Gwiwer

FXT123 was not on an RT at all. It was carried by CR17 which spent much of its life at TG (Tring) as a Country Area bus often working the local route 387 thence to Aldbury. That route became the home in later years of the prototype Country bus Merlin XMB (sometime later MBS) 15.

It applied to LT, with a few exceptions, for deliveries after the RT/RF families. Most Routemasters bore matching fleet / registration numbers and had the block booked some way in advance until year-suffix marks stymied that. Even the "awkward" numbers (RM1000 and RM2000) were matched with the former carrying a unique, for London buses, BXL mark. Later on the DMS fleet was matched including DMS1000 and 2000 again. My interest really began when we moved into Southdown territory and discovered everything had matched registration and fleet numbers. There were a very few exceptions of course; Queen Mary 315 was GUF250D having been one of a kind with prototype heating, ventilation and panoramic windows. The main batch of "panoramics" had matching numbers however as did every other vehicle in that substantial fleet. Including the other "boiler" with experimental heating which was car 257 (BUF257C). Both 257 and 315 were notorious for overheating and loathed by crews where ever they went. Nearby East Kent didn't even use fleet numbers until management was merged with its Maidstone & District neighbour by NBC. They managed to obtain unique batches of numbers well in advance. Again the year-suffix upset this a little but they still managed to obtain unique numbers even if not always with their preferred FN letter marks. The combined fleets were eventually assigned numbers in a common series with Eask Kent vehicles taking those in the 1xxx series for saloons, 7xxx series for 'deckers and 8xxx series for coaches. M&D used 2xxx (buses) and 3xxx (dual-purpose) for saloons, 4xxx for coaches, 5xxx (full height) and 6xxx (anything less than full height) for 'deckers. Having come up from Cornwall where nothing matched and later returned there I discovered the same "nothing matching" philosophy pervaded right through the NBC era. There was generally no attempt to match registrations and fleet numbers even when cohorts of minibuses arrived. The frequent purchase or transfer in of second-hand stock only added to the hotch-potch albeit there was some rhyme and reason within it. Front-line coaches were numbered in the 2xxx series and a few did carry matching numbers late in NBC days including a small batch of B10M Volvos bought for use on Cornwall - London National Express contracts. A handful of double-deck MCW Metroliner coaches also carried matching numbers in the 14xx series. Such were the idiosyncrasies of each individual operator and often stemming from the distant past in the early years of the 20th Century. My brief residence within the operating area of Provincial (Gosprt & Fareham Omnibus) also confirmed that different operators applied very different philosophies to maintaining their fleets. "Provvy" was a small, very eclectic and much-rebuilt fleet with few suggestions of matching fleet and registration numbers. Indeed in many cases the body carried didn't match the chassis beneath it such was the extent of the "make good and mend" policy of this modest business. Where else might one travel on a converted mobile shop fitted with 20 or so bus seats as just one example?

For the last time this year Good Morning All Very mild for the time of year though still damp upon the Hill of Strawberries. Apparently it does them good. The blackberries in the hanging baskets are already producing buds. The pansies are staging a determined show despite almost being wiped out by a hungry squirrel or two. The neighbours have mostly returned with yesterday seeing something of a procession of parental cars being unloaded, carrier bags being carried and not long after it became apparent why certain carpets are termed s.h.a.gpile. I suspect that would describe events perfectly. Tonight is unplanned and we shall take it as it comes. SWMBO has never been a big fan of new year celebrations but I most definitely am. Usually happy to have a beer at home then merge with the crowd rather than keep drinking in some stranger’s house. As a younger Gwiwer I would always be in Trafalgar Square but that is too busy and ringed with security to be much fun now. It’s been a year of huge upsan downs and great change for us. Now seems an appropriate moment to thank everyone here, those I have met and those I have yet to meet, for all your friendship, support, advice, banter and simply being what we are in ER. 2017 would have been harder and the poorer without you all. A glass of something suitable shall be raised in your honour at midnight. Or as close as I can manage if I’m out being that recycled twenty-something Gwiwer who still lurks inside

To all who have suffered loss this year I extend my heartfelt sympathy. I too shall be seeing in the New Year minus dad who we lost to bowel cancer back in March. Until 2015, when he declared himself too old and unwell to stay up, his tradition was always to bake a batch of puff-pastry mince pies for midnight and served with a glass of something. Often Famous Grouse. A glass of Grouse shall be raised at (or near to if I’m out partying) midnight in memory of those we have lost and in support of those left behind. Best wishes for 2018.

What on Magrathea would Zaphod Beeblebrox have had to say about that??? I managed one driving lesson in reasonably fresh and moderately deep snow quite by chance. In London at that. About five inches of the stuff fell overnight though it was soft enough to have had tyre-tracks cut through it by dawn. I was instructed to start cautiously in second using revs but letting the clutch in very slowly with one exception which was when facing slightly uphill at one point. That was a first gear start no ifs nor buts. The number of times one might do a snow start is surely not that many in the lifetime of a clutch. Since then I have been required to drive fare-paying passengers (in Cornwall) in falling snow, through settled snow and even in something akin to a blizzard when the stuff blew in on a northerly gale. Fully automatic buses coped except for the steeper hills which they objected to; semi-automatics were to be preferred as one could select the required gear from four or five and hold it rather than having the choice of D, R or N. By dint of selecting second I safely negotiated Sennen Cove (almost a mile of 1:5) down then back up in three inches of snow with a double-decker. It's actually getting rather warmer here as the wind shifts for the night. A quick trip to the local supermarket late afternoon was made in -1C but now at almost midnight it is 6C and rising to an expected 11C by morning, 14C by midday. On that note it's a good night from me to all.

And would do so to a greater extent if it ran on Monday mornings to the same times it does on other days. There is a down XC Voyager which runs on Mondays but is about 30 minutes earlier and just a piskie's hair too early for the Penzance workers and most schoolkids.

Don't overlook Richmond (Tas) for a fourth in Australia. If one looks around the large cities there is certainly a cluster of "imported" British names. Adelaide has a Seaford as does Melbourne but Melbourne goes several better by also having Brighton, Shoreham, Rye, Hastings and more. Sydney has Dulwich Hill among others and is famed for Rooty Hill which if one understands Aussie slang is not the place to live! Whether the reverse process could be used for a British-themed layout is worth considering. Frankston (in outer Melbourne) isn't represented in the UK to my knowledge but is perfectly plausible as are other Melburnian suburbs such as Edithvale and Aspendale. Not sure how Woori Yallock or Launching Place might transpose though, nor Morradoo (not to be confused with Much Ado ) which is the name now given to what for most of its life was known as Rail Motor Stopping Place No.15. Fair call. Those Anglo-Saxons must have travelled quite a bit. I know there are some elsewhere (Bebington hasn't been mentioned yet) though it still to my mind remains a typically Sussex element in place names.

Good to see some sort of focus put into the arena where too often the feeling is that the 57s are unreliable and the service not to be trusted. The biggest problem I have is actually getting aboard. It's no secret to those who know that GWR are desperately in need of more rolling stock for this service, both seated and sleeping cars. There is often room "on the cushions" but the sleepers are frequently booked out at least a week or so in advance. While that's good news for the business it suggests demand exceeds capacity on at least most weekends and sometimes on a week night. One extra sitter and two extra sleepers in each rake to boost them to load 10 maximum, 9 on the quieter nights, should be enough and should not affect the already-generous schedules. But where do they come from? And longer trains will mean even more coaches remain locked at the many short platforms in Cornwall requiring a walk-through. Another thing. SWMBO required a return from Paddington to Lostwithiel recently going both ways overnight. She was told by the Paddington ticket office that this could not be issued as the up sleeper doesn't stop there. She booked online and was charged for a return to St. Austell with the return leg being a back-track down hop to connect into the up. Upon boarding the sleeping car at Paddington the host was more than a little surprised that she requested Lostwithiel and was rather abrupt in telling her that the sleeping car portion didn't stop in the platform there. In other words she would be woken before Plymouth and have to make her way forward to the seats. She opted to alight at St. Austell instead and booked a taxi back to Lostwithiel. The platforms at many Cornish stations do not accommodate the full train but why can the on-board staff not be a little more flexible and perhaps accept that people do wish to go to Lostwithiel from the sleeping cars, which are at the back on the down run, just as they do when I myself use the train to reach Hayle. And why can the up train not call at Hayle and Lostwithiel? It did very briefly. It should not affect timekeeping. It might help with loadings which I gather are sometimes lighter on the up due to the very early arrival in London being unsuitable for seated passengers.

I have yet to ride aboard an 800-series train of any type. SWMBO had her first trip by chance on Wednesday making her way from Reading to Chippenham on the service selected for her by the booking system. Her reservation was a window seat at a table. She was unable to get herself into the seat owing to the cramped layout and was obliged to sit elsewhere. SWMBO isn't uncommonly over-scale (to use a modelling euphemism) but has never had a problem on HSTs nor does she have any real difficulty on any other train we have travelled on. She occupied an airline-style aisle seat nearby which she describes as uncomfortably cramped, cutting off lower leg circulation and without leg room for a 5' 7" woman. Her comments were, she says, echoed by others aboard who had difficulty accessing window seats and getting around tables. She isn't au fait with the technical side of trains but described the trip along Brunel's Billiard Table as "lumpy and bumpy" and has sworn to avoid such trains in the future. All those comments will be forwarded to GWR for information.

POE not relevant here. Expecting to be required for the so-called business days of this week I was pleasantly surprised to be assigned annual leave. BIN day on the other hand is deferred by 48 hours due to the holidays meaning we are scheduled to be disturbed on Sunday morning, and the week after will be on Saturday before reverting to Friday as normal the week after that. In Australia the bin men came on their regular day no matter what. Even collecting on Christmas morning which surprised most of us who hadn't bothered to put bins out - and no doubt pleasing the driver (only ever a solo driver there) who would have completed his round in double-quick time.

Everyone with 10203 on order should have received the same email as it was sent out by the bulk setting according to its own content. A quick check with my Kernow and bank accounts confirms that 10203 is already paid for and that as per the wording of the email I don't need to do anything except wait. Mine will be the green version simply because. I wasn't going to have one at all but all the positive feedback suggests I might regret it later if I passed them by.

Afternoon all. SWMBO returned safely from Somewhere slightly south of Bath yesterday evening despite freezing conditions and warnings of ice. It seems trains can run when rails are icy but not when they are covered with (liquid) water as per her outward trek. Delay Repay has been applied for; as the delay may not have been entirely weather-related we await the verdict. No further updates on the home front which suggests mother is unchanged or perhaps managing a few more nibbles of something for now. I am purposely giving my sister space and not asking her for updates all the time as she has more than enough on her plate right now. She will let me know what I need to know when I need to know it. The Hill remains cold with sunny intervals between very heavy bands of rain. The Thames is very high and flowing as fast as I've seen it. Took a trip to Windsor yesterday just to get out of the house and noted there was significant debris lodged against the piers of the bridge there (the old road bridge leading to Eton) while everyone and their dogs seemed to be photographing the near-flooding torrent. Not quite in the same league but I was reminded of the Ness Bridge which collapsed severing the Far North and Kyle lines for many months not more than a few days after my last trip across it and in similar circumstances. The inter-festival period is a strange time. Quiet yet busy. Town centres are packed with sale-goers but many of us are not required to work. Locally here it's been so quiet most of the time that even the foxes are embarrassed to break wind lest they should be overheard. Best wishes to all and with particular thoughts to those known to be in special need.

And I didn’t get a Teddybear for Christmas either

It might seem an unlikely opening but the BRMA (British Railway Modellers of Australia) may well put you in contact with the sort of people who can help and support you. I always found their local meetings, usually around a member’s layout, to be very welcoming, friendly and knowledgeable. Start here: www.brma.org.au

There have been issues identified with Bachmann 66s before as Alcanman notes. It might be that one or more sets of wheels is not in contact with the rails correctly when traversing the spot in question. I eased the bogie pivot screws on mine by a half-turn which helped considerably though not 100% as the bogies don't seem to be that well balanced. Do however take a look at the state of the lubrication as any loco laid up for several years might potentially be suffering from thickened gear grease. I have to say that the description of the problem doesn't sound like that is the cause but it has to be eliminated. As with most irritating problems this is probably a case of trial and error until you find what works for your loco.

9mm ply any day. Slightly heavier and priced accordingly in some places but far more durable and rigid than MDF or chipboard. Properly braced it won't give you any trouble at all. Whether to line it with cork is a personal decision though I always use cork beneath the track. Nowhere else though as it isn't needed.

Whilst it might not help with military craft I built an Airfix 1:72 Severn Class lifeboat and placed it alongside the jetty in full close-up view of anyone watching trains on the layout. It wasn't populated with 1:87 figures but by Bachmann 1:76 orange-clad track workers which is a good approximation of RNLI lifeboat gear. And it looked perfectly OK despite being in exactly the wrong place to force perspective to advantage namely it was (to the viewer) in front of the 1:76 trains and a selection of 1:76 and 1:87 people carefully picked and placed to look about right. For generic small fishing boats, knowing several of us model harbour scenes, Harburn Hamlet offer two 1:76 resin vessels which require little adaptation to be perfectly convincing in many applications. I simply weathered mine and added a couple of packs of deck gear (fish boxes, nets etc) also from HH and used some Noch 1:87 figures as crew.

With a good many points, crossings and sharp curves none of which mix well with basic 4-wheeled stock.

The Australian market is small and elsewhere in the world there is apparently very little interest meaning production runs are often limited and unit costs proportionately much higher than might be the case for British outline. They compare with some of the European and US outline brands for cost. Currently and so far as I am aware the only Australian RtR models are HO scale. Although there are three main gauges in use (Narrow / 3' 6" / 1067mm, Standard / 4' 8½" / 1435mm and "Irish" Broad / 5' 3" / 1600mm) many locomotives and items of rolling stock can be run on all three with bogie swaps. Swaps to and from Narrow Gauge are less common than between the two wider gauges; intermodal containers are transhipped in preference and there are no through passenger workings. So for modelling purposes you can make use of HO and EM provided you can re-set your back-to-backs but beware of point and crossing clearances if using sections of dual-gauge track. These are commonly found in yards and depot areas where locos and freight trains of both gauges are required to run. In model scale the difference between the two is very small and may not be possible to represent accurately given that our rails are of necessity over-scale width. Browse the Austrains and Auscision sites which are the major suppliers though some smaller businesses also exist. In my experience Australian-theme modellers also scratch-build more than British-theme modellers typically do. Largely, I believe, because of the modest range of RtR available but also a factor of often having more disposable income and more space to build a workshop than might be the case in a British home.

But haven't had booked work west of Newton Abbot for some years now. Exeter - Penzance turns are booked 150 and/or 153 Whitby - Carlisle - Lancaster was my nightmare. Not advertised as a through working as such but if one consulted the overlapping timetables it was Whitby - Middlesbrough, Nunthorpe - Metro Centre and Sunderland - Carlisle (so effectively a through working) and then formed the Cumbrian Coaster. Ouch. For what it was worth at least on that occasion it had a working toilet. That's not a given in my experience. See above

The Vicsig link is a good one as there is a vast amount of information - updated fairly regularly - within and complied and managed by very knowledgeable individuals some of whom are or have been industry insiders. It is not an official site however and is run purely as a hobby for information. There is an associated Facebook page which allows for some discussion of topics which were formerly managed in the now-closed Vicsig site forums. There is a "gunzel" (foamer / gricer / railfan) site which has since 1992 branded itself as "Wasting time and bandwidth" and which has some very handy detail among a great deal of froth and hot air. http://railpage.com.au is often referred to as RP (or Arpee) among its users and others and fair warning - you may well end up wasting a good deal of time and bandwidth there but it might be worth it now and again. Both sites share some active members whose names will also be found among the Flickr files for some excellent photographic records of modern and historical operations. One fascinating aspect of the Victorian Railways broad gauge operations is that there remain three level crossings with the standard gauge tram network in suburban Melbourne - the largest such in the world. One, at Glenhuntly, has three rail tracks crossing two tram tracks and carries freight as well as passenger on the broad gauge making it - we believe - unique in the world. I am also happy to answer questions having been employed by both the rail and tram operators in Melbourne over the past 18 years or so.

Give it an hour or so and it should reset itself. More refined controllers have a reset button but even that won't do the job until any overheat has cooled well below a safe level. It can take just a moment's short-circuit to trigger overheat in the cheaper controllers.

Morning all. Welcome to a very wet, windy and generally miserable Hill of Strawberries. Rose at 6 to help get SWMBO away to Bath and a stay with friends. Those of us who know, know that relying on early morning trains in bad weather after a two-day shut-down is not to be undertaken lightly. The computerised booking system does not know that and required her to be away at 07.38. Persistent rain overnight here with little sign yet of the forecast snow but those early trains were in some disarray. She reached Reading via Twickers despite meteorological efforts to stop her then boarded the GWR train. “Lots of snow” was reported. She was then required to alight at Swindon owing not to snow but to flooded tracks. Currently she is still there hoping the next train will be allowed through. Her friends have driven up to Chippenham but nothing is moving through Thingley Junction though staff and the NR app are expecting the line to reopen about now No news from the home front yet this morning but “unchanged” was the message I had late last night. Many thanks for all the supportive thoughts and comments. It really does make a difference to what might have been a lovely first Christmas back but wasn’t. More later. Stay safe. Don’t eat yellow snow. Do take note of yellow warning of ice issued for all southern areas.

Morning all. Just a check-in as I haven't long returned from Sussex and have not back-read the Christmas mail. Managed to drive safely there and back with fewer cockwombles on the roads than anticipated. One decidedly womblous BMW driver tested his high-beam flashing for a time on the A24 where I was overtaking slower-moving traffic perfectly safely while travelling at 70mph in the right-hand lane. When it was safe to move left I did so and said BMW roared past and disappeared in a cloud of dust at what might have been approaching a full Ton. Anyone who knows the sinuous nature of the A24 will know how dangerous that is. Also encountered one unlucky but uninjured driver on the old section near Capel who had been hit by someone reversing from a drive on a blind bend disabling both cars and requiring the attendance of the police to pass traffic one way at a time. Inconvenient more than serious in both cases but someone would have been late for their Christmas morning gathering. Family news is that mother is extremely poorly. Sister and myself were the only ones to visit yesterday and found her propped up in bed with insufficient strength left to even take the three steps required to the commode. She hadn't eaten anything the previous evening and managed only a biscuit and glass of Lucozade all of yesterday. It is the considered opinion of the family that her time is now very short indeed despite the fact that she remains mentally alert and talkative. Sister is exhausted and I shall be relieving her of some domestic duties as work and rail strikes permit over the coming days. She and several of her family have also endured the horrible cold which is going the rounds. We all, seven in total, managed to sit around the table to share Christmas dinner but middle nephew retired back to bed soon afterwards and sister, having ben obliged to drive youngest nephew to work at 6am today due to a lack of public transport, then pronounced herself unfit for any further duties and retired for the day with a box of tissues and various medications. In short the welcomes were warm and the givings generous but it neither felt like a "proper" family Christmas nor, given Mum's condition, was it entirely happy. But that is how things are and each of us has a limited time on the planet. While Mum might rally slightly and go on for a while I fear I am expecting a phone call at any time. Best wishes to all. Thoughts with those known to be in particular need or distress. I'll be back soon.

Good day ladies and gents. For most of us it is Christmas Eve; for our antipodean friends it is almost Christmas morning and Santa has been sighted over the Great Southern Lands. Finally all is ready here. The last shopping trip has been completed. The cards are written and (for those which require it) posted and the bags are packed for tomorrow's family visit. A good many friends around the world have commented that for some intangible reason this year it just doesn't feel like Christmas. So it isn't just me. Though I do feel a little more in the mood having been out earlier and wished random strangers a Merry Christmas in my travels through railway stations, shops and life in general. Someone asked how many shopping days until Christmas to which my reply was "365 online" which I guess is something of an indication as to societal shift. I'm now off to enjoy a sherry and mince-pie afternoon "tea" which will be followed by a posting of electronic greetings to all who share my Facebook friendship. Another societal shift and a huge knock for traditional card sales though postmen might be relieved at a lighter seasonal burden. We have very few cards this year but a considerable number of electronic messages. I received a surprise bonus from my employer earlier who now does not require my services again until 2nd January giving me a much longer break than I had expected and all fully paid. As we are away tomorrow this will be my final post for a couple of days. May I therefore take this time to wish all ERs, their families and friends the best of Christmas tidings, however you celebrate and what ever your belief or tradition, and with very special thoughts going to Simon and family and with Debs. Thank you for all your support and friendship through what has been a year of tremendous upheaval and change, loss of family and friends and in no small way coming to accept a much-reduced amount of living space in our new circumstances which has meant a temporary cessation, on my part, of most of the activities for which this website is famed. MERRY CHRISTMAS