jonhall

And apparently not a great seller at the time- I was told when I was looking for a copy that Mr Brownlie had a fair number pulped, which is a shame because they are scarce, and consequently quite valuable. I have a spare copy with poor dust jacket available for £50 inc postage to the UK - I forgot I'd already found a copy when the excitement of finding the second overtook my memory! Jon

To mark 175 years there are a number of events this year https://175-ans.ch/ I happen to be in Switzerland over the weekend of 3rd and 4th September, so have a range of events to choose from https://175-jahre.ch/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/EV22-02001_Flyer_175JahreBahn_Web_FR.pdf https://175-ans.ch/region-mitte/ However this is coincidence, not pre-planned... I'm staying in Basel until Sunday, and on Saturday I think its possible to visit the Biel and Spiez depot open days, which between them are the highlights for me. On the Sunday I had intended to go to the https://dvzo.ch/ in Bauma to have a look at their Swiss ferry van (and have a ride) but a) this should be on most weekends so could be done some other time, and b) the trains appear to be electric rather than steam (due to fire risk? ) at the moment, so going to one of the other '175' events seems a better choice, but which? The more fundamental problem is that I need to be in a different hotel in Innsbruck on Sunday evening, so either need to back track to my luggage in Basel, or have an alternative left luggage somewhere en-route, and allow time to get to Innsbruck and probably can only visit one of the events on Sunday. My shortlist is between these 3 the BLS Historic collection at Burgdorf https://www.bls.ch/fr/freizeit-und-ferien/events/bls-jubilaeum-schweizer-bahnen-burgdorf The CFF Historic collection at Delemont https://www.cffhistoric.ch/2022-0903-175-ans-delemont?action=refreshCalendar&month=9&year=2022 Or the workshops at Langenthal https://www.asmobil.ch/de/freizeit-und-ferien/events/175-jahre-schweizer-bahnen.html Has anyone visited any of these before? My instinct is the two historic collections will be possible to visit on some other occasions, which might make the workshop at Langenthal a better bet, but google-earthing suggests there might not be all that much to see? Its a nice dilemma to have! Jon

copies of my photos from page 1

If you just want to improve the quality of a plastic pinpoint seat in RTR then micromark do a little tool that can improve the shape of the divot - of course it can't put material back if its wear that's the problem. https://www.micromark.com/HO-Truck-Tuner_2 There are a couple of tools that aid drilling a 2mm hole for a 'top hat' bearing, I'm not sure if either are still available, I thought there was a third supplier out there, but I can't recall who? or http://www.alangibsonworkshop.com/RTR Drill.pdf Jon

Having been reading through the articles that Stuart sent me (and having picked up the original magazines at The Bluebell railway on Sunday) I was thinking the split axle seems something I wouldn't rush to build, I'd prefer something with conventional pickups. Jon

Thank you Stuart - just what I needed! Jon

I've just acquired a set of the castings, and I have Issue 66 in which the series is kicked off, but please can anyone tell me how many issues it ran for, and even better would anyone be prepared to scan and send me a copy of those issues please? Thanks Jon

Immingham to Dorset? All RTR!

Whats more confusing to me is.. that isn't the layout I saw him operating! I think he had a go on Toaster* as well! Jon *whatever

Thank goodness for that - I thought I was having really weird hallucinations when I thought I saw that! Jon

Interfrigo was a post was construct formed by most of the European railway administrations to operate a pool of insulated/refrigerated wagons, some were built for Interfrigo, and some transferred, and not all were to UK dimensions. There were a number of different UIC codes for Insulated or refrigerated wagons, I don't recal the differences off the top of my head. Early vans were cooled with ice, later they had machine refrigeration. Wet ice has the problems of water and once the ice has gone, so does the cooling, Dry ice has the same problem of wet ice, but also can cause the atmosphere inside the van to become unbreathable causing asphyxiation and the mechanical refrigeration needs either fuel (which I don't this was used in the UK) or axle driver, which doesn't work very well if the wagons stops on the way. Jon

yes please, we can't go back to the original source, although I do wonder who ended up with his research archive. Jon

Did anyone download Adrian's beam set photos - I may have just bought another Trestrol! Jon

What a load of old cobblers, the BR design manual specified three core colours: Rail Blue, Rail Grey and Rail Red, I simply don't believe that R&D would be allowed to use anything else. That's Hornby doubling down on their own mistake, and losing credibility instead of losing face, maybe BoJo has a job to go to in Margate once he finishes as PM. Jon

I still have a couple of sets of parts £20 for 4 wagons worth. PM for details Jon

just recovering the photos until the backup arrives

part 3

part 2 the bits fitted

just reinstating the photos in a few posts until they get restored part 1 modifications to the crane

There was a 'Europ' pool of common users but that was strictly for non-ferry vehicles. The list of restrictions on Ferry wagons was wide ranging as well, not just down the Hastings line (or the Canterbury and Whitstable which also seemed to get painted on) but all sorts of other places, Jon

The wagons could be back loaded to certain 3rd countries that were en-route, in broad terms an Italian wagon could be back loaded to France or Switzerland, as they were both in the right direction, but not to Holland, because it wasn't - there where lists of what was and wasn't acceptable. In effect BR paid demurrage for all continental (administration owned) ferry wagons from as soon as they arrived in the UK, therefore they were tightly controlled centrally, local stations couldn't make those decisions. Britain was always a net importer via the train ferry so a number of vans would go back empty, and in the early days of the train ferries the LNER provided the boats, and the Belgians provided the wagons, and this seemed to continue until the BR 'VIX' vans, so for the most part there would have been back loads in continental wagons. Jon

https://www.regionsetcompagnies.fr/produit/ferry-boat-a-quai noticed elsewhere for those with deep pockets jon

S.F.V. 6316 582115 and 582116 renumbered 21 87 078 0 010 and 019