PortlandStone

In fact, the name Tornado was given to a locomotive built by BR in the 1950s, Britannia class 4-6-2 70022.

I can recollect watching the down Royal Wessex being split at Bournemouth Central. 1. Train is split in front of the Swanage portion and the Bournemouth West portion departs. 2. Loco backs onto Swanage portion, which is split from the Weymouth portion and departs. 3. Another locomotive backs into the platform line and departs with the Weymouth section. No extra coaches were added.

My recollection is that both splits were done at Bournemouth Central. The Bournemouth West portion leaving first, then the Swanage portion and finally the Weymouth portion. A split at Wareham would have required a spare locomotive to be at a location that had no shed.

If you can lay your hands on a copy of the August 1957 issue of Trains Illustrated, you may be interested in the article by R.S.McNaught, The Robinson "ROD" 2-8-0s, pp432-8. which deals with the post-WW1 disposal of the government RODs, not only to a variety of British railways, but also to more exotic destinations, such as Shanghai Hanking Ningpo Railway.

At Launceston both the GWR and the LSWR had turntables. The LSWR turntable was taken out of use in 1943 when a connection was laid between the GWR and LSWR lines. Source: An Illustrated History of the North Cornwall Railway, Irwell Press, 2008.

Prior to dieselization, these trains all used the Reading West curve. A locomotive change at Oxford was normal. I remember a Bulleid light pacific being brought to a signal stop on the curve and having to back up to take a run at the rising gradient.

Class 26 and at least some of class 27 were moved from the Eastern Region to the Scottish Region during the green diesel era. Heljan makes models.

The other services mentioned in the BackTrack article are: Nelson & Lancaiach - Dowlais (Cae Harris) Burry Port - Cwmmawr

In the July-August 1990 edition of BackTrack there is an article: Last of the Great Western Four-Wheelers (the last four-wheeled coaching stock on British Railways ended its days in the mining valleys of the South Wales Coalfield). It includes pictures of four-compartment coach no 719 (still in use in June 1950), five-compartment coach W180 (May 1951) and five-compartment coach 2796 (May 1951). BackTrack October 1996 p533 a picture of a rake of four-wheelers on a Senghenydd-Llanbradach colliers train, May 1951.

From DMU and EMU Recognition Guide, Colin J. Marsden, Ian Allan, Class 129 (Cravens DMLV). Like the Gloucester design [Class128], these vehicles were authorised to haul a trailing load, usually one or two vans.

When the units that became class 114 were first delivered, they were under-engined, with B.U.T. 150 b.h.p. engines, and ran in three-car formations DMBS, DMBS, DTCL so that there was sufficient power to handle a tail load. The 150 b.h.p engines were then replaced with B.U.T. 230 b,h.p. engines.

I've had two e-mails from Rails saying "Your order has been dispatched". One dated 17 Feb and one dated 1 March. So far no A5 has reached me here in Oregon.

Forgive me for being late to the party. The darker green of the new BR(SR) Bulleid BCK is very close to the green Bachmann used on a BR(SR)GUV some years ago.

The handrails on the Britannia smoke deflectors impaired visibility and were deemed contributory to an accident. Both ER and WR then removed the handrails and replaced them with handholds cut into the smoke deflectors. On the ER these were circular with a centre bar. The WR used simple rectangular holes. R2272 70025 Western Star has these WR style smoke deflectors.