TheSignalEngineer

New St showing a sense of humour, or is it optimism, in 1986. Just look at the connecting stations off the 1610 to Norwich.

IIRC the 03 had a 9' wheelbase. Track circuits on the LMR were designed to cover anything from 8'6" upwards, so runners would not be needed on that region. Where there was greater stagger in point work special controls were sometimes added to ensure that track circuits operated in the correct sequence under short vehicles.

I once had a report of a DMU disappear several times before being taken out of traffic whilst invisible to the signalling system in New St station. It turned out to have a fault on the carraige lighting which was falsely energising track circuits of one polarity but not the opposite. The control system on one type of LUL stock generated in the rails a frequency used by Reed track circuits in dual electrified areas. Other failures could be caused by battery effect in wet concrete sleepers or contaminated ballast.

From memory I can't recall the small 0-6-0 shunters having runner wagons on the LMR, or even the 0-4-0 ones except for the Coventry pilot which was used for shuttling parcels from platform 3 to the Parcels Depot by platform 1. I will look a bit deeper when I can access some of my old notes next week.

One was regularly the North Western side pilot at New St, standing in the sidings between platforms 3 & 4, while another worked the Harborne Branch in 1962/3.

One used to be booked to work the Albion trip from Monument Lane in the mid-1960s

It's still there but the Q1 is now over the open pit road

Regarding shunters on the main line, although a little before you first proposed era, 18 Trip from Monument Lane to Bloomfield Junction, calling to shunt at Spon lane, Oldbury, Albion, and Tipton was booked for an 03 shunter around 1966

IIRC Littleton Colliery had a rotating disc for one of the signals on the main line crossover until after electrification.

Don't forget a Hymek. Made some trips into the area on freight, but also regularly on the Worcester - Shrewsbury parcels around 1970.

There was a time when she would have been posted on 'FWA'

New: A brand-new, unused, unopened and undamaged item. I hardly think so.

I'd like to know how he renumbers these without taking them out of the box, as he shows them as unopened. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-R2250-Stanier-Black-V-4-6-0-BR-Lined-black-renumbered-45460-/160812162973?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item257126df9d

Great one of the Western with the clay empties. Just what I was looking for to put on my WM based project.

Not even that far back. I remember doing a visit to the Princes End branch to see what was to be recovered when it closed. Just north of Tipton the embankment had subsided leaving the track suspended in mid-air, and smoke was rising from the ballast. It must have been an old problem because that stretch had been relaid with concrete sleepers even thoght it was a lightly used branch. A little out of the area on Cannock Chase I got a report from the signalman at Hednesford No.1 that a driver had stopped at the box to report that smoke was coming out of the Down Distant signal post. The bottom of the tube was in an undeground fire, and it was acting as a chimney.

The Stour Valley line from Birmingham to Wolverhampton was still like that around 1959-60. I remember travelling in the dark behind an ex-works Class 24. The whole place was a continuous red glow.

Ah! Highgate Mild, a good traditional dark beer. Not high on alcohol but strong on taste, something that could be taken all evening. A real workers' beer, builds up the body water level for the next day in the foundry.

The Davenports brewery was not in the Black Country, but in Birmingham on the opposite bank of the canal to the original West Suburban line into Granville Street. See here for the history and the old adverts. http://davenportsbeer.co.uk/davenports-history-2/ The large windows in the right hand wing of Bath House contained part of the bottling plant. You could stand outside there and watch the machines working. The brewery closed in 1989, but the name was revived by the Highgate Brewery from Walsall in 2002. The last clip at the bottom of the page advertises the "Beer at Home" service being available from Oxford to The Potteries at about 00:17. Later there is an advert for Guinness at less than 10p a pint.

Beer at home means Davenports, That’s the beer! Lots of cheer! The finest malt with hops and yeast, Turns a snack into a feast. Straight from breweries to your home, Why collect? We’ll deliver! Soon you’ll know why folks all say: "Beer at home means Davenports! " Cheers !

Must get the handrails on mine.