Titan

There appears to be only one pile in the picture, just behind the man with the survey station. All the other covers do indeed seem to be over drainage chambers. I would say the other 3 people are two lookouts and a COSS.

It is difficult to tell what they are surveying, if it was for a buried cable they would probably have a CAT scanner (which in this case means Cable Avoidance Tool!) But even they only tend to work when there is current flowing, for example I had to ask a Station Manager to turn the lights on during the day to ensure we could detect the position of the lighting cables running through the platform. It also does tend to look like the sort of surveying equipment that P-way would normally use, OLE surveys normally require just measuring from the running edge of the rail, for which a hand held laser or even a good old tape measure suffices. It is also good practice to use GPS to measure the exact location of a pile, as this can give accurate xyz coordinates which is useful for getting the correct ground level as well as horizontal position. All that is is a GPS receiver mounted on a stick, programmed to give the exact position of the end of the stick. It is very accurate, provided that the operator does not push it too far in to soft ground reducing the ground level by a few centimetres! However by now all survey work really ought to have been 100% complete. It gets a lot more difficult to change the design to suit once half the piles are already in...

To be fair, most foundation piles are in two sections. In this case it looks like the first section has been driven down to ground level, and the second section has been bolted on awaiting the piling rig to come along and drive it home. So rather than barely in the ground it is at least half way in.

Memories! On the subject of Land Rovers, the car I most regret selling is this one, pictured nearing the finish of a minor rebuild due to a slight prang (which wrote off two other cars) I really had a lot of fun in that car, it was pretty much unstoppable! Since I sold it values seem to have been skyrocketing, even for the early 4 doors like mine!

They have done a better job on his nose than the surgeon(s) did in real life!

Why not?

I have, all trains terminated at the next station and bust-ituted!

The first problem is that there has been a lot of wheel reinventing when it comes to the OLE System design. Series 1 was pretty much designed from scratch, including being TSI compliant but based upon the Swiss system. As such there was very little 'off the shelf' that did not require some change. The end result is a long drawn out design process. which is still not finished.

I am very interested to know what loco those wheels came from, obviously not British but seem rather unusual?

I think Fay is confusing the Earth Wire with the Return Conductor. They serve very different purposes.

The 'Beastie' !!! I think it's modification was pretty much fitting buffers and drop head buckeyes at each end. Might even have got used to rescue the odd Networker if it had not failed too far away.

That does not look like a Transit?

Where? Can you provide a link?

Missionary?

The holes are not being dug any deeper, but the bottom of the hole is now being CAT scanned (Cable Avoidance Tool) This was started after one of the incidents where a 1m deep trial hole was dug, only to discover the hard way that there were cables buried at 1.1m...

It does not exclude all the Crossrail funded extensions? Not only that but there is a hell of a lot more happening at West Drayton beyond changing DOO equipment. Seems like it is riddled with mistakes!

One story I heard was about their approach to failed gearboxes. Rather than returning them to works for overhaul, particularly when short of replacements, they were quite adept at swapping about internals and making one functioning gearbox out of two bad. Consequently the works hated getting gearboxes from Tysley to overhaul, because by then it was basically a casing with nothing but scrap inside!

I do wonder if any of those locos had technology derived from Kestrel? I also noticed that the the diesel hauling the last train appeared to be a Do-Do!

Good evening and welcome David! Been a little while since you were passing a critical eye over my designs! We used to say that there was the Mk1 range, the OLEMI range and the 'Hibbert' range, which it sounds like this portal falls in! Ian, associate of the late Les Hammond and Peter Hazard!

Well I suppose everyone makes their own choices. I have not got DCC and standardised on tension lock so NEM pockets are not an issue. I started building my OHLE based on the '70s to early '80s around the time that the Dapol OHLE was originally announced. Rather than wait I bought what was available and have now been enjoying running a wide variety of electric stock of the period for over three years. The OHLE works and all locos except the 85 and APT can pick up from it. OK it may not be exactly finescale, but it is still much more satisfying than waiting for something to happen. It does of course mean that for me Dapol have missed the boat by quite a spectacular margin...

I am sure if you are short of time you could pay someone to do it for you. Class 86's in good condition start from about £18. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-Class-86-86417-In-RES-rail-Express-Systems-Livery-/271991504665?hash=item3f53f4ff19 Most will post overseas too.

Well when I started my layout I was on a budget. As it represents a busy main line with a large terminus it required a lot of stock to populate. So it was almost all bought second hand at rock bottom prices. It is unlikely I will have lost money on it and it is good enough for me!

It was a griddle, which meant a full English breakfast on the way to work was possible. Yum!

and expect the death toll to rise as digging continues through the night...

It's not quite that bad, it has class 92,90 and the Pendolino to keep it company on the electric side, which would make for a reasonable representation of the Modern WCML.