nigb55009

Heartbreaker, Pat Benatar

My apologies, I meant to say the Mumbles Railway was electrified in 1928. The original horse drawn line did, as you say open in 1904. Steam traction was introduced in the 1870s.

I have found a video on Youtube filmed from a train leaving Swansea Victoria heading for Pontarddulais. The esplanade seems to run parallel to the line from Swansea Bay Station, its not on an embankment, more of a low sea wall. The track is covered in sand, blown from the beach. On the landward side there is a grass area then a road. It aws filmed in 1964, which would be after the Mumbles Railway closed. If the original photo was taken a few years earlier than first mentioned, the Mumbles Railway wouldn`t be there because it didn`t open until 1928. As for the view across the bay, how big would Port Talbot steelworks have been in the 1920s. I really wouldn`t have a clue as to its size. I would assume it would have opened in the late 19th or early 20th century. There may not of been that much to see from a distance. I think the buildings and signals visible in the background are Swansea Bay Station rather than, St Helens Road Station, which had a large footbridge at its western end.

Running along the edge of Swansea Bay. Somewhere around Brynmill or St Gabriels. Heading away from Swansea.

I spotted the deliberate mistake. Only close friends call him Stephen.

Under the gun, Blondie

Fly to the rainbow, Scorpions

If you look on Barrowmore Model Railway Groups website, ther BR Diagram books. In the one titled "British Railways Diagrams of PO Wagons, Part 1" on page 169 of 266 is the diagram of MODA95780, diagram no, PX010A.

Shot in the dark, Ozzy Osbourne

Unfortunately it was destroyed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sweet Lorraine, Uriah Heep

Always the sun, The Stranglers

Wind of change, Scorpions

Doctor Doctor, UFO

Breaking the law, Judas Priest

9T85 returned with traffic for Central Wagon, near Springs Branch, usually empty wagons for loading with scrap or wagons for repair or even scrapping. There was also fuel tanks for the Diesel Depot, empty wagons for Lowton Metals, again for loading with scrap. As well as any other wagons such as empty MGRs that may have been detached from Fiddlers Ferry trains that had been repaired at Arpley Yard. There was also yhe occaissional traffic for Wigan Down Goods Yard, also known as Chapel Lane. T85 would have left Arpley about half past eight. This trip would als serve Bickershaw, as required, with MGR wagons to and from repair.

As I said earlier, the trip numbers changed later in the decade. This was partly due to a reduction in local freight traffic. T90 was a Springs Branch duty, along with T85, which served Co-op Glassworks, amongst others. The two were amalgamated into one, T72, I think aroond 1985. A lot of the trip numbers remained unchanged for many years, but eventually the whole Warrington area was reorganised. I have an old trip notice from 1975 for the old Liverpool Division. It covers trip workings for Edge Hill HS, Garston HS, NorthwichHS, Warrington HS and Springs Branch DD. It also covers shunt locos for station and carriage siding pilots. If I can find any further info I will post it here. Somewhere I have some Section CG WTTs, which cover th WCML from Crewe to Carlisle. They are the older type covering Mandatory and Conditional services.

The class 47s with HAAs & CAR could have been to/from the Cumbrian Coast. They consisted of 30 wagons + CAR, as did the north west area MGRs, based around Bickershaw, Parkside, Bold and Sutton Manor. So not easy to to tell one from the other. The GMC waste trains unloaded at Appley Bridge on the line between Wigan and Southport. The empties heading south (up) through Warrington BQ would be returning to Northenden. The photo of the two class 25 hauled freights were probably trip workings. The leading one looks like the Prescot tripper that served the BICC cable works. The rear train looks like the Gathurst trip, also on the Southport line, this served the ICI expolsive works as well as other traffic from the Springs Branch area. Not sure of the trip numbers, they changed some during the eighties. The sand hoppers would have been either from Crofields or Ravenhead. The Ravenhead train (8F21) also went to Springs Branch with MTV open wagons with sand for the Co-op Glassworks at Platt Bridge. The return empties to Oakamoor ran as 7K02.

Sleeping on the job, Gillan

Over the hills & far away, Gary Moore

Yeah, that's the one. There are other pictures of it as a tool van. Most of the windows were plated over during the conversion.

In steam days lineside vegetation was managed to reduce the risk of fire from sparks emitted by steam locos. After the end of steam it was considered unnecessary. This allowed the vegetation to flourish. If you think roughly twenty years later thats about the time the problems of low adhesion began, along with the introduction of second generation multiple units. Thats when the decision to remove trees from the lineside was taken. I`m not saying landslides never occurred before the end of steam, but there has been a significant increase since the mid eighties.

This is a growing problem caused by previous administrations. When all the " Leaves on the line" chaos began it seemed the simplest method was get rid of the root cause, pardon the pun. Trees were removed from embankments, little thought given to where all the rain water soaked up by the vegetation would go. How many cuttings are being reprofiled, at great expense, new drainage systems are built in to these major earthworks to take water away. The use of modern traction, more powerful, faster accelerating than the previous generation of rolling stock, doesn`t help the stituation, but thats progress. Perhaps if more thought had gone in to the problem when it first began it wouldn`t be happening quite so often today.

A further search has found more information about the vehicle. It was originally built as a standard Mk1 BG, numbered 80922. It was later converted to a TLV ( Trailer Luggage Van) for use with the Southern Region Motor Luggage Vans (MLV), which were used on boat trains to Dover Marine, later Western Docks and Folkestone Harbour. During 1976 the TLVs were withdrawn from passenger service and converted to Enparts vans at Swindon and Horwich Works. Later some, including 975612, became a Tool Van for use with the for use with Breakdown Trains. ADB975612 was allocated to Cardiff Canton.

Bachmann produced a model of a Mk1 BG numbered ADB975612. The vehicle was olive green and carried the wording " To work between Derby Loco BREL and WR Old Oak Common HST Depot". Olive green was used for Departmental vehicle which was later changed to BR Blue. Could the photo show this vehicle after a repaint? Another photo on Flickr shows the vehicle at Didcot, it also carries the wording "HST ENPARTS", on the opposite end to the number.