TheSignalEngineer

The other place I thought of was down by Griffins Brook, but I think Witherford Way is more likely.

Hudswell Clarke built some outside cylinder 0-6-0 ST locos for the NCB, One was at Mountain Ash. http://www.philt.org.uk/Industrial/Ind-Steam/i-PLVPsN6

A piece of history from my days of chasing trains and working around the West Midlands. Another I remember was Holdens, a 4th generation family concern who have a brewery at Woodsetton. They owned about a dozen pubs and was also sold to the free house and club trade. After Ansells closed our tennis club bar bought its supplies through Holdens and as I was on the committee I managed to keep a supply close at hand.

Ansells Mild was destroyed at the time of the closure of the Aston Cross brewery by Allied Breweries during a strike in 1981. I understand they tried to move the yeast but it got contaminated, probably missing the cleansing nature of the vinegar based atmosphere of the atmosphere of Aston. That combined with the Aston well water probably gave it a robust character, the Burton version was not the same. Carlsberg have done a keg version using several different breweries but I haven't tried that incarnation, and they abandoned their attempt to do a cask conditioned version about six years ago.

If I was working in EM or P4 I would change the splashers, but as it's 00 I'm leaving them. It looks as if there would be enough clearance especially if fabricated from brass sheet but the way the body is made the original ones will be a ### to remove cleanly. Having studied a couple of hundred pictures of 54/64/74xx there are plenty of minor differences between individual locos. I know its difficult to judge from old photos but looking at perspective lines either all of the splashers are not identical within class or there are differences in the pipework in front of the cab. The difference in their perceived size between freshly painted and five years of grot plus the ambient light is big. Some seem small and almost hidden whilst others jump out at the front of the picture.

Yes, there were similar sets on all divisions. And not only the LMR, there were standard headcodes for most local moves within divisions/districts on the WR, and of course the SR EMU headcodes.

At the moment I would say the jury is out on the Bristol Road picture. I would say definitely between Selly Oak and Northfield, there were two bridges like the one in the picture in that section IIRC. By the shadows and position of the trolley poles possibly heading towards Northfield in the morning.

Depending on what type of plan you are looking, on a signalling plan the symbols would be something like this. The track circuits would be identified by names such as TA, AAT, T123, etc. Actual presentation details varied slightly between companies and regions, but the standards were laid down in British Standard BS376 Part 1, and now in RSSB standards.

After the Westerns had gone I saw a 50 working a trip in that area with a single 16t mineral.

I looked at the splashers, but I'm not sure about whether to change them. Besides, if I do them I would have to do my 6400 as well. Looking at various drawings and pictures I think the Bachmann ones are about 1mm too high. When I put my measurements onto the loco I started to think that other bits may be dimensionally challenged in that area so overall I have held back on that.

My loco and rolling stock timeframe can vary between about 1956 and introduction of syp on diesels. The signalling and buildings I am doing will be set as they were in the late 1950s. The locos l have in mind had top feeds at that time.

Better get my Lima-bash finished. Next in the queue after the 74xx that they still haven't announced.

Around the bit of the Black Country where my layout project is set there were quite a lot of branches and Private Sidings requiring small engines. Some of the Auto Trains were worked by 64xx tanks so Bachmann filled the gap there for me, especially as one of the regular performers was a lined green specimen from the original batch as modelled by Bachmann. As yet Bachmann haven't announced any plans to do the later 64xx or 74xx. My problem is that Stourbridge Junction and Tyseley had some 74xx tanks throughout most of the life of the class and these weren't quite the same as the Bachmann model. Some of the main differences from the outside view were The cab roof is flush back and front, no overhang The corner between the bunker and back of the cab is square rather than rounded, with no beading on the cab No Auto Working fittings Some were ATC fitted, others were not. Lever reverser in place of screw reverser The grab rails on the side of the tanks are different. Different brake hanger fittings. I decided that 1-6 were quite easy to achieve but 7 is a bit more difficult and not really that visible from the layout viewpoint and when covered in frame muck. So, Episode 1 - What does a Bachmann 64xx look like when you start pulling bits off? Answer Bachmann 64xx Part Knocked Down. Coming soon Episode 2 - Taking the knife to the cab

According to one of the papers referenced they were originally dry cells but on the diagram these had been replaced by NiFe cells. These came in wooden crates usually of 1,3 or 5 depending on the use and capacity required. In the early days the batteries had to be changed every 14-21 days. They weren't on all of the time as the circuit was controlled at one time by a pressure switch which detected the boiler pressure later by a switch worked off the vacuum reservoir on the loco, so that the battery was switched off automatically when the loco was not in use.

The facing point lock bar was provided when there wasn't a track circuit which could lock the FPL lever electrically. Looking at the picture in post #85 above, points 40 are locked by pulling FPL 39. When a train is occupying track circuit T2 Lever 39 cannot be put back to normal to unlock points 40. Are the points in your example covered by track circuits?

Going Retro (3) – Lima LMS 42' Bogie Van Several years ago I flush-glazed a Lima LMS 42' van and fitted Bachmann LMS bogies. It re-discovered languishing in the 'To Do' box with buffer damage during a recent tidy-up. I decided it might look good on the rear of a parcels train so I gathered the bits needed and set to work, firstly removing the coupling from the damaged end. Next I cut off the old buffers and fitted vacuum and steam pipes and a screw coupling from the odds and ends box. Then I added some appropriately shaped LMS buffers from Dave Franks, repainted the damaged area and added a bit of weathering to the end. Finally a Springside BR tail lamp was stuck on. I don't like the way the steam pipe came out, it's actually a brake pipe and looks a bit too high so that will get re-set before it goes back into service.

I've spotted a reference to vans going to Llandudno Junction. Around Birmingham we had train paths shown from Avonmouth to Moor Street, Avonmouth to Water Orton, Southampton to Moor St. Southampton to Crewe and Barry to Bradford. Most of these would be for onward distribution to smaller centres I would think.

The problem with a lot of DafT traffic count statistics is that they only cover daylight hours or are extrapolated from a smaller count into a daily figure, but until you find the explanation document these is no way of knowing what they are actually counting. Also on the 17 years shown on the table only four are derived from manual counts, the rest are a pure guess. The spread across Woodhead is partly dependant on Irish sea boat times from Liverpool and Holyhead. At one time we often used to get 50 virtually nose to tail at 4am. It also depends what is happening elsewhere, for instance Derbyshire county Council have abandonded any efforts to clear the Snake Pass whenever it snows, so there are no traffic jams in Glossop this week. Earlier in the week I drove from Glossop to Ellesemre Port in an hour, some days it takes that long to do Glossop to Stockport. If there is an accident on the M62 westbound around Huddersfield you can easily get a queue back from the M67 all the way to Crowden. I have walked down the valley and overtaken lorries by Woodhead Dam and not seen them again by the time I got to Tintwistle over an hour later. It depends on the permitted length on any NR line used. The maximum length of a Freightliner train is equivalent to 30 of those wagons but those are not permitted universally.. The type of wagons he is showing are 45t Tare, so maximum lorry weight would give approx 22.5t axle weight.

Further to the previous post, according to the BR Booklet 72 feet of the tunnel at the Woodhead end collapsed on 8th June 1951 while the pilot tunnel was being enlarged. This took six months to clear. There were indications that a similar collapse was about to take place at the Dunford Bridge end but that was successfully stopped by extra strengthening. I think the message is leave well alone.

I'm not sure if it is like that all the way through, because there are some layers of Edale Shale through that hill. There is often evidence of movement on the road at the Woodhead end, and i believe that it was one of the problems encountered when they tried to do some work in the original tunnel to get extra clearance. Dig too far in the wrong place and it could end up like the Mam Tor Road.

The Arches (aka Dinting Viaduct) and Broadbottom Viaduct are subject to a 20mph speed restriction for 25t axle load vehicles. They are subject to a 40mph restriction for other stock. Dinting to Hadfield is 40mph at the moment. Given that and the speed of new junctions needed at Godley and Apethorne and remodelling at Dinting and Woodley I think his timings and costings could be a bit optimistic.

? Looks a bit stiff eastbound to me, especially for the first two miles.

Especially if it's filled with 'The Special Stuff'

I always have a slight chuckle when I see their pictures as they were dead ringers for two inhabitants of the valley I knew when I lived 'Locally'. Then there is the man I get my meat from.

A well-known party put the capability to use road charging, i.e. fixed tolls or mileage based fees, in the Finance Act c2003, but the bottled it.