Pennine MC

Well, I edited my quote, for brevity and to save a few electrons. Which you've just re-used by repeating it all again I'm sure it wasnt. Not sure what you mean by this, but let's not make a big deal of it.

Probably best that angle isnt revived TBH, sleeping dogs and all that. I'm fairly sure that HJ made sure enough chassis were potentially available, but a retailer may either have not ordered any (or enough), or may have been (understandably) unable to predict how many returns he would get, given that they could have popped back onto his counter at any time.

Personal opinion, to be fair. The 'face' and nose of the 40 looks right, none of the type 2 fronts do that. Not from where I'm looking anyway

Second guessing Phil, I reckon he's thinking more of the possibility of the Barwell boys doing the bashing. It's an odd one, the Duke and Bulldog are both characterful locos but all withdrawn (AFAIK) by the very early '50s; pre-Group locos are certainly on the up, but more so those prototypes with a reasonable length of BR service

Probably worth pointing out (as covered in another recent HB thread) that #18 was specially built for this use on the Lambourn branch, the other cars wouldnt be allowed the same load.

That's cos he's gone into Halfords for more polish

Now edited, that site seems to produce different 'urls' depending how you access the pic

http://www.gnsra.org.uk/gnsra_gallery_misc40.htm I like this shot, not so much for the wagon itself as the way it almost appears to be in the backyard of the cottages B)

I've not driven anything as 'serious' as a Porsche so could be talking crepe, but (and assuming it's a stick box, not an auto), could it also be lack of sensitivity in the clutch, which might be designed in the old sporting tradition of 'pile on the revs and drop the pedal'?

This 'driving in snow' thing crops up all the time on the car forum I'm on, where some models are 2WD and others 4WD. Based on observations last winter, there are a lot of drivers who can't or won't appreciate simple physics, like trying to three-point turn against a steep camber, or the half @r$ed notion that planting your foot on the pedal will always transmit more power to the road. Even in RWD vans with light back ends years ago, I found that gentle rocking back and forth to build up momentum will get you out of a lot of situations.

I have a couple of shots which I've posted before, of 8616 with an 06 at DE and 8539 at ED with a 27. The ones kept at Glasgow Works would also have been not too far from TOPsed locos

I did kinda think 'the panels' would cover that

Probably because nobody had actually thought to do it differently. One wagon that intrigues me (there'll be others like it I'm sure) is B159653 in Dave Larkin's 'Working Wagons 2', pic dated spring '75. It has a plain plate in lieu of the top flap, not that that's unusual at that time but it does indicate that the basic structure is original, yet the panels have the radiused bottom edge but there is no discernible plating line, suggesting that these have been cut out and replaced in their entirety.

Last properly new builds were 1959; as others have said it's a rebody. The giveaway is the lack of top flaps - whilst early post war construction also lacked these, not many of those were still in traffic in 1970 when the rebodying programme started, so you can fairly reliably say that if a wagon in a 1970s shot has no top flaps and is in good nick, it's a rebody.

I'm liking the finish on the maroon HB, in line with comments on the current 'prototype' thread and the pics I've seen myself it would seem that that's a typical 'careworn' in-service look.

That's the other thing Sean, if the WCML had MAS in 1963 (and I'm not at all sure if it did), there certainly shouldnt have been a red immediately following a green. But whatever, a diligent driver would surely try to stop at a red if at all possible, and worry about the cause once he'd phoned the bobby.

Which I believe is when driver Mills sustained the injuries, in resisting? Nidge, a question has come up on another forum, which I must admit has got me thinking. Assuming the line and loco were AWS fitted, the driver would presumably have had a 'clear' bell at the magnet. I'm assuming though that by then, he'd have started slowing on sight of the red, to be on the safe side and perhaps assuming a malfunction with either the signal or the AWS, and that the unexpected then transpired before he had time to rationalise everything?

Oh yes Not unlikely Rich, but I'd think that will be a late 70s or early 80s pic. Whether it was empty or loaded shouldnt make a difference (the usual instruction being to treat empty tanks as loaded anyway), but from around the turn of the 70s the use of barriers with oil or petrol type products generally ceased, so it seems likely that it also extended to this working.

I hardly dare to gild the lily of Simon's comprehensive and IMO very restrained reply to you Venator, but that works both ways - in no way (sic: nowhere) is it compulsory for you to open this thread and read the things you dont want to read. ... Ah, but this is the hollow old paradox isnt it, that's never far away whenever RTR is criticised. If the VEP is indeed ripping off the shelves as you suggest, why would you or Hornby be worried about more EMU models in the future?

I've found it Dave, funnily enough in only the second folder I opened on the hard drive (which still wasnt where I expected it to be). I've done a piece on my Wordpress blog about it - link below.