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LNWR Varsity Line


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On 28/10/2019 at 12:28, chris p bacon said:

What time period are you looking at for traffic ?

Wow!  So scope for some Michelines: railcars type 9, !! and 22. here in a special section in some detail

Plus the Coventry ones built as a collaboration between LMS, Michelin and Armstrong Siddeley - three seriously heavyweight names to conjure with.

One of these was even a "Picasso" with the driver perched up top to the side, sitting sideways on to the direction of travel. Simples!

dh

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Yes, the chap who attempted to teach me "electrical fitting" during the first year of my training was from Newport Pagnell, had trained at Wolverton Works, then been allocated at "travelling fitter" on the various diesel trials along the line, notably on the three-car set. The LMS always seem to have trusted diesel trains only to electrically-trained staff, allocating the big diesel locos to Stonebridge Park, so that the generating station staff were on hand!

 

Back to Verney Junction and GCR trains. This photo I am 99% certain shows an Aylesbury to VJ train, in splendid GCR form. http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/a/aylesbury/index3.shtml  A really "modellogenic" train if ever there was one.

 

The loco is a Class 12AM, converted from ex-MS&LR class 12AT in 1906, for PP working, and I think the coach is one of the 12-wheelers that MrB mentioned earlier.

 

Edited by Nearholmer
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7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

When you delve, it gets rather confusing, though, because it is anything but crystal clear that the MS&L was happy to be married to the Met. 
 

The connection between the GCR London Extension and the GWR via Akeman Street was partly about getting a route that avoided the steep, twisty and congested route into London via the Met, but also seems to have been a symptom of an incomplete meeting of minds between the Met and MS&L Boards - Watkin seems not to have had it all completely in his pocket.

 

Going to Verney Junction was a tactical error that turned into a waste of money, given that the GCR London Extension was routed a few miles to the west in the end.

Kevin,

 

Read the last chapter of the Chilterns and Cotswolds book.

 

You are right that the various Watkin railways were only held together by his stern rule - which worked till he suffered a stroke in 1894 and had to stand down from the MS&L board and the MET - he died in 1901(?). So the "later" alliance of the GCR and GWR and their 1910 junction at Ashendon makes a lot more sense - Watkin was long gone by then.

 

Regards

Chris H

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 15/11/2019 at 14:45, Regularity said:

HS2 strikes me as a reminder of the original ideas for the London and Birmingham, to follow a route through the Vale of Aylesbury, etc, not too dissimilar to the M40.

 

Maybe 200 years on, and we are still struggling to get that built?

Upgrade the Chiltern line? OOC to Snow Hill?

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As there is regular mention of Verney Junct.
Can I recommend the book 'Country Railwaymen' by A.E.Grigg. 
Published by David & Charles, 1985 - 89 (Three impressions).
A Notebook of Engine Drivers' Tales.
It's LNWR, but later period LMS/BR.  A nice book to read.

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Looking at the "Chained up and local sets allocated to the Northern division, 1912" apart from the commuter sets in the cities, which were 50ft stock,, and the inter city (liverpool-Leeds etc) sets all the sets are made up of 31ft and/or 32ft six wheelers, with the occasional single 42ft bogie carriage in amongst them. Very few 4 wheelers appeared outside S.Wales and London, and these were I think, just in Bolton area as singles in 6 wheeler sets, apart from a single set of six carriages for the Wigan workmen's train made up of ex North London 4 wheelers.
 

Edited by webbcompound
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What WebbCompound describes fits with my recollection of the photos in the great stack of books that I went through a few weeks ago: six-wheelers plus the odd shortish bogie carriage; rakes of bogie stock only on excursion/special trains direct from Euston. IIRC there were four-wheeled passenger-rated van in there though.

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