Wow! That's some find

Don't know how long I've had these, 1st time the large box they were in has been opened this century.






Here's one from another discussion

The Tale of the Lost Railway  - Part Eighteen

Once again I am indebted to @Train Waiting for this episode

After dinner, Archie stood up to address his guests:

"My Lord, Distinguished Guests.

Thank you for joining Flic and I this evening. I wanted an opportunity to inform you of a little project which I hope to address. But first, I'd like to introduce two distinguished railway officers. To the left Mr John Hammond, the General Manager of British Railways, Western Region. [Applause]

And, on my right, Mr Gerard Francis Gisborne Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, who prefers to be called Gerry Fiennes [Laughter], Chief Operating Officer at the British Railways Board. [Applause]

Like all of you here, I was disappointed when British Railways withdrew passenger services on the Newton Abbot to Moretonhampstead line in February 1959. Of course, it's still open for goods traffic, but it seems that is declining. Earlier today, Mr Hammond kindly arranged a special inspection train over the line for which I'm especially grateful.

Some of you might be vaguely aware of rumours of a railway beyond Moretonhampstead which have been circulating locally for years. Tonight, I should like to inform you the rumours are true. [Gasps]

At the instigation of my Grandfather, a railway was built between Moreton and Okehampton, over privately-owned land. The Great War intervened before it could be inspected by the Board of Trade. After the  War, my grandfather became involved with several  other, more urgent projects and my own father, not interested in railway matters, failed to resurrect the plan. In around nineteen-twenty, the tunnels at Moretonhampstead, Baskerville and Okehampton were gated and both sides of the track became overgrown, thus creating the illusion that no railway ever existed.

Over the past year, I have arranged for much of the vegetation to be cleared and have requested British Railways to consider re-opening the Moreton branch for passenger traffic and for facilitating connections with our private railway to permit through traffic. Furthermore, I hope British Railways will be able to assist with the matter of an inspection to have our railway passed for passenger traffic.


Just the sort of local train that can be expected on Newton Abbot to Okehampton services

This is where the matter has got to and I hope we will hear this evening if the idea has any chance of success."

As Archie sat down, there was loud and sustained applause. When it eventually died down, Gerry Fiennes rose to speak.

"My Lord, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Branch lines are perceived as a problem for British Railways. Many of them lose substantial amounts of money as costs exceed receipts. Although the private companies closed some branch lines to passenger traffic before the last War - my own LNER was probably the leader in this - most remained open for what we are now meant to call freight. But even that is declining, leaving the option of very many complete closures within the next handful of years a distinct possibility.

However, little serious attempt has been made to reduce the costs associated with these lines to see if they could actually survive. Maybe not reduced quite as far as the late Col Stephens achieved - [Laughter] but still with major savings. What one might call a 'Basic Railway'. I believe that, by altered methods of working, we could see our way to making at least some rural railways profitable. Mr Hammond - John - has been very supportive regarding my ideas.

As such, we are glad to inform you that we intend to recommend to the Western Region Board that the Moretonhampstead line be re-opened to passenger traffic by the end of this year - [Cheers] and that, providing Ministry approval is forthcoming, British Railways will run trains, Monday to Saturday, from Newton Abbot to Okehampton, using running powers over the private railway." [Loud applause]

Gerry sat down and Archie stood again.

"Thank you very much, Gerry and John. That is excellent news. I welcome British Railways' investment and, of course, the line from Moreton to Okehamptoon will be financed by my estate.

I'm glad to inform you that Devon County Council, Newton Abbot Rural District Council and Okehampton Rural District Council have all given the plan their enthusiastic support as have our local Members of Parliament.

With regard to Sundays, it is my intention to work special trains for visitors and railway enthusiasts, over our line from Moreton to Okehampton.

The estate will purchase locomotives from Western Region and Mr Hammond has arranged for these to be repaired at Newton Abbot works. These officially closed for steam work last year, 1960, but a special exemption has been made in this case.

For the future, I'm glad to announce that Lord Pandaford has generously agreed to assist us open a SPAM Workshop at Baskerville, so steam will continue to be heard on Dartmoor for years to come. [Applause]

In addition, the Honourable Bonzo Poppingham has kindly agreed to help us with the financial and administrative aspects of our railway - we intend to learn a great deal from what our friends have achieved in Poppyshire and Sillyshire. [Applause]

Before we adjourn for drinks I'd like to ask John Hammond if he has anything to add."

Archie sat down and John rose to his feet.

"Thank you very much, Archie for your idea, your enthusiasm and your substantial financial investment in this project. You will attend to the staffing of the private railway so that it meets Ministry requirements and allows Western Region to safely run trains over it. This is an innovative arrangement and will require close liaison at a local level. Late this afternoon I telephoned two trades union leaders to sound them out and they gave the plan their tentative backing. I wasn't surprised by this as I was offering to retain all the present staff on the Moretonhampstead line - they were anticipating redundancies. [Applause]

Finally, and I hope this isn't unfair to mention in public, I will ask Ronald Parker to remain station master at Moretonhampstead and have the additional responsibility for liaison with the private railway." [Cheers and applause.]

As John sat down amidst the applause , Bertie sprang to his feet and shook Ron's hand.

Archie rose to his feet one last time, "I know that Gerry and John have to return to their respective offices early tomorrow but I invite everyone else to The Baskerville Arms for six thirty tomorrow evening where the plans will be revealed to the public. The drinks will be on me"
[applause]

To be continued.........

Good to see a Southern brake van tagged on the end of the Q1 train 

Missed last week as I was lazing around in hospital with an 18 hour drip in my left arm.
So this week I had a Southern Region night, using a C lass, N class, Std 4MT and a Q1.
Here are the 4MT and Q1 in action...............

BR Std 4MT 2-6-0 number 76053 passes through Heatherley with a short parcels train by Mick Hollyoake, on Flickr

SR Q1 number 33040 on Heatherley with a hopper train by Mick Hollyoake, on Flickr

My GP is also useless, known as the pill pushers. Now if I have something needing a visit I have to email or phone the Dorset NHS. I'm 92 and now registered "housebound". In over 12 years with this GP I've only managed to get 2 doctors visits both times by a male locum, only saw a male doctor at the surgery one time and he was a locum.
The 2 male doctors who own/manage the practice, work out of different premises on the other side of town - never seen either of them, their local premises are staffed by all women GPs apart from occasional locums; the only time I was "happy" to have a female GP was for a prostate exam, the ladies have smaller fingers!!

It was always a sod of a job to ring the doctors to get an appointment. Lines not open until 08.00 then you find you're 18th in the queue (how does that happen?).
No internet bookings. I use the Patient Access website but really can only order repeat prescriptions as my GPs surgery doesn't allow contact off that site.

Now they've changed things again. To get an appointment you have to go to the surgery website and fill in a 'triage form'. If you're incapable of doing this you can call the surgery and the receptionist/telephonist will do that for you. You cannot ask her to make an appointment. Oh, and they are now called 'care navigators'.
What the hell kind or world are we living in?

The doctor's surgery obviously does not want their pristine waiting room to be filled up with oiks with maladies, nor for their 'care navigators' to actually do any work. If it wasn't for the fact my GP is quite a decent one I'd tell 'em where to stick it all and go elsewhere, but even that could be leaping from frying pan into fire
Grrrrrr

Quote from: GlenEglise on July 25, 2026, 07:59:58 PMCan anyone recommend a suitable supplier for NMT graphics to apply to Dapol Mk3 pantograph car?

Dapol don't make a Mk3 pantograph car. You'll need to modify the roof to include the pantograph well (and source a pantograph). 977993 is the pantograph car - plenty of photos on Flickr and Departmentals.com.

Quote from: njee20 on July 25, 2026, 08:10:20 PMPaint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Agree - don't bother applying vinyls to Dapol Mk3. Either use Farish Mk3 for the vinyl (if you can find them), or rework a Dapol Mk3. I would however add one step - Strip it, then paint it.

You'll get a better finish if you remove the factory applied livery first. Phoenix Super Strip is my go-to paint stripper as it doesn't affect the plastic.

Whilst it's stripped you'll be able to fill in any windows that don't exist on the prototype you're replicating.

Phoenix Paints will also sell you network rail yellow in tinlets or aerosol

Without re-reading much of John @Train Waiting  excellent thread, I'd like to add a bit more about compounding, which I don't think has been mentioned before (at least I hope not).

From, once again, the RCTS LNER green bible, talking about the N8 class, but applicable to many locos of the time.

Quote;

'A factor which made compounding attractive at that time [1886] that Class B [N8] was introduced, when low pressures were in use and before superheating (my emphasis, not just to this class) had been adopted, was the smaller expansion ration of the steam in each cylinder [of a compound loco], meaning that the temperature difference between exhaust and live steam was less. This meant that there was smaller loss due to cooling and condensation of steam entering the cylinders. The compounds were thus able to demonstrate and efficiency of the simple classmates'

End quote.

All of this class were changed to simples, with some being superheated. This was not the only class of locos to be so treated.

HTH is of some use to others reading this.

[information inside this style brackets] added to make sense of the extract.

Martyn

Quote from: njee20 on July 25, 2026, 08:10:20 PMVinyls would be rubbish on a Dapol mk3 anyway, too much relief on the body side. Paint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Agreed - they vinyls were designed for the Graham Farish smooth-sided Mk3 coaches. They could be used on the Dapol Mk3s also but did not look as a good.