Sabato

Oh yes, and I shall be passing through the south side of Surbiton on Friday. I'll try to remember my camera.

Try looking for pictures of stations on the Wimbledon - Sutton line, built in the '20s. sadly most have now been demolished, including St Helier, which might well meet your needs.

But they did start working through; from 1959 I travelled quite often to Exeter and back with one loco (on each leg!). But I suppose that was after rebuilding/modification (tender capacities weren't changed).

At least twice to my knowledge. In 1964 {?) I was on an Ian Allen trip to Doncaster Works, from Paddington to Leicester (or Nottingham Vic? Can't properly remember now) behind 7029 Clun Castle, and behind Royal Scots Guardsman on to Donnie. The trip was so popular it was repeated the following weekend.

The Post Office Museum/Railway at Mount Pleasant has a mock up of a TPO sorting coach letter set. The game is to place the "envelopes" (slabs of wood addressed to various cities) in the appropriate hole. Sounds simple, but you have to get them all sorted before the floor stops bouncing around, and boy does it. I eventually got it down to one item before the "train stopped". It isn't easy.

Ah, thank you. Took me a second to spot it amongst the clutter. But I'm a South Western man myself (oh, am I allowed to say that here?)

Were the auto trailer cabs fitted with ATC indicators, or did the fireman have to deal with adverse signals?

Happy Hippo Posted 1 hour ago Crumbs! Well sweep them up quick, they could be used as evidence.

I'm reminded of the Flanders & Swan song about the bindweed and the honeysuckle romance, and how their children might "turn out".

What period are you modelling? I believe yellow is a relatively recent thing, and my recollection up to 1968 and a short while beyond is white for the cut-out figures and any other symbols. From the BR: SR CCE Dept. Information sheet S.02.17.01.24 - Painting , issued in 1949 and amended Oct 1960, the following instruction was given: (my copy isn't that good, this is what I can make of it) "Figures and Arrow’s, where provided to be (painted) white (approach side only). Supporting bar of figures and post to be green; alternatively black if convenient. This also applies to the back of figures and the arrows (if any)which must NOT be painted white."

I have asked for any such further tasking to be written down on the kitchen noticeboard. If it ain't on the board, it don't get done, Does that mean your first task will be to install a bigger noticeboard?

The South Western (probably introduced by Adams at Nine Elms) used the order number of the first batch of a class as the class designation, but only for those built by itself. Locos built by outside builders such as Dubs, Beyer-Peacock and such, were, as a class known by the stock number of the first delivered loco (usually). As an example the O2 0-4-4T was built mainly in batches of ten to the order numbers O2, B3,K3,D4 and R6. Adams had come from Stratford and the GER would seem to have the same type of classification system. No doubt other railways did much the same. Old habits die hard.

djparkins wrote - I did enquire about my order yesterday and have received this reply -......... ..............I thought I'd post it here as it may be interest to others on the forum. Many thanks for doing the legwork.

Nigel, two or three months ago the Society Chairman advertised and hosted a 3mm Society zoom session to do exactly what you suggested above. It might have been a first step to a focus group, but sadly it wasn't well attended, and very little in the way of new ideas came from it. Disappointing really, given some complain that "the Committee concentrates on products for the finer end of our scale", but when given the opportunity to contribute, don't. Apropos rail, Peco is code 75, not quite sure if you call it FB or BH; the Society 12mm track base uses C80 FB; the Society 14.2mm and 13.5mm bases use C60 BH. Using C60 with Tri-ang wheels is unlikely to give good running.

"Chopper" - No, 'fraid not. LNWR locos that are included - "Precedents and their pilots" and "Three and four cylinder compounds". All bigger stuff than the little tank.

Not sure if it's the same, but I'm "darn sarf" and from 1966 to the mid nineties commuted into London Waterloo. Hanging on the barriers were similar enamel plates with, if I remember correctly, IN or OUT on them. I was eventually told by a friend on the railway that these were instructions to drivers to turn the heating on or off. The Southern never spent money if they could help it, so as the heater circuit did need a fuse, but not necessarily a switch, putting the fuse IN cooked the passengers, taking it OUT, cooled them. Apparently, even in the winter they kept an eye on the forecast, and if it looked to be warmer than usual the fuses came out. Anything to save electricity!

Riversider Posted June 14, 2020 In a Southern Region West Country context I wonder if a single presflo in a general goods train might be heading to or from Delabole for conveying slate dust? In the early '70s, I saw and photographed a single Presflo in Wadebridge goods yard. In my memory it was fairly black in colour, or was that just slate dust? It was branded to carry slate dust, and at the time I wondered if it was intended for use as sanding material on diesel locos. Subsequently discovered it was bound for places up country for making 78 records, finishing rubber, and some was even exported to India. By the time I saw it I believe the dust came by road to Wadebridge to be loaded into the Presflos. The photo? Ah, well, I was using a pocket sized pre-war Zeiss, and when I got back to where I was staying the camera was not on my person. Somewhere on the four mile cross country walk it had slipped from my pocket. It pains me even now to think about it.

I see they've got a tail gunner to deal with the competition.

I've just been looking up some info on Eardley Sidings for a friend, and found this thread. I thought some might find the diagrammatic plan below of interest, altho' probably way too late for those who contributed a few years ago.

Whoops, hit a button to soon. Guildford had a "standard" 55ft LSWR overgirder table. Large enough to take a BR standard class 5 and the Southern moguls. It wouldn't take a pacific or Southern 4-6-0s with 8 wheel tenders. Nor would it take a pacific, less tender, plus B4. In very early days pre 1860/70 or so as locos got larger , and the infrastructure lagged, it might have occurred. In later days as a regular occurrence, no, to suggest otherwise is nonsense. Separating a tender off would only be done for tender swaps or other maintenance work

w124bob wrote - Seeing that Jinty picture reminds of one small item of interest regarding their banking duties, I recall seeing a steel rod hanging from the horizontal handrail on the smoke box. A small hook over the handrail and a larger hook at the free end. The rod was just short of the footplate in length, but I couldn't work out what it would be used for! Edited 2 hours ago by w124bob Apparently Masbury bankers were often coupled to the train. These rods were given to the guard. Leaning over the vans veranda, he unhooked the banker as they got to the summit. He then hooked it on the bankers smokebox hand rail to be taken back down for the next freight up the hill. You couldn't do that from a Queen Mary (or the Gondola), or indeed a BR standard brake, and these last were seen on the S&D. There weren't that many bogied express brakes, 20 Gondola's (rebuilt AC Motor luggage vans) and 25 QMs. Some are likely to have been on regular SR express freight workings , and the rest would have been jealously guarded from other Regions. Not sufficient to allow use on slow freights over the Mendips.

I wish. No, it was non-railway really.

Even so, they could, under certain circumstances, be gapped. One Saturday (in 1973/4) I was going down to Southampton Uni to see my GF (now wife). I made a very early start from Waterloo and looking forward to having breakfast on the train. Remember the Bomo trains only had shoes on the 4-REP. I sat in the restaurant car, and we started away very, very slowly, probably under a single yellow on the platform end starter. There is an "advanced starter" only about 100 to 200 yards out, and there we crept to a stand. After about 5 minutes the steward came to me and said, "Are you hoping for breakfast?" "Oh yes." I said. "Ah well, the kitchen is electrically powered and as the train is gapped we can't cook anything, not even mash some tea". We sat across the "mainline" portion of the station throat for about an hour. During which time the operating people had to find a driver for the station 08, then shuttle it back and forth to get it behind us. A short nudge to get us on the juice, and we were away, a good hour down. My journey home was interesting too, but for other reasons, probably not appropriate for this forum.

Class 3s did that a lot. And EJ also had Standard 5 4-6-0s that worked to Plymouth, and class 4 4-6-0s, at least one of which got to Bude. And at the end of steam working Cl 4 2-6-4Ts seemed to work almost all the remaining services on the Withered Arm. Had the building programme not been curtailed (probably rightly so) there might have been Clans working over the SW lines west of Exeter.