eastwestdivide

Just found those notes made when we were looking at how many 47s had visited E Kent, and one line reads: "47301 01/08/1984 Rochester down Mk1s excurson, return in evening" (yes, typo in excursion). So maybe the loco stabled/got serviced(?) on Dover Town (a freight location), leaving its train somewhere like Ramsgate where they could service the coaches. Vaguely recall that the rest of the train wasn't SC-prefix coaches (that would be a long day out, Glasgow-Margate). I'd noticed it in the formation when it went down to the coast in the morning, so made a point of getting a shot going back.

If anyone's interested in the numbering of these, I just dug out some old notes in answer to a query on another thread (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/155329-br-exhibition-coaches/?do=findComment&comment=5195134), which I'll repeat here as it seems a useful spot: Unbelievably, from notes I made peering at wagon plates at Hoo Junction and elsewhere in the 1980s, I noted that actual wagon! 21 RIV 70 BR 214 0 144-3 was (G)B 787017. I think the G was on the cast wagon plate originally, but by then, the white paint picked out only from the B onwards, hence the (G) in brackets. From those notes, the UIC numbering and the BR numbers were in sequence within the two batches of vans (there was a gap in the (G)B-series numbering, first batch GB786873-GB787022 and second GB787098-GB787347 according to https://www.ltsv.com/w_ref_numbers_b1.php). The UIC numbering was changed at some point from 21 70 214 0 xxx-y to 21 70 238 0 xxx-y or 21 70 239 0 xxx-y. The last digit (y above) is a check digit, so the actual sequence number of each wagon is the xxx (the 144 in your example). I noted a few others: 214 0 000-7 = 786873 (first of the first batch) 239 0 008-? = 786881 (+8 from the start of each series - I didn't record the check digit) 214 0 047-? = 786920 238 0 058-? = 786931 238 0 059-? = 786932 ... and from the second batch 238 0 180-? = 787128 238 0 305-? = 787253 Quick bit of work with Excel and you could make a cross-reference for them all.

Unbelievably, from notes I made peering at wagon plates at Hoo Junction and elsewhere in the 1980s, I noted that actual wagon! 21 RIV 70 BR 214 0 144-3 was (G)B 787017. I think the G was on the cast wagon plate originally, but by then, the white paint picked out only from the B onwards, hence the (G) in brackets. From those notes, the UIC numbering and the BR numbers were in sequence within the two batches of vans (there was a gap in the (G)B-series numbering, first batch GB786873-GB787022 and second GB787098-GB787347 according to https://www.ltsv.com/w_ref_numbers_b1.php). The UIC numbering was changed at some point from 21 70 214 0 xxx-y to 21 70 238 0 xxx-y or 21 70 239 0 xxx-y. The last digit (y above) is a check digit, so the actual sequence number of each wagon is the xxx (the 144 in your example). I noted a few others: 214 0 000-7 = 786873 (first of the first batch) 239 0 008-? = 786881 (+8 from the start of each series - I didn't record the check digit) 214 0 047-? = 786920 238 0 058-? = 786931 238 0 059-? = 786932 ... and from the second batch 238 0 180-? = 787128 238 0 305-? = 787253 Quick bit of work with Excel and you could make a cross-reference for them all.

1st August 1984, Strood, Cuxton Road, 47 on the front of a returning excursion with one Scotrail coach in the formation SC 18798. That's the Medway viaduct (M2 motorway) in the background.

I’ve a photo somewhere of a coach with that branding in Kent on some excursion!

I’ll just leave this website here: http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com Maybe not updated for a while, but lots of biscuit-related shenanigans there.

Also, the Blood and Custard website includes those codes against individual types of MU (not sure how comprehensively as I only dipped in). Interestingly (well, interesting for some people!) this page on the 4-SUBs https://www.bloodandcustard.com/SR-4SUB.html describes the codes as

Memory’s a funny thing. The RCTS coaching stock books included MUs. Here’s an extract from the 1982 RCTS book showing those AJ, BR, BS codes against the 4-REPs as mentioned above:

I think those 2-letter+suffix codes on EMU and DEMU cars were in the RCTS stock books around the early 1980s, but against each class listing rather than as an A-Z list of codes.

Also, there’s an advantage to having your historic emails in a nicely searchable client on your desktop versus having them only available with an internet connection and poorly-searchable web interface, and relying on Microsoft 364 or whatever it’s called this week. Remember “the cloud” = “someone else’s computer”

I had the exact same thing* from BT for my business account as the OP. Call me old-fashioned, but I liked having multiple email accounts accessible via one email client (on both computer and phone). I spoke to them, and I'd have need to pay extra for some Exchange-related subscription thing, just to be able to get emails again on my phone email client. No IMAP under the new system. Communication was terrible: I had a cryptic email way back last year saying the cutoff date was Nov '22, but that came and went with no change, then I got another email from them earlier this year, equally cryptic, which I then followed up to discover what was happening. * one difference - as I had domain hosting as well (my own domain, not btconnect or any other BT one, for my business email), I promptly transferred the whole lot from BT to another email provider who would provide POP and IMAP. Bit of a pain, I'd been with them ages and was on a really cheap deal, but bye-bye BT!

Well worth a visit in my experience. Pics over here:

Hastings units were favourites on railtours as well, including the Cymru DEMU to the Welsh valleys and the Long Thin Drag over the S&C to Carlisle, annoyingly not quite to Scotland, and more mundanely, the Chatham Dockyard branch, all of which I've photographed (somewhere on this site if they survived the photopocalypse).

Not the usual Gatwick Express Mk2s - could this have been a Bournemouth line service in the SW side platforms, and one of the 73+EMU lashups made when they were extracting the traction motors from the 4-REPs for reuse in the new 442s? Or is 1987 too early for that?

Thanks. The photo didn’t take me anywhere when I clicked it so I never saw a caption

Is that Wimbledon?

Best not to mention what happened with the colourblind zebra!

Some hydrofluoric acid tanks here in Paul Bartlett’s collections https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/icichlorine

It’s OK, you’re among friends here!

I caught the Strasbourg-Offenburg train last year - they’re now a pair of single-car DMUs!

A few more oddments… Moss growing on the back of this semaphore at Grindleford, 2019: Kneeling signal prior to commissioning, Gilberdyke, 2018: Signal with two kinds of feathers, Rotherham, 2016:

A couple of pics of a semaphore signal with a chopped top, Stonehaven May 2022:

Were any of that design vacuum piped though? I can’t find any reference to vac piping

That’s a good mixed up freight - wagons 3 and 4 look like air braked opens (OAA) and there’s parcels stock as well as vacuum braked wagons including the PO grain wagons. Same train going away in the following photo too.

Imagine the joy when you find where the Off button is!