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Mike_Walker

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Posts posted by Mike_Walker

  1. I really like that shot of 165125 passing Little Marlow at what is officially Vineyard No.2 Crossing and almost in my back yard.  I was at Swanage at the time where it was much less sunny!

     

    The road in the photo stitch is the former track bed to High Wycombe and is one of several such developments that have replaced the old route which makes reopening well nigh impossible.

     

    No issues with shadows at Marlow now.  The row of overgrown and neglected conifers were felled last week much to the disgust of the local residents.

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  2. Another useful shop is closing down.  Collectables R Us in High Wycombe citing the usual complaints of rising rent and service charges along with hassle from their landlord, reduced footfall and spend despite being in a prime location in the town's main shopping arcade, and a steady rise in shoplifting which the police seem completely unwilling to do anything about.

     

    They will continue on line and are actively looking for an alternative location within the town.  Fingers crossed they are successful - for one thing, they always had the best stock of Humbrol both acrylics and enamels of anywhere I know.

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  3. I always thought that T24 signal at Truro was a prime example of over-engineering.  It was installed at the time of the Falmouth branch upgrade to allow Down trains to depart from the Up platform.  In the good old days it would have been a simple post but not today.  Note the substantial square post and platform, with railings, from which the signal sprouts on a traditional 4" post.  I was told this was required by modern standards so that the arm and spectacle lenses could be cleaned safely.  

     

    In my book it is only surpassed by the replacement of CJ13 at Shrewsbury where a simple but rotting LNWR timber post was replaced by an enormous bracket structure which looks like it could support the weight of a battleship and even the signal post is actually two 4" posts fishplated together!

     

    D-BR-414_CJ13Shrewsbury21-9-08.jpg.fd4fe6ea30a90ff9a46d44c67ac23862.jpg

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  4. 15 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

    As I've often bored everyone before said in my many many posts in this and other Wessex related threads - NR are riding their luck in Wessex with bankslips, trees and this latest type of thing, etc, etc - they've got lucky YET AGAIN with a high-speed derailment that probably didn't get messy as there was no intervening S&C and the adjacent platform may have "helped" and as MW said above the conductor "check" rail effect - (I understand 100+ insulators destroyed - small price to pay) BUT It is only a matter of time and probability before there is a serious incident in this area...............................

     

    However, I hope the result this time won't be like the Western Route with the Route Director washing their hands resigning and someone from the DLR being employed as their replacement to "fix" it with soundbites 🙄

    It's not just on the Wessex route but across the entire network.  Here on the Western, senior TOC managers tell me they lie awake at night dreading the prospect of a major incident such as another Hatfield which they are powerless to prevent but is, and I quote: "Long overdue and likely to happen at any moment."

     

    Landslips, falling trees, failing and badly maintained signalling, crumbling bridges and multiple broken rails (another yesterday on the GWML) are all the result of Network Rail's failure either due to incompetence and/or a lack of investment due to Treasury cutbacks.

     

    When it happens, and it will, don't blame the train operator but NR or more correctly the government.

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  5. It does, at present these are non-public "ghost" trips replicating the service conditions using 230001.  Once they have proved reliability, passenger trips will commence.  The cancellations last week were due to the unit being attacked by the local scum bags requiring GWR to clean off all the unwanted additional "livery".  Unlike sHitachi who leave it on IETs for weeks even if it is highly offensive.

  6. On 01/03/2024 at 21:05, EmporiaSub said:

    Not going well on the island, though SWR are being vague about the issues.

    Staff say there’s issues with the wheels…..

     

    According to a senior SWR manager on Monday, the issue is with unexpectedly heavy wheel wear which requires several wheel sets to be replaced.  The reasons causing this are unknown but are being urgently investigated by specialist engineers.

     

  7. On 12/02/2024 at 05:41, Darius43 said:

    There’s an awful lot of boilerplate padding in these reports.  Section 4.1 on the implications on actually constructing the new route, i.e. knocking down buildings and actually realigning away from the original route is particularly short considering the acres of pages devoted to non specific statistics.

     

    I followed the route on Google Maps and the thing that struck me was the extent to which the trackbed has been built over.  Took three minutes to form the conclusion that this project is a non-starter.

     

    The cost section also illustrates why this is extremely unlikely to happen.

     

    Still, that’s more public money for Atkins to produce a spectacularly padded-out report rather than spent for the direct benefit of the Council’s constituents.

     

    Cheers

     

    Darius

    Couldn't agree more.  Although there are a small number of locals who make a lot of noise over this it is never going to happen simply too much of the original track bed has been lost.  Also, Wycombe District Council is no more having been replaced by the new unitary Council for  Buckinghamshire which displays little interest in transport matters particularly public transport.

     

    The tragedy is that the line was closed in the first place.  It was deliberately run down by BR who first divided the Maidenhead - HW service into two at Bourne End forcing through passengers to change trains then recasting the timetable to make this impossible without very long waits so patronage collapsed and closure was "justified".  It was indications that a similar policy was being imposed on the remaining Maidenhead - Marlow section that led to the formation of the MMPA which successfully fought to turn the line's fortunes around.

     

    Incidentally, one member of the MMPA committee around 1980 was quite youthful (still at school) who went on to carve quite a name for himself in the industry which is why it is said today that the Marlow Branch is the most important part of the GWR network.  After all, the trains show the "route number" 01 on the front!

     

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  8. 13 hours ago, Artless Bodger said:

    Interesting, I remember the locos on the Enterprise in Belfast Central station making a similar racket  - I think they were a version of EMD loco (similar to a 59?) - you couldn't hear the station announcements and even the Thumpers couldn't compete.

    Exactly so.  

     

    Some of the later EMDs such as Boston's F40PH-3Cs had an extended car body to house a small engine that drove the HEP alternator and allowed the main engine to be idled at rest.  Some commuter rail agencies later had their standard F40PHs rebuilt in a similar fashion.

     

    Incidentally, in the US and Canada it is the norm to leave EMD power units running continuously.  I asked a LIRR Engineer friend why this was and he told me that it was because you might not get it to start again.  After initial laughter and taking it as a joke he went on to explain that being a 2-stroke; if it stopped in a certain position it was very difficult to crank the engine over to restart it.  I don't know if it is still the case but the Western Sectional Appendix contained an instruction that diesel locomotives were to be shut down if they were to be stationary at Paddington for any length of time but classes 57, 59, 66 and 67 were specifically exempted from the requirement although no reason was given.  I assumed it was related to what I'd been told.

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  9. 37 minutes ago, 31A said:

     

    Is the difference that the 68s when coupled to the Mk5 coaches need to be left running, to provide power to the coaches, and can't be shut down?  That was the case with the way Trans Pennine used them; it has been explained that there was a technical reason why they couldn't be shut down but I can't remember the details at the moment.  The noise certainly was deafening if you were on the platform at Scarborough and a 68 was under the train shed roof, or when one was standing in Platform 2 at York station; it was impossible to hold a conversation over a pint in The Tap pub on the station!  I shouldn't think they'd have been very popular in the station hotel either.  I'm not very familiar with 67s, but doubt they would be as loud as 68s.

    Oh but they are!  One issue with EMD locos fitted with what they call HEP (Head End Power) is that the prime mover has to run at practically full power to supply the train.  Both classes need to be kept running overnight to keep the trains' a/c and lighting working unless a suitable shore supply can be arranged.

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  10. 14 hours ago, simon b said:

     

    Thanks, since the idea was first mentioned I hadn't heard anymore about it. Interesting they want to use Euston rather than Marylebone, it's debatable which has any free capacity. Getting rid of the third roof span and it's platforms at Marylebone was a bit short sighted, in view of the lack of platform space it now has.

    Euston is a far more logical London terminal than Marylebone for a Wrexham service allowing a much shorter overall journey time and better connections.  The first incarnation of W&S was forced to use Marylebone not because of its association with Chiltern but because of the unique clauses in Virgin's West Coast franchise contract that protected them from any open access competition being allowed on the WCML,  W&S weren't even allowed to pick up or set down at Wolverhampton in the London direction.  It was the resulting tortuous routing and extended journey times that played a major role in discouraging patronage leading to its failure.

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  11. 8 hours ago, Hesperus said:

     

    And there was me wondering if the Chiltern 68s might be replaced by 67s if the quieter exhaust modification didn't work.

    What I don't understand about all this noise kerfuffle is that Chiltern used to get regular complaints from those living around Stourbridge Jct LMD about the noise levels of the 67s so before finalising the switch to 68s, 68002 was taken there and left running all night getting the thumbs up as a great improvement from the locals and, as far as I know, they haven't changed that view since.  So why all the fuss?  It seems to have originated with the good folk of Scarborough.

     

    You can't really take too seriously the views of those who live in the flats overlooking looking the Marylebone throat.  When they first moved in they were aghast to find a working railway outside their windows and threatened legal action to attempt to get it closed.  Dear old Adrian Shooter famously pointed out to them that Marylebone had been there since 1899 and if they hadn't spotted it when purchasing their posh new flats then tough.  Never heard anymore from them - until recently!

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  12. 25 minutes ago, 25901 said:

    Chilterns 68's are fiited with AAR and DRS ones aren't and as the mk3 look like their going to be kept for at least 18 months and DRS are short of locos now (ar@e kicking given on the use of zero houred 37 the other day) there is some fighting over locos due, but at the end of the day they are DRSs

    Why don't Chiltern just buy their own new stock and stop going round with cap in hand.

    I'm still not convinced this is more than enthusiast wibble.  If you read Chiltern's ITT for replacement stock you will find it expressly requires any winning bid to provide an otion that is quieter than a Class 68 which appears to rule those out with either Mk3 or Mk5 stock.

     

    Chiltern cannot "just buy their own new stock".  Like all the former franchised TOCs they are now under management contracts from the DfT where everything is tightly controlled - you even have to get approval to order a consignment of bog rolls!  So any chance of any operator (apart from the OA companies) doing their own thing is for the fairies.  

     

    I'm hearing that Mr Hunt is planning to cut a further £1 BILLION a year from the rail budget next year to fund tax cuts.  This will mean more trains going into store, service cuts and shorter formations of those that still run.  The blunt truth is: this government aided by the civil service is basically anti-railway.

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  13. 12 hours ago, ModRXsouth said:

    I am thinking of attending RISEX on Saturday. First time to this show but looking into the travel time and costs by car or rail from Surrey, so can anyone please clarify the parking costs at the venue? The car park does not look very big in Google maps so are there restrictions in local roads?
    Also could anyone provide the name of the Polish layout as it was unclear in the RDMRC’s video. Thanks for any help to encourage a new attendee!

    As David says, reasonable up to a maximum of £3.60 for 12 hours.

    Full details of charges etc. https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-transport/parking/find-a-council-car-park/the-mount-car-park/ 

    Tesco maximum stay appears to be 2 hours.

  14. 13 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

    I am watching the progress of 1C92 tonight.  Normally it would be 1C90 an hour earlier but Dr. SWMBO was obliged to travel later tonight.  

     

    The progress is depressingly familiar.  Steadily losing time.  This is a 9-car set which I am told is moderately loaded.  Dr. SWMBO would have no idea whether any engines were out.  

     

    Screenshot2024-02-08at21_15_07.png.7ceea78f563df71ace0a63e8b8cbc7c8.png

     

    Dr SWMBO was indeed lucky.  The Up line was closed at South Brent at 21:20 last night and the Down at 21:50 due to flooding.  Seems the river rose very quickly raising concerns for the bridge once again.

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