Johann Marsbar

Having done a search on here, I found this thread, which seems to be an appropriate place to ask this..........

Whilst having a sort out of some of my rolling stock, I found that I had accumulated 5 of the Mid-Suffolk Railway produced Ipswich area Coal Merchant wagons over the years, but there is an additional one that I thought was one of theirs, but isn't !

Its an Ipswich Co-Operative Society liveried one - using the usual Dapol 7 plank open wagon - but appears to be one of a limited edition of only 99 vehicles (the MSLR ones appear to all be runs of 250), produced in 2004 by someone calling themselves "The Old Wagon Works", but with no clue as to where they were from at all. Has anyone heard of this company before??

I can't remember where I bought it and all of these wagons were purchased at the time I was reactivating my interest in OO and planning my current layout - even though they are all a bit old for my late 1950's/early 60's theme.....

Could they have been off the Birmingham-Yarmouth Summer Saturdays-only train?

Having dug out the July 1977 copy of the Ipswich Transport Journal, that pair had worked the Derby to Yarmouth service that day. There were a different pair on the Walsall-Yarmouth one! (which I didn't bother to photograph).

From memory, Airfix just produced the FO and the Brake/2nd when they first introduced them - which explains why I have two of the former and 1 of the latter !

Never bothered with a TSO as the OO layout must have become "disused" by that time, and later dismantled & packed away, with N gauge (and later, G scale) taking preference until fairly recently.

Are there any photos of J70's on Ipswich dock with sideskirts and cowcatchers?

Only ones I have copies of in that condition are in GER days, one of those being the "bridge test" photo that was posted earlier in the thread. The other one is in the Lower Yard, rather than actually on the docks. All the LNER ones - none of which are dated, but are on the dockside lines themselves - have no skirts, just the cowcatchers.

At a guess, the one I posted above, which is crossing Bridge Street, looks early 1930's, as the trolleybus wires are still mounted on a former tramway traction pole and are the original "narrow gauge" (ie early) spacing of the contact wires as well.......

Services north of Inverness were usually in the hands of double headed 26s. I've never seen any photos of 27s, however, it is entirely possible.

 

Class 37s took over the services from the summer timetable 1982.

 

This one was a bit of a surprise that I found whilst I was on a 2-week All-Line rover ticket in June 1985.

I caught the overnight train from Edinburgh to Inverness in order to catch the late morning train up to Wick on 25th June which was when I was confronted with this..........

In other words, 26 037 and 27 037 double heading the service!

When I was up there the previous year it was 100% Class 37 worked.........

Both locos worked to Wick.

and then the return service back to Inverness.

I did ask a question about this working on the Fourfooteightandahalf Forum last year, as I wondered whether this working had been a "Fix" by someone in Control, particularly as they were both numbered 037, but nobody appeared to be aware of the working in question and that it had taken place that late after the 37's had taken over..

Brand new 56 033 - in tasteful shades of primer - Doncaster Works, 12 June 1977

56 036, Toton Open Day, 9th June 1979

i wondering when the two will finally be join up wonder if it will be by the end of 2020 ?. Nottingham side could do with been double tracked in future if its possible.  

Think the original plan was 2022 - subject to funds being available, but as the loco shed is now going to be moved, that will presumably add a further delay to that timescale.

At the end of the day, the speed of the work will be down to raising the money to do it.............

25 206, March depot, 20th August 1976

25 213 & 25 214, Norwich, 11th June 1977

Kodak Pocket Instamatic photo time.....

27 105, Edinburgh, 2nd August 1978

A steaming 26 024, Stirling, 10th April 1979

 

That would be interesting to see, thank you.

I managed to find my copy - though it was produced longer ago than I expected - Spring 1996 to be exact!

It's 12 pages long (+covers) so not an enormous document.  Basically the author was suggesting a street running light rail link between Harford P&R and Thorpe station via Hall Rd/Lakenham Rd/Ipswich Rd/ Castle Meadow/Prince of Wales Rd, which would have been connected to the Wymondham and Diss rail lines close to Harford P&R and other rail lines at Thorpe.

Basically a tram-train system going out as far as Thetford/East Dereham/Diss/Lowestoft/Yarmouth/Sheringham, linked through the centre of Norwich. Also a Lowestoft-Yarmouth link proposed (mainly "on street") as a future extension.

A couple from the DAA "Anglo Scottish Freighter" railtour in 1984......

26 004 & 005, Stirling, 5th May 1984

26 006, Glasgow Queen Street, 5th May 1984

Just found this thread!

Several years ago, a report was produced by a Light Rail Transit Association member who lived in the Norwich area into his proposals for a light rail network for the City, using several existing and disused railway alignments. As an LRTA member living in East Anglia, I was sent a copy and I still have it somewhere. Will have to try and find it...........

Yes, a J17. - I bought one in the late 1970's and fitted it to a Triang diesel shunter chassis. Had forgotten that BEC were manufacturer though, as they were better known for their tram kits at that time.

Still the one and only whitemetal loco kit of any sort that I have built!

26 025, Princes St Gardens, Edinburgh, 15th October 1981...

 

I doubt if any of these were built or converted to standard gauge, so the photo appears to be somewhere no further west than the Soviet border with Poland, Slovakia or Romania.

 

John.

Don't forget that Russian gauge extended as far as Berlin at the end of the war as some lines were converted as they pushed west into Germany. Don't have any info to hand as to what routes were involved and whether this was the case in other parts of Germany/Poland as well, or how long these converted lines lasted before reverting to standard gauge

I spoke to the GER society at a model railway exhibtion, and I was told that because docksides like Ipswich ran over public roads, the locomotives working on the dock had to have sideskirts and cowcatchers, but as you've said this didn't always happen

The Ipswich Dock lines ones should have run with enclosed motion at all times, but sideskirts seem to have been an optional extra, even pre WW2....

By the mid 1950's, photos show that Hunslet 0-6-0 diesels were running around the docks without any skirts/cowcatchers fitted - only the 3 Hunslet 0-4-0 diesels which replaced the tram locos carried these.

The last skirt/cowcatcher fitted locos (04 diesels) lost theirs in the early 1970's and all subsequent locos used up to the lines closing in the 1990's had no protection at all.

In the 1950's there was even this D.I.Y. 2-4-0T as well...!!!

So I have found a picture showing the front of some of the searchlights - the shroud is different to all the ones on that US site kindly linked to, and also different to the two Signalist designs. Ugh.

Did all the signals have that sort of shroud, or was it just that set which needed more protection from a low sun angle at times of the day?. They are certainly deeper covers than any signals of that type I've seen elsewhere in the world, including this familar sounding location........

EDIT: I did have a look at some photos I took around Melbourne, VIC, back in 2003, and found that there were some searchlight signals at Spencer Street station that had shrouds more like the Shenfield ones. Might be worth seeing if there are any Australian HO model signal manufacturers out there!

Wandering off topic a little-how did KG5, Royal Scot & Coronation couple up to American rolling stock when they went over there? I know F***** S******* had a buckeye fitted for its North American tour of the ealry 1970's, and all had Westinghouse brakes fitted, but what were the actual couplings?

Looks like Royal Scot had a buckeye fitted on the front of the loco (for a local engine to assist?), but my guess is that the remainder of the stock retained the UK couplings.....

http://www.webpraxis.ab.ca/vrr/_Remarks/Royal_Scot.shtml

If any of the signals were of US manuacture, this website is a very good one that deals with US practice & the various types used....

https://www.railroadsignals.us/

These (presumably GE) semaphore ground signals survived at Cambridge into the early 1980's...

(though looking at it on here, the case appears to be marked LNER...- but might be a replacement?)

And, theres always Ethel.........

97 251, Glasgow Queen Street, 4.7.1984

A steaming one in Preservation - Weybourne, NNR, Feb 2013.........

And there's more........

25 194 at Chinley on the ICI hoppers, 12.3.1984

25 224, Springs Branch, Wigan, 11.9.1984

25 244, Buxton Depot, 16.2.1985

25 211 passing the former Manchester Exchange station, 31.3.1986

Think that's covered nearly all my Class 25 photos now (apart from a couple of late 1970's shots that aren't stored on this computer).........

A couple more of mine...........

25 213 delivering LEV 1 to Ipswich for evaluation on the East Suffolk Line, 2.11.1980

25 081, Manchester Victoria, 16.10.1981