drmditch

Yes, the switch could arc horribly. I understand the 'second man' (if that is the correct title) was at some time issued with a leather glove for making/unmaking the switch. You have not mentioned that you do (or did) make a kit for the Shildon Electrics. I was hoping to obtain one, but can't work out which of my lines to electrify!

You do not mention the Shildon-Teeside electrification, which was functional from 1915. Post WW1 coal traffic decline and the passage of time entailed that by 1935 the OHLE was not financially worth replacing/maintaining. Electricity supply costs were also a factor. It is a shame that none of the 10 locomotives built for the line survive, despite one having been used post WW2 as a shunter at Ilford Car Sheds and which I think I can just remember seeing. The plans for York-Newcastle electrification would have used third-rail collection for the 'open country' parts of the line, nevertheless by the 1930s the same issue of infrastructure maintenance costs would surely have affected it. The only survivor of the NER electrification is No.1, from the Manors-Quayside tunnel line. This is at Locomotion in Shildon and it is hoped that post-covid (if that time ever comes) the cab, with it's rather horrendous changeover switch from Overhead to third-rail, can be open to visitors again. Had things been otherwise Tony could have had locomotives like No.13 whispering through Little Bytham, and no A4s! But perhaps he wouldn't like that!

Actually, snowflakes on bare shoulders aren't too uncomfortable. Managing heels on icy cobbles can be a problem though!

Re:US religious history. - Anti 'popish'/Irish riots - Messrs Smith and Brigham Young and the Latter Day Saints. - and a whole lot more. Lynchings and burnings and mass-murder are part of the heritage of 'The Land of the Free'. They built some very long single-track railways though. Just been re-reading some 19th century history.

And then re-work/number/paint as required!

Sorry to hear this.

And the high light and the low light on the North Shields side, with No1 and No2 (Green bouys) on the North side of the channel.

I did try to watch this, having found it on Iplayer. Currently my part of County Durham has no broadcast signal following the Bilsdale transmitter fire. I will not watch any more, for the reasons stated above. However, it is quite difficult to find anything on television to watch. Anyone have any sensible suggestions? I don't have satellite or any pay-to-view services. Also I dislike explicit violence and people speaking in constant expletives.

Re: Passenger Tank Locomotives No.5 for me please (although I would prefer an A5/2)

Or Erimus, or even Whitemoor.

Re: Freight (and Mixed Traffic) Locomotive Types. Please may I vote for 7, 8 ,9 and (I suppose I should really) 10. My locomotives need to be in LNER livery, and I should perhaps say that my railway has no real relation to the superb PN. (Except of course being linked by some 183 miles of main line railway, and I am quite prepared to regard the ex-GN mainline after 1923 as the NER London Branch!)

Re: Freight Stock 10 (LNER ex NER Weltrol F, Dia 149 or Protrol G, Dia 142) If I have read correctly the Bogie Sulphate Wagon (No.4) was only used on Teesside until sometime in BR days when they were used for London rubbish.

Yes - and no! In the 'original' single volume of Mr Tatlow's LNER Wagons my chosen type is indeed the upper picture on page 74 - Plate 152. This is Type BL. Plate 153 (the centre picture) is the vertically ribbed Type BLP. Like many LNER modellers, my standard references are now the later five volumes of Mr Tatlow's history. Volume 4b pages 190 et seq. discuss steel containers in more detail. Since the likelihood of seeing one of these containers presumably reflects the number produced, here are the quantities from page 191 Type BL - Dia 7 - Built 175 Tyoe BLS - Dia 8 - Built 25 (externally similar to BL some with internal shelves.) Type BSS - Dia 9 - Built 30 (strengthened for vertical stacking and intended for use on shipping services) Type BLC Dia 11 Built 190 (ventilated and vertical ribbing) Type BLP Dia 12 (Built 30 (similar to Type BLC but reduced in height by 4".) I do have some materials allocated for building a BL - but the rivet detail will be tricky! - so if anyone makes one RTR I would be quite pleased! (Sorry, a quick search doesn't reveal any WWW accessible pictures.)

Re: Containers and Wagons. 4,5, and 9 please. 4 because LMS container flats are quite hard for me to model properly, since they are little more than an underframe. 5 because despite the Parkside Kit for the Conflat S, they are tricky to make and even trickier to letter properly. 9 because I've been promising to make an LNER BL steel container for ages, but it keeps being deferred in my project list. 12 - 9 Type BL, for reasons described above

We're the two 600v Bo-Bo locomotives 'quayside shunters'? I understood that they were used for trip workings between Trafalgar Yard and the Quayside through the 1-in-25 horseshoe bend tunnel linking the two. First trip each day would take a steam locomotive down to the Quayside for shunting on the quayside itself. The bow and later pantograph collectors were used in the upper yard to collect from a tramway style overhead. The third rail collection shoes were used, for reasons of clearance, through the tunnel.

Good Afternoon. Please may I vote for:- 1,2,5,6,10 Focus 13 - No.2 (largest number built of the choices presented) Focus 14 - No.10 (company loyalty) Having checked the sources available on my shelves (Essery, Tatlow and Atkins,Beard,Hyde,Tourret , I note the following:- 1= GWR Dia 03 - 1,600 built to 1912 and O11 - 10,815 to 1919 2 = LMS Dia 1666 (ex MR design) - 54,450 built by 1930 5 = GWR Dia O31 - 150 built to 1933 - however Dia O32 - 11,755 built to 1940 6 = LMS Dia 1892 - 12,200 built by 1939 - wooden ends LMS Dia 2110 - 3,550 built by 1948 - corrugated steel ends (perhaps this begs the question as to why both Dia 1892 and Dia 2110 are both together in No.6. However, I would be happy with both or either!) 10 = LNER Dia 91 - 15,750 built by 1937 - this had a wooden underframe as did Dia191 6,500 built to 1944. Does this poll cover fitted and unfitted wagons? Obviously that would give more variants - but since my interests lie before 1948 then the large numbers of unfitted vehicles and their 'common user' status makes them more suitable for my purposes. (Sorry my bookshelves have less material regarding the GWR and little regarding the SR. Apologies to those with loyalties and knowledge greater than mine)

Re: Freight vs Passenger stock. I don't really understand why there should be a modelling problem. Goods and mineral wagons are smaller and easier to make. There is a good supply of kits which can be made and/or modified, and present an unsurpassed method of cheering oneself up in dark and depressing times. There are some RTR models which can be used or modified as required, although I continue to be surprised at the relative paucity of LMS stock. My current level of modelling skill hasn't yet risen to make much coaching stock, although I did complete a rake of 52' non-vestibuled vehicles just in time for Hornby to produce their nice models of the same. However, should Mr Macdermott's interesting exercise above instigate an RTR version of my ex-GNR cattle wagon (of which I am quite proud) - I shall be very cross!

Didn't one of the 5th Battle Squadron (the QEs) fire a torpedo at Jutland? Sorry, I haven't checked - but if I start to read 'The Rules of the Game' just now I will be totally distracted from railway building (desired activity) and gardening (must be done). I do agree about Vice-Admiral Holland having his 'T Crossed', but surely his wish to engage the enemy as rapidly as possible was part of:- - The Navy's instinct to fire at something as soon as you could see it and it was in range, and before visibility worsened. - The risk of being Court Martialled if the Admiralty thought that you had been too cautious (ref. the Goeben Courts Martial). - The primary mission of preventing the German big ships from intercepting the Atlantic convoys. Of course, there was also the still prevailing myth of the supremacy of the Big Gun and the ships that carried them. The Bismarck actions showed both the power of the big gun (when in range) and the newer weapons systems (Aircraft Carriers) that would replace them. After all, although PoW's 14" hit may have limited the range of Bismarck's operation, it was the torpedo hit from a semi-obsolescent Swordfish that reduced her to a unmaneuverable target. I have enormous admiration for all those young people who carried on with the jobs that they did, whether taking of from a pitching flight deck, or being stuck in a narrow steel tube under the water and being hit with explosives, or for that matter weathering an Atlantic gale in a ship about the size of an inter-island ferry. On the few times I have encountered an RN ship's crew I have been struck by how young they all were. Some things don't change. I think the average age of Victory's crew at Trafalgar was about 21. Whoever you are, and whatever the morality of the cause espoused by the government sending you to fight, the sea is still the sea, and water and fire and explosives will still kill you. Now I had better stop ranting, before I recount my visit to the German Navy Museum at Laboe near Kiel, it's preserved Type 7 U-Boat, and the excellent charts of the Skagerrackschlacht it has on display.

This must be a large proportion of the operable fleet? (PS - thank you for the pictures!)

I remember that being built and launched.

Re: NPPCS Poll 1,2 7,8,9,10 please. (I think that's the maximum allowed!)

I have also found that my current (old and due to be replaced) DAB radio provides excellent warning of RF arcing.

Actually, I'd be more worried south of Peterborough these days.

Re: Schleswig Holstein' question. Has anyone found a good recent biography of Palmerston?

Not as much as the young 'Kaiser Bill'.