Mike_Walker

On 15/12/2020 at 23:25, RJS1977 said:

Thames Valley? bus stuck under the approach to Reading Southern, date unknown.

 

Not Thames Valley but one of Reading Corporation's Crossleys. Surprised it got stuck as all their double deck motorbuses were lowbridge and several routes went that way.

4 minutes ago, fiftyfour fiftyfour said:

Except that commercially modelling the Avanti livery is now a fools errand; only two trains have received the full livery (c40 sets have just had the driving cars branded), the company is on it's last knockings and the ERMA won't continue after March 2022 as First group has already agreed the escape route so you are looking at a maximum of two trains (in a fleet of 56) carrying it for a maximum of 27 months. They might have been better off doing a Class 390 in the Virgin "flowing silk" white livery, at least that was carried by almost all sets!

They have only agreed terms to terminate the present franchise agreement (and the SWR one too) and are currently in negotiation with the DfT over new Direct Awards (similar to that already governing GWR for example) so to say "the company is on its last knockings" is premature in the extreme. Similar negotiations are ongoing for all franchises. If DA agreements are not in place then the ERMAs end and the original franchise terms reapply which would be commercial suicide.

Looks as if Severn Bridge Junction has received a new set of diagrams since I visited in 2007 when we were preparing for the start up of Wrexham & Shropshire. Some pictures of the other Shrewsbury 'Boxes.

Starting with Crewe Junction at the north end of the station. Although it looks squat, the rear of the building reaches down to street level and is quite impressive.

At that time at least, it still retained its pre-BR block instruments and a set of rotary train describers which worked to Severn Bridge Junction although by then they were out of use but were in effect preserved by the signallers.

Abbey Foregate at the south/east corner of the triangle on the line in from Wolverhampton. This was provided by the GWR, the other two were by the LNWR - Shrewsbury being joint territory.

Sadly, as W&S weren't going that way, we didn't get to complete the set with a visit to Sutton Bridge.

26 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Backing-up a bit ....... suddenly occurred to me that what I was remembering as a GWR150 event wasn't; it was a Paddington Station 125 event, in 1979.

 

This looks as if its filmed from Royal Oak; i was on the other side of the line at Westbourne Park. The locos is KGV, not a Castle.

 

 

And it failed with a hot box before it got to Didcot - oh the ignominy!

I took sickie to go to Ruscombe for pictures. Unfortunately it was featured on the BBC London news that evening and when I went in the next day the first question from the boss was: "Did you get some good pictures?" !

15 minutes ago, Ruffnut Thorston said:

Tri-ang Hornby Catalogue, 1966. This being the first catalogue to have the Tri-ang Hornby logo. The 1965 catalogue being printed before the decision to use Tri-ang Hornby as the brand name.

 

 

 

The interesting 1965 Catalogue Cover...who painted this?
 

Phew, good to know I'm not going quite so gaga as some claim!

50 minutes ago, DRoe96 said:

In fitting with some other thoughts for retooling of Airfix models. I'd like to see new tooling of the 'B' sets, the Hornby suburbans look great but are not correct for the branchline sets. The Comet kit has the wrong roof profile as well so it's a good gap in the market.

 

It fits in with Hornby's current performance of retooling sets for each of the Big Four. Given that these have primarily been mainline sets so far it seems like a missed opportunity to target those of us with smaller layouts which can't take 4+ carriage trains.

Me too! Every year I hope for a retooled E140 B set - I'd take two pairs like a shot and I'm sure many others would willing upgrade their old Airfix era ones.

9 hours ago, LNWR18901910 said:

Day 7

1966 - England wins the World Cup, TV audiences thrill to the endearing adventures of the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise going where no man has boldly gone before, The Beatles are at their height and the Cold War rages on. However, during this time in the modle railway world, Tri-ang and Hornby merge into one!

 

This catalogue cover depicts an old steam locomotive and a shiny new modern electric locomotive together side by side. You can tell what period this is, it's the 1960s and working steam traction is slowly giving way to modern diesel-electric traction. This is indicated by the overhead catenary wires which is used by the electric locomotive. Right on the pantograph is a sparkof blue electricity so maybe Emperor Palpatine would have something to do with it (that just about explains where he got the idea for Order 66). It's either the early hours of the morning or it could be an early evening, I don't know but that's up to you to decide. As the driver looks outside the cab, he's like, "C'mon, ol' gal! We can make it! We can make the signal!" The steam driver is trying to outbest the diesel driver by making the delivery. The steam locomotive represents the age-old impression of maintaining its usefulness, charm and reliability despite age while the big electric engine represents society embracing its new way of the future and encourages us to get with the times.

 

This is like something you see as a time when progress was changing. This is a metaphor for "out with the old, in with the new" but some old things are great. We are embracing amazing, marvellous and wondrous new technologies that are coming our way, but at the same time, we still try to preserve the past of whatever's left of it. It's telling the modeller which side to pick - steam or diesel-electrics? You be the judge.

 

N.B: Special thanks to Ramblin Rich, JaymzHatstand, Brit70053, Mikkel, Ruffnut Thorston, Legend,, BernardTPM and Hroth for reactions and positive likes on the last post, seems like you guys enjoy and agree with my thoughts. Also, a huge thanks to Ruffnut Thornston for NOT only sharing with us the comparison of the Mainline, Dapol and Oxford Rail Dean Goods model, but for surprisingly predicting what I was about to share and review! You read me like an open book! Hroth and Butler Henderson, I agree with you chums on the mouldings, how times have changed. Big James, thanks for sharing your memories and the same goes out to everyone! I will be back with another review on some model railway catalogue and train set box art, Merry Christmas and see you next time!

I think it's the 1966 catalogue version of this artwork that they managed to hide the mouse by placing the T-H logo across the bottom - the mouse is on the top of the catenary mast. Can anyone supply a 1966 cover to prove/disprove this theory?

2 hours ago, atom3624 said:

I loved it when they used the Terence Cuneo art, and of course hunting the mouse ....

 

Al.

Am I right in thinking one year they put their logo over the mouse by mistake?

GWR 143s should be retired at the December timetable change. Just four daily diagrams now, all working coupled to a 150 or 158. TfW 142s and 143s should be gone by the end of the year unless they get another extension.

On 20/11/2020 at 10:41, The Stationmaster said:

Exactly so Mick - you have stated the essential difference between the two.  A signal box is involved in block working and is therefore a block post and a ground frame is not a block post.

 

The actual method of construction and height of the lever frame floor plates in relation to ground level is no guide at all to whether a building is a ground frame or a signal box and neither is the fact that it operates signals.  I can't think of a situation where a signal box/block post does not operate signals but there are numerous examples going back for many years of ground frames which did, and do, operate signals.

Yes, that's the correct definition but as always there are exceptions. The ground frame which controlled North Town Level Crossing at Furze Platt on the Maidenhead to High Wycombe line was described as "North Town Crossing Signal Box" yet it was NOT a block post. Its levers only worked the crossing gate locks and protecting distant signals. The only instruments provided were repeaters so the crossing keeper knew when a train was in section and he needed to attend to the gates.

Interestingly, at Cores End just beyond Bourne End and at Spicers Crossing between Wooburn Green and Loudwater there were similar crossings both described correctly as Ground Frames.

There's a photo in C F D Whetmath's Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway book of 30585 at Bodmin General on 13 July 1962 with a single Bulleid coach in tow. The caption says it was possibly the last time it worked an ordinary passenger train. Can't tell from the picture whether it's a short or long Bulleid and what type it is.

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

We'll look at what we do for any future event but there may still be a place for this sort of approach even when physical events resume. We do think we maybe produced too much content as it was a constant deluge and I doubt anyone got to catch up with everything that was included - maybe do less but do it better.

Personally, one of the things I like about this format is the ability to view the layouts from angles that would be impossible at a "real" exhibition - track level views for example - and not feeling selfish for lingering too long at one spot and spoiling someone else's chance. I feel that there is a role for both formats provided Andy, Phil and the crew are prepared to do it of course.

Well that was a fantastic antidote to lockdown blues even if it did mean I didn't actually get any modelling done this weekend!

Well done to all concerned and looking forward to the next one already...

Back in the early sixties my mother and I went to Corstorphine to visit a former colleague of my late father. Not sure of the way, she stopped and asked a policeman on the way out of Edinburgh for directions to "Cor-stor-pheen". Before directions were offered she received a very stern lecture on the correct pronunciation and was not allowed to go on her way until she had proved she could pronounce it correctly!

Great looking project by the way!

Stuart Baker, cartographer of the well-known Rail Atlases, passed away yesterday after a long illness. He suffered a serious stroke some time ago which meant he had to take early retirement from his senior role at the DfT where, among other things, he was instrumental in leading the IET project, attempting to reinvent the rules of physics in the process and giving us the Class 80x.

RIP

38 minutes ago, TrevorP1 said:

The 'bottom orange line' is definitely there and Gaz101's photo shows it doesn't continue across the door. BUT if the photo is blown up as large as possible on a computer screen it shows another orange line along the top of the angle running along the bottom of the mainframe.  

 

 

Who'd be a model manufacturer!

 

Whatever the decision(s), many thanks to Rails and Heljan for taking this project on. I hope sales reward their effort and maybe even encourage interest in, and conservation of, the real thing.

Looking at my own copy of this photo (Colour-Rail DE838) enlarged as much as possible, I'd say this bottom line runs the full length of the loco just above this flange/stiffener. However it is so fine I think it would be almost impossible to replicate without it becoming too visible and attracting the eye and is therefore better left off.

I'm disappointed - where's the cuddly toy?!

I've just looked through my collection of shots of the Maidenhead - High Wycombe line (my local branch) and no clear answer is possible. The through trains to/from Aylesbury are shown with the conventional Class 1 or class 2 headlamps in addition to the "special" you mention. It appears it differed from day to day particularly on the 07:43 to Paddington. 

As an aside, the Marlow Donkey also ran with the headlamp in the middle of the buffer beam and below the centre windscreen of the auto. I've also noticed this on many other (G)WR auto trains so it might have been "official" or just a lazy crew.

3 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

Would this still apply to a non-common carrier railroad, like LTV Mining?  I was under the impression that FRA rules did not apply to industrial/non common carrier railroads.

In this case yes, it applies on all railroads in all states (and Canadian provinces) so that motorists know a train is coming when they hear a 14-L blast.

1 hour ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

That clip could also be used in the current discussion about use of B units: how common was an A-B-B-B-B-A lash-up? (Would it have been an A-B-B+B-B-A, if I’ve got the nomenclature right?)
 

I wonder if the horn was deliberate because the train approaches the crossing unsighted round a concealed curve?
 

Keith.

Those LTV A and B units were all regarded as separate units and were mixed and matched as required although it was almost always a pair of As bracketing a string of Bs. In the early days such could be more widely seen as several roads ordered F units in A-B-A, A-B-B-A or A-B-B sets as required. Where they were fitted with couplers at each end it became common place to lash them up as convenient and not always with an outward facing cab at both ends!

There is a strict rule (14-L) requiring the sounding of -- -- o -- approaching all grade crossings with the final blast being continued until the train fully occupies the crossing so in this case the engineer would appear not to be complying. The only exception is where there are two or more very closely spaced crossings where the final blast is continued until the last is occupied or where local ordnances prohibit the use of horns for part or all of the day.

Here is an interesting example of a 12 ton tanker which appears to closely match the Oxford model in Shell-BP livery but confined to internal use at Falmouth Docks in February 1976. Would make an interesting prototype either for a repaint or a future Oxford offering.

Possibly even more interesting is this rectangular tank in the same livery and use.

Both pictures were taken by my good friend Martin Stoolman and are reproduced here with his blessing.

There is now a diagram for one Turbo on the branch on Saturdays and Sundays. It comes down from Bristol ECS early on Saturday, stables overnight at Exeter and returns ECS to Bristol on Sunday evening. The other two weekend diagrams are booked for 158s and all three are 158s M-F, although a 150 can be substituted if a 158 isn't available. On Sunday the three diagrams produced real variety: 150261+143621, 158951 and 166202. GWR's remaining 143s will probably cease operating with the December timetable change, 143611 has recently been stood down and is being stripped for useable parts and only four are required to cover the currently booked work.

Why not phone them and ask? Derek doesn't bite!

31 minutes ago, russ p said:

 

Hard to believe that's  eighty years old. Is it just those two units that exist of 103 now?

Yes, the A unit is original but the B unit was one which had been converted into a boiler car - I forget its origins - and had ended up at the Virginia Railroad Museum in Roanoke. The A unit had been at the National RR Museum outside St. Louis. EMD brought the two together and cosmetically restored them in 1989 to celebrate their 50th anniversary they were not operational. After that they appeared at several events together before returning to their respective museums. The A unit is well cared for, under cover, at St Louis but photos I've seen of the B unit at Roanoke show it to be in the open and in a sorry state.

FT B-units were regarded somewhat differently to the later versions. To avoid unions demanding each unit be treated as a separate locomotive thereby requiring a separate crew, the cab and booster units were, in most cases, coupled by drawbars making them in effect a single unit in the same way as a steam locomotive and tender. For this reason they tended to be numbered the same with the suffix A, B, C and D (or in the case of the Santa Fe L (Lead), B, C, D). Some railroads had proper couplers between the B-units and drawbars only between the A and B units creating A-B+B-A lashups rather than A-B-B-A.

There were actually two different FT B-units. The more common is that used in the 4-unit sets which are the same length as the A-unit with a noticeable unused area at one end where the cab would be, the overhang of the body is also greater at this end as on an A-unit the distance between the truck and end of the body is different at each end and this is replicated on the B-unit. A few railroads - the Lackawanna was one - specified A-B-A sets of FT units and these incorporated shorter B units, often called unofficially FT-SB (Short Booster), that were symmetrical similar to the F2B, F3B and subsequent models.

Of course, as time wore on and diesels working in multiple unit became the norm, many early F units were modified with conventional couplers throughout enabling them to be used efficiently as circumstances and maintenance required. Some railroads retained the original numbering others renumbered to give each unit, A or B, its own identity.

The asymmetric layout of the FT B-unit can be seen here.