Ghosts in the Machine.

[rockershovel]

On 04/04/2017 at 09:43, stewartingram said:

Although I hear it every day, I only realised this morning that the recorded announcements on GN 365's still state "This is a West Anglia Great Northern service to.........". Since WAGN were superceded by FCC before becoming Great Northern/ TSGN, that is quite a surprising survivor.

 

Stewart

 

Not really. “WAGN train” (pronounced ‘waggon train’) persists in Peterborough commuter memories as a generic term for the unloved EMU services to Kings X, none of the kaleidoscope of succeeding TOC having made any impression on their users apart from abiding dissatisfaction. 

[rockershovel]

Speaking of Peterborough, the Great Northern Hotel (prominently featured in the Peterborough North thread) still stands and is still operating, having survived the almost complete destruction and rebuilding of everything from Midland Road to the Cathedral, Spital Bridge to the Lido! 

 

 

[rockershovel]

I took these pictures inside the Wolverton works in March 2017 - a place little changed since the steam era, including the gantry cranes which lift the EMU bodies off their bogies

 

It gives the impression of a more recent operation camping there while waiting to move.... 

 

[jamie92208]

Those remind me of a tour that I did round the Wabtec site at Doncaster.   Their current wheel shop is housed in the original loco erecting shop from the Patrick Stirling era.  It got even more weird as we went into the later period erecting shop, which is surprisingly small.   I think that the last locos built in there were the class 58's but to stand in the place where all the famous ECML Pacifics were built was a very strange feeling.

 

Jamie

[Titan]

1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

I took these pictures inside the Wolverton works in March 2017 - a place little changed since the steam era, including the gantry cranes which lift the EMU bodies off their bogies

 

It gives the impression of a more recent operation camping there while waiting to move.... 

 

 

Blimey, looks like the railway equivalent of kwik fit!

[big jim]

Speaking of loco works I noticed the other day part of the works building in crewe has been taken down stopping about 50ft short of the massive wall on west street that during the war had buildings painted on it to camouflage, more worryingly is this morning I noticed a sign saying “major works here for 9 weeks” so I’m hoping that they are not going to be knocking it down, I’d better get out with a camera this week and grab some pics just in case they do demolish it 

 

https://goo.gl/maps/CqoPTHESuqfTSjfn7

Edited July 3, 2019 by big jim

[rockershovel]

5 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Those remind me of a tour that I did round the Wabtec site at Doncaster.   Their current wheel shop is housed in the original loco erecting shop from the Patrick Stirling era.  It got even more weird as we went into the later period erecting shop, which is surprisingly small.   I think that the last locos built in there were the class 58's but to stand in the place where all the famous ECML Pacifics were built was a very strange feeling.

 

Jamie

 

Much of the once-huge Wolverton works are simply abandoned and derelict, although parts have been redeveloped and the West end is still in use, including the traverser which must date back to pre-grouping days. 

 

Eastleigh is less decrepit, since the whole site is in use 

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by rockershovel

[Wickham Green]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

Much of the once-huge Wolverton works are simply abandoned and derelict, although parts have been redeveloped and the West end is still in use, including the traverser which must date back to pre-grouping days. 

 

Eastleigh is less decrepit, since the whole site is in use 

 

Can't help wondering why the main line hasn't  regained it original alignment straight through Wolverton ........... but I guess that's too simple an' the wrong bits have bee abandoned ...................................... and who cares anyway with HS2 coming !!?!

[TheSignalEngineer]

2 hours ago, Wickham Green said:

Can't help wondering why the main line hasn't  regained it original alignment straight through Wolverton ........... but I guess that's too simple an' the wrong bits have bee abandoned ...................................... and who cares anyway with HS2 coming !!?!

If the railway hadn't been fragmented and most of the bits without running lines on sold off it could well have done.

[billbedford]

 

Check-rails on the eastbound Central Line platform at Stratford. These mark the site of a former trip-cock tester which was removed after the Central Line went over to ATO in 1999-2001.

 

 

[Rugd1022]

Small Heath north end shunter's cabin last week, long out of use...

 

 

[adb968008]

Heres a random one,

 

these Scaffold style bars are above the buffers stops at the shunters bay at Taunton, Down side and on the disused bay platform on the south side of the up direction too.

 

 

It took me a few hours to  establish what these were for.. and whilst unimposing, and useless looking they served a very definite purpose I cannot think of any other example of these left on the network... they are “in complete working order” as it were..., though I doubt theyve been used in 50-60 years, but there job was a bit glamorous, back in their day.

 

Any guesses as to purpose before i share  ?

Edited May 9, 2021 by adb968008

[flapland]

2 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Heres a random one,

 

these Scaffold style bars are above the buffers stops at the shunters bay at Taunton, Down side and on the disused bay platform on the south side of the up direction too.

 

It took me a few hours to  establish what these were for.. and whilst unimposing, and useless looking they served a very definite purpose I cannot think of any other example of these left on the network... they are “in complete working order” as it were..., though I doubt theyve been used in 50-60 years, but there job was a bit glamorous, back in their day.

 

Any guesses as to purpose before i share  ?

For changing a headboard perhaps.

[melmerby]

On 03/07/2019 at 17:25, TheSignalEngineer said:

If the railway hadn't been fragmented and most of the bits without running lines on sold off it could well have done.

Still looks do-able:

https://goo.gl/maps/tL5cjBj2XKr1ERQh7

 

But why?

 

 

[Wickham Green]

15 hours ago, adb968008 said:

 

Any guesses as to purpose before i share  ?

Racks for gangway covers ?

[The Border Reiver]

Bicycle stands

 

[adb968008]

Second guess had it, though I think the first was aiming for it..

 

A place to store carriage tail boards, to cover the rear gangway.

 

I can only find one picture of them “in service”, on colour rails website:

 

Reference 15762

Loco number 6372

Image date 24/09/1963

Edited July 8, 2019 by adb968008

[Engineer]

Burnham, Sunday 7 July, 2019, noticed by chance and taken from my London-bound stopping train.  It may be the same item that was mentioned here earlier, in 2015, with a comment on whether electrification might remove it.

[rockershovel]

Not a railway item, but from the British Drilling and Freezing Co website, a Failing 2500SE rig which I worked on in the early 1980s, and was far from new then! Whether this rig is still actually operational is a fairly good question, given the lo-res pictures which appear to be long out of date (judging by the aluminium McDonald helmet and general lack of PPE in the second picture) and the question of what work it might actually perform? However, elderly landrigs like this still appear occasionally (I was briefly involved with a rig of this sort in the Easington area in 2005) and it DOES appear on a website originally designed in 2009 for a company which is still in business, so I think it deserves at least a mention in passing...

 

[rodent279]

So what would that be used for? Drilling foundations for piles?

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, rodent279 said:

So what would that be used for? Drilling foundations for piles?

 

It was the flagship of Foraky’s exploration operation for the NCB, through the 60s, 70s and early 80s. It also drilled shallow oil and gas wells around the Notts/Lincs area, including one in Gainsborough. 

 

There was a whole contracting sector drilling these exploration holes and oil wells, along with the ground freezing for the Selby and Boulby mineshaft sinking in the 70s and early 80s

 

BDF are still involved at BP’s Wytch Farm operation, and have at least one rig working on fracking in the NW

 

 

 

 

[eastwestdivide]

Scotrail ghost in a Northern machine - one of the transferred 170s seen yesterday, with new Northern upholstery, but the advertising panel contact details still say scotrail:

[dvdlcs]

Was in the UK in July and spent some time on the rails.

 

Some things noticed (no pictures though):

 

Berwick upon Tweed - NXEC PARKING with the NX overpainted by VT. I think LNER is the current incumbent for those services.

 

Multiple BR arrows with the "Welcome to Sheffield" signs that are on the piers of a bridge (viaduct?) at the south end of the station platforms.

 

A NSE board on a building to the south of Oxted station on the Uckfield branch (which had a number of interesting sights at or around different stations).

[Wickham Green]

D'you mean THIS building south of Oxted by any chance ? ........... it's not very far south - just off the platform end in fact !

[eastwestdivide]

3 hours ago, dvdlcs said:

Multiple BR arrows with the "Welcome to Sheffield" signs that are on the piers of a bridge (viaduct?) at the south end of the station platforms.

 

In fact the BR double arrows are still current - they're now used for National Rail (the sort of umbrella brand) and they appear on most station front signs.

But yes, those at Sheffield on the bridge may well be ghosts from BR days.