eastwestdivide

Now think of a headcode. 62 my favourite, CX-Gillingham, and has the added bonus of confusing the Waterloo-Exeter fans. Oh, and sound effects of many doors slamming.

Steady hand or in-camera shake reduction? (or possibly both)

On this day (Tues 1 Dec 1981), Leicester between 1345 and 1430: stabled: 20037/043/044/045, unidentified 08s on test from Derby: LEV-1 975874 on St Pancras trains: 45106/131/132 on Norwich/Birmingham: 31244 light engine; 25294 ECS: 25268 On this day (Wed 1 Dec 1982), Leicester at 1430: Norwich/Birmingham: 31412 stabled DMUs: 51269, 56413, 50195, 59113, 50177 - Norwich-based and later the same day 1982, Leicester between 2020 and 2210: on freight: 31318 (mixed VB freight), 31165 (ferry wagons), 45102 (one ferry van), 25057 (Ketton cement), 47360 (mixed AB freight) on St Pancras train: 45111 mail: 31182 parcels: 25260, 45135 light: 47361 The only unusual thing in all that was LEV-1. Derby test trains did provide some interesting workings to Leicester.

Pretty sure you're right on the Harwich-Manchester. I seem to recall it was the very last one in service, and must have been after 1977, as that's when I started taking an interest.

The head-on "hamster cheeks" look reminds me of the back end of a Ford Ka "full nappy". But as others have said, it's beginning to look not quite as ugly as first impressions. Does that count as damning with faint praise?

Like the phrase "analysis paralysis" so here's some more to add to the equation: 1) Not just the petrol, but x miles towards the next service at ??y, so for a 12000 mile service interval, ?? x/12000 * y. 2) How likely is it that wife and kids are ill? ill enough to be looked after, say about 1 week a year, or 1 in 50 chance, so the equivalent cost of "losing" the rail ticket is 1/50 * the cost of the ticket. Plug your own figures in and see if they make sense. Or just say "I prefer to travel THIS way" and to hell with the analysis.

If you search for 21249, some photos come up which look suspiciously like the other coach, so I reckon some photographers are making assumptions, e.g. on railpictures.net.

If it's any help, it appears to be a standard Mk1 Brake First, M14007: http://37427.fotopic.net/p60723541.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Railway_carriage_M14007_Sheffield_Midland_station_24_March_2009.jpg although the Wikipedia article has BCK 21249 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A1_Steam_Locomotive_Trust#Support_coach

Bit late to add to this, but this ferry high thing was in service on the Southern as an engineer's wagon by 1982-3 as far as I can tell:

If it's anything like the harbour in a boxfile, we all have crate expectations for this. What sort of crate? Can you get hold of a genuine fishing crate of some sort?

Is that 'N' scale? Nice idea. Although you could have left the caterpillar tracks on - I'm sure I've seen a bulldozer arrangement on a road-railer in sidings just W of Leeds station...

Probably there is a longer distance between the conductor shoes at front and rear of a train than the distance of a gap, so I should think the noise is due to drawing power. Even if it's less than a Eurostar, there's a lot of current needed to move 100s of tons of train, and there must be heat generated there. Going off-topic I know...

You can hear a '######' noise as the conductor rails expand and contract when something pulls a heavy electrical load, such as a Eurostar, or in earlier days 2x Class 73s on a loaded coal train. Edit: the filter won't let me write c-h-i-n-k, which is exactly the noise that I want to express. Some of my best friends are Chinese etc etc.