UK Screenshots for Pre BR Blue. High resolution warning.

Semi fitted goods heading south on Middle Vale.

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Hello Annie, yes, the shadows cast by the telegraph lines are quite noticeable, especially with the early morning time setting and the south-west to north-east alignment of the line. Some good upland shots from Middle Vale there.
 
Yes its a striking piece of countryside alright Frank. I never really get tired of running trains on Middle Vale because of that incredible landscape.

Testing push-pull trains (SMU's) on the line to Avavoyle on Middle Vale.

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Thanks Ken. It's still all a WIP as I need to wind back the clock on quite a few things, but at least it's now possible to run trains without any problems.
 
Further Push-Pull set testing on Middle Vale. In order to get the coaches positioned correctly at platforms when the Push-Pull set was being propelled I had to set up the driving trailer as a locomotive.

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Great shots Annie. It can be frustrating trying to get trains to stop at the right spot. I tend to use trackmarks to get the result I want.
 
Thanks Frank. I have trackmarks at all the platforms on the line, but I would often forget their names when i was sleepy so it was simpler to set things up for the passenger service using the platform names. The engine spec for the driving trailer is fairly weedy so it isn't much of a locomotive, but its brakes are useful since those push-pull coaches are fairly heavy. While it has no sound files it does have a whistle file for when the driving trailer is leading the push-pull set.
I'm mostly using the invisible interactive platforms by Scottish and I have no problems with them.
 
North Eastern Railway Z Class 4-4-2 and Midland Railway Carriages on the E.C.M.L.

The pre-grouping East Coast main Line in North Yorkshire. The 10:35 a.m. from Kings Cross heading for Edinburgh and Glasgow. Between York and Newcastle the 10:35 a.m. combined with Midland Railway through carriages, the 9:45 a.m. from Bristol to Newcastle.

Below, north of Cowton station, the Atlantic heads north on the down line. Next stop is Darlington.

 
Yes I enjoy getting my BG models out from time to time Frank and giving them a run about. They are a lot of fun and Turks Castle is a good driver's route because of the severe gradients.
 
I do wonder how much difference there would have been if the BG had been more widely adopted. Whether we would have had an irretrievably split network because neither the BG or SG might have had enough leverage to overturn the other, whether the switch to SG might have taken place in the 1900s (or later - e.g. post-WWI) or whether a switch to BG might have occurred! The argument by the proponents of the standard gauge made much to the parliamentary hearings about the "great evil" of transhipment, yet by the early 1900s it is proved by the road wagon working timetables that "the great evil" of transhipment of goods on the wholly standard-gauge national network was taking place each and every day goods train operated!!! Taking place widely too when it came to consignments which were less than than vanload/wagonload size, due to the "great efficiency" of transhipment of these consignments in to consolidated loads! When I read this stuff it comes home how lobbyists then were no less mendacious, manipulative nor economical with the truth than they are today. The men doing this were every bit as sophisticated politically then as they are now.
 
July 1914 at Newcastle Central and the arrival of the 2:20 p.m. from London

in the fading sunlight of a summer's evening during July 1914, a N.E.R. Raven Z Class 4-4-2 from York shed stands at Newcastle Central station having brought in the down 2:20 p.m. East Coast Joint Company train from London Kings Cross. It is a Saturday, as the head of the consist has a Diagram 49 Corridor Brake Third. Two carriages back from the Diagram 49 is a Diagram 6 Corridor Composite Locker, again, it normally runs on Saturdays only. This is a train for Edinburgh. By the time it arrives in the Scottish capital the only onwards connection is the Saturdays Only N.B.R. local passenger train for Kirkaldy. Unless a passenger is heading home they had better have a hotel reservation!

 
I do wonder how much difference there would have been if the BG had been more widely adopted. Whether we would have had an irretrievably split network because neither the BG or SG might have had enough leverage to overturn the other, whether the switch to SG might have taken place in the 1900s (or later - e.g. post-WWI) or whether a switch to BG might have occurred! The argument by the proponents of the standard gauge made much to the parliamentary hearings about the "great evil" of transhipment, yet by the early 1900s it is proved by the road wagon working timetables that "the great evil" of transhipment of goods on the wholly standard-gauge national network was taking place each and every day goods train operated!!! Taking place widely too when it came to consignments which were less than than vanload/wagonload size, due to the "great efficiency" of transhipment of these consignments in to consolidated loads! When I read this stuff it comes home how lobbyists then were no less mendacious, manipulative nor economical with the truth than they are today. The men doing this were every bit as sophisticated politically then as they are now.

Certainly a lot of dirty tricks were pulled during the parliamentary hearings and during the inspection tours by the Gauge Commision. From reading commentaries from the time a lot of people were upset to see the Broad Gauge come to an end, - especially in Cornwall which was the last bastion of the Broad Gauge. I have wondered more than once about building a layout where the Broad Gauge lasted past WW1, but that might have to wait since I'm working on a 1880's Broad Gauge layout at the moment and I don't want to distract myself with 'what-if' scenarios.
 
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