talisman56

So what happened just before/at PBO that turned 2 minutes up to 118 down?

My distant memory seems to concur with yours on the riding of the old Southern Railway stock. My main stomping ground was the Brighton main line and the main danger points for drinks spillage were Balham Junction, Gatwick-Balcombe Tunnel Junction, particularly at Three Bridges, and sometimes, at Haywards Heath (the long curve leading up to the release crossover from the Up turnback siding to the Down side seemed to catch out some stock at speed). In the latter days of the 'Belle' there were interminable intermittent works on the Quarry and it (and the other trains diagrammed for that route) were rerouted through Redhill, sometimes at short notice - the Stewards on the 'Belle' were under no illusion of what might happen should they be carrying liquids when the train rattled over the Redhill junction pointwork...

The trains are going a bit faster so they have more momentum to get to the top of the steeper bits...

The commentary on one video said they are raising the 11'8" bridge to the 'same grade' as the neighbouring level crossing, so presumably it means they are levelling out the rail line, with a slightly steeper bit the other side. They've got some scope for doing some road resurfacing now...

On our trip to Plymouth this week a 2x802 rake on a Penzance service turned up at Taunton with both sets the right way round but F-K were on the front unit, and A-E on the rear - very inconvenient if you anticipated coach C (on which our seat reservations were) would be on the front unit and positioned yourself accordingly... Taunton does not have PIDs with the nice little diagram that says what the formation of the train is, and there were no indications from the public announcements that the train was mis-formed, apart from '...Standard class in Zones 1,2,3,6,7 and 8...'

Looking at the myriad of numbers on the side of the Azuma, there may be a lot of confusion between set numbers and coach running numbers... (both 6 digit, starting with 8, in the same font?)

EDIT: Reply about wrong bridge - well, there are three four separate bridges being discussed...

I wound the video back to the beginning - three 4TCs a bit of a way away from the 'juice'; and 'Slim Jims' on the Cardiff-Pompeys. And the last train at Salisbury and then Southampton (33 028 at the head) had a downgraded CK in the rake - and a 'seasoned commuter' with a door open a long way before the train came to a stop at Salisbury.

Surely they'd be listed by now? If not, get 'em listed ASAP...

...and these that UP used in the 50s and 60s - one of the lads had a HO model of one of the third generation batch at the club last night - with sound... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_GTELs

They didn't skimp on loading the two to the left either...

Duplicate...

This one must qualify for one of the most renumbered units: 7795 > 7908 > 7795 > 3095 > 3527 > 3914 > 3842... Yes, that is Angmering.

When they arrived in the Bristol area to replace the clapped out locos and excrable Mark1 stock on the Cardiff-Portsmouths, they were regarded as the ulitmate lap of luxury, so you can't please everybody...

Somehow the 52's don't look quite 'right' in Banger Blue...

When the wheels come off the rail service nowadays, there seems to be very little leeway for advancing the progress of passengers customers journeys... I decided that as the fare to Chirk for the Dapol Open Day, including Senior Citizen Card discount, was less than the car fuel/wear&tear/etc, cost that I would travel by rail this year. All was well until I boarded at Birmingham New Street the 09.25 to Holyhead service, which then proceeded nowhere, due to, the announcement said, a 'Track Circuit fault'. At 10am we were informed the train was cancelled and could we please get off. Upstairs again, everything between Birmingham and Wolverhampton was being re-routed to avoid the normal route, except those trains going via Shrewsbury, on which there appeared to be a blanket cancellation. Having tried to get information from the obvious railway staff and got nothing apart from it'll all be on the display boards, I eventually spotted a man in a suit talking to a NR staff member and asked what my options were. I was informed that the services onward from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury and beyond were operating, so if I could get myself to Wolverhampton I could continue from there. Having previously been informed on two occasions that day that my ticket was not valid on West Midlands services I did a bit of lateral thinking and went to Wolverhampton by the tram service and there was directed to a West Midlands service to Shrewsbury - by which time a bit of sanity had obviously been brought to the situation and my ticket would be accepted. BTW, at Wolverhampton the delays were being attributed to a 'broken rail'. I arrived at Chirk more than three hours after my scheduled arrival time, and after a brisk walk managed to spend about 50 minutes there, before having to walk back for my return journey, which was a lot easier, apart from a few minutes' delay, until the approach to Temple Meads, when we got stuck behind a 'slow moving freight train'. Connection missed at Temple Meads, delay at arriving at my home station was about 35 minutes. The Delay Repay site got a bit of a bashing this morning...

Adding to the list, Horsted Keynes on the Bluebell has always had a double platformed line (4/5) next to the station buildings. It always puzzled my why Platform 1 was the one the furthest away from the station buildings (i.e. on the western side of the station). It can't be because of a 'number from the up side' rule because nearby Haywards Heath has Platform 1/2 on the island nearest the station building (the down side/eastern side of the station)...

C9514 - another one for the realism lobby - the '4's are a different size to the other numbers...

Quite common at London Termini - I can always remember the almost choreographed opening of the 70 to 72 doors on an 8-Sub train on arrival at Waterloo...

As the Maunsell low-window 3-sets went through their whole careers without formation change or augmentation (apart from the inclusion of Restaurant and dining car on an individual basis in their early days), I would surmise that those with their intermediate buffers removed would have remained in this state until their withdrawl, which came long before the mid-60s rash of reformations and the March 1966 cessation of set working. I certainly haven't come across any note of their restoration during my research.

I know they were looking at the final livery details (including the identities of the proposed sets and loose coaches) last month (July). We'll probably know more at the Club Open Day next month - any news and I'll flag it here - and elsewhere...

That's answered a question that occurs to me in an idle moment - the coat-hanger has been removed from the centre car - not that it would get a lot of use on the South Coast...

My train from Bristol Parkway to Yatton last week was formed of a recently-overhauled 2-car 158, judging by the spotless exterior and new-smelling and stain-less upholstery in the passenger cabin. At BTM scruffy oik tried to load his bike into the rear vestibule (where the train manager had been working from on the way down from PW) onto a train already full and standing, and from reading the body language during their brief conversation, was told in no uncertain terms to take his conveyance elsewhere...

Nice bit of weathering on the side of 318 251 (C13962)...

But not necessarily correctly oriented. From my observations yesterday, all the 2x 5-car formations were all correctly 'First Class at the London end', whereas of the 9-car sets I saw in South Wales, 50% were so oriented, the others with the First Class at the 'country' end, including the set that we travelled on from Newport to Bristol Parkway.