Andy Kirkham

There are a couple more of my instamatic pictures on the Bristol Railway Archive site http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/File:Ashton_Swing_Bridge12.jpg and http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/File:Cumberland_Siding3.jpg, showing main-line locos running beyond Ashton Meadows in the early 1970's. I think the era during which Type 4's worked along that stretch was quite short - before then I remember 08s and I have seen a photo of a Class 22 running alongside Cumberland Road

People often express admiration for the T9s, and if they mean the original Drummond form with smokebox wingplates I heartily agree - but I suspect most people are thinking of them as they were in BR days. I feel that the horrible smokebox and stovepipe chimney that Urie fitted turned them (and other Drummond engines) from elegant thoroughbreds into ugly ducklings.

Are there any photos of blue Westerns alongside steam locos? (e.g. at Reading or Westbury in 1967)

Wouldn't have been nice if they could have used slate waste delivered over the FfR from Blaenau?

The problem I have with Austerities on heritage railways is that they are doubly inauthentic: not only do they not resemble any locomotive that hauled passenger trains on the main-line railway; they also don't resemble any locomotive used on a Colonel Stephens-style light railway because they are too modern - by the time they were built, most of the passenger-carrying light railways had been closed.

Interesting to see a "Toad" in use as late as 1979. I had no idea they survived so long.

The Old Station is still used as a car park, although the westernmost section (the original Brunel bit) is now an exhibition space. Perhaps you have not heard, but it seems very likely that the Old Station will return to rail use in conjunction with the GWML electrification and demolition of the current Bristol Panel. I rather suspect that this won't include the Brunel section - the catenary wouldn't enhance the view of the pseudo-hammerbeam roof.

I've seen this clip alluded to somwhere else and the station was identified as being on the Maidenhead-High Wycombe line. I can't remember which one though.

It Always Rains on Sundays (1946) has a hair-raising climactic scene in an East End goods yard with characters chasing each other in between hurtling wagon. La Bete Humaine (1938) has some of the most authentic railway footage you are ever likely to see. The opening scene on the footplate of a loco approaching Le Havre is breathtaking.

It ceased to carry through traffic in 1964,when the line to the docks closed, but it stayed in place much longer than that bearing the stub of the docks line that remained in use as a siding. I guess this use would have ceased when Temple Meads good depot closed.

I can think of two reasons why I personally don't favour models of preserved railways: 1. Preserved railways and model railway are each in their own way an imitation of a real railway and I don't see the point of creating an imitation of an imitation. 2. The model railways I most enjoy are those that most strongly convey the atmosphere of a specific region in a particular era. Preserved railways provide a licence to run all manner of stock in any livery you fancy. For some, that might be a selling point but for me it completely negates the thing that provides the most pleasure. Andy