Swindon 123

Dunston Power station's Ruston Hornsby No 55 again, although a much better photo that that in post 11915. ( http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/85326-dave-fs-photos-ongoing-more-added-12th-june/?p=2956512 ) . Ruston Hornsby No 55, 0-4-0DE, Wks No 381751, built 1955, was at Dunston until the closure and demolition of the station in 1986. In the 1987 IRS shunter book, it was listed as at T.J.Thomson & Son Ltd, Dunston Engine Works, but had disappeared by 1991. Thank you for sharing these photos with us David. I always look forward to seeing your latest post/photos, to see what you will regail us with. Paul J.

The last few months on Blowers Green, have been spent under the baseboards,(mainly by Bill) adding all the new wiring for the new control panels, (as mentioned in post 55. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/109556-blowers-green-7mm-1970s-blue-diesel-layout-now-with-added-stock/?p=2947512 ). The idea for this revamp came from experiance gained at exhibitions. The layout originally was designed with a single control panel mounted in the middle of the layout controlling all points, signals and power. This proved to be unwealdy at exhibitions, with a fair bit of shouting between operators to get the right bit of track energised or point/signal changed. Having seen the control panels built by Mr Wibble for Hornsey Broadway, the idea was duly copied, with Bill building the control panel, and myself designing the wiring. The new set up has 3 control panels, one at each end for the fiddle yards, and a central one for the yard. They have been designed to communicate with each other to a degree so that when certain points/crossovers are reversed, the relavent operators know. Control of signals and points/crossovers, is now done from the relavent panel needing to control them, rather than one central one. The past 4 months have been dedicated to completing the panels and the wiring and hooking it all up to the existing wiring, most of which remained untouched. The end of May saw the new system plugged in and tested, and after a couple of days de-bugging and sorting out the crossed wires, the three new panels where finally working as they should. Now comes a period of intensive testing and making sure that we haven't any rogue feeds or crossed connections, before the layout, and new control panels, make their 1st appearence at Exe MRS Exhibition, Sat 30th June& Sun 1st July. Below are a couple of views of the new control panels. Yard control panel. Bridge control panel. Tunnel control panel. Hopefully all this work will result in a better operation of the layout, but only time spent exhibiting will prove that. Also one cannot factor in the human element into layout operation? Paul J.

Excellent set of videos. A time capsual on how the NCB railways ran. Riverting stuff. Paul J.

Well just jumped in and bought a full set of pre TOPS ones. Will look nice running on Hornsey Broadway. Looking forward to getting them. If they are as good as the HUO in all respects, they will be stunning. Full marks for taking on the wagon and modelling it. Paul J.

I have now rescanned the Bolsover HUO photos in my Post 8, to a higher resolution, and also some others taken on that day, (another 20 wagons in addition to the 4 above), and have started to upload them, along with other photos of HUO's in service, into an HUO Album on my Flickr page. It can be found at this link. https://flic.kr/s/aHsmcWSNFy In time I will find and scan the photos I took of the internal user HUO's at Onllwyn during visits in 1987 and 1992 and add them to the album as well. Paul J.

Shame. I would certainly be interested in bying some if Accurascale where to consider doing a model of one. I have plenty of the old Triang ones waiting to be re-worked, it's just a suitable chassis/parts for one that is putting me off. Paul J.

This shot is about the best I've come across so far. https://flic.kr/p/a4dEmY Paul J.

Yes it did. See this link to Google maps. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.9547578,-3.5339647,3a,75y,51h,89.86t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQlED8G8rAmv-GuIpOoUdpw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Also see this link. http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17&lat=51.9552&lon=-3.5338&layers=10&right=BingHyb An interesting find Phil. Never knew it existed. It really would be interesting to find a photo of it. My own searches so far have drawn a blank. Paul J.

Another fascinating read Robert. Thank you for sharing. I didn't relise just how much had disappeared before I started on the footplate there. Paul J.

That makes for very interesting reading Robert. So different to when I was rattling up and down there between 1979 to 84. Thank you for sharing. Paul J.

Thanks for the info Andy. The fact I have a Flickr account, and possibly that Flickr is in the process of being taken over, may account for my first link not working for some peaple. Glad the second one works though, because the album has some cracking shots on it in very high resolution as well. ps looked on the six bells junction site and couldn't find the Trans-Pennine railtour to Hornsey that I 'spotted' yesterday Late traffic notice for a special to cater for Leeds fans travelling to see their side play Arsenal in the FA cup semi final replay. That's our story for the record. Paul J.

The photo in this link, https://flic.kr/p/2327iEq seems to show a light on in Hotel Curve Tunnel. If you look at it in very high resolution, you can see the catch point at the end of the platform and the check rails to stop a derailed train contacting the tunnel wall. Paul J.

It works for me Robert. The only other one I can suppy is this one, which may or may not work? <a data-flickr-embed="true" data-header="true" data-footer="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/150400961@N07/albums/72157693089061655"title="Kings Cross Station"><img src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4621/40106015801_77cd5a462b_c.jpg" width="800" height="515" alt="Kings Cross Station"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Paul J.

They are sort of junction signals, because there were more than one route available for departing trains. As a rough example this photo, https://flic.kr/p/2327gYE , shows the departure signals for Platform 7 (old numbering), and departures can be via two routes, D & C, so there is a signal indicating to each respective route, sort of the same as if the signal had semaphore arms instead of lights. Some signals that only had a single head, also had a roller blind route indicator, that diplayed the route being taken. If you are prepared to read through it with a fine touthcombe, all this can be gleaned from my album in Flickr about the Kings Cross resignalling done by the LNER, most of which was still relevent until the 1976/7 electrification resignalling scheme. My Flickr album of the LNER resignalling sceme can be found here. https://flic.kr/s/aHskvC1YEk Paul J.

Not sure if these photos have been linked to in the past, but some very interesting shots in the album on Flickr, link below, taken in the early 60's. Very high resolution scans as well, which is a bonus. https://flic.kr/s/aHsmeTSoKz Paul J.

With Railex only a couple of days away, I thought I would dig out some of my photos of the layout for your delectation. D5908 on ballast hoppers. Stranger in the camp. Paul J.

These three photos have appeared on Facebook recently, (so I hope copyright will not be an issue), that show views of the suburban side of Kings Cross that I haven't seen before, and I thought might be of interest here. Paul J.

One thing I did notice when travelling through the station was, that the overbridge to the south of the station at the end of Railway Walk, according to Google Maps, which is only accessing fields, has very little clearance to the overhead wires going under it. They almost touch it, and would not be able to carry any voltage through them, hence the isolation sections in the OHL just station side of the bridge. For the wires to go through and further south, that bridge would have to be raised/replaced. Paul J.

Thanks for the reminder Andy. I had forgotten about the road closure for that bridge, despite driving over that route last Thursday. Certainly done a nice job on it. It looks like a carbon copy of the original one, only newer looking. Paul J.

Up date on this thread. I travelled past the site of Worcester Parkway station today, coming in on a HST from Oxford. The embankment has been cleared where the station platform will be on the Oxford line, ready for platform building. There is the start of the footbridge linking all the platforms that currently crosses the Worcester avoiding line. I didn't get any photos as it came as a surprise, but further back early on in the thread, mention was made of the turnback siding at Henwick. This has been completed, but not yet operational, and has as its exit signal, a full size semaphore, with a home and distant arm, the distant looks to be fixed, and a theater box route indicator. I did manage to catch a shot of that from a passing Hereford train, as shown below. A big engineering job on between Worcester Foregate St and Shrub Hill over this bank holiday weekend, relaying the track between Foregate St and Shrub Hill, and possibly Tunnel Jcn as well, but not sure on that one. New semaphore at Henwick. Just for once and addition to the ranks of semaphore distant signals, and LQ as well. Shame it's fixed. Paul J.

Travelled through Bromsgrove station on my way to New St today, and No1 platform is definately wired, as I think No 4 was when I looked across. I didn't see any signs of them being isolated from the 25Kv supply, as Pl1 definately had an insulation joint in the overheads just north os the overbridge to the south of the station. Paul J. Edited to correct awful spelling!

Those of you who have copied my list of Trip Cock fitted 31's, please note I have added more locos to the list, after being in conversation with Clive Mortimore and looking at additional photos. Paul J.

I did make a list of all Trip Cock fitted 31's I could identify/find in records, and came up with the following list. TRIP-COCK fitted Class 31 "D" No. Tops No. DB fitted. D5589 31401 1971, ETH fitted 1972. D5590 31171 1968. D5592 31402 1971, ETH fitted 1972. D5593 31173 1969. D5594 31174 1974. D5596 31403 1972, ETH fitted 1973. D5602 31181 1968. D5604 31183 After 1977 if ever. D5605 31404 1968, ETH fitted 1972. D5606 31405 1972 + ETH fitted. D5607 31184 1974. D5608 31185 1968. D5609 31186 1968. D5610 31187 1969. D5611 31188 1968. D5612 31189 1976. D5613 31190 1968. D5614 31191 1969. D5615 31192 1970. D5622 31198 1968. D5623 31199 1970. D5625 31201 1969. D5626 31202 1968. D5627 31203 1969. D5639 31215 After 1977 if ever. D5640 31407 1969, ETH fitted 1972. D5642 31217 1968. D5643 31218 1969. D5644 31219 1968. D5645 31220 1973. D5646 31408 1968, ETH fitted 1972. D5648 31222 1970. D5649 31223 1969. D5650 31224 1968. D5651 31225 1968. D5652 31226 1968. D5653 31227 1968. D5671 31243 1974 D5672 31244 After 1977 if ever. D5673 31245 1969 D5674 31246 After 1977 if ever. D5675 31247 1971 D5676 31248 After 1977 if ever. D5677 31249 1969. D5678 31250 1968 D5679 31251 After 1977 if ever. Not all of the above resided at FP, but moved depots a bit. As far as I know non other than the above where ever fitted, but a trip cock fitted 31 could be identified, even after removal, by the inset in the buffer beam skirt under the D/A's side window at the front, as in the photo below. With regards to Clive Mortimore's list of locos, class 23 were fitted with trip cocks, and so could travel on the widened lines without restriction, except for the fact nobody lliked them down there on account of the exhaust fumes. In the photo below the connecting vacuum pipe to the trip cock mechanism, along with its isolating handle in the horizontal position, can be seen to the left of the vacuum pipe on D5901. Paul J. Note List updated with some extra loco numbers added after being in conversation with Clive Mortimore, and checking more photos.

The 08 is the motive power for the crane, you can just make out the driver looking out of the cab window for instructions. Everybody else has got out of the way. Had to do the same job once with the Hereford pilot when the self propelled crane being used to remove track in the station, broke down. Vey intense as accurace and care was paramount. Paul J.

Stokesay Castle, just south of Craven Arms looking north, on the "North & West" route between Shrewsbury at Newport. By the looks of the wagons and the traction, I'd guess around the early 90's as a date. Paul J.