TheSignalEngineer

Thought that was Bill Clinton quote

On projects I was involved with it was usual to do any new or replacement bridges and structures to the current HMRI structure gauge requirements, which are at electrification clearance. It didn't matter whether there were no electrification plans in the pipeline.

Bigger beer garden to watch the trains from?

An interesting bit of paper is the log of the crime at BTP. http://www.railwaysa.../BTP_GTR001.pdf This qoutes the "Glove and Battery" method given in evidence at the trial

Don't forget to put some Banbury Cakes in the Coffee Shop

Haven't watched the documentary yet, but besides the GPO insiders it was alledged at the time that there was one or more railway insider involved. The gang had to be able to stop the train and have time to get the bags off without suspicion being aroused until it had been an unusually long time in section. I was told in the 1960s that suspicion was also thrown on staff working on the modernisation of the line, but nothing came of this as far as I am aware.

Your artistry never ceases to amaze.

At Birmingham these had Westerns at the end of the Kings in 1962, then went over to virtually all 47s around 1964.

When i worked around Crewe in the late 1960s there was a regular Warship working in the afternoon on a NW-SW service.

It was about 1966 when I last put one on using a hand drill, at Water Orton West.

Not so fond memories of drilling through rails for those with a hand ratchet.

Quite a lot lasted into 1960 (I think about 125) but only 7 made it into 1963.

I don't know about never making one the same, he shouldn't even do one remotely like it.

At times during my career I came across long forgotten items which had missed the scrap man. Occasionally in those days I had a camera with me, but sadly not all the time with the cost of film and weight of equipment. A couple of old photos came to light this week whilst i was doing some scanning. The first was a poster uncovered at Shirley Station on the North Warwickshire line when new signs and poster boards were being installed in 1981. It showed both LMS and GWR Restaurant Car trains between London and Birmingham, probably at some time in te 1930s altough I couldn't date it accurately. The second one, taken in 1985, shows a 4-aspect colour light signal with sub aspect and Theatre Route Indicator in Snow Hill Tunnel, Birmingham. It was the Down line signal reading into the platforms, and had been out of use since 1969. If i find any more I will add them to the thread

A loco works is where the rivet counter comes unstuck. Don't forget that when most steam locos were built a lot of the metal bashing was done by eye. As long as the cover fitted over the pipe the angle didn't matter. Also designs got local modifications to enable them to be built with the tools available. Most of the gangs didn't measure where and how many rivets were put in. They knew what looked right, what worked on the real world, and how to do it a lot quicker than when the Time & Motion man was clocking them to set the rate for the job.

Having looked at the notes on the FJ Roche 4mm drawing from 1948 I can see a whole minefield of variations. The smokebox door on the drawing doesn't like like a lot of photos. The frames on the North British locos are a different length to the Darlington ones, the Darlington cab steps are a different width to outside builders. Some engines had shorter chimneys and lower cabs for the GNoS - mainly the 612xx namers I think. In common with most steam classes you would probably be hard pressed to find two identical locos.

Should be OK tonight, the Police have closed it to high-sided vehicles because they are brassed off at getting frozen to death when stupid drivers get blown off the road having driven a lorry up there in a Force 10.

And certain influential people in the NT etc lived in the Castleton / Hope area. If you won two consecutive Euromillions jackpots you could probably buy the EU.

Better get on and finish my kit-built one.

I tried double sided tape to knock up a photo background and it worked OK. It would need some more ballast and glue to get to the right profile for a final job, but in my case it was only cosmetic and the track is still stuck down after 7 years.

Wish I could find a picture of one in the West Midlands so I could justify adding one or more to my stock.