Flood

Modelmaster list them: WP152 Cl. 50 Long Oval Leasing Plates x 2 I don't know what they are like. I commisioned Jackson Evans to make some leasing plates in the early 1990s but you couldn't read the writing, there were just lines of the correct word length for effect. I don't know whether Modelmaster took over Jackson Evans plates. I've looked under Shawplan but they don't list them.

HGR has covered the full details but as he states in 1975 the VAA (VAB) was solely for the ventilated variety, VBA (VBB) for the non-ventilated. In reality the first batch 200000-200208, were virtually, if not all, coded VAA (VAB). The remaining batches were VBA (VBB) although some errors can be seen on individual wagons being coded VAA (e.g 200633, 200643, 200644).

From 1980 all day time Kings Cross - Edinburgh services were HST (Inter City 125) hauled. The Deltics, and subsequently Class 47s, were used on Kings Cross-York semi fasts but these seem to have finished around 1982. The overnight services to Aberdeen from 1982 were initially as follows: Mk1 BG, 10 Mk3a Sleeper (two trains) (+3 Motorail GUVs on one train) and Mk2a BFK, 5 Mk2 aircon FO, RBR, 5 Mk2 aircon FO, Mk2a BFK (for non sleeper passengers) by 1986 there were just two trains: Mk1 BG, 4 Mk2 aircon FO, Mk1 BG, 6 Mk3a Sleeper 4 Mk2 aircon FO, Mk1 BG, 6 Mk3a Sleeper, 3 Motorail GUV these ran until May 1988 The Mk1 BG is made by Bachmann and Hornby. The Mk3a sleepers have been made by Hornby (and originally by Lima). The Mk2 aircon First Open coaches are either the Bachmann or Hornby Mk2F. The Mk2a BFK are made by Bachmann The loco would always have been a Class 47/4 (i.e. with electric train heating) made by Bachmann, Hornby and Heljan.

Enamel. Humbrol Midnight Blue gloss (15) for the BR uniforms which I bought in 1981 when building an Airfix Banshee.

I'm sure a quick blast of Halfords grey primer wouldn't do them any harm. Seeing as ours are permanently in place they never get handled anyway.

Not a Monster for starters. SR PMV/CCT, LMS CCT, SR BY, 2 x BR BG, BR GUV, LNER BG?, 2 x BR GUV,...

To add to your post Glenn, DCC removes the need for seperate isolated sections and their switches so this will cut down a little bit on the wiring and panel elements.

Just for completeness, 5647 was InterCity Great Western (on loan) in Jan 1992 and 3239 was InterCity Anglia. There is no way I would have found those numbers!

When the Aberdeen sleepers went over to being Euston services in 1988 the stock used was definitely Wembley based West Coast refurbished Mk2 air-con so basically Mk2F. Looking in the 1992 Combined the split between routes and builds persisted - Mk2E TSOs solely for Cross Country (except for about 3 or 4 vehicles), Mk2F TSOs for West Coast and Anglia as well as more Cross Country.

Looking at photos of 1B26 the majority seem to have 3 Mk1 TSOs in the rake but two photos do have only two Mk1 TSOs. The photo I have found with four Mk1 TSOs does not have an air-con TSO. I have the 1992 Platform 5 Combined which has allocations for January 1992, from this we have: All the Mk1 TSOs in InterCity livery are based at Liverpool Edge Hill and belong to InterCity Charter (air not refurb) ICHD or InterCity Charter (steam specials) ICHS ICHD 4919, 4925, 4927, 4930, 4938, 4939, 4946, 4949, 4956, 4959, 4961, 4963, 4966, 49774979, 4986, 4991, 4996, 4998, 4999, 5001, 5002, 5005, 5007, 5008, 5009, 5010, 5023, 5025, 5027, 5029, 5030, 5033, 5037, 5041, 5044 ICHS 4858, 4869, 4902, 4909, 4915, 4916, 5038, 5040, 5042 Mk1 RMB ICHS 1832, 1853 also Carlisle allocated ICHH (see below) 1813, 1860, 1876 Mk2D BFK ICHD 17144, 17151, 17155, 17156, 17158, 17159, 17165, 17169, 17171 Some of the photos seem to show red vestibules in the Mk2 air-con stock which would suggest that they were Mk2D (Mk2E and Mk2F had putty coloured vestibules). In addition the 2nds have two toilet windows on the same side, so they are definitely Mk2D. There are no Mk2D air-con 1sts or 2nds allocated to Edge Hill but there are the following: 3172, 3174, 3187, 3188, 3202 allocated to Carlisle, InterCity Charter (held for re-use) ICHH For air-con seconds I am at a bit of a loss but Polmadie had ICCL, InterCity Cross Country (on loan) stock which may have moved by May 1992. 5617, 5630, 5633, 5637, 5648, 5675, 5678, 5681, 5684, 5719, 5722 So without any reallocation details between Jan 1992 and May 1992 this is the best I can come up with. Others may be able to fill in with more detail by owning Rail Magazines from that period.

Hi everyone Not much of an update from me as I am in the middle of a substantial wagon conversion and it's gonna take a while. One new loco added to the fleet and a few mods on one of the old locos: Back at the end of April I picked up my model of 37298 from Glenn as I had realised years ago that is should have Western Region lamp brackets either side of the headcode box. One afternoon later it looked as below: Having handed the loco back to Glenn, so he can run it on the layout, I discovered another mod that needed to be done. Quite a number of the ex Cardiff 37s still had frost grills in 1988 so I bought a set from Shawplan, painted them up, got the loco back from Glenn again and fitted them this morning. At the same time another little adornment was added: Ewe know it makes sense The other loco for the fleet was from an old 37235 body that had been stripped years ago. I sorted out a chassis, added some mods to the front ends and the cantrail grills and a quick spray later we have 37185: Shawplan sealed beam etches have been added to the headcode boxes, the lenses were modded so they curved forward of the etches, headboard clips were added to No. 1 end and RSH dividers were added to the cantrail grills. I then realised I hadn't added the snowploughs yet: The loco is at Alex's for weathering so will end up nice and grubby. When I have something to show you all regarding the wagons I will and Glenn still has another instalment of his progress to add as well. Have fun folks and, hopefully, we will be back on the road next year.

Holdalls due late Q2-Q3 2021, that's great news for Kirkhill.

No report in the Railway Observers at the time but W99W and W275W were noted at Old Oak Common with end collision damage late March/early April 1975. Both of these were K42 full brakes which matches the design of the two shown in the photos. A closer look on flickr shows that the van closest to the unit (76295 = 4TC 414) is W275W (no suffix carried).

You're correct about the door design, the window frames also changed to being a plainer design. Larkin states in BR Passenger Rated and Parcels Stock Vol 1 that after 1971 only the BR build batches of Monster remained, not much use really. I did check the RCTS observers for all of 1969 but there were no withdrawals of Monsters mentioned, in fact they listed very little detail on non passenger stock withdrawals in the copies I scanned.

See my post on this thread from just over a year ago:

From looking at Paul Bartlett's photos and a few others some wagons seem to have swapped traffic flows and back again within only a few years. An example is 70725. On Paul's site it is shown with the ICI logo blanked out, at Exeter, dated 29 Oct 1987. Although the shape is the same size as the white box and red ATO writing shown on 70700, and the original TRL logo is no longer there with the Tiger logo being present, a faint ICI logo can just be seen, as on a number of other photos as well. There is also a paint patch where the hazcem has been removed. Private Owner Wagons Vol 2 also shows 70725, at Warrington, dated 2 Dec 1989. The blocked out area is still there but a 2R 1824 hazcem has been added. This suggests it is back in Caustic Soda use. So from 1987 onwards I would suggest that the only way to check which traffic flow a wagon was used for, if not in ECC livery, is whether a hazcem is present or not. Some other photos showing Clay Slurry livery variations are below (click to see enlarged in Flickr): Copyright mailrail on Flickr Copyright mailrail on Flickr Copyright mailrail on Flickr Copyright Michael J Collins on Flickr.

50003 and 50035 were both modded in 1976. 50035 had white rims to the light fittings, 50003 had blue. 50003 Truro 26 June 1976 photo by Richard Billinge 50007 had no. 1 end only done in 1978. The next batch were done around the time of the first refurbs and had the later rubber grommit style fitting. From what I can remember thery were modded before refurb due to water ingress, the examples were: 5, 10, 11, 14, 20, 24, 27, 30, 46 and 49

TUA 101 and 102 duly ordered. That's another set of scratch-builds I don't have to make for Kirkhill. Any manufacturer want to make a 4mm French Norsk Hydro curtain sided fertiliser wagon? I know Rivarossi make an HO model (and I've already ordered some of the Revolution Holdalls).

This picture shows the components for the China Clay Slurry Tank (ex caustic soda). It will hopefully be of use in identifying parts: http://community.fortunecity.ws/marina/fishing/456/037.jpg

Many thanks for the heads-up John, I will await details as and when you have them.

They are two different designs and, strictly speaking, the Bachmann version had been withdrawn by 1981 (the remainder had lost two windows and a door on the kitchen side to incorporate a buffet counter). The Bachmann model is very nice. I don't own any of the Hornby ones but from photographs the windows and general detailing seems just as good as the Bachmann ones. Any more thoughts from people who own both?

That seems like a plan Mike. One of the thoughts is "do we have a movable siding?", i.e. remove the track from one siding in the fiddle yard so a 3 foot long "carry section" can be placed on the board and the stock rolled off ready to be used. The Peco loco lifts will sit on existing track. I can't see an easy way off doing this d.i.y style but this is only needed if a loco is to be driven off the lift. If only the freight stock is on the lift then this removes the weight of a loco and ensures better overall weight distribution. It would be useful to keep half sets in their 3 foot carriers when transporting the stock/layout but the thought of carrying 3 foot sections of stock any distance does seem daunting. I think a chat with Glenn is needed.

Another update! When I picked up the PBA starch wagon and LPG tank I also collected my DCE rake which Alex Carpenter had weathered to varying degrees of grime and, as usual, to an excellent standard. After have a quick look how I could stain Scale Model Scenery wooden sleepers I poured some black shoe colour restorer polish into a honey jar with about 2 to 3 more parts of water and dunked six packs of sleepers, 312, in for 1 to 4 hours (sounds like a cooking recipe). Depending whether you let them dry on kitchen roll (absorbs some of the dye) or brown parcel tape (leaves them virtually black) you get varying shades. A lot of glueing of sleepers later you have the below: Full rake ZAA ex SPA ZDA ex OBA Another ZDA ex OBA ZDA ex OCA Another ZAA ex SPA, virtually out of paint shop I'm really pleased with the results, now I can take the weekend off whilst seeing if I can find a cheaper alternative to Peco loco lifts for carrying 3 ft sections of freight train.

So a class 6 isn't fully fitted? Looks like British Rail doesn't agree. General Appendix to Working Timetables and books of Rule and Regulations, 1st October 1972

Well I've just had my usual week off in March and I have managed to do some modelling. The containers for the FPA wagons are now finished. For months I struggled to find a solution to model the cleats on the sides that were used to tie down a cover on the originals. When searching through for other stuff from Eileen's I found a length of 1/32 x 3/32 brass bar. Wrap 0.3mm wire around it, dremel through the wire on the wide edge, stick sellotape along this side, turn over, dremel through the wire on other wide edge - hey presto, lots of 1/32 x 1/32 U shapes of wire. All that was needed then was to individually glue 141 of them over three containers! The transfers are all hand made. I had to make a few spares as they broke up quite easily but I'm really pleased with the finished items. Just a bit of weathering for Alex to add some time this year. As stated on another thread I also had my LPG TTA back after 9 months. The orange stripe was too deep, 5mm instead of 4mm, so on Saturday night I masked off the stripe I wanted to keep and set to with some brand new P360 wet and dry paper. About an hour later it was all sorted and I feel the proportions now look so much better. Just a bit of weathering to be blown in to finish. I also got the Cerestar starch wagon back from Alex with some subtle weathering so here are the TTA and PBA together. That's all for now. By August I might actually get to see the layout again and, with 2 weeks booked in July, I might even have a look at the FBB whisky container wagons (only a year since I last touched them!) As always please add your comments as you feel fit.