great central

There was an article in Modern Railways a while ago, can't remember the figures but they looked astronomical to me

And if you still can't do it sue the person who gave you the contract?

I guess it looks better now than it did when it was a regular hauling fish trains from Grimsby Docks in the 1960s ... Oliver Cromwell wasn't allocated to Immingham where the Grimsby fish locos worked from, those being 70035-41 inclusive. There are photos and I think, memory not too certain, film of 70013 on the GC, working a passenger service northwards from Nottingham. I'm not saying categorically it didn't work the fish, but I think it's highly unlikely and I've never seen any information to say it did

Slightly pedantic but Cinderhill pit was actually called Babbington pit, the very small village of that name being several miles away between Awsworth, Cossall and Kimberley, only about 20 houses.

I don't think the class 76s ever carried overhead warning flashes, certainly don't recall them on any photos, unless someone knows different of course

Pre preservation days I have read accounts of stabling locos in roundhouses, if it was in steam and to be left to cool for work to be done enough steam pressure would be left in the boiler after the fire was thrown out to allow it to be driven into the roundhouse and off the turntable into the relevant stall, remembering that it may well need to have enough steam to operate the brakes as well (not always the case I believe with dire conseqences for the shed wall!). After the work was completed it would be lit up where it stood or shunted as already mentioned with another loco on an opposite road. I've also read accounts of out of steam locos being dragged up and down the shed yard with the cylinder drains open and in the opposite gear to the direction it was being dragged, causing air to be pumped into the boiler and pressurising it, until enough pressure was obtained to allow the loco to be driven off the 'table into a stall.

Somewhere squirrelled away in the house is a copy of Peter Handford's Shap LP, bought because the shop was out of 'Triumph of an A4' Superb sounds and could add a lot of atmosphere even if not synchronised with the trains on the model.

Mentioned this previously I think, but we took Deepcar to Barrow Hill in it's early days. Layout in the main roundhouse with locos in steam all weekend, one of which was a Jubilee. The scenery acted like a giant sponge soaking up moisture from the air, this being a few weeks before Christmas. We had all sorts of problems at our next show a few weeks later at Rochdale, one of the packing boards still has the grease from the depot floor ingrained. We put that down so that we weren't kneeling in the accumulation of many years of oil, water, coal and ash. Not been to BH for a good few years now, probably quite sterile by now.

As I understand it, it's a fitters job on our patch

We still use the big X, bags are for bad weather and usually fitted if snow is forecast

Not a particularly good shot but going away from it at 70mph or so.....

Not any kind of bin liner that I know, very heavy gauge yellow plastic with a drawstring top, even then can still be torn by the wind. How many road vehicles do you see with plastic covers flapping in the wind having been torn apart and they're only doing up to 70 mph.

Same as the one at Ancaster between Grantham and Sleaford

I'd tend to agree on Loughborough, looks completely different now though. The train looks like a Jolly Fisherman, early mk2s with a couple of mk1s I think, difficult to see for sure on a phone screen, most in Reggie Rail livery with an odd one still in Intercity Oh and looks like the obligatory basher in the front window.

Mine reckons big lights make her hot?? So she never puts them on, and gets ratty when I want a decent light so I can actually see what I'm doing!

I probably watch less telly than you and I've already seen holiday ads for next year!

There's still the EMT ones with VP185s in, pretty noisy and can clag a bit as well

In the dim dark recesses of my mind something says Butterley Engineering looking into the gate from the nominally private road which led Derbyshire police HQ. The loco with the canvas across the radiator particularly looks familiar

Not everyone is suited to driving yet perfectly at home as a guard

Description of an Annesley-Woodford out and back turn here http://www.annesleyfireman.com/id4.html

Difficult to judge perhaps if the loco hasn't got a Speedo;-)

Still ran at getting on for 60mph even though unfitted once the 9Fs came into play

A good many years ago among some other stuff I bought an ERTL (I think) Toby that someone had fitted a Tenshodo bogie in. Surprisingly powerful it could haul 8 or 9 coaches with ease and often did a lap or two around Deepcar to the delight of watching children. So fitting one in a brakevan should be straightforward

Yep that'll be the empties, put forward as support for the closure case, long train run mid afternoon attracting few if any passengers. It did at least carry some passenger accommodation, unlike a good many empty stock trains on other routes

It ran I think pretty much to the end of the GC as a through route. I well remember waiting as a newspaper lad for the papers to arrive if the train was late, this would be after April 1966, so likely diesel power on the GC or after it was transferred to the Midland route. There's a good account in Main Line Lament by Colin Walker of it's operation in the 50s with an A3 at the head. Also on, I think, the Transacord record Great Central there's a recording made possibly at Princes Risborough of it with a V2 at the front going hell for leather.