nigel newling

My mistake guys, the Southern built these vans for both the GW and LMS with independent either side brakes with double V hangers - no cross shaft and no Morton clutches. It was the contemporary GW utility vans on V34 that had single sided brakes.

I believe so - look at https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsvan, although the three shown there are fitted with more modern buffers and have been extensively re-planked as well. As unfitted vans, the brakes should only be on the side with the reversing Morton clutch. The Bachman chassis needs to have the brakes on the other side removed when in LMS or GW livery. The Southern did have vacuum fitted versions in various forms.

Please note that these vans, in GWR days, were unfitted with brakes on one side only - a war time utility van. The preserved example at Toddington was modified by BR with the fitting of a conventional Morton vacuum brake, including extended buffers (note the extension ferrules on the buffer casings, a dead give-away). The restored van should have been painted in BR bauxite, not GWR grey, to be correct.

That view makes it much clearer, thank you. From the previous view, the clearance looked quite tight, especially with the corner brace. Looking more closely, I see that the new gantry has already been rigged to carry 5 powerlines.

Do you two have dyspepsia or something? I enjoy the photoshopped images. Part of being a railway modeller is to enjoy the fantasy as a substitute for no longer being able to enjoy the real thing. As this is a GWRRob initiated topic thread, I think it is up to him to decide if Rob's images of Hornby Stars are acceptable.

Will the "Instructions – to be uploaded soon" for the Dia P7 Detailing Pack ever actually get uploaded? :-)

I have been following this thread with great interest and was hoping to call upon your collective archive. I am planning a model of Winchcombe Station. I lived there as a child and have a memory of a stable block at the bottom of the yard. It is visible on the 1921 OS. However, both my memory and the survey suggest that it was quite small, big enough, maybe, for only 2 horses. Tim V's picture of Chipping Norton suggests a 4 horse capacity. Does anyone have a picture of a standard GW stable block smaller than that one?

Just a thought. While the windlass will normally have cable wrapped around it, the capstan will have a polished metal appearance. No matter how decrepit, any use will cause the hawser to polish the capstan face.

Mine arrived today via Yodel. Lower X Rail was loose in the box and the extruder head was flopping around although the Z movement was constrained by the industrial cable tie. Quite a job to get it all back as it should be as some of the rail bearings appear to be blind ended, making it difficult to thread the second rail into place. All done now so on to the mysteries of bed levelling. :-)N

Have you considered https://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/1_76_scale_Loco_Fittings___Lever_Control_Systems-p1.html G.W.R. 2 Cylinder valve gear set Ref: WPY44 as a source for your Hall cylinders and crossheads?

Another nonsense is the move of the platform 9 / 10 boundary at Temple Meads. Trains coming into platform 9 in order to reverse have to go all the way to the stop light in order for their arrival in the platform to be detected, a full 3 car length beyond the platform 10 staircase up from the subway. Many passengers using the platform 9 staircase, as directed, are completely unaware that their train is actually standing at the platform until they see it pass them as it departs off to the east.

I am particularly impressed that the GWR version of the 94XX has the steps attached to the rear buffer plank rather than the later location under the hanging plate at the side.

My investigations have identified that the Avonmouth / Birmingham Moor Street banana trains ran in blocks. The wagons were dedicated to the traffic, being insulated and steam heated. There is a critical temperature below which bananas do not ripen and above which they cannot be stopped from ripening. Consequently, the practice was for the bananas to be transferred from of the refrigerator boats to the waiting wagons quickly, (hence the provision of dedicated quayside facilities). The wagon insulation would keep them below the critical temperature until the water stop at Stratford, when the heating would be opened to initiate the ripening process. The time from Stratford to Moor Street and subsequent distribution was critical to ensure that "just ripe" bananas were on sale at the greengrocers. Banana trains were always assured of a clear road.

Were you aware that RT Models provides an etch for pannier tank sandbox pull rods :

Did a journey up and back to London from Bath last Saturday. On both trips we travelled in filthy 9 car units. The retched thing had a continuous high frequency vibration, the suspension regularly felt as if it was bottoming out as well as having very little lateral damping and whenever the compressor stopped I thought it would tear itself out of its mounting it became so unbalanced. Not a fan.

May I make one tiny suggestion? Rocks in the tide reach get scoured out by the retreating sea leaving them resting in a slight depression, often filled with a small pool of retained sea water. Worth a try?

Just spent the weekend in London, HST up from Bath on Friday, 800-035 back to Bath on Sunday evening. Both trains were running in reverse orientation so my "facing" seat reservations converted to "back to", which I hate. I have loved the HSTs for their quietness and smooth ride. First time on an 800 and the first impression - it felt just like I was getting on a bus. Don't let the newness fool you, they are not going to wear well. 8 minutes late away from Paddington. "Could the Hitachi fitter please come to the rear of the train" - "Sorry for the late departure, we had a problem with the door close indication, caused by a plastic bag". I found the ride to be uncomfortable with significant lateral banging in the suspension. Trolley service only in our unit - but no hot drinks because the boiler is defective. Can we have our HSTs back please?

Now wouldn't that be nice! :-)

The good citizens of Lincoln owe their bi-hourly service to an investment in new trains - any investment - not specifically to the 8xx ttrains. As a supportability engineer, I find the adoption of bi-modal train sets bizzare. Why would youy choose to lug tons of dead weight arround and commit your train set to diesel based maintenance cycles when you could have put your primer move in a detatchable unit? The Bournemouth solution with class 33's is where we should have looked for the solution.

While considering Cheltenham, how about Malvern Road? The station approach was level, with a standard GW station building that stood on a retaining wall foundation that faced onto the railway running below. The station opened onto the footbridge leading across to the island platform.

While I quite agree that the driver should not leave his cab, what happened to the tradition that the loco crew looked down the train to ensure that all was well before moving off? Surely the train crew should be working as a team? I don't like the idea of one man operated trains. Come an incident, you need one man to look after the train and its safety and a second man to look after the passengers and their safety. One man cannot do both.

I believe a realistic view of the Beeching cuts is that the "ruling classes", of both political persuasions believed the age of the train had passed and the true value of the British railway network lay in the property portfolio that it represented. The political objective was to capitalise what were regarded as "obsolete" infrastructure assets. The same approach was taken to traditional city centre Victorian hospitals, replacing them with-of-town jerry-built shanties that are now PPE millstones around our necks. The real estate values released were phenomenal. When you next visit the GWR at Winchcombe, have a look at the bridge carrying the Greet road over the railway. A 50 year old steel and brick bridge (of a type still found in position and carrying traffic elsewhere on the GW network) was replaced with new construction employing concrete lintels. This was done in the year that it was declared that the North Warwickshire line from Stratford to Cheltenham was no longer financially viable.

Sorry John but I have to add my two-penneth. I hope Samantha can rise above the unfounded criticisms she has received through the other thread. I thought all we potential customers for these kits were well aware of the state of the Falcon art work that she inherited and we continued to buy on that basis. It will be tragic if this range goes off the market due to the unacceptably expressed views of a very few ill-informed individuals. Please Samantha, keep going, you have a lot of support here on RMWeb. Nigel

With many of the 165/166 turbos being retained to service the London branches, can we expect to see the 158s being restored as 2-car sets and run as 4 car trains to meet the increasing demand here in the Bristol area?