E3109

Indeed and as I understand it, Reddish Depot basically invented 'clear call' facilities on the 76s which led to the development of the baby alarms we all know. Bet the fitter/sparky at RS didn't see a groat in royalties though.

Can I just add to that Apollo, one of my best mates at school (who is still a best mate) knew from an early age that he was destined for the iron ribbons. I'm sure he won't mind me saying that he wasn't the brightest academically, but streetwise he could run rings around most of us. Teachers seem to favour academics over common sense folks, I suppose that's due to their own career choices and/or prejudices. Any road he told the careers teacher that "I'm going to work on the railway." She replied that he was too thick to do that [sic] . He started on the BR YTS that year. His first job was a crossing keeper on the Southport line. Can I just say, he's now a freight driver again, on more money than that 'teacher' can ever dream of, why is it the 'academics' like to drag us mere plebs down? When he was a passenger driver he longed to see her boarding his train at Wallgate, perhaps to even the score. Sadly it never happened but I hope it does at some point. By the way my mate is 'Fat Daz' of "The Bashers" Tv show fame, freely available on YouTube. One of the most decent people I've ever known. He's fecking nuts, but in a good way!

Indeed, personally I despise communism (lived in Cambodia too long) and socialism inevitably leads to communism. However I am a union member (Aslef and before that, RMT). Just because you believe in trade unions, it doesn't automatically follow that you're some kind of rabid leftie. When The Journal pops through the door I always enjoy reading through it, I used to get wound up by the Cuba and Venezuela stuff but I just laugh at it nowadays. I could go on and on about how being a proud TU member has got nothing at all to do with who you may or may not wish to vote for. I slate the Labour Party all the time at work when it's warranted, those who see things only in monochrome have marked me as a Tory. I have a healthy dislike for the whole bloody lot of them although it must be said, we expect shenanigans from the blues, when the Reds copy them it kinda makes it worse. Don't wanna get too political but they all suck....

I remember when I joined up to the last vestiges of BR, 1992 it was and doesn't seem like two minutes ago. One of my good railway mates, T&RS guy at Lime St called me 'a mere railway foetus' at the time, he was right then and he's probably right now. He'd still call me that anyway! Got 26 years in and sometimes it doesn't seem like it at all. Sorry guys not been home long off a night turn, might be tomorrow or Sunday when I amend the first post to create a poll. If anyone wants to do this on a separate thread then feel free. Cheers E3109

I'm sure I can't be the only one who would offer to keep her warm. Queue, join, orderly etc!

Just tried to edit, to include a poll, unsuccessfully so far! Off to work soon, I'll try again tomorrow. Cheers, eastwestdivide... hope to have this sorted shortly.

I would imagine that by replacing the signal to danger after every move would've caused delay because of the timeout, thus why it was kept 'off' until no longer required. Having never been on there with a loco or train, I have no idea how long the timeout was set at. Clearly the loco men would've spoken to the signalman for each individual engine move in any case.

Good call. Dunno how to set that up, if you want to do that feel free, or I can do it if it needs to be in the first post. Need some coaching though!

I used to work for them (in its previous incarnation) and First North Western before that. I left there without burning my bridges, thinking I might return some day. Loved working at my old depot, good lads/lasses who made the 100+ stops per day more than bearable. Speaking to colleagues from my old depot of late, and they told me that's the LAST thing I ought to be considering. It was explained to me that they'be been fed the changes on a drip-by-drip basis so they're accustomed to it, but if I were to return it would be a massive culture shock. I suspect they're right. I don't actually wanna go back now, too close to finishing my career full stop. But that's put the top hat on it and if the new incarnation of Northern make FNW look good, then it really is time to bring in direct operation.

I've often wondered how siggies utilise their spare time, especially on AB lines that don't see too many services. Must be a lonely task at times John, no doubt the free time comes in handy if you've got projects to work on. As an aside, I wonder how many PSB guys who are railway modellers get the chance to do a bit of fettling?

Just to add. This was before my time really but according to my mate who used to be based at Springs Branch, in the late evening into the wee hours there were a large number of locos coming onto SP and the dummy was kept 'off' religiously. It was (apparently) a long-standing arrangement between Warrington PSB and the SP ground staff, and kept the WCML from getting snarled up with LE moves. Wind forward to 1996/97 and supposedly, an EWS manager got wind of it and caused a right palaver. Yes, there wasn't anything in the Local Instructions (or Rule Book) that permitted this. But it was a long-standing arrangement that nobody had any issue with. Thanks to Mr Three Beasts sticking his oar in, trains were stacked up as far away as Preston due to the backlog of locos awaiting fuel and servicing. Sometimes 'custom and practice' can be a good thing. I've also heard in the meantime that this issue was pivotal in SP closing as a TMD. Maybe that was part of the Masterplan.

Haha, I take your point that 'work' is in some cases a bit of a fluid concept! My mate works for HMRC and always insists on the phrase "an employee of"!

Lol 'refinished to resemble a Clayton'. Maybe Bella Emberg could be refinished to resemble Nicki Minaj...

Of course I take your points, but the main difference is, there was never a British Supermarkets Board. Of course VIrgin (and others) were cherry-picking, the whole farcical system of railway franchising encourages it. Time this nonsense were nipped in the bud, IMHO like.

Most informative Mike, really enjoyed reading your post. I think we've all been waylaid by the girlies from time to time! Although in the case you mention she was an enthusiast too. Interesting that you mention the unwritten railway rule that 'enthusiasts aren't welcome', I kept it quiet on my initial appointment but over time I found that many staff were themselves either full-on enthusiasts (including many good bosses) or, more commonly had gained a genuine interest for the railway just by working there. I can't see me being idle once the pension starts though. Almost certain I'm off to Asia in the next year or two, and I'm interested in a bit of consultancy work. Not necessarily for the money either, in fact if the right gig came up, and it meant a railway got rehabilitated rather than closed, I'll be more than happy to provide a bit of input without pay. So looking forward to this, and hope to provide regular updates when the time comes.

No cherry picking? Nonsense. If that were true then Sir Richard would be bidding for ex RRNW/RRNE franchises. The whole system is set up to allow/promote cherry picking. The current system is debased and may I also mention that the last time I looked, even the majority of people who tend to vote Conservative do not approve of the current farce. I get it that they were hell bent on privatisation. I also get it that they chose the worst model possible. BR Plc would've been ace.

Surely there's a recording out there, from when 71001 was mainline certified up to 1993/1994? Incidentally, one of my greatest railway regrets was not having a ride behind that lovely engine when I had the chance, sure I'm not alone in that either!

Might be his missus' account. I heard it goes on ;-)

Bit of a general question here, and to be frank I'm asking partly out of self-interest. When I started on BR I noticed that my interests waned a little bit, or perhaps more accurately were focused elsewhere, due to me getting my 'train fix' at work. I'm approaching the finishing line of my career and I kind of expect that my modelling and other interests will once again come to the fore, once I hand my keys in for good. I hope to hear from you guys' experiences, whether ex railway or not. To the railway people, can I ask if you regained your passion for modelling and so on when you finished, and to the non-railway people can I ask how did you maintain your passion while employed in other areas? All comments welcomed, cheers E3109

The good old Tram (HST) is a good start for anyone who's minded to replicate the class 89, no doubt it's been discussed on RM Web at some point and no doubt at length! Goes for N and OO of course. Not sure what bogies are suitable, class 58 maybe?

As previously noted, electric locos of any kind did not have OLE flashes, the only exception I can think of is 74s and perhaps 73s and that's probably because of their hybrid status. Of course now we live in a mollycoddled state, they're everywhere. Oh look a loco with a pantograph, hmm maybe there are dangerous wires about. A good mate of mine texted the other day, he was trying to put his finger on the actual date Our Railway went crap. He couldn't come up with a specific day, but he did say that it was around the time when those yellow-on-white abominations appeared. What was wrong with the old ones? At least they were legit in the 1960s, even on steam locos. People may say "oh it was an EU edict" and that may be so, but during recent trips to the continent I haven't noticed the things being applied in such a blanket way.

A little bit of work from yesterday. Still plenty to do though!

IIRC, the last main aspect signals in the tunnels approaching Lime St would appear to have been fitted with green aspects at one time, I'm pretty certain they were 3 aspect, which is daft when the next 'signal' (apart from GPLs) is the stop block. Never saw a green displayed there thankfully, but it seems it was permitted at some point in time. This would fit in with The Johnster and Grovenor's comments.

Pretty off topic really, but many years ago I started to make a class 71 from, of all things, a Hornby Western. 52s of course have the same mk1 body side profile. I ended up selling it on amongst other stuff, but it was surprising how decent it was starting to look, given the loco I started with.

I don't actually know that for sure Ben, but it's a tad too light for Rail Blue and a tad too dark for Electric Blue. Still looks top notch though, I always look out for it at Rugby. Beautiful!