anroar53

First time I saw a Hastings DEMU 'in the flesh' was when one thumped past me on the Midland Main Line at Mill Hill. It was a Saturday morning in the early 1970s and it was working a Dartford to Kettering Footex. Apparently it had been worked from Clapham Junction by Victoria men with Midland Conductors. The Victoria men returned 'Pass' from Kettering, and another crew from Victoria travelled down 'Pass' later in the day to bring it back. Andy.

03.05.87. 56033 first 56 to visit Hastings. Although they made odd appearances in the area over the years it was only in fairly recent times that Colas owned examples began to make regular sorties from Ashford to St. Leonards. Not exactly locos, but fairly rare. While most people would equate the Hastings to Ashford route with DEMUs and then 170s, DMMUs also came to visit. Saturday 13.02.88. Appledore, working Ashford to Rye shuttles in connection with an Engineering block between Hastings and Rye. Tonbridge Driver 'Taffy' Thomas at the controls. Tonbridge Crews worked these trips having both Traction and Route Knowledge at this time. At Rye. This weekend I was doing RO/Pilotman duties between Appledore and Rye. As the train terminated and started from the Down Platform normal signalling was not in operation, so Pilot Working was necessary. The unit was a treasure trove of unusual destination blinds, and the cab had 'Not to work into Paddington Suburban' stencilled on the route indicator box door. Rye again. Around this time there was a shortage of DEMUs, and for a while one of these units worked in a DEMU diagram during the week. It came down from Tonbridge ECS via Tunbridge Wells, leaving at 0500, to work the 0555 Hastings to Ashford, then did two and a half trips covering for the other two DEMUs while they visited Chart Leacon for fuel. Then on its own trip into Chart would fuel and return ECS direct to Tonbridge for an afternoon working to Reading. Andy.

Surprised that the Midland 4F hasn't been mentioned? My Father was based at Kentish Town 14B from pre-nationalisation days until it closed. He had a loathing of these locos, 43964 in particular. Kentish Town had a small stud of these locos primarily for workings over the London Tilbury & Southend lines. At the end of the 1940s they were fitted with the early Strowger-Hudd prototype AWS, which the LTS had been equipped with. The 4Fs therefore became the 'weapon of choice' for LTS work, including the St. Pancras to Tilbury Boat trains. Although a true 'dyed in the wool' Midland Man he rated the 4F the worst of all the locos (Steam and Diesel) he ever worked on. Rostered on an LTS turn with one of these would fill him with dread, with the thoughts of the extreme discomfort to come. Even when freshly shopped he said the motion between the engine and tender would loosen every bone in your body. Coupled with the side to side wobble, and a tendency to 'nod' on some stretches of track made things lively. Often paired with a young 'passed cleaner' doing the firing he would tell them when to put a bit more coal on at 'quieter' moments, to avoid the footplate becoming ankle deep in 'coal that missed the hole'. When on freight turns there were frequent signal stops, and no matter how gently you handled them they would tend to 'kick' quite violently when starting off. He wasn't alone in his opinions, and it wasn't unknown for some un-authorised tampering to take place with the Engine Arrangements Board, taking even a high mileage Black 5 in preference to the designated 4F. The Shed Foreman got wise to this, and would often be found near the Board when 'Tilbury' crews were booking on. When the 24/27s arrived in the early 1960s and displaced the last of the few 4Fs on the Tilbury workings he was never so happy. He often said, 'If you could endure a day with a 4F everything else was luxury by comparison'. Andy.

Having thought about this a bit more the EMU tail traffic would have been a bit of a problem. At a time when tail traffic was reasonably common most of the van tail traffic would have been vacuum braked, while most EMUs were air braked. (The MLVs were fitted with a low level vacuum hose connection). Most of the EMUs had high level brake pipes, which would have required Extension Pipes to couple to a Dual or Air Fitted van. Then later builds of EMUs had different couplers. Have never seen other EMU types with tail loads, but it might've happened? Andy.

I can remember the Southern MLVs hauling van traffic, around 1988-89. There was a working which called at Ashford in the early afternoon that went to London Bridge. A return working called at Ashford in the early hours of the morning which sometimes had a couple of vans tacked on the back of the MLV. Then of course there were the famous water runs at the end of the 80s, early 90s. An MLV used to take a couple of 4 wheel tankers to Dover to fill up with water, and then return them to Ashford Down Sidings for use in the Carriage Washer. This was at a time of drought, and I think the water came from wells on BR land at Dover? Andy.

On the Down Line approaching Collington, spot on! Andy.

Chart Leacon Ashford had a small fleet of 09s. Two would normally be outbased at Tonbridge, one for the West Yard, and one for the Transfesa sidings at Paddock Wood. A couple would also be allocated to Dover Town Yard/Western Docks. There was a night turn at Ashford which would take a fresh one to where it was required, returning to Chart with the one scheduled for Fuel or Maintenance. It took a whole duty as the Tonbridge ones could be recessed at Headcorn or Paddock Wood to allow other traffic to pass. The Dover turn could sometimes take the long way round via Canterbury and the Minster triangle. The Paddock Wood 09 would return to Tonbridge in the early afternoon, loaded in the cab were carrier bags of Spanish Onions and Oranges, sometimes Potatoes. These were given to the crew by the staff at the Transfesa Depot. The contents were shared out in the Depot. Remember having some nice huge Spanish Onions, lasted the whole week! Andy.

Have attached a few scans from 1966/9 Local 'Trip' workings, covered by 08s in the London Area. At the time some would have still been in grubby green, but with wasp stripes. At one time this part of the Midland had numerous Freight Yards between St. Pancras and Hendon. This involved a lot of Inter-Yard work, much of which was entrusted to 08s, or 350s as they were referred to in the notices. Each working had its own number, and were usually called 'Target-21' and such like. I can remember these workings quite well, they would be made up of mainly 10T Box Vans, with a sprinkling of other wagons. Often they would not have a Brake Van, the tail lamp being hung over the draw hook of the last vehicle, where it would rock slowly 'to and fro'. The 08 would very often being worked flat out, wobbling from side to side, rods flailing to almost a blur, trying to keep out of the way of other traffic. Travelling on a St. Pancras bound 127 one day we were held briefly on the approaches to Finchley Road, and were overtaken on the Goods Line by an 08 and a dozen or so wagons doing its best express freight impersonation. Sorry the scans are a bit yellow with age. Makes me realise just how much has disappeared from the railways now, and most of the once numerous Yards have disappeared under housing and small industry. Andy.

About twenty years ago I was faced with the problem of how to try and model the West Coast Main Line in N, but with only the Farish 87, and the Lima 86 available? The only solution was to try and fill the gaps by scratch building all the missing items. This had started as a project to run them on the exhibition layout 'Kings Park'. The first three attempts were at class 85s built round some secondhand Fleischmann continental AC locos. However these were a bit overscale in width, topping out at a scale twelve feet. Something had to be done to produce a more true to size model. This was the first attempt to produce an early 81 built around an Arnold continental chassis. The basic construction was made up from 1mm plasticard, with the cab front and side windows made from 0.5mm plasticard. The bodyshell was made as a solid box first, with the windows and grill apertures drilled out and filed. (As I had done with the EMUs and Underground stock.) The grills were made from P & D Marsh whitemetal corrugated sheeting. Cut to size and inset into the bodyside. The following couple of pictures show the first few production locos under construction. Unfortunately the original images have been lost, and these are reproductions from my remaining hard copy. The cab roof was made with a small off cut of carriage roof, with space at the front to insert a lot of body filler which could be sanded down to shape. After about five locos were completed on a mixed bag of motorised chassis the next step was to build some locos with some leftover Farish 87 bodyshells, leftover from pinching the chassis to power some Multiple units. After talking to Richard Dockerill at an exhibition he told me he had started building some AC Locos using a Minitrix Class 27 chassis, but with Minitrix Class 42 bogies. I found this to be extremely useful, as I had hoarded my own Minitrix locos and they were still available. In fact I then went around the exhibitions picking up more bargain secondhand Minitrix locos to convert. As the Farish 87 body was too long for the 81-5s I removed a section of the original body, so that it would fit the Minitrix 27/42 combo chassis. The Minitix 42 bogies had no side frames, so sticking some other ones (from my leftovers box) on the side was quite easy after filing off a bit of surplus metal to the Coupler pockets. Bit of a fuzzy picture in early digital camera days, showing how the Farish 87 body was shortened. I used a small saw at first, but as I got more proficient with a slitting disc, I started using that. The shortened body put together with liquid poly glue and allowed to harden, then sanded off. Cab front and windows removed. Finished bodyshell with a slightly thicker end of plasticard to allow profiling, and thinner plasticard for the front windows drilled and filed out. Route Indicator box also drilled and filed. The original bodyside detail was infilled with filler and sanded flush. The bodyside windows and grills were then done in the same was as the early scratchbuilt version. To produce some class 86s, this was before the Dapol 86 was introduced, a simple expedient was to modify the Farish 87 by just altering the front end, with some replacement plasticard windows, and removing the 87 front detail and drilling out the Route Indicator Box. At this time I also had some old Lima 86 bodyshells, which were too short to be an 86. So I lengthened the body by cutting it into three bits, and inserting odd bits of plasticard to pad it out. Next photo shows roughly where the body was cut, and the pieces inserted. The length was made to fit a standard Farish 87 chassis, freeing up more 87 bodyshells for conversion to class 81-5s. One more item to add was the converted gas turbine loco which became E1000/E2001. This started out as just an Ultima coach roof, with shaped plasticard sides and ends in the same way as the early scratchbuilt locos, but with some etched brass grills. The loco was built around a standard Farish Class 47 chassis. Note the buffers have had the outer edges filed down. This was done on the actual loco to fit the London Midland Loading Gauge requirements. That about wraps up this little story. Next episode to include building the Mark 2 Manchester/Liverpool Pullman stock. Andy.

Few more from my archive. Seaside VEP CEP 1593 weeks away from being withdrawn Hastings 2008. Maidstone West 2007. Andy.

Getting warmer as they say. This signal spent a lot of its time permanently 'off' as until the last part of its life the Box was 'switched out' more than it was 'in'. Andy.

One of the last Semaphore Distants, now sadly gone, anyone for a guess where? Andy.

I had a dabble at N Gauge in the garden between 1985-97/8. Mainly as I had been into N gauge since 1967, and had no wish to change scales. The project gradually grew and featured in the Railway Modeller April/August 1995. The line ended up fully track circuited and with automatic 4 aspect signalling. Below are a selection of pictures from those 'crazy' years. Construction, and how to test load a bridge. Early days and temporary control set up Bridging the gap. Lift out bridge connecting the garden section to the new indoor storage and control set up. The Indoor panel once the line had been automated and quadrupled throughout. One problem, couldn't run on these days, but they didn't happen that often. The top of the church spire just about visible in the centre. Other problems seen in a 'tongue in cheek' way. Andy.

Salvation Army Halt, wasn't that located next to their Printing Works for the 'War Cry'? Remember reading somewhere the finished papers were originally shipped out by rail. Andy.

I can remember 1978-80 when availability of the 313s wasn't brilliant. Numerous occasions would see some of the peak hour Moorgate workings substituted for a 312 having to run via Kings Cross. Andy.

A few more Chart Leacon 2009-10 Bournemouth 2008 Ashford Down Sidings. 2009. Early 'Jav' days. Andy.

I have seen many places where after abandonment the OHLE has been 'de-wired', but normally the supporting structures have been left. It's just in this case nothing seems to have been left behind other than the track. Andy.

That would be the famous Exmover. Oxalic Acid brand of Carriage Cleaning fluid, which was good for getting brake dust off. Unfortunately it affected the dull/matt finish rail blue quite badly, bleaching out the blue pigment of the paint. The gloss rail blue was more resilient, but even that could suffer if the carriage washer didn't do a good job of rinsing off the surplus afterwards. (you could see white patches on the stepboards). I was surprised to find that Exmover is still available. At one time you had to frequently check the Exmover content of the Carriage Washers, by taking a small sample and adding a tablet and noting the colour afterwards to monitor the strength. These days I think that stuff like Autoglym is used which is less acidic? Andy.

D138 21.09.68 Sunday 15.07.73 132 copying the Westerns in their last years. In this case a co-incidence as it is about to 'ring off' shed for 1M32, the 0815 St. Pancras to Manchester Piccadilly. Cambridge Street started off in mid 1961, with about half the Loco Crews from nearby Kentish Town 14B transferring down the road to Cambridge Street in 1962.(My father being one of them). Kentish Town finally closed the following year in 1963 with the remaining crews transferring to Cambridge Street or Cricklewood. Although he transferred to Cambridge Street he still ended up on a few steam turns. The penultimate was in 1964 on a Railtour to Burton-on-Trent with Merchant Navy 35003 Royal Mail. (A type he had never been on before). https://www.flickr.com/photos/93456400@N04/14794533650/in/faves-8888017@N08/ An oil painting based on a picture of this working emerging from Elstree tunnel now hangs in my hall. His last steam working a few months later was with Standard 5 73066 which was on a Dover-Manchester working from Cricklewood to Manchester Central over the peak via Matlock. Andy.

Midland crews were sent over to Old Oak Common in 1973 to learn the 31s prior to ETH/Air Con stock being cascaded onto the Midland. Below are some pictures of a 'Midland visit' in 1973, although attention soon wandered to other traction present, some being withdrawn Hymeks. Andy.

This was discussed on a similar thread here 'Cambridge Street, St. Pancras'. mark54 explained that Camley Street was in fact Cambridge Street on 1916 maps, but by 1953 had become Camley Street. Andy.

Part of the Control set up. One of five panels, this one looking after Harrow. When I began my West Coast project I wanted to use Track occupation and four aspect signals. Fortunately, about twenty five years ago I had run a large scale experiment with N Gauge in the garden. (Railway Modeller April/August 1995). This consisted of about a run of 250 feet out and back. To keep an eye on things I installed track circuiting throughout and automatic four aspect signals. At this time I bought a lot of Track Circuit units and signal control boards, from a firm called Signal & Telegraph of Edmonton. These units gave stirling service over the life of the outdoor line, and when the outdoor line was decommissioned they were carefully stored away for another day. As these are non DCC compatible I stuck with DC throughout. Also as it was going to be a mainly 'watching the trains go by' type layout I didn't think investing in DCC worthwhile. Signal unit left, Track Circuit unit right. The units as positioned on the old garden railway set up. As the units were set up originally on the garden railway, multitude of wires possibly an understatement. On the current layout these units have been spread out to where the units feed the track or signals. Early days commissioning the Watford panel. The Control panel is made in an 'L' shape with 2 x 1 framing with hardboard surfaces. The panel was finished in matt grey undercoat. The track layout was lightly drawn in pencil first. The track diagram was made using 'Trimline' lining tape in multi-colours to denote the track sections. These were much simplified from the prototype to reduce the number of Track Circuit units utilised. Labelling was done on the computer, printed, cut to size, and stuck in place, avoiding places that might be damaged when switch and LED holes were drilled. Before drilling the numerous holes the surface was covered with clear plastic sheet to protect the lining and labels. The holes were then drilled carefully ready for fitting the switches and LEDs, plus the holes for the Controllers. The four main line storage sidings (Up Fast, Up Slow, Down Fast, Down Slow) have their own panels. The Up Yard panel with the Up Fast and Up Slow. The Yards can be run in 'Auto' via Heathcote SA6 Storage Yard units with IRDOT (Infra red detectors between the rails). This means the trains can operate in sequence from Siding 1 to 10 in succession. There is however a switch so that manual control can be taken via push buttons at individual points. The Down Yard panel for the Down Fast and Down Slow, and operates the same as the Up Yard Panel. The routes have bi-colour White/Red LEDs which show the route set, and change to red as the trains arrive/depart. The LED route lights are controlled by a simple relay PCB operated from Auxiliary point motor switches. Home made Relay boards. gave me lots of soldering practice. Fitting the IRDOT units to the Storage sidings. Unfortunately I ran out of the signal units, and had to finish off the signalling by making up some home made relay boards. Why Relays? Well, I must admit I don't understand much about transistors and the like, but Relay and Logic circuits I can work out okay. At least I know what to do if I have a failure of any kind! Home made signal boards. One of the main things is to keep a record of what each of the terminals does, seen on my printed record sheet. My Circuit Diagrams are probably not up to much, and Bill Corrigan, who guided me through many Route Relay diagrams, would turn in his grave. The fifth and final panel. This one controls Harrow Yard, and can be used if I want to do a bit of shunting while the main lines run themselves. The Harrow Main Line Panel almost finished. The panels are attached to the layout by large hook and eye fittings to the main 4 x 2 framing so they can be removed if necessary. They have a lot of multi-pin connectors so they can be unplugged. The main panels have an additional central 4 x 2 leg which can be taken off. Back of the Harrow Main Panel with most of the track and signal indicators. Bottom part of the panel with the Controllers and switches. Wiring probably not up to standard, but at least it works. Although not visible the Poly Block connectors are marked, but haven't shown up well in the pictures. The signals themselves are almost 100% CR Signals. All the route indicators work, along with the Calling on and position light ground signals. The searchlight types on the 'New Line' have been slightly modified by fitting Repeater heads. It was a bit complicated to make them work with the automatic calling on facility, so they function mainly as standard two and three aspect types. N Brass Gantry with CR Signal heads and shunt signals. A 25 hauled freight gets a main aspect for the St. Albans Branch, while a DMU gets a shunt signal to visit the Depot for fuel. A busy time at Harrow, as the Stanmore DMU gets a position 1 Route Indicator. On this signal the Position 4 Indicator is for crossing to the Up Fast, no indication for returning to the Up Slow Line. The 08 gets a shunt aspect to proceed from the Loop platform to the Yard. Modified Searchlight signals for the New Line. Dummy Ground signals, not strictly correct as these are SR pattern, it's just that I had a number of these lying around gathering dust. New Line and Main Line signals. The Main Line has a position 4 for crossing to the Down Slow, the Position 5 for the Loop Platform. Position Light Ground signal. In this case it has a dummy 'smoke blue' stencil Indicator. It is mounted on two track pins, blue paper with plastic covering on a square of plasticard, and some etched brass mess painted black and stuck on. Note the Telephone cabinet alongside with the black and white striped plate. I spent ages fitting Signal Post Telephones. Home made Block Instruments. A bit gimmicky, yes. By rights they should be Tokenless Block Types, but I wanted to build the more classical version. They were made up in a box shape with 2mm plasticard, with a bit of Perspex over the recessed pointer/needle. Bits were transferred from some old Triang Hornby ones that were around many years ago. The Triang Hornby ones no longer worked. I used the electro magnets and the magnetic pointer, plus the bell unit. However I enlarged the units by about four times to make them more easy to operate. I used some new rotary switches, and the bell tapper was made from a small push button switch which is depressed by pushing down on a piece of brass tube with a wooden draw knob. The instruments are connected to work the Stanmore and St. Albans branches. I'm usually assisted by Ralph the 'Cat Controller'. In this case he is working the Watford panel, and is keeping an eye out for a loco coming off shed onto the headshunt. Think I've just about covered everything? Next on the list, how the AC Locos were made. Andy.

Found a few pictures of my own of Snailham Halt, although taken a couple of years ago. Roughly half way between the villages of Icklesham and Udimore I am really surprised that this place survived until 1959. In many ways it was a carbon copy of Doleham. Concrete 'Up' platform, wooden 'Down' platform. Approaching from the Icklesham direction, down what is mostly a farm track (still a public footpath). Coming up to the gates. It seems such a long time ago now but this crossing once had a high incidence of 'Near Miss' reports, where trains have narrowly avoided tractors towing all manner of trailers. It had been a local custom to leave the gates open and trains would often find these vehicles launched across the tracks with little warning. Finally after verbal exchanges, letters, and finally intervention by the Transport Police, things quietened down and the gates remained closed when not in use. It did however prompt the railway to install Emergency phones at the crossing. Looking towards Winchelsea and Rye, and where the station was. It is strange that the Concrete platform (Left) has totally disappeared (Possibly reused elsewhere?). However, in this picture there are still a few remnants of the wooden platform supports hidden amongst the greenery (right), which can be seen mostly during the winter months when the undergrowth dies back. Looking towards Doleham and Hastings. This shows the minor summit and cutting/trees which was one of the reasons for the short siting distance given to Ashford bound trains. Approaching the station site from the Udimore direction on the Farm track/footpath. Brings back memories from close by of rounding up stray cattle from the lineside with the assistance of a train! But that, as they say, is another story! Short bit of DEMU Cab video between Doleham and Rye from seven years back, never did get the camera vibration issues sorted, so picture a bit naff but the soundtrack of a Thumper in action hopefully makes up for it. Snailham at about 1.55. https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=mmyy-hqMWwY Andy.

The signal post is on a bit of the Cuckoo Trail that hasn't been taken into the cycle route. From Mayfield to Redgate Mill there are several sections in private ownership. Plus some gaps. The Redgate Mill Distant has to be approached by a public footpath to the north of Rotherfield station. There is another signal post just outside Rotherfield with the spectacle plate still attached as well. For some reason I couldn't find the picture of that. As I said, you will find sections well and truly blocked off with wood and wire. Andy.

Looking at the images on Google I was struck by the fact that there appears to be little if any trace of the former OHLE within the tunnel. (Apart from the approaches where there are patches in the brickwork where some structures were attached). Seems strange that great effort was taken to remove the 25kv equipment but leave the track. Interesting images as I've not been back to the place in 38 years. Some of the narrative is a bit out, especially saying it was rarely used by electric trains. It used to carry dozens of ECS and Light Engine movements every day, plus the odd passenger working in times of crisis. sad demise of a once familiar route. Andy.