andyrush

JVol1283.jpg is at Chesterton Junction, with the LNER signal box of 1931 partially visible on the right. Excellent shots of the every day railway. Andy

Wath 'A' Sidings box closed July 1981, Wath 'B' Sidings box closed 9 July 1982

It looks like the loco has come on the train at Grantham all coaled up ready for its next working from Highdyke. Useful pictures these, nice to see the camera trained at something other than trains with pacifics on.....

Excellent - so long as you don't want to put the van on the front of a passenger train in winter....

Excellent article in BRM Annual. I'll say hello at Nottingham on Saturday. Andy

Nah, he's the bloke fitting the vacuum hoses. Still got a lot to do!

A few references unearthed from the database: Riccall: large scale station track plan, undated. BR/OPC collection at the NRM ref.21195. Riccall South box diagram, undated, SRS ref.S253 Naburn: large scale station track plans, undated. BR/OPC collection at the NRM refs.21183, 23660 Presumably the loops dated from 08.02.1942, which is the date I have for the opening of Riccall North signal box at 179m 60¾ch on the down side and Escrick South signal box at 180m 34½ch on the up side. I've got mileages for most of the salient features (from Engineers Line Diagrams) if they are any help

Not these days - Google is your friend and occasionally throws up the right answer. Picking which is the right one can be a problem....

You could be in trouble! Look at the grief I got when I mentioned a ukulele dome..... But I agree, anything with a GE influence (either in looks or operation) does it for me. Those dirty gert pacific things always looked wrong to me at Cambridge (except the Brits of course)

A little too green and rural for Peterborough, even in 1958! I think plans are afoot for something more appropriate, if you go back a few posts..... Super shot, though Andy

Ah, Swaveney - but we were young then! Most of the rolling stock is in a display case in my studio/workroom (tip!), although the Stirling Single and the GN 4-4-0 reside in Edinburgh. The GN 0-6-0 (with its MW5 motor...) had an outing on Thursford last year, and after a general oiling up it ground its way back and forth quite happily. The GE 4-4-0 was my token offering at Roger Kingstone's celebration of the formation of the Great Eastern Railway on his garden railway last summer - right colour, wrong gauge! Nice to hear the layout mentioned Andy

It's private (because nobody has been able to figure out how to make it internet accessible at a price we can afford) and if you post questions on here, I will answer if the database holds any relevant information. No answer = no information!

This is one of the reasons that I always reply to the 'Where can I find a track layout of...?' questions with references to RAILWAY plans, where I have details of these on our database. There are too many pitfalls to be able to rely on OS mapping absolutely, and the various textbooks on how to interpret them (Oliver etc) need reading as well.

Sorry, I should have warned you about this. The GC and CLC stuff (which was what I was interested in and looked at in detail) was the same - I spent three days there....!

From another thread, here is the late fifties marshalling of the 7.14pm Ipswich to Cardiff To convey fitted wagons only, with the exception that Ferry wagons (Westo or unfitted) may be attached next brake. Formation from Ipswich:- Engine-Cardiff-Newport-West Country-Bristol-Ferry Wagons-Brake Formation from Cambridge:- Engine-Cardiff from Cambridge-Cardiff from Ipswich-Newport from Ipswich-Newport from Cambridge-Bristol from Cambridge-West Country from Cambridge-West Country from Ipswich-Bristol from Ipswich-Ferry Wagons-Brake Not less than one-third of the total number of wagons must be piped and connected to the engine, to conform to Western Region Class “D” braked train requirements In its last years this train conveyed mostly vanfits with the odd fruit van during the season as well as loaded ferry wagons In the opposite direction the Class D Llandilo Junction - Cambridge conveyed tinplate (although I don't know in what sort of wagons) for manufacture of cans at Wisbech and Lowestoft, lots of sealed vanfits with cigarettes and chocolate from Bristol for all over East Anglia, together with empty ferry wagons (and possibly the odd loaded one!) heading for Harwich

Yours is at Westwood Junction Gilbert. When you take over next door you'll have room to model it... I'm leaving now!

You can't have a proper main line sized GN station without a ladder crossing! Looks good I have also booked beer, bed and breakfast (the last two at my daughter's establishment) for the Nottingham show

You haven't shown what is doing the attaching move at the rear! PN must have more pilots than a dog has fleas.... Good luck with the snowy walk

Full article about Smeeth Road in GERS Journal No.142 Some more East Anglia: Opening the gates at North Elmham for the daily Fakenham goods on 2 July 1968

A Helping Hand at Smeeth Road With four months to go before his box and the station closes, the signalman assists a passenger with a pushchair as a DMU departs for Kings Lynn 04.05.1968

Scaffolding looks really good (as does the rest of it, of course!). Did you simulate the clamps, and if so, how? Andy

There is over a page worth of dense instructions under the 'York Station - Electric Bells and Indicators for Trains' heading in the 1947 LNER North Eastern Area Appendix.

I use these for 'erect ones' (pardon!) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-X-VACUUM-PIPES-OO-GAUGE-LOCOS-SUIT-Dapol-Bachmann-Hornby-ETC-SEE-PICTURE-/300782901038 Andy

There was no requirement for 'PNB's' in steam days, as far as I know, nor for double manned turns once diesels took over. They came about as a result of single manning. So the 'natural break' in the middle of a train crew working was just that - a 'buffer' built in to the diagram to make it as robust as possible. The other thing that changed over the years was the reduction in lodging, which, combined with out and back working (on passenger trains at least) meant that top link locos tended to work fairly predictably - until it all went wrong, of course! Goods engines were used in a much more 'common user' way and these occupied most of the engine controllers time as they tried to cope with often quite dramatic day to day changes in traffic patterns and yet still meet the maintenance constraints mentioned.. The theory that men were diagrammed home on the cushions to avoid paying mileage is, I suspect, a red herring. It might have looked that way when viewed from a driver's or LDC reps viewpoint, but I don't think any planner would forgo a balanced diagram merely to save a bit of mileage. There were, however, often superficially incomprehensible diagrams which were brought about by the division of work amongst depots (jealously scrutinised by the LDC's), together with dated or 'Q' trains which ran often enough to make it worthwhile to have a crew available to work them when the trains did run, but who would travel passenger for their next workings when they didn't.

But it's only hiding one of the defective vans.....