TheSignalEngineer

I did a lot of work on the Cannock line from the building of Rugeley B onwards. I often heard drivers talking about going to Rudgeley.

The same house. Small world.

A couple of ladies working on our office came Dudley and Wednesbury. Very useful for getting the order right at lunch time except in Lye where the Wednesbury girl was completely flummoxed.

It was only the Paddingtons whose catering vehicles were normally taken off at Wolverhampton. In the 1950s the Buffet cars on the Bournemouth and Margate trains worked through to Birkenhead. For example in 1957 the Bournemouth - Birkenhead had a 6-Buffet set BSK/FK/RKB/SO/SO/BSK throughout plus BCK/BSK/SK detached at Chester. The set provided by the WR had in their terms Brake Compo/ Van Second/ Second from Chester to Bournemouth, Van Second/ Second/ Open Second/ Cafeteria/ First/ Van Second throughout, The southbound working also had Second, Brake Compo Birkenhead to Cardiff detached at Shrewsbury. The train to the south east had 3 coaches from Chester to Hastings, 4 coaches including buffet from Birkenhead to Margate and 2 coaches from Birkenhead to Ramsgate.

If you only view it from one side on the layout you could 'declassify' a Bachmann CK as the corridor side was basically identical to the TK. The compartment side of a TK would be a serious amount of butchery to produce from two CKs.

Having said that, there may be some synergies in producing a D1948 57' Restaurant/Buffet Car of 1936. (Please Hornby or Bachmann, before I have to get some Comet sides.)

IIRC all of the LMS Composites after the 'All-Door' types were built on 60' underframes which Hornby haven't produced, so little chance of them doing one.

There's also a sad lack of open stock, particularly LMS which had several thousand. The only one so far was the Replica Railways D1915 which was one of the later ones. Besides that there haven't been any RTR Period 1 or 2 stock since the Mainline / Replica / Bachmann panelled 57' stock.

When my Dad had a career change after drawing his Fire Brigade pension his first posting was Curate at St Chads. Did you live in a house along New Road?

The ones allocated to Bromsgrove had a mixture of lamp irons. Some had all changed from GW to LM pattern whilst at least one, 8405 I think it was, carried a full set on each at the front.

Kitchen Buffet 7864+SO on the Bournemouth - Birkenhead and Buffet 7956 on the Margate - Birkenhead alternate days both working throughout in the late 1950s look to have been the regulars

34061 may have been the only Bulleid to work that far before preservation days. The furthest north I saw one on the WR was in the Birmingham area. However, on alternate days there was at least one Maunsell catering vehicle booked through north of Birmingham.

Unfortunately not. 50781 was allocated to Southport prior to the trip, then reportedly shown by the SLS as on loan to the WR for a few days, then reallocated to Walton on the Hill. It was withdrawn a couple of years later and said to have been cut at Gorton in 1960.

Looking forward to seeing the 47xx on the Birkenhead - London fitted. The specials give you a good leeway as some of the Talyllyn ones went that way. 1011 and 34064 worked as far as Ruabon in later years. A brand new 8-coach Calder Valley DMU did it from Leeds. Although it went via Shresbury an L&Y 2-4-2T made it to Towyn but didn't make it back.

At New Street when I started the FPL tests were monthly. Mechanical trailing points with shunt moves had detection tested 3-monthly.

What particular things are you looking for? I will look on the shelf next time I see Dave and will try to get an email for you.

Having looked again at the picture I think it may be a Barton & Stanford's Patent one rather than a Clayton. The NRM have one (or at least had one, don't know if they've given it away) in the warehouse. LNERGE of this parish may have more details, I believe he has a Clayton machine.

They only have to be round in fairy tales.

My thoughts would be either access to an old septic tank or if the property is old perhaps a disused well. My Son found one in his garden when clearing an area of overgrown shrubs. It as brick lined at the top and had been covered with a large stone slab. Still fully functional and he has no worries about water shortages for his vegetables.

Had a look aroung the web and I think I have found the answer in a picture from the mid 1970s. https://flic.kr/p/dwHUbq There is a rod from the lever goes to the right, under the Up Main and along the sleeper ends on the six-foot side of the Down Main. Just on the approach to the Down Main Home signal which carries a Distant for the Passenger Yard box there is something on the sleeper end which looks as if it could be a Clayton Machine.

Some of it is still there. I know of an almost-complete semaphore bracket signal in the trees at Hyde North.

GWR loco headlamps also had a red slide-in filter to convert them to a tail lamp, so normally three lamps (including a spare) would be sufficient for any job except if carrying the BR Station Pilot code with a red and white at each end needing four.

Is it a lever for a Clayton Magazine Detonator Placer? The concrete hut could be the Fogman's Hut and the cupboard behind the lever could be for housing signal indicators. The Distant by the box could be fogged manually from that position but there is nowhere by the Home coming round the curve to safely fog the lower distant arm. The lever would have three notches in the quadrant, Normal for the detonator arm to be in the magazine, Mid to be parallel to the rail and Reverse for the detonator on the rail. When the Distant was cleared the Fogman would move the lever to the mid position. If the detonator was fired by a train then the lever was placed to Normal which dropped the used one out of the jaws and picked up a new one from the magazine. This held about 40 shots so the Fogman didn't have to keep going across tracks to put detonators on and off. The machine was made by Clayton of Penistone, who still make detonators for railway use today. I've searched around but can't find a picture, the last one I saw being used in anger was 1966.

Dave just has the shop and does a lot of shows etc. He is listed in the UK Model Shops Directory http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/shops/698-SMTFModelShop

Dave at SMTF in Poynton had a few Vi Trains items when I was on there last month.