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Yesterday does appear to have been a complete shambles, but 1984 wasn't post-Clapham...

Thanks. That explains the small continental industrial locomotive hauling a full-size clerestory carriage, at any rate! The 1979 film which attempted another explanation of the same events used 'Flying Scotsman' renumbered as several other Gresley pacifics, IIRC, which was slightly more convincing.

I watched the latest attempt at dramatising Agatha Christie's disappearance on channel 5 last night (it wasn't very good), and didn't recognise the railway scenes. Does anyone know where it was shot?

I was on it- it was definitely April 79.

If that's the one at the marina, the SUV with the empty boat trailer, it's the same vehicle both times.

The account of Pendon is garbled to a degree worthy of "1066 and all that". Are there any reliable facts in the rest of the article?

Yes- see <https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/accident-involving-a-pantograph-and-the-overhead-line-near-littleport-cambridge>

Too late- it fell/was pushed several years ago. Last time I looked the only part still standing was the office chimney stack. The carriage shed and the ruins of the station building are still there, buried in the undergrowth.

RAIB is not carrying out an investigation into this incident- if we were, it would be listed on our website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/raib-current-investigations-register/rail-accident-investigation-branch-current-investigations . As mentioned earlier in this thread, we have asked for a copy of the industry's investigation report when it is complete. While our draft reports are indeed confidential until they are published, there is nothing to prevent anyone from carrying out their own investigation into any incident or accident involving their business (and railway undertakings with a safety management system have a duty to investigate), and publishing the results: see for instance this report https://cdn.prgloo.com/media/download/5cc04fabf4a84e81bc4e4e7c9008e7ba into an incident involving stranded trains in icy weather, which has recently been published while the RAIB investigation https://www.gov.uk/government/news/stranding-of-trains-and-self-detrainments-at-lewisham is still in progress. Stuart J RAIB

I don't know what pictures you have seen, but there is not normally any stock on the Madder Valley that was not built by John Ahern. Bear in mind that, to preserve the scene and the trains, it is only operated on three or four days each year, and on those days the odd charter service may sometimes just turn up...

I had no idea that there was anything happening up in the north west (I was eight), but I do remember sitting down at home to watch the BBC documentary about 4472's non-stop run to Edinburgh in May 1968. I believe it was first shown on 11 August, so at least I know where I was on the fateful day!

The last BR steam train through Moor Park was in September 1966, and then the GC was closed north of Aylesbury. The last LT steam train through Moor Park was in June 1971, and then the Panniers were withdrawn. You pays yer money...

<pedant> That's not a frock coat! Much too short. Frock coats strictly senior management wear, anyway. \<pedant>

After closure of the GC as a through route, a bogie van with newspapers for Aylesbury used to be tail traffic on a class 115 DMU leaving Marylebone mid-evening. I remember it as being the only even slightly interesting thing to see on the Met in the early 70s, in the rather dead period between the end of LT steam and the start of excursions with Sarah Siddons.

The bent connecting rod (not valve gear!) didn't bother me because it is sufficiently concealed by the steps. I agree it's a pity, but I'm not suggesting there was an alternative solution.

Forty years ago I was replacing rotten wheels on pre-war Hornby O gauge locos with whitemetal ones.

For me, the criterion is does it bother me, and can I fix it? Both are entirely arbitrary. I bought the Hornby "Caerphilly Castle" because I could, and did, move the upper lamp iron from the smokebox door to in front of the chimney, and in doing so made a huge difference to the look of the loco. That mattered to me. I bought a Bachmann pannier in LT livery even though it doesn't have the LT modifications. I can't explain why that didn't matter! Although the Rapido GNR SIngle is an exquisite model, I didn't buy it because the handrail knobs are overscale* to the extent that the whole appearance is made toy-like, and it would be way beyond my abilities to fix. *I'm baffled as to why, seeing what the other major manufacturers can do these days- just compare it with the Bachmann GNR Atlantic.

Normally, yes, although there is a poor "off" on the Oxford line directing signal at the moment, and the down inner home is oou (fixed at danger) until someone can squeeze under and mend it. However, Murphy's law says that when someone takes a photo, the manoeuvres to set it up mean that the signals will have got out of sync. Stuart

No - these days the process is that the driver will be patched through to the BTP via the radio network, and if that conversation confirms that it was apparently a deliberate act, the line will be reopened as soon as the remains have been recovered. Investigations are for accidents and crimes- this was neither.

Excellent guess.

For clarity, these were not p-way staff, but contractors engaged in laying cables in connection with conversion of the area to axle counter working, the kind of job which even in BR days would have been done by staff of the signalling contractors.

In fairness to your LOM, I can't see any text in eg Handbook 8 (IWA, COSS or PC blocking a line) that isn't also in module TS1 (General Signalling Regulations). I do agree that it would be better if you were issued with the Handbook so that you can see what clauses the person on the other end of the phone is talking about.

According to the minutes in the National Archives, the Great Western & Great Central Joint Committee agreed on 9 January 1907 to divide its line in half for maintenance purposes: from zero (Northolt Junction) to the 17 1/4 milepost (between High Wycombe and West Wycombe) would be maintained by the GWR, and from mp 17 1/4 to Ashendon Junction by the GCR. I have no reason to believe that this ever changed: no GCR or LNER equipment ever appeared south of West Wycombe, and by nationalisation many (but not all) of the signals at West Wycombe, Saunderton, Risboro and Haddenham had been renewed as upper quadrants by the LNER. Those boxes also had LNER-style nameplates fitted to their ends, which did not happen on the rest of the line. Soon after nationalisation, the WR took control of maintenance for the whole route, and by the time the line north of Risboro was singled in 1968, there were no upper quadrants left. The line went to the LMR for signalling purposes in 1975, and from then until modernisation in 1990 the signals were painted in LMR style (of which the most obvious difference was grey rather than black ironwork, and white rather than red or yellow finials), but no renewals too place, with all the remaining signals being lower quadrants (unlike many other ex-GW lines which became LMR). The nearby Met & GC Joint line did have maintenance alternating between its owning companies every five years in pre-London Transport days, but this was not the case on the GW&GC.

Haddenham was unique in that, unlike all the rest of the GW&GC, the station buildings were pure GCR (same design as the stations on the Neasden - Northolt line). In line with the rest of the line, though, the signalling used GWR equipment as built (the GCR and later LNER were responsible for maintenance at that end of the line, so most of the signals were renewed as upper quadrants before nationalisation). The track layout, as you have noted, was simpler than most of the rest of the line, but was much the same as the layouts at the GCR stations at Wootton and Akeman Street, which were built at the same time. I've always assumed that these peculiarities arose from the fact that the line from Princes Risborough to the end of the GW&GC at the site of Ashendon Junction (known during construction as "the point of bifurcation") was only used by the GCR from opening in 1906 until 1910 when the Bicester cut-off opened, and so the GCR managed the building of it. That doesn't quite explain the signalling, though...

Fred and his wife were representing the Stewart-Hargreaves dance academy (think Hi-de-Hi)