5944

I've got a Roco Swiss 2-10-0 in HO. The motor is in the tender, and not only powers the tender wheels, but also the driving wheels via a cardan shaft. It also has traction tyres, so can pull pretty much anything!

There are a few ZB loco hauled workings out of Luzern I believe. Certainly were a couple of years ago, working Luzern to Engelberg services.

This is on the SVR website. I'll try and find out some more info. Launch of the book 'Transition' – this is the latest book of photographs by Colin T Gifford, widely recognised as one of most important and influential photographers of the period.

Yes, complete with spare boiler. I heard when it was at the NVR and was up for sale, the asking price was £35,000! The 64 tank has indeed been discussed, but the heritage insulation would make it ridiculously expensive to overhaul, plus I understand the boiler isn't in a very good way anyway.

Bag searches on the way into exhibitions now? I thought a bag search when I got home afterwards was bad enough! (Note to self - find a better hiding spot...)

01 1104, the German Pacific, is due to return to traffic this year. 231 K 22 is on display at Heilbronn.

Ah... See what you mean now. The main panels are one colour, the beading is lined, and the rest of the coach is another colour completely. The tops of the doors especially stand out.

Doesn't help that the wiring for them runs above the engines apparently, so any sort of engine or exhaust fire causes massive problems.

Yes, 60163 had a TPWS fault yesterday so was hauled by 66014 all day on its railtour.

I thought the HSB tickets were only valid for one trip from Schierke to the Brocken, with unlimited travel on the rest of the system?

No, ta. Sitting in an air con mk 2 in standard class on a steam hauled railtour really does not appeal! Yes the price is attractive, but I'm not going to waste my money on something like that. I find it's much more enjoyable doing foreign steam these days. You can have your head out of the window, you're not stuck on the train for hours on end, and the prices are generally cheaper too. Admittedly you have to factor in hotels and flights, but as a lot of UK railtours are very early starts and late finishes, hotels are often required anyway.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/43/outbuildings/2

Not heard of them before, but they look quite reasonable. They're not overly expensive either considering they're handmade. I can't find much on the Italian forums about them though, but N gauge is a minority scale over there.

The last photo doesn't show cast springboks, they are panels with the South African crest painted on, affixed to the cabside. The cast springbok was only on the driver's side. The photo above appears to be at Didcot, early 1990. When the loco was overhauled in the late 90s the crests were refitted. I believe the worksplates are in the cab. Fox Transfers do the crests if you want them.

313043 still has the plates screwed to the doors where the handles used to be. All the other GN 313s have had the holes filled, but for some reason 043 has survived, despite having a C6 overhaul a few weeks ago.

First units have now been taken out of service, now that the 700s have started on the GN. 365505, 517 and 519 are at Hornsey at the moment. The plan a couple of weeks ago was 6 units (i.e. 2 x 12 cars) to be stored. A 12 car hot spare would be kept in case a 700 failed, and the other three units would be going through dilapidation repairs (replacing damaged seat cushions, misted windows, wall moquette panels, that sort of thing), but that's probably all changed by now! Even at Hornsey we don't know where the 365s will be heading once they've finished on the GN. We don't even know if we're keeping any! And this thread was the first I'd heard of the 313s heading to the coast.

Oh great, more time is going to be wasted looking through someone's Flickr site! :-)

Found this on Facebook at the weekend. 208 has been finished, but 1067 still requires a full overhaul.

I'd love to model some of the Eritrean railway system. 950mm gauge, so 4mm scale on 12mm track wouldn't look too wrong. However, the thought of scratch building half a dozen 0-4-4-0T Mallets puts me off a bit!

Especially Simon during the Ally Pally show...

According to a post on National Preservation, it's only gauged between Didcot and Old Oak (and has to flit between the main and relief lines) , but hasn't had the TPWS and OTMR signed off so will be towed in light steam.

Indeed it is. There are still a few seeing use these days. A couple work the twice monthly shuttle to the railway museum at Pietrarsa from Napoli. At Arezzo a pair were in frequent use on freight trains until recently as well. A few a used on railtours throughout the year too.

https://twitter.com/BunkerGraeme/status/852013204305625088?s=09

55020 certainly looked dumped when I was at Aylesbury on Monday. I assume 55034 was on the Princes Risborough service, I only got to the station a few minutes after it departed.

I've started doing that recently. If someone has parked with their offside wheels over the white line into a space, I'll try and park in that space, so close that they can't open the door!