TravisM

Why don’t you get the coaches you need and over time, slowly renumber them by yourself or get a professional company to do it for you (I use TMC).

Talking to them at shows is difficult for me as I’m disabled more than once I’ve been pushed to the floor because people in a rush to see things, so I don’t go anymore. I appreciate that a product might be commercially sensitive if it was a new project but as they’ve already done them, I don’t see the issue. Even if it was, a simple email back saying “not at present” or something similar would at least be a response.

I’m not sure if this has been posted before or anyone else has had the same issues but I’ve sent Dapol several emails regarding their products, recently asking if they plan to re-release their OO Scale Megafrets but never had a single reply. I find this extremely frustrating as I want to become a regular buyer of their products but why should I if they can’t be bothered to reply.

After a conversation with a member from my model railway club, he suggested that I kept it single line working but retained semaphore signalling and made it look something similar to the line from Norwich to Great Yarmouth. I wasn’t planning to have any signals on the layout except for some kind starter signal on the platform end that protects the level crossing. Is this worth considering or stick with my original plan?

Probably on excursion to the Norfolk Broads as I remember seeing a pair at Spalding in the mid 70’s for the tulip festival.

In my world, this is a alternative plan to the Cambridge to Oxford route via Bedford by using the Peterborough to Northampton route. To solve the Wellingborough problem, it would stop at a new station and then go onto Northampton where it would reverse. It would then call at Milton Keynes, use the Bletchley flyover and onto Oxford. I was thinking that Cross Country would provide the service and Midland Trains doing the local services. The local service would leave Peterborough and by using the Fletton curve and use what’s now the Nene Valley Railway to Yarwell, then use the line to Northampton. The Cambridge to Oxford service would use the long removed Peterborough East junction, as would intermodal and other freight. The station at Elton would be a request stop as the passenger loading would be quite low.

I’m hoping to recreate my impression of a modern version Elton station on the long closed Northampton to Peterborough line. In my world, the line never closed though closed to passengers in the 60’s and with the advent of Network SouthEast, the line reintroduced passenger service. Moving to the present day, Elton station was rebuilt as the original one closed in the early 50’s, demolished and I’m using the Heljan 2501 Local Railway Station which is based on Tackley in Oxfordshire as its new station. Passenger service is provided by London midland Class 153’s though East Midlands Trains Class 153’s and 156’s appear from time to time.. I was originally thinking of keeping it as a single tracked line but also I’m thinking of returning it to double track as my other plan was it’s also being used as diversionary route for intermodal traffic between Felixstowe, DIRFT at Daventry and points north. I would really like to hear from others for inspiration and sensible suggestions.

I have a Hornby Class 56 in Colas livery numbered 56094 but I want to renumber it as 56302. As this used to be 56124, are there any noticeable detail differences between these two loco’s? I know that there were changes to the Romanian, early Doncaster builds regarding the horn grill and buffer beams but I seem to remember that the last change was after 56080 (I think). Is this correct?

The device attached to the front of the loco I believe is a forward facing video camera and films the track ahead.

I think the wagons you are thinking about which were built for EWS by Thrall at York are spine wagons, totally different design.

Slightly off topic but I never understood why vacuum braking lasted so long in this country when virtually the rest of the railway world went over to air brakes over a century ago? Is it because we’re a island and with very little interchange of traffic with the rest of Europe so the thinking was “it works, why change”.

I’ve noticed that 37421 seems to be permanently attached to one of Network Rail’s set of measurement trains. Is the loco used exclusively by Colas on these trains because of its ETH capability or is it used on other trains when not required? If it runs with a permanent set, does anyone know the coaching stock numbers as I’d possibly like to model it.

I was under the impression that responsibility lay on who put the fence or wall up in the first place. From my time on the railways, the fences installed by the railway were to be maintained by them but it was the responsibility of the farmer to be aware if the fence or wall was suitable to stop the livestock getting out of the field and onto the railway.

I’m hoping to recreate a Auto Ballaster set using Bachmann’s models but was wondering if they ran in sets of three, five or more? Do they have the generator vehicle at each end? Are they used by all the freight companies or just DBC, DRS and GBRf?

I didn’t realise that these were the same vehicles but I was aware the the steel coil carriers are based on a 40ft container footprint. I must admit that I thought the wagons were a dirty maroon colour but it must have been just pure dirt lol.

I’m sure there’s been a thread about these before but I’m thinking of getting several of the Bachmann FIA intermodal wagons but I’m finding it hard to find any up to date information about them. I know that EWS inherited these wagons from RfD but are they still in service with DBC? If they are still in service are they still green, been repainted into EWS maroon or a mixture of both? Also are they used on set routes or diagrams as I’m not sure if I’ve seen any at Peterborough on DBC intermodal trains.

Posted some pictures of the former Elton station site, Nassington Road as it is now and then went to Ferry Meadow's station on the Nene Valley Railway and photographed the crossing there. Would this type of crossing be used on Network Rail still or would the only be suitable for preserved railways due to the low speed and train infrequencies?

The NoL sets were sent to SNCF to work the Paris to Lille TGV service. I seem to remember that one of the GNER liveried sets ran on this service at least once but all the others had their Eurostar logos and lettering removed and replaced with SNCF “TGV” style, certainly on the power cars

With the first batch of Class 56’s going to Longport to be rebuilt and re-engined, does anyone know the plans for the rebuilding apart from putting in a EMD 710 power unit in? Will the loco retain the Brush main alternator and traction motors as per a Class 57 or go the whole hog and install a EMD AR8 main alternator and D43TR traction motors? There is also talk of new cabs as well as the present ones are starting to rot out.

I always thought that all the Class 373’s when first built were tri/quad voltage with 750v DC 3rd rail, 1500/3000v DC overhead for the Belgian and French systems as well as the standard 25kv AC overhead for the HS1 and TGV lines. Obviously once HS1 was open and running without issues, the 3rd rail shoegear was redundant and removed.

I’m thinking that the passenger service would be hourly but as freight will be using the line, mainly intermodal as a diversionary route and some ballast and track renewal workings

I’m building a modern day layout and representing a new version of Elton station on the former and long closed Northampton to Peterborough “Nene Valley line”. In my version the line stayed open but singled as part of economies and a new station was built in the 90’s to serve Elton and the surrounding growing villages. The passenger services would be served by a single Class 153 and the occasional freight train so the line would be up to a high standard. As the station will include a level crossing as it departs in one direction, I’m wondering what station starter signalling would be (if any) to tell the driver that the barriers were down? As the road will be little more than a country lane, would it be half barriers or full set? Any information or pictures of similar style station/level crossing would be most useful.

There was the Weston-super-Mare loop which was singled in the early 70’s as part of the Bristol re-signalling scheme

Just wondering where the Mount Vernon tip is as the cost of transportation must been quite high. I thought it was just the 27 went there and interested to hear about the railcar, 116 DMU and Mk 1 sleepers going there as well.

I never understood why the shell was dumped in a tip instead of being broken up. I appreciate that it still contained asbestos but there were scrap dealers about that could deal with it.