British Railway Operations

[John Bakeer]

Tulyar,

The North Wales web site is very good, I keep it on my favourites list.

[mhurley87f]

Snippet from the BBC website's Welsh News page today.

It seems that an Aberystwyth to Birmingham train ran at 80 mph through a 20 mph Temporary Speed Limit on the single track @ Ty Mawr, between Caersws and Newtown on 29th August.

The TSR was imposed following discovery of a "rail defect."

RAIB inquiry to be held.

Hwyl,

Martin 

 

[Tulyar15]

There are some pics I took of the Pathfinder Railtour to Aberystwyth, on this (regularly updated!) website:-


http://www.nwrail.org.uk/nwnews.htm

John - was this the link you had difficulty with? Try

www.nwrail.org.uk/nwnews.htm

[Murphy Siding]

     The funny part, is all those railfans with their heads out the windows, enjoying the fumes.

[Simon Reed]

Tulyar - I can't get into your link.

If, however, the 37 was 248 I've been told it's a bag of spanners at the moment and smokes gleefully at the slightest provocation.

Deltics...well

 http://www.preserved-diesels.co.uk/2007b/55019_4.htm

and

http://www.preserved-diesels.co.uk/2006d/55022_13.htm

for some clag.

Quite the most astonishing effect I've ever seen was whilst I was manning the Irish Traction Group sales stand at Bury one day.

1041:-

http://www.preserved-diesels.co.uk/2004/1041_35.htm

made a departure a lot worse than this! It took a good five minutes for the smoke to clear!  

 

 

[John Bakeer]

I often travelled the ECML behind early Deltics in the 60s and remember in KC when one was fired up it emitted a tremendous gout of smoke and flame, by Wellin when all was nicely hot and throbbing they were generally as clean as a whistle.

[Tulyar15]

From what I can remember they always smoked like that. So too did the original Paxman engines in the Inter City 125 trains. The new MTU engines they are being rebuilt with are much cleaner!

But for producing clouds of smoke, the real champion has to be a Deltic!

[Murphy Siding]

There are some pics I took of the Pathfinder Railtour to Aberystwyth, on this (regularly updated!) website:-


http://www.nwrail.org.uk/nwnews.htm

  Thanks!  That was neat.  John is right about the smoking diesel.  Is that an honorary steam engine?  Is the amount of smoke because of the age of the unit, or did they always smoke like that?

[John Bakeer]

Tulyar,

Nice pic's. The 37 smoking like a Duchess, Interesting!

Any one noticed? This little puffer is running in reverse!

[Tulyar15]

There are some pics I took of the Pathfinder Railtour to Aberystwyth, on this (regularly updated!) website:-


http://www.nwrail.org.uk/nwnews.htm

[John Bakeer]

Churchward wasn't much on ergonomics. In order to operate the throttle and at the same time see where he is going the drivers of his tender engines had to lay across the reverser-damned uncomfortable to say the least, not many loco' designers paid much regard to crew comfort. 

Come on guys, some one must know about Hogwarts Express.

[Tulyar15]

My brother has posted some more pics on his site:-

www.roscalen.com

In the end last Sunday I went to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. They had a mini gala on to celebrate the 150th anniversary of G. J. Churchward's birth. (Churchward was the Great Western's chief Mechanical Engineer from 1902 - 1922 who in his day was one of the best loco designers in Britain, looking at best practice not only here but in France and America too).

[John Bakeer]

This site has a Gremlin! I replied to Sprulz and up popped my earlier post.

I give up.

[Tulyar15]

Morning All,

Had a query from one of my US correspondents that has aroused my curiosity; Is there a web site that gives the lowdown on the Hogwarts Express i.e. What and where it really is? The last I heard it was at Carnforth, but their web site is useless.

  

West Coast Railways, who provided the rolling stock, have a page on their site:-

http://www.steamtrain.info/harry.htm

[sprulz]

Hi,

If our government want to take a train in South Africa, hope its not our most famous (infamous?) Blue Train. It recently ran out of diesel fuel in the Karoo. This is the desert region it passes through heading to or from Cape Town It was carrying tourists, who pay a hefty amount for the trip. One wonders how an engineer can start a journey if the tanks are not carrying enough for the part of the trip assigned to the loco's.

[John Bakeer]

Morning All,

Had a query from one of my US correspondents that has aroused my curiosity; Is there a web site that gives the lowdown on the Hogwarts Express i.e. What and where it really is? The last I heard it was at Carnforth, but their web site is useless.

  

[Tulyar15]

I'm trying to choose between going to the Great Central (Leicester) Diesel gala the weekend after next or the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway. The GC is 90 min from where my Dad lives and I enjoy visiting it, but I've had all their resident diesels for haulage. The C + W I've not visited despite it's nearness to me so I feel I should. It may only be 2.5 miles long but it does at least connect the two towns in its title, with the bonus of x-platform interchange with the Great Western mainline at Cholsey. As an old university friend from the East Riding of Yorkshire would say "at least it goes from somewhere t' somewhere else". But haulage on the C + W is limited to class 08's, which they were given when a well known Irish brewery closed down it's plant in West London!

Decisions, Decisions!

[Simon Reed]

I can't remember when I last went to Aber by rail. It was behind a pair of NB 37's so we're talking at least 20 years ago.

I've certainly never ridden the funicular there despite having a bit of a soft spot for that most esoteric mode of railway transportation.

I did'nt get to go round the loop behind Nelson either - someone realised that if a Duchess was out of gauge a Nelson certainly would be!

I think my next trip out will be the Moors Steam gala. 11 working steam engines 90 minutes drive from my house. Then Keighley - 8 working engines 20 minutes away.

We are so lucky in the UK.. 

 

[Tulyar15]

I had an enjoyable outing to Aberystwyth last Saturday behind the Class 52 "Western" diesel hydraulic loco #D1015 "Western Champion". The loco performed well and seemed to fly up Talerddig bank on the return run (this is a 10 mile stretch of 2% gradient). Not everything went to plan however. During our 4 hour stay in Aber. the tour organises had arranged for a road tanker to refuel the loco as trains are not normally refuelled there. But the tanker driver only brought a small diameter hose, small enough to fill a car with but not big enough to enable the loco to be fully refuelled! So when we got to Machynlleth on the return journey the loco had to be uncoupled and run into the depot to refuel. This cost us half hour but owing to the fact that other pathing stops had been scheduled we were nevertheless able to return to Birmingham New St on time.

All in all a good day. The narrow gauge Vale of Rheidol line laid on a special train for tour participants but I chose not to ride on it. Instead I just had lunch in a fish and chip restaurant followed by a walk along the sea front and a ride on the funicular railway.

[Tulyar15]

Yes, I'm looking forward to another outing behind D9000/55 022 "Royal Scots Grey".

 Also toying with the idea of having a run with Princess Lizzie down the South Devon switchback!

[Simon Reed]

Another Tuesday - another spin round the loop this time with the A4 which was pretty lacklustre compared with the Duchess. What I did'nt realise is that last Tuesday was a first and last with the Duchess. They found out the hard way that it was out of gauge by scraping a bridge!

Next week is a Black 5 - 45231, which I don't think I'll bother with, then, if repaired, Lord Nelson.

Thanks Tulyar - my dad is on the road to recovery and, hopefully, an all clear.

I suppose my comment about sympathy for our North American friends ought to extend to diesels too. The Western, and the 40 are regular mainline performers and I understand that Deltic D9000 is'nt too far from being repaired.    

[Tulyar15]

Simon

Glad you had a good day out - I'm thinking of having a ride behind "Princess Lizzie" in the autumn when she's working some specials from Bristol to Plymouth over the South Devon switchback!

I managed to photograph Workington last summer when I was on holiday staying in Carlisle just literally days before it closed. Hope your dad is getting better.

I'm already booked on a Pathfinder Railtour on Sat 1st September. It will be the first time a cl 52 "Western" has worked a train to Aberystwyth. (they used to haul the Cambrian Coast Express as far as Shrewsbury when they were new but they were never permitted on the Cambrian until now).

[Simon Reed]

Martin,

I expect that any BSC rail is old stock.

Workington finished about 6 months ago and all rail is now rolled at that place in North Lincolnshire that the swearing detector does'nt like!

The problem with Workington was a logistical one primarily. The rolling mill was at 90 degrees to the sea and the Cumbrian Coast Line, and sandwiched between the two. This was all very well until CWR was demanded in longer and longer lengths - basically the cost of rebuilding the plant latitudinally was prohibitive.

I had a tour of Sc****orpe about this time last year and saw their new rolling mill which is pretty immense.

I've also had a trip out today - round the Harrogate loop behind the Duchess. A very fine way of spending a morning and not really bad value at £20 York to York. So much so that I'm doing it again next week with the A4!

I read the other posts on this forum and feel very sorry for many of the steam fans in North America. I was able to leave my home this morning, drive for just over an hour, enjoy 40 plus miles of steam action (the last 20 or so miles at 75MPH), drive home, get some lunch and go to work at 14.30!   

 

[mhurley87f]

Called at Margam last evening (first visit this year, I'm sad to say) and, as ever, found enough movements to keep me imterested until sundown.

I noticed that the Down Main seems to have been relaid in the new heavy rail, and was pleasantly surprised to see it stamped BSC.

 

Simon, is the Workington plant still rolling rails, or has it all finished and this was something "prepared" earlier?

The other major change was the new signalling and bi-direction running capability from Margam Moors to Bridgend West Jct. While the crossing where I lurk had signs warning that trains might approach on either main line from both directions, I wonder whether Network Rail has done a few school visits to warn youngsters tempted to stray near the line over their summer holidays?

Hwyl,

Martin.

[Simon Reed]

My dad has been in hospital recently so I spent the weekend in Cumbria - strangely, Barrow, which is usually one of the wettest places in the UK, enjoyed unbroken sunshine nearly all weekend!

Thameslink 2000 has finally been approved! £5.5 billion. What was the original estimate, I wonder.

A rebuild for Reading, capacity improvements for BNS...where will this munificence end? Well it will end fairly shortly, I suspect, if another election is announced.

[Tulyar15]

Funnily enough, I've seen locks on a canal in Cheshire with railway type signals!

[cogloadreturns]

I will be swopping my job from running trains to running canal boats and barges shortly! It's a bit wet over here at the minute. Someday soon, we may actually see that big yellow thing and blue sky.

It's the reverse of El Nino apparently - El Raino. 

 

[Tulyar15]

Well perhaps its no co-oncidence that Stagecoach got East Midlands and Profits-firstgroup kept the GW franchise.

Meanwhile on Saturday I decided to get away from it all and headed for Titley Junction, near Offa's Haha where a private group have relaid a mile of the old line from there towards Kington. They only open to the public one weekend a year, and this year they had the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Leominster (pronounced "Lemster") - Kington line to celebrate (and the 50th anniversary of it closing to passengers!). They have a good website at http://www.titleyjunctionstation.co.uk/pages/index.php. They also had visiting GWR Pannier #6430 from the Llangollen Railway.

[Simon Reed]

Don't worry Martin - we know what it means although perhaps we must now refer to the medieval boundary between England and Wales as Offa's Haha.

Living in Bradford and commuting to Leeds I observed Arriva's incompetency with Northern Rail on a daily basis. I thought that Wales and West were a little more switched on, at least in terms of striving for an integrated network, but I'm always prepared to be proved wrong.

As I said in my initial post on this subject XC requires a degree of specialist handling and frankly I don't think Arriva are capable of it. I was under the impression that NEX were also front runners and from the way they've handled MML I thought they'd make a decent job of it.

Branson's star is clearly no longer in the ascendency. With a Scot at the helm now I wonder how Stagecoach and profits-Firstgroup will do in the next round.   

[mhurley87f]

In case you're wondering, the bit word asterisked out is the Latin word for "with"  and certainly not rude at all.

Hwyl,

Martin