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hmrspaul

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  1. The Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) is a charming white heron with striking white plumes on its crest, back, and chest. It boasts black legs, a black bill, and eye-catching yellow feet. Let’s delve into its fascinating history in the United Kingdom: Arrival in the UK: The Little Egret first made its significant appearance in the UK in 1989. It followed a natural range expansion from western and northern France in the preceding decades. Breeding and Colonization: In 1996, this elegant bird successfully bred in Dorset, marking a pivotal moment. Since then, it has become a familiar sight in various parts of the UK. Little Egrets have colonized much of southern Britain and Ireland, both as breeding species and winter visitors. Distinctive Features: With its yellow feet, which it uses to flush prey while feeding in shallow water, the Little Egret stands out among its heron relatives. Distribution: These graceful birds can now be observed in most regions across the UK. From the RSPB. The golden feet is a distinctive feature. And yes, not so small ! Paul
  2. K simply means it is 21ton, and N means it is 24.5t. Used on both hoppers and flat bottom double door minerals. Paul
  3. They were built in 1981 at Ashford, so if they were new this wasn't the ECML with that electrification. I'm not convinced it is in the sidings south of Hitchin, they gave me the impression of being narrower. So, it is a pity the photo is undated. Why / how would they have indication of ownership. The photo is how they appeared years later. Mark has described how they were intended to be used, but when I saw them they tended to be individual, or perhaps a pair. Paul PS corrected because I had overlooked electrification to Hitchin was much earlier than the northern part of the ECML, so could easily by new in Hitchin. I never saw any in Hitchin and did go around the engineers yard there irregularly from 1975 to the early 1980s. Paul https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brskate
  4. Is Salts, St. Pancras the origin of the main entrance to the Eurostar terminal https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/eurostar/e31780acf ? Paul
  5. Looks like it will be as good as last year, and a much better balance between trade, demonstrators and layouts than GoG achieves. In past years there have been comments about difficulties of finding the location through the extensive Nissan estate. Last year it was very clearly signposted, so assume will be the same again. Paul
  6. Quite a number of Lowestoft photos in https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/ballastcleaner And a series of the unusual SR Van https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/srvan/e328d44be Paul
  7. I countered with the hypothesis that, on being notified of the arrival of his consignment from Burton, our publican would load up his dray with all the empties on hand, for dispatch in exchange for the full casks. And lo and behold, there is a Midland wagon on hand, from which the full casks have been unloaded, which can be back-loaded with the empties! Wouldn't the brewer be responsible for paying for delivery, and the returns? Certainly how the drinks industry worked 50 years ago. The publican would have paid for the barrel separately to the beer, and would get that payment back when returning the empty barrel - so important for him to turn round the empty and get it back. Certainly when Freightliner were delivering for Schweppes they accepted a much lower payment if the container was used to return the empties (crates in this case). I was not involved with any of the admin but IIRC I was told this was about half or two thirds of the cost of the delivery of the fulls. But, that is also an assumption that containers were charged by size and distance and not by weight unlike other railway loads. i liked the comment about delivering to bottling plants. This was also a common part of the drinks trade. Guiness was well known for being delivered in bulk from Dublin and bottled at large numbers of local plants. But, Burton also did its own bottling and the crates of ale would be delivered all over, with a return of the crates also being required. Every crate had the charge for the empty crate stamped on them, as well as the manufacturing date. Great game finding the oldest crate in a warehouse requiring a great deal of dangerous climbing! Paul
  8. This finds some of my Lowestoft photos, there will be more but not searchable on the 8 character file names https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/?q=lowestoft Paul
  9. https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/icisodiumcarbonate/e262f6bfe
  10. I've never seen a Bachmann 4wh tank. I have no idea what it is. However, I am aware that, like other companies, they are trying to represent the Monobloc 45t tanks as all being very similar when each manufacturer had their own styles, that changed with time and also whether built VB and later rebuilt AB, or AB from new... and then there is the suspension changes and the barrel, ladders, fillers, vents and access walkways all differ. Paul
  11. Not seen one as Lubricants but the earliest Green BPO I recorded was March 1991. Paul
  12. Need running numbers, Bing fails to find that Bachmann number Paul
  13. The conserved E3137 / 86259 worked to York from KX this morning and is now working the special back. It spent the day in Holgate Sidings. Photos in https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brelectric Paul
  14. Are they in SR brown? 😒 Paul
  15. Don't overlook that these conserved vans have come out of internal use with the MoD or RoF, this is 18871 at ROF Glascoed https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalvan/e606acf08 But could be used for MoD traffic before the VEAs. Hugh Llewelyn (on Flickr) - Diag.1/219 No.B80703 - 'PALSHOCVAN' 12 ton, ventilated, fitted shock-absorbing pallet van No.B80703, with plywood sides and doors and corrugated steel ends, Lot 3347, built at BR (Wolverton) in 1961 at Bitton, Avon Valley Railway, 28 December 2018. TOPS code VRV. This wagon ended up working for the MoD. It is incorrectly numbered as should be in the B555XXX series. It is a shock-absorbing bersion of the Diag.1/211 'PALVAN'. 200 Diag.1/219's were built by BR (Faverdale and Wolverton) in 1958-61. And this is it at Glascoed https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalshocvan/e69fa2cd2 I don't know who wrote it should be in the number series B555xxx. Those, of course, are BR mineral wagons! It should be B855xxx Paul
  16. Terry Agreed, but the loss of summer show in the north Midlands because of the Guild trying not to offend/clash with Guildford is seen by some of us as disproportionate, ignoring the potential for poor weather in the winter. The problem with the Guild shows has been historically they had three, all within 100 miles of one another but ignored the South West (used to be served by what I am informed was a good winter time show in Bristol but the venue closed), the true north of our islands or the highly populated South East. Kempton is seen as a viable, affordable and filling of possibly the most important hole in their exhibition geographic profile, but it came at a cost. Personally I got into 7mm after visiting a GoG event in Milton Keynes, to me a useful alternative to Kettering and better positioned than Telford or Stafford. But affordability of venue has become a major driver in choice of locations - as well as availability. And my understanding of Barnsley was that it was available in the summer but becomes very busy in autumn and winter. By the way, it was a good venue and an interesting town. I thought Stafford was a horrible venue, although it would lend itself to having an exhibition and not just a trade show with a few layouts. We were informed that nothing could be found in Preston, which has a strong O gauge following, is further north and more accessible by public transport than Wigan. Paul
  17. Rather OT but an interesting observation. I have found a standard van in 1980 with such a buffer https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brvanplywooddoorvvv/e35787e62 They are also on some Conflat As later - but these were engineers wagons by then. So, it does look like through the later 1970s they were systematically removed from many wagons built with them. They are easy to find on my photos of VB minerals in Wellingborough in 1975 but the same lots taken later have Oleo pneumatic - sometimes still in green undercoat. Paul
  18. This shows the UIC double link suspension that the Modern Railways article discusses and solved the problem. Apparently too late as the vast majority of the vans had gone for scrap or into internal use. This is an example of a VB van with UIC suspension https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalvan/e30c345d3 https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalvan/e346c91e4 This is the exhibition AB van as mentioned in 1989 https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalvanvpb/ee531ddc Paul
  19. Nottingham Class 31 down grain and Class 45 up ecs March 75 J4184 Wow a Bass Charrington, LMS design grain in traffic at the head of the train. I've never noticed one of them out on the mainline before. Also looks like another just out of shot on left. Presumably working to Burton Paul https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/bchgrain
  20. Only guessing as to local use. Other wagons in the yard were in active service so this may well have been. I was just surprised I had a photo of a wagon of interest. As can be seen photos in Italy are very rare, I don't go out of my way at all to photograph railway subjects when on family holidays. Paul
  21. Interesting about the GCR mainline, an ER V2 in an accident with a WR Hall. Paul
  22. But are these working to Sellafield? That was the original request. As mentioned earlier https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brtbogietank2/ed83fdec Later used by Hays for Sulphuric acid. Paul
  23. That would suggest these were similar to this Acrylic acid tank https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/tiphookacrylic Paul
  24. Unexpectedly I photographed one of these when unloading a car at the Milan motorail depot https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/italianrailway/ea46480d4 in 1995. I suspect in "internal use" the way the door is open and it is at the blocks. Paul
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