Grounding a newb in late 60s/early 70s Somerset/West Country and Wales?

[BR traction instructor]

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

[The Stationmaster]

45 minutes ago, BR traction instructor said:

…or one of these, the colour looks right. I have other consist shots in this area, at a similar time, showing them moving one at a time.

 

BeRTIe

The AC invalid cars like that were distributed by BR freight trains under a Ministry of Health Agreed Flat Rate payment scheme.  So they could at one time - certainly into the mid 1960s - be found in freight trains.  The MoH  AFR scheme also included 'adapted'  vehicles for disabled people (such as those with a hand operated clutch_ so adapted Morris Minors could sometimes be seen although i don't think that part of the AFR scheme included distribution from the factory at Cowley.

[BR traction instructor]

There is a 1975 image of one of the AC(70) style Thames Ditton cars in a freight train at Fairwood jnc in the Railway Elegance book that I suggested above.

 

BeRTIe

Edited June 17, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[slow8dirty]

The Barnstaple line in North Devon has been discussed on here before and there's recently been some very good layouts depicting/based on it. Last rump of a big branch with some residual freight. TT you say, the tarka line was host to 31s for a number of years, along with 33s and DMUs.

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~cyberheritage/nostalgia/index.htm

[britishcolumbian]

@BR traction instructor - thank you so much for those WTT scans! (Aside from everything else, I'm a bit of a nut for timetables in general, myself). One thing I would ask right off the bat is, do you have a key to the abbreviations and symbols (e.g. the triangle and the spade) in the "timing column reference" row and immediately beneath that?

 

I was just last night looking at the Wikipedia page on headcodes so now I'm going to work out what each of the trains through Pen Mill was.

[BR traction instructor]

…there you go.

 

Working with the period railway publications will automatically raise your efforts towards model railway status.

 

I have the 67/68 & 71/72 WTTs around your period too but they’ll essentially repeat what I’ve already posted…

 

BeRTIe

Edited June 17, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[BR traction instructor]

[britishcolumbian]

21 minutes ago, BR traction instructor said:

…there you go.

 

Working with the period railway publications will automatically raise your efforts towards model railway status…

 

 

Just a small selection of my BC related timetables 1966-1978 :) Amazing how much can be learnt from these.

[Andy Kirkham]

Perhaps this collection of my own photos would help. They mostly date from 1970-1975. But beware! There is a distinct selection bias and  you might gain the impression that the Western Region was nearly all hydraulics and that diesel-electrics and DMUs were a rarity

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Andy Kirkham

[britishcolumbian]

@Andy Kirkham Thank you for sharing that! Just started looking at them, and felt very proud of myself at recognising Temple Meads instantly. :)

 

Selection bias here or there these will definitely give me a feel for how things looked at the time, so very helpful!

[britishcolumbian]

Ohh just saw the picture of SS Great Britain returning to Bristol, fantastic. I've been raving about that museum since I saw it in 2019, the restoration was fantastic and the way it's all done up inside recreating not just the sights but the sounds and smells too is delightfully immersive, can't recommend it enough to people.

[Andy Kirkham]

1 minute ago, britishcolumbian said:

Ohh just saw the picture of SS Great Britain returning to Bristol, fantastic. I've been raving about that museum since I saw it in 2019, the restoration was fantastic and the way it's all done up inside recreating not just the sights but the sounds and smells too is delightfully immersive, can't recommend it enough to people.

 

Couldn't agree more. It's an exemplary museum. And if the Great Britain wasn't enough, I believe there are plans to build a replica of the Great Western to go alongside it. 

 

As has been alluded to above, the late 60s - early 70s were in may ways a depressing period as exemplified, perhaps, by this picture. Most stations except the inter-city ones became unstaffed and the buildings were either left derelict or demolished. I had the feeling that the Western Region was perhaps more zealous than all the others in pursuing this policy. 

Also by this period, nearly all minor stations had lost their goods depots; the only wagonload traffic that sometimes remained was coal.

 

[Andy Kirkham]

This was also a peiod of transition in station signage. many stations still retained the old "hot dog" totems, and a few were still painted in Western Region brown and cream. But eventualy the standard black-on-white signage became universal.

 

[britishcolumbian]

7 minutes ago, Andy Kirkham said:

As has been alluded to above, the late 60s - early 70s were in may ways a depressing period as exemplified, perhaps, by this picture. Most stations except the inter-city ones became unstaffed and the buildings were either left derelict or demolished. I had the feeling that the Western Region was perhaps more zealous than all the others in pursuing this policy.

 

 

That photo reminds me of Hungary in the 90s after the end of communism, when all the things that had been operating under communism only because of The Plan were finally abandoned and left to disintegrate...

 

I've got time yet to decide more concretely on a time period but I've put in a pre-order for a 31 in green with full-face yellow ends so that limits me to whatever time period that represents... but the actual layout/modules I build, I'm kinda thinking I'd like to keep it a bit looser, such that though the 31 might be the "default" time, if one day some suitable steam power appears in TT I could run that without it looking out of place (I think Pen Mill will suit that pretty well even as it looks today...)

[britishcolumbian]

6 minutes ago, Andy Kirkham said:

This was also a peiod of transition in station signage. many stations still retained the old "hot dog" totems, and a few were still painted in Western Region brown and cream. But eventualy the standard black-on-white signage became universal.

 

When did the... I don't know what it's called, the "not-equal-to sign" emblem start showing up?

 

I dig the old style stop sign in that second photo, too.

[Andy Kirkham]

1 hour ago, britishcolumbian said:

 

When did the... I don't know what it's called, the "not-equal-to sign" emblem start showing up?

 

 

Generally known as the Double Arrow.

The Corporate Identity Manual, in which it was specified, https://britishrailmanual.com/ is dated April 1965, so it could just have appeared alongside Western Region steam (which finished at the end of that year)

[BR traction instructor]

2 hours ago, Andy Kirkham said:

Perhaps this collection of my own photos would help. They mostly date from 1970-1975. But beware! There is a distinct selection bias and  you might gain the impression that the Western Region was nearly all hydraulics and that diesel-electrics and DMUs were a rarity

 

 

Nice selection of images Andy…thanks for sharing.

 

BeRTIe

[Rivercider]

2 hours ago, britishcolumbian said:

Ohh just saw the picture of SS Great Britain returning to Bristol, fantastic. I've been raving about that museum since I saw it in 2019, the restoration was fantastic and the way it's all done up inside recreating not just the sights but the sounds and smells too is delightfully immersive, can't recommend it enough to people.

I would agree there. Although I am a 5th generation railwayman, with a minimal knowledge of ships,  the SS Great Britain museum was one of the best days out I have had.

 

cheers

[Andy Kirkham]

news about the Great Western replica

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-61717987