lapford34102

Perhaps we should all take a moment to ponder the human side of this tragedy. Stu

Hi, Fair enough, the build dates of the Gloucesters and Pressed Steels would tie in with the apparent changeover between light and dark DMU green. I am now intrigued to find out which green the Derby and Swindon cross-countries wore when they were new. From my couple of B+W pics they look to be dark which is what I thought I remembered them in. Note - I've always taken dark DMU green to be very near, if not identical, to loco green. There's a good colour pic on page 60 of Heyday of the DMU showing a 116 unit carrying both colours and clearly shows the contrast. It's also interesting in that the unit is from the early batch and both driving cars are in dark green by 62. As for the lining Dapol seem to have got it right on their N gauge examples. Cheers Stu

Quite, but there's no indication which green, light or dark, it's finished in. Stu

Hesitate to disagree with two such notables but think you might be. As far as I'm aware those units the were finished in light green had whiskers but no lining. I've never seen a clearly identified photo that would contradict that. (Some dark green units has whiskers but no lining) Every pic of a 121/122 I have shows lining. I'll await elucidation :-) As an aside are the green ones going to have full diameter oleo buffers ? Stu

Just been looking at the photos on the Rails website and wondering if Dapol have go their wires crossed again D6539 has "late" exhaust plus open horn cover. D6571 has "original" exhaust and close horn cover. As far as I know no green one ever had open horns - could be wrong but they were also closed early on in blue. However there were a handful of green examples built with "late" style exhausts though without roof panel clips. There was a deal of discussion on the old RMweb when the first Heljan examples appeared. Anyone with a copy of Power of the 33's can find a couple of photos. These were numbered in the 70's so have Dapol transposed the numbers and should the green syp be D6571 and plain green D6539 ? Stu

I'm sure someone further back has referred to a link with a detailed breakdown of 08 variations but here's a quick breakdown (numbers very approximate though) Roughly the first 260 odd built had external hinge straps - as modelled by the current Dapol ones. After that the doors were changed with internal hinge straps so the doors stood out a little more but were plain. So that variation depends on when they were built. There's also the issue of exhauster boxes, the louvred box over the front drivers. Early ones, up to very roughly the first 190 odd had two, one on each side. Ones after that only had one on the LHS, again correctly modelled by Dapol as far as I can see. When they got to the mid 500's the box re-appeared on the RHS. The whole class can be a minefield. HTH Stu

Quite correct 40-something, the livery diagram is correct if you look at the colour key. I don't think I'm alone in wondering if Dapol have put a little effort into finding examples that are a bit "left field". If so fine. Hornby did one with a black nose rather than wasp stripes but I don't recall anyone getting that exercised over it. I have to say there's been a lot of ill informed twaddle bandied about - con-rod colours for example. There were nearly a thousand of these built so all sorts of weird variations from the norm (whatever that is) is to be expected. OK so the first release is really on applicable to the first few hundred but they encompassed a deal of variations. I'm surprised no-ones mentioned this though I might well have missed it http://www.martinbray-ukloco.com/08001-09205.htm Lets wait to see what turns up in the boxes and then start panicking...... :-) Stu

Hi, Surprised to find it's nearly a year since I've posted on here. Recently did the excellent Railwells show with Drewry and had a mildly comical conversation on the Sun morning when a visitor said he'd seen the layout in a magazine. We had a few "Oh no you haven't" - "Oh yes I have" exchanges whence he produced a copy of Sept's BRM and there it was. Thanks to Andy and the BRM team,took me moment to realise it was actually my layout :-) Taking it to Faversham http://www.favershammrc.org.uk/exhibitions.html this weekend. At least it's only a short drive compared to the 6hr+ trek to Wells but does mean if I want a fry-up in the morning I'll have to do it myself :-( A couple of slightly iffy pics If you're wondering what the 700 and E4 are doing then I'll explain but only after I've checked a few things out with the experts. Cheers Stu

Agree, Very Well Done David, some sort of commendation/award is definitely in order for your epic, and it has been epic, work on this. I'm looking forward to the book and the film.... :-) Stu

Down at Samphire Hoe Sat morning and a pair of Javelins shuttling back and forth for an hour or so. Not sure what the speed limit is along there but a couple of runs looked to be at line speed. Stu

I've put this one here some time ago but it is a good candidate for the "prototype for everything" dept. Stu

If it's OK to go back to the road chaos for a moment on Fri evening Tim and I went down to visit Mr Wade in Lydd from Thanet. On the return got stuck on the A20 for best part of 2 hrs. There was a queue for the Tunnel slip but after that road was pretty empty until we ran into the back of the queue about 3/4 mile short of the Capel turn off. Nothing on the matrix signs and even BBC kent travel only had it down as "moderate" slow moving traffic when it was actually at a total standstill. At a couple of hours we got off lightly but felt very sorry for those marooned, must have been very trying and unpleasant. Whatever the causes the resulting inactivity isn't acceptable. Felt for the emergency services, an ambulance had to struggle through the queue while we were waiting. Seemed to have caught locals out as well judging by the conversations we have. When we eventually got off at Capel it was a bit formula 1'ish down into Dover though that's no excuse. Appreciate the epic work you're doing David keeping us up to date with progress. Stu

Shows run by person(s) under the guise of a club or organization are nothing new, I can think of two that were/are long running. Whether or not there is anything underhand going on here I don't know but we are innocent until proven guilty so I'll put it down to naivete for the moment. What is unacceptable is the apparent lack of transparency and that leaves the organizer(s) open to valid criticism which might well be unwarranted. Stu

Class 74's did, for a short while, appear on a parcels turn into Weymouth. They certainly had reliability issues, the Paxman diesel couild be a pain but then they were also an early example of (often unreliable in railway context) electronic control so in some ways ahead of their time. Where they worked they went :-) Stu

True, plus the lights, electric tootbrush, coffee machine and everything else. In practice it wasn't that marginal as the crews got the measure of things. Upwey and Parkstone stops with 8 on would certainly give the Crtompton a workout - instant decoke :-) IIRC double heading west of Bomo was very rare Stu

Dragging "dead" electric motors around on a regular basis is bad for them. Stu

Looks very nice. Will be interested to see what they do about the curtains and underframe colour on the early blue version. While the model itself is worthy of discussion the price is a valid aspect, it's nigh on 20% of the average spend according to Andy. At least one person has the disposable income, many will not so I hope this doesn't become a point of discord. Stu

With my late father peering back over the bunker, both he and Ellis looking mildly bemused. When he saw the photo he had no recollection as to why though mused a booked loco might have "fallen down" somewhere. The Brake Van is unusual but there's one possible explanation. During the 60's when the fruit+veg traffic was at it's height the Tram was hard pushed to cope at times so vans would be loaded and taken away for checking and making up into appropriate rakes. For a time Portland was used for this and occasionally even Upwey, it relieved pressure on Weymouth Goods so a Brake would have been needed. RE Books there a small A5 sized book from the Dorset transport Circle by Colin Caddy called the Weymouth Quay Tramway. Mainly photos quite a few well known but equally some rarer ones. Of particular interest to me a couple of the 15XXX 350hp shunters showing clearly they were air braked, something the experts seemed to have overlooked. HTH Stu