rodent279

Hadn't realised they got air brakes as early as 1969. Thanks.

Maybe. The cost of renewing the decks might be worth it, given the cost of ongoing maintenance, and the likelihood of having to renew at some point in future anyway. Better to do it now, without an operational railway on top of it, even it it does means closing the WCML to remove some of the decks. There can't be more than 2 or 3 individual decks spanning the WCML, I would think that it should be possible to remove the necessary decks in one or two overnight possessions.

Mentor was around at least for the Glasgow extension of the WCML electrification, and maybe dates back to the 1960's.

Seems more likely to me. I would imagine it would pay to build new purpose built bridge decks, properly fit for the purpose they are intended for, rather than modify structures that are now over 60 years old. At that age, they are probably near half life anyway.

Another one to look out for is overhead line warning flashes. Peaks had them on the nose and on the bodyside, next to the steps to the roof. Some, but not all, Peaks seem to have lost them* when the steps were plated over, and some Peaks retained them. 45039 seems to have had them in about 1968, lost them when the steps were plated over, then for some reason regained them in mid-1978, after the headcode box was replaced with lights and the boiler filler was plated over! *Based on photographic evidence available from a quick and dirty tour of Flickr.

Maybe there are structural defects in the concrete after all, despite it looking in good nick? I guess it must have been on minimum maintenance from the end of regular traffic in what? 1992, until well into the present century.

Thanks. Reason I ask is that I am detailing an old Mainline 45039. I've decided to retain the 45039 identity, because it has split centre headcode boxes, and I don't want to alter that. I also don't want to plate over the roof filler, or remove the air brake reservoirs. From a trawl of Flickr, it seems that D49 went blue in 1968, had lost it's body side steps and bogie steps by 1972, was dual braked and renumbered in April 1975, had char headcodes in on both ends until at least April 1977, had domino headcode at no. 1 end (the fan end) in June 1977, and still had the roof filler in Sept 1977. In July 78 it had lost its headcode boxes for nose lights, but the photo does not show the roof filler, and by Oct 78 it had lost both roof filler and headcode boxes. So, based on the available photographic evidence, given that I can't model before 04/1975 because of the air brakes, or later than July 78 because of the nose lights, I am going to plate the bodyside steps, leave the roof filler uncovered, have dominos at no.1 end and have chars at no.2 end, possibly set to 0000. This would place it roughly 1976-1977, possibly into the first half of 1978. I can't imagine that it would have lost its headcode boxes but retained an uncovered roof filler.

Gipsy Patch Bridge replacement postponed for now, due to Covid-19. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/gypsy-patch-lane-works-postponed-4018796

Yes, but it would suck.....

Hi. When did the roof mounted boiler water filler and bodyside steps on class 45's get plated over? Did any make it into blue with 5 digit numbers with them intact? I've looked on the excellent Derby Sulzers website, and can't find any information there. Cheers N

The legendary Stanlow Tanks is the subject of this photo. A warm evening on June 21st 1984 sees a pair of unidentified class 25's noisily lug this heavy train full of aircraft fuel through Leighton Buzzard, trying hard to maintain 60mph on the climb to Tring Summit. Loading to around 1800t, this train originated at Stanlow Refinery in Cheshire, and was destined for Gatwick Airport (I think). Motive power varied, class 25's & 47's usually doing the honours, but occasionally a Peak produced, and even more rarely a 40.

Brilliant, thanks! Hope you didn't get too wet! I'm guessing that sculpture behind the white van is from the grounds of the old TR building?

Thanks. Think I've got Colin Marsden's book. I've always fancied scratchbuilding an 83 myself, the cab roof and front end would be the challenge, not to mention the bogies!

Fascinating stuff. @Gibbo675, @Clive Mortimore-do you work from 4mm scale drawings? cheers N

Interesting photo, and it's showing the TR site before it was built, although in the far distance. I guess that view isn't possible now. Cheers N

Yeah, I've always wondered why it's called the Brunel centre. Did he have a local connection?

Nice, painstaking work there. I wonder if anyone has ever used Bonsai trees on a layout? Just imagine-a genuine reason to use an RHTT in autumn!

That 310 is awesome. Where did you get the drawings from?

This is a fascinating subject- @Moderators, does it deserve a topic in it's own right? If a stretch of line is fully reversibly signalled, are signals repeated in both directions at the same location? And if so, how does the driver know which to obey, if two are placed side by side, or near to each other? Also, if a stretch of line, other than in a station or the approaches to, is fully reversibly signalled, is there still an "Up" and a "Down" line? Cheers N

Presumably, North Pole Junction was not so named because it lead to the North Pole? On the subject of junction names madness, who was Dr Day, and why does he (or she) deserve the honour of having a railway junction named after them?

Anyone on here live close enough to include this bridge in their daily permitted exercise? I'm too far away to walk there and back in an hour. Would love to see how things are progressing. Cheers N

Possibly not as much as you think, given that for some trains, it will fit in with braking for a stop at Didcot, and that IET's can brake using regenerative brakes, so feeding juice back into the network. Yes, there will be energy loss, but it's probably bearable.

If that's between Aug 1989 and about Oct 1990, there's a good chance I was in the TR building when that was taken! Or if it was a Friday lunchtime, in the Park! The engineering functions moved to a new office in Mount Farm in Oct 1990, the Buckingham Rd site becoming HR, admin and some C&W functions. Up until a couple of years ago, my C&W pension statements still came from there. All good stuff, great memories!

Could be worse, I was expecting dereliction! Looks like it could be put to further use, if that fits the plans. Would need a bit of work, but I'm sure it could be refurbished as flats, it's basically a big metal frame, glorified greenhouse really. A similar building on the Aztec West estate in Bristol, where I now work, was gutted literally to a framework of metal girders, and rebuilt into private health clinic. Anyway, we're getting OT. Thanks for the photos, they certainly provide a good contrast with then and now. I still haven't found any photos taken from the station, post-electrification, showing the TR site before the building was constructed.

Ah, doesn't look too bad. Happy memories! Thanks.