TheSignalEngineer

I only remember seeing Time Interval Working used once, around the summer of 1968. We had the pole route struck by lightning on the Crewe - Chester line leaving no direct communication or Block Instruments working between two boxes. Several roads were flooded and we couldn't get through in the van, A light engine had been sent down to examine the line so we used it to get through after the signalman was satisfied that the required time had elapsed. We were dropped off at the next box to repair the damage there and were able to restore a telephone circuit so the signalmen could then work using verbal communication and instructions to the train crews.

Would have been an ideal opportunity for one of the old Craftsman conversion kits. Two cylinders, a length of wire and two etches to fold up and stick under the floor. According to Mike King some coaches ran with the Prestall cylinder still in place after the conversion. Eric

Bridgnorth, September 1971

The ones built with Prestall 30" vacuum cylinder and brake rigging. These didn't have Vee hangers until retro fitted with two conventional 22" vacuum cylinders mostly during the 1950s.

Or the prototype didn't have them?

Looks like a failure waiting to happen.

Still got time to put the finishing touches to mine.

Agreed, the pictures all show the Vee hanger is not on the outside. I suspect it was a mod by Bulleid during construction which never got onto the original general arrangement drawing.

In the Mike King book the Vee hanger is shown as modelled by Hornby in the drawing in Fig. 40.

Been there, done that. The working name for my layout was Version 99. I seemed to have produced that many options on paper and Anyrail before tracklaying started.

The Buxton line still has some. There's a nice distant just north of Whaley Bridge visible under the A6 bridge going north.

Yellow bonds are traction return jumpers usually where the track circuit and traction return rails are transposed.

When I was training with the signal lineman at Saltley in the 1960s we used to ride our bikes down the cess to Bromford Bridge.

Looks like these sets did get around, I've found a picture on the net with one in a train from the south coast to Wolverhampton in the early 1960s.

Can AndyY please provide an 'OMG' button?

Have a good day Chris. I think a lot of us are happier being who we are, not what other people think we should be. Think I realised that at 17 when I left a very academic educational institution and started getting my hands dirty on the railway. The place did teach me a lot of things but not on the academic side.

Around the time I retired I did some Fundraising, Project Management, and H&S roles on a project for our tennis club. From the qoutes we had at the time it saved about £5k on the fundraising / Admin, £7k on design / management and £2k on H&S. I sometimes think that people starting projects or businesses fail to realise how much these 'Overheads' add to the cost of a job.

In the 1956 CWN I looked at most of the non-corridor sets don't have any seating numbers, although one Bristol 2-set shown is shown BT (72) C (24/72). The Gloucester diagram doesn't have seating but is definitely shown as 'CL'. When the lines were transferred in the late 1950s the sets morphed to Western-speak 'Bk. Third, Compo' I remember from personal experience travelling from Stafford to Birmingham in non-corridor Lav stock c1952/3. Later some of the three-coach trains which weren't replaced by DMUs because they only worked a couple of locals in the weekday peak times got the relative luxury of BSK/CK/SK/BSK. These sets were then strengthened on Summer Saturdays to form holiday trains.

The Hammond book only quotes £40 for the difference between Boxed and unboxed. That makes £49.50 extra for the Triang Hornby sticker added when they sold off the old stock after Meccano went bust

Looking at some old 1950s Carriage Working Notices on Robert Carroll's site the Bristol 2 coach local sets were mainly marshalled BT/C. One working included trips Bath - Binegar and Bath - Templecombe. There was also a 3 coach set working between Bristol and Gloucester marshalled BT/CL/BT.

The Lavatory stock was classed as Inter-District, which seems to have been those services which went from say Stoke to Birmingham or Manchester. The Airfix version was the last 25 each of CL and BTL built after grouping. a few hundred had already been built in the Period 1 panelled style including 20 FL with two lavatories.. The LMS/LMR attitude to suburban stock seems to be very much pick'n'mix. The lavatory stock seems to have been mainly intended to run as CL/BTL, BTL/CL/BTL or BTL/2CL/BTL, although they did turn up in very mixed formations. This train https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwrbns_br1994.htm at Birmingham New Street has come from Rugeley via Walsall and Soho. Although the lamp post and some plating over of panels makes full identifcation difficult my guess is that it is Period 1 BTL/Period 1 C/Period 2 BTL.

There,s a picture of one at Acocks Green on a Snow Hill -Leamington train in 1961. https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrag1859.htm

Put me down for three.

I put down for a Class 11 shunter, but I also need a Johnson 2F 0-6-0 and a Stanier 2-6-2T.

First is a Lav Brake, second is a Lav Composite by the look of it.