TravisM

Sorry I thought you were concentrating on the early 90’s

When I lived in Andover in the 90’s, I used see occasionally fertiliser trains being unloaded from UKF wagons. I’m sure I read somewhere that these wagons had disappeared off the system but is bagged fertiliser, on pallets still carried?

The 90’s would have been in RfD or Mainline livery at the time frame you specified. Remember that privatisation didn’t start until 1997

Class 91’s wouldn’t have worked to Kings Lynn as that was under Network SouthEast control. If a Class 91 and Mk IV stock was needing to be dragged via Cambridge, it would have gone via Ely, turned left and towards Peterborough via March.

There’s Ealing Broadway to consider as the main station, shops, offices and B455 cover the GWML.

I believe the Class 91 and stock was for promotional reasons but I could be wrong. I’ve never seen or heard about a HST being at Cambridge but again I could be wrong.

As Cambridge wasn’t electrified until 1988, the earlier classes of electric loco’s probably never appeared. The Class 82’s and 83’s were withdrawn in 1983 except for four used for ECS out of Euston and the Class 84’s were all gone by 1980. The Class 84 your talking about was probably the mobile load bank converted from 84009 that was used for testing the OHLE. Class 86’s were used on the Liverpool St - Kings Lynn services, so the only other class of electrics you’d have seen was the 90’s but I’m unsure why they would be there as the wires only continued to Kings Lynn, not east or west. I believe a Class 91 and Mk IV set appeared at Cambridge once.

I’ve got several Bachmann BYA steel coil carriers and as they were built with knuckle couplers, do they run in set rakes or could they run with other vehicles. If they did, did they have to use transition vehicles?

I’m doing a modern version of this route is if it hadn’t closed but I’m curious about what sort of trains, both passenger and freight ran over the route before closure. Also interested to know what the motive power was, both steam and diesel and had DMU’s started to appear on passenger services just before the line closed to passenger service in 1964.

As I put in another thread, I wonder if Freightliner have pulled the plug on the Class 70 experience as having spoken to several of their staff, they’ve never given the reliability or savings promised. The upside is that their on “power by the hour” contracts, so Freightliner doesn’t have to pay for a valuable and expensive asset to just be sitting idle.

According to WNXX.com, Freightliner has now stopped or stored all 19 of their Class 70’s due to a downturn in demand for them. I wonder if the great experiment with them is over because after talking to a few drivers and other staff, they’ve not lived up to expectations with reliability and fuel savings. As their on “power by the hour” contracts or leases, if they’re layed up, Freightliner don’t have an expensive asset sitting idle and costing them money.

I was wondering if one or more of the new Hornby 5-BEL coach packs could be used to model the VSOE in its present form?

I was thinking of buying one of Bachmann’s new Class 70’s in Freightliner livery and renumber it to 70003 as I saw it here at Peterborough. My bubble was burst when a friend told me that the first batch had slightly different cabs which Bachmann’s earlier version was based on. So the question I’m asking, does anyone do a casting for the modified air intake and do I need to do any other modifications?

I was wondering when and why BR stopped using the corridor connection covers on their Mk 1 coaching stock? I’ve never noticed them on pre-nationalised or later build BR stock.

I was wondering what other workings Colas use their Class 56’s for apart from the oil working to and from Preston as all I see them on test or being moved. I assume it’s infrastructure work or similar?

Can I ask when the last trains ran and were they mainly to and from East Anglia? As I’m not very familiar with wagon types as just getting back into UK modelling, what were the final wagons used? Also another stupid question but is there any aspirations to get this traffic back or has it gone to road traffic for good?

Are there any other similar saloons in service? I saw a picture of Colas Class 47 and seemed to hauling a single saloon which seemed to be in LMS maroon but it’s hard to tell as the photographer taking the picture concentrated on the loco.

I was offered a Bachmann LMS inspection saloon in EWS livery yesterday, in very good condition and at a very reasonable price. I was wondering if it’s still running on the network or has it been withdrawn and sold off? All I can find about current inspection saloons is the ex Hastings vehicle “Caroline”.

Overhauling the bogies alone won’t give them another 15 years of life as this guy said that certain spares are now becoming difficult to obtain. They have enough to last awhile but as individual loco’s start to suffer serious failures or issues, they will be stopped, robbed to keep the rest of the fleet active. The Greater Anglia Class 90’s heading to Freightliner once their off lease is probably credible as it’s been mentioned here on several forums and websites.

Wonder why the 350/2’s can’t be kept by LNW and return the 350/1’s as they already have 750v DC equipment fitted unless it’s been removed? I think the 319’s that Northern haven’t taken have all been earmarked for conversion and who’d want to be bounced around at high speed on those awful seats on a 707, unless it had either four P&W JT3C’s or RR Conway’s and cruised at 30,000ft

I was talking to a Freightliner driver manager (so he said) at Peterborough yesterday and he told me that they’d had several meetings regarding the relivery. From I understand, the Class 86’s won’t be repainted as they are getting towards the end of their usefulness and Freightlner are eying up the fifteen Class 90’s once released from Greater Anglia. As per the Class 70’s, their future with Freightliner is not so clear as they have not given the economies promised but they will probably hang onto them as they are on “power by the hour” contracts, so Freightliner only pays for them as and when their used. So them sitting in a long line at Midland Rd isn’t going to cost them except re-diagramming other loco’s to cover them. Make of this as you want as I always have a element of doubt when hearing stories like this.

I’ve decided to have it double track as it used to be but the platforms would be staggered so the train would go over the level crossing first before arriving at the platform. The signalling would be a simple three aspect colour light protecting the level crossing in each direction so there would be no need for a station starter either. The Northampton direction platform would be a simple affair with a bus shelter style waiting area and have a small car park or turning circle. The Peterborough direction would also be a simple platform again with a bus shelter style waiting but with no car parking available.

Slightly off topic but wonderful nostalgic video. I do miss the old Network SouthEast.

I was always under the illusion that if Hornby (or Bachmann) did a commission that the dealer or who ever wanted done had to put a substantial non refundable deposit down before any work was started so the risk to the manufacturer was minimised. I was told this by a model shop I used to frequent and they wanted to commission a wagon to be sold through their shop. I never understood why a commission run is 504 or some other odd number, why not make it a straight 500?

As Hornby has moved some of its Airfix production to India, fair bet that some of the Hornby range will follow.