TheSignalEngineer

The building to the extreme right on C0830 was my base for several months up to about two weeks before the photo was taken. Looks like the Oakamoor trains had been putting down a lot of sand on the Down Goods, they used to stop right outside our window.

Sadly most of my spotting notes got lost in the course of various house moves by my parents and myself. Some photos do remain and the web has provided numerous photos linked to my regular spotting venues, e.g. www,warwickshirerailways.com also Flickr and various Facebook groups. I too model my most active spotting period, which was from the late 1950s until I started work on BR in the mid 1960s. To give more focus the present layout is based in the West Midlands during the period after introduction of the late crest and before small yellow panels. The other part of my collection, and a possible planned layout, is based on memories of Cornwall and North Devon during those days of childhood holidays when you thought the world would go on for ever as it stood. Giving your meat order to the Post Office in the morning and it being delivered by the bus conductor on the afternoon run from St Austell. Line fishing for mackrel with the local fishermen in small boats, being the only people on a mile-long beach in Cornwall on a July afternoon................. Stuck for an hour waiting for an assisting engine or relief crew at Newton Abbott on a Summer Saturday, Up the bank to Morthoe behind a Spamcan with an M7 banking, Beattie Well Tanks, 1419 at Lostwithiel with the Fowey train, D600 ex-works on the Up CRE, Zs banking at Exeter, N and 43xx 2-6-0s double headed out of Ilfracombe on Stanier stock for Birmingham joined by the Minehead portion including Gresley teaks still with all of the LNER fittings inside at Taunton................................

Switch diamonds were used depending on the crossing angle. Anything flatter than 1 in 8 normally had them. I have a picture in a book from c1943 showing the remodelling of Landsown Junction at Cheltenham with at least two sets.

Think you mean 'The Army Game'. The original Sergeant Major Bullimore was William Hartnell, following on from his role of Sergeant Sutton in the film Private's Progress. He left The Army Game to star as Sergeant Grimshawe in the first of the Carry On films, Carry On Sergeant. He returned to appear in several episode of the fifth and final series. Bill Frazer took over during the second series of The Army Game and stayed for the third and fourth series. His character was Claude Snudge, which he then played in the spin-off Bootsie and Snudge with Alfie Bass and the pair continued into a programme called Foreign Affairs.

It looks like TT66 signal on the Up & Down Goods at Blackwell South Junction. The line straight ahead was a siding and the signal showed a sub and stencil for that move or a main aspect for the Up Main.

It looks like one of those rotating windscreen wipers often seen on ships. I remember them being tried on the main line, including EM2 No. 27002, but they didn't catch on.

Got my parcel this morning, good service and cheaper than a well-known tin shed. Will definitely check here when I am looking for my future purchases.

Well said, my first fatal accident (suicide) was at Water Orton in 1966, aged just 18. Cleaning the pieces out of a Facing Point Lock is not fun. My second was Stechford in 1967. I still see the image of the underside of an overturned AM4 vividly in my dreams some nights.

Getting back to the turnout, in 1963 Birmingham Snow Hill sold several thousand platform and train tickets when FS worked the Ffestiniog AGM Special. 12 months later Alan Peglar ran a special 3-coach train to Cardiff for some tourism jolly he was attending. I was one of a handful of hardy youths who braved a blizzard at King's Norton to see the return working come through. By the autumn of 1965 the crowd at Snow Hill for it's next appearance was not much more than the usual Saturday morning spotters.

According to the brdatabase.info website it carried about 14 boilers during its service life, and was paired with about 10 different tenders. It was also rebuilt from A1 to A3 in late LNER days then converted from R/H to L/H drive by BR.

I've found that a number of my recent locos have come with badly adjusted pickups, to the extent that at least one wheel is always missing them on curves. The other thing I have noticed is that some wheels need cleaning even 'straight out of the box'. I not only clean the treads, but also the inside surface where the pickup makes contact. It's sometimes surprising how much dirt you can get off that face.

There were a couple of BTP/NR displays at shows I attended last year.

There is a list somewhere on Robert Carroll's Yahoo Group for Loco Hauled Coaching Stock giving details of remaining pre-nationalisation designs which got as far as Blue/Grey livery

Does that throw Thursday's events into doubt?

Realtime Trains now showing a run to Scarborough and back on Monday http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50655/2016/02/22/advanced http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50656/2016/02/22/advanced then to Wembley Euro Freight on Tuesday. http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50657/2016/02/23/advanced and turning via Action Wells and Mitre Bridge http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50658/2016/02/23/advanced Edit: Links added

A possible hint http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=39593 Great Central Sacre 2-4-0?

It was the original livery at the time of fitting German Blinkers, and of conversion to left hand drive, although the thingy on the side of the tender was different for about the first four years of that incarnation.

Northern have put out a temporary timetable for the passenger service. It looks as if the booked times for the WCME don't fit in with this across the section of single line working.

Will the WCME be running tomorrow in view of the landslip problems on the S&C?

That should show if the job's been a good'un

Note that as usual we have a BR Brake Van about 3 from the back. Got to keep the guard warm.

47s from the Brush built batch D1682 onwards started appearing at Oxley around December the end of 1963. They started taking over the trains to Paddington early in 1964 and quickly displaced the Westerns from most services. The demise of steam on LNW lines came mainly with the extension of the wires south of Crewe. by 1964 plenty of Class 40s became spare and took over most of the remaining Birmingham - London services. Other services were usually Class 24s or steam. At that time daily NE-SW services at New St were largely in the hands of Class 45s. Dated and additional trains were often steam.

Steam officially finished in the West Midlands with the closure of Snow Hill in March 1967. .