TravisM

I know freight over the S&C has declined recently but I was wondering what the current state of play is now. I tried looking on several websites but I couldn't find much apart from the advertised passenger trains, steam specials and the ballast train to and from Ribblehead virtual quarry. Could anyone got a timetable or something similar of booked freight workings if there are any? Thanks

I was at Peterborough station earlier today and got to see 800103 in plain white livery as it trundled south towards Kings Cross. Later on, both 800101 in the Virgin livery and 800103 thundered north back to Doncaster. People complained the the Hornby model had bogie issues but I can say that 811103, it will have to visit the wheel lathe as it had some terrible flats as it went north at high speed . The Virgin liveried 800 looked impressive as it went past, shame that Hornby only produced the two driving ends as I'm sure I would have splashed out and bought the whole train if it had been available.

70012 was repaired and is being used as the plant switcher at Erie, PA. It's not being allowed back into the UK and onto the mainline as it was inspected by insurers and though mostly repaired, the damage to the frame couldn't to be fully eradicated and therefore banned from Network Rail. I was talking to a driver from Freightliner at Peterborough recently and it would seem that FL are prepared to dispose of their Class 70's to Colas because they have not delivered the economics promised and ongoing issues with the turbo's when worked hard. I believe Colas's Class 70's aren't worked as hard as Freightliner's and therefore should last longer but there still is the current issue of exploding turbo's.

Try Real Time trains as I've found it quite good in the past though you need to look the day before for timings. http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/

This is hardly a surprise as those in the know have been talking about a major rebranding and livery change since Genesee & Wyoming's acquisition of Freightliner. G&W have always reliveried their assets within a few years and it's a shame that it clashes with Colas, but as modellers and railfans, we'll get over it I'm also glad that I've only got the one Freightliner loco which just happens to be green

I think if the OP is talking about modelling a LMS or BR Midland Region branch line, he really wouldn't go far wrong in using either a 0-6-0T 3F "Jinty" or a Ivatt 2-6-2T. I believe in the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle, so have a quick check and see what was the usual power on branch lines in the proximity of the area you want to model and be guided by that.

As it's close to where I live, I was wondering what the workings were are now going in and out of Ketton cement plant. Are they regular and routed via Peterborough or Melton Mowbray?

I would like to model HST Trailer Kitchen Buffet First (TFKB) 40805 along with the rest of the train which I recently saw at Peterborough. I want to model it with all the "Visit Hull" vinyls but I'm getting a little confused as there seems to be a difference between the two types of kitchen/buffet types used on Virgin East Coast. I'm planning to use the latest offering of a buffet from Hornby but am I better off using a slightly earlier version which still has the NEM coupler pockets and modifying that? I am aware that the vinyls on the other side are different but I never got a chance to cross the platform to take a picture of them before it departed.

Cool, I did a Flickr check but couldn't find it so pleased to see that it did exist. Does anyone have it's history?

I thought most parcel vans were in common user pool and could be put into any "circuit" as required.

I recently bought a Wabtec Hornby 0-4-0 Sentinel Diesel loco and I've been trying to find photo's of a prototype loco in that livery but I can't find any. Does anyone have any or is it a fictitious livery?

You also have to remember that the C&O and especially N&W were huge coal hauling railroads and it seemed sensible to them at the time to use cheap, readily available coal to fuel their next generation locomotives, no matter how bizarre they were. N&W were probably the last class 1 railroad to abandon steam in the US in 1961 (very late for US steam as most had gone by the mid 50's) as more and more EMD GP9's were delivered.

That's ten more than the real thing. The ACE 3000 was doomed before it ever got off the drawing board as it never overcame the inherent problems of steam loco's, no matter how modern technology got. Rotating masses, hammer blow, turn round and servicing between runs, boiler washouts and that new thing for the 80's, emissions, all the things that were common with steam just could not be removed from the design.

Not sure what happened but the photo's didn't get posted in the order I attached them

I asked the question earlier as never seen a Class 68, let alone a Class 88 at Peterborough before and low and behold, two turn up on a Norwich - Carlisle excursion, complete with a lovely turned out blue and grey set of Mk1 and Mk 2F's, plus a manky city fox looking on. Shame I had to get up at stupid o'clock to see it. The full line up was 68001 "Evolution" Mk 2F FO - M3390 Mk 2F FO - W3397 Mk 1 Kitchen Buffet Unclassified - M1657 Mk 2F FO - W3386 Mk 2F FO - M3345 Mk 2F FO - M3333 Mk 2F Buffet First - M1200 Mk 2F SO - M6067 Mk 2F SO - M6051 Mk 2F SO - M5961 Mk 2F BSO - M9526 68023 "Achilles"

10000 was offered to the fledgling national railway museum collection but rejected as they were concentrating on steam. The Lickey banker was put aside for preservation but later scraped though it's rumoured a cylinder was saved but since disappeared, so I think that's urban myth.

Everyone seems to think this is some kind of disaster and that Tornado will be out of action for months but I spoke to someone at the Nene Valley earlier today and it would seem that the initial damage was bad, it wasn't as bad as first feared. He also pointed out that a number of valve gear spares were cast at the same as those used at the time the middle cylinder valve gear came apart, so using those will help get it back up and running pretty quickly.

Probably more often than we realise and doubtful if ever reported outside the shed masters.

Since the demise of Cotswold Rail, I've wondered what's happened to their Class 08's? Did they go the same way as their Class 47's or are they still about? If they are, are they still painted in CR's livery or something else now?

Genuinely sorry to hear about Tornado's mishap but what we all have to remember is that anything mechanical, will go wrong eventually no matter how carefully it's maintained. People are saying that it's "only" 9 years old but how many people would drive their 9-10 year old cars at 75 or 90 mph towing a heavy trailer and not expect something to fall off? I expect Tornado is maintained to a very high standard and meets Network Rail's very stringent criteria to run on their lines so this event, though dramatic will probably not stop her coming back onto the main line. Remember 60532 Blue Peter's catastrophic uncontrolled wheelslip at Durham in 1994 and though that was caused by a inexperienced crew rather than mechanical failure, she was allowed to return to the mainline.

With Dapol announcing that they plan to release models of Foster Yeoman's JHA hopper, I wondered what their current sphere of operations are and do they run in fixed rakes such as a outer, four inner's and another outer? Or do they put a random number of inner's in between a pair of outer's? When I worked at Westbury, I saw these on a daily basis and now there is the possibility to model them, I just hope they do the Class 59 to go with them.

From what I remember reading previously, the 10 Class 71's that were used for the rebuild into Class 74's were in the worst condition of the original 24 and were in dire need of rebuilding anyway; and the remaining 14 were renumbered back into the original E5000 series rather than leaving gaps in the numbers. I also recall that Crewe works had issues rebuilding them, took longer than planned and the build quality was questionable. Also there were issues with the Paxman engines, electronics which others mentioned. I think the overall plan was to see if the first batch were successful, was to rebuild the rest but with traffic falling especially coal and ferry traffic on the eastern section and boat traffic on the western, the Southern Region found itself with plenty of surplus Class 33's and 73's, so both classes were withdrawn.

Is there a track plan available?

From talking to former engine men when I worked at Westbury, they were simple builds and fine in summer but a nightmare in winter. I remember standing on the south end of Westbury platform during the winter and feeling that the wind was trying to cut through my legs.

Saw the same working yesterday but it had a TDA bogie tanker included in with the TTA's The train consisted of; Freightliner 66593 TDA VTG 86946 TTA VTG 60861 TTA VTG 60883 TTA VTG 60884 TTA VTG 60866 TTA VTG 60862 I thought this might be of interest to those who might want to model this flow.