roythebus1

There's plenty of instances in Europe, especially the eastern countries. Belgium seem to have a lot. of level crossing incdents i the clips on FB are to be believed.

Re the Wooton Bassett incident, it turned out the drive used to work at the same depot as me back in the 1980s. I was a bit shocked to discover that a few years after the event. I've not seen him for many years so have not broached the subject with him, but we're still in touch on social media.

I happened to work at WH Smith in earls Court in 1969/1970. their main kiosk on the Earls Court Road District Line concourse was brown varnished wood, as was the small rush-hour only kiok on the Eastbound District Line platforms. Gold lettering. Manning the concourse shop got a bit tedious with the lift to the Piccadilly Line announcing "stand clear of the gates" every 2 minutes!!

You might find it in the Grauniad. :)

Sounds interesting. black Beetle bogies are indeed still available as CCTrans says above. I recently bought about 6 of differing sizes for 1959 tube stock, Kitmaster Blue Pullman and Q23 motor coach, and a few to spare. Are you sure different motor bogies were fitted? I thought they were the same as those used in LT Standard Stock. They had one motor bogie in the driving cars.

Both. :) And using different combinations of KKs.

Thanks, on this Lima Siphon I changed the BR type bogies for cast bogies, but that was so long ago I forgot whose make they were!! Keen KKs with Kadees now fitted, jus the buffers to sort out.

Considering most models sit in boxes for most of their lives is speed a problem?

2mm usually.

I'm going to do a test track with a load of Peco 2' points forming crossovers. If anyone has seen the Keen test track over the years he done something similar with no problems on propelling on reverse curves. I've also found wht I think is the answer to fitting KK at the motor ends of DMUs: https://www.roco.cc/static/frontend/Casisoft/Roco/en_GB/doc/AN/1/DE/8040343920.pdf €35 for a box of 10. these seem to take up a lot less space than the Keen adaptors and may be easier to fit. they also have centering springs. There's also some earlier rcp retrofit KK units which I've got on some German stock. Still haven't found it yet!

Agreed, on some of my stock I use ABS BR buffers, he made extended and closed buffers. Non-corridor stock did not have the ability to rettract that I can recall. Only stock with the Pullman type gangway used them. I worked on the short suburban stock out of KX in 1977/78. The rules for coupling were that the buffers should just touch when coupling on the straight, not compressed, then hook up and tighten the screw shackle, that would take up a little bit of slack and prevent the coaches bumping about. On main line stock with gangways the buckeye coupler used with buffers retracted. On the outer end with screw couplings, buffers extended. If the loco had centre rubbing plate like the 33/1, 73 and some of the later locos, buffers retract and use the buckeye.

The centring is also required if the bogie doesn't move the coupler across. Sometimes the couple sticks to one side and causes a derailment. The Roco close coupling units use a small coil spring attached to the chassis and the coupler. But they are a pig to fit!! (not the Roco KKs themselves) Having just said that, I've found the answer to the DMU question, use the Roco screw-on close coupling unit they sell for wagons. I've got a few redundant German wagons I can pinch them off.

But with the figure of 350-odd deaths a year from people falling out of trains, that's nearly one a day!! There's still nothing to stop WCRC running their train with hired-in compliant stock. For the air supply a small IC powered workshop compressor in the brake van would do the job. Or a diesel loco between steam loco and compliant air or vac braked stock. the diesel loco acts as translator vehicle between vas steam, air-braked loco and vac or air braked train. Simple really, much fuss about nothing if you can hire a suitable train for a while.

There was a "value" put on life in the Hidden Report, the cost/benefit of fitting trains with seat belts following the Clapham disaster. It ran to many millions er life saved.

I've just started fitting some Bachmann BR suburban coaches with Kean close couplers, buth this time tried the Hunt magnetic couplers instead of the Kean bar couplers which I never liked. I've used Roc/Hornby KKs or Kadee 18's up till now. the Hunt couplers come in a variety of lengths. On some other coaches, notably the Airfix LMS coaches and other 56' stock the Hunt C coupler was too long, so a search through their online catalogue show a really short 6mm coupler for modern freightliner wagons. They ought to get the gap down even further on the short stock. The bonus is that they can always be replaced with Kadees or any other NEM coupling. I've not found the need to use self-centring springs yet, I rely on the bogie slot doing the job. It would be helpful if Kean could make a shorter version to go on the outer ends of DMU motor coaches and under some of the RTR diesels like the Hornby 31.

ISTR having this sort of conversation many years ago when I woz a train driver. People were reminded which government approved the WCML wires into Euston, the GE conversion to 25kv, the 3rd rail to Bomo from Worting Junction, the GN electrics... the answer was not the Labour Party. And being an ASLEF branch committee member for a while, I was privy to the list of members who did not make payments to the Labour Party. It was about 3 foolscap pages, quite surprising really considering the supposed militancy of the Waterloo ASLEF branch at the time.

Not forgetting the very expensive refurbishment of the Village Block/train crew accommodation/offices etc in matching Portland Stone that was done in 1984, then demolished some 10 years later. Another bit of forward planning by BR and a total waste of money.

Where can I find the Wright Lines article?

Is that the Wr unit that Lima used to do? I've tried the Keen couplings on the Met Cam unit and TBH it's difficult especially on the motor coach at the motor end. What I think I done was used the Keen unit on the outer ends and the inner end of the trailer and somehow glued a Roco KK on the motor bogie. When you use the Keen units, make sure there's a V shape in the bogie top plate to "steer" the coupling round corners otherwise it won't self-centre on straight track and will cause a derailment. One thing Keen didn't do was to allow for a centring spring. Forgot to mention I use Kadees on the outer ends of DMUs to allow for attaching other units. If it's any help, I've just posted an article further down on close-coupling Bachmann suburban coaches using Keen mountings with Hunt magnet couplings, they look promising but a bit prone to breaking. If I can find my Met Cam unit I'll take some pics for here.

But the previous driver could have left the Driver's Brake Valve Isolating Cock open. On stock fitted with the EP brake the driver would get an audible warning if that was the case. And it's in the rule book.

I needed to cut a bit out og the bogies to clear the Kean adaptor; this is also used to "steer" the coupling round. Also remove the 2 pips from the top of the bogie to clear the Kean mounting plate. Other pics to show how they perform with Kadees. I could also use Roco/Hornby KKs.

With Kean adaptors and Hunt magnetic couplings I can get the buffers to touch on straights and still go round no.2 radius curves.

Bachmann suburbans with Kadees mounted on bogies give too much gap between buffers, but that's needed to prevent buffer locking on curves.

An idea I got from looking at the "small traders" section further up the page a few days ago regarding the same topic but possibly in the wrong place. That article dealt with the new Hunt magnetic couplings which I've recently bought a trial pack of. I've always liked close couplings having been a convert to European modelling in the late 1970s and their adoption of various close couplings and the use of Kadee couplings for their versatility and reliability. In the 1990s with the availability of some British outline that matched the European standards I started collecting British outline models again. Along cam a firm making something called the Kean close-coupling system. This was based on the Roco KK system used on European models with great success. I'd built a small German layout with a spiral at one end using no.1 radius curves on the inner track and i was surprised to find the Roco KKs worked even with scale length DB stock. So I took the plunge over the years to try the Kean adaptor on some British stock On later Bachmann and other stock it was easy to change the tension lock couplings to either Roco/Hornby KKs or Kadees. Not so easy on the older stock pre-NEM coupler pockets. Here's where the Kean system was a good attempt. There's detailed instructions how to fit the adaptors to various coaches, some are a straight "glue the adaptor to the floor" or a lot of cutting of the floor and bits off bogies to fit. With Hunt magnets I thought I'd give them a try so here's some pics of the results. Here's the Kean adaptor straight out of the packet...

The brake continuity test was done by the guard in the rearmost cab if it was done on this occasion. There was a guard's emergency handle in each cab. It was not possible to observe the brake blocks on the W&C stock as they were so low to the ground. From what I've been told of this event, the continuity test had been done, but nobody checked the fitter's work putting the brake rodding back together.