TheSignalEngineer

If it is, it's an intermittent fault. I can set it to reboot on crash but the display doesn't come on again with that. When I've got a spare three hours I will wait for it to crash then when it reboots I will try to access it from my laptop.

Off to Manchester this morning. Makes a change from wrestling with my old desktop computer which seems to have broken Windows. All data is backed up so not a problem from that aspect but it seems to work O.K. on some days then goes into I'm going to shut down without warning every ten minutes mode. Possibly a driver issue from an update as sometimes display won't work then another day it keeps losing the mouse, although when I plug in a spare one it works. Run the diagnostics and it says Windows is all fine. Perhaps a couple of hours at the show when I've been to the shops will clear my head and I can get back to some m*****ing.

I've not ridden a light Class 91, but the Class 90 was pretty sharp. I was working around Willesden - Wembley area when they were being built and used to see them running in with a spare rake of ecs. I got talking to one driver who was on one just being released to traffic. He offered me a lift to Euston to catch my train home and show me what they were like. We got turned out Fast line at West London Junction and as he demonstrated setting the auto pilot to 60mph I felt the seat pressing into my back.

I seem to recall a 2+2 HST running on a Manchester Airport to Scotland service in place of a 158 in BR days. Had to be restricted in speed because although it went like the proverbial it was almost impossible to stop at speeds approaching 100mph.

I doubt if it has because I think it unlikeky that anyone doing that would go to the extent of having correctly coloured lamps for a station pilot.

Thanks Michael, will put it on the back burner as a future aspiration. Eric

Upstairs seating was covered with Rexine or Leathercloth, which had a grain but virtually even colour.

Do you still have any of the Fowler 2-6-4T limousine cab conversion kits? I'm hoping to be at Manchester on Saturday to spend a bit of the budget. Eric Steele

I remember the banners in the fields near to Cheddington. I used to travel weekly between Birmingham and London at the time.

I've just found 3 similar pictures on the Rail online photo site captioned as Hookagate

I knew I'd seen those tipper wagons somewhere.

The whole layout was renewed in bullhead during the electrification works 1964-7. The pointwork at each end has been replaced but some of the other BH track is probably still there.

Possibly at Hookagate Welded Rail depot. I thought at first it may be Newland but have found another picture of that loading gauge which tells me differently.

He's not the only one, I remember seeing a well-known exhibition layout which had been featured in modelling press where a train was running with a single Type A container on one end of a conflat wagon.

I had battles with them on almost every project. Some I won but most I lost or so it seemed. Losses included having to put self normalising trap points on all lines at Snow Hill to guard against a driver and Guard not securing the train correctly when changing ends on a turn-back service. A notable, if small, win was when the Inspecting Officer criticised the position af a Fixed Distant approaching the station at the end of a single line with a steep rising gradient. During a tour with the inspector to look at other things we used a DMU. I got the driver to thrash as close to line speed as possible then shut off at the signal but not put the brake in. Whe stopped short of the platform and started to roll back.

Symbols for electrical releases were not shown on the diatam on the blockshelf in any of the areas where I worked. An electrical release by the block was denoted by a white band half way up the lever. B on a signal on am S&T plan denoted releaded by the Block at Line Clear. There was a standard for these symbols, BS376-1.

@melmerby Effect of manure on the track? I put this up before, but it shows the effect of a leaking sewer pipe at the top of the bank to the right Can you spot the stop block?

It sounds like a very prototypical dipped joint to me. Probably the sleeper next to an old style insulated fishplate pumping a bit. If it doesn't cause a running problem leave it there. Perhaps you could even put a bit of wet clay in the ballast there.

The mk1s built in 1956 and turned out in that livery wouldn't have been due a full repaint until about 1962/3, so up to then you would be quite safe to have them around. It's just a matter of selecting the correct types from that time.

Yes, the S&D seems a right old mixture. There was their own standard which only distinguished between passenger trains and others. In the period around 1961/2 I've seen plenty of shots with standard codes, mainly on 2251 class locos and Ivatt tanks. Although the bottom end was SR operated at that time there aren't many instances of discs being used.

Good evening Brian Looking back at old documents the lamp arrangement in the first photo was the correct one for ECS at least prior to WW2. It was shown in the 1948 Paddington area WTT as including Parcels and Perishables trains, with the lower picture shown as ECS. I've also seen the upper one on LMR empty stock trains c1949 at New Street. Post 1950 they had the one shown in the lower picture. Eric

This was where my doodle got to based on the way that Birmingham New Street tries to fit a gallon into a pint pot outside the PSB. It allows straightforward shunt moves between any platforms, options for arriving at five platforms in the Down direction and departing from any platform in the Up direction. As you have space you can have a crossover to get from the Down to Platform 2 rather than the single slip at the bottom

Unless parked on a goods loop or similar which would be classed as a running line the wagons wouldn't have any lamps. A place where people don't put a lamp and there should be is if a vehicle has been left parked in a bay platform, when it should carry a red lamp at the outer end. The whole problem with headlights is that we are into a 'Where and When' question. A standard list of train classifications and the lamps to be carried was issued by BR in 1950. This was amended on at least three occasions before the carrying of headcodes was abandoned at the start of 1976. Going back into the Big Four they all had a few differences to the standard, and of course the Southern went its own way with routing rather than classification codes. Forther back still before the 1920s every company seemed to hve its own style of lamping. One lamp in the middle of the buffer beam seemed to be a common occurrence on Western region branch passenger trains, I don't know the history of this. Station Pilots is another minefield. At New Street I was used to seeing one red and one white over the buffers, often wrongly captioned as to why was the Webb Coal Tank was carrying Express Passenger lamps when standing with a van on the middle sidings. Over at Snow Hill it was more usual to find the pilot with one lamp in the bottom right position on each end. Even studying contemporary photos doesn't always seem to give a definitive answer. Eric

Who says lamps have to be straight? When you've only got a BR lamp and a loco with GWR lamp irons. Snow Hill c1965. Eric.

Why bother? You could hardly see the flame in the dark, let alone in daylight.