Poor Old Bruce

Coalville East, LNWR, 1962

Hardly a survey, just a single photo of the closed station at Bo'ness on 13 April 1963 when we went looking for dumped steam engines.

Within a few minutes of you posting your pictures of Langworth, I was actually there taking some for myself. Obvious differences are that the lamp hut has disappeared and the staircase has been replaced by a metal one.

The curve at the back was different as well.

The tender fitted to 43435 was a one-off, re-used from a withdrawn 4-4-0 according to Summerson and was 3250 gallons anyway. 43435 was, of course, a 3F, all other 3Fs were fitted with Johnson tenders.

It was a surviving Midland Lower Quadrant signal on the Up Goods Line.

Irwell Bridge Sidings, opposite Manchester Exchange station, 8 Aug 1984. Looks like it could be an old brick base with a replacement top.

Wrenbury, LNWR, 22 July 1984

Looking on the interweb for info, some say the box was secondhand, ex Wem.

Nantwich Station, not sure if it's LNWR or LMS, 22 July 1984

Willaston, near Crewe, 22 July 1984. A BR(LMR) design.

Gresty Lane No.2, LNWR, 22 July 1984

More pics of Fossway Road Crossing, in two bites 'cos of size limitations.

If it closed in 1973, I make that 48 years and still standing. Seen on 12 Sept 2021. The vegetation and the fixed fence across the track suggest the line has not been used for a while.

It's a 5ft 6in 2-4-2T. An LNWR train on the Midland. I think that is at Knighton North Junction, so the train will probably be heading for the Nuneaton line from Wigston. A good sized train of at least eight coaches. Any idea of the date?

I always though Australia was a bit further away than than

A BR Standard tender.

I stand (sit) corrected.

If you look at the allocations of Jubilees at the time of their building was complete i.e. about 1937ish, you will see that every loco allocated to former Midland Railway territory was fitted with one or other of the short wheelbase 3500 gallon tender types. I have assumed that this was because of turntable size although the situation doesn't seem to have lasted long as 4000 gallon tenders can be seen on Midland allocated Jubilees by 1939. It seems to have been in about the late 1950s and early 1960s that some 8Fs had their Stanier tenders swapped with Fowler tenders off Jubilees. A small number of 8Fs also managed to acquire the 3500 gallon Stanier type as did one rebuilt Royal Scot. The information given in the Irwell book appears to be based Engine Record Cards which are not infallible, one loco is given in the book as keeping a 3500 gallon Stanier tender all its life yet the photograph of the loco shows it with a 4000 gallon type!

The Airfix / Dapol body is far more accurate dimensionally. The ex Mainline (now Bachmann) is, in my opinion, awful. If Mainline did look at a real one, they certainly didn't appear to have measured it correctly or make the model to scale - my personal opinion again of course. I have to disagree with @Steamport Southport about it being "probably amongst the most realistic vehicles available." The Airfix body was much better although the chassis was not so good.

Basford Hall Junction, LNWR (or is it LMS?), 22 July 1984

Radway Green, NSR, 22 July 1984

Same applies for Leicester Midland and Derby Midland. I think Derby also had a box half way along the platforms controlling scissors crossovers between Platforms 1-2 and 3-4. This is where we start getting into the realms of Permissive Working for passenger trains in large stations but I think I will leave that for others, who know more about the subject than I do, to explain

Alsager, NSR, 22 July 1984.

Quite possibly