Bung 2

In the currently resurfaced dispute between the UK and Spain concerning the sovereignty of Gibraltar, does anyone know if any Canadian or indeed any non-USA citizen has been placed under arrest within the last 50 years by either the Police or the US Immigration Service for crossing into Point Roberts, Washington, without reporting to the US Immigration Service?

The debate on possible statutory regulation of newspapers is to take place today, 18 March.

Does not the general public have more to fear from their "elected representatives" at Westminster than it does from the Press?

After all, it was this "worthy" bunch of part timers who were "screwing" the tax payers for every penny they could fiddle on their expenses claims, and the much-maligned newspapers who exposed them.

Should we not have more to fear from MPs than from Fleet Street?

Included within in the Act was a requirement for all rail cars to be equipped with couplers which would engage automatically and could be released without workers having to pass between cars, i.e. the adoption of Janney couplers. A seven year period was allowed for full compliance.

My question is "did the 1949 French 'Merci' train tour the US as a complete train or were the box cars sent individually to the various States by other means?"

All of the illustrations of the preserved 48+8 box cars show European hook and draw screw couplings. If a dispensation was allowed, was this the last time that a freight train in the US operated without being equipped with Janney couplings?

During the Napoleonic Wars, French prisoners of war confined to the prison hulks famously made models of ships from bone and there are many of these models in existance in the UK.

In a similar manner, it has been reported that French Officer P.O.Ws. with a railway background, incarcerated at Soest in Saxony during the Second World War made railway models from scraps of tinplate and that an exhibition of their handicraft was held in the Soest Hauptbahnhof during the war.

Does anyone know if any of these models still exist and if so, where they can be seen ?

We all need something to cheer us up.

For a while in 1939, No. 6229, 'Duchess of Hamilton' operated in a plain shop grey livery until it was given a crimson livery with 'Go Faster' stripes and a false identity and shipped to New York City for the World's Fair and subsequent tour of eastern States.

Prior to leaving the UK it was fitted with a headlamp and bell, both items I assume were to comply with Federal Railroad regulations. Although I have never seen it in a photograph, it is fair to assume that a turbo-generator or alternator would also have been required to power the headlamp.

Photographs taken at the time also show that 'Duchess of Hamilton' now masquerading as 'Coronation', also sported a Janney coupler on the front of the loco.

As link type couplings had been banned in the US some 39 years earlier, was this also a strict railroad regulation or just a precaution in case it broke down and needed a tow and also was it an original item from when it left the workshops? The fact that it operated for a few months in grey indicates that it was predestined to go to the US.

Was the Janney coupler convertible, that is to say one of the modified hinged drop-down type used in the UK by the LNER from 1938?

Since its recent restoration it now seems to have a link coupling and has also lost its bell and headlight, which is sad as it has been deprived of a part of what the world of antiques describe as its provenance.

Answers from both sides of the 'Pond' will be welcome please.

This question was asked recently by Keredg and was closed without a proper explanation. It has since occurred to me that Keredg may have been thinking of the French shipbuilders St Nazaire-Penhoët. They certainly constructed large marine diesel propulsion engines of MAN design. They may also have built smaller units, possibly receiving the designs as post world war one reparations.

MAN engine design information was also made available to Fraser & Chalmers Limited, a company wholly owned by the British General Electric Company, and it is true that the spoils of war were shared among all of the allies.

I believe that there is a Penhoët-MAN 5 cylinder engine in the Vickers-Armstrong Museum collection.

I have a photograph of a semi-submerged Southern Pacific 4-6-0 steam locomotive number 2460. I think it may be a class SP8.

It was taken either at Benicia CA or Contra Costa CA some time before the railroad bridge across the Carquinez Narrows was opened for service. The loco had been driven off the end of the linkspan by mistake when neither the 'Solano' or the 'Contra Costa' Central Pacific train ferries were berthed to receive trains. I've heard it said that loco engineers who by some means or other managed to end up with their loco in the sea earned the nickname "Admiral" for the rest of their working lives.

My question is does anyone know when this event occurred ? If anyone can supply the date or better still the dates and titles of any newspapers which reported the incident I would be greatly obliged