Dare you admit it?

[N-Gauge-US]

Yes, I am much interested in numbers, but concentrate on locomotive road numbers as they passed by at the beginning, middle and end of the trains. There is a website that allows you to key in the road number and railway and it will spit out exactly what the loco is, where it was built and when, as well as providing all sorts of photos of its travels around North America. Believe it or not a similar capability applies to North American freight cars.

Webbo

If you get a chance to dig out that link, Webbo, I surely would appreciate it That sounds like a very cool resource!

[Dorsetmike]

Why is it you only rarely see BoBs & WCs with a short train. 

The Southern had a lot of small  locos from 1890s/1900s that could deal with short trains, however they started to get withdrawn in the 1950s so that by the time the M7s got withdrawn there were only standards and Bulleids left so in the 60s it was quite common to see spam cans and rebuilts with a 2 coach push pull set; same applied with the withdrawal of other smaller older locos, T9, K10, L11, 700s, etc by the 60s in most ex SR places all that was left were Standards and Bulleids so they had to cope with anything from 1 coach/van/wagon up. Also electrification was spreading which meant more older steam was withdrawn.

The WC/BoB were designed as light weight so that they could be used on the majority of ex SR lines, on many of those lines there were no turntables long enough so quite a few tender first workings would be seen.

[Calnefoxile]

There are a number of websites which now give details of 'real' train formations, especially passenger or parcel trains. Some may require a payment; I've just recently got three downloads from the GER Society giving train formations in 1956 and 1980something, and I've spent some recent modelling time remarshaling my stock to replicate either exactly or very closely the real thing. It is one beauty of N gauge; a loco+8 or 9 (or more) doesn't look out of place on a layout.
Martyn

Martyn,

Could you post any links you have for these websites please??

Would be most interested to have a butchers at them.

Cheers

Neal.

[martyn]

Hi Neal;
I'm guilty of a terminological inexactitude (!); the websites seem to link to other forums or books about formations; there is a good, if expensive, LNER formations book (I don't know if this goes into BR dates). I'm not a member, but I believe there is a Yahoo group with information on formations. Other regular contributors to this forum have also given some idea in different topics.
However, I did use the GER Society webpage for my downloads; I don't know if any other 'Company' Societies do anything similar;

http://www.gersociety.org.uk/index.php/home/sales/files-emporium-2/category/15-to-trains-operating-them-and-organising-them

A small fee is paid to the Society, then the appropriate file is immediately sent as a download. They are generally scans of WTTs, stock registers, etc.
Sorry to have been a bit misleading, but the GER Society files are good; note that the information includes BR information, one that I downloaded was for the 1980s.
I used to have a list of three or four websites that gave information on Eastern Region formations, gathered from other forums or sources, but unfortunately, the links ceased to work, and so I deleted them. One of the links had been suggested, by, I think, Dorset Mike.
Martyn

[Dorsetmike]

Only Southern stuff from me.