Glorious NSE

I'd agree with the above, the only thing i'd add is that tarmac seems to be on the ascendancy from paving slabs, my *guess* was that tarmac might well result in less litigation down the line, no uneven paving slab edges to fall over...

Pop out to the model shop (I think my Hornby KFAs are in!) I've a second IHB SW1500 just arrived from Model Junction as well, that needs a quick test run and then decoder install. Slightly annoyingly whilst the first run had (correctly) plated over windows in various locations this one doesn't, and all the photo's I can find suggest it should have....so out with the black paint then. Looks to have silver window surrounds as well - oooer! I need to check the back-2-backs on it's partner as well as it was tripping the DCC bus occasionally at TVNAM.

LOL - not only fails at war, but at comic timing too....bless...

I always understood that one to be "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist......."

We'll see! I don't agree with that one, the current refurbed dark blue shade isn't the same as the original i'm almost certain, and the markings on the models suggest a wagon in it's original 1980s paint (it has the original Tiphook Rail lettering which the refurbs don't retain) and 'modern' HSE style electrification flashes, so the wagon is lettered as if it's a faded and worn older wagon in recent years, so i'm happy with the light blue in that context. If they do an 80s version it probably wants to be a slightly different shade, but i'm sure they weren't as dark as the modern shade - was it rail blue even to match the FFA/FGA? Anyone know for sure? The dry box containers to me are a bit of a dissapointment, the ribs are indeed very wierd. They don't replicate the modern corrugated ribs very well at all, but they don't replicate the previous 'square' rib styles very well at all either. They do give the impression that Hornby just decided to sketch up something vaguely box-shaped in CAD to load on it without having a decent look at real boxes, which is a big shame with something which could be ubiquitous in it's usage if they had managed to get it looking right. Tanktainer looks nice though.

First Group dark blue maybe?

The ones on my site (from Gavin Judd's images) should end up back on there but i've held off organising rescanning in the hope I can access the Fotopic ones at some point.

They also appear on MOD traffic nowadays potentially in very short rakes (try OCA-KFA-OCA for a minimalist starter rake), and there are engineers uses (Mick has posted details of one there but there are others!) - go back pre-privatisation and you can use them in very short rakes loaded with Aluminium on the WHL - lots of usages and not all need a container terminal... They (and the Railease sisters) are starting to get smart blue repaints as well which stand out very shiny at the moment (you can read the numbers too....which is nice!!)

Excellent project, looks really good! If anyone wants to go variation-spotting i've detail shots of a LOROL one here as i've not seen one of either the LM or Chiltern ones yet - don't know whether the Chiltern ones will be different, do theirs have a toilet? The LM ones have a cab with a gangway which is an obvious difference! http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/Allinthedetails/DMUs/172006-London-Overground

To some extent - but Ivybridge isn't that busy a station so will get much less deposited than some other places...

Depends very much on the TOC and location - some TOCs are very good, Overground has already been mentioned and they seem to have bins (clear plastic bags) at all their stations, including the green (paper) recycling which is nice. At any unstaffed stations you're unlikely to find a bin at all. It might be that at the very largest stations it is indeed easier to pay a fairly large cleaning staff to be on hand all the time than deal with the risks any other way. There should be bins on the majority of trains though, albeit sometimes you might have to go looking for it!?

The Wessex (or being picky Wales and West) units and their liveries were: 143603 "Normal" scheme 143611 "Normal" scheme 143612 Standalone decal "Broadmead Centre" 143613 Standalone decal "@Bristol" (caught fire and written-off in this livery) 143617 Standalone decal "SS Great Britain" 143618 Standalone decal "Conference Bristol" 143619 "Normal" scheme 143620 Standalone decal "A Creative Culture" 143621 Standalone decal "Bristol Zoo" 143622 "Normal" scheme (transferred to ATW before FGW started) 143623 "Normal" scheme (transferred to ATW before FGW started) The "normal scheme" images featured the balloons, Clifton Suspension bridge etc, but one of those images also appears on the L/H car of the ones with the standalone schemes as well, so you won't miss out... Personal choice time - the ones in italics I definately wouldn't pick due to longetivity - none of them made it to FGW - a shame as the @Bristol decals were quite funky. The logical side of my head says that if you did the "standard" scheme then anyone who wants more than one could just do a simple renumbering. The other side of my head says the standalone schemes were much more funky - much more representative of what Wessex was like, and and one of them would be better! That "A Creative Culture" one is my favourite but it's also the one I had a go at doing on Charlie's resin 144 kit! Anyhow - speaking personally again whichever one you choose guys I will have one. Some pics here (not just Wessex) amongst others if it helps folk choose : http://ukrailwaypics...235275241_xAwPS (Sorry they are doing maintainence on the site today if you find that gives a 503 error - patience!)

All you need is the coaster accidentally demolishing the dock one foggy night and a temporary rail flow might be the obvious temporary stand-in?

Whilst it's true there isn't oodles of freight traffic the variety somewhat makes up for it - for the AB era you have: Steel Clay Timber Grain Fertiliser Cement And the first couple of those could potentially use a variety of wagon types. But you probably won't want to be running a train of more than 4 or 5 wagons anyhow, so even if you ran a cycle of: Freight - DMU - DMU Substitute - And then back to Freight etc - it would be a while before you ended up with the same (or even similar) consist. 'Nuther freight thought, when did the power station between Barnstaple and Bideford shut? Even if (I presume) coal came by sea it might require the occasional tank of fuel to prime it?

Thanks - that's a surprisingly logical place for the split to be!

Dave, if work is still going on did you know there were two batches of 142 with very different roofs? The one on that CAD looks to match the lower numbered units where the roof is corrugated, higher numbered units don't have the corrugations just three big ribs which mean the NRN pods are fitted "wonky". I don't have an exact number for the change but a guesstimate from pics I have is between 142046 and 142054? Lots seem to have at least some of the grilles on the roof pods plated over these days as well. http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailwayPics/Diesel-Multiple-Units/Class-142/16179006_ib5cF#1229250287_e9Wdz-A-LB

LOL - something I also suffer from. The multi-era thing would be easier with (say) 1981 (vac brake freights plus mixed trains) versus 1988 (speedlink network), at least with those then you can get away with keeping most "physical" layout bits like station signage the same, just change the trains and maybe some of the road vehicles. Ref cost implications of two fleets, do one first which you'd always need to have done anyway, then once you are up and running you can spread the cost of building stock for the second period as thinly as you like as there is no pressure to have it operating until you're ready?

Tom, that was pretty much the idea for my imagined circa 2005 one, passenger trains (Wessex and SWT) would split and join to serve Ilfracombe and Bideford, and it would maybe be a mini-hub between two "Enterprise" wagonload trains - a 66 hauled ADJ-Barnstaple via the North Devon line and a 37 hauled train (due to axle loadings) from Exeter Riverside to Torrington and back.

Rich - I think i've figured it out. The bit we're missing is the "political" changes. The traffic to/from Lapford used to be part of the Speedlink network so was handled on the daily speedlink train that served Barnstaple, Lapford was shunted on the way there due to the layout so Lapford wagons would have run via Barnstaple at that point. By 1992 it wasn't a speedlink train but a tripped portion of a block working - the train carried only Lapford wagons no longer needed to go to Barnstaple as all the traffic there was lost in the speedlink cull.

7 tigers a week, but yes I do agree with your point.

Doesn't sound much, but it's comparable to some other traffic sources which run today. For example the scrapyard at Alphington in Exeter normally loads a rake of 16 MBAs on a visit and it normally runs every other week, so 16 wagons in 14 days - not much more... Okay that one doesn't need miles of rural railway line maintaining to run it, but if you're assuming that's not the only traffic then maybe not such a stretch?

The other side of that is you need less of them to carry the same traffic - one or two in speedlink days would work. (Clay) polybulks are a fair bit shorter size-wise than Tigers if it gets to be a problem... That's an interesting theory - it's noticeable it did cease at the time they were actively discontinuing the vacuum braked wagonload fleet, so maybe somebody from BR's marketing dept suggested they'd like to buy their own fleet of shiny new wagons and was told where he could shunt em? One of the tigers (TRL11600) apparently was leased to a different clay company (although it still said ECC on it!) for service from Carbis Wharf, so there is a precedent for one to be used elsewhere even if it isn't ECC. I *think* you could only serve Lapford headed towards Barnstaple, so that would imply there was fertiliser traffic to Barnstaple as well....or maybe something went wrong that day! Another thought for potential traffic for the Barnstaple end of thinks at that kind of time - roadstone for building the North Devon Link road (opened 1988)

In the real world of course I suspect Meldon viaduct would have been the issue - but I think if you were to assume there was no problem there (lets say it had been rebuilt already before BR looked at running down the services so wasn't a good excuse for closing the line, or that BR had designated the route via Tavistock an important diversionary route and committed to keeping it maintained) then there might be some logic in shutting the rather long and windy line from Barnstaple and serving it from the south end? I suspect it would have been a good deal shorter to go that way! Meldon was an important traffic source so it was always going to be safe as far as that...would have thought that the agricultural-based traffic would be potentially as applicable, but not as sure about the timber?

On the flip side, one failure will no longer be such a big issue to the railfan/modelling community if it's distributed a little.

As you're "inspired by" then there's no need to keep to a 1982 deadline with clay traffic - post 1982 just transfer it to clay tigers (upcoming Kernow) and Polybulks (upcoming Bachmann) and carry on. B) I was planning a layout at one stage based on Barnstaple still being a junction station circa 2006 under Wessex Trains, with it being a bit of a mini wagonload hub for the majority of the traffics mentioned.