Porkscratching

Great stuff! Presumably, as per photo, these would be run in nice shiny new rakes of multiple vans rather than odd ones plonked into the usual motley mix?

Great to have some first hand testimony from someone who worked these old vans in real life! Nearest I got was as a kid, we used to regularly go and play on the track (accessible via an ungated level crossing), there was a siding, usually with various stock 'parked up'... getting into a brake van and sitting around on the 'comfy' seats looking out of the duckets was a favourite when one had been left there...

Cheers for the intel gents!..I'll proceed with doing something with it then. I seem to recall that SR liked to keep tabs on these and didn't like them to wander too far afield in case they didn't get them back again, supposedly a very comfortable ride compared to some of the more basic vans I'm told.

Returning to parcels, a quick question... I assume Tartan Arrow liveried CCTs would be a tad 'too late' to appear behind anything steam hauled..?

Thanks for that, I'd assume all the Bachmann versions are from the same mould, though I'll run the verniers over it to be sure, do you know off hand a mean height for these?...as it seems a bit low in the roof line compared to other vans too.

Having dug out a Bachmann SR Queen Mary from my stash, I was struck by how tiny it appears compared to other stock... Did these have a skinny little cab in reality?..I've taken a side by side, (apologies for poor phone pics) With a random Airfix BR job from the spares box, as these are generally held to be reasonably accurate to scale as I understand. The Bachmann to my mind looks like something from HO scale by comparison, any thoughts much appreciated..

Maybe you should try something with a bit more alcohol content! The brake fluid is now kind of loosening the black gungy paint that's been put on a gunpowder van I'm trying to clean up, probably an 'immerse it for a week' job but looks like it'll work, eventually... Brake fluid certainly takes old vehicle paint off if you're a bit careless with the Gunsons Eezibleed, ask me how I know....

Maybe a bit late to contribute to this, but I've found isopropyl alcohol completely removes the matt paint they use on Lima coaches very easily, i was in fact only wanting to remove the lettering but it strips the paint before it touches the printed on 'decals' which needed some further rubbing to get them all off...I now have a very clean black plastic shell , ( it hasnt attacked the plastic btw)...as it happens its not too tragic as I was going to change the colour anyway! I've got another wagon soaking overnight in Dot 4 brake fluid, the ipa wouldn't touch this one ( someone else's diy paint job, who knows what paint they used)

I treated myself to a set of Moore & Wright digi calipers, ( I was putting an old morris gearbox back together at the time!)...these have been great, but the battery doesn't last long even when sitting in a drawer turned off, I always just pop the battery out now.

An amazing photo, incredible that the plane didn't plough up the track and bring a load of the steelwork down! Anyway as a first post on here, just to say how much I've appreciated, enjoyed and learned from this parcels train thread, I particularly like the piecemeal nature of these workings, an of course their sheer 'filthyness!..I am incidentally collecting together some wagons myself for just such an enterprise!