Bon Accord

As I remember the freightliner flats used on FNL traffic were indeed fitted with through vacuum and steam heating pipes, as air brakes and electric heating did not appear north of Inverness until 1986/7.

Not entirely unknown even today on internal flights in Pakistan, usually those from the north of the country - oh and those passengers have been through security... Bahrain can be a pleasant enough stop for a run ashore, although outside the PG Muscat is also a rather pleasant spot as is Salalah which had/has an excellent ex-pats club. The Hilton resort there used to do excellent curried lobster!

Not so fond memories of the "Ras to Jas" run, i.e. Ras Tanurah to Jeddah on a continuous circuit. If I remember rightly we used to load condensate in Ras Tan and discharge in Jeddah, then straight back to the Perishin' Gulf to do it all again. Continuous misery for 5 months with the only chink of light being the 4 weekly stop in Fujairah to embark stores and a LOT of beer.

In one of my old ships we only stacked boxes on deck two high (a rather civilised setup) but even then we came a cropper because the wharfies had fitted the twistlocks in one box upside down, so when checked by the mate before sailing the locking lever was to the left so all was thought well. Didn't find out that wasn't the case until a couple of days later in Biscay when said box broke loose and destroyed several others... Hell of a mess but thankfully it was all contained onboard and nothing went over the side. On the flip side it took a week alongside in Gib to sort it all out.

Well at least she did better than the Kowloon Bay - I believe what's left of her bulb is still sitting on the beach on Rondo Island where she left it back in '89.

The problem in many head offices today is that about 20 people (all with nonsensical job titles) now undertake tasks which only previously required those two 2 individuals, with the net result that even less gets done than before, over a much longer timescale and costing even more. That's certainly true (and then some) in the circus that is our HQ - it began the steady descent into what can only be described as full bodied farce about 15 years ago.

Looks to be a Super BG so perhaps it was in use as a brake vehicle?

A V2 inside con rod survived in the old shedmasters office at York until the mid 2000s, this being until Green Arrow destroyed hers and it was used as a replacement.

I wonder what the occasion was? The loco is very well turned out; white painted vacuum bag, smokebox smartened up and even burnished tyres.

I was number 4 in the fire team and thought I was on easy street until I realised I had to feed the hose all the way in and out. That and once we were in the bottom room the fire was impressively large and very close! For what we could manage in a day I thought the basic fire fighting was quite decent compared to some other places.

I recently did all my refreshers at CTS too. Managed to struggle into the raft ok during the PST, but jeez it doesn't get any easier!

Received my SECR green version from Rails the other day and happy to say it was fully intact and runs like a sewing machine. The only loose item in the packing was the front coupling hook, but that would have been no drama to put back on. As it was I had no intention of retaining the front tension lock anyway. No lining issues/smudges as highlighted by others earlier in the thread either, all crisp and correct including the lining on the splashers. That being the case it would appear QC is perhaps variable. All the same I'm a very satisfied customer and it does look rather magnificent, even if it is something of an irrelevant indulgence!

One of the GSNC excursion vessels, it only appears to have one funnel so either Queen of the Channel or Royal Sovereign.

The DG declaration by VHF in the Channel (and elsewhere) has been a pointless exercise basically ever since it started, as it only lists the DG's by general class and total quantity in KG. What it doesn't do is specifically identify what those dangerous goods are (by UN number or otherwise), nor the breakdown in sub classes, nor the specific quantities or location of the real nasties. For example, if a vessel is carrying class 1 (explosives), no differentiation is made as to whether the cargo is self-heating ready meals**, fireworks, weapons cartridges, blasting charges or cluster bombs as the VHF declaration is simply "class 1 - XXXX KG" etc. About 15 years ago the Consolidated European Reporting System (CERS) was implemented which required a detailed list of dangerous goods onboard to be forwarded to the port of departure (if in Europe) or the port of arrival as appropriate. It's then the responsibility of the ports to pass that on to the European Maritime Safety Agency which operates the centralised database. Of course all of that is dependant on the correct information being supplied from the cargo owner/forwarder to the shipper, who passes it on to the agents/container terminal, who passes it on to the ship and so forth. When I worked for the MOD there were regularly some absolute beauties of non/ incorrect declaration of dangerous goods, usually involving things which can go bang. **Yes, self-heating Chicken tikka and beans which can be bought at any camping store are classified as Class 1 dangerous goods!

Different ship, although same idea. Westward Ho was originally Vecta of Red Funnel.

Given that Hornby are seemingly quite willing to cast adrift their two largest single customers - who are arguably the two biggest names in the hobby outwith the major manufacturers - my own supposition would be that perhaps the lack of any real public protest from the trader/shop fraternity has perhaps more to do with ensuring their own self-preservation than any lack of aggrieved status.

The ship to left is the former Caledonian Steam Packet /Calmac car ferry ARRAN of 1953, one of the pioneers of the type. After becoming obsolete she was sold to be a nightclub in Dublin and then ended her days in Manchester.

A non RETB unit did occasionally make it up the line in times past due to failures, but always in multiple and always coupled inside an RETB fitted unit. Four car units were and are generally the preserve of Glasgow-Fort William trains. Portable RETB sets do exist, although I've only heard of them used on non-RETB fitted locomotives which were visiting the area temporarily. Whether it's practical or permissible to carry and use such a portable unit within the more cramped confines of a unit cab I don't know.

As I remember the boxes used could vary in size and design significantly depending on where built, type of ship etc. Those designed for longer sea voyages had roofs and side screens. Some were purpose built for the voyage and then discarded at it's conclusion. As depicted in one of the previous photos the entire box (and horse) would be lifted aboard. Normally the box was small enough to limit movement of the horse as much as possible - they were never allowed enough space to lie down as the danger of them injuring themselves was too great, e.g. broken limbs. Usual practice was that once the horse was in the box a large and wide strop was passed underneath the animal and in contact with the body but not done up too tight. The idea being the horse could rest its legs by placing it's weight on the strop. The animals were always carried on deck and never below, usually down aft and somewhere with a bit of shelter with the open end of the box facing inboard. As well as a significant quantity of hay and straw a groom usually accompanied the horses with some basic veterinary supplies; in addition some kind of device/pistol was carried should the need arise to despatch the animal. The above concerns a "deep sea" voyage carrying horses, however short sea crossings e.g. ferries would have done things slightly differently due to the short duration of the voyage with open top horseboxes etc in use but likely still kept in the open air or on some kind of sheltered deck unless it was a ship specially designed for the carriage of livestock. Wartime changed things entirely of course as peacetime requirements would be relaxed so as to keep things as simple as possible. The transportation of high value horses still occurs occasionally in modern times. although now generally utilising a dervivative of an ISO 20 foot container. Today conventional road horseboxes are permitted to travel on the car decks of ferries with no specalised requirements (unless they are over 3.5T whereupon they're required to have lashing points), although accordingly their carriage is very much weather dependent.

Just had a look through my timetable stash and on finding one from summer 1972 it confirms the RMB open for the full length of the journey. However looking at the timings it involved two "out and back" trips for Inverness crews - the first Inverness of the day had no catering provision, nor the last Wick.

The restaurant car (later an LMS version and at one time an ex Pullman) went as far north as The Mound or Helmsdale, was then detached and would then be attached to the next southbound service. The first northbound train would detach it's restaurant car at the Mound, whilst the second would do so at Helmsdale. This practice lasted until the end of steam, which coincided with the abandonment of the depot at Helmsdale/the Mound and the lack of any loco/pilot presence between Dingwall and Georgemas Junction. As I remember during the high summer months the RMB would be open all the way to Thurso.

One of the many problems facing QM is simple stability. During the great rip out phase in Long Beach in the late 60s they removed all of her boilers, leaving only a few machinery compartments. These former boiler rooms have remained empty and otherwise uncared for, a consequence of the removed weight is that she's hogging. Considering how much work has been done to her, removals/replacements, modifications, periodical painting etc then getting the naval architects in to work out just what is going on with her stability wise could well be a seriously time consuming and expensive exercise on it's own. When she first arrived in Long Beach the naval shipyard was still active complete with large drydock; that has long since been closed and redeveloped and I think the nearest available dock is in San Diego. As you say, her continued preservation will require some seriously deep pockets and assuming that is available her eventual removal and docking would be a real logistical headache. I think the only way it could be done would be to tow a floating dock to Long Beach, moor it adjacent to her and then quickly transfer her in rather than risk towing her any distance. Whilst she could theoretically fit aboard one of the big semi-subs e.g. Boka Vanguard (it has carried bigger vessels), her structural vulnerability would surely make that a non starter.

Similar to the above, Just had my preorders for the following cancelled by Hattons: R3985 Class P2 2-8-2 2003 "Lord President" with streamlined nose in LNER green - 2021 new tooling R3984 Class P2 2-8-2 2002 "Earl Marischal" (original bodystyle) in LNER green - Era 3. 2021 new tooling R3981 Standard Class 2MT 2-6-0 78054 in BR black with late crest R3983 Class P2 2-8-2 2007 "Prince of Wales" in LNER green By my reckoning that's 8 I've lost this year so far.

Most first and second generation car ferries had turntables on their decks as they had one single point of loading/discharge, e.g. drive car on normally, turn on turntable and then reverse/drive into position.

Only ever did it in steamers where we didn't have that problem! Long and monotonous, but the famous "Cape Dinners" made up for it once we received fresh stores off Cape Town which was always a stopoff to/from the Perishin' Gulf. Seems crazy to think in today's world of emissions controls etc that I was once in ships burning nearly 200 tonnes of fuel per day at full speed. I knew a fellow who was in the Gas Turbine powered container ships operated by Denholms and they were burning something like 400 tonnes per day for 30 odd knots.