JAMIE'S RANDOM UK RAILWAY PICTURES

sir douglas · December 12, 2020

in the last one, is the entire track bed 1 whole concrete bed that the chairs a bolted to?

pH · December 12, 2020

Still seems funny to see those two extra platforms where the car parking used to be between 11 and what were 12 and 13, and are now 14 and 15.

jamie92208 · December 12, 2020

48 minutes ago, sir douglas said:

in the last one, is the entire track bed 1 whole concrete bed that the chairs a bolted to?

It looks like it. I seem to remember that when they were installed clearances were rather tight so the concrete slab helps keep it all in the rights place. However I may well be wrong.

Jamie

keefer · December 12, 2020

The test coach with the 37s will be MENTOR (well, was - not named now) - first converted in the '70s, it was refitted a few years ago as part of NR's Yellow fleet:

https://www.departmentals.com/departmental/975091

jamie92208 · December 13, 2020

Good evening again. I've now re read my notes and we were in Glasgow to ride the recently reopened Airdrie to Bathgate line so to get to Glasgow some now trackage from Bathgate to what must be one of the most misnamed stations in the UK, namely Coatbridge Sunnyside, it ties in first place with Sheffield Brightside. Anyway here are some more pictures, the date still the 29th March 2011. The NMT headed south.

And headed out towards Polmadie.

Then the 37's headed out with Mentor between them.] making a fine sound.

Only to reappear heading back into a different platform. 37059 leading.

Then a very new looking 380 104.

Jamie

beast66606 · December 13, 2020

On 11/12/2020 at 17:25, jamie92208 said:

Then another 66 in the shortlived Fastline livery. Big Jim would probably recognise it. I believe that they went under when Jarvis collapsed.

Jamie

March 2010 - the loco in your photo is already carrying it's DRS number of 66434

jamie92208 · December 14, 2020

Good evening again. We are still in 2011. It's a sunny day on the 12th April and I'm at Hellifield, probably on my way back from a research trip to Lancaster. A Colas 66 is waiting to head south with a log train.

And another shot with the lovely platform canopies as well. Just a pity the forest on the right is no longer the busy coaling stage that I remember.

Now we move on to the 26th July and a trip to East London to knock off a stretch of track from Copper Mill Junction. A 379 heading south the Liverpool Street.

Next 3rd November Keith and I are on a West Midlands rover ticket and stopped at Stourbridge junction to sample a class 139.

Then onwards to see some new 172's, these are somewhere south of Tyseley.

1

That's it for tonight.

Jamie

Chris116 · December 14, 2020

14 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Then onwards to see some new 172's, these are somewhere south of Tyseley.

That's it for tonight.

Jamie

That looks like Stourbridge Junction to me.

jamie92208 · December 15, 2020

Good evening again. We now move on to 2012. Quite why we were somewhere on the West Coast Main line on 18th May I have no recollection. I am fairly sure that it's the slow lines at Bletchley with the now removed sections of the flyover in the background as a 350/2 heads north.

To be followed by a 70.

Then a visit to Butterley on 5th June to look at the remains of the Midland Pullman coach and also this MR horse box as I have a part built kit of one.

We then headed for Bournemouth and on the 11th June took a train to Lymington Pier.

Quite why an electrified branch line is operated by a DMU I have no idea but it must make sense to someone somewhere.

There we waited for a ferry to take us over the Yarmouth.

More tomorrow all being well.

Jamie

Pannier Tank · December 15, 2020

11 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good evening again. We now move on to 2012. Quite why we were somewhere on the West Coast Main line on 18th May I have no recollection. I am fairly sure that it's the slow lines at Bletchley with the now removed sections of the flyover in the background as a 350/2 heads north.

To be followed by a 70.

Indeed, both trains are on the Down Slow at Bletchley.

jamie92208 · December 16, 2020

Following on from yesterdays pictures we were met at Yarmouth by one of Beth's old schoolfriends. After a tour of the south of the island and some lunch the girls let Graham and I off the leash to travel on the Island line. We got on at Shanklin and rode up to Ryde St John's where we got off to have a look round. Quite a bit of stock was parked outside the depot.

Very dated look, not surprising considering their age.

Then the next train came in and took us up to the Pier head.

Looking back towards the island with the remains of the pier tramway on the right. I believe that one of the vehicles from that is being restored somewhere.

Then back down to Shanklin.

A real experience to ride on. My first ever visit to the Island and I managed to identify all the stock. A complete class in a day. All due to change this winter, I'll have to go over again if we get to Bournemouth next year.

Jamie

Davexoc · December 16, 2020

On 15/12/2020 at 19:26, jamie92208 said:

We then headed for Bournemouth and on the 11th June took a train to Lymington Pier.

Quite why an electrified branch line is operated by a DMU I have no idea but it must make sense to someone somewhere.

There we waited for a ferry to take us over the Yarmouth.

The line was the last bastion for slam-door EMUs, but when they had to go SWT couldn't warrant tying up an expensive EMU for the lightly loaded branch, and so resorted to a 158.

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

A real experience to ride on. My first ever visit to the Island and I managed to identify all the stock. A complete class in a day. All due to change this winter, I'll have to go over again if we get to Bournemouth next year.

I did much the same as a teenager in the late 70s but it was 4-VEC and 3-TIS stock then. It was a sunny day and we got sunburnt walking from Shanklin to Ventnor to go on a fake ice-rink (white plastic tiles).

I do wonder how we caught the bus to Portsmouth Harbour, took the old slow boat to Ryde, caught a train to Shanklin, walked to Ventnor and then a bus back to Shanklin to return train, boat and bus back to Pompey in those days without a mobile phone or the internet........

jamie92208 · December 16, 2020

8 minutes ago, Davexoc said:

The line was the last bastion for slam-door EMUs, but when they had to go SWT couldn't warrant tying up an expensive EMU for the lightly loaded branch, and so resorted to a 158.

I did much the same as a teenager in the late 70s but it was 4-VEC and 3-TIS stock then. It was a sunny day and we got sunburnt walking from Shanklin to Ventnor to go on a fake ice-rink (white plastic tiles).

I do wonder how we caught the bus to Portsmouth Harbour, took the old slow boat to Ryde, caught a train to Shanklin, walked to Ventnor and then a bus back to Shanklin to return train, boat and bus back to Pompey in those days without a mobile phone or the internet........

Yes, I wonder that as well when I looked back on some of the pictures I posted from the 70's. It wasn't a bad day for us from Bournemouth with a nice meal as we walked back to our timeshare from the station. 6 train rides, 2 ferry trips and a tour of the island by car. Thanks for the info about the 158.

Jamie

jamie92208 · December 19, 2020

Still in Bournemouth. after our Isle of Wight trip the boss allowed me out for the day to do a circular trip to Weymouth Castle Cary, Salisbury and Southampton which helped me tick off and Yeovil, which will the Isle of Wight two days earlier helped me tick off 4 pages in the rail atlas. 75 complete by then.

First we are at Bournemouth Central as a 444 arrives from Weymouth

Then couple up to a sister unit before setting off to London.1

Then off to Weymouth with an interesting piece of railway procedure en route. A pilotman came on board near Dorchester. Though he was in overall orange rather than a big black mac, the armband he wore was the same as one I hd seen on the footplate of 92208 as we approached Settle in 1966 as there was single line working from there to Settle Junction due to bridge works. Some things change others don't. Then I had enough time in Weymouth to explore the tramway. This is the final bits on NR land, I wonder how long it was since that signal had signalled a move.

Then in the opposite direction. I presume that these have all been ripped up by now.

Then back to the station to wait for the train to Castle Cary.

Jamie

enginelane · December 19, 2020

Tracks pulled up earlier this month along a large section of the quay

jamie92208 · December 20, 2020

A few more this afternoon. First off my transport to Castle Cary arrived, a 150/2. I first saw these on the Trans Pennine route.

Then we move on to 25th July . As I may have mentioned I started helping to restore the last Leeds Horse tram in 2005. By 2012 we had outgrown the shed that we were working in and needed to add the upper deck seats and the running gear. Fortunately the Middleton railway generously offered us workshop space so after building the running gear in another garage on site and jacking up the main garage door, so that we could get the tram body out we moved it down to Middleton. This is what we had started with in 2005. Here it is prepared for rescue by the Leeds Transport Historical Society (LTHS) in 1975

It had actually been used as a home by a bombed out young couple during WW2.

Here it is ready to emerge from the garage ready for transport to Middleton.

Then it was lifted

and then set off =down York Road, moving rather faster then when it had been horse drawn.

It had been brought up there in 1975 and Jim Soper had got a photo of it.

The driver had never seen the photo and commented that he thought that the steering was a little light.

Anyway on a rainy day 37 years later it went in the opposite direction.

When we got to Middleton the Middleton's travelling crane lifted it onto an accomodation trolley.

1And it was towed up between the Engine House and the loco shed rather appropriately on the trackbed of the former Mifddleton Light Railway tram track.

The loco was a former Sentinel steam loco converted to diesel.

Then it was pushed back into the Engine House.

More tomorrow.

Jamie

jamie92208 · December 22, 2020

Some more today. A week after we moved the tram body we needed to move the running gear and then mate the two sub assemblies together, all in day. During the intervening week I had been down to bore some holes in the solebars out from half to five eighths inch as we hadn't been able to measure the original bolts correctly and then couldn't drill the solebars for clearance reasons. Anyway the following Saturday we turned up at Halton to get the running gear down a rather steep drive ready for the crane lorry to arrive. We only had three 5' lengths of portable track so gradually lowered it down using a block and tackle anchored to our chief carpenter's tow ball.

1

The running gear had been assembled using the original underframe, reinforced by part of the old Long Preston Fiddle Yard boards, as a jig. All the parts had been designed and sourced from scratch by the team. With several moves of rail, and the anchor vehicle we got safely down the drive.

The lorry turned up and lifted it on.

Then down to Hunslet where it was lifted onto the rails of the Middleton Railway.

It was then pushed up to the Engine house, going very carefully through the pointwork as the wheel profiles are rather different.

The old underframe was then removed and put to one side leaving a rather fragile looking set of running gear.

The body was then lifted and lowered carefully onto the running gear. My late friend Tony Bon was inside the bodywork with instructions to slap a nut onto any bolt that appeared through the solebars.

Finally the body was united with it's running gear and was then pushed back into the Engine House.

It was with great satisfaction that we found that it rolled, very easily and very quietly. Not bad for something that was 115 years old with running gear created from photos and old engineering textbooks.

Back to railways next time. I've just found a batch from 2011 from doing all the south Western Branch Lines.

Jamie

sir douglas · December 22, 2020

was Tony always suited no matter the occasion

jamie92208 · December 22, 2020

17 minutes ago, sir douglas said:

was Tony always suited no matter the occasion

Nearly always, with a tie as well. The guy in the blue sweat shirt in picture 7 is Derek Rayner, technical editor of Old Glory.

Jamie

Edited December 22, 2020 by jamie92208

jamie92208 · December 23, 2020

Good evening. Time for a few more but the Tardis has back tracked to 2011 and a trip to the south west. Keith and I both had various branches and parts of the main line to do. We got a cheap Cross country ticket to Bristol, from Keith's daughter, who is a train manager. The day started well as an obstroculous prig in a suit and tie had installed himself in our reserved seats with his laptop etc when he got on at Leeds. We joined at Wakefield and he tried to argue the toss. As Keith is built like a brick outhouse and we are both ex coppers he was persuaded of the error of his ways and we got our seats. At Bristol we bought a three day south west rover each and got the next train to Severn Beach. This was 9th May 2011.

Then it was back to temple Meads and down to Exeter where we changed for Exemouth where a Chippy was found and a B & B had been booked. Next morning found us back at the station for a Train to St Davids.