Flying Pig

The same model was discussed on this recent thread (ignore the thumbnail RMweb has chosen - that's @31A's conversion of the Airfix open):

This one too a couple of minutes ago, a real Rapide this time. De Havilland Dragon Rapide DH-89A G-AHAG RAF RL944 by Chris Murkin, on Flickr

This lovely aeroplane just flew over my home. I thought it was a DH89 when I saw it but ADSB Exchange tells me it is a DH90 Dragonfly G-AEDU. de Havilland DH90 Dragonfly 'G-AEDU' by Alan Wilson, on Flickr Edit: she later returned in company with what I think were a couple of Chipmunks, preceded by two vintage monoplanes which I think may have been her Miles Messenger and Miles Falcon stablemates at Shipping and Airlines Ltd.

Note BR axlebox and a capping strip retained by clips with bolts through the top plank.

Well if you're going to add gratuitous electrification schemes, we'll keep 1500 V DC for the Woodhead, electrify the Midland at 6.6 kV 25 Hz, use your 3 kV DC from Wigston to Banbury and 15kV AC at 16.7 Hz from there to Reading, with of course 750 V DC third rail thenceforth to the South Coast. I feel I should remind you that 3 kV is also used in Belgium so you may not get the loco styling you want.

No you divert MS&L goods traffic onto the Midland at Beighton and then you can close the entire London Extension and run traffic to London along the Midland. Keeping the GC open as a freight only route to London doesn't really make sense. It might however be useful to retain the section between Leicester and Banbury as part of a North-South link to Southampton, though I'm not sure whether this would have been important enough to be considered when the closure of the GC was being planned. That would avoid sending traffic via Derby, Burton and Birmingham on busy double track routes. To do that properly you'd need a flying junction from the goods lines over the fast lines at Wigston and something like the work that has been done recently at Reading to connect to the Berks and Hants (or retain the DN&S somehow). And electrify the lot as far as Toton at least. With some nice beefy locos - something like an anglicised Re 6/6 for my preference, with AL1-5 styling.

As I said above - joining the Midland's Rotherham to Chesterfield line via Barrow Hill.

Some hints you don't need to use every track piece in the inventory; be careful with diamonds that give limited access to a route or siding beware leaving yourself unusably short sidings or (particularly) headshunts And you don't actually need terminal platforms to terminate trains. I would be looking at a through station on one side of the layout with a middle road accessible from both directions which I would lay out with three platform faces (one ordinary and one island platform). On the other side, a goods loop and sidings. This will allow up to four trains with two runing at any one time and should be doable in N on a door. If you go for TT you may need to simplify.

Outside dedicated Metro systems, first gen EMUs were pre-WW1, so second gen would be the Tyneside and Merseyside stock of the 30s and 40s up to post-WW2 builds like the AM6; third gen BR-designed Mk1-based units; fourth gen Mk2-based units like the AM10; fifth gen the 4 PEP derived units. Which makes the Mk3-based units at least 6th generation by my reckoning.

It couldn't be dedicated to freight all the way as there are still passenger services south of Aylesbury and the route is shared with London Transport (as was) south of Amersham. If either of the links with the GW and GC line is used, there's the same issue though that line is perhaps better suited to carrying more freight. It's hard to see why using the GC south of Rugby is better than keeping traffic on the electrified WCML.

The GC crossed the Midland at Loughborough, so you could have diverted the Midland freight traffic onto it there. Traffic from the North West might have found enough paths over a freight-only Woodhead to run via Sheffield, but it would probably have better continued its journey along the Midland via Barrow Hill and the Erewash Valley to Loughborough. That way you could still close the northern part of the GCLE through Nottingham and keep Toton in use. Of course once you got to Loughborough, why not just continue to Brent on the Midland goods lines?

That's what the thread is about - missed opportunities. Perhaps if some of the run had been green they would have sold it at a better price. I agree it's a lovely model and I was very tempted even though I have no use for one.

Hmm... as the original Clauds were running by 1905, they could have done a better job with the styling. I think a two window cab and some lacework in the valances are called for.

It's an obvious and inexplicably missed easy goal. For those concerned with accuracy, 2005 ran on the main line during the 1970s and 80s in her green livery, but many would just see an LNER loco in the 'proper' LNER livery. Hornby do LNER green rather well, too.

Well it certainly happened. My Three Aitch kit was painted and lettered based on a photo of a D1666 open painted bauxite reproduced in "Essery" (it was carrying coal and uprated to 13T too).

But 'tis they Insurance Men ee should fear, boy!

Tis not all Backstays and Topgallants; there be Modern Image pirates:

Quite possibly, though it isn't completely clear how it was shunted. In any case, despite the rabbit hole this thread has wandered down, I'm not convinced that coal is necessarily the best subject for this kind of layout, nor that worrying about complex mechanical unloading equipment is ideal for a beginner, per the thread title.

Long-handled for if the road adjacent to the coal stage was occupied and they had to park on the next one across? ;) I think they were actualĺy for reaching into the firebox to attend to the fire (like the other long fire irons), or to remove it quickly if need be.

Clearly of Airfix parentage and a sibling of their 4F. The latter looked very good indeed to me and got a number of additional grabrails and other details, but the tender drive as supplied was awful and needed a remedial bearing on the front right wheel (40 thou plasticard Evostuck to the chassis) to mesh its gears and stay on the track. After that it would plod round nicely with all my wagons, but it was never quiet. A good example of how the new manufacturers of the time prioritised their efforts. Hornby have never attended to the skinny dome on their Midland pair, with its odd taper for easier mould extraction. A decent 2P or Midland 483 is a hole waiting to be filled when all the freaks and one-offs have been done by current manufacturers. (LMS fans should be required to show proof of purchase for at least one before they are permitted to buy a Lickey Banker or Turbomotive.)

I think this was a new model, roughly contemporary with the Mainline J72. It retained the excessive buffer height of its predecessor and I'm pretty sure the one I bought about 1978 had the old undersized middle wheelset, but the body and chassis were new.

Not a mistake, but a regrettable design decision that makes casting the boiler simpler as the holes for the handrail pillars are horizontal. I think the LSWR Black Motor was the same and Oxford also did it with their J27.

Whilst on the subject of compact coal facilities, the remains of Norwich Victoria were used as a coal depot and have been mentioned on RMweb more than once.

A similar tippler at Lincoln in April 1969 (by David Ford on Flickr). Note the crossover on the near side, the empties on the right and the condition of the various railheads which suggest it was a straight-through operation. I guess locos would not have been allowed over the tippler.

It was imo let down mainly by the proportions of the front end: the nose was too low and round and the windscreen too deep, so the face of the loco was wrong. I saw one article where someone packed up the nose with layers of plasticard, but the shape was still a bit off - it really needed a decent casting for the bonnet and an etched windscreen to correct it. The later Bachmann moulding is very much better in this respect. But as you say, a lot of it was very good and the frame detail behind the grilles was outstanding.