roythebus1

deleted duplicate post

Back in the 1970s a company called Rapitype used to do dry print transfers for Johnston Script. I had permission from LT to use it in connection with my range of cast metal bus kits. Sadly I got rid of the sheets as they became life-expired. The Johnston full stops are square, earlier versions were diamond shape. the Rapitype sheets also had the London Transport underlined fleetnames. I don't know if Rapitype still exists.

I was trying to go with Johnston P22: but cut-and-paste lost the font!! I'll try again tomorrow when I'm not so tired. I've got it on my laptop. the only problem is that it doesn't have the punctuation marks.

As I said earlier, the train running numbers were enamel finish, like the station signs. I happen to have a London Transport vinyl fleetname under my wokbench, that is one I'm certain is the same as the earlier varnish fix transfers made by Tearne. The and T are a bigger font but usually a lighter typface to make the letters appear the same thickness as the ondon transpor bit. The letter R varied in design, the early R (as is RT or RF fleet numbers) had the tail very close to the upright, later transfers had the tail further to the right. Both types are correct and it was possible to see both types of R on the same bus. It depends what the garage had in stock at the time. The bus stop E plates that Becasse mentions were also stove enamel plates. They were changed to plastic sometime in the 1970s.

a bit heavier than the 20odd 10t mineral wagons we used to drag up there in 1974!! Where exactly is this pit? The only double track I can remember was at Marton junction where we ran round to go to Southam, and maybe a bit by the Bilton cement works just outside Rugby. The single line token was something like an old fishplate with Rugby-Southam stamped on it. That gave permission to enter the single lne. It was kept in the shunters' bunk on the up side goods yard.

So much mention of £37bn being "saved", odd as that is the same sort of amount that was spaffed against the wall during the covid crises. If this amount is being "saved" over a construction period of say 20 years, that's only £2bn a year for the next 20 years. At the rate it's taken to get HS2 done or undone, the proposed Ricky-Watford Junction link of a mile of new track and a bridge has taken from 1973 to now to get started then delayed, how much hope is there for any further rail improvements in our lifetimes?

We hear so uch about the overall cost of building the line, but have these figures been adjusted to take into account the differing inflation levels? and the fact that the cost will be spread over another 10-20 years, not all in one year. Maybe if an annual spend were to be published, it would take some wind out of the sails of the "too expensive" brigade. It's now 1200 and no sign of "the announcement" yet. Governments over the last 50 years have sold off the country's assets to fund reckless projects so much so that there's very little left to sell. Every state-owned business sold, surplus railway land sold, you know the story. This week plans to cut another 60,000 civl servants. who is to do the jobs of those people? Probably the likes of Serco, Group 4 etc, so the jobs will actually still be there, just not done by the unionised civil service!

They are the train reporting numbers. Th typeface is London Transport's Johnston Script, it's available to download from the LT museum shop under the typeface of P22 for a small fee. It my vry slightly from the exact typeface used on the actual prototype as the typeface varied slightly, depending on what manufacturer made the enamel number plates.

The Model Railway Club in London has all the MRCs in its library. available for members only though.

Just catching up on this news, having looked at the video the loco appears to be going back a bit too fast, seemingly not stopping the regulation distance from the stationary train then being seen back onto the train by the shunter or person in charge of the move. I'd also have insisted that the people on the balcony end move either inside or onto the station platform. we have an "observation car" on my local heritage line and as a shunter I would politely ask people not to stand on the observation platform when a loco is buffering onto the train.

Seems we never learn from the mistakes of the past. There probably would have been adequate capacity between London and "the north" had the Great Central route been retained. All those who are against HS2 for whatever reason have failed to heed that lesson. Another lesson that can be learnt from the recent past is that high speed routes don't always lend themselves to freight operation unless it' going quite fast. From what I've read the infrastructure and track on HS1 aren't particularly suitable for freight due to the lower speeds and greater axle weights involved. There's also the steep gradients involved that the TGV and Javelin trains don't seem to notice, but a loco and 2000 tonnes of stuff certainly will. Speaking to an E* driver a while ago he called the Javelin service the "all stations tramcars". :)

I've recently uncovered my Euston Station Platform working book I was given back in 1974. It lists all the arrivals, departures, platform occupation times etc and would be worth comparing to today's departures from the RTT site. I was a secondman at Rugby in 1974/75 and saw the old and the new working together. 25kv locos working unfitted freight t 35 mph all the way from Crewe to London seem a bit of an anachronism on the new high speed railway. The old hands would show me where the goods loops used to be at places like Hanslope. Working 1200 ton freightliners at 75 mph could be challenging at times as could working a 16-car train out of Euston for Holyhead. A few years later a lot of the "spare" steam age capacity such as the up slow line into Rugby was lifted, only to be replaced in more recent times. What surprises me as a casual observer is how many more trains are now running on the WCML under the broadly similar signalling system from the 1960s. Seeing trains running on the fast lines "on the block" through Milton Keynes was interesting. As for HS1, when that was being built I was in the process of seeing it built as I moved from sarf London the Kent. Progress seemed to be rather rapid, watching the groundworks, then the track, then the OHLE being strung up. There was a lot of anti-HS1 campaigning including lorries fitted with huge sound systems playing recordings of TGVs passing at speed to show people how noisy the trains would be. Where I now live is about 2km from HS1 at Mersham. We can occasionally hear the E* trains in the early evening, but the noise is gone within 30 seconds. It's a pity there was no such public demonstrations against the B word lorry park that has been built 4km away next to the M20. that causes more noise, light and air pollution that the railway ever will.

I've not been following this discussion very much, but listening to the waffle on LBC radio this morning and mentions of how many ££billions, surely spread over the years it's not as bad as it sounds. Simple thing, say £100billion over 10 years is £10billion a year. How much did the government waste on covid stuff? A reported £37billion and nobody bats an eyelid. With all the nimbyism that's been spouted over the years it's no wonder costs have escalated beyond belief. Had it been a road scheme, would anyone have worried about the cost? There was a graph doing the rounds on FB the other day showing that the UK high speed line cost far more than any other country in the world. If we look at the proposal to link Rickmansworth to Watford Junction, that plan was being talked about in 1973. It has taken over 40 years to decide to build then not build one major bridge and relay a couple of miles of track. Still no sign of an agreement on funding with a reported £27 million spent so far. Only in Britain...

Seems I missed that despite putting it on the "watch list". there's a built-up one on there with an auction huse at £89 looks nicely finished but the other side is missing the valve gear!

Contact SEF and they will email you an instruction sheet, they are very helpful like that.

I didn't. :)

Right, I've just found the link for the case I mentioned in my post above. It makes interesting reading and comparisons between motor racing and model railways. Just swap the words over for your chosen hobby..https://www.christabelhallas.co.uk/topic/european_court_gives_ruling_on_sponsorship_and_the_use_of_a_tachograph/

The simple answer is to do away with the need for strict border controls, it's called "freedom of movement". It was a good idea a few years ago when I could leave my house and be in Calais in just over an hour.

To pick up on this thread, Phil B says "Taking your vehicle as an example - if it is being taken as a method of transport to and from your holiday then quite obviously that is effectively 'personal' use - but taking it to a classic car exhibition on a trailer is a commercial purpose." There was a case that went before the European Court a few years back involving a Swedish motor racing man, took his car to a race meet and got done for not using a tachograph, taking his car in his transporter to an event where he may get attendance money. He appealed against the fine or whatever the penalty was, long story short, the Swedish government took the case to the European Court who decided that he was carrying his own goods in his own lorry/transporter and was not as such carrying goods for hire and reward. the goods would get off, he would get paid to show his goods and then he took his goods home again. He did not need to use a tachograph. If, however he took someone else's car to the same car meet and got aid for taking that car, he would be doing so for hire and reward and would need a tachograph. It seems a roundabout way of explaining things, but should a case ever get to court , this case can be quoted as a test case. you take your train set in your van, not getting paid by anybody to do so. You show train set at show and get paid for doing so. You take train set home, you are not getting paid for it. It is your personal possession. Voluntary work is classed as "work' in most cases as by you or me volunteering to do something you could be seen as doing an EU national out of a job. Whether my voluntary work for a narrow gauge tramway in Belgium would be classed like this I haven't found out yet. I have enough problems sending vintage bus spares to Europe thanks to the B word. I used to be able to put them in my car or van, take them, fit them and come back. not any more..

Just finished fettling the double slip and found a dead short on one of the routes!! I didn't alter the wiring, double checked the insulation gaps on the slip, all ok. Turned the board over and found a relay had fallen out!! I use relays for switching polarity of the Fulgurex and tortoise point motors, they also change crossing polarities. All ok, missing relay found and plugged in!

"The UK before covid was a hamster wheel of many hours and being grateful for work, much more than some other countries". Most certainly, my retired DB driver friend retired will full pension from Koeln Deutz at the age of 55. Loco drivers there were classed as "beamte", civil servants and retired at 55. People I know in the Benelux countries retire between 60 and 67 but value their time off, there's none of this British attitude of being tied to the job 24/7, answering company emails from the beach in Alicante. Despite being retired, I find myself still on the hamster wheel because it's not possible to live on a UK pension and still having a valid bus licence means I'm in much demand. As for going via another route, as I live near Folkestone, it makes no sense to use any other port. Portsmouth is 100 miles round the coast, Harwich much the same and the other end would mean a considerable trek to the Ardennes, my usual destination. The journey used to be possible in under 6 hours pre-covid and pre-the B word. As for the E* passport capacity, that could be solved by stopping trains at Ebbsfleet or Ashford and using the border control facilities at those locations. From whatI can see on the ET website, they are still running 2 car trains per hour both ways. Any reduced capacity is the fault of the border controls being unable to process the numbers of users; that IS the fault of the B word!

Thanks for the tips above. Yes, the Badger seems to work ok with white spirit so this would indicate the paint being too thick. Yes I used the etch primer as per the instructions and thought it looked far too thick. i remember dad spraying my 1948 Rover 75 for me and he said that the etch primer should be barely visible. I think it's a mistake a lot of people, myself included, make. I've painted the fleet of coaches that have been etch primed and the finish seems quite good, although there's a few flecks of dust here and there. They'll rub out with a bit of 1200 grade wet and dry and maybe a drop of varnish to finish it off. BTW, what is the correct colour for BR DMUs post-1960? I can't seem to find it in the Precision Paint range. there's a 1954 DMU green, a SR EMU green...

Looks good! I've got to rebuild a curved double junction on my layout, I wonder if it will be possible with Wayne's kits? I've just had a double slip and a left hand turnout from wayne, I built the double slip first and it worked out ok. Two problems, my existing track uses the thin sleeprs so there's been a bit of lowering of the underlay and packing of adjoining rails to level things out. the other problem on the double slip I noticed the switch rails move lengthways when the tiebar moves. I don't see any way to avoid this without cutting the switch rail and putting a fishplate on there. No matter, it runs a lot better than my home-made effort. Luckily mine was a B7 so the new one fitted like a dream.

The bits that fell off my 31 chassis block literally crumbled awway when I touched them, like broken safety glass.

Maybe the car traffic on ET because of the bad press Dover has had over the last 2 years with coaches waiting over 12 hours to get through the enhanced customs etc on this side? and the 4 hour wait we endured back in June when we went by Irish Ferries to Calais. We live less than 20 minutes from the tunnel and used to be able to get to Calais in an hour if the timing was just right. Straight into the "customs" check, no French customs, join the last knockings for the train we allegedly missed and away. Yes, there's been times when we've been stuck in Calais for over 8 hours because of ET's incompetence or a train failure. But no way can we afford the fares they demand now. Dover is only another 15 minutes down the road. Looking at it another way, to save an hour on the travel time I'd have to work another 2 and a half hours at my top rate to pay for it. I've already had an extra 24 hours driving in the alst year due to road closures on the M20 for the bloody brexit barriers. the extra 10 minutes each way mounts up to a lot of hours over a year.