TheSignalEngineer

Most of the OOC allocation seem to have visited Birkenhead shed during the 1950s/60s, so in your parallel world Chester pinching one for an excursion or summer relief could be quite possible. There's even a picture on the net of 4701 standing LE in the back platform at Lapworth c1961 carrying a Class B headlamp, so seems that anything goes.

Not easy to catch a 47xx on the Paddington - Wolverhampton line as there were only a couple of normal workings. At one time there was one off Birkenhead probably for 'The Meat' to Paddington. One was allocated to Oxley (not Stafford Road) for the overnight Class D to Paddington. Outbased ones for the West of England services were at St Philips Marsh and Laira. The only one I saw in action during daylight hours was at Exeter St Davids on a Down passenger on a summer Saturday.

We decided after about a year of using it rather than cleating cables to the tops of sleepers that it was made in orange to give the tamper drivers had a better chance of lining up to hit it. The really expert ones could still hit it even when we attached it to the foot of the rail exactly mid-way between sleepers.

Got to Daughter's house today. Case of beer delivered by Yodel and two parcels by DPD on front doorstep in full view of road.

Likewise Mike. I can have about 3 locos on view on the layout and six in the fiddle yard. Given I have about 40 that visired the area I don't really need any more (except a Midland 2F 0-6-0) but could be tempted into a 43xx or Manor.My nice to have but out of context list is about six-strong at the moment but I probably won't buy unless I decide to do the Longbridge USA tank I saw around 1955. On the Blue Box front they have missed out several times because of my kit building and conversions, e.g. the 74xx.

The orange in my time was actually pipe that the cables went through. It was nominally 100mm diameter. S&T cables were black.

A mindset I seem to encounter every time I go out, especially on the road. Too much emphasis is put on 'Rights' but no mention of the converse that every 'Right' is balanced by a 'Responsibility'

Nearly 40 years ago I had a regular monthly meeting at Euston House. Always finished early afternoon. It was usually followed by a trip to Kings Cross for a photo or two and a call in the model shop and sometimes a diversion to Guy Norris or Cavendish.

The Springside one would probably cost more than the rest of the body alterations. I've got three more loco jobs on the go at the moment so I will check our the available ones as most of the suppliers will be at ExpoEM North. This one can go on the as and when pile for cabside rivets, handrails and cab driver's side, etc to be done in the meantime.

Took him several attempts to finally get his Darwin Award.

And pay for the relevant staff required to run the posession, cash in advance only.

On reflection I should have left the Lima safety valve cover and just looked for a new top or a way of imrpoving it..

The Craftsman safety valve is slightly out in several ways. It is about 0.5mm too high, the flare at the top is about 0.5mm too small and the flare at the bottom is also too small, the Lima base is probably better but it needs a new top. Taken together these faults accentuate each other in a photo. Before I finish I may try to get a better one.

At most terminal stations there were instructions as to how locos detached from trains were dealt with. I remember at the ols side of Birmingham Moor Street is was that the train or loco stayed at the blocks until the departure signal was cleared. At Paddington, if a loco is stopped in the station after the stock has gone I understand that the instruction is that the person in charge of the platform has to contact the signaller for instructions before any move takes place. I remember some stations where this was the case. a least back in the 1980s.

Don't worry Jim, the Digital Railway will sort it all out, along with fixing all of the capacity and timetabling problems.

The old Birmingham Mail website used to be quite good but has now been dumbed down to a Twitter feed standard of reporting headed 'Birmingham Live'. I assume that the Plymouth rag is owned by the same firm.

I refer the Honourable Gentleman to my reply contained in Post #219 on Page 9 of the NRM Rebranding thread. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/133656-nrm-rebranding-railway-museum/page-9&do=findComment&comment=3174999

Here we are Johnster. Test fit of the Craftsman No,3 Safety Valve and the modified 2251 chimney The smokebox handrail has been fitted with better knobs and shortened at the sides I have also started to cut away the cylinder cover at the front to make it look like the later version

The N was the most common. This page should give you some clues. http://www.northcornwallrailway.co.uk/rollstock.html

For the safety valve I'm using the old Craftsman Models No.3 GWR Short type. I have just changed the chimney for their 2251 type. It seemed a little over-height when I test fitted, and from the drawing posted elsewhere by Miss Prism I think it was 1mm too tall. I drilled a hole down the middle, marked a line down one side, cut it in half with a hacksaw and glued the cut together using a bit of tube through it to keep it straight. Will try to post some progress photos later.

0820 Bristol TM to Glasgow Central. 1S61 had been the reporting number of the late morning departure from Birmingham to Glasgow since 4-character headcodes were introduced

My new 57xx chassis has NEM fittings. The front one doesn't seem too bad, I think the bar will be about in line with the buffers but I haven't tried against the replacement ones yet. The back one is definietly short but I have fitted a cab/bunker floor to screw the chassis to so will probably mount some Parkside sockets on that.

Agreed. The parcel firms are trying to compete with Royal Mail which in the small packet business they will never do using deliveries direct from a depot several miles away. We have about a dozen post rounds in our town, mostly double manned in vans. This means that all small parcels and some bigger ones come out with the postie. They have another round which does all of the big / heavy stuff in a separate van. The courier firms besides Hermes come from depots up to an hour drive away (on a good day) and do between 50 and 100 parcels per trip. The staff are mainly contract and get paid peanuts per parcel. Hermes seem to do a drop at a central point in the area for the locally based delivery men to take out, and do collections from sending drop-off points at the same time.

My recent experience of Hermes has been good. Royal Mail is OK as the local delivery office is 3 minutes away on a pushbike. When our regular man is on at DPD he is very good. UPS and Yodel now both use a drop off and collection shop about 2 miles away so if I miss them it isn't much of a problem. Parcelforce is worst by a long way at the moment.

I've got some old Craftsman ones which I will measure to see of they are right. They are E9 late type Panmier window guards