BrushVeteran

The SRPS at Bo'ness has a full BP liveried tanker TTA BPO67496 with a picture on their website. I believe it was donated to them by BP Grangemouth. I took the photo of it not long after they acquired it back in 1998.

I'm working on the possibility of getting some Mobil A tankers produced.

See post #91 skunny.

Whilst continuing further research on these wagons I have recently come across an image of a Mobil Coryton diesel shunter hauling a rake of Class A Mobil 35t. GLW (TSV) tankers along the Corringham branch. The livery looks to be silver or grey and and they just have the Mobil emblem on them without any Charrington logos. They look like they may be numbered 601 and 602 (the two that I can identify) and further research has confirmed that they had 44 of them. They seemed to have been used on Thameshaven-Coventry/Nuneaton workings for about four or five years then disappeared. The make up of this block train was interesting as it was split into two at Rugby with the 12 Charrington B tank branded wagons going to their own distribution centre with the 20 Class A tankers going to another address and as a result the consist from Ripple Lane included three brake vans and two barrier wagons. As a lot of these wagons were rather short lived on company block trains due to the advent of the 45t.GLW TTA it would be interesting to find out where they ended up. I assume that as Mobil and Powell Duffryn had an ownership relationship then they were probably leased to another company. I can find no reference to these tankers in any of the specialist wagon books so any info, especially a colour image, would be extremely welcome. I do have a very poor image of the complete consist leaving the branch at Thameshaven in the early sixties hauled by a pair of Brush Type 2's.

They did have a D5509 planned for 2016 but this was dropped. It would have been ideal if it had been produced because if would have given them the opportunity to produce some spare chassis blocks.........................which rather than give away they could have sold. However the green 31 is to materialise in Railroad form as D5551, totally the wrong bodyshell as it looks like a refurbished one. Why they just can't re-run the D5509 I don't know............they don't seem to be with it sometimes!

In trying to esaiblish the livery transition of the Cemflo's I have reached the following conclusion based on photographic images so far published. The Gloucester vehicles were introduced first and carried the long "Cement Marketing Company Blue Circle Bulk Delivery" logo which was yellow with blue lettering with the Blue Circle roundel in the centre. Evidence shows that this livery was carried on the un-modified solebar vehicles from new and was carried for quite a long period of time with some wagons still showing it in the 1980's. The Metro-Cammell build however all seem to have the central vertical brackets for the roundel which was fitted from new as evidenced by the excellent shot of LA277 at Newcastle. Furthermore I haven't found any evidence of the longer logo appearing on the MC built vehicles apart from Paul Bartlett's image of LA233 with pedestal suspension at Millerhill. Although the vertical brackets were fitted to some of the Gloucester built vehicles I haven't yet seen evidence of the Blue Circle roundel plate fitted to these vehicles either. Am I therefore correct in my assumption that the two wagon builders may have fitted different logo's to their specific build? Of course many of the wagons appeared without any logos in later years so it makes dating specific details rather difficult. The detective work on these wagons is certainly proving interesting!

As I now seem to have developed a keen interest in this thread I thought I would dig out and scan the three slides I took of Cemflo's at Oxwellmains in April 1988. They had been parked up disused for some time and we managed to get permission to photograph them in the exchange sidings adjacent to the ECML.................it all seems such a long time ago now. However they were all Gloucester built examples although two of them had the Metro-Cammell type circular holed solebar strengthening fillets and distinctly show part of the original re-branding showing through the layers of encrusted cement. I think I may have access to some more somewhere. Hopefully this will contribute to keeping this excellent thread alive. There must be other Cemflo images out there that we haven't seen yet!

I inserted foil strips in the outer layer of our conservatory poly-carbonate roof and this now reflects the intense heat away and helps to reflect the heat back in the winter. It also cuts out the sun glare but you still get the light in as the original material is translucent.

From the posture he is demonstrating he has no long term plans to increase his family let alone satisfy his wife! The equipment you are born with is so often or not taken for granted!..............and they must be considered tools of the trade!

Are there any detailed drawings available for either the Metro-Cammell or Gloucester built wagons? If someone can point me in the right direct for a possible source of these I would be obliged.

Why don't you ring Mike at Howes (01865 848000 Mon, Tues & Thurs). We has repaired one or two of these.

Yes it is a shame but the chassis design needed simplifying, especially deleting the opening cab doors which compromised the chassis casting in that area. What the Railroad version is going to end up like as D5552 will be interesting! Never mind perhaps another manufacturer may take up the mantle...............plenty more versions to do!

I would insist that your supplier test runs your locomotive if you have any doubts. That way you save hassle and they should save money on returns postage. If they know what they are looking for it only takes about five minutes.

Designed to seal in the moisture and make everything rot from the inside....................................dreadful stuff, steer well clear of it! Duple and MCW used it on bus & coach bodies in the late seventies through the eighties and you ended up with lace curtains! The quality of the steel may not have helped either. Dinatrol is the stuff most people use now which is a penetrative wax based fluid which will stand the test of time.................but needs to be re-applied at periodic intervals. Sorry for going OT but the word Ziebart is almost as bad as the big C word! Unfortunately Mazak rot may not manifest itself for years and it is caused by impurities in the lead reacting within the zinc alloy usually causing expansion. I don't know how manufacturers can prepare themselves for something that is not apparent at the time of casting.................very difficult. Hornby were very good at dealing with the issues of some of the early class 31 releases but it has resulted in their abandoning the model for its 2016 release...............maybe because of unavailability of decent chassis blocks......I don't know. It certainly cost them! Heljan similarly had a metallurgic chassis problem with the class 47, within a manufacturing batch and now there are no more spares because the model is presently not in production. Spares are only produced as an overrun on production so availability is limited to the quantity produced at the time. We may have a problem with resin models in the future..............we maybe don't yet know but it is not unknown for chemicals to react with each other at a future time...........I have seen it with GRP where pockets of catalyst can attack a gel coat because of inadequate mixing. As has been said it is all down to quality control and these products should be laboratory batch tested but in China!!!!................I'll believe it when I see it!

I detect the sentiment in Dennis's quote and can only echo the frustration we true locals (not the newbies who don't like railways and noise!) are putting up with regarding the lack of positive progress in rebuilding a line which was 'mothballed'. I appreciate a lot has been done to upgrade the new line to Bicester, although for the life of me I cannot understand why the OHLE bases were not put in whilst they had the possession! On a daily basis the A34 is clogged with heavy lorries many of which end up at Daventry and the various freight terminals around Crick and Rugby. The quicker they get the line in to Bletchley then hopefully the better for all us local north Oxfordshire residents. I expect it will be priced out of the market though! What is wrong with our Country................................we spend longer talking about projects than actually working on them.......................although they are still working on Islip Station over a year after it was opened...................and with only a handful of people currently patronising it. The government have more or less underwritten this East West route so what is now the hold up!................lets get on with it.............far more important the HS2! I'll get off my horse now!................I'll blame Dennis...............but he is spot on!

Well my local newspaper, The Oxford Mail, was full of news about the reopening yesterday and the naming by Michael Portillo of a class 68 68010 'Oxford Flyer'. Its just a bit of a pity the press and a reporter on board the press train yesterday tried to paint a bad picture of some of the comments made by the travelling public. I know from experience that the travelling public aren't at their best first thing on a Monday morning so would probably not give such favourable answers when going to work.....................especially if they had to use Southern who were on strike! The positive news is however that the East West line from Bicester to Bletchley has received government backing to be fast tracked and construction may be put out to private contractors to speed the process up. Work is due to start next year and completion is set to be before 2020.

Nice to see a freight from Bicester MOD heading towards Oxford at lunchtime today. Long may it last and eventually take some of the heavy stuff off the A34!

Yes it certainly is and as a result there will be improved bus service connections to Woodstock serving Oxford Parkway provided by both Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach.

If you look at the surnames of some of the principle objectors you will notice that they were not from around the area (country) when the railway was fully operational until the sixties. A lot of the people from the village of Wolvercote are long standing village families who have been born there and, are not in the main, the people complaining. There are loads of new flats that have been built over the gardens of older residences and are closer to the railway, and of course the site of the original Osberton Radiators factory which is now crammed with luxury housing. These people are bored with life and have to have something to complain about! Oxford has a long standing transport problem in that the ring road is not a ring road as such.......................it is just all the major routes congregating on a link road around the city. As soon as anybody tries to do anything to improve the situation.............ie new rail link, better bus services...................then it is the newer residents, who haven't the memories of what it used to be like, seem to get listened to the most. Unfortunately the objectors get listened to by Oxford City Council......who control the area in question...........and it is then up to Oxfordshire County Council to object to the likes of Network Rail, as they are ultimately responsible for all transport improvements in the County, which includes the City. Just look at how long the consultation is going to take over the extension of the East West line from Bicester to Milton Keynes............up to 2020 I believe! Perhaps they should get the dedicated people tracklaying the extension to Broadway on board................at least I may get the chance to travel on that!

Railway Modeller's Sundown & Sprawling by Mike Cole was one of the early 'modern image' layouts that got my interest in model railways back in the 60's & 70's. Later on in 1983, High Dyke by Roy Jackson, Geoff Kent & John Phillips got me some more inspiration and I built a layout in the loft of my first house in 1987. Since then we have never had it so good from the manufacturers, media and the internet!

Of course you'd now pay double the fare to travel in the power car........................with the added fumes of the Webasto heaters and leaking injector pipes! Also the farty exhaust and rattling luggage racks!

This is the very first EP from the vendor and the first ones are not normally publicly shown until the initial corrections have taken place............................................and a 2nd one produced.

Colin The initial 07 releases are as follows:- Version 1 non-air braked 2900 D2985 BR Green 2901 D2990 BR Green 2902 D2992 BR Blue 2903 07010 BR Blue Version 2 air-braked (extra cabinet, air receiver compartment and air pipes (high level) 2910 2993 BR Blue 2911 07005 BR Blue 2912 (07001) Peakstone yellow 2913 (07003) British Industrial Sand white There will also be a Hattons special liveried version in Harry Needle Railway Co. livery (07001) Effectively 2900 & 2901 are the same liveries but with different numbers as is 2902 & 2903 ( although 2903 is TOPS style). The same applies to 2910 & 2911 although they have a slightly different body moulding (as seen on the sample picture) Hope this helps. Grahame

They'll need to replicate the scabby damage D6327 carried for its final days! Honestly I do hope they make a good job of this version as I had purchased an extra green one to respray.

The release details were printed a few weeks ago to appear on the handouts at Warley and at that time the products were on the 'high seas' from China. Unfortunately there were problems with forwarding the consignment to meet the exhibition in time................................but they are on their way!