Rivercider

Further back up the thread I was thinking about this point myself. Here Network Rail have a pot of money and have to work out how best to use it to increase safety, for example would the same amount of money save more lives if it was used for replacing level crossings? I seem to recall predecessor Railtrack seemed to have a different view, and shareholders to consider, deferred maintenance anyone? And of course the North American scene is different again, financially and geographically. We keep comparing apples with oranges, cheers

I have a 'Thomas' starter set kept in its box. Sometimes when my partner has to look after her nephew we get it out and set up on the lounge floor on hardboard sheets to keep him entertained. I must admit I enjoy seeing my old Triang 3MT Standard tank going round to stretch its wheels as it will not negotiate the track on my layout. cheers

This is fascinating, another thread where just clicking the 'like' button does not seem enough! Do you have control over how much freight traffic is generated, or could the system randomly send extra traffic and cause you congestion problems? cheers

On this occasion the loco fire may have played a part. Clearly for a driver to regularly work a job he will learn the potential problems and hazards to look out for which should make it safer. However over familiarity/complacency can have an adverse effect, possibly worsened by the use of 'work arounds' as explained by Mike. (I remember one of our senior drivers, for personal reasons he regularly changed turns so ended up working the same diagram pretty much every other week. Eventually, in an area where it was routine to run on yellow signals - following a preceding stopping service - he had a SPAD, fortunately with no damage. One of the reasons was given that he had worked the job too often.) I can imagine a driver, less familiar with the job, stabling the tank train in question with more handbrakes than necessary to be on the safe side, cheers

I can see your fiddle yard is not ideal, but that is the road I would also use for the DMU, if you are like me the same set gets used for several sessions before getting swapped over. cheers

Jo, I have always thought that a train in the landscape can be a thing of beauty, and, although I find class 66s a bit functional and brutal, some of your pictures make it so, thanks for sharing cheers

Welcome Mike. The plan looks small enough to enable you to get it to a point you can enjoy it quite quickly, but with some complexity to make it interesting to operate. I also found it difficult to choose one era, being able to move forward a few years and change the stock freshens it up. good luck cheers

Here are another couple from South Wales:- A trip from Tymawr Colliery drops cautiously down towards Radyr Yard behind 37273, although trains approaching down the valley could be heard from some distance away the Drivers only briefly applied power to keep the train running, letting the gradient do most of the work, 11/8/82. Steel from BSC Margam for Llanwern crosses the Usk in Newport behind 37236, 7/5/85 cheers

In the Layout Topics introduction thread NXEA mentions the era is loosely 1967 - 1971, and the layout is indeed inspired by the Bachmann 2-EPB! I was wondering where the local freight trip would have come from for that route, would it have been Feltham prior to closure? Following closure of Feltham would it be too much of a leap to imagine a trip from Acton Yard with hydraulics? cheers

The short middle siding is an end loading dock, apparently little used in the last years. When we stayed in Bude last year we visited the Falcon Hotel for a coffee. In the bar area there were lots of old pictures of the hotel and some details of its history. In 1872 it became the headquarters for local stage coaches, the last two (?) were stored at the hotel. There are pictures in the bar of the two old coaches being moved by road over the canal to the station where they were loaded from the dock onto wagons for transit away, I can not remember the date but 1950s I think. cheers

Here are a few views of Teignmouth taken earlier this month, June 2013. Teignmouth was opened by the South Devon Railway in 1846 and amalgamated into the GWR it was rebuilt in 1895 in a style popular at the time and is similar to Torquay and Weston-super-Mare. A view from the roof of the Teignmouth Heritage centre across the road. The main station buildings on the down side. Viewed from the bridge at the West (Newton Abbot) end looking towards the coast. A view from the west end of the up platform looking towards Exeter. cheers

Here are a couple more:- 37295 and 37233 are in typical Bath Road condition, they had been regulars on the Tytherington - Wolverton stone working and are seen passing through Oxford with ARC PGAs, 31304 had been on the Bicester MOD trip, 10/7/81. At Gaer Junction 37232 has just received acceptance from A.D. Junction yard with a trip working composed largely of spoil for Maesglas Tip, the loco has only one buffer skirt, 19/5/82 cheers

Thanks for posting that link ,although the quality is variable in some shots, that is a superb collection. They are just pictures of everyday railway life, that mostly went unrecorded. There are some fantastic detail shots in there. cheers

Cracking photos, very nice indeed, look after them. cheers

How much room do you have? Will you have a fiddle yard or is it all on-scene? Do you want a complicated shunting puzzle, with run-round or other (private?) sidings to serve? Will you have a scenic break/scene blocker to add interest or add photo opportunities? just thoughts..... cheers

I have taken a rough count and would say the pictures are roughly:- 60 - in service, though including some on end of steam charters, or possibly stored 25 - stored/withdrawn or in departmental use, 5 - preserved/MOD.. cheers

I have had a look through my pictures and here are three from a day I spent hunting the beasts in their natural habitat, the Cardiff Valleys. The first two pictures were taken in Trelewis, in the Ocean Colliery complex, I am not sure of the exact railway location. 37255 and 37300 stand at Trelewis with a MGR set, which was loaded at the nearby Deep Navigation colliery with coal for Aberthaw, 24/5/83. 37251 shunts a train of colliery shale loaded in ex iron ore hoppers at Trelewis, it would make the short trip to the Shale Disposal Point at Nelson Bog, 24/5/83. 37162 runs down towards Taffs Well with a train load of coal from Tower Colliery for export via Swansea Docks, 24/5/83 cheers edit = to correct loco number

Here is one from 1983 1B59 13.45 Penzance - Bristol calls at St Austell behind 45128, 8/3/83 cheers

Glorious (not!) at Lostwithiel In far from glorious weather 50033 Glorious runs up through Lostwithiel. I don't know what the working was, the time was 12.05 on Wednesday 23rd June 1980. (50040 Leviathan was on the following 11.05 Penzance - Plymouth, which was 12.24 off Lostwithiel) cheers

Here is another one from Lostwithiel, sorry the train is a bit distant, I was probably trying to take a general view. I seem to think the gent in the welly boots was BR staff, anyone remember him? 50040 Leviathan runs into Lostwithiel with the 13.50 Plymouth - Penzance, 23/6/82 cheers

Here is a shot from Truro in 1983 50014 Warspite arrives at Truro with the 11.05 Penzance - Plymouth, 8/3/83 cheers

Here is another one from my Flickr stream 37289 passes Port Talbot Parkway with BPO tanks from Llandarcy, 7/7/81 cheers

Here are a few of the better class 37 shots from my Flickr sets:- Firstly 2 from South Wales which would have been everyday shots for over 20 years In the morning sun 37247 heads eastwards through Cardiff Central with loaded 21t minerals, 15/9/81 Coal for the Phurnacite plant at Abercwmboi departs the splendidly named Stormstown behind 37239, this train had earlier arrived from up the valley and had run-round at Stormstown, 24/5/83 6V66 Tees - Severn Beach Speedlink service passes through York, 37161 is hauling containers of potash from Boulby Mine for ICI Severnside, 25/7/84 cheers

Very nice and atmospheric, a class 37 in its natural habitat. I still think a 37 looks best in blue, at the front of a coal train. Several of my photo trips were made to South Wales, if I had planned a day out, and it rained, I still tried to make the best of it, cheers

There are quite a few on my Flickr photostream, they are not in any order, not many close ups, mostly working freight in the 1980s... 37047 at Motherwell, 22/3/80 cheers