Sheffield

This was my first trial bar frame, awaiting the motor & gearbox, and finishing off. I now think they are easier to make than a plate frame

If SE owed £25 million to DaFT, why didn't DaFT notice they had not had it? if this issue is just imcompetence it exists on both sides. Daft like to micromanage the railways so perhaps they should have been more aware of what was happening.

A good job Highways England were not responsible for the maintenance of it.

I built one of these a little while ago, and enjoyed it. Not an easy kit, but an excellent one. But there is not so much fun in an easy kit is there?.

One of its advantages was that transmisison was made by BR, apart from gear cutting, and so more of the loco could be built in house. Using diesel electrics made a lot of BR's workshops redundant as so much had to be bought in. Although it was a success It was rather an unlucky loco. Quite a few locos had steam heat boiler fires, but few did as much damage. And also it suffered a major failure in the gearbox because of inadequate lubrication. But the place where this failure happened caused major delays to other traffic, and more serious damage was done trying to move the loco clear. Had it chanced to happen elsewhere there may have been less damage.

Just bear in mind that mice leave a trail of pee behind as they walk about. They contaminate any surface they run on and can carry some not nice illnesses.

A little while ago I was reading of the protests made about the building of the first Birmingham London railway, with many people saying it was unecessary and damaging to the enviroment, although they did not use that word so freely then. Can we say now that they were right and the railway was unecessary? Or have they been proved wrong? We could probably say something similar about the M1 as well. Perhaps people who need to travel between those two cities should be happy with a couple of days on the top of a stage coach.

While clearly there are two sides to this question, it does seem the Highways England are abusing their powers to push this programme through. Before such structures are destroyed there should be an opportunity for those who have an interest to discuss and review the situation. There does seem to be a hint of the 1960s, with the haste to remove closed railways to prevent any chance of re-opening, especially as the Government was recently talking of such reopenings.

It seems the old Department of (Road) Transport's dislike of railways is alive and well. Interesting this move to destroy the remaining items from the closed railways has appeared just as the Government was talking about reopening closed lines. Is this a rush to make sure it can not happen?

The Heilmann steam electric locos are considered by some to be the predecessor of the present diesel electrics. A steam boiler using bio-fuels to power a steam engine driving a generator could be the eco-green power unit the railways need. Back to steam locos, but not as we know them.

Cheques are still fairly common in France. I used them quite often.

When this covid business began early in the year I felt it would end in tears.

As I said, the last loco built for BR to use in mormal service was a 9F; the design may have been older than that D of G or the MN rebulds, but a 9F was the last built. Pleasing that the last built was, all round, one of the best.

I have a Safety Minor, smaller relative of the Powermaster with the same variable transformer arrangement. Excellent unit and I am still useing it.

Right from thestart of the industrial revolution there has been pressure to take the skill out of the man and put it in the machine. It allows a lower skilled man, who is cheaper and less able to demand higher pay, to become able to do the job. This is just another step on this path.

Thank you. This is excellent.

It is pleasing to think that the last main line loco design built for use in the UK was also probably one of the best. Steam went out on a good note.

Although these were photographed a few weeks ago on a standard gauge line, now disued, they show the arrangement. Some at least of the fishplates were L angles, drilled to take fixing screws. Almost all of the screws had the figure 3 on their head, with a few 13. In a few places where the screw had lost its grip a casting had been fitted.

Thge Guild has recently had a virtual show, and very good it was too. Slowly things seem to be getting a bit better with the Guild.

When the bridge was taken down it was reported that some of the spans were to go to Chile for reuse. Do we know if this happened?

Many thanks ofr all your efforts. I did find option 1 very helpful, and liked that format

Indeed. Last year i had to go from Western france into Poland. In terms of total journey time and cost it took the same time and very little more money to travel by train as by plane, including first class across Germany. And a lot more interesting.

If it was pre WW1 they would be waering hats, so 1920's seems more likely.

I have found Royal Mail tracking "service" to be useless, and their customer care worse. If they were bad as a publically owned organisation they are very much worse as a privately owned one.

I went to Kibworth, a little further along the Midland Mainline. The playground was surrounded on three sides by classrooms and the dining room, and the forth side by the railway. Lean over the fence and almost touch a train on the down loop.