scotcent

The Invertiel Junction was a reminder of the rivalry between the Caley and the NB. The coal owners of West Fife had long complained that their coal had to travel 25 or so miles via Thornton to get to Burntisland, only 6 miles away as the crow flies. In 1895 the Kirkcaldy and District Railway, backed by the Caledonian, proposed to build a line from Larbert and Grangemouth, via a tunnel under the Forth at Kincardine, Dunfermline, and Auchtertool to a new harbour at Seafield, with a branch from Lochgelly, offering the coal owners of Cowdenbeath and West Fife a shorter and cheaper route to a port, and breaking the NBR monopoly in Fife. Work was started on the port and on the railway leading to it, but the Act for the whole line was not granted, and the CR lost interest. Obviously they were more interested in taking coal West to Grangemouth than East to Seafield. Eventually in the early 1900's, to guard against possible future Caledonian invasions, the NBR built the line we now remember from near Cowdenbeath to Invertiel, with, of course, the junction leading towards Burntisland, the major coal port. However there were never more than two trains a day down this single line, (as compared to 35 - 40 via Thornton pre WW1) and most of the coal from West Fife continued to trundle round by Thornton. In the post war period a drift mine was opened at Seafield and a branch was opened to it from the Auchtertool line, using the formation and earthworks of the abortive Kirkcaldy and District railway. I haven't been there recently, but some of the bridge parapets used to be visible at the side of the Kinghorn Road. A few years later, of course, everything was swallowed up under the new Seafield Pit, now itself lost under housing. Allan F

"Another English cinema genius (or, rather, pair of them) to use trains was Powell & Pressburger. There's a wonderful sequence at the start of 1945's I Know Where I'm Going in which the heroine boards a London sleeper bound for Scotland, and the Black 5 transforms itself into a Bassett-Lowke (I think) model that then swerves and flies her to another world." The heroine boarded an LNER sleeper then disembarked from an LMS sleeper in Glasgow. Later shots featured a Black 5 appropriately on an Oban train near Dalmally, and the steamer from Oban to Tobermory was, properly, the Lochinvar in wartime grey livery. Another Scottish film with railway interest was "The Bridal Path" starring Bill Travers (1959) which has a lovely shot (in colour) of a Caledonian 0-4-4T on a Ballachulish train. It doesn't seem to be possible to get this film anywhere now. Allan F

There was an article in Model Engineer for August 1942 giving details of Caledonian Railway lamps with (undimensioned) drawings; This is the only published material I know of about CR loco lamps. Two styles are shown, by Drummond and by McIntosh, but photographs suggest there were variations. They were painted loco colour with full loco lining (but again see photographs). Caley Coaches do quite a good representation (in 4mm scale) of the McIntosh version. I think I'm right in saying that the lamps presently on 123 are LMS / BR lamps painted in CR colours Allan F

The Stationmaster wrote:- "Buchanan Street was converted to colour light signalling in, I think, the 1930s and I would expect by then that point locking would be by track circuit (the only photo I can quickly find doesn't show any locking bars) but it is quite likely that fouling bars were provided and I'm sure depression bars would have been used in some places where track circuits could not be relied on. These bars would usually have their pivot at a right angle to the rail and would, in effect, 'tilt' towards the rail when depressed and turn back to horizontal when unloaded. It might be these that you are thinking of?" Buchanan St was semaphore until closure in 1966. There were many depression bars around the station (the Caley called them balanced bars). Central station had, it seemed, hundreds, and recently I found one in situ in Perth. I don't know whether it is still in use. Thanks for your expertise. Allan F

The Stationmaster wrote:- "If the locking bar isn't already down when a wheel passes over it it will be depressed by that wheel and thus force the facing point lock bolt into the port on the front stretcher bar, duly locking the point. This could well damage the rodding but the force generated by a passing wheel is likely - usually - to be greater than that which a Signalman could ever exert on the rodding so it wouldn't be surprising if it did go." Thank you. I understand now. My misapprehension was that I thought the bar went up and over while the FPL was being moved. It hadn't clicked with me that it stays raised as long as the FPL is withdrawn. Could I be right in my recollection of a bar connected to the point operating mechanism which went up and over as the points were moved? I'm going back over 50 years to Glasgow Buchanan St. Allan F

I thought I understood these things, but perhaps I don't! In the attached diagram, moving the FPL lever either way raises the bar / treadle, which can't be done if there are any wheels standing on it. However, what's to prevent the signalman pulling the lock out, and leaving it, then moving the points under a vehicle. (I know the signals would be locked at danger by the interlocking, but what about runaways spads etc? I have a mental picture of the treadle being connected to the rodding which actually moved the point, so that the point blades could not be moved if a vehicle was stsnding on the treadle. Allan F

In about 1978/79 (but it could have been a little later) I travelled from Edinburgh to Inverkeithing (on an Aberdeen train) in a blue/grey Gresley buffet car. At the time I understood that it and a sister vehicle, also on that route, were the last Gresley vehicles still in revenue service, and I believe they were taken out of service shortly afterwards. I distinctly remember the creaking, which was quite unlike the solidity of modern all steel vehicles. I also remember that the paintwork was very shabby, not apparently adhering well to the teak.