Titan

Ok, I'll bite - that really sucks...

OK, Checked and it is quite a lot more extensive than just a new footbridge! The up loop is to be completely relaid and extended on a new alignment. This will entail demolishing most of the existing platform and building a new extended one to match the new alignment which is being extended East towards Paddington with new pointwork going in that end. There will in fact be two new footbridges, one at each end giving additional access from the north side of the station, as well as connecting to the other platforms. All works including electrification as far as Maidenhead are part of Crossrail. Beyond Maidenhead is GWML Electrification.

I think that all loco hauled Mk1s built after about 1958 or so (might have been later) had commonwealths from new, irrespective of type. I think the gas bottle weight is a bit of a red herring - they weigh something like 30kg each when full, i.e. you would need three of them to exceeded the weight of one passenger! More likely the weight of the rest of the coach was the issue. Commonwealth bogies only started to be retrofitted to earlier Mk1s in the late '80s, after being recovered from scrapped vehicles, and then mainly to BGs and GUVs.

Just like the real thing! Bachmanns attention to detail knows no bounds!

I will have to check, from memory it might be a new footbridge going in.

So they could haul rusty tankers marked "flammable" with a road raged driver at the controls?

Well I suppose even a Hymek would eat a 25 for breakfast... Plenty of Chargrilled Flying rats (Pigeons) at Ilford from trying to fly through the hole in the depot doors around the 25kV!! (Almost bringing it back on topic!!!)

Ah, so thats what BR research did with Hugh Williams' spare sandwiches!!!

So the door step sandwich became the door stop sandwich!! I cannot put into words my amazement at the attention to detail shown here!!!

What tool do technically advanced dwarves use for mining? The i-hoe.

Trouble is even the real railway cannot make up its mind what to call it - OLE, OHLE, or more recently OCS (Overhead Contact System) all of which seem to be currently used... (pun not intended but after I had written it it seemed too good to remove!!)

Dracula.

Yes, last time eight days ago, page 98, post 2444.

The good people of Newton-le-Willows?

I used to travel regularly between Derby and St Pancras in the early 90's and HST reliability at the time was pretty poor. Had quite a few spirited runs behind substitute 47's + 7 Mk2d's. One in particular I remember was about right time Derby and only five minutes late in to St Pancras, with plenty of three figure speed running! It seemed that about one in three HST's that were running on both power cars on leaving St Pancras would be down to one by Derby...

Very interesting bidding! It seems that there was a snipe too - but it did not work! I am curious how 9***1 managed to get two identical bids placed simultaneously - used two sniping programs?

The usual procedure was just to dig down 1m, until they piled through some cables buried at 1.010m! They now CAT scan the bottom of the hole once dug...

It is also interesting to note that despite the item and the value, the bidding still seems to follow the same pattern as an ordinary item. i.e. there are one or two bidders repeatedly upping their price! I wonder how many are set up to snipe this!!!

Pretty much, the hole is in fact a 'trial hole' to double check for obstructions before the pile goes in. It is dug down manually to a depth of one meter, and then a CAT (Cable Avoidance Tool) scan is done at the bottom. Once the all clear is given then the pile can be driven in. Most are 7 or more meters long depending on the geology and will comprise of two sections bolted together. In the photo it looks like the top section (the top 1.5m is painted for corrosion resistance) has just been bolted to the already well driven in bottom section and is awaiting to be driven down to the final finish level. The top section appears to be a 762mm diameter x 5.5m long according to the markings, so the total pile depth at this location is likely to be over 8 meters. It seems that there are also lines drawn at 1m intervals, presumably as an aid to the piling team. I expect the top line corresponds to the final finish level. It is the standard foundation type, so all masts will have it unless there is a particular reason why it cannot be used. It is quite likely that the order they are put in depends on what lengths of pile are in stock at the compound!

To be fair, it was not so much intended as bragging, but as a response to correct this false impression of British safety failings, which now seems to have been comprehensively achieved!.

Just which decade are we talking about? And what do you classify as a major crash or significant loss of life? In the last ten years there has been only one accident where more than one passenger died, and that was due to a car driver deciding to park his car on a level crossing as a means to commit suicide and took 6 others with him. The MMA accident killed more in one hit than all our accidents combined in the last ten years, Just look at the outstandingly low figures over the last ten years here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_in_the_United_Kingdom And note that many of them are due to road vehicle incursions, not railway failings. Not only that, the Herald of Free Enterprise was a long time ago and things have changed, and is about as relevant as citing the Titanic as an example of current safety culture!! So remind me, who needs to catch up with who again?

They won't be headspans, as the new Series 1 design range does not include them. They will either be for portals or pairs of Two Track Cantilevers. They may be tall masts in order to support the Autotransformer feed wires, and they will probably be a large square hollow section rather than Universal Column. It will look quite different to all OLE that has gone before, although with some common components with the Great Eastern upgrade.

This is where a snipeing program is invaluable. You can set it up to bid on every single loco, by putting them in a 'group'. If it fails to win the first then it will then automatically bid on the next in the group and so on until you win one, then it does not bid on the rest. Especially useful when the auctions end a few minutes apart as they do here, and you don't want to risk ending up with multiples!

Owning a Harley is no joking matter. Perhaps that's why he could not find any?

I am not sure if this is the correct interpretation, It may be that the numbering starts at one irrespective of whether it is DCC fitted or ready. i.e. if the first one ordered is a DCC fitted variant, then that gets to be No.1, but if the first one ordered is a DDC ready variant that gets to be No.1. Either way both variants could start at No.1, but only one No.1 will be issued. Same with all subsequent numbers.