nigb55009

Western Ranger had red backed nameplates during its last few months of service. It was withdrawn at the end of February 1977, so the photo would have been taken in the locos first year of preservation. 

California dreaming, The Mums & Dads

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.