talisman56

On our day trip out, I had ample opportunity to eyeball the electrification progress between Patchway and Newport; it appears that the knitting is all present and correct until the triangular junction just outside Newport to the east of the station. The north to east single line curve at that junction does not have anything electricity-based on it, the north to west double-track curve does, apparently up to, or just after where the n-e curve joins it. From the triangular junction in to Newport, there is catenary on all running lines, but while most of the register arms (?) do have a wire connected, there are some that don't; these appear to be the ones associated with crossovers, etc. Platform 4 at Newport does have a complete set of wired catenary, platform 3 has all the metalwork but no wiring; I didn't have a chance to investigate 1 or 2 as our inbound train was so late that our connection time was dangerously close to being negative minutes. We needn't have worried, though, as within three refreshes of the display board the 16.40 to Paddington went from 'on time' to 12 minutes down. What followed was the sound of a timetabled service gently unravelling; a Cheltenham service cancelled, a Chester service arriving late and then sitting in the platform for an inordinately long time and the following service being replatformed. The replatformed service being announced as the next service on platform 3, only for the regular announcement of the Paddington service which should have been next; announcements being cut off in their prime for announcements notifying of services being late, which were then cut-off for more such announcements... We eventually got a service in the Bristol direction, we didn't care which as long as we could get a train from either Parkway or Temple Meads back to Yatton.

...and no HiViz... (C13829)

The review in the PECO publication for August 2019 made no comment on the veracity (or otherwise) of the malachite livery.

C18288 - don't often see Mk1 loco-hauled stock with bars over the door droplights - presumably to stop the gricers leaning out of the windows...

Is that rubbish in the 4foot in the distance? (both lines) The telephoto lens does accentuate the severity of the unevenness of the track somewhat...

<Pedant mode on> The Severn Road Bridge opened in September 1966. <Pedant mode off>

It may well be - all the ones I've taken still have conventional 'slam' doors (and some of them have been a remarkable mixture of stock, including one with a Buffet First), but the main issue that everyone has to queue up in the aisle and go out the doors one-by-one, instead of gathering by the double doors of a 'Turbo' and going out en masse.

My main issue with 'shorty' HSTs is that the station dwell time is apparently longer than the 166s that they replaced, at least on my service of choice ex-Yatton, the 08.54 (dest. Cardiff). It is invariably at least 2 down by the time it gets to Yatton and on occasion has dropped more by the time it gets to BTM, making the recommended connection time very dodgy, especially if one has to fight through the throngs and get from plat 5 to 13 or 15 to get the Paddington service. With a dodgy hip I sometimes can't walk that fast and need that 10 minutes, at least...

Obviously there was an incident which prompted the erection of that sign...

...yet Bachmann/Farish sold their N-gauge Birdcages as a three-car set in a box... :shrug:

After many issues with eTickets trying to get in and around Bristol with the First Bus app, I trust eTickets about as far as I can throw the phone. Order on line and collect from the station is my preferred way...

I can beat that - a recent trip to the capital saw me and SWMBO plus 4 other customers in a coach where all the seats had a reservation ticket jammed in the top of the seat - of those, only about 1/3 were taken up further in the journey by people obviously looking for a seat reservation (as opposed to the people who were wondering where the h3ll to sit because all the seats are reserved...)

Good spot Rob. The April pic with the (apparently) darker green livery has those scoops, in the May ones the carriages appear to have had the scoops removed and the location plated over. Presumably we are looking at two separate rakes of stock, as the plating in the later picture looks not-recent; probably air vents? Judging from the interior window condensation of the first May picture (J6028) showing a service apparently rammed to the gills, ventilation was sorely needed on that service...

We have that in N scale too. IMO, the Dapol BR(S) Green is too light and the Farish version on their Bulleids too dark. The difference when you put a Dapol Maunsell and Farish Bulleid together is one that you can't blame on weathering, etc...

All of them? It depends how fresh the paint is, which depot mixed it, the lighting, etc, etc, etc.....

Model a dairy goods processing plant - one XP goods train a day guaranteed...

The principle that was applied to the Maunsells went all the way through to the end of set working on BR(S), including the Bulleids and Mark 1s. The 1st class end of the Compo was marshalled next to the lower-numbered BTK, assuming the BTKs were matched consecutively-numbered pairs. There were similar rules for longer sets, e.g 4-sets with an added TK had this inserted between the CK and lower-numbered BTK, with the corridor on the opposite side. Generally, 1st class on non-restaurant sets was kept toward the centre of the set. Regarding handed Brakes, the last ones on Southern metals were the SR-built 'Ironclads' introduced in 1925 - only sets with an odd number of coaches needed handed brakes, these were necessary to keep to the principle of corridors alternating down the set.

When the Horsted Keynes branch from Copyhold Junction was originally electrified, it was double track. It only became single when reduced traffic warranted it and TPTB wanted somewhere to store all the withdrawn pre-group coaching stock, and later on, the Kent Coast Electrification stock while it was awaiting entry into service.

Not necessarily whacky, but I've never seen that paying for parking is optional...

Whenever I've been travelling to Yatton from the London direction, there's always been an announcement by the TM just before arrival at BTM to get to the front 4 coaches (HST) or front set (2x 5-car 80x). Especially useful if the IETs are formed the wrong way round and your seat reservations (carefully chosen to be in coach B or C) are at the rear of the train...

What was the driver of the blue van thinking - to drive into the side of a train which was already on the crossing???

C9196 - no-one would believe you if you weathered a model like that... C9224 - I assume the flask wagon was empty for that movement...

There - corrected it for you

...following SR(ailway) practice whereby the Steam passenger stock had the set number they were running in painted on left-hand end of the solebar of each vehicle in the set. An alternative would be a glimpse of the coach side the other side of the driver's door where the coach running number would be...

I hope the medical treatment for your condition resolves the issue...