The Pilotman

Exactly. Heathrow operates at close to 100% of its theoretical capacity most of the time, so without a third runway (can’t see that ever happening) this rail link would not increase air traffic or passenger numbers. What it would do is reduce the large car park that the M4/M25 interchange becomes for large parts of the day. By the way, if the UK had a joined-up transport policy and had invested in domestic high speed rail links of the kind that exist in France and, to a lesser extent, Germany, air travel from London to places like Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh wouldn’t really be required.

Was his name Nigel?

Wednesday 30th August.

OP asked about c.1992 and c.2008.

6V72 Northfleet to Theale loaded cement and 6O60 return empties ran with those wagons in 1992.

It gets a mention in the latest newsletter:

Paging @phil_sutters , your assistance is required please!

I can’t believe that after four days nobody’s mentioned flange greasers.

I think you might be in a small minority there, Jim…

Indeed. Whilst the common dab (Limanda limanda) and European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) are both flatfish, they aren’t even in the same genus.

Well you, of all people, should know 😆

47475, wasn’t it?

Did they just wait for the tide to go out again?

That don’t impress me much.

Ask Gordon, he’ll probably know.

And who might they be?

Around that time there were also some other interesting locomotive/livery types that turned up on rakes of CDAs. Flickr has images of: 47490 in debranded InterCity livery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/16867856@N07/17013787166/ 50029 in original Network SouthEast: https://www.flickr.com/photos/actonwellsjunction/15133704841/in/photolist-p4jccx 37412 in large logo blue https://www.flickr.com/photos/mick_page/38528822800/in/photolist-2o8JHdP-2okZ3Qf-s38CQb-226NVxb-2nLdYcK-2kQQh4X-2m6Yid8-QuFDp5-24KDyfL-238CWpj-2om2vFX-2m8XJLJ-noEdAE-2f6Y9V8-21GEhGh-2ovP2W7-PBmAxG-2nBeX3d-26Qd311-2jx5SBm-2oHZoQo-o4YoFW-RQF8S6-SauZ14-23YmYyj-2oResLR-27RcbWJ-gVdPwp-2m3nZJo-JgMPhX-bAND3N-Zt6dUv-NHKVYH-dvUdHh-dvNxqK-ok6Uvs-2jtwHGA-2o63VSk-d4yHsG-gv16sW-xBwuiN-2jZvNd1-fzg6NG-P3F2JB-T2FBCH-PNehTE-2oHZ7b6-aNWZnv-a34FuR and 37420 in Mainline (InterCity) livery. https://www.flickr.com/photos/34906043@N07/14634871131/in/photolist-oiexjk Also, I’m fairly sure there’s an image in one of John Vaughan’s books of a plain blue class 47 on CDAs on the Cornish Mainline and I’m 99% sure I’ve seen a picture online of a plain blue 37 at Golant on CDAs but can’t find it at the moment.

To my eyes, that HST looks like it has headlights showing and a driver in the cab, indicating a down train (and it’s platform 12, not 1). As to why it’s in the platform “behind” a DMU is anyone’s guess, although David alluded to there being problems that day. I doubt it was a normal move for a through train to run permissively into a platform behind another service, but you never know. Taunton, although not one of the principal destinations for trains from Paddington, did have some terminating services. These would have been extensions to a Bristol or Weston-Super-Mare service. As I recall, the 1815 ex-Paddington ran to Taunton on weekdays for many years via Box and Weston. After Bristol, it called at Nailsea & Backwell, Yatton, Weston Milton, Weston-super-Mare, Highbridge and Bridgwater.

You will find several examples of Class 37s on CDAs if you do a search on Flickr for (for example) Fowey 1988. However, that selection only features locomotives with the red stripe. If you’re looking for an example without the red stripe, then that might be trickier to track down. I suspect that by the time the CDAs had arrived, all of Laira’s Class 37s had had the red stripe added, or were even in the newer Railfreight livery.

From said project page:

I went for an interview yesterday for the job of pointing out why funny pictures and memes on web forums aren’t actually correct or have been altered in some way for comic effect. I didn’t get the job because I’ve got a sense of humour, a personality and friends.

I hope this isn’t going to spawn lots of amphibian jokes.

I’ve got some Farish RMBs (blue/grey and InterCity), one RU and one RFO (both blue/grey) so I doubt very much I’d be buying another coach with a red stripe. In fact, I didn’t even know there were any other types.

It’s just a dirty blue/grey BG. Lots of mail and parcels trains used that platform (9, as was). It was the closest platform to the Royal Mail depot on the north side of the station.

There is a note on the airfield chart that states “Aircraft landing on runway 27 must proceed to the end to vacate, unless otherwise instructed by ATC”. For a 737-800 to land on runway 27 and vacate at taxiway Foxtrot, I would imagine the braking would have had to have been on the aggressive side 😳