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Can't ever remember three - coach trains on that service.

It almost sounds like your typical anti - rail article. Of which there have been many over the years. If the paper's editor thinks it's a slow news day, they aren't paying attention!

There was a blacklist that was used to deny work those who the employers (chiefly in the building and civil engineering industries) deemed unacceptable, usually due to their political beliefs. That's the one you're thinking of. Surely that wouldn't apply in this case.

Crimes! I can remember when the maximum fare throughout Mesrseyside was 50p off - peak, and 75p peak; that was in 1984; the buses were packed, especially at start and going - home time. Then of course, a couple of years later, the second Thatcher government passed their transport act, the result of which, for buses, has been a drastic decline in services, and the domination of what's left by three groups.

On your first sentence; I suspect the Tories heaved a huge sigh of relief at losing power in 1964; as Nearholmer has pointed out, the problems for UK plc were piling up, not just for the railways, but all over the place. The Wilson government pledge not to implement the Beeching Report was obviously false; any government, of any colour, would have implemented the parts which meant they didn't have to spend public money as fast, while the bits requiring investment, which are well known, were not pursued quite as vigorously.

Was the unbalanced mass (weight) of the running gear taken into account anywhere?

I imagine anything manufactured in the UK for export to the EU will have to follow EU rules; are UK manufacturers going to produce different versions of stuff to comply with different rules (if the UK diverges)?

Last one; the LNER didn't want their OLE to fall down, did they?

Two brake tenders? Greedy pig!

If we can afford to spend £130 billion in a single year on the NHS, or £50 billion a year (?) on defence, we can afford to spend £140 billion over 20 years on HS2; particularly as HS2 in not being paid for up front, like so many of the costs for the two items mentioned, but by loans which can be spread over longer periods (a bit like the first Severn bridge).

Anyone quoting a figure for the final cost is peddling fairy stories, to be honest. There was a figure, quoted in an article in The New Civil Engineer a couple of pages back, of between £74 and £95 billion, including contingencies.

Traps in the pipework discharging water ( from condensate, etc,) They open and shut with a snap action, hence the "Pop".

LNWR - Long and Winding Road GWR - Gooch's Weird Relics

J13920; what was the line to the left?

It was Robert that died in 1848. His father outlived him