rodent279

They used to run round in Bedford station until about 2003. I assume they changed it to release platform space in Bedford.

I think it was sometime around 2005 that the last Cricklewood-Forders binliners ran. This was one of the last, in April 2005, seen here rolling down the hill from Sharnbrook past Oakley, after running round at Wellingborough.

Sir Frank Markham has a school named after him IIRC? A lot of my mates at Wolverton College went there. Regarding MK Bowl, I got thoroughly microwaved there one sunny day, watching various bands, including The Stranglers and OMD, culminating in the unforgettable ZZ Top. Lying in the grass, no suncream, beer flowing steadily was a recipe for the Swan Vesta look the following day! (For those too young to know, Swan Vesta was a brand of matches, with a bright red tip. It isn't a good look, take my advice, don't go there). I also remember the Northampton cobblers, the first 1 of the evening, 1B06 1714 Euston-NH, would scream through LB, past Stoke Hammond, then as we went past Lambs brickworks, which then still had the chimneys standing, the anchors would go on, for a nice neat stop in BY DF platform.

Reviving an old thread, for the Morris Minor, which would have been in full production in the time period concerned, BMC bought pressing in from Pressed Steel in Swindon, so possibly that Corby-Hinksey traffic went on to Swindon? Don't know about other models in production, but I can't see why they wouldn't have been done at Pressed Steel as well. I believe engine blocks and cylinder heads were cast at Wellingborough, so possibly those also came via BY?

Thanks, that clears it up for me. I always thought that Lambs Siding was the one to the brick works off the DF. So was Worcester Curve still in use and connected until 1975? Was it connected to the DF, or to the West end of the flyover? Cheers N

Lambs Siding -wasn't there a brickworks there? IIRC there was a couple of tall chimneys still standing until around 1984.

But but but......I thought highly inefficient vertically integrated BR was privatised so that thrusting dynamic private enterprise could take over and sweep away the inefficiencies with a sparkling new broom? I must have misunderstood.

There are far fewer interior shots of rolling stock than exterior. It's a neglected area of railway photography.

I have an oil pressure gauge that came out of an aircraft (a Spitfire I was told, yeah right!). It has no lighting of its own, but has circumferential slots for bulbs mounted next to the gauge to light the face. The plastic in the slots is blue.

I actually rather like the Reid-MacLeod turbine. Oddly purposeful looking.

Question-were TOPS data panels always blue, even on green locos, or were any green ones produced? I think pretty much every photo I've seen of a green diesel loco has a blue TOPS data panel, where it's visible. Just wondering, because piffling trivia interests me! Cheers N

So is there a contractual restriction that prevents the necessary changes being made? Or is it just a question of cost v benefit?

Does that mean stiffer contact wire for a short length on the approach to and from the bridge?

I think it's a classic case of people with the right connections making the right noises. If I objected no one would take a blind bit of notice, but if the right person makes the correct complaints to the right people, they get noticed.

So-would the King have been a better machine, from the RA perspective at least, if it had been built as a Pacific?

That would be grand, thanks. Whether I'll model it or not I don't know, but it's a little detail that I was unaware of, and little details interest me!

Thanks. I never knew that! Were the periscopes removed fairly early on? I have yet to see a photograph showing them.

Stanier, like Collet, was a workshop man, a production engineer, he was more than just a locomotive engineer. Unlike Collet, who was very reluctant to allow any deviation from the successful principles established by GJC, Stanier was prepared to challenge tradition, and let talent lower down the ranks flourish. He also reorganised the whole motive power department of the LMS, and set in train the modernisation of many motive power depots. Mistakes were made, avoidable mistakes even, but such is the price of progress. You don't learn by getting it right every time, you learn by getting it wrong, and understanding why.

That's the one!

If it's the same one, it spent years in Wolverton works, visible from the main line, in the sidings at the south end of the works. I think it was made redundant by a fall-off in traffic on the Bury route. AFAIK they were never looked at for Euston-Watford/Broad St - different voltage (1200V D.C. as opposed to 630 V D.C.) & method of collection (side contact instead of top contact) for a start, plus I believe they were too long, being standard 19m Mk1's.

Where was the periscope? Did it come up through the roof?

Was it someone on this thread that said they had seen a book on Russian stream locos, but couldn't get to the library at the moment?

My Dad was also Horwich trained, and he fired Crabs, Black 5's, 8F's & 5X's as well. Between them, there wasn't much traffic the railway could throw at them that couldn't be handled.

There was also a spare red painted screw coupling in the guards compartment. Digressing slightly, have any of the BR old hands on here ever had to actually use a spare screw coupling from a BG/BSK/BFK/BCK?

Yes, fair point. Maybe being in Barrow, used on short haul passenger & local freights, didn't do them any favours.