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Afraid not. It was grey.

As a student in the 1970s I had a 1965 Singer Chamois (the "posh" version of the Imp with polished walnut veneer on the dash and door cappings). In those pre-M25 days we regularly used to travel four up, packed to the gunwhales with luggage, from Surrey to York University and vice versa. I thought it was a brilliant little car. Did you know that you can get a full size double bass in an Imp? My brother played in a youth orchestra and I used to transport him and the instrument to rehearsals. The bridge would just fit through the opening rear window and with the rear seat down the neck would sit between the two front seats. My father had to take the front passenger seat out of his car to get it in! Keith Alton.

The crutched friars weren't legless! They weren't really friars, either - they were an order of canons devoted to the Holy Cross and were so called (depending on who you read) either because they had a red cross sewn onto their habits or because they carried a staff surmounted by a cross. They had a house in the mediaeval City of London (hence the name) and a modern building on the site has a rather good sculpture of a pair of friars on the corner. It's a pity they're Franciscans... Anyway, if you want a station named after an order of friars you have a choice. Blackfriars (Dominicans) is taken, of course, but Greyfriars (Franciscans), Whitefriars (Carmelites) and Austin Friars (Hermits of St Augustine) are available - all had large houses in the City. Perhaps Greyfriars would be most appropriate as the Minories area takes its name from a house of Franciscan nuns. Keith Alton.

What usually seems to have happened in suitable locations with tram/trailer operation (electric too) is that trailers would be swapped at the terminus i.e. the incoming trailer would be dropped in the terminal loop (or before the crossover on a double track line), the tram/dummy would couple onto a trailer waiting in the terminal stub, back round the loop (or over the crossover) and away. The incoming trailer would then gravitate into the terminal stub ready for the next working. You can see this method of operation in use today at Derby Castle on the MER. However a number of steam operations employed reversing triangles at the terminus. The dummy and trailer would reverse round the triangle and pull out facing the other way. This made life easier as it avoided having to uncouple and recouple every time. Could you perhaps incorporate a triangle disappearing up a side street? The curves would be very tight by railway standards although steam lines tended to use long bogie trailers so there would be a bit of overhang. Hope this helps. Keith Alton.

The old York tram depôt at Fulford was still in situ when I lived in York in the late 70s, complete with the 3’6” gauge depôt fan in the forecourt. At the time the premises were occupied by a Ford commercial vehicle dealership. I thought that was not bad considering that the trams were abandoned in 1935. I wonder whether it is still there? York had one trolley bus route out to Stockton Lane, worked latterly by three rather fine single deckers. They were housed in a small depôt in the city centre but when they had to go to Fulford for maintenance they used the tramway overhead with a “ball and chain” dragged behind for the negative return. The city centre depôt was also still there in the late 70s - I believe that after the trolley buses finished it was occupied for a time by Nevil Shute’s Airspeed concern. Happy days! Keith Alton.

The Holybourne sidings are facing towards Alton and there is a crossover between platforms 1 and 2 at Alton station. An incoming oil train would run into Alton station, run round, pull out past the sidings and reverse in. The outgoing train could then run straight back to Farnham. Latterly, with a half hourly service over the single line and both platforms at Alton in use, they had to knock out a passenger train to provide a path. Keith Alton.

Thank you! I'm not familiar with the location but presumably the reason for the co-acting lower arm is that the the upper arm would not be visible to a guard (or driver) standing under the canopy, although perhaps "off" indicator would have done the job? My faith in the old Railway Modeller adage, that there is a prototype for everything, is secure. Keith Alton.

Thanks all for helpful contributions. The firm consensus seems to be that it’s a wooden post! Now, with apologies for a slight thread hijack, here’s a related question. Is anyone aware of a prototype for a rail built co-acting signal post? Both Bluebell and Swanage have new build examples but I’m not aware of any on the ‘big railway’. Keith Alton.

MHR had 1806 and 1807 at one time. Unfortunately 1806 was burnt out by vandals some years ago. Both were acquired in 1982 after they had been refurbished and held in reserve for the Pope's visit to the UK in that year and both had the store added in place of a seating bay on the opposite side of the centre vestibule to the servery. However the interior decor was completely different - 1806 was varnished wood and 1807 is Formica. MHR also had 1840 and 1851 from the later batch. They also had Formica interiors but the main visible difference from the earlier examples seemed to be that the window units were of the later pattern with rubber glands. 1840 was ex-Glasgow and had some pretty serious locking arrangements on the servery and store! I believe this vehicle is now owned by WCRC. 1851 arrived stripped of seats and has seat units removed from 4 CEP electric units when these were refurbished. This vehicle is still at MHR but is currently out of traffic. The last time I encountered an RMB on the main line was on the Liverpool Street - Cambridge run in the early days of mobile phones (before everybody had one). The centre vestibule between the servery and the store had been converted into a telephone kiosk. I'm sure I have seen an example on a heritage railway somewhere (sorry I can't recall where) where the servery has been extended through the vestibule into the store, but I guess this is a post-BR modification. Keith Alton.

The 4TCs were converted from loco hauled stock (TSO-FK-BSK-TSO) so were very similar to their loco hauled equivalents (except that a driving cab and driver's vestibule replaced the existing vestibule and toilets at each end and a replacement door was put in the end seating bay). The 4CIGs, while being Mark 1 outline, had a completely different layout. The driving trailers were composites with first class compartments adjacent to the driver's vestibule and cab and a second class open saloon at the inner end. The trailer second was a nine bay saloon (as opposed to eight bays on a TSO) with no toilets and doors in the centre seating bay in place of a vestibule. The motor brake second had a six bay saloon, a guard's compartment and a very short van area. None of the vehicles had a loco-hauled Mark 1 equivalent. Hope that helps, Keith Alton.

We have several Dutton posts (or at least the cast bases thereof). Dutton certainly did casting work outside the narrow confines of signalling equipment. We have a Dutton branded barley-twist lamp post at Medstead and there is a Dutton branded rainwater gully in the road outside Alton station - both of these are illustrated in Edward Dorricott's book. Keith Alton.

I knew a few people who kept very untidy desks at work (back in the days of solo offices, before desk sharing and clear desk policies). The funny thing was, they always seemed to know exactly where to find anything they needed! Keith Alton.

I'd say 1890s, given that the ones we've dug up were manufactured by Dutton & Co, who only produced signalling equipment for around a decade. Keith Alton.

Here's a picture of the down home signal. This is cropped from a larger photo, hence the poor quality. This was taken in the summer of 1922 and is the only image I know which shows the London end layout at Ropley before the box was taken out in 1931. It demonstrates that, contrary to the diagram above, the signal was actually on the up side of the single line. As others have said, it was a co-acting signal, necessary as the lower arm would be obscured by Bighton Hill bridge. Having said that, it's enormous and the upper arm would have been visible from the mouth of Ropley Soke cutting, a mile and a half away. I wouldn't have liked to have to lamp it! Although it's not entirely clear from the photo, I think the post must be lattice as a wooden post that high would be impractical. The up advance starter does appear to be wood, however. The arms are clearly lower quadrant and it's safe to say that they remained so until the end. Bear in mind that the Southern only started using upper quadrant arms with the opening of the Wimbledon & Sutton line in 1929. The signals at Medstead and Alresford remained lower quadrant until after the War. It would be nice to replicate this signal today but that end of the layout is now rather more congested than it used to be. What we have now is (very low) splitting down homes at the loop points and a Sykes banner repeater on the other side of the bridge. There is however a down outer home around the corner, which there wasn't in the old days, so visibility is not quite the issue it was. Hope that helps. Keith Currently overlooking milepost 53½ (from Waterloo via Guildford and Tongham). Image © Watercress Line Heritage Railway Trust.

Also closer to home. Here's a (probably wartime) photo from Alresford (Hants). The brand name on the boxes is "Poultmure", which is I suppose a slightly more polite way of saying "chicken poo". Keith Alton. Image (c) Watercress Line Heritage Railway Trust ref. AR163.

Indeed it is. Keith Alton.

Sunset over Cardigan Bay from Tywyn promenade, 22 June 2022. Keith Alton.

I spotted an EFE gate set on display in Alton Model Centre the other day which was in a "very faded" variant of BR crimson - well on the way to plum. Presumably, like a lot of red pigments, it faded badly in sunlight. Add to that the effect of periodic re-varnishing and I guess that a considerable variation in shade between individual coaches would have been quite normal. Keith Alton.

Ah, yes. Re-opening day. It seems a very long time ago now. I think the trolley is standing on one of the original run-off tracks from the Mid-Hants/Meon Valley motor trolley scheme of 1933. There were a number of these, with associated lean-to "garages", down the line, together with a receptacle for the occupation key which allowed the section to be cleared when the trolley was off the line. I doubt whether that particular trolley is still extant - the run-off track certainly isn't. But members of the Watercress Line PW team have recently completed a very fine rebuild of another Wickham, complete with air brakes. I understand that they will be offering rides in Medstead yard on the Saturday and Sunday of the Spring Gala next weekend. Keith Alton.

I wonder how that panned out with the 1980s Farnham-Alton singling. That must have been when they discovered that it's one thing to operate third rail electrification over a single line on a little tramway like Wimbledon-West Croydon and another altogether if you have 12 car trains running up and down at 70mph during the peaks. As understand it the the redundant second line had to be left in situ for some years to provide adequate traction current capacity and could only be lifted after a new HV cable was run down and transformers put in at the former TP huts to convert them to substations. I think some of the redundant track was eventually donated to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway for their Smallbrook extension. The sheer amount of current flowing around used to play merry hell with the signalling. It was not uncommon for a 12 car train starting away from the passing loop at Bentley to put the signal back to red in front of the other train. The more recent power supply upgrade for the Desiro stock had its moments, too, particularly at Alton (which is an electrical dead end). Network Rail was obliged to bond the first section of the Mid-Hants line west of the station for traction current return and provide a new HF track circuit, as a Desiro starting away would put their signals back to red. Given that (pre-Covid) the single line was used pretty much to capacity with a half hourly service all day, one has to wonder with hindsight whether this was British Rail's brightest move. Keith (a sometime Alton commuter).

Thanks for your comment, which sent me scurrying off to revisit the "Illustrated History of Southern Wagons" series. It appears that lift-link or Morton (clutch) type brakes with four rather than two blocks were generally only used on vacuum fitted wagons. The SECR retrofitted 50 of the diagram 1347 5-plank wagons with vacuum brakes and four blocks for use between London, Folkestone and Dover. These can be identified by a low level tie bar between the W irons but have not (yet) been modelled by Rapido. None of the 7 plank wagons was so fitted. It surprises me a bit that four block brakes don't seem to have become more general but there we are. However, as the 1920s went on the SR start to equip unfitted wagons with two independent sets of two block brakes, which they called the "Freighter" brake, just to confuse the issue... None of this, of course, reflects in any way on Rapido's superb models. They have obviously taken a great deal of trouble to get them right. Keith.

I ended up buying rather more of these than I originally intended... For what it's worth I'm very impressed. They have a nice bit of weight to them and run well, and the brake gear in particular is exquisite. I hadn't appreciated that the SECR was building wagons with brakes acting on only one side this late in the day. The SR brown colour is a bit brighter than Bachmann's and Kernow's but I'm reminded of the comment by a Lancing paint shop foreman (quoted in one of the SR wagons books) that this was "the same as Pullman umber". I am however going to have to do some serious weathering as they would never have looked so pristine in real life!

Many thanks to all concerned for getting RMWeb up and running again. It has been much missed. The overall experience seems to be much more fluid now.

You could get a bit more length in if you ran the track diagonally across the board, or in a sweeping "S" curve...

I guess this is my cue... There is a signalling diagram in the G A Pryer "green book" - Signal Box Diagrams of the Great Western and Southern Railways vol 15, drawing no.67. These were published privately and this volume may well be out of print, but you may be able to find a secondhand copy. Keith Alton.