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Winter 1990 in Scotland they made combos of a single 156 and a single 158 car on the Glasgow/Edinburgh to Inverness services, the units ran round using the triangle at Inverness to put the 156 facing south again, as they had snow ploughs and the 158’s did not.

Picture of 70271 here Url link to mike morant site now just to tease, heres the otherside, without https://www.pressreader.com/uk/model-rail-uk/20190801/281633896792565

not bad, but I was hoping for more like this. (But without the bucketing rain)… ( those following mainline steam in the 90’s will remember 5407 had a stuck drain cock on the left side for maybe 2 years… every trip it was leaking steam from one side giving it a very odd beat sound). a bit of black to bling it down would do it, though obviously 5407 has a different boiler, so no renumber this time.

1. The sleeper stock arrives 6pm reversing into P2. 2. the first Jacobite arrives at 1908, into p1 clears the platform asap for the 3. inbound SR from Mallaig which also goes to P1 at 1937 as the Sleeper is still occupying P2 4. After the sleeper departs, 5. the ecs relocates to P2 So that In the summer 6. the evening WCRC trip then arrives back into P1 (1 coach shorter in the evening) before the last Mallaig departs). I guess they keep the ecs running for consistency out of season. I dont know why the jacobite uses p1, it does have the loop, but the timetable suggests the runroad is done in the yard, does the southbound CS require p2 for any specific reason ? Its this working I dont get.. FTW p2 to FTW p2, with no other workings inbetween.. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:W60882/2024-04-16/detailed#allox_id=0 Is this a warm up or something ?

The wheel bosses being painted silver just look wrong to me. https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/photograph-from-the-derby-collection-of-the-lms-no-5157-the-news-photo/90775803 Its polished steel and should be matching the burnished rods and wheel rims. Even then I doubt that finish lasted beyond a day outside the works… even 5552 didnt last that clean. Flickr url online

Bachmann are currently in a head to head with classes 08/24/25/31/37/40/44/45/47/55/57/66 which means they hold alone the 03/20/43/46/70/85/90, of which the 46 has to be an obvious one Heljan will pick off eventually. They also face competition on mk1 suburbans, mk1’s generally, mk2e/f even the humble 16t mineral. in steam the Manor, Hall, LN, B1, A1, A4 have all faced competition too. if thats limited, I feel for them when they face a lot of competition !

I’ll raise you… I had a conversation the other day about Minitrix and Triang, someone thinking they were still Uk market leaders

This is special… it even says so in the name… https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co205892/british-railways-special-cattle-van-1951-cattle-van-railway-wagon

Ive got ids as 6115.. last seen in 2018, and 9493 last seen on the windermere shuttles in 2018. The GBR railtour also has some long term hibernating coaches, oldest is 9 years since last seen. Todays train was 3360 (2015), 1860(2023), 6103(2018), 21266(whl for years), 6022 (2015), 4951(2021), 6000(2018). as for slipping to a stand, when was the last time something went tender first to Mallaig ?

Maybe 130 coaches all needing cdl locking, could offer a good deal to wcrc… Do the door handles, CET toilet tanks, fit air brakes and a repaint all at the same time. seems like Bombadier/Alstom and WCRC could have some business for each other, and a quick solution to a political jobs problem in an election year.

Who’s going to be your internal door lock supplier then ? mk1 emus were binned 20 years ago, unless someone had foresight to buy up hundreds.. theres no supply. Hastings diesels had a head start.. afterall they were surrounded by them, in their own workshop. so new designs, castings may be required… Now on that note, I do recall about 10 years ago reading that the casts for the SR EMUs internal door locks overhauled at Swindon were saved, initially in the Swindon works water tower, later moved to the Wroughton hangar, I saw pictures of it at the time, so chances are they still exist in a “raiders of the lost ark” warehouse ending state. This included the door handles, grab handle casts, and the side frame mechanism.

All 3 of Ian Rileys Black 5’s have air braking, they have done for many years. And today all three are in use in Scotland… 45407/44871 are to Glasgow, then Inverness tomorrow, whilst 45212 is on the Mallaig. I suspect you may be right on vac braked stock, and hence the cdl hold off…. Because the expense triples… AB mk1’s, AB the steam locos then CDL the stock. There seems to be a mk1 exemption date running until 2028 too… theres no guarentees that goal post wont shift either to an outright ban of mk1’s no matter what… Then there is also sealing the droplights and fitting interior doir handles…. it also means any other steam preservation groups 45596, 45305,777,70013,76084 wont be able to go mainline any more either unless a vac braked cdl solution emerges… I do see a lot of business risk to this… LSL has thrown huge wedges at its dozen coaches.. WCRC I still think may run until the end and just wrap it all up… Carnforths seaside location and proximity to the motorway is a multi million property development just waiting to be scooped up… the scrapping coaches / diesel fleet and clearing the site a huge tax offset to the above… put it another way.., if I owned that lot and only cared about money.. i’d be binning the lot for a property development too… theres way more potential there than wcrcs company value.

Starting to sound like a Highland farce rather than a Highland fling. one operator openly chugging a loss making diesel service at short notice random dates. another running a half baked, half ecs, half no heat service also probably half empty. two half baked operations doesn't make a whole one. Time to Shut both millionaires trainsets down. I say get SRPS to finish its rake in WHL green/cream with cdl, get the 26/27’s mainline fitted, with 37025/403 … get gbrf as crews and convince someone to get steam on gbrfs safety case with Rileys black 5’s…. Then SRPS diesels can provide CS sleeper standby support from ftw coupled to a 73/9, thus releasing an all important 66 or 73/9 for other use too and a way of swapping out for maintenance in Edinburgh… I know I can dream, but it sounds better than this “Who's got the biggest haggis” contest were seeing. 😀

Could they have been Longsight crews ? 155’s were doing Manchester - Cardiffs for a while. Heres a wypte on a Liverpool turn, it came down miles platting and crossed over infront of the 142.. As mentioned earlier the 158/9’s started on Liverpools too… here is 158905 doing the same thing. After the 158’s came I really didnt see many 155’s after in Manchester, Iirc occasionally in the bay platforms nearer to the Bury line side. (The main ones becoming 153’s and wyptes ones went more the Blackburn route). What I never saw on the lancashire side of the pennines was a class 143, and class 144’s were very very rare.. occasionally Manchester.. and later Lancaster via Settle, though pictures in Preston exist, so it happened on occasions. interesting memory lane for me this thread.

Pacers were definitely fun on the leyland to Salford via Bolton stretches…. Like a seesaw ride, with added extra bounce, not to add the track joint went through the seats and your spine… they got line speed there ok. apologies my pics are grainy, I was a skint teenager, s/h camera, out of date film and it took me a decade to afford to process them….why ? Well my dad gave me the £3 odd for the film, and the £4 odd for processing… but then i’d buy the 75p out of date film and use the rest to travel… as I wasnt supposed to be going beyond Bolton… infact I made Exeter once, Tonbridge another.. central wales was memorable.. all before I was 15… The best part it wasnt until I’d safely graduated, got a job and left home before I shared with him my pictures, by then it was definitely too late to be told off.

One thing I do recall was initilly 142’s didnt pair with anything but 142’s…. They originally had different gearing and transmission and drivers used to drive them like traditional dmu’s… rev, pause, gear, rev…repeat… it was only later I seem to recall them pairing with sprinters and just going high revs for torque just like the sprinters. Mid 80’s ive a few pictures of pairs of pacers, but by 90’s it was a mix of whatever pairings, that persisted until 2020.

funny thing is in Jan 2019, I was in the lounge on the Glasgow sleeper, and for whatever reason my phone accidentally took an image inside… note circular tables, loose chairs, arranged around the windows. I was sat by the bulkhead which had a rectangular table. ive other pictures, but it comes with me drinking a whisky in it, so I wont spoil your night with those. Flickr has some with portable tables as well as the chairs, and with sofa’s horizontal to the window in the toilet half of the saloon.

Do you where the Bolton lines were heading ? I’m guessing Blackpool from WYorks somewhere ? I only ever went towards Manchester on these. I saw several at Preston heading to Blackpool but guessing they were via Copy Pit. We got regular 155’s too for a while, always 2 car though, never seen a 4 car 155.. I guess it occured somewhere. Bolton Had a funny turn on one of these once, leaving Bolton, I went to the loo, came out after Farnworth tunnel to see the exterior door was wide open, the track wizzing past. Wandered down found the guard who looked at it, made an understatement comment, pressed the button to shut it and locked it out of use. Then I woke up one day they were all gone.

I saw all the wypte ones, on the left side of the penines. Preston, Bolton, Salford, Victoria.. The 158/9’s started life on Transpennine services to Liverpool until the 3 cars arrived.

D1015 back on the mainline doing what a western does… 1352 Paddington to Birmingham hundreds of people out trackside for this…

Just passed some shiny mk2defs at Southall in wcrc livery cdl fitted. (Theres some wrecks here to, but lets not be confused those are in vtec/IC). as the GBRailtour is somewhere north, and another rake to FTW, it looks like wcrc has a third rake underway.

50017 only seemed to run in this livery for a few years (and spent a few parked up at Tyseley). When it did run it was mostly Northern Belle… and we would need decent coaches to be made in this livery. You have some quite nice mk2d’s on the IRM site, could these get the BR era treatment ? https://irishrailwaymodels.com/en-gb/collections/murphy-models-mark-2d-coaches

Fyi off topic, but this daily ecs is a known 6/8 car 158 working.. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C56113/2024-04-15/detailed 0405d Nottingham to Liverpool 0634a. Splits at Liverpool to form the 0648 and 0749 services to Norwich. Theres also a daily Liverpool to Nottingham ecs departs 2153 arrives 0030 but this is just a 2 car.

Britannia doesnt rule the waves anymore i’m afraid. Good luck getting them interested in a Canadian business. you would do well to get them interested in some British businesses.

You could pretty much rely on Manchester (or later south manchester area - Hazel Grove, Buxton, Airport etc) to Blackpools being a 4 car unit in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s, down from 6 car class 104’s in the early 1980’s. This could take form of any combination of 142/150/156 but not really 158’s…. I grew up in Bolton, a day in the early 90’s would typically offer… Barrow .. 156’s long distance to Anglia, also 31 / 37 and lhcs Blackpool .. pairs of units, 31/37 in peaks Blackpool-Harwich was an exception, and could produce a 4 car 156. Blackburn.. pacer/150 Southport .. 155 occured several times, but 142/150 (also 31/37 peaks) Kirkby .. 1st gen dmu (often a mongrel hybrid.. 101/104/108/119) Glasgow .. 47/lhcs mk2def non passenger Westhoughton metal box.. 37/9 Parcels. (GUS Bolton) .. 31/47 .. 08 stationed at Bolton. Binliner.. class 60 steel coils .. class 37 turn the clock back a few years add in 24/5/40… D200 was a railtour regular, and who can forget the special k stock.