TheSignalEngineer

Liverpool has always struck me as a goldmine of great things to model. If I was to do something from there it would possibly be Brunswick shed which i visited on the same day in 1961 that I did Walton-on-the-Hill.

How about a Knight and a Duck at Stratford-upon-Avon, both with "Shakespeare Limited" headboards. Continuing the Duck theme, how about Sir Francis or his famous battle.

Still wandering off-topic a picture does exist. A certain Mr. Blenkinsop happened to be in a field near Vigo with his camera when the train passed. His photo was published in the Locospotters Annual in 1957

Apparently it had the Beaver Tail car at the back and was banked up Lickey by Bertha. Now that would be a 'Holy Grail' photo.

In a similar vein, but not S&D. On 16th April 1955 an Ian Allan special from Paddington via Bristol and Bromsgrove to Birmingham was hauled by Castle 7017 until it got to Bournville signal box where a Black 5 was put on. This was reportedly due to platform clearance issues. The Black 5 was then replaced by Castle 7007 at New St Bordesley Junction for the return journey to Paddington via Bicester. Edited for engine change on return, Notes with Ben Brooksbank photo on Geograph give location as Bordesley junction.

See Post #16 above. I put up a copy of Bath Green Park to Templecombe from the 1960 WTT. Route Colour was Blue.

Correct. By the time I took the picture it was controlled by Stratford-upon-Avon East box. Originally it was the Down Home for the West box.

Rather than a wild card, how about finding a DMU in West Yorkshire green stripe livery.

I thought they were a bit uncommon, but here's one. A bonus point for the location and signal it applied to.

The building is the Relay Room put there c1962.

More great service. Order place 10.50pm on Tuesday evening arrived on Friday morning. Even deducted £1.50 from the bill so as not to overcharge on postage. Already cheapest of 5 suppliers I checked out. Thanks Dan.

Misty morning at Birmingham Moor St, on the way to Tyseley Open Day, October 1972 Next a Home and Distant Banner Signal (Not one of the modern multicoloured versions)

This is the Coventry line workstation at WMSC WMSC by Bill Wright, on Flickr

Having to keep it simple is nothing new on these schemes. When the DC Lines was done in 1988 it was the early days of SSI and the interlocking capacity was crammed to the hilt, not so much in terms of the actual number of modules but in the amount of data required against the available processing capacity. It's quite easy to add 50% to the cost of a resignalling or remodelling scheme by putting in stuff which will only be of significant benefit on a couple of days in a year. The rest of the time they can be a real PITA. Eric's Square Law of Scheme Development Mistakes theorises that the probability of causing a c**k-up is proportional to the square of the options available -1. Put simply, only give one way of how to deal with something, 1 squared -1=0. 2 options, 2 squared -1=3. Give 3 or more options and you are deep in it.

The existing train service to Bromsgrove is the hourly service from New Street to Hereford. The additional three per hour appears to be extension of the current 20-min interval Longbridge turnbacks. I think there may have been a problem with putting the Up Fast on the outside as to get the required alignment there woudn't have been room for the longest freight to take on a banker if the siding was put in the middle at the south end of the layout without rebuilding the bridge by the old banker sidings. You can't get from one end of a 6-car 323 without walking down the outside. No connection between the middle cabs.

When Cross City was first being talked of the trains were going to run alternately to Barnt Green, Alvechurch and Redditch or Longbridge, Rubery, Frankley (and possibly beyond) on the old Halesowen branch. There was even a DMU with a ficticious destination of Woodgate Valley on the blinds.. Political changes meant that the PTE became limited to the West Midlands County Council boundary in 1974. No extra funding was forthcoming from Worcestershire, so minimal changes were made at Redditch and the Frankley project abandoned. The result was WMPTE having to put Longbridge Station on the main line rather than where the branch went under the Bristol Road and fund the building of the 6-car turnback siding alongside thge old Austin Works south of Halesowen Junction.

IIRC there were two different heights used and they got mixed throughout the class, which was why they got yellow striped in 1964. I don't know the chimney height but the tall version stood 13'3" above rail and the short version was about 4 1/2" lower.

Wasn't that the one booked to call at Worcester Shrub Hill? My cousin was at school at Droitwich in 1970/71 and the railway was visible from his classroom. I used to get regular reports as to what was on that train.

The West Midlands secondary routes were cut from the WCML electrification programme c1962. There included Rugeley to Walsall and Coventry to Nuneaton. Another route in the original scheme was Rugby - Leamington - Coventry/Berkswell. Up to its removal in1972 there was a semaphore signal at Gibbet Hill fitted with protective netting.

I used to get some stuff from the barber shop in Albert Walk in Harborne, I think his name was Sid. He sold toys and had a good stock of Trix and Triang as well as aircraft and ship kits, glue and paint. The Engineers Mess Van parked in my yard was made from a Triang Clerestory I bought from him in the 1960s.

You missed one chance at the top of page 3.

Lev 1 for the diesel.

YE class 02 diesel could possibly bring similar industrial versions.

If you do a Davenport version as used at Longbridge I'm in for one.

Is it something to do with the unloading of wagons for the coal conveyor? That was done by bottom discharge I think.