Pandora

Please describe the era of which your locomotive is intended to represent, a design of 1930s/1940s /1950s/60s/70s/80s/90s or later. Is your locomotive a mixed traffic , dedicated freight, or dedicated passenger duty locomotive?

Please be aware that the political and economic climate of the country, wars and recessions, suppressed many fledgling locomotive products, for example, post-grouping in the 1920s,  the ex-L&Y CME and  Horwich Works were designing electric traction for a stilborn  Crewe to Carlisle scheme, and companies including Armstrong Whitworth were trialing a universal diesel locomotive capable of working in multiple. the dieselisation of our railways was a very delayed ideal of the railway  engineers. the locomotives on BR could have been very different if in 1948 BR had inherited large fleets of  twenty  year old diesels from the "Big Four" 

LNER DES1, I think they were numbered 15000 /1/2/3,  From memory I saw 3 or 4 of the class at Crewe South steam shed in September 1967, how a non-standard class of shunters from the Eastern Region found their way to Crewe escapes me. Is there anyone  on the forum able confirm their presence at Crewe South?

Can anyone identify the Highland Omnibus coach in the image of 1973.  Is it a Burlingham Seagull?

Tilbury Riverside station on the River Thames is another example, but possibly too grand for the purpose.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=tilbury+riverside+station&iax=images&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Ftott.org.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2Fhistory.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilbury_Riverside_railway_station

Has anyone thought of the name of the Station with  the  image of the Deltic?

It is not Doncaster, 

The headcode is 1E14, trains to London were indicated by had A within the headcode,  E (Eastern Region?) , therefore I think this is a down train

Some  weak guesses,  Peterborough  Retford  York?

Train reporting headcodes, the images show the display format number/letter/numbers.   In the  early days of the WCML electric era,  some images have the headcodes on the electric locos as  letter/number/number/number.

When did the headcode format change?

5 hours ago, TX said:

DC, with Gaugemaster model Q 4-track controller

1)   Is the controller a design which senses  back-emf  from the track voltage?

2) 16 x 12 feet is long,  how many controller to track feeder wires  to the outer loop, and are they of good thick wire?

4 hours ago, highpeakman said:

Happy to accept what you say. I know where you mean but I was obviously trackside and don't know what I would be doing there. Too far away to walk and i don't remember doing that.

 

Another puzzle!

St James Bridge near the Plant to the Kelham Street gate, only a half-mile walk, do you recall "bunking" 36A?  The camera point was the  usual place to leave the path and cross the shed roads out of sight  of the Shedmaster, no-one challenged your presence on that pathway of the shed,   the road occupied by 9F and the next road became a storage  point  for lines of withdrawn GC O1/O4 2-8-0 locos, 

On 27/02/2022 at 11:48, highpeakman said:

The 9F was parked outside the Works and looks like it was on a engineering train.

Only diesels inside.

I do not think the 9F is at the Doncaster Plant,  I think the 9F is at 36A Carr Loco, in the background is Sandbank an abandoned quarry with a high wall and the Balby Bridge, to the left is the up hump yard, the path to the right of the loco the fence leads to the Kelham Street gate, the building on the right in the skyline is the Vine Pub at the top of the hill of Kelham Street, behind the 9F is a derelict structure which I think is an abandoned coaling stage

Here is a link to a loco  photographed on the same road at 36A:

On 23/02/2022 at 12:49, Nearholmer said:

'RAMD' is an acronym used in engineering circles, originating from military systems thinking, which means "Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Durability", i.e. that all of those things have been properly considered during design and manufacture.

 

A things can be perfectly well-designed in RAMD terms, but still have vast numbers of "bells and whistles"; the term doesn't necessarily imply simplicity, although it usually implies that unnecessary functionality has been eliminated, because doing so eliminates possible causes of failure.

 

It would be perfectly possible to have a model train that is very-well designed in RAMD terms, and is bristling with details, it just tends to get rather expensive.

Hornby Railroad "Limby" products, the class 47, 31, 73,  which have replaced the old 1970s Hornby/Triang products,  do they fit the RAM-D  ctriterion? They seem to last and are easy to take apart and repair. 

2 hours ago, LMS2968 said:

The precise identity of the Stanier Pacific cannot be established, but the photo shows the following characteristics: ex-streamlined front end; ex-streamlined tender; no hole in trailing frames for hopper ashpan gear; no crest above nameplate. This narrows it down to 6221 (18/5/63), 22 (26/10/63), 24 (19/10/63), 25 (12/9/64), 26 (12/9/64), 27 (29/12/62), 53 (26/1/63). Assuming the photo was taken in 1964, this narrows it down to 6225 or 6226.

The Stanier Pacific lacks the yellow warning stripe on the cabside, it does have what is an overhead electrification warning flash panel just ahead of the cylinder footplate area, does that give any extra information as to the date or identity?

On 24/02/2022 at 14:41, Merchant Navy said:

Third major loco announcement for OO Scale in three days. Anyone would think the manufacturers were getting ready to showcase their latest efforts at a major model railway exhibition...

We are living through strange times, with unusual choices of prototypes,  DHP1, GT3, gas turbines,  Jones Goods,  E2001,  10800, whatever next, a  Bulleid / Raworth  Southern  Electric  class 70 "Hornby"  ?

Fora  recent project,  drums of copper cable were stored in a guarded warehouse with three security guards allocated for each drum,  each drum had a value of about £35000 , and the cable was critical to delivery of the project to time

On 23/05/2021 at 16:43, Pobrien said:

Warship assisted into Bristol Temple Meads by GW Prarie 4132 on North to West train 9.05 Liverpool to Plymouth

 

Saturday 4 April 1964

 

 

Looking at the first carriage  behind the failed diesel, is there a person  standing on the carriage roof, back to the camera?

1972, 30th April, 50 year anniversary of the final  Brighton Belle Pullman service.

On 17/02/2022 at 14:06, Oldddudders said:

I think the Flydown is now double track rather than reversible. 

Yes the Flydown is double track, but within the last 10 years,  the poster is interested in the period 1988/90

Have you considered modelling St Johns, the next up the line? More interesting than Hither Green,  Lucas Street Tunnel and retaining wall cutting as a visual  entry/exit point for movements,  there is the single track reversible flydown connecting Lewisham to the Up Fast and Down Fast ,  the Lewisham Bridge as another visual entry/exit point , and on the slow lines, the junction for the North Kent lines to Lewisham or Blackheath, or the slow lines towards Hither Green station avoiding Lewisham

On 05/08/2021 at 06:20, Evertrainz said:

Apologies for the bump. Interesting shot with an AL6, tender between loco and minerals.

 

The AL6 is hauling 25 to 30 wagons which appear to be loaded, therefore 400 tons to be braked, what were the regulations for an unfitted freight, the maximum speed and braking load of an AL6 on unfitted wagons? From the headcode, a class 8 train

31 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

Are you absolutely sure about that? I often see Pullman excursions past our house.  They carry a Z headcode.  And they obviously do work track circuits and they go over the level crossings normally.  I wonder if you are talking about different things

I was a driver for 20+ years , working J, Z, Q, headcodes. J is the majority of the stock I drove, Q about 10%, and 2 units were Z,  the Z workings were very unpopular with signallers, a lot of extra work for them,  J  workings would be downgraded to a Z if the track circuit actuators failed out on open road. So I'm writing about the  work I was trained to do. For your  level crossing , perhaps the signaller can guarantee the barriers are down so the driver does not have to approach at caution to check them?  Finally it is not that Z stock are not  operating the  track circuits, it is that they are not 100% "guaranteed" to operate them, hence the special cautionary setting of the routes by the signaller

On 11/02/2022 at 06:48, Ray M said:

Ha Yes .

me & the nephew, will be calling at a good few of the town centre watering holes, after the show.

this Saturday.

So which pubs did you visit after the show, and how long did you stay in each?   How many of Doncaster's finest,  shouty shouty /  ear-piercing screaming hen party girls were out on the town?

I cannot explain all of your queries, but Q and Z are reserved letters in headcodes,  Z means not guaranteed to operate  track circuits and an instruction to the signaller to work  the train through his panel accordingly, locking points in the route on his point control switches and the driver making  cautionary approaches to level crossings. Those short train formations may  not be guaranteed to operate track circuits, longer trains would not have the problem.

Q means train not to deviate from the published route issued by controi, if the route published is via platform 3, then platform 3 it must be,  the signaller does not have the discretion to signal through another platform , usually applies to gauge restricted stock

Great British Railways Headquarters.

October 2021 announcement of a public competition to select a location for the HQ of GBR

Applicants can be:

District councils 

Borough councils 

City councils 

Unitary authorities

Metropolitan boroughs 

County councils 

Mayoral and non-mayoral combined authorities 

Welsh counties or county boroughs

Scottish unitary authorities

see link

https://gbrtt.co.uk/hq/

As a levelling up measure, London is excluded.

What will lhappen to the current HQ premises of Network rail?

On 25/11/2021 at 06:58, LMS2968 said:

Eric Langridge's book, Under Ten CMEs Vol 2, goes into the problems. Attempts at using exhaust heat from the diesel engine didn't work because during times of low power output, there wasn't sufficient heat available; several types of stationary boiler were tried, and these were successful in heating the likes of hotels, but objected to the vibrations and being bounced around in a moving locomotive; and ETH worked except it took far more of the engine's power output than had been anticipated. He comments, as I've said before, it hadn't been realised just how much work the old steam loco boiler had been doing.

The Woodhead electrics, EM2 and the named EM1 locos,  I think they had electric element steam heating boilers, the LMR AL1 to AL5 locos,  had boiler coaches in the formation, does anyone have photos or details of the boiler coaches?  A boiler coach go well with a Bachmann AL5 model

13 hours ago, Ray M said:

6-7-10 Donny

Closed and derelict long before 2010, the date of the image,  in fact all pubs in Hexthorpe of Doncaster long gone or closed down 20 years ago,, there is only a working mans club left in Hexthorpe, a similar sitation in Balby  or Hyde Park areas of Doncaster, the urban areas of the town are dry, only the town centre "wet".

The pub on the station at Bridlington had railway memorabilia in abundance when I visited the town a few years ago.

Sowerby Bridge station, the conversion of the  old goods office to a pub is an enthusiasts haunt, the landlord is "one of us".

The Corporation Taps in Doncaster,  not far from the station, used to be a haunt of haulage bashers at the weekend, a good source of railway "gen", is this current or moved on elsewhere in the town?