NIR

The classic place for one though, saving a point length in a cramped urban terminus. Immediately afterwards is the rock cutting/tunnel at the throat, I was fascinated by a photo of that in an early 70s Railway Magazine (or whatever that real railways magazine was called) in an article on Foynes, Fenit, etc.

Reading through Parting Shot I am surprised and delighted to realise that an MPD set had no intermediates! If it wasn't a power car (or a restaurant) then it was a driving trailer. Now that is definitely a model that can be built up and multiplied over time...

Another vote for a C class loco and an AEC railcar set. I would certainly buy these with a view to fast-tracking a future 'Ballyglunin 1965x1975' micro layout. So a black and tan or all black loco and a green flying snail AEC set. Plenty of fading flying snails on the wagons in any case and then maybe a bredin, a laminate, a park royal... mmmm

Shortly after writing that I realised it was all a very BIG puzzle... With platform, loop and fiddle yard all of 2 foot nominal length there is nowhere for the tightly-fitting freight and passenger services to actually cross. If the passenger remains at the platform the freight cannot run around but if the passenger crosses the freight then the freight cannot pull back to set into the siding! So that is why it is now a through station The passenger can now continue onto the traverser on the right rather than blocking the sector plate to the left, the freight pulls into the loop then runs around and pulls back onto the sector plate before propelling into the siding. But there is still a problem, a passenger service can not come and go freely unless the freight dwells somewhere on the layout. The easy answer is a double-track traverser to hold the freight, but freight approaches from the left so I need to configure some massively complicated sector-traverser on the left using a finely-engineered slot to cam the disengage/traverse movement of two sector plates (probably...) My easy solution, assume the freight arrives from the left early morning then runs around and propels, the passenger comes and goes all day as desultory shunting movements take place, then the freight departs to the left late evening. It even sounds prototypical. I wonder though, has anyone ever seen or heard of a traversing sector plate? With the pivot being so close to the exit (the crossover and tracks actually represent the two positions of a single-track sector plate) a second track on the same sector plate has to intersect the existing track at that point (the crossover becomes an actual crossover) so adding complexity and compromising its useful length. I expect one solution is to place the crossover near centred across the join and then cut it, but that seems to be inviting trouble (and would only shorten the loop by the same amount the sector track length was preserved).

I've also been thinking about shunting on a single line, shunting being another of the few signalled flows wholly visible on a layout. Generally speaking, shunting can take place freely within the 'station limits' between the home (the first signal) and the starter (the last signal) in each direction of a single signal cabin. The position of these signals rarely coincide in each direction, which is not a problem on double lines but on single lines can create two different 'station limits' on the one line. H>>>>>>>>>>S S<<<<<<<<<<H The simple but hard to find answer is that, on a single line, shunting can take place freely between the home signals in each direction of a single signal cabin (from H to H above). Which makes sense, this is the furthest extent a signalman can be sure of denying entry - his starters, even if lying beyond the homes in the opposite direction, are irrelevant to oncoming trains as they are facing the other way. On a single line a shunting movement goes as far as is necessary to clear the points and set back. Beyond the home signal (which should be located next to the point at which the single line ends) the next signalman needs to be made aware when the movement begins and ends, unless it follows immediately in the wake of a train departing in that direction. Complications such as outer homes and advance starters are wholly irrelevant here. They are sited much further out for 'acceptance' purposes, to create a safety margin that allows more trains to be accepted onto a given stretch of line. So it's something you don't need to give a lot of thought to. You can shunt a single line however you like so long as you set the running signals to stop and keep oncoming movements off-layout until the shunt is finished. But this is the one time you can properly chase a departing train!

I've been thinking of generic signalling of loops on a single line, crossing being one of the few signalled flows wholly visible on a layout. 1. Bidirectional passing loop - splitting stop signal with arms of equal height before each entry, stop signal before both exits at both ends (6 signals with 8 arms!) 2. Up/down passing loop - stop signal before each entry reading only to one side, stop signal before exit at opposite ends (4 signals with 4 arms, trap points before each exit at opposite ends allow running straight into the loop but this may be deprecated for passenger working) 3. Non-passenger passing loop - splitting stop signal before each entry with lower arm reading to dedicated goods-only line (or stop signal plus ground signal reading to dedicated goods-only line), trap points at both ends of dedicated goods-only line, stop signal (or ground signal) before exiting dedicated goods-only line at both ends (4 signals with 6 arms or 2 signals with 2 arms) 4. Non-passenger passing loop (no signal cabin, ground frame only) - as 3 above but no stop signals or ground signals, instead non-passenger train is 'shut in' on dedicated goods-only line using single line token issued at last signal cabin, then new single line token is issued to crossing train at next signal cabin All signals are placed at the toe of the entry point or before the fouling point at the exit (or at toe of trap point if fitted). For 1 and 2 non-crossing trains run straight through but crossing trains are both brought to a halt at the signal controlling entry to the loop before each pulling forward into the loop (except see 2 above). For 3 and 4 non-crossing trains run straight through the non-goods line but for crossing trains the non-passenger train is slowed/stopped at the entry signal/ground frame then runs onto the goods-only line, the crossing train then runs straight through, two passenger trains cannot cross here.

Looks ancestral to the 'wild west wanted poster' white on maroon early NIR typeface somehow, a font family known as French Clarendon apparently (those 7s seem to appear in French cursive handwriting). Anyone any idea what the NCC, UTA, NIR typefaces actually were?

Same here, it was my mother's local station.

I'm guessing generators and the like, there's a lot of Alstom around there

You vill do as you are told, that seems to be the way it is in Ireland these days. 'How do you want me', respond various gimps.

I don't but here are some redevelopment plans you should be able to get a footprint from at least http://meetings.derrycityandstrabanedistrict.com/documents/s21483/Appendix 6 - LA11 2017 0298 LBC.pdf Good luck, I remember it well.

A good impression. A lot of backscenes seem to be taken too high too soon. Even in hilly areas inclination is not really that much, outside of an Alpine valley. Sea inlets too, modernist geometric shapes with lots of straight lines and acute angles, just as you have it.

The buildings look a bit like Litchurch Lane, Derby - formerly British Rail Engineering then ABB then Adtranz and now Bombardier. I worked there a couple of times years ago, non-technical, and all sorts of strange things could be found in between the various shops.

During the intermission I managed to find and pick over the bones of a former incarnation of this forum, or was it the bones of a deadly rival?

I expect that people who go for volume go for ready to run anyway and are just getting spoilt at the moment, it's the likes of me with just three cement bubbles that are the collateral damage to the kits and bits sector. Just remembered some of my economics, the cement bubbles, etc are a substitute not a complement. Maybe when the volume end has been satisfied the niche end will pick up again.

Graffiti is ugly, all of it. People who say 'well some of it has artistic merit' are enablers at best, more likely wannabee gangsters, or just plain dickheads.

Any plans to open up the blank side windows? I'm in two minds about that with my 104 Class, the moulding is fairly thick there, maybe just darken the blank and float some varnish or something into it as 'glazing'

Aha! I wondered why the 'handrails' continued onto the roof. Now I just need to work out what railcars had what.

I dug up a small German bomb in my back garden when I was 10, threw it against a wall to see what happened, then reburied it. It's still there! I know for sure it was a bomb as I remembered to ask some metal detectorists about it few years back. Just a small explosive to disrupt roofing so incendiaries can take hold. They asked me what I did with it and their heads rolled back and their eyes rolled back when I told them! Apparently you are supposed to ring 999 and ask for RAF Bomb Disposal but, informally, they are happy leaving things alone

I'm trying to understand what might be found on the ends of a carriage, something not often photographed. MU control cables, air/vacuum hoses I can understand but why the steps and handrail? Why would you need to access the carriage roof other than in a depot with a ladder or gantry?

Yes, I spent a few quid in the village shop as I continued on, just because. That whole area was basically shat upon with flooded villages and the like, look hard enough and you can still spot the FWA graffiti.

I was walking along that road a few years ago and a few miles north of Bala I noticed this with fresh lillies on it and some very protective-looking workmen repairing the road nearby. 1600 Irishmen were interned here after the Easter Rising, Dublin, 1916

It's the 70s, the photographer is inside the barriers!

Christ save us! I'll be fashioning mine into a cock and balls and striding around the house.

But not Carndonagh I see