TheSignalEngineer

Just back from an excellent show. Easy parking (free), great value at £7 including Guide Book. Got nearly everything on my shopping list and saved more in postage than the admission price!! Hard to pick out a Best Layout with so much quality in one place, but still can't quite believe the overall impression of Copenhagen Fields. I could have stood there all day as I got submerged in the atmosphere.

Tyseley used to get a lot of main line locos on the diesel shed which replaced 'The Factory'. This was partly due to the presence of a wheel lathe. It did not only diesels but occasionally a.c. electric locos and EMUs and I even saw a Manchester - Bury unit in there on one occasion.

The GW used Iron Mink van bodies for stop blocks. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/97686-new-stuff-from-lanarkshire-models-supplies/page-24&do=findComment&comment=3341560

There's a Lightmoor Press book on the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway. There is an index on the web which has several references to salt works. Brine extraction was banned at Stafford due to subsidence in 1970.

IIRC Shaka Salt was produced by Mangers at Stafford Common. At some time they were linked to another company in the Winsford/Lymm area.

Sorry, I was too busy modelling unavailable things that will be announced in the next round of new products to add any. LMS Period 3 Pull-push BT is a dead cert for the next Hornby round. (Ducking and running) Eric

Looks like a Great Western DC brake handle at the right hand end.

You will find a few on this thread from several years ago http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/48369-freight-superpower-or-overkill/&do=findComment&comment=544718 I also have a shot of a 25 with a single CCT on the Curzon Strret - Worcester parcels mentioned above

34092 carrying a poppy wreath at Bury today.

I also noted the preference for later LMS stock, and other than the P3 version the lack of LMS Open stock in the highest polling section. The Period 1 and Period 2 stock was common up to the coming of DMUs and a few examples almost made it to the end of steam, the last Period 1 coaches disappearing in the mid 1960s. The LMS had thousands of Open coaches, but with the exception of the old Replica D1915 example we have never had an RTR model. Eric

There were several in the triangle at Dinting station until as recently as 2010, and some between Dinting Road and the Glossop line near Dinting Lane Crossing. I don't know if any are still in use, they look a bit overgrown on Google now.

If that crossover was subject to the standard LMR speed for such a move at that time it would have been 15mph. It looks as if rationalisation work was in progress so probably plenty of other people around and the driver on the horn well back from the workers in the picture.

When I was involved in the 1970s/80s it was virtually impossible to get a possession beyond 1600 on Sunday on the main routes in the Birmingham area. There were even instances where we had to pass booked services between 1600 and 2300 before resuming a full block until 0600 Monday

In my collection I still have some 'Seat Regulation Tickets' from the 1950s/1960s. When we travelled from Birmingham to the West Country in those days most weekend trains were either 'Seat Reservation' or 'Seat Regulation' controlled to prevent overcrowding. For seat regulated trains when you bought your ticket you got a second one with the train details and reporting number on. It entitled you to a place on that train but not a specific seat, a bit like the old Ryanair cavalry charge to the plane. When you got to your destination you picked up a regulation ticket for the return working one or two weeks later. If ticket sales were heavy an unregulated relief which was a runs when required service in the working timetable would be manned up to take the surplus.

Geoff worked in the photographic department at Birmingham University. This is his Flickr site https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffsimages/albums

The photo was posted by Geoff Dowling, who is a great source of pics for that time. He also has the Peter Shoesmith negatives and has used them in several books. Still lives in Hall Green IIRC and is out with his camera most days.

As it's FYE time he would probably be a Signal lineman. The distinction in the olden days was between Signal and Telegraph. The former did all of the mechanical signalling and the latter did Blocks, Track Circuits etc, and all of the telephones in the area. During the 1960s with the introduction of power signalling and automatic exchanges with trunk dialling within the railway system the department became Signal and Telecomms. The Signalling linemen became what was termed 'Dual' which meant that they did anything associated with signalling whilst the Telecommes did exchanges, transmission systems and lineside telephones. Edit: Dual man, large black bag for spanners etc and GPO tool pouch for electrical tools. May actually be a signalling installer as there seems to be a bit of work going on and he is reading the 'Comics'

On 4th March 1967 I had watched 7029 pass Leamington on the ZULU then travelled to Snow Hill for the second train. A few more of 4079 at Snow Hill previously posted Good pictures of the specials at Snow Hill seem rare as the proverbial rocking horse droppings, probably due to the crowds on the platforms making it near impossible to get one. The sun did manage to come out for a while. This was the crowd off the north end of the up platforms. I got this one of 4079 as it was running in by crouching down and shooting between the people standing on the platform edge. And one while it was standing waiting to leave.

This shot was one I used originally in post #10 Since it was put up again on FB recently we have had a positive ID of the man at the bottom. He is Phil Jennings, who became Telecomms Chief Lineman at Birmingham New Street. The second man up is believed to be Charlie Russell who was later Assistant Signal Lineman on the Washwood Heath section at Saltley in the late 1960s.

Historic picture there from Stephen Burdett, aka Invader1009 on Flickr. He is still active all over the country spending his retirement photographing both steam and the current working railway scene. In December he has a book of his photographs of railways in Worcestershire spanning from the early 1970s to the present day being published. https://www.amberley-books.com/coming-soon/railways-around-worcestershire.html

The CO of our Army Cadet unit decided to outdo the neighbours once and for all by letting off a thunderflash in the back garden. It blew out several windows.

Comet sides are a different profile from Airfix on the Brake 3rd. I was going to use one as a base for a Period 2 BTO but have abandoned at the moment as it was too much of a faff.

I think it was 1967 that we were offered 4 weekly bank transfer on the LM. I remember getting an allowance for bank charges if you agreed to change.

The Bachmann ones have separate roof vents and corridor connections as opposed to the moulded on Mainline ones. Replica also did a run like the Bachmann version but the corridor connections seem to go a bit brittle on some of those, maybe it is how they have been stored

Trying to out-smart Flickr?