great central

No sign I'm afraid but carrying on the theme, a site I worked on in the 70s had a Roy Rogers regularly called over the PA system. A colleague I started with on the same day was christened Richard Edward, always known as Ted

Still quite impressive pulling away from Nottingham after a driver change, getting a long train of TEAs on the move again. There's often one about the time I get to work, once the loco is away the wagons slip almost silently past.

Maybe that's where they get the styling tips from, all these fat **sed celebrities, mustn't be sexist but I'm sure you can figure it out

Just followed a 69 plate Range Rover Evoque, the baby Range Rover I believe? It's bl**dy enormous!! Makes my PT cruiser feel like a BMC mini.

Cars have got bigger, I've got an S reg Jeep Cherokee, it's no bigger than some models of German, so called Mini now. Wife has an 04 Vauxhall Zafira, friend has a 65 plated Meriva, to all intents and purposes they're the same size outside.

Thanks for that, I hadn't looked into the details of what they are producing. Highly unlikely I'll be buying a kit, I already have at least 15 loco kits alone still in their boxes, not to mention coach/carriage and wagon kits. Then there's the pile of stuff that I need to finish properly! Given that most of my modelling enthusiasm disappeared getting on for 10 years ago now, I suspect much of the unstarted and unfinished stuff will stay in the same state.

No photo I'm afraid but a vivid memory, of Lord President in Nottingham Victoria. I think around 1957. I would have been 4 and it's the first named loco I have any recollection of, running in from the south along platform 4. Ever since I've promised myself that one day I would build a model of it, maybe I'll just wimp out and buy the Hornby one. The first class 87 I renumbered for our Carstairs layout was (obviously?) Lord President. I see that DRS have named one if their class 68s Lord President as well.

Tallyllyn Railway Preservation Society? Edit: posted same time as above

No idea if it's relevant but we keep being told that EMR will have the 5 Scotrail 170s by May, not available for traffic but for training, possibly into traffic later in the year.

A 156 is 2x23m cars so a bit over half the length of these. There must be more standing room though. About the most I've had is around 120 in a single 153 when that was all that turned up for a Nottingham-Worksop one Saturday when Nottingham Forest had been playing at home.

4 cars and only 202 seats? A 156 2 car has around 150 , not sure on total since the robobogs were fitted, not that great an improvement unless there's a lot more standing space?

The 156s are required for EMR to honour their obligation to make all trains 2 car from the new year and also comply with the new PRM regulations. 156409 was at Eastcroft yesterday or Friday wearing it's modified livery, yet another one, and new number 156909 to set it apart from the existing fleet

Err, Nick, Trent Lane Junction made it's debut last year, major club layout is,as you rightly point out, Deepcar

We had several ex Wessex 153s, a couple were painted in stagecoach livery for the launch of the EMT franchise, I seem to recall 153355 being one of them. 153308 was black I think and we also inherited a red one if memory serves. Not long after the start of the franchise I arrived for work one Sunday morning, there was a line of units down one of the middle roads at Nottingham with no two in the same livery. It's starting to get a bit like that now again, with EMR branded stagecoach livery, Branded plain white or blue, unbranded blue and white units with different coloured doors and the soon to be added ex GA units with a purple section on each end. Then there was the EMR branded ScotRail unit we had on hire for a few weeks.

The new units are supposed to have selective door opening but as far as I'm aware it didn't work properly at first. No idea if it's been sorted though, 'software issues'

Actually it does seem that they might be getting cleaned a bit now but still look rather unkempt. Some of the meridians were absolutely filthy but they do have a habit of throwing oil up the sides.

Hmm, if that's the case maybe they'd cope with the conditions at Dawlish better than a lot of 'modern' trains

That's just general muck I think you'll find. If you look at a lot of the GA stock it's not very clean. Might have expected them to keep the new units looking better to show how much of an 'improvement' they are over the old stuff. Some of the 156s are really filthy, but it is a dirty time of year and the newly 'Abellioised' EMR units are starting to look similar.

Oi! What's our new trains doing still standing there? Should be with EMR by now. That's NOT the scrap company EMR by the way

C16890, interesting looking roof rack, hope it fits within the structure gauge

Probably absolutely nothing to do with this debacle but I saw 37425 idling at the RTC in Derby this morning, apparently it was thrashing away on the load bank later. Completely debranded it's been there untouched for quite a while. Also 37419 was seen running a few days ago. We can but dream

The current HST sets should be replaced by ex LNER sets in the near future, they may or may not run to Skegness in future years, the 15x family to be replaced by 170s in the next couple of years.

Note that they mention that the 'old train' has a fault causing all the problems. No mention of the fact that the new ones barely get through a full day without failing and apart from the one with the damaged pantograph there's another parked up after a major engine failure. Very selective 'truth' about the Basils and Sybil's.

Can't quite lay your track dead straight? Well, if I read this correctly no need to worry. Prototype curve radius of 50km!? Can it be measured to that degree of accuracy? Apologies to on track staff if I'm barking up the wrong tree and it means something completely different. It'd be interesting to see where the other end of the radius would be, somewhere in the York area perhaps? It's situated between Woodhouse station and junction near Sheffield

Finally got a decent shot of this having been held at an adjacent signal while diverted via Beighton and Woodhouse into Sheffield this morning. As far as I know, it's the last remaining mast from the Woodhead electrification east of the Pennines situated at the western end of what was Woodhouse yard. Seems odd this one was left in place. Edit: further along there's the remains of, I think, a steam water crane, normally buried in the trees or I only pass in the dark. Was going faster by then, by the time I saw it and got a shot on my phone I realised I'd got my finger over the lens, d'oh! Was hanging on to my phone, we were doing about 60!