Jeremy Cumberland

Has it been rather inexpertly renumbered for the occasion, with the real 253025 (presumably 43050/43051) being unavailable, a bit like 4082 Windsor Castle happening to be in Swindon Works when King George VI died, so 7013 Bristol Castle masqueraded instead on the funeral train. What?!! I hear you say. HSTs were new in 1977 so how could there be one already dedicated to royal train duties? Well, 1977 was the Queen's Silver Jubilee, so 25 was something of a "royal number" that year. I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd painted the thing in silver, Shame they couldn't find any matching yellow paint, though, don't you think?

A passenger station for DMUs? You don't have a lot of length to play with, but it might make good use of the left hand side at the back, coming off the first set of points. This would mean that operationally it was separate from the TMD. I imagine it being a single road with a platform, and the second set of points that is currently there you would move elsewhere. The right hand side can only be reached by reversing, so I imagine this is where the fuelling point would be, and whatever other servicing is carried out, perhaps in a single road shed, like at Severn Tunnel Junction (sorry, I don't know much about Scottish depots), leaving the left hand side for a couple of stabling sidings and a headshunt, all entered via the double slip. You would get more room by making the front road at the left a single-locomotive length headshunt, but it isn't nearly as attractive in my opinion. The double slip in the centre of the layout is very much a feature, and keeping the space in front of it clear of track shows it off well, I think.

Apart from having had (at different times) two "No. 1"s (Rough Pup and Lady Joan) and two "No. 2"s (Cloister and Dolbadarn), Dinorwic also used ordinal numbers with "THE FIRST" (later Bernstein and now Jonathan) and "THE SECOND" (Covertcoat).

This one, I presume, which I had not heard of till you mentioned it, but a web search soon found it: https://oakparkrunnerssnippets.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/rothervale-no-0/ The Wikipedia page for Orgreave Colliery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgreave_Colliery) says it was Rothervale No 1 until a new Rothervale No 1 was bought in 1929.

What, like this, you mean?

Short answer, no. The IT geeks might well be able to find the IP address, but this is fairly meaningless. While IP addresses can be identified fairly closely with locations, unless access is given to the person's ISP, then they cannot be linked to an individual property or subscriber. However, even if they could, it is probably to no avail. It is very easy to hide your IP address and to pretend you are sitting on the other side of the world. Unless the person has been impersonating you in specific situations, such as to open a bank account, I doubt that any criminal offence has been committed, and the police won't be interested.

Didn't St Erth in the down direction have a 13, or am I just imagining it? Also, I recall the signs went in the wrong sequence at one point, something like 7 - 9 - 8 - 10.

Geography, perhaps. I cannot imagine anyone choosing to build a two-track embankment if they could avoid it. However, I agree that this headshunt does look particularly short.

There is no general standard for narrow gauge couplings, although individual railways and manufacturers often had their own standard. The bottom picture shows Hudson's link and pin arrangement, and very good it is as well, without any need to do anything while vehicles are moving, or needing to crouch down to make a coupling. Simply buffer the vehicles together, remove a pin, slide the link over the hole and replace the pin. In your first picture, the pin needs to be removed before the vehicles are brought together, and alignment might be more difficult - or very difficult indeed depending on how well the buffers line up, needing to be adjusted while the vehicles are in motion. Also there is no easy way of moving the link laterally, so links tend to be over-long. I really don't see how one is the opposite of the other. Both have central buffers, both use vertical pins* and both use single links. Many industrial diesel locomotives had tall central buffers with long pins and two or three slots for links, and could couple to either. In some places, bars with a hole/slot at each end are used instead of links. *Edit: I assume the locomotive in the top picture uses a vertical pin, like this:

I imagine the OP worked out what size to build his coaches years ago. However just in case anyone else reading this wants to represent 15 inch gauge in miniature using commercially-available track, then 009 track works out at a scale of 1:42, which is very close to 7 mm/ft, and 0-16.5 track works out at 1:23, which is very close to G scale (1:22.5), a common garden railway scale used for European metre gauge on 45mm track. Using a common gauge such as 9 mm or 16.5 mm means you can get track, track components, wheels and running gear reasonably easily, and there is probably a set of track and wheel standards you can use if you are scratchbuilding. Using a common scale means you can get people, buildings/building components and scenic items, even if you need to scratchbuild all your rolling stock.

Towards the end of the top line there appears to be "DIESEL ELECTRIC" and the bottom line is certainly "STOCKTON ON TEES", which suggests MetroVic to me (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowesfield_Works). I know very little of their output, but it bears quite a lot of similarity with the WAGR X class: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGR_X_class

You will need four locomotives to work the local passenger services. Two locomotives are needed for the goods. Obviously if the depot services other routes that use the same class of locomotive, then the locomotives for your services will be drawn from a larger pool. I think your 75% is about right, but I am a lot less sure whether locomotive departments planned around such low availability, and one locomotive per duty plus about 20% rounded up seems more likely. Providing two locomotives for one service is obviously wasteful, so the second locomotive for your goods turn might be from a class that has other duties at the shed. Alternatively. the locomotive might be provided by a parent shed with a weekly changeover turn, in which case the size of the pool it is drawn from depends on the number of duties there are at the parent shed. Larger sheds are also likely to have locomotives steamed as spares, and one of these might appear on your trains.

This is easily the most informative website that I know of (although I am biased towards London Underground, so I tend to ignore websites that only cover Southern or other conductor rail systems): http://www.clag.org.uk/3rd-4th.html It will show you exactly what to do with points. Note that shoes can only run on and off the end of a conductor rail, not the edges, so points almost always have a break in the rail at the switches, although side ramps are provided where gaps would create a risk of gapping. Your double slip will be a very awkward beast indeed. Edit: I have just realised this is the same web page that @johnb links to (except that my link takes you straight there)

They fit the beginning of your time range I think, up to the mid-1990s on the Puerta del Sol and the Paris - Lisbon (and sometimes Porto and Vega, it seems) Sud Express. Neither of these trains used Port Bou, and I don't think there was an overnight Paris - Barcelona service at this time otherwise I would surely have travelled on it, so I don't know what service you might have seen them on.

7 and 8 are unlikely ever to be returned to traffic (although at one time I had thought the same of 5). I have heard nothing about 4 for some time, but I think the long term plan is to run four steam locomotives, so I presume the overhaul is going/will go ahead. If they do intend running five locomotives, then they'll need to resurrect either 7 or 8. According to the SMR website they are not running steam locomitives at all this year. Although I always much prefer seeing the steam locomotives, I'll miss the Hunslets if they are retired.

The Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley class 03s were fitted for MU working, I imagine using the same system. Here is a picture: https://www.philt.org.uk/BR/Shunter/i-sTJsVfP/ Apparently the ETH supply is for provding auxiliary power. I expect that for as short a run as the Kenny Belle, the 4-TCs batteries would suffice. However I don't recall ever reading of class 09s having MU capabilities, nor do I recall seeing any with jumper cables or sockets. If the need arose, I expect an 09 could be converted to MU control, but I really cannot see the need arising. Who would plan to use an 09 on a push-pull working?

They finished in October 1965 according to a couple of accounts online. Roger Scholes wrote an entertaining account of the last train in this thread: http://www.ancestorgateway.com/forum/read_thread.cfm?ForumID=7&ThreadID=197&Thread=152 I have not found any suggestion of a later steam-powered push-pull on an ordinary service train (diesel and electric push-pulls are common, of course). Horwich-Chorley survived until at least August 1965.

The LT&S ran through trains between Southend and Ealing Broadway via the Metropolitan District Railway (the present District Line). The Great Western ran peak hour trains from a variety of suburban stations such as Windosr and Uxpridge to Liverpool Street/Aldgate via the Metropolitan Railway. Both these serveices continued up to the Second World War. The Great Western had a freight depot at Smithfield, in the centre of London, which lasted unti lthe late 50s/early 60s, again with trains travelling via the Metropolitan.

Thank you. What bell codes are sent at steps 5 and 6? Does Box A answer Box B's 2-1 with 3-3 or does Box A reply 2-1 and then send 3-3? If the latter, does box A send call attention before sending 3-3? What aide memoires, if any, do the signalmen use? Does either signalman place a collar on the starter lever, for example?

Excuse my ignroance; I haven't had much to do with blocking back. Does this mean that the other signalman isn't told at all about the move into the section until the first train has cleared it? Does the other signalman return the token to the instrument then (assuming single line working with tokens)? From your post, I imagine the sequence for shunting into the section behind a departing train to be this, but surely it cannot be right: Box A obtains line clear from Box B and withdraws token Train departs A and Box A sends train entering section to Box B Shunt onto single line commences at A, under the control of Box A Train arrives at B Box B sends out of section to Box A and returns token to instrument Box A sends blocking back to Box B and withdraws token On completion of shunting at A, Box A sends cancelling to Box B and returns token to instrument I had thought that 3-3 would need to be sent by Box A and acknowledged by Box B before the shunt commenced (ie between steps 2 and 3), although I had always wondered what reminder Box B might have not to return the token to the instrument, also whether there would be cofusion between Box B sending 2-1 and Box A sending 3-5, which presumably could happen in either order.

This web page says 5069 was in blue before May 1972, presumably repainted when it had the end mods. It wasn't renumbered till 1973: https://www.derbysulzers.com/24069.html The top arrow facing forwards on 5068 would be entirely correct for the funnel of a Sealink ferry, of course .

The arrows on both left cab sides were the wrong way round, and on both right cab sides were the right way round. Here's the opposite side: https://rcts.zenfolio.com/diesel/br/locomotives/24/hA8714072#ha8714072 Here's a full view of the first side: As the OP suggested, the double arrow livery was applied before the doors were welded.

A single slip is a diamond crossing (so both straight movements are possible; in your example these are bk1 to bk4 and bk2 to bk3) plus one chord between the two lines (in your example you would orientate it to allow bk3 to bk4). A double slip has both chords, which in your example would also allow bk1 to bk2 or vice versa, but neither of these routes have signals. Three of the four signals in your plan contol movements through the slip. Only bk2 to bk5 does not use the slip. Detectors are used for safety. Selectors combine detectors with some other mechanism. See the bottom diagram in @micknich2003's post, which detects both switches and the FPL, and has a floating wheel so that a single lever operates both signals (but only one at a time) according to how the points are set.

Why a double slip? There are no signals for movements over the crossover. I doubt you have any need for selectors at all. I don't know much about GW practice, but most railways provided a lever for each signal, and I think it highly unlikely that the two signals at bk2 would be operated by the same lever. Each signal would detect its facing point and FPL. If you have a double slip rather than a single slip, then the bk2 to bk3 signal would presumably detect both the facing point and the facing switches/FPL of the slip. If you only have a single slip, then the signal at bk1 would not detect anything; all the interlocking needed would be in the lever frame in the signalbox.

This switch diamond is out of use. You can clearly see the fishplates up against the webs of the closed switches bolted to the timbers, and it is easy to make out the point clamp on the near closed switch, once you know to look for it. I can't see a point clamp on the far closed switch, and I wonder whether the is one, since this is the trailing direction. There looks to be a block wedged in the facing open switch.