highpeakman

That's an interesting point about the yellow panels. I do remember on holiday in 1962 seeing a brand new "Western" at Newton Abbot and being very impressed. In fact we saw several over the week, some in the different colours they were first given so I assume they did not have yellow panels at that time. The problem is that I cannot be absolutely sure that those photographs were all taken in the same year so that may be misleading although I cannot remember any other West Country holiday at that time. I'm finding that remembering what I did 60 years ago is getting to be a bit of a problem! Thank for your help.

Thanks for the info. I think I walked up there once to look down on to the turntable(?). I am a bit surprised it's still there as I thought that, by now, they may have built out over more of the old railway land. Unfortunately it's too long since I have visited.

I think you are right on 1 & 3. You are probably correct on 2 as well but I don't recall going to Tiverton but that's just me. It was a long time ago.

Possibly 1962 or is that too early?

Thanks for the suggestions. I am happy to agree Kingswear. I think can see the suggestion of that funny road extension to the right. The bridge looks good as well as confirmed in this photo. I had no doubt about this one but again am not sure of the date. Curious because it looks to be a better quality photo and i would have had a better quality camera in later years and yet the class 22 photo seems to have been taken with a worse camera. I was certain this photo was taken in steam operational days and not just a later steam special but I could be wrong.

Not sure if these will be of interest? Stewartby, taken in 2003. I have some others, taken at various times before that, but will only post if they are of interest.

Trawling through some old photos of mine and found these. I realise they are, almost certainly, taken between Exeter and Paignton but where exactly. Probably the late 60s. I doubt that there will be much of a problem for the experts out there to identify the location? I originally took them but now seem to be suffering from brain fade so any other info would be most welcome. Sorry about the quality but they were probably originally taken on a Brownie 127. Thanks in advance for any help.

I would think that it would be around this time. There were standard BR "Runabout" tickets issued at this time, and probably for some while before, so it would only be stations on their last legs like Brixham where they didn't worry about restocking and probably the station issued very few special or long distance tickets. They would have standard BR stock tickets for all of the local destinations but have to blow the dust off these for anything unusual. I'm sure some other stations must have had a few left but whether they would have issued them is an interesting question. It can't have been many and virtually all of those small stations would have been closed over the next couple of years throughout the country.

I was trawling through some old stuff of mine and found a "Runabout" tickets that was issued to me at Brixham Station in 1962. A friend and I, aged 15, had asked for the tickets as we wanted to travel around the local railways while we were in Devon on holiday from the Midlands. When we asked for the Runabouts - area 20 - we received slight perplexed looks and a "We haven't got anything like that in our ticket rack". However that was followed by a "I'm sure this will do the job" and he hand wrote these old tickets. We, of course, were delighted. The Great Western still alive and well in 1962! I just about remember the slow, breath catching walk up to the station and the slow, rocky ride to Churston and the train slowing slightly (to even slower!) while a pheasant ambled off the track. The line, of course, closed a year later. Good days and we just didn't realise how quickly it would all go.

Thanks for the history of the site but would someone please be kind enough to explain what was happening with the "tunnel" and train in this pic? Why was it (whatever it was) done there? Thanks.

A good point and accepted. But this is part of the problem as well. I have purchased from eBay not long ago without any problem and nothing, as far as I am aware, has changed in my settings, etc but...., of course, software (browsers and extensions) are updated continuously and, usually, automatically so it is sometimes difficult to know what exactly may have changed. Just had a problem this morning on my phone with an app that should update with news every morning but was jammed on Saturdays edition. I restarted the app and then my phone, cleared caches, etc, etc. and nothing worked. It was also the latest version of the app. No problem with connections either. So I removed the app and then reinstalled it and all now works perfectly. Who knows what the problem was? My point is that all of these software apps are now quite complex and sometimes a minor glitch/corruption can prevent communication in the way that it should. When you combine OS, browser, extensions, bank and website together to talk then it is no surprise that things don't happen correctly sometimes so it can be a good idea to change the components/equation and then things may correct themselves. Until recently I used Firefox as my main browser but then it started to screw up the presentation of certain web pages. Even after a lot of tweaking of extensions and cookies I couldn't get it to work correctly. I changed to Chrome and all was good until the latest problem with PayPal. I tried Edge and now no problem with either site. Don't know the answer yet.

A bit late to this party but something that people might like to consider. Over this weekend I also found, for the first time, that I was unable to pay for an eBay item using Paypal. After several attempts and looking at all the settings for both Paypal and eBay, which were all correct, and even turning the PC off and on again(!). I solved it by switching Browser from Chrome to Edge. After I did that it went straight through! I should also add that I had run software that deletes all the history, temp files and loads of other stuff that builds up over time. That often clears such problems but did not in this case. There are so many things that are interlinked in the browsers and systems involved that it can be near impossible to account for sudden funny happenings like this. It is not always anything to do with the accounts and settings themselves. I have had a similar experience with another browser when something would not work but using a different browser and everything is fine. I have at least four different browsers installed on my PC and switch if I have problems.

Boiled a largish saucepan but then added an amount of cold water. Lowered the bogie frame into it on a piece of string for about one minute. Pulled it out and clamped the sides where the problem warp was, bending it slightly over centre of correction. Then dunked in cold water with the clamp still on. Worked a treat! Straight frames again and wheel set back in place. Coach restored! Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Thanks. I have no idea what the material is. I will just heat in the water, take out and carefully apply a clamp and then put into cold water. As I mention above, it seems that new bogie or sideframes are available from Replica but I will give this a careful try first.

OK. Thanks. It has taken me a bit of time to remove the bogie from the coach and get it ready. I will take things carefully. It seem that a suitable bogie (or bogie sideframes) may be available from Replica if this doesn't work. Worth a try first though.

Thanks for the suggestion. It sounds like an idea to try. Thanks. I'll use the saucepan when she isn't watching!

I dug out an old Dapol (ex Mainline/Airfix) suburban coach the other day and have discovered that one bogie appears to have warped. I suspect it was the horrible plastic packaging it came in that applied pressure and over time it has become fixed. There is now a spread out on one side and at one end of the bogie which allows the wheels at one end to just fall out. I do attach some pictures but it is difficult to photograph properly and the warping is slight but just enough to cause a problem. The question is whether I can apply a clamp to hold it straight and then, perhaps, apply a very gentle heat over time. Would that work? (I am well aware of over heating having watched a colleague at work melt an expensive keyboard using a heat gun to dry spilt coffee a few years back!). Any other suggestions would be gratefully received please.

Well, I dug the H&M Duette out from deep in the garage and have been running the problem tender drive happily for about 15 minutes. Looks like you hit the proverbial nail squarely! The Gaugemaster E is struggling to cope with the current draw which is obviously heavier than the other, supposedly identical, tender drive unit. While I have had problems before when running some old X04 motors I have never previously had any problems running Hornby Ringfield motors so this one must be just a bit heavier on consumption than usual. That's why I hadn't thought of that. Thank you for pointing me in that direction.

I am using a Gaugemaster series E and I guess this could be a possibility. I have had problems previously when driving old X04 motor locos. I will dig out my H&M Duette and try it. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestion but I have assumed that a magnet problem would cause consistent behaviour and not something like this that changes over a minute or so? Happy to be told I am wrong though. The motor does not get particularly hot when running. I have checked the moment it stops and it does not feel hot. I am making sure I turn the power off at the moment it stops in case it burns out the coils though.

I have recently delved into my "Strategic Reserve" of old locos that have been left in a state of unfinished modification for a long time in an effort to resurrect what I can. Problem here is an old Hornby 9F tender drive. I put it on my rolling road to test and it initially seemed to run quite well but I left it running for a few minutes to "re bed in" and found that it slowed and stopped after about a minute and a half. I then left it for a couple of minutes and it ran normally again and then slowed and stopped after a similar period of time. This happens in either direction. I have now been through this sequence about eight times and always the same. Slow running or fast running produces the same result. I first assumed it must be some sort of heat problem making a bearing seize which then cools and releases? No nasty noises though and I find that I can hand turn the gears immediately after it stops and nothing feels tight. Also I can make it start running again very shortly after it has stopped (about 15 seconds) although it may slow and stop soon afterwards. A second identical tender and motor of similar age (70s or 80s?) is working fine. I have looked the motor over carefully and cannot see anything obviously wrong. Has anyone else experienced this and have any suggestions please?

I look forward to more of these. Thanks for posting.

Glorious. Thanks for posting.

Not only did many businesses use telex (My company in the late 60s sent hundreds of the damn things every day to it's US parent company. I spent many hours preparing the paper tapes earlier in the day so that messages could be sent later in the day when it was cheaper) but British Railways made extensive use of them to transmit such things as wagon locations and other operational information. My sister worked as a telex operator for BR on Derby station (Control Office on Platform 1(?)) for several years in the late 50s.

I am really enjoying these pictures. Thank you very much indeed for posting them.