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Hi David. The late Alan Garraway is driving Linda in C251 - it was his regular engine at the time. I like the rotating disc signal - I wonder what the Railway Inspectorate thought of that? Presumably that's John Harrison ("Lord North") operating it. He was the stationmaster at TyB for many years. Keith Alton.

That was unfortunate but these vehicles were built on pre-War underframes which had been dumped outside at Eastleigh throughout the War and 2850 was beyond saving. At least the re-usable parts were retained for use on other Bulleid coaches. Keith Alton.

May I put in a plug for the Corris Model Railway show at Y Plas Machynlleth on 26th and 27th August? A very nice little local show put on by the Corris Railway, last year with added giraffes! Keith Alton.

The fundamental issue with the early SR buckeye (MCB) implementation was that they didn't fit buffing plates, and the buffing forces set up by multiple motor cars with automatic acceleration (very different from a loco hauled train) led to fractures of the cast steel buckeyes. They didn't make the same mistake with the post-1951 stock. The pre-War express stock was screw coupled throughout, with wide continental style gangways (basically bellows with faceplates clamped together) rather than the British Standard type. Keith Alton.

The SR centre buffer and link coupling was a cheap and robust solution where units rarely needed to be split. I think intermediate buckeyes were fitted to the DEMUs to allow units to be reformed more easily, as the power cars were likely to require more down time than the trailers. (Imagine trying to lose a centre trailer at Alton with links and buffers.) Mark 1 loco hauled non corridors were fitted with screw couplings but could presumably have been retrofitted with buckeyes as the apertures are present in the headstocks for buffing plates. Not sure if this applied to Mark 1 type EPBs, etc. Keith Alton.

Hi David. In J6638 the blue house set into the concrete retaining wall is the site of Magnus Volk's original workshop and power station. The section of line immediately to the east of the Groyne, on which the cars are travelling, is actually on a steel viaduct which has become buried in shingle since this section of the line was built. One wonders how much of it is left under the shingle! Keith Alton.

There were certainly a few occasions when a centre trailer was shunted out at Alton so the train would stand a fighting chance of getting back up the hill. But in the light of experience Eastleigh used to keep a pool of sets reduced to two cars for this working. And a little later 1121 and 1122, which had been built for Bexhill West and New Romney and never augmented to three cars, returned to Eastleigh and became regulars on the route. Remarkably, until 1968 the Mid-Hants service from Southampton was worked by two units, passing on the main line at Winchester Junction. This meant that the train had a bare hour to get "over the Alps" and back again. The turnaround time at Alton was four minutes and there was no margin for late running. Limited adhesion, slippery rails and electric heating meant that three car trains and the Mid-Hants did not mix well in winter, particularly after the motor bogies were swapped in 1960 for examples with express gear ratios, so that the originals could go under new 4EPB units. I'm told that drivers would keep the power on down the 1 in 60 bank from Medstead as far as a certain PW hut on the outskirts of Alton, and speeds of up to 90mph were not unknown on this section. (The maximum for the units was supposed to be 75.) Keith Alton.

Thanks for this, and the link to the very interesting historic photos. I have fond memories of Volk's Railway in the early 1960s, before coupled car operation and the reduction of the terminals to single track stubs. I see that the first photo dates from 1953 when the cars were in an all over varnished livery, as I first knew them. (The more familiar yellow and brown dates from the 80th anniversary year in 1963.) Black Rock station on this site dates from a truncation of the line when the open air swimming pool was built at Black Rock before WW2. I think the building shown here dates from the post War reconstruction, though. Nowadays, following the Marina development, all this (including the rather magnificent swimming pool) has been swept away and the line truncated again to terminate at a pumping station... Keith Alton.

Not quite. They just had to pay the tithes to lay rectors (the courtiers who bought the monastery properties, including the attached rectories) instead. Keith Alton.

Oooh... Now they are nice. Would love to know more about them (although someone appears to have nicked the wheels from under the Kinver toastrack at the front.) Keith Alton.

Doubtful, since I don't suppose it could be coupled to another such set and the whole lot driven from the front cab. Probably best to refer to it as a fixed-formation train. (As were many early electric sets, such as those on the Waterloo and City and the Liverpool Overhead, which in electrical terms were basically elongated trams.) Keith Alton.

Hi Dave. Interesting to see the large concrete grain store in the 1979 photo of Harlech (C4674). There was another one of these in the yard at Tywyn until about 20 years ago, when it was demolished to make way for a new Co-Op store. Obviously the output of Exmouth Junction spread far and wide! Keith Alton.

A (sadly late) clergyman friend in Yorkshire used to say that his greatest fear when doing parish visiting was being offered tea with condensed milk… Keith Alton.

I think he was referring to the second syllable. Keith Alton.

Yes. The trouble is, the consensus is wrong. “Maunsell rhymes with cancel and Bulleid rhymes with succeed.” H. A. V. Bulleid, Bulleid of the Southern, Ian Allan, 1977. “My late friend A. B. MacLeod told me that [Maunsell] would get very cross indeed if someone pronounced his name as ‘Mawnsell’. It was ‘Mansell’ and on that there was never any compromise, the ‘u’ being superfluous in the pronunciation.” Jeremy Clarke, ‘Maunsell’s Pièce de Resistance’ in Southern Way vol. 39 (2017) p.82. Keith Alton.

Following the July 1967 timetable revamp we had a train in the morning for Epsom and Waterloo only. I couldn’t help wondering how non-stop that was in practice. The SUBs could put on a fair turn of speed south of Dorking. Occasionally after school I used to visit friends who caught the Dodgy School Bus from Ockley and the ride (train and bus ) could be quite exhilarating! (Apologies for OT meandering.) Keith Alton.

Now that's something I didn't know, despite having grown up in Ashtead and watched the trains almost passing my front door in the late 50s and early 60s. It would make some sense as the carriage sidings at Leatherhead were in the old LSWR station and accessed via a trailing connection to the up line north of the station. By the time I started using the trains to travel to school in 1966, the sidings seemed to be pretty much disused. I can't recall ever seeing stock in there. Strictly 4 SUBs, of course. Hardly express services... Keith Alton.

I remember Modern Railways fulminating about the manual doors at the time, and again when the versions built for CIE were fitted with plug doors. As Richard T says, no doubt it was all down to cost. Keith Alton.

I believe Eastleigh used the remnants of the paint applied to 563 for the LSWR centenary. After nationalisation Ryde works repainted the tank and bunker sides in malachite in order to substitute "British Railways" lettering (they didn't have any of the original colour) so it ended up looking a bit piebald. Keith Alton.

Not in Alton, a notorious black spot for TV reception. You can see houses with aerials pointed at Hannington, Guildford, Crystal Palace or Rowridge (or any combination). There is also a local relay transmitter on Windmill Hill (as much of the town is in shadow from Hannington) although these days that only carries the basic Freeview channels. Keith Alton.

Only one Mark 1 loco hauled coach. A TSO acquired a few years ago from (I think) Bo’ness, which for some reason had been fitted with suburban doors with inside catches. The Hampshire DEMU has inside catches, of course. Keith Alton.

Thanks Jim. Most illuminating. Keith Alton.

Point taken, thanks. I should have remembered that the BoT never allowed through traction bus lines on tube stock. I understand that the changeover gap at Putney Bridge on the District is a train length so presumably the restriction doesn't apply to LU surface stock? (I have a vague recollection that the Met hauled stock used with the electric locos had shoes fitted.) Keith Alton.

Presumably the fourth rail is bonded to the running rails on this section (and there is a train length dead section for tube stock at the transition) as the DC lines stock is third rail only. Another Keith Alton.