Thursday 14 July 2011

The Thin White Line and no Coke Required!!

A great contingent of Volunteers today - all wound up and ready to go!

 After a good deal of umming and  ahhhing on my part Mike and Graham set to on painting the white line on the platform edge. I needn't have worried - what a fine job they made of it.
 From start:-




To finish, well almost finished - the paint tin ran dry after 45 slabs, but it looks magnificent!


The laborious work of cement block retrieval  from a redundant side drain continued (Ron, Andy and Rod in command) and the rescued blocks were built into the renovated centre drain by Ray and Clive. The picture says it all in terms of the care taken!

 Peter and Terry continued with their labour of love renovating and commissioning a line-side electrical cabinet. work continues, but there is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained by an accurate restoration.

Last but not least Tom spent his day burning off the old paint from the lamp hut number one. Not a glamorous job but as Tom wisely said its a job that needs doing!

The words above only go a small way to saying what great contribution everyone made, but the most important words that came back to me was whilst everyone was having an end of day cuppa, that they had all enjoyed their day. Music to my ears!

As an aside I had to go on a trip via Bristol Temple Meads and spotted the Tornado parked up in a siding. I must say it looked rather grubby and forlorn, flanked by a battered old coach  at one end and a modern day waggon at the other. it smacked a bit of the 60's and Woodham's. On a brighter note there was a rake of the Torbay express chocolate and creams in TM. The end coach was particularly a smart a fair and woul look well parked up in Broadway! what can anyone tell me about this make and model?

4 comments:

Richard Johnson said...

It's Mk 2A TSO (Tourist Open Second) 5366 owned by Riviera Trains, and used as a barrier vehicle on their Torbay Express Mk 1 set.

As a barrier vehicle it carries no passengers, although the ORR has just agreed that barrier vehicles can be dispensed with on the main line. At the same time, the exemption for the use of Mk 1's on the main line has been extended for a further 10 years.

Jim Boyles said...

Totally agree with Richard!

On another topic, with regard to platform lengths and track plans: do you have any updated plans from the ones you've previously posted on this blog?

It may seem a trifle pendantic but I note that on the plan "broadway layout 3", the platform fits neatly between 4m 65ch and 4m 75ch (660ft)but the platform is shown as only 570ft long! Sorry but I DO like to nail things down and tie up seemingly loose ends!

Bill said...

Richard,
Thanks for the info. I have no knowledge or expertise on the subject of rolling stock etc but that particular coach looked in fine condition and the curved extremities of the roof line was attractive feature and made it stand out from the rest.

Jim,
Pedantic is ok by me! The best knowledge I have at the moment is Plan 3 , but stretched to 720ft. There is no practical restriction on the length of the platforms( we will make 1 & 2 the same length). For aesthetic reasons I am going to suggest we shorten 1A by 40-50 ft at the southern end and tack it on the northern end.

Thanks for the interest - Bill

Chris said...

Just to correct Richard, Mk1 stock either has to have a barrier vehicle unless its Scotland or the NYMR operations to Whitby - if the barrier is a Mk1 it cant carry passengers, but a Mk2 can. There is a consultation about abolishing this but havent heard of any changes.