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Some thoughts about the railway


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The brakes can be applied from the rear cab without a key, and other things could be played around with such as the AWS etc, but if someone cannot be trusted to be left alone in the rear whilst doing a run round/shunt then they shouldn't be on the foot plate at all! 

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20190920-154322.JPG.d6dea414eb16029c4ebeba39be20e85a.JPG

 

Here is a snapshot from a video I took a few years ago at the KWVR diesel gala. There are three more people not in view, the driver of the class 37, the one coupling up and another behind me.

 

Add your own captions if you like.

 

Peter

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7 hours ago, 101 said:

The brakes can be applied from the rear cab without a key, and other things could be played around with such as the AWS etc, but if someone cannot be trusted to be left alone in the rear whilst doing a run round/shunt then they shouldn't be on the foot plate at all! 

Both 'straight air' loco brakes and the train brakes can be operated without the key, as can the handbrake.  The power handle can be operated without the key, but only with the selector in the 'engine only' position, for the use of maintenance staff; the loco cannot be driven without the key.  It can be moved, however, with the handbrake and straight air released, by gravity or another loco.  When guards were required to ride in the rear cab on fully fitted freight and parcels trains, they were to sit on the secondman's side, so that they could handsignal the driver at the opposite end of the loco on the same side.  We normally communicated using the fire alarm bell test button using the dmu code; this button is on the secondman's side.

Edited by The Johnster
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A question for any drivers out there.

 

Have you ever met a steam hauled train on the main line? If so, what did you think at the time?

Was it “I wish I was driving that instead of this”, or was it “I'm glad I am in this nice modern loco/train instead of of that old draughty one”.

 

Peter

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  • 1 month later...

A friend who gave me his photos taken in the 60`s and which I posted here some time back has given me another file containing photos with dates ranging from pre-grouping times to BR days.

Some of them have the date and location in the title and a few are official works photos, but none have the photographers details.

 

Would you like me to post them on here?

 

Here are two examples.

 

CaledonianRy79atCarlisle.jpg.602707f145626f920a3fbdc66e1960a2.jpg

 

GNR547in1905.jpg.a8dccba25a6223806813db88418307d6.jpg

 

Peter

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On 23/09/2019 at 14:11, RRU said:

A question for any drivers out there.

 

Have you ever met a steam hauled train on the main line? If so, what did you think at the time?

Was it “I wish I was driving that instead of this”, or was it “I'm glad I am in this nice modern loco/train instead of of that old draughty one”.

 

Peter

 

Seen quite a few in recent years, Flying Scotsman, Union Of South Africa, a few Black 5s, Britannia, Bahamas, Royal Scot, Duchess Of Sutherland etc, often as not crewed by blokes I used to work with. My reaction usually depends on how my day is going (or likely to go), I wouldn't mind having a go at firing and driving a steam loco but not everyday. I've been close by when Duchess Of Sutherland failed at Rugby with my mates on it, their faces said it all, as did their language.

 

As much as I love to see steam on the mainline, if by chance I was out somewhere and Western Champion came growling past on the adjacent line at 90mph, I'd probably be in need of a clean pair of trousers!

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Here is the first batch. Please add a comment if you have any more info on any of the photo`s

 

16534052_GlasgowSWRy710atTurnberry.jpg.86268387b7839c2f7489af74d8bb562f.jpg

 

1) G&SWR no. 710 at Turnberry

 

GNR1atCambridge8-24-38.jpg.1107cf393631736fe8a7ecf7cdd24f08.jpg

 

2) GNR no.1 at Cambridge 8-24-38

 

GNR547in1905.jpg.dafa47ec5287185b230bc9ef23ea0415.jpg

 

3) GNR no. 547 in 1905

 

GNR990.jpg.5b8cb1d93ac2bbe54d4bb60af19ae2d3.jpg

 

4) GNR no. 990

 

39126879_GNR990(2).jpg.23a2acc2f197a22500a95c4d05fd8873.jpg

 

5) GNR no. 990 double heading with another Atlantic.

 

GNR1664.jpg.c191e663c11d25a54ce591fbb01544df.jpg

 

6) GNR no. 1664

 

Peter

 

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I have started a new topic for these photos with a title that better describes the content.

 

So as they say on TV, switch over now so as not to miss anything.

 

Peter

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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So yesterday it was a trip to Portsmouth for an OFs' Christmas meal with fellow members of the SR&WR Controllers Group (Retired), and of course it was an RMT 'let's have a month off' day.  But fear not there are ways round that little hurdle and SWR had put up some very clear and useful information showing what they would be running lest Plan A happened to go wrong.  South from Reading Plan A involved taking the 06.43 Nottinghom - Bomo and changing to a GWR Portsmouth train at Southampton Central.  However before I left home a check on RTT had revealed that the Nottingham was 21 late off New St (points failure according to later info at Reading) and I had a 21 minute connection at Southampton, oops.

 

Watching a staff information screen at Reading showed the train had caught up some time and was at one stage down to 16 late but it then proceed to lose it again and was actually overtaken by the 06.22 York - Soton which was due to leave Reading 28 minutes behind the Nottingham; the York ran into Reading a couple of minutes late.  However as Plan A was well and truly demolished I joined the York which left c.3 minutes late following the by then very late Nottingham, despite being well in front of it arriving at Reading.  But the York was not only much emptier because almost everyone had gone for the other train but it still suited Plan B.  And Plan B worked exactly as it should - change at Winchester onto an SWR Basingstoke - Portsmouth Hbr train which ran on time although I was 26 minutes late arriving at the pub (on The Hard at Pompey so only a few minutes walk from the station.

 

Return journey was planned as SWR to Winchester changing there to XC and that worked exactly to plan with the added advantage that the S XC train ran to Platform 12 at Reading delivering me a cross platform change to board a GWR 387 to travel on eastwards.

 

Cold weather has clearly n been having an impact as a number of trains, particularly SWR's were a bit grubby on the outside (but excellent within)

 

And I even got to see a very pretty diesel through the train window at Eastleigh - that should give the model manufacturers a nice challenge

 

1394703631_DSCF1021copyadjcr.jpg.f359a4fe3173748084f1a140a94726fe.jpg

 

 

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On 03/12/2019 at 12:32, The Stationmaster said:

Cold weather has clearly n been having an impact as a number of trains, particularly SWR's were a bit grubby on the outside (but excellent within)

 

 

 

The exteriors of the 450/444 fleet have been grubby for a while so not convinced it's the cold weather.  The Wimbledon based fleets by contrast over the same period have been noticeably much cleaner.

Edited by DY444
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