unravelled

One thing I was interested to see in the test section, was how well the final ballast surface seemed to follow the lumps and bumps of the original pva application. Perhaps the 6 foot could be laid on a thiner/thinned pva layer than that around the sleepers? If the area was painted a suitable colour beforehand, any ballast thinness shouldn't be significant. Btw this is purely theoretical, I've so far failed to ballast any track... Glad to see the pictures being useful Thanks Dave

Useful to know they are open now, they will probably be my nearest model shop. I'll have to visit them soon. Thanks Dave

The article is in Railway Modeller, December 1968. Dave

Les Eden was the builder. It was shown at the first 3 ODMRC shows, 1966,7,8, and at Central hall in 1968 I think. Also in at least one magazine around that time. Described as a representation of a GWR country branch terminus in the 1930s, 00 scale, 6'x1'6", with a 3 track pivoting fiddle yard. Operated to a sequence with recorded commentary. There is a comment that a Beeching like axe wou8ld fall after the 1968 exhibition. hth Dave

I was in the ODMRC in the 60s and remember Bossington. I will dig out some show guides and post again shortly. No idea how it ended up though. Dave

I had to be in Oxford at the weekend, so detoured to Aristotle lane to see if anything was going on. The old down loop trackbed looks as if it has been cleared used as an access route towards Wolvercote siding. I think the old alignment will need some modification before suitable for high speed running. I wonder if the stream/ditch will be relocated outside the track? I presume the works tie in with Evergreen 3. The Oxford Bicester route is supposedly being closed in Feb 2014 for a couple of years, reopening with its own route into Oxford station, (mainly on the LNWR alignment?). This is the current arrangement. For what it's worth here are a couple of photos from a badly damaged film taken on May 5 1964, on my only visit to Wolvercote siding, with the crane. The first is of 46251 on a special, (RCST East Midlander No.7), looking towards the bridge, and a Hall(?) looking towards Oxford. Thanks Dave

That section of down loop was odd because it diverged from the other 3 lines north of Aristotle lane bridge, and was separated from them by a ditch. In my spotting dats at Oxford north junction, I can't remrmber it being used much, unlike the up loop. This 1965 pic is taken from the Aristotle lane crossing and shows the divergence This one shows the separation of the down loop, running behind the telegraph poles. Thanks Dave

This shows one fairly square on. It might be possible to scale from the bolt spacing. This stack is near the broad gauge line at Didcot. Dave

PM me with an email address if you'd like a copy of the original scan, there might be a bit more detail in it. Thanks Dave

Not S&C, but did someone mention a dirty WD? High Wycombe, May 1965 Dave

I have used brake fluid for paint stripping, usually successfully. One failure was a dmu shell which went brittle/disintegrated. One of the dangers which is not often mentioned is that is flammable. It was supposed to be a problem in making small engine bay fires worse as plastic brake lines melted. As for disposal, I took a bottle of used brake fluid to my local waste recycling centre, and was told to put it in the household waste skip, which means it would go to the incinerator. Dave

I've just been catching up with this thread, and really like the method of walling. I'm looking forward to see it snaking across the fellside. How much taper are you putting on the walls? Those out in the wild can easily be twice as thick at the base as the top. Closer to habitation they often get straighter (and mortared, like as not). Keep stacking the rocks together... Dave

And (also Hattons) Hornby R3167 Class 4000 4-6-0 Star 4061 'Glastonbury Abbey' on or after Monday 17th June 2013. Dave

I'm glad they are useful. One of the first things I did after retiring last year was to scan all my slides and negatives, (many of which had never been printed). In due course they will be tagged and put on flickr, but at the moment I'm posting things to rmweb when relevant. Re the grassed tunnel I like the fact that there is an access route along the top of the wall, then up integral steps and a ladder. Btw, did my email get through? It had a lot of attached images so might have got rejected somewhere. I can resend in smaller batched if necessary. Thanks Dave

This is the only other Conway 1960 railway photo, also from the castle, showing some lifted track. These next are from about 1971. They are probably between Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr, showing some tipper wagon remains and the relationship between the road and railway. Will email some 70s pics of the landscape in due course. Thanks Dave

My guess was that it was built to keep pedestrians off the Telford road bridge, which can't have been a pleasant foot crossing. I'll post any railway pics here, and see if there are any more general ones. I visited the area in the early 70s, and have some landscape pictures from then if not too late. I particularly remember seing cut off remains of the Telford route which must have been abandoned in the earlier inmprovements. Thanks Dave

This is one of my father's photos I scanned recently, I think from the early 60s. It shows that there was an extra pedestrian suspension bridge between the road and rail bridges. No idea when it was removed. Looking forward to following this thread Thanks Dave

Easter Day working at St Johns. Part of a 4(ish) day possesion. More Pictures in: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66757-tanners-hill-flydown-st-johns/ Thanks Dave

Regarding the lamps, how about designing a tension lock compatable coupling which would detect when something was coupled to it? This could operate red/white switching, and disable lamps if the van was coupled both ends. Dave (silly ideas R us)

6412 at Chalford on, (I think), the last day of services there. Thanks Dave

One thing that interested me was that the empties I photographed had brake vans both ends, possibly to facilitate a reversal en route, but the mini train didn't. I wonder if this is a different working. Might the minis have been going to Special tuning at Abingdon? thanks Dave

A very poor picture, taken from a passing train, of 92220 on Oxford shed. This would probably have been 1963. Also a train of car flats returning empty, April 1964 And a bit later in 1964, some minis heading south. I don't seem to have photographed any Nortbound car trains, although I have several pictures of returning empties. Thanks Dave

Ah, I'd thought of the river flow as into the operating well. Probably wasn't paying attention when I was catching up... Thanks Dave

As a longtime lunester lurker, I feel I can chuck in a few silly ideas. I'm another who has been thinking about the landforms, and drawing contours, and this is my interpretation. Whether it's helpful or not remains to be seen. What I've done is to straighten out the layout, and the landscape, and gone a bit beyond the modelled area to try to justify things... I haven't given any thought of whether the contours are at regular intervals, or what their separations are, (so far). I started with a landscape, with a road between two villages, on the assumption that a station wouldn't be built without some road access. Then I added the railway, looking at how the land would be altered. The access road comes down steeply from the existing road, into the station yard (scribble). The grassy knoll comes about fairly naturally. This doesn't quite work for me yet, as there seems to be more excavated ground than built up in the area levelled for the station. Also at the botton right the third contour up should swing away from the track to make sense of a tunnel. Then of course the whole thing has to be bent round so that the ends meet up in the fiddle yard. Thanks Dave

Dave