usually arrive on the goods loop, below the lower platform.

Sorry.  'Read full track diagram' at leisure is the lesson I learn here.  Thanks.  Yours over-hastily, Neil.

Presumably, the goods train for the siding would arrive on the top platform, then run round via the lower and propel it from the top platform into the siding.  So yes, you do need it.

However, if you take it out, operationally it might be more interesting in that the goods train arrives on the top platform, shunts forward and then is propelled into the lower platform.  Then the loco runs round via the top platform and propels the wagons into the factory siding via the lower platform single slip.

Hope this helps/is of interest.

Weeding my 'model railways' box-file to-day, I found a few cuttings that might be of subsidiary interest to builders of this wagon:

Model Rail, January 2001 - 'Truly exceptional : modelling Britain's biggest rail loads', Harold Smith.  Describes building various wagons and loads, including Transformer B901801 from Triang R242 Weltrol bogies and the body from styrene sheet.

Railway Modeller, August 1997 - p.355.  Infuriatingly, I do not have the rest of the article, only this page (last), showing a model of a Transformer wagon, sides built around a styrene sheet sandwich of 2mm. aluminium sheet.

Daily Telegraph, n.d. [1984?] - 'Gun-guard' claim for Navy A-waste on secret train, David Graves.  2x9 col. inch article responding to a Friends of the Earth news report, that, "... based its claim on leaked confidential British Rail documents.  The documents, handed to the group's Avon branch consisted of a route map, emergency procedures in case of an accident, and a list of hospitals along the route able to cope with radiation cases."  I will try and find the date of this, but am off work at the moment.

Railway Magazine, September 1996, p.43 - letter from reader asking for identification of "EMU type unit" PPX99151.  The editor explains it is an escort vehicle, with 99150.

Railway Magazine, October 1995, p.77 - picture of support coach 99153 by Colin J. Marsden, caption, "... unable to obtain authorisation for operation on Railtrack.  Together with sister vehicle No. 99152 ... both are now at ABB Crewe awaiting attention."

Hope this is of interest, at least with the Transformer wagon models' building techniques being of assistance to future modellers.

Andy - So sorry to hear about your change in circumstances.  I hope things work out for the best with you and your family.  I wish I had space for the layout, and hope it finds a good home.  Thanks for telling us all about it over the years.  Best wishes to you all for the future.

@The Stationmaster Sorry; my reply of great wit and superlative erudition has just vanished in a browser crash, but what I meant was a tongue-in-cheek compliment in that the exhibition felt so broad in interest and well run I hoped something bigger could be undertaken.  But we have seen how much work Warley took, so I think we can be happy with what we had this year.  Thanks to the young steward who was happy to escort me to the Sports Hall with my usual lack of direction.  Much appreciated.

May I just advertise the public transport ease of access: X2 or X3 'bus from Oxford town centre (St Aldate's southwards) every ten mins., 25 min. journey, and a 12-15 min. walk up Bath-st from Abingdon town centre to the college.  £2 each way, and a double-decker to enjoy the views.

And I saw a shop with 'that type-face' on my way there:

The left-hand bay had it in raised letters, but it was hidden by the awning.

Sorry to be so late in posting this, but there are another couple of photographs published:

Marsden, Colin J., Rolling stock recognition : 2 : BR and private owner wagons, Shepperton : Ian Allan, 1984.  p.113.  "... photographed passing Plymouth station during August 1978." (by Les Bartram).  This shows it without the radio-line 'prongs' and un-loaded, and Marsden classes it as "PXV".

Another was the header to an article in a mid-1980's C.N.D. magazine (Campaign  ?  Sanity  ?) titled, "A load on my mind [by?] Ray Buckton, General Secretary of ASLEF".*  The photograph caption reads, "What this monster is no one will officially say.  But it went right through the middle of Leeds" [presumably to have its escort coaches' gas-bottles changed. 🙂 ]  I tore the top out for the photo and did not keep the whole page.  This shows it with 'prongs' and loaded.

I will try and track down the C.N.D. mag details and keep you posted.

* Bib. details found : Sanity : voice of CND, 1982, October, p.33.

Please may I add my thanks to all concerned for the show.  My 'search strategy' needed adapting to the venue - the corridors were very crowded at times - compared to a single, open venue (like the Sports Hall), but I saw all I wished, and did not get lost too often.

I was struck by the huge range of layouts and their high quality.  I hope visitors were inspired by at least one to join the hobby if not modelling already.  Also, the 'N' gauge layouts were wonderful: very impressive what can be done in such a small scale to-day.

Look forward to visiting next year, and it made up for being unable to get to Ally Pally in a couple of weeks.  Many thanks to you all.  Have you considered doing a larger event in a few years, perhaps at a National Exhibition Centre a little further north...?

7 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

No cakes and a limited selection of foodstuffs on offer

Sorry to read this.  I was going to compliment the venue on the wide selection of reasonably-priced cakes and drinks.  Brownies, chocolate crunch slab, lemon short-bread(?), and more.  But with the constant queue at the counter, I ate at mid-day Saturday.

On 23/02/2024 at 22:38, Lacathedrale said:

Top Yard being the one on the Shoreham side?

Top Yard was the fan of sidings the other side of the main line northwards, east of the main line and adjacent to a parapet wall that overlooked the 'slope' line down to the Lower Yard, where your photos were taken.  I think Montpelier Sidings were for the carriage sidings.

Top Yard is still there, north of the junction for the east coast line, and is slowly getting over-grown.  See my recent pics of Lower Yard as it is now if interested:

Bother, sorry, not the type I meant, but I saw this at Tunbridge Wells Central in 1983.  Perhaps this type could have been used.  Seemed a rarity to me at the time.

There was a rarer flat-roofed varient made up of 2x2 panels, the front right a door and in the wall opposite two windows (one each panel).  I can not find a photo at the moment, but I have a kit.  N.b., it is not the L.N.E.R. one (that came in at least two sizes).

Just found this one on Flickr, that I remembered:

N.b., crash over-ride bars at ends (at least I assume that is what those two prongs are for?!).

Saw a model of this on a layout at one of the Gaydon exhibitions recently, livery was pale khaki and white 'inner third'.  Chatted with the modeller - he had made the bogies (and everything else) from scratch.  Looked wonderful.  I will try and find the name of the layout.

'Devonport Road'.

Does anyone still fly model rockets, or are they banned as well?  I was one of the first members of the grandly-titled "British Space Modelling Association" years ago.  They'll be stopping one playing with home-made pulse-jets next...

On 21/02/2024 at 11:17, cctransuk said:

 

...... but is capable of being 'got at' to produce respectable models of the prototype - I even managed to produce both lagged and unlagged versions.

 

CJI.

Any chance of some photos, please?

An out-of-focus priest praying :

Herewith the few I took.  Apologies as always for the quality.  It was much larger than expected, compared to what is available elsewhere on the www.

A few details:

Just a quick note to add as promised a few literary refs to the answer 'What was Speedlink?', in publication date order from top-left, thus:

I would recommend Dr Shannon's 2014 Speedlink as the best history, containing several diagrammatic maps of each area, a table of national trunk trains between the yards of January 1985, and many photographs.  The 3.5 pages of "sample Speedlink consists" date from 1987-1991 though, and the map of the area for Lancaster shows all freight flows north of Carnforth routed via the Cumbrian coast line, and Warrington Yard the area's freight focus.

Rail freight since 1968 : wagonload  (2006) and Rail freight - today  (1989) contain further textual descriptions of the history of wagon-load and Speedlink, as does Geoffrey Freeman Allen's British railfreight : today and tomorrow (1984), all with excellent photographs.  The other two contain many photographs of such goods trains which might be if use.

As always, unless you wish Rule 1 to play a great role in your layout operation, I would suggest getting your hands on a Working Time Table of the area/time of interest.  Not sure what its area code would be ('C'?), but others here will be able to advise.

Hope all this helps.  Let me know if you want a ref. checking or more detail, but I can not promise how quickly I can reply.  With all good wishes.