TheSignalEngineer

Are you talking about the Kenilworth and Berkswell Railway or Tile Hill Loop? There were no running loops between Coventry and Stechford until the oil siding was provided at Tile Hill in the 1960s. At that time a goods loop was laid between Tile Hill and Beechwood Tunnel to facilitate working of the block trains from (IIRC) Thames Haven. Following cessation of oil traffic I did a tweak to the interlocking at Tile Hill to enable the loop to be used for passenger trains. The situation was that the Down local trains were booked out of Coventry immediately after the express, in fact if the latter was a couple of minutes late it was customary to draw the local out of platform 4 to the end of the platform loop. Holding the local caused mayhem with the timetable all the way to Wolverhampton and letting it run meant it had to get to New Street before the express could overtake. The alteration at Tile Hill was done to enable the local to get out of Coventry and thus free up platform 4 then be looped two stations later for the express to pass.

Coventry - Leamington has about six available paths per hour. In the day this is usually taken up by two Voyagers on the Manchester - Bournemouth service, two DMUs on the Leamington - Nuneaton stoppers and one or two freights. Most of the duplicate freight paths are either because they are for different operators bidding to run the same working or are trains running to a different place each day, such as the MOD (Q)trains which start from Bicester and run to three different destinations as required by the traffic to be moved. On any weekday there are about 70 passenger trains roughly evenly split between long distance and stoppers. Of the freight paths about 15 to 20 will actually run.

I had exactly this problem with an Airfix Prairie which I had overhauled including rewiring. Worked perfectly on the test bench, powered by my faithful 50-year-old H&M controller. Put it on my grandson's train set to give it a roundy test run and it stopped after about three yards. Track power dead, unplugged and replugged controller and it ran for three yards before going dead again. Many modern controllers, particularly train set wall plug transformer types, don't have the grunt to run old locos. My Gaugemaster D, (other makes are available), will deal with them quite happily although I haven't tried to switch direction at 100%

What controller are you using?

Delaying the Postal was a capital offence if you were a railwayman, or just 30 years if a train robber.

Well worth braving the Pennine weather for my trip. Plenty of quality modelling on show.

My reading of the various things that happened around the end of the 19th start of the 20th century was that they had thoughts of taking over the North Warwickshire Railway when it ran out of money during its construction. It was around the time that they opened the London Extension so they may have been distracted and the GWR stepped in. They also looked at the SMJ which was permanently cash-strapped, with the intention of linking their new line to Stratford and Birmingham.

One of our crowd had been before and suggested that he distract the foreman for long enough for us to get in and out of sight then when we were spotted he would get in himself while the foreman's back was turned, then meet us at the bus stop.

Thanks, Mick. I was only thinking about whether he was still around when cycling round some of his old haunts last week.

At Bank Hall we used a decoy. We got round while the foreman was taking care of him. He only caught up with us when we were at the far end on the way back to the entrance. Meanwhile the decoy got back in while the foreman was rounding us up. At Brunswick we just walked in at about 5.30 on a Sunday afternoon. It's amazing what you could do by public transport on a Sunday in those days. We met up at Snow Hill for the first Down express which was Leamington to Birkenhead, changing at Rock Ferry for Liverpool Central LL. We got round mainly by bus until catching a train back to Rock Ferry for the evening train to Padfington, getting to Snow Hill in time for the last bus home.

Depended on the season. If it was winter a BG would often be next to the loco so the guard could get steam heating unless there was a stove fitted van further down the train. Very often a Goods Brake was marshalled somewhere in the train during winter to provide the guard with a means of heating. XP branded vans could be included in the train but 10' WB stock mostly disappeared when their speed was limited due to derailments in the 1960s. Having said that I have a picture of the Shrewsbury - Paddington parcels in 1964 with a 10' XP van next to the loco. I think it was probably a case that instanters were OK if coupled by the screw couplng of an adjacent vehicle or alternatively if no-one in authority was looking.

I remember bunking it in 1961 We had been to Bank Hall, Walton, Aintree, Edge Hill, Allerton and Speke and had an hour to spare on our way back to Rock Ferry for the train home. From the hole in the wall it amazed me how they actually got a shed in there.

Aston Cross always had a bit of a strong atmosphere. Ansells Brewery and HP Sauce combining with Windsor Street Gas Works. No wonder my sense of smell isn't up to much, since working round there I can switch it off most of the time.

The County could well be south Wales or Glocestershire area as i have found a picture of it at Over Junction on an eastbound coal train c1963.

The LMS also had a number of gas tanks. There's a shot of one on the back of a passenger train being banked up Lickey by a Jinty in the Railway Roundabout programmes c1958/9.

The background on 7030 has some similarities to the little bit visible to the left of 1023.

Any chance the Cointy vould be at Neath? Do you have any negatives ir just the prints?

And the Lima one wasn't quite right for either.

From various bits of info it looks as if the County spent its time after leaving the West Country either dead at Swindon, undergoing attention, working at Shrewsbury then dead at Swindon until cut up.

I remember building one of those Siphons about 40 years ago. I fixed dummy wheels with the bottom of the flange filed off so it would run reliably on my layout of the time. Sold it for a lot more than it cost to build when I was rationalising no longer used items from my collection.

For the diverging route if the speed lower than the main route the signal would usually be kept at danger until the signalman could see that the train had reduced speed sufficiently. As track circuiting spread it became customary on more inportant lines to put a short track circuit on the approach to the junction signal and not allow any diverging routes requiring a reduction to be cleared until the track circuit was occupied. There were exceptions to the delayed clearing of signals which were specified in local instructions. As signals were cleared sequentially, later enforced by sequential locking, the next stop signal would not be cleared until the junction signal had been cleared.

Remembering fallen comrades CQMS Steele lays a wreath at the Birmingham and District Normandy Veterans Association Memorial on behalf of the West Midlands Branch, Military Police Association c2005

Another wrong side gem is the one at the Wolverhampton end of Shrewsbury station. Splitting signal with centre pivot wooden arms and the spectacle plate on the side nearest the track. GWR design although the arm retaining castings were marked BRWR. Second one down on this page. http://www.railsigns.uk/photos/p_semasig1/p_semasig1.html

And depending on the answer to that at least one trap point is requied, location not yet clear.

Is 70002 at Liverpool Street?