andyrush

I've tried to tempt Gilbert with some Parkeston Quay West to the north east BAOR leave trains and return with various exotic engines requiring changing at PN. It would give him a proper excuse to have a Colchester B17 on show. Nice to see your stuff populating Grantham, by the way (even if you did perpetuate loaded coal wagons heading north.... ). It looks like it is already a seriously interesting train set to play with! Andy

Re 4th day at Durham - I'll see you there then! Andy

Gilbert If your distance between support legs allows, could you get your willing chippy (!) to make you up a 4ft 3in wide (approx) chest of drawers on wheels to allow you to store the cassettes lengthways under the north end of PN. My drawers (if you will forgive the expression ) are set at 3 inch pitch and I can get 4 cassettes in each drawer. Your cassettes are taller, and I think, narrower than mine, but you have top 'handles' which means you don't need 'finger room' between them like I do. So, say your drawers are at 4 inch pitch and you can get 5 cassettes in each, and there is 3 feet of usable height (allowing for the wheels), that makes a lot of cassettes! Just thoughts, don't know how practicable it would be. Andy

Several people and a fowl on this thread need a cold shower...! It is going to be interesting seeing the goods cassettes filled with a convincing mix of rolling stock appropriate for the trains depicted Andy

I hope some of them don't have solid ends! I was worried about his piggy bank if his goods train cassettes could only be used in one direction.... Andy

The link you supply seems to show a sleepered crossing (for wheeled traffic) in front of the loco, to my eyes the other sidings visible have the ground made up to sleeper level. Just to prove that this didn't only apply to major marshalling yards, here is a view behind the up platform at Woodbridge (courtesy of the Mike Brooks collection, as were the previous two). The chickens are optional...... Andy

The portrayal of the track in goods yards is a major stumbling block on most model railways, as is the transition from 'main line' ballast to 'yard' ballast. The main thing to be remembered is that goods/marshalling yards had lots of people walking about in them (shunters/number takers/train preparers/guards etc) and having the sleepers standing proud was a major disadvantage, at least on the outsides of the track. Also, if a goods yard was shunted with the aid of horses, the same thing applied between the rails. The presence of 6 inch boulders, as seen in most model railway yards destroys the illusion quicker than overscale rail. Attached are a couple of shots at Whitemoor (pre WW1 admittedly, but the same thing seemed to apply into the 1960's), the first of which shows part of the marshalling yard and the second shows the transition from 'yard' to 'main' lines Hope this helps Andy

Closed 02.10.1967 according to Clinker's Register Andy

Out of period and inconclusive but The Book of the Great Northern by Peter Coster Vol.1 p.129 has an up train with three 'white' container-like loads in highfits (but could be timber crates). Out of period but right railway, fish train for London leaving Grimsby in April 1961 with several 'white' containers visible (could be Birds Eye by then) in The Railways Around Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and North East Lincolnshire (Foxline) plate 134. There are numerous other chuffery pictures of fish trains in this book but no other containers can be seen. Also out of period and the wrong railway, May 1962 shot of the Grimsby - Whitland fish on pp.62 and 86 of An Illustrated History of Mansfield's Railways (Irwell) show several containers marshalled next to the engine. Looking at British Railways Wagons - the first half million by Don Rowland, there were over 500 AF and AX containers built between 1950 and 1958 before the AFP Birds Eye containers came along. I'll keep looking....! Andy

Absolutely OK Gibert - so long as those 5 plank opens are loaded. The problem with bogie brick wagons is they don't seem to have been used much on trains from New England in Gilbert's period, although this thread on the LNER Encyclopedia forum says they were http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3651. They certainly seemed to have spread their wings a bit in BR days! See http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lneropenwood/h358f611e#h358f611e. Anyway as GB already has some, he had better use them - but only in odd ones and twos on the engines of class F trains originating at New England and they will need to be loaded. The return empties would have been worked direct to Fletton, I reckon. Reading the above, I can see the reason for them not being seen very much south of Peterborough in daytime, even if they were being used. There were no daytime class E's in 1958 and there wasn't much point in putting them on class F's because they didn't need to run any faster than unfitted timings and the trains were presumably up to length limit anyway with a WD on the front. As far as Birds Eye Containers were concerned, I'm pretty sure they were first used for traffic from Yarmouth to London in 1959 - see the ever helpful http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/conflatbafp He also says that insulated AFP containers weren't introduced until that year, so if that is the type that was used on the Aberdeen fish trains, it wouldn't be until after Gilbert's chosen date anyway. I will have a furtle round in my references to see if I can find why I thought some sort of insulated containers were in use earlier.... Andy

He will if he comes anywhere near my garden railway! Ducks**t is not conducive to good running, I've found

Surely all you need to do is feed the return for the distant Tortoise over the home Tortoise contacts, so when the latter is at danger there is no feed to the distant. The actual conditions for the distant coming off are irrelevant in this context, they can only apply when the home is off. Andy

No expensive blondes (or spaniels) until after the goods train cassettes are properly filled..... Great video, apart from the sticky slot (wrong side failure) Happy birthday Andy

Does the home signal Tortoise have a spare pair of contacts?

Nice photos, but EMPTIES from High Dyke to Frodingham? Andy

Thanks Paul Once again the bridge registers can mislead the unwary! It certainly doesn't mention a footpath across the pipe bridge. Was the Thorpe Road footbridge on the Loughborough or Shepshed side of bridge No.29? Andy

Interesting picture this, the pipe bridge is the Derwent Water Supply bridge No28A at 9m 19ch and mounted next to it must be what is described in an addition to the bridge register as 'temporary footbridge No.28B between 9¼m and 9½m'. Never thought I'd see a picture of it, much more interesting than steam engines (ducks and runs for cover!) Andy

Top plank of door on one side missing I reckon. And that load WOULD be unprototypical on a model - because you could bet that nasty old plastic wheels painted bright orange rust would be used!

I don't think that diagram is anything to do with the bridge 144 reconstruction. It is after the closure of No.1 signal box on 13 March 1977, and I think it is to do with the rebuilding of the station in preparation for electrification. The cast iron pillars of the original bridge 144 were indeed encased in brickwork and concrete as can be seen from these two pictures taken on 20 May 1949 and 16 June 1949

Don't worry about it! Keep them coming..... Andy

They can't be Tulip Specials because they are not taken at Spalding! All three photos show eastbound trains at Sleaford East - see the signal box nameplate visible in one of the pictures (JVol3085 and JVol3087 look to be the same train). They are down trains bound for (probably) Skegness or Mablethorpe as they are taking the main line to Boston, rather than the curve to Sleaford South Junction a view of the area can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/100714154953338576156/OldPicturesOfSleafordLincolnshireBennetPanton#5505966964752469666 Andy

Pedants corner... Huntingdon East J15 5451 down pick up goods c1947 JVol3054 I reckon it is an up train and it looks as though the engine is about to pull forward to run round the train prior to backing onto the GN up goods line and then going head first through the south end ladder to gain access to the goods yard on the down side of the North station. I understand that propelling the whole train through the ladder was frowned on (although that happened in plenty of places on the GN in the London area). After shunting the GN yard, the return train would come back across one of the ladders with the engine on the south end, propel back into the East station and then run round again before heading back to Cambridge. This scan of a 1954 Control Office diagram should make the moves clear.

Re: Huntingdon Ouse Bridge rebuilding up line c 1949 JVol3055 Ah, bridge reconstruction! (Well it takes all sorts....) The up line spans of bridge 144 were reconstructed between April and November of 1949 with a temporary signal box and signalling provided. I reckon the stage depicted in your Dad's photo, which shows the up goods line girders ready for removal, is early May 1949 (certainly by 20th of that month, when they had been removed) Here is an elevated view looking north dated 4 July showing the new girders for both up lines in place with track laid on the up goods. An up express is crossing the bridge using the temporary slue from the up fast to the down fast over the bridge. All down traffic was using the down goods, again over temporary connections etc. The former Midland single line from Kettering to Huntingdon East can be seen on the right Industrialogical Associates collection

Wot, no goods trains? Andy

64723 was a Spital Bridge loco from September 1956, so this will be a Toton - Peterborough East service (not just coal - I wonder what was in the numerous sheeted low sided wagons). Andy