Jim’s “out and about with GBRf” thread

[Chris116]

Going back to the Yellow/black shunt signals. The Mid Hants has two, one on the shed exit road at Ropley and one on the yard exit at Medstead and Four Marks.

[250BOB]

Hi Jim,

At Derby th other day a pal of mine saw 2 Super 60's now smart in Colas Rail livery - but it was then like spot the difference 60 085 had the bump hat on the cabside horizontal whilst 60 096 had its bump hat at 45' & with ear protectors fitted.??

Any thoughts.

Bob

[big jim]

The new logo is called 'oscar' its slowly being rolled out onto locos, tampers etc

 

Heads up for the sinfins today if your about today bob it has 'new' wagons on it, 7 x TFAs (and one old green TEA)

 

Just bought it down from carlisle to crewe, couple of pics to follow when i get home

 

In the meantime, a pic from tuesday night from a workmate

Must get round to weathering these 2 locos!

Edited August 13, 2015 by big jim

[big jim]

the new order for the sinfin's, 56078 in carlisle with the new wagons, just as i prepare to turn my rake of Bachmann green BP TEAs into the A1 fuel tanks too!

 

[andyram]

As a resident of the newer end of Sinfin you must be only a toot away Jim.

[The Stationmaster]

Was originally a Red/White disc, but changed when the Loco Depot was built by the old goods shed. see photo below.

Sutton Bridge starter.jpg

 

The Black/Yellow disc seemed to be a WR thing as they where usually White/Yellow discs elsewhere. There are still two of the Black/Yellow ones at either end of Abergavenny goods yard, one at the exit to the stone terminal siding at Moreton on Lugg and one on the center road siding at Worcester Shrub Hill.

 

Paul J.

The change to yellow on a black ground was national in order to improve the visibility (although the Southern Railway had a far better idea and used a miniature semaphore arm on yellow ground signals instead of a half disc).

 

Yellow light GPLs were quite common on the WR and some of the survivors that I'm aware of have been converted to the new format with replacement LED lamp units.

[St. Simon]

The change to yellow on a black ground was national in order to improve the visibility (although the Southern Railway had a far better idea and used a miniature semaphore arm on yellow ground signals instead of a half disc).

 

Yellow light GPLs were quite common on the WR and some of the survivors that I'm aware of have been converted to the new format with replacement LED lamp units.

Hi,

 

One of the newer Y-Y / W-W ones controls exit to the down main / entry into the head shunt at the station end of the HOOB (High Output Operations Base) at Swindon

 

Simon

[Banger Blue]

Hi,

............. the HOOB (High Output Operations Base) at Swindon

Simon

In light of recent events and info on other threads, it should be renamed the VLOOB (Very Low Output)!!

[Ray M]

I didn`t know class 56`s had steam heat.

looking at those tanks, it looks like they may have.

[big jim]

Lousy day along the marches this morning, rain all the way from chirk to hereford

 

Couple of shots from shrewsbury while i waited the road (for 20 mins)

 

Lots of different types of signals!

 

And hereford

 

London midland 150 on one of the 2 daily turns to and from hereford to keep crews traction knowledge up

 

And im now heading back from hereford and home to bed!

[lmsforever]

The photo of the two sixties side by side could pass as a pic of two models ,like the latest pictures jim.​

[big jim]

some from today, nice little job, banbury to bescot with a class 70 on the point delivery train

 

banbury 

 

68009

 

172s heading for stratford

 

 

my train with 70809 up front

 

and into bescot and all parked up

 

super shunter 60044

 

and one of our 60s on another point delivery train

 

and thats yer lot, back to the logs tomorrow for the rest of the week

[buckdancer]

Jim, love the thread and your photos!

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but what is the "point train"?

I noticed a few wagons with points on them when I went past Bescot Yard a couple of weeks ago.

It was a depressing looking site - so little activity now.

[big jim]

The point delivery train is the one that carries fully assembled points at an angle on special wagons

 

It runs as a X classifiaction (yesterdays was 6x39) as its an exceptional load due to the clearances, i cant run through platform 2 at hatton for example

[Pete Harvey]

The point delivery train is the one that carries fully assembled points at an angle on special wagons

 

It runs as a X classification (yesterdays was 6x39) as its an exceptional load due to the clearances, i cant run through platform 2 at Hatton for example

 

Hi Jim

 

What are the moves needed to get through Hatton then if you can explain please?

 

Pete

[big jim]

Southbound isn't a problem but going north you have to cross over to platform 3 (stratford platform) before the station and back out again after it

[big jim]

Just one from this morning in kingmoor, especially for newbryford, a different class 60 for you later

 

[big jim]

One from this evening, just heading south to work the logs back to carlisle, dunno what his is doing sat in the centre road of the station

 

[big jim]

Just a couple from this morning for the wagon fans

 

Worked the logs North from crewe last night and thanks to a very helpful signaller at preston, early running trains and a lull in the paths i managed to do a footplate swap with the driver of the sinfin tanks in carnforth, meaning i worked them back south to crewe and he carried on to carlisle with the logs saving us both 2 1/2 hours on our day travelling back home on the passenger service!

 

56302 departs for derby

 

And a look at the new wagons on the service

 

Ive got a couple of pics on the proper camera that i'll upload later when i get back up

[Fat Controller]

The point delivery train is the one that carries fully assembled points at an angle on special wagons

 

It runs as a X classifiaction (yesterdays was 6x39) as its an exceptional load due to the clearances, i cant run through platform 2 at hatton for example

The other reason it carries an 'X' code (no deviation from planned route without express authority from Control) is that you don't want it to arrive at its destination the wrong way round. Before this type of vehicle was used in the UK, Vossloh used them to bring in pre-assembled points for a renewal at one of the undersea crossovers in the Channel Tunnel. Unfortunately, the train had not arrived via its planned route, so the point was the wrong way round; given the limited clearances on site, it was very difficult to rotate it through 180 degrees. Similar conditions apply to long-welded rail trains, and also car trains, I believe.

[corneliuslundie]

You must have an enlightened management if you are allowed to change trains half way through a shift. I can imagine telling that to a steam age shedmaster!

[beast66606]

One from this evening, just heading south to work the logs back to carlisle, dunno what his is doing sat in the centre road of the station

 

 

Gone to Doncaster today, 0F54 Carlisle - Donny.

[The Stationmaster]

You must have an enlightened management if you are allowed to change trains half way through a shift. I can imagine telling that to a steam age shedmaster!

But it used to happen - I don't know about the steam age but swopping cabs in the diesel and, particularly 3rd rail electric, age was far from unknown.  But, and a very serious but at that - is the need to ensure that the relevant depot Foreman knew about it because in the event of an incident things could get seriously upsetting for various people if the swop wasn't know about.

[big jim]

mikes pretty much got it spot on, the main thing is people know what your up to, there is an 'urban legend' story you get told when you are doing your training about someone who did a fiddle only for there to be an incident, the police turned up at the house to inform the wife her husband had been killed/in hospital/injured, whatever, only for him to walk through the door hours later somewhat worse for wear from an afternoons drinking!

 

although the main thing nowdays is ensuring you dont cause delays to anything which is why it was handy that the train that normally follows me was cancelled so we had a bit of breathing space at the change over point, had he been running i would have been held to time at preston for him to pass as booked and still done the sawp as planned but without him on the scene we managed to do it earlier, but i still didnt arrive into crewe until booked time though due to how busy the station is at 06:00 with trains arriving and departing as well as coming off the depot

[Fat Controller]

mikes pretty much got it spot on, the main thing is people know what your up to, there is an 'urban legend' story you get told when you are doing your training about someone who did a fiddle only for there to be an incident, the police turned up at the house to inform the wife her husband had been killed/in hospital/injured, whatever, only for him to walk through the door hours later somewhat worse for wear from an afternoons drinking!

 

although the main thing nowdays is ensuring you dont cause delays to anything which is why it was handy that the train that normally follows me was cancelled so we had a bit of breathing space at the change over point, had he been running i would have been held to time at preston for him to pass as booked and still done the sawp as planned but without him on the scene we managed to do it earlier, but i still didnt arrive into crewe until booked time though due to how busy the station is at 06:00 with trains arriving and departing as well as coming off the depot

We quite often swap drivers between their planned missions if there's been a cancellation, and it gives a chance of getting people away early/ doing a non-rostered job for us. The main thing is always to make a note that you've done it; otherwise, when things go up the wall, you don't have a clue who you've got to cover services.