TheSignalEngineer

I called the plan I built my layout to 'Version 99' because that seemed to be how many changes it had gone through. To start with I wanted a branch terminus with a different level to run main line trains. When I printed it out and built a mock up it didn't really fit the space available, looked ridiculous and needed a van load of track. I stripped back to a one level junction station with a branch coming in at one end, industrial line behind the sausage factory which disguises the fiddle yard and a shunting puzzle yard in between for exchange traffic. It has about half of the track as the original version but still has plenty to occupy me.

Did BR set them up in 1955 or was that when the Kremlin gave authority to do it? The BTC didn't issue Civil Engineering Handbook No.11 relating to the installation of CWR until 1962. A report by Major Rose on a number of CWR derailments in the late 1960s (see http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_CWR1969.pdf ) gives the impression that there was very little actually installed prior to 1960. This is extract for track distortions in jointed and CWR track from 1958 to 1969 shows the relative lengths of each in service by year.

They were all based at Bath Road or Canton. Many trains from the Midlands and north changed locos at Bristol.

There were definitely some in unlined black towards the end. IIRC 40646 was like that with late crest when it finished at Bescot.

Most of the BR parts of the film was shot at Carlow St offices and on the Carlisle job. I worked on it in the LMR HQ in 1970. I've spotted several of my old colleagues on there, Frank Hounsom, John Raindle, Geoff Fadden, Bob Davies, Jim Hitchen, Ron Smith to name but a few. The panel was Westinghouse M3 Mosaic. Tile backs came from a standard range with the fronts engraved and painted as required for each individual layout. Later Westinghouse panels were M5 Mosaic aka 'Biscuit Tins'. They had plates with a turned edge like as the nickname suggests an old fashioned biscuit tin. GCE panels had flat plates 12" square or thereabouts. The Glasgow panel looks more like an Integra one made under licence by Henry Williams.

Strangely this was not happening on my phone this morning but on my desktop this afternoon the back button still takes me to about 5 hours ago even after looking at a post from yesterday.

Andy, we need an OMG button

According to David Jenkinson the coaches were Period 1 two window all-steel BTOs to Diagram 1746. The roof was rivetted steel. They were from Lot number 182 built by BRCW in 1926..

I've had several ambulance chaser calls recently from Leeds and Leicester.

There is a picture taken by E R Morton on September 15th 1956 of it awaiting departure from Chinley's bay platform for its return run to the Derby Carriage & Wagon Works over the Peak Forest route. It was on David Hey's sadly gone website, but thanks to Wayback Machine it is about half way down this page. https://web.archive.org/web/20180820020903/http://davidheyscollection.com/page52.htm According to the caption the coaches, numbered M9821 and M9828, were converted from former LMS Open Brake Thirds with motor bogies removed from withdrawn Euston-Watford electric units and a Ruston-Paxman type 6ZHHL of 450bhp in each coach.

Continuous check rails are usually provided when the radius on a running line gets down to 10 chains or less. In other instances double check rails are sometim.es provided approaching and across viaducts or similar situations where a derailment will inevitably have catastrophic results

When scrolling down the all activity list I go to look at a post. If the post was more than five hours ago, when I press the back button to go back to the list it takes me back to a point five hours ago even if the post were two days old. Very frustrating, getting to be enough to put me off visiting the site.

Birmingham No6 Set was one of the 70' flat end sets, of which only four were built.

A list of all of the Birmingham suburban sets was posted by Clearwater on the third page of this thread.

Except for the Midland Railway going mostly to the Eastern region, which was proposed under the Territory Organisation c1970 and the top half of Wales being Western region it's almost the BR I joined over 50 years ago.

Once I got used to who to buy from and who to steer clear of I have been pretty successful with on-line buying. I had one obviously dodgy item through ebay which broke whilst I was fitting it to a bike but the seller refunded within 30 minutes of me contacting him and saying I would report it. Although the item location was supposed to be in the UK, the business seller address came up in Chinese writing when I tried to check him out. My policy now is to check the same item from different sources if possible, including pictures on new items from the original manufacturer. Fake items often have some flaw if you compare although there are lots about now which pass a casual glance but a longer look doesn't add up. If something seems too good to be true it usually is. Any item of clothing and footwear I prefer to try on if I haven't had an identical one previously, and even then it is possible to get something with the same stock number made at different factories which will turn out to be different shapes. Decathlon used to be champions at this particularly with their T-shirts.

In addition, that the driver of thr vehicle tailgating him and also signalling left is not going to change his mind and overtake on the wrong side of the road as the leading vehicle slows to turn.

Another shot of it From Davod Busfield's Flickr site. Picture by The Leeds Press Agency.

The streetview image from the bridge which replaced the level crossing confirms that it is the site of the present Steeton and Silsden station. Hill in the background is a perfect match.

Nice example to show both the side spindle casting variety and the mounting of the balance lever low down on the side of the post away from the track.

Don't know where it is except possibly S&C. Don't think Wreay on the WCML ever had a level crossing.

Never take what you see in a museum or presevation site as how the real thing was, unless they have a picture of it in situ and operational. I remember back in the 1960s a museum curator saying he had never seen a signal with a piece of ironwork like one on my grandfather's district. My grandfather came clean and said he would never see another one as the timber was giving way and the signal only had a few months to go so he reinforced it with a wrought iron cistern bracket he found in a disused toilet block in the goods yard.

The Bluebell one looks a bit of an artist's impression to me. For a real S&F in the wild try the one at the bottom of this page. https://signalbox.org/gallery/s/mitcham.php You will see the arm pivot actually appears to be in the centre of the post and the operating rod running down the R/H side of the post to the weight bar. This is probably one of the last S&F ones to survive, not being replaced until the late 1970s.

At this length of time I can't say what the stock was or exactly what shade, but when we were on holiday in Swanage in 1953 the coaches on the local trains we used to get to Corfe Castle were green.

There were also differences in the length and style of hoods depending on which way the signal was facing in some areas. This was to cut down the effects of loss of clarity due to low sun shining onto the lens or in the case of New Street searchlights to help guard against misreading where adjacent signal heads were close together.