BrushVeteran

Yes that is Woodstock and the pub opposite at that time used to be The Pied Bull............now known as The Punchbowl. The road going up the side of the pub is Hensington Road...............where I used to have to walk every day whilst at Woodstock Primary.

Inverness allocated class 26's worked regularly right through to Edinburgh and Glasgow right up until the use of class 37's on Highland passenger workings. One particular working was the Royal Highlander which I think departed Inverness around 13.30 and split at Perth with one engine going alone to Edinburgh and the other one or two going on to Glasgow. This train was often treble headed with a mixture of 24's and 26's. I remember this train running at least until 1976 with 26's but beyond that I couldn't confirm anything until 1985 when I know most Inverness passenger workings were in the hands of class 37'.

As I help develop and research some of the Railmatch colours in the early years I can confirm that the Railmatch Electric Blue was colour matched to the original Fowchow paint sample supplied to me by Brush Traction. They called it French Blue but that was what the paint manufacturer called it. Over the years of being cleaned by hand with oily rags, D5578 took on a darker finish which proved that at the time electric blue was probably unsuitable for a diesel locomotive, especially as the experiment with D5578 & D5579 led to the advent of yellow warning panels. I would imagine that somewhere there are some good official documentation and colour slides of the experiment lurking around. I did manage to get some official copies of D5579 at Liverpool Street from Great Eastern House but I know that there were other images taken of both locomotives together taken at Temple Mills. Hopefully they will surface one day.

We have the 'sister' to this AEC Bridgemaster preserved in our small collection...312MFC.

Well I have to admit that it looks green to me in my image.....................but as to remembering if it was actually green 56 years ago...............I doubt I was even aware of it at the time!

There is a nicely restored example of a bauxite liveried Presflo at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, Quainton Road. Here's a picture that I took when newly painted together with poor scans I have from a slide that I purchased many years ago. Unfortunately I cannot get rid of the red hue but others may succeed.

That's correct. Turn right outside the station then left into Garage Street. the building is still there.

The posting of details of this event takes me back over 50 years when I used to spend a weeks holidaying in Llandudno with my parents. From 1964 to 1967 when we were there I would 'slope off' and spend the afternoon most days helping Lou Nadin operate his Model Railway show upstairs in a converted garage in Garage Street, Llandudno. It was actually listed as a Llandudno attraction and I wonder if any readers on this forum may have also visited.....................I know Merf on this forum did because that is where we first met all those years ago and we are still in contact..............although we meet up in 'ale houses' these days! When I last spoke to Merf I promised that I would post some pictures.....although not top quality............of the layout in Garage Street..........and having just dug out the slides I thought I would scan them and do so. I hope that this may rekindle a few memories and maybe some members of the Colwyn Bay Club may also enjoy them. Lou Nadin was a fine gentleman, as I remember as a 15 year old back then, and he used to sell current and secondhand model railway items to hopeful modellers who had seen his good operational layout to get a 'fix' on. In the views I have posted you can make out the centrepiece of the layout, which was a fully operational hump marshalling yard. I think at the time that the Hornby Dublo 8F was the strongest locomotive on his layout which managed about sixty wagons around the 24ft x 8ft layout. Oh turn back that clock!

The other locomotive I have identified as D4095 (65A) which was taken at Glasgow Works in August 1970. It has the crest on the battery box. D3241 which I photographed at Aberdeen Ferryhill in August 1972 was by then allocated to 64B having previously been at 52A. I apologise for the scans being very grainy but blowing into Kodak Instamatic transparencies is pushing the boundaries somewhat!

I have trawled my Brush Veteran Flickr site to see what may be in the background in some of my Scottish slides and have come across two, which I am going to re-scan to get a better view of the number. One of them is definitely D3241 taken at Ferryhill in Aug 72 . The main subject in this picture is 5347 (slide 2127) but the 08 is parked behind. The other image is at Glasgow works, again behind another loco. I will see if I can re-scan these tomorrow and I'll try and post them on here.

Come on Hornby...............lets have some non-yellow panel headcode green Brush Type 2's for next year and maybe even a 'skinhead' one in final green livery with yellow panel. If you can do it for Kernow then.................? I hope Kernow does follow this up with the blue D5578, the early era Brush Type 2's always seemed to sell well and they are very scarce at the minute. My ochre D5579 is on its way!

I did donate an AEC A220 to this project back in the mid nineties. It had originally come from Derby works and as far as I can remember had a damaged fuel pump, otherwise it was complete I think. I know the lads at Bo'ness are looking for an AEC unit for their 126...................if the railbus project folds..........which I sincerely hope it doesn't. It is probably not a lot different from restoring a bus except that there shouldn't be any chassis rot!

I'd be up for at least 30 initially. I have carried out substantial research on these prototypes so would be willing to help if such a project was considered by a manufacturer. As most of these wagons ran in block formations then I would have thought the multiple sales of at least 10 were quite possible.

BR Locomotive Green was the same out of the can whether applied to steam or diesel What made the shades look different after application were the amounts of varnish used in the finishing process, steam locomotives sometimes having up to three coats of varnish to preserve the lining out. Depending on where they were painted some diesels were not varnished, especially at a depot, and the effects of the heavy chemicals in washing plants used to remove brake block embedded particles tended to take the top layer of paint off after two or three years. Steam locomotives were cleaned by hand with paraffin oil and the paint lustre became darkened. Also different paint manufacturers did not always come up with the exact shade of paint that you could safely use as a reliable match and BR used several suppliers for the same supposedly specification. I had been involved with procurement of refinishing paints for buses for over 35 years and it was a bit of a minefield with some suppliers, especially latterly where they have had to make the product more user friendly. Today's paint is vastly different from what was used in the steam era but because of the resins now in use it can be a lot more durable thus making the need for protective varnishes un-necessary. Thankfully BR didn't adopt bright red as a livery during the steam/diesel transitional period!

.............................all that was missing were the diesel fumes and the raw cockney 'language' when the points failure occurred...................otherwise absolutely spot on in every respect! I could have watched it all day....................but unfortunately my sciatica couldn't.................well worth the effort to see. Looking forward to the next opportunity.

The D numbered ones all used Rail Alphabet Light font as did all the other blue examples although 5519 did receive serifed numbers on one side after receiving a side swipe on Stratford depot. This didn't last for long as I noted it repainted from Doncaster works during 1973.

Pre-TOPS disc fitted Blue class 31's came in 3 varieties, D numbers twin arrows on cabs, no-D, twin arrows on cabs and no D central bodyside arrows. D numbered twin arrow examples include D5502, D5506, D5515, D5522, D5529, D5552 without D twin arrows on cabs are 5500, 5501-5517, 5519, 5522, 5525, 5528, 5535, 5552, whereas the single arrow with numbers on cabs were 5500-5517,5519-5529, 5535, 5539, 5543, 5547, 5551-2, 5555-6, 5559, 5562. These are what I have images of and there may be a few more D numbered ones and twin arrow non-D examples. I do have a definitive list somewhere.

Absolutely......................I was in Llandudno a couple of weeks ago and you have some of the best and breathtaking natural views you could ever wish for. I have been going to the resort for over fifty-five years now and I still find the North Wales coast enchanting................and a challenge. It brings back many memories of travelling on Crosville LD's between Penmaenmawr and Llandudno Junction the back way. Back in the late seventies whist doing a a spare driving duty in Oxford I was asked to duplicate a Crosville departure from Gloucester Green bus station in Oxford, as far as Cheltenham. The Bristol RE I was following gathered pace ahead of me and I ended up having to go all the way to Llandudno....................but I went the pretty way via Llangollen.................................my passengers really appreciated the stop at the cafe on the top of horseshoe pass.................and so did my bus, AEC Reliance 505 dp TJO55K, constant mesh gearbox!...............but we got to our destination eventually and my passengers showed their appreciation generously.....................much to the annoyance of the disgruntled Crosville driver who marched into the canteen at Llandudno depot about an hour later than me asking for a share-out. Apparently he had no-one on from Liverpool, as I had been given them all at Oxford, and he had to service back to his depot. I was told by my Company to stay overnight and bring the bus back the next day....................my Aunt & Uncle were very surprised to see me turn up outside their house in Rhos..............in a bus! I shall no doubt be visiting again later this year............. but hopefully next year in my own bus!

I have to say that I think one of the worse bus chassis/body combinations on the road today is the Scania N230/ADL Enviro 400. We have loads of these in Oxford in both OBC and Stagecoach fleets and considering they are on air suspension it makes a Bristol VR a pleasure to ride on! Having worked 41 years in the bus industry the Leyland Olympian has to be one of the best vehicles I worked with both from a driver's and engineer's point of view and the ex. LT Titan's were absolutely luxury. In modern day terms the Oxford Citaro's take a lot of beating in the comfort department but do suffer from rattles with all the heavy roof mounted equipment. The Wrights Streetdeck seems to be an improvement but in my opinion is still not up to Olympian standard!

If I manage to coax my AEC Regal III to Llandudno next year I 'll let you both have a drive!.........................................so don't snuff it before then!

I'm sure if you ask Howes they can arrange a larger tin size up to 5 litres from HMG.

Considering most of the railway related 'National Archive' material is deposited at York I fail to see why it has been renamed. As we have right to view this material by request then I would of thought that being under control of a 'National' museum by name would be the first place people would look to further their research. The next thing we know is that it will be privatised......................like the present system and we must not allow this to happen! Andy do you think at this stage it is worth making a point about this officially? Unfortunately we have recently lost Sir Bill and I'm sure his clout would have interacted with the renaming decision.

I wouldn't be too hasty in hacking them to bits. There are further versions being produced for Kernow and there may be a chance that some additional chassis castings can be made. It is probably worth contacting Hornby to see if this is the case or whether they can consider providing some spares. Judging by previous comments on here I think they would sell quite a few. If you can get in touch with Simon Kohler at Hornby you may get some assistance into getting a positive outcome.

I said it looks grubby.................which it still does from that image. Compare the top of the door above the handle with the rest of it. A bit more TLC needed to match the presentation of the coaching stock.

And a grubby Brush at that. Why the hell WCRC cannot provide a better image for such a prestige working I don't know. No excuse to provide a loco in this state really!