dvdlcs

Between 1997 and 2008, I lived in the Cambridge area. I drove back and forth to visit relatives in Scotland. It was a fairly simple trip: A14 and A1, follow your nose. Cruise Control: When I purchased a car with CC fitted (2001?) I used it on these long (~350 mile) trips and it was a godsend. It also highlighted just how erratic other peoples speeds were. The classic was overtaking something going up the hill and then having them pass me coming down the other side, as my CC was holding the car at 70 whereas inevitably they would slow a little on the up slope and run a little fast coming downhill. Not sure about wear on tyres but it certainly helped the fuel economy. Average Speed Cameras: These were placed on the A14 around Huntingdon and something I noticed, whether on local trips or longer distance runs to and from Scotland was that I would always encounter traffic there. Everybody seemed to bunch up. I could drive hundreds of miles down the A1, even on quiet days (e.g. New Years Day) and have light, well-spaced traffic with the CC on 70, only disengaging for the roundabouts (and that 50 zone, whose name I forget) but as soon as I reached the average speed camera area around Huntingdon I'd run into the back of much denser traffic. Afraid these didn't create a good impression on me for that reason - may not be a good reason, but that was the impression they gave: caused congestion by making (some) people slow down and everybody else bunch up.

Perhaps the future is individuals working on modules (to an agreed standard) at home and occasionally bringing them to a central place to make a really large layout. Although anybody who has worked in the field of integration will know how much 'fun' that can be :-)

C5448. The HST seems to have an extra second class coach. I count 2 first, 1 catering, and 6 seconds. I'm fairly certain there are only two first class coaches and 1 catering, and nothing looks like the executive saloon, which may not have existed at that time.

Was the "Low Entrance / Mind Your Head" sign (I think on the Warship) an original fitting or has that been added since construction (or preservation)?

As the SLEPs had a pantry (the P) and the SLEs did not, if there was only one sleeper coach on the train it would (should) be a SLEP. When there was more than one sleeper, they would normally be paired SLEP+SLE so that one pantry served two coaches. Therefore it is interesting that they cancelled 26 SLEPs - presumably that would have led to a shortage of pantries compared to non-pantry coaches? Or were more SLEPs than SLEs going to be built (for the single coach scenario) and the cancellation evened the numbers out? [Answering my own question: SLEPs I think were 10500-10619 (120 vehicles) whereas SLEs were 10646-10732 (87 vehicles). So still enough for SLE+SLEP pairs and individual SLEPs.] On another note, some of the Mk3 sleepers ended up in preservation while still fairly young. I can remember going to Bo'ness and seeing a Mk3 sleeper in InterCity livery parked there (don't remember which version of IC livery), but looking very odd as it was sitting (perched?) on a pair of B1 bogies - presumably BR (as it was at the time) still needed all of the BT10s.

As someone else has mentioned, a number were cancelled from the initial order which is why there is a gap in the numbering range between the two types - SLE and SLEP. Whether a number of both types were cancelled, or only one, I don't know. There were some early casualties, I believe the Morpeth derailment (1984?) meant that one of the sleepers didn't even make a year in service, although I may be wrong. This is all from memory :-)

It still irks me that trucks are speed limited compared to other vehicles. Once I lived near Cambridge, and driving the A428 between Cambridge and St Neots (single carriageway, 60mph, enough twists and turns to keep it interesting) could be quite pleasant - until you hit the back of the queue behind a slow moving vehicle, usually a truck. Likewise, overtaking on dual carriageways and essentially blocking them for (seemingly) mile after mile. Not the truckies fault, they have to abide by the rules, but whoever thought that that was a good idea clearly doesn't have to deal with the consequences. Currently living in Australia, where road trains (up to 5 trailers in the country, 2 or 3 in and around the metropolitan areas) are travelling to the same speed limits as me in my car. Seems to work OK there. Rant over...

Thank you for that information. As it is a gangwayed unit, perhaps it is OK to run like that if it is paired with a unit that does have a toilet? Possibly doesn't run as a 2-car unit, only as part of a longer unit. For a long time the individual cars were placed inside 2-car 150/1 units to make 3-car units.

Would there be a problem, if to use the original example of a GWR wagon with a SR sheet, that the tie-down locations on the wagon (or the overall dimensions of the wagon) may be different such that the ropes on the SR sheet are not long enough and/or in the wrong positions to secure the tarp to the wagon? Or were these things sufficiently similar, e.g. RCH designs, that that was not an issue?

The penultimate picture above, with the unit 150 209 is interesting. This was one of two early casualties, 150 212 being the other, that each lost 1 of 2 cars due to collision damage (different incidents). They both lost the same type of car, 522nn, so the two individual cars couldn't be put together as a unit as there would be no toilet. So I'm curious to know what it has been paired with, as it appears to be a 2-car unit going by the livery. Or have sets been renumbered in the last 30 years so that 150 209 is not the same as the 150 209 that I am referring to?

2 power cars may take more space than one, and increase the cost of the unit, but as has been mentioned previously the diesel fuel capacity may be a consideration too. [I'm assuming the fuel tanks are in the power cars. If not, then ignore the above comment.]

Agreed that it is an interesting picture but I suppose the counterpoint is that the road network was not what it is now, and I would imagine that Thurso was relatively isolated, particularly for heavy goods traffic (e.g. bulk fuels) so the railway would be the default option for transporting goods from points south.

Circa 1977 we lived in Pembroke (Wales) and I attended a primary school there. I can remember a footpath around the perimeter of the school yard, and on the far side of the footpath was a railway line. The best I can describe it was that if the school yard was on the left, it dropped away with the school lower than the foot path and the railway line, on the right of the path, higher than the path itself. So essentially an embankment. But then I was 4 or 5 at the time so heights may be relative. My memory is on one occasion seeing a blue DMU (I'll say a 108 although it could have been a 116) go past us when we were on this path, either going to or coming away from school. I don't know the name of the school, or even what part of Pembroke we were living in, so am unable to offer any more than that.

Yes, I wondered about that too. If the line is closed, and closed for some time, why not use the trackbed for access, lifting the track if necessary? Still amazed at some of the closure times quoted, particularly for a passenger line. I would have thought that this sort of event would have been an "all hands on deck, working around the clock to get the line open again" process, but obviously not.

What determined whether the unit number was placed centrally on the cab end or above each window? Was one (or both) of these treatments a feature of having visited a particular works or depot?

Nice pictures, and something a little different too. Couple of comments: The EMU referred to as a 309 would probably be the 306, as 309s didn't run in 3 coach formation and the surviving 306 is set 017. The LMS EMU at Hornby in Margate is presumably an ex Merseyside unit. Could be Class 502 or 503, depending on which survives - unless it is an earlier unit altogether.

In the 1990s I worked in an industrial estate in the Cambridge area, where I encountered a 20mph limit for the first time. At the time I was driving a 1.2 litre Renault Clio, which you might think would be ideal for low speed city type driving. But, as others have said, 20mph wasn't a good number for it as it was either revving too high (IMO) in third gear or revving too low (IMO) in fourth gear on the manual gearbox. Where I am now, in Western Australia, the school zones are 40kph (circa 25mph) between 0730 and 0900 and 1430 and 1600 on school days. Between these time periods electronic signs with the 40 limit are illuminated. Outside of these times, the normal road speed - whatever that might be - applies.

Interesting colour contrast between C13868 and C14117. I'm assuming both units were in the same livery, but C13868 the light blue looks more like green.

As a vaguely relevant parallel, I don't know the details but I seem to recall that 317301 was damaged in a shunting incident at Cricklewood and one of the four coaches was written off before the set had entered revenue service. Presumably as the remainder of the order was still being built an additional car of that type was added to the order and was given the same number as the condemned coach. I believe it was 77048 - why do details like that stick in my head? - and I can recall the listing in my 1985 Platform 5 showing that unit stored unserviceable with a missing driving (trailer?) coach.

37292 was uprated to 2000hp for working heavy haul freight in the Motherwell area. Don't know about any ETH fitment though. 37/4s appeared circa 1985 with ETH of course.

In C18466, I wonder why the pipe runs kick up the way they do then almost immediately straight back down again? Looks like there were a number of these deviations in the picture, but no obvious reason for them. If something were passing under them in the transverse direction it would be too low to cross the railway.

Looking at the other pictures in the article, the house appears to have For Sale boards on it too. That is unfortunate for the current owner.

There was a 12-wheeler in the Royal Train until the mid(?) 1980s. If that counts?

Even number of axles, but some Mk1 catering vehicles had a B4 bogie at one end and a (heavier duty) B5 bogie at the other. Not so obvious as the earlier examples quoted of course :-)

Interesting that a DM+DT pair could tow tail traffic (from SP Steves WR notes) as I was always under the impression that a 3-car DMU had to have a DM at either end - couldn't be formed DM-T-DT. So you couldn't have DM+T+DT but you could have DM+DT+VAN? (Where VAN is BG/GUV/CCT/etc.)