TheSignalEngineer

Once again shows the problem of starting a scheme from the London end. If WCML had started work from Euston instead of Manchester they probably would never have got north of Bletchley.

Parcels and sundries traffic was dealt with on Platform 3 at Moor St at one time. There is a picture on the Warwickshire Railways site probably dating from just after WW2 by the buildings in the background and lack of BR-style signs.. The traffic seems to have a lot of flower boxes in it so probably a perishables train in the main. Market traffic was generally dealt with in the Upper Yard and in Shed B down below between Park St and Allison St. Shed B also dealt with Banana traffic, three short sidings in there going into F. Nicholls Banana Warehouse. The Upper Yard didn't have any engine release facilities so arriving trains often used Platform 3 or the adjacent loop and release the loco by using the Platform 3 traverser.

Jim did an item on how he modified the body on his website in the Brettell Road section.http://www.p4newstreet.com/a-pair-of-panniers.html

Just about to do a 'Nothing in it for me' post from the modelling point of view when I remembered that the Guy Arabs often appeared on the Birmingham/West Bromwich joint services. Checking back the numbers The 74 Birmingham to Dudley, 76 Birmingham to Great Bridge and 78 Birmingham to Dudley Port all passed close to the location of my layout. Looks like I will need some new blinds. And of course to go with it I will need a West Bromwich liveried Daimler (GEA174 preserved by Black Country Museum Transport Group would do nicely - hint). I travelled on the Birmingham buses right through their service life. I used the Number 11 to get to my wife's house when we were courting and she lived by the Number 32 route. These two services passed the house where we lived for 14 years. That could be a lot of cash you've just cost me, Jason.

Not much risk of a trespass problem at Helwith Bridge this evening. Ten were present for the Flying Moneypit.

He would have to subcontract that to Stubby

There was at least one 'Neverwazza' blind on a DMU at Tyseley, I think one of the first refurbished at PTE expense, which I saw at Moor Street one afternoon carrying the destination Woodgate Valley.

If only it was as easy as Photoshop

Mek at Bury in 2012 do you? Next let's have double-headed hydraulics in BR days

The Protected Status regarding Cornish Pasties refers to the D-shaped variety with side-crimping. The top crimping oval shape is supposed to originate from Devon.

I think I may have used this one before, a Banbury-Bilston ore train c1964/5. The first four behind the loco are different types. Photo © C E Steele

An Austerity arriving at Bury Bolton Street. Next a triple headed steam train, preservation scenes allowed

To me the teak finish looks more like orange varnish on pitch pine. Fortunately they had all been repainted by my modelling era.

Nice spot for a lunch break, Wellington Monument ay Baslow Edge, Derbyshire. Despite being quite a busy Saturday afternoon other than on the short bits of road in the previous six miles we had passed one lone walker, one other mountain biker and a small walking group.

According to the sketch on the signalling Record Society site Carrog c1913 had working distants. The Stationmaster's archive of GWR documents may tell us if there was long and short section working on the line at that time.

Depends on the temperature outside. If June 26th 1964 was like this year he would have the stove going.

Sometimes it was a case of convenience for attaching and detaching vehicles en route, based on the train engine or local pilot doing it and where the vehicles had got to be left.

Hattons e-mail saying Sept/Oct for W55020

Not always behind the tender. In the early 1960s the Birmingham run was on the back of the 12.10pm Paddington - Birkenhead. The rear Brake coach of the normal formation was wired through with the alarms in the first compartment. The door to the rest of the train was locked. The van was detached in platform 5 at Snow Hill and shunted into the old Fish Siding under the tunnel at the Platform 11 side of the layout. You always knew when it was running because around 2pm the Station Pilot complete with Police Constable on twould move from its usual place in the New Yard to be positioned in the Down Sidings in the tunnel at the Moor St end ready to do the shunt.

Any single car based at Tyseley would have worked the branch at some time. Originally 122s, 002, which was the one that crashed off the end, 003, 009 and 012 were all pictured there. Of the 121s, 022 certainly got there as did 033 which carried the Midline livery for a short while.

Class 86 departing Crewe for London in 1968. Next up, a lineside cabin, not signalbox or ground frame.

Until the time of the transfer of Railtrack to Network Rail in 2002 although we were starting to go over to axle counters and LED signals we were still largely using 'traditional' equipment in terms of signals and point machines. You have to remember that in addition to lever frames over 100 years old there are areas like New Street having signals of types installed over 50 years ago and point machines designed in the 1960s and earlier. Much of the current Principles stuff, say last 20 years, is already available on the net via RSSB. The biggest problem is finding the three relevant paragraphs for your particular case from hundreds of documents. There's also quite a lot of equipment information available from the Unipart catalogues and manufacturers' websites.

Unidentified 56xx heading south out of Snow Hill in 1964 Next an easy one, any green loco with at least 12 wheels Beaten to it My next offering. Waiting Departure at Boulogne Maritime by Charles Eric Steele, on Flickr Upping the odds, let's have a green diesel with 16 wheels

After a mad flurry of restoring some old Airfix 16T minerals I turned to doing a few loads for 3H Coke Hoppers. Two of these I built a long time ago, the third came second hand from the web. Although these were being done for the coke hopper, the same method can be used for any open wagon and any mineral load. As I was doing three I decided to cut a template first. This was done from 80 thou styrene and sized to sit on the lip below the raves. Next was to make the base. As the load needs to cover the gaps between the raves thse need to be quite thick, so having a scout round in the odds box I found some offcuts of foam board and some 6mm balsa. I used balsa for the latest ones as it is cleaner to carve than expanded polystyrene but some of the previous batch used two layers of foam board. A couple of legs are needed at the ends to keep the load level so these were made from balsa strips 10mm wide which I found is easy to glue on and gives more rigidity if the load is to be taken in and out. These were assembled and the top of the balsa carved to the profile required with a craft knife, then test fitted to make sure it was the correct height and shape, and as I wanted them to also run as empties that it would come out easily. All that remains is to colour the top and sides with the colour of the load, coal, ballast, stone, ore, etc spread the top with PVA and sprinkle the chosen mineral. For coke I use crushed smokeless fuel. It's then ready for checking the fit. This one is waiting for the load to be finished off. Other examples under construction using the same method are power station coal in a 21T Mineral using coal dust as the topping and a 7-plank of crushed anthracite

See if this works http://www.derbysulzers.com/class44.html 20th January 1978 Larry. You even got a photo credit on the site linked above. That day the route also included Woodhead.