Sheffield

May I assume from the first paragraph of your opening posting that you attended a Leicestershire Grammar school that was ideal for those interested in the Midland main line? I spent many happy hours at the fence at the bottm of the play ground.

It seems the German fitters sent over to help assemble them only just escaped back before WW1 started. The SER kept the money to pay for them aside, and paid Borsig after the war.

Not many people change all the tyres on a second hand car they have just purchased, so yes lots of people still buy part worn tyres.

I think you are correct. The loco looks dirty, and the pile of stone chippings on the left appears to be ready for the conversion to a footpath.

I went from Germany to Poland last September, first class, in a compartment carriage. As far as I could make out most if not all the trains on the route were a similar arrangement.

You can not take seriously what is said on the television. They also said the 9F was the most powerfull loco built in Britian. I don't think they bother with research any more.

If you let me have an email address I will scan and send it to you. Or post a copy if you prefer.

An article, by Rodney Weaver, in the April 1976 issue of the Industrial Railway Record dealt with Eardly Wilmot in some detail. The loco was the only example built of a McEwan Pratt type P 100 HP petrol loco. It was offered for sale in 1922 under its own name, and the name was later transferred to a steam loco, to perpetuate the name, rather than facilitate disposal of the loco. Hope that helps.

Eardley Wilmot had a petrol engine, and the story about the name plate swap has been showed to be false. One problem with the loco, a feature of many McEwan Pratt locos, was that the hand brake and the clutch were operated by the same control. Winding off the hand brake released the clutch. Presumably it was to prevent a driver letting the clutch out while the hand brake was still applied: remember this was before the 14-18 war, when not many people were at all familiar with ic engined vehicles. It is not difficult to see that this feature would have made the loco difficult to drive, especially on a slope, and may be why drivers found it "difficult" to start, so they would not have to take it out.

Is it not good that we are able to discuss the need for extra capacity? I can remember serious proposals to close the Midland Mainline north of Bedford, and send traffic from the East Midlands and South Yorkshire across to the West Coast line. It was suggested that Euston could deal with the traffic from both lines.

As I could not get any details from Whirlpool I wrote to the USA HQ. This was at the begining of December, but I have had no reply. Their customer service is terrible. The answer seems to be do not buy Whirlpool.

Now that the Government has said it will reduce air fare taxation to save Flybee, (which goes against all its environmental promises), on grounds of conectivity I doubt it will dare to cancel HS2. That would be hypocrisy on a grand scale, even for politians

It is a pity that passengers can not claim from the lorry insurance for all the problems they will suffer. Some really big bills might at last make lorry drivers and owners a bit more careful.

Following electrification the Metropolitan Railway found themselves with a considerable number of these lredundant steam locos. It seems they sold most of them to a firm called R Fraser and Sons, who scrapped most but sold some on to others. According to an article in Bylines magazine, as noted the Cambrian paid £500 each for 5, the South Hetton Coal co £700, Nidd Valley £625 each for 2, The District Railway £300, West somerset Railway £400, Sir Arthur Elvin £190 each for 2, Mersey Railway £666, (according to the list i have the Mersey Railway had 2) to give some idea of prices paid. Frasers seems to have paid various prices from !90 each to £295 each.

The Government tell us that there are legal difficulties that restirct or prevent money being given to support British Steel. Are these the same laws and rules that did not prevent massive support for the banks 11 years ago? Why can they do it for the banks and people in the "City" and not for the steel makers and the people of North Linclonshire?

The son of this establishment, who drives them, tells me that he thinks it will not happen. GWR is too short of trains, and will have to continue using them. We will see.

If the answer to the problem is not to build a new railway, but just improve the original, we could logically take that back to the beginning, and say there was no need for the London Birmingham Railway or the M1. just widen the Oxford Canal.

I am not sure that DJH supplied all the parts for this kit. It was based on the DJH kit, but I think many parts were sourced, presumably from the Far East, especially for the Hatchette kit. Some of them were an improvement in my opinion, for instance the plastic boiler and tender body, and some seemed to be of variable quality, such as the wheels. As a trial I followed Hatchette's advice and glued mine together. It assembled well without serious troubles, and is still in one piece and working.

The UK spends Billions a year on the military, and they can not bring down a drone over an airfield. It demonstrates the waste of money spent on the aircraft carriers. The next war will not be like the last. In fact it may already have started, we just have not realised it yet. With the likes of Grayling in charge all we need is a white flag. Unless of course there is more to this than we have been told.

I believe there are at least two variations of instructions, but I don't recall the changes make much difference. One problem is that the kit was designed to use a motor/gerarbox not now available, and the instructions suggest that the motor is fitted horizontally in the boiler with the gearbox in the firebox. I have used a Highlevel gearbox on the rear axle with the motor vertically in the firebox in the two I have built. This allows the body to lift off the chassis in one piece, and allows the boiler, smokebox and firebox to be fixed together, making the body much stronger.

A lot of engine men in the early Victoria period seemed to wear white trousers and jackets.

My son uses his smart phone for every thing, it seems. All his purchases are made with it, and it seems to hold all his information. I shall not forget the look of horror when he discovered he had left it in a cafe. Gone, everything. Fortunately the staff in the cafe were honest and he got it back. i will stick to paper and cash. I am not sure why the government continues to make these new regulations, as they seem to be abandoning enforcement and policing. One will not work without the other.

I refuse to feel guilty about these issues. Why do I have wood burning stoves? Because the environmentalists told me it was better to burn wood than oil, gas or coal. Why do I drive a deisel vehicle? Because the environmentalists told me they were less poluting than petrol vehicles. I wish they would make up their minds, I fully expect to hear shortly how bad batteries are for us.

As long as the railways operated in the Victorian manner, which they generally did until after the steam age, for ordinary every day secondary duties all that was required was asimple 0-6-0. Anything "better" was bigger, heavier and more expensive. Exactly as was found with Ivatt's 4MT for most duties. And a "modernised" 4F 0-6-0 , with better steam circuit etc would have been potentially too fast for a 0-6-0 chassis.This was the difficulty that prevented the production of a 4F replacement in Stanier's time. I suggest the Operating dept requested more 4Fs was because they realised that for most of the work for which they wanted them they were the cheapest means of fulfilling their need. Experience in presevation has shown that the some what poor steaming of the 4F could have been improved without too much expense, and if we want to criticise the operators for wanting more of them perhaps was should criticise Stanier for doing nothing about some of their shortcomings. Much money was spent on making his designs work properly, but very little on impoving the pregrouping classes inheritied by the LMS. Also it does seem that most of the critism of the 4Fs came from other than ex Midland Railway areas. Railway men were notoriously conservative, and if Grandfather had not used a 4F they were no good for us.

I agree that we should be glad that C&L continued, and did not disappear.. If the price of that is some delay in obtaining things I can accept that price. The things I ordered turned up after a while without too much bother.