TheSignalEngineer

Doing a bit of running tonight and I had one of the new brakes at the rear of the train. When I did a shunt it derailed on a particular set of points. Swapped it for the other brake and the same thing happened. Tried it with Hawksworth, Stanier and Collett coaches and all shunted OK. Looking for the fault there seemed to be poor movement in the close coupling mechanism restricting or fouling the bogie movement. Anyone else had any problems?

My T9, 30726, was running rough and became prone to derailing over one particular bit of the layout. When I opened it up the motor housing and retaining plate had both fractured. Hornby have replace them free of charge as it was a known problem and I had the original receipt. Arrived back today and now runs better than when it was new, even over the points where it used to derail at times.

T9 arrived back this morning after Mazak rot repairs. The motor housing and retaining plate which had both shattered have been replaced. Runs better than it has ever done, even across the connections where it was prone to derail. I was going to change this bit of the layout but probably best to leave as it was the place where the warped 9F used to derail and it seems to find out any nasties in things I am building.

We had a guy working at the CS&TE in Carlow Street who was a dead ringer for President Nasser.

Weren't the Twins conceived to run as a pair on Duchess turns? When they used to run as singles on our trains they were on jobs normally done by Jubilee and which could in emergency be handled by a Black 5 . One of their better turns on our patch was Water Orton to Glasgow fully fitted via the S&C. The stoker-fitted locos were reserved for that as it was probably beyond the capabilities of a single fireman to keep it fed. They also worked the Avonmouth - Bromford Bridge tanks. I remember seeing one through Lifford with the empties one day c1961 and it was probably the fastest I have seen anything go through there.

Having found out who his replacement is I'm sure there will be some wishing Grayling was still there. I will not comment further

According to the Parliament website there are 311 under the Conservative whip out of a total of 650 seats.

No. Even with Sinn Fein not turning up he still needs at least 10 outsiders and all of his own party onside to win any vote.

Yes, double the speed, quadruple the problems, which would mean that the speed component of the hammer blow effect for a 9F would rise by 230% between 60mph and 90mph. No wonder the authorities didn't like them going fast.

The Cromford and High Peak is remembered for its inclines, but being originallly proposed as a canal there is a good level stretch from the top of Hopton Incline to just past Newhaven Crossing, about 6.5 miles. Over the next 5 miles to Hurdlow it climbs about 25 feet. Continuing the water theme, there can't be many gradients between Exeter and Newton Abbot which as about 20 miles.

Builder's plates, Stembok was a Darlington loco and 61138 was North British so there are likely to be some small detail differences in the build. Smokebox doors as mentioned above were not all the same.

6245-6252 were built between June 1943 and June 1944, so would also have needed Government sign-off as essential to the war effort. Given the severely restricted maximum speeds at the time this had to be for haulage capacity over the hills. Around the same period two Jubilees were rebuilt and rebuilding of the Royal Scots commenced, hardly anything other than an express passenger type, so again the Government must have agreed that they were needed for the war effort. The Scots were rebuilds in name only as they had completely new boilers and new frames.

Reading between the lines of the CWN, the Torbay Express was Mk1 stock (except the Diner) from the summer of 1954.

It was the Down 'Torbay Express'. Ran daily including Sunday, 12 Noon from Paddington.

Never had a problem with Hattons or Rails. A poor running GWR Railcar from the first was immediately replaced and a steam loco with faulty valve gear from the latter was immediately refunded as they couldn't supply a suitable alternative.

Perth liked to get the last bit of coal dust out of the wagon into the tender. A temporary measure by Kevin Lane, on Flickr

Staying off topic a bit with the 9F situation, we discussed this recently and I calculated that the wheel speed of a 9F at 90mph would be approximately 505rpm, whilst the A4 at 126mph is 530rpm. Given the slightly longer cylinders (IIRC) of the 9F that would mean at 90mph it's pistons would be doing about the same speed along the bore in mid stroke as Mallard at 126mph.

Mike The main thread I found was this one. Would it be preferable for the Mods copy these posts to that topic and lock this one? Eric

Baz has recently been going down the N/S etch path on his stock. Larry Goddard also used a similar method I believe but I think he may have deleted the pictures.

The outside is a set of vertical glass plates approximately 7.5" high and 2.5"wide. They are turned left or right by the handle which can be seen hanging down between the inner and outer parts. The inside is a drop-down flap, glass with a wooden frame. It has a catch top centre to open it. I have a few measurements I took at York so will sort out what I have and post it later. Eric

Those look a lot better than others I have seen. Are they your own etch?

I'm just progressing with my ex-LMS excursion train which will contain three coaches of Period 1 / Period 2 vintage. These had Stones Ventilators above the windows. This is a picture of one in the closed position on the MR Dining Car at the NRM. I did a rough drawing of it this morning and have just done a test build to see if the size is correct for Comet coach sides. My guess is that for those it will need to be approximately 9mm wide and 2,7mm high. This is about what they will look like for size on a Period 1 two window coach. And with a ruler I have seen Larry Goddard and Barry O using a silver etch for these but don't know of anyone who sells them or makes anything else suitable. My question is do any of the 3-D printing fraternity think it would be a viable detailing part to do by that method? There must be quite a few people who have made these coaches and had to do a bodge, in fact my three coaches need a total of 38 so they would be a big job to scratch bulid. Thanks for reading and I will be interested in anyone's comments about the possibilities or a source of other parts already available. Eric

So the WR used pairs of 37s instead to get the same power as a Deltic.

Getting back to the topic, I was asked many years ago to get involved in a preservation project. I didn't have much time but did them some plans for signalling the layout to run public passenger trains. The show was being run by some know all who had no knowledge of working a railway, and was all 'we don't need to do this or that' so I stopped helping. One of my workmates had a loco there and asked me to join him but I found the politics so bad I declined. A working life involved in 24/7 projects didn't really leave time to commit on a regular basis. At my age I wouldn't want to start footplate or PWay but would possibly park my modelling kit in a signal box for a few shifts if there was something within reasonable travelling.

Reminds me of visiting a heritage railway in the early days. Waiting on the platform for an Austerity tank to come in the column of steam, smoke and cinders could be seen long before the loco. One of the volunteers said '*** must be driving today. Only knows one way - regulator up to the roof'